In 2004, I was a delegate to the "Assembly of World Religious Leaders" held at Montserrat Monastery, prior to the Parliament of World Religions in Barcelona. Prominent there at Montserrat is a mysterious statue to the saint of Catalonia, Ramon Llull, a 13th century visionary Franciscan monk who poured out prolific writings on mandalas and logic and the tree of knowledge. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramon_Lull

RAMON LULL

Lull had always been one of my personal inspirations. He is sometimes seen as the founder of "mind maps" (see http://lullianarts.net/) and is thought by computer scientists to have conceived ideas fundamental to the computer science revolution.

This morning, as this conceptual/integral process seems to be moving into some new stages, I did a quick search for images related to Lull, and found many that directly relate to and illustrate this emerging new integral thesis of Axis Mundi.

This idea has a long history, and has evolved in complex and highly detailed ways. This essential and simple concept is so primal and universal that it supports thousands of alternative interpretations. The entire notion of "taxonomy" could be understand as a branch or facet of this broader generalization. All notions of "conceptual form" or "hierarchy" or "theory of categories" relate to it. The mysterious and sometimes contested relation between "hierarchy and circle" is illustrated by it. Computer science absolutely depends on related notions -- and indeed, the entire internet, particularly the "DNS" (domain name system) is based on it (DNS: how a domain name like "interspirit.net" is connected to a particular computer server someplace -- a huge tree structure maintained by internet authorities under the highest levels of security and integrity). A personal computer file/directory structure is based on it. Our entire civilized world is organized into wholes and parts and levels through this framework.

BRANCHES OF THE ONE TREE

We are talking "tree structure" -- and for us, right now -- the simple concept is -- branches extending from a trunk. A totally organic and "natural" idea -- with vast universal implications for logic and organization and structure.

This may seem wildly audacious or perhaps amazingly egocentric -- but I think what is happening is that through a huge collective/evolutionary/co-creative conversation where we are all participating, a new extremely fundamental meme is appearing -- that I personally believe can (and will) emerge as "the absolute foundation" for a new integral world civilization, that will be consciously and intentionally (and brilliantly and graciously) built on the core framework of this foundation.

We'll have to talk about this -- or others will. It will be a huge conversation, with scholars from all across the interdisciplinary spectrum considering what it means -- from studies in comparative mythology and symbolism and depth psychology to scientists and mathematicians and philosophers of many types, exploring how and whether indeed their discipline and their understanding could possibly map with true elegance and precision into something this simple...

But for right now -- it's just emerging -- maybe here in this conversation as only one local instance. Maybe others are seeing this, or seeing it in slightly different ways. The huge pressure out there today for integral community in a context of agonized and vastly wasteful fragmentation is pushing through with highest evolutionary force, like the inevitable movement of a glacier, and we are in the path of that force.

A "HOLY OF HOLIES"

For my part, I am beginning to describe this below image as "Axis Mundi Sanctuary" -- a kind of "holy of holies" for this possibility, as we imagine this golden axial line connecting heaven and earth -- and everything else -- as the immutable trunk of a universal tree, which can be absolutely trusted from every point of view to remain in place as we build our new world on and around it. There are many other ways to envision this foundation -- one might be the column of smoke rising from the sacred fire at the center of an indigenous fire circle...

For us here -- and for me -- the next steps will probably involve continuing to reinforce and examine this idea, confirming and testing it, validating it from various points of view, inviting critique and challenge, exploring additional interpretations, looking for more historical exemplars and illustrations, etc.

MY ALLIANCE

But immediately -- certainly for me, and and perhaps for the bolder and more imaginative explorers among us -- the next next steps will involve the emerging growth of this "My Alliance" concept -- which I am continuing to build at the programming level -- and which I am beginning to understand as a way for any number of privately-motivated and dedicated networks to emerge, each following their own vision, but held together in the single "sacred tree of community" through this one common trunk, this one common universal axis.

Building this framework will take a little time. Right now, I have to fix a few things, as the evolution of my initial design needed a little course-correction, and I need to keep things as simple as possible. I myself expect to use this framework to reach out in who knows how many directions, or for what purposes, to invite individuals and agencies to bond into the framework, for their own reasons, as we honor and acknowledge what they are doing, and invite their input and comment and growth energy.

Take a look at it if you have a minute. Maybe all the pieces will be working by the end of the week, and we'll see how it goes. http://interspirit.net/alliance/myalliance.cfm

Here for now are a few graphics I picked up this morning. This first, on the left, shows Lull's "staircase" illustrating the "Great Chain of Being" -- the core idea (literally repeated 100 times in the text) in Ken Wilber's 1998 "The Marriage of Sense and Soul" on the relation of science and religion -- and discussed by many perennialists, including Huston Smith.

The image on the right clearly shows "the trunk of the tree" as the vertical axis -- on which many fruit blossom.

Here's another take on Lull's Great Chain of Being staircase.

And below, a categorization of "The Names of God", in the form of an encyclopedic tree/circle/mandala