Fernando Ausin writes on January 16 Symposium at the Miktlan Ehekateotl Kuauhtlinxan’s workshop and “The Eagle’s Nest”, a Tetzkatlipoka cultural center and school in the heart of Mexico City:

Julio Garduño, one of Mexico’s newest facilitators, organized a Symposium in the studio and cultural center of Miktan Ehekateotl Kuauhtlinxan, a 52nd generation carrier of the Tetzkatlipoka tradition (for more information on Ehekateotl, this amazing documentary describes his philosophy and tradition.)  An upper-class high school environmental group found the Symposium posting online and invited 52 members of their club to the symposium.  Little did we know that we were in for a surprise at Ehekateotl’s workshop, as Tata, a 94 year old grandfather of the Tetzkatlipoka tradition appeared to help open the sacred circle, accompany us throughout the workshop, and offer his and his peoples viewpoints and advice.  We had a respected elder of the indigenous tradition that gave life to the Aztecs, Totltecs and a variety of Mexico’s main indigenous groups—right inside our symposium!  The students had no idea what they had gotten int, but being in the nest of the Tetztlatipoka’s was more than we could have ever wanted.   The emotional reactions flowed naturally and the engagement in the room was quite high throughout the five hours, with over 50 teenagers sitting in the floor of an overflowed studio space.  This Symposium helped us understand that time and space are relative when in the presence of such an impacting place and people.  Symposia like these are also a great example of how we can begin to tropicalize the Symposium and adapt it to the Mexican circumstances and collaborate with our indigenous peoples and their historical traditions.

For more information, Fernando can be contacted at: fausin (at) gmail.com.

Hong Kong- An estimated 100 students from the international community are expected to attend the Roots and Shoot’s Asia Pacific Youth Summit in August of 2010. Jo Fok and his comrades have been invited to facilitate the Awakening the Dreamer Symposiums, one in English and a potential other in Cantonese. Roots and Shoots is a global network of Youth taking action through the Jane Goodall Institute. For more information on the Jane Goodall Institute, Roots and Shoots, or the Youth Summit, visit: http://www.janegoodall.org.hk/roots-shoots-summit.php. Jo Fok can be contacted at:jo.fok@the-global-shift.org.

In the coming of the new year, ATD Youth community members are gearing up for an explosion of initiatives worldwide. From Mexico to Belgium, South Africa to the United Kingdom, Australia to Canada, and the United States to Ecuador, Youth Initiatives and Allied Community Projects are taking shape. While many campaigns are in the evolutionary process, they are well on their way to sparking motivation on a large scale.  To name a few, below are evolving plans from the ATD community.

If  you are taking part in any past, evolving, or planned initiatives, please share with us!  Your story may be one of the greatest inspirational tools.  Contact us at youthinitiative@pachamama.org

Warm Wishes.

Hong Kong Educators trained as Facilitators are delivering the Awakening the Dreamers Symposium to students.  In result, students are taking their own initiative, bringing the message to others. Facilitator Jo Fok is committed to spreading the Symposium and its message throughout schools in 2010 and 2011, in Hong Kong and beyond.  Contact Jo Fok at jo.fok (at) the-global-shift.org.

South Africa’s Pachamama Plett Group is in the process of creating an extended two-day program for Youth, including dance, drama and music. For more information, contact Carole Surya at carolsurya (at) gmail.com 

Beryl Allport of Kemptville, Canada, recently sent a proposition to the Catholic District School Board of Eastern Ontario, inspiring them to bring the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium to Youth in the District. Beryl can be contacted at beryl (at) beallucanbe.com

A  two day Symposium for 350 teenagers is programmed for a Catholic school’s annual retreat this February in Beligum.  Ten Belgian Facilitators are meeting regularly to adapt the Symposium specifically for Youth. Including more time for artistic work and personal expression, and overall global revisions that would fully invite Youth to engage in emotional work. The ultimate goal is to form a group of young Facilitators who could present Symposia in schools throughout Belgium. Contact Emile Etienne at emile.etienne (at) hotmail.com.

Sonoma, California Facilitator June Michaels is in collaboration with the Climate Protection Campaign’s Cool Schools Program to support Symposium integration into Sonoma school(s). Contact June Michaels at junem99 (at) sonic.net.

Paul Kazyak and Mary Pike of Maryland will bring the Symposium to a group of environmental educators on February 5. Paul can be reached at Pkazyak (at) dnr.state.md.us.

Portland, Oregon is on its way to creating its own intergenerational Youth Initiative Team.  The teams plans a February training for interested Facilitators; a March Symposium at PSU’s Spiritual Life Center; a Symposium for Youth specifically in collaboration with Earth Day in April; and a May Symposium for high school Youth and home schoolers in Bend, Oregon.  To learn more about Youth Initiative plans in Oregon, contact Angela Hamilton at vidabalancea (at) yahoo.com.

South Florida Facilitator Sharon Joy Kleitsch and her local comrades are making plans for an Intergenerational Facilitator training in Summer 2010, including students for a number of universities, a local Unity and numerous other groups. For more information, Sharon can be contacted at kleitsch (at) verizon.net

Through a partnership with Generation Waking Up and the Awakening the Dreamer initiative, this project seeks to create a ‘Generation Waking Up’ adaptation of the Awakening the Dreamer symposium.  The purpose of this adaptation is to infuse younger voices, stories, and styles into the existing symposium so that it can more powerfully reach and serve the young generations that are coming of age in these times. Contact Joshua Gorman at Joshua (at) generationwakingup.org.

Youth Training Programs, in both planning and intention phases, are taking shape—bringing more potential to the growing movement!

-Bay Area Youth Facilitator Training Program: March/April 2010

-Northeast Youth Facilitator Training Program: April 2010

-Hummingbird Young Adult Facilitator Training Programs: June 2010

-Generation Waking Up/ATD Youth Facilitator Training Program: July 2010

-National Youth/Student Leader Facilitator Training Program: Summer 2010

Below, Mike Seymour writes on the measure of our work with the Awakening the Dreamer Symposium. Mike, a Facilitator, Youth initiator, founder of Youth For a New World, and over all impassioned being, has authentic insight and  his writing is a great offering to the global community. Enjoy!

Note [from Mike]: This article is written for and from the perspective of those some 2000+ people around the world who have embraced Awakening the Dreamer, Changing the Dreamsymposium as part of their contribution to mid-wife the global shift in consciousness.

What Are We Really Doing with the Symposium?

Has the time come to address more directly what I have sensed we are doing with the symposium? Namely, if we are about waking up, then we are talking about a change in consciousness—our own and humanity in general, and perhaps the entire Earth community is also engaged in some evolutionary shift in tandem with the human. After all, if everything is connected then surely, as the Apostle Paul says in Romans “…the whole of creation is in labor until the sons of God may be revealed.”

If this is the true bottom line and measure of our work, then should we not bring forth this narrative of consciousness change more explicitly and not leave it as an assumed background thread in a presentation where the impact it could make is diminished?

After all, we and the people we are serving have a spiritual thirst. When we give out less than what the emerging being really needs, the spiritual power in what we do is not fully released.

Two books I’ve read recently shine their own particular light on our identities as facilitators, awakening Earth citizens and cosmological beings. One is Andrew Harvey’s The Hope: A Guide to Sacred Activism and the other is The Translucent Revolution by Arjuna Ardagh. Both cite prophecies of the religions and wisdom traditi0ns of many cultures as well as formal and informal research on consciousness trends across many populations globally. They conclude that humanity has reached the borders of the long foretold millennium, that period in human history when significant numbers of us are breaching a threshold into integral consciousness, precipitating a “tipping point,” (to use a term popularized by Malcolm Gladwell) that ushers in a new epoch in human being and human knowing.

This new narrative, or way of experiencing ourselves and our beingness in the universe, is unfolding throughout the human community. It is not the province or privelege of a special few enlightened people. In fact, I have met many people of differing political, cultural and religious backgrounds that all share come kind of awareness that “something’s up” in the world, that we are in trouble; that things must change, and that the very nature of their lives has and is changing. Whether or not that change is interpreted as positive or negative depends on where one is standing.

We focalize the tremendous energy inherent in this shift toward unitary consciousness first in ourselves before we can really embody it for others to perceive and resonate with. A transformation of human consciousness is a process of awakening to a new identity, softening the small sense of self bounded by our own wants, beliefs, prejudices into a sense of participation with something far larger. From the perspective of the old human, the new identity is really no-thing.  It is unrecognizable as self as we now understand self, because this new being is clothed in none of the family, cultural or even species-made garments we are accustomed to.

Simply asking yourself “What Am I?” and then sitting with a quieting mind to contemplate the response, one might feel oneself peering into a void, listening for a sound that does not come—as we sort through the usual mental chatter that has little substance or staying power.  Do that kind of enquiry enough and you come to both the frightening and glorious epiphany that “I am nothing.” Our existence as separate selves—with all our pains, demands and stories—is a fiction.  The flip side is that we also are everything, and in that moment feel at the cellular level a divine oneness with all things and a  fulfillment, if only for a moment, of a God-type of love and the “peace that passes all understanding.”

An incredible freedom awaits us in this initiating point in human evolution. We’re going through a painful birthing, where the small me and all the things we grasp out of fear or greed are being loosened as we emerge into this much vaster cosmos. Here the work of living is not done by “me” but in flow with the greater energies of the universe that have always born the trajectory of our lives.

The question we face as symposium facilitators is how do we bring this story forward within a mixed group of people, many of whom may be at very different points in their personal evolution. There is no one simple answer as to how, since this depends on who you are in the moment and the people you are with.

A for myself, I am striving to find a common language that would bridge all differences, a deep well of compassion in myself in which I can embrace the whole room, and a weaving together of various cultural narratives about this transformative time which greatly amplifies the feeling of importance held in the Eagle & Condor Story. In addition, I also believe there are exercises we can offer to participants which help to bring home this consciousness shift more directly, and assist people in discovering how “the great turning” is already manifesting in their lives.

Mexico—BioTU, a sustainability think tank and mobile education program has taken initiative from BioTour, a sustainability education non-profit aboard a WVO Bus.  Throughout the Tour, a group of educators held events at over 120 schools and universities across 44 states in the US—promoting sustainability, renewable energy and grassroots democratic citizen participation.

BioTU will begin its first tour through southeast Mexico to research, assess, and educate about solutions in modern sustainability; incorporating ancient indigenous legacies with modern technological advances.  In tandem with the educational program, BioTU offers consulting, implementation and training services, and works with several national and international organizations including: 350, The Pachamama Alliance, BioTour, the Big Green Bus, the Mexican Center for Environmental Law, and Presencia Ciudadana.  Given that BioTU stems from the Pachamama Alliance’s Youth Initiatives, the Awakening the Dreamer symposium will be used as a main educational, motivational, inspirational and action-oriented program during our educational visits across Southeastern Mexico.

For more information, contact Fernando Ausin at fernando@biotu.org.

Music and Youth is a great mix!  Brody Mudryk, Tem Hutchinson and Brandon Richards from the Vancouver band Conscience, created a brilliantly powerful song entitled “Can’t Fade Away.”  It speaks about all sides of our planets predicaments with solutions that make you want stand up and dance – shouting in joy! The three young men (ages 19 to 21) were encouraged to make music for ATD Symposia by Facilitator Rabia Wilcox.  In August 2009, Tem Hutchinson attended the Toronto Youth/Mentor Program with Awakening the Dreamer, bringing back great energy to Brody and Brandon.  They watched the famous “Wombat” video, were passionately moved by Van Jones talk, and enjoyed surfing the amazing ATD website to receive their inspiration, and make the dream come true.

    Jeremy Wilcox, created an artistic rendition for the song.  He said, “I love this song, love these images and love the message that Awakening the Dreamer broadcasts to the Universe… Thank you to all of the artists, and thank you for enjoying my art!”     Watch Jeremy Wilcox’s artistic rendition for the song on YouTube:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mx7pyawWDOU

Rabia Wilcox (rabiawilcox@hotmail.com)

A two day Symposium for 350 teenagers is programmed for a Catholic school’s annual retreat this February. The Symposium will take place in five different locations, each time with two classes of twenty-five Youth (ages 14 to 16).

Ten Belgian Facilitators are meeting regularly to adapt the Symposium specifically for Youth. Including more time for artistic wor and personal expression, and overall global revisions that would fully invite Youth to engage in emotional work. The ultimate goal is to form a group of young Facilitators who could present Symposia in schools throughout Belgium. Contact: Emile Etienne (emile.etienne@hotmail.com)

As part of the Highlands Environmental Leadership Program (HELP) weekend, the Boy Scout Venturing Crew shared the Symposium with 34 high school students and 10 other community members at New Germany State Park in Maryland.  Results from the successful inter-generational Symposium included 10 high school students signing up for Facilitator Training and all attendees signing their Commitment poster.  The Symposium perfectly complemented the other weekend leadership training activities on teamwork and self-awareness.  A candlelight vigil on behalf of countries most devastated by climate change was synchronized with 1000s of other vigil groups around the world  Dec 11.   Contact: Paul Kazyak – pkazyak@dnr.state.md.us

A powerful and engaging Symposium was embedded in Portland State University’s inaugural celebration of National Sustainability Education Week:  Educating for Citizen Leadership.   Several participating youth, young adults, and young at heart expressed enthusiasm to bring the Symposium to a younger audience with their reignited hope “committed in action,” as Julia Butterfly Hill invites. The Portland facilitator team, Earth Wisdom Alliance, hosted & facilitated the November 14^th Symposium, which they’d collaborated on for several months.  The local inter-generational Youth Initiative team met on November 24 developing plans for five Symposiums in the coming year with connections to a variety of other youth related organizations.  Contact: Angela Hamilton – videabalancea@yahoo.com

Facilitator Elize presented the Symposium to a group of South African rural youth, mostly teenagers, using only the presenter’s manual–lack of access to technological tools prevented use of audio-visual elements.  The very positive response she received illustrates the power of the Symposium’s message even with divers adaptations.

The Pachamama Plett team, some with youth related careers, met December 7^th and developed plans to reach greater audiences with the ATD Symposium, along with creating an extended two-day program for the Youth, which would include dance, drama and music. Contact: Carole Surya – carolsurya@gmail.com