Over the past four months, as our Alliance project has evolved, a simple clarifying insight regarding universal alignment and intercultural connection has emerged. The power of the "Axis Mundi" concept as a universal cultural integrator is becoming clearer and more astonishing.

A THOUSAND BRIDGES

In the last week or so, as an extension of the Axis concept, the next stage of this work has begun to appear. This News Update suggests how the Axis concept can be understood not only as a principle of correct and true alignment from any local point to the absolutely universal -- for both individuals and groups -- but how all the major religious/spiritual traditions and movements of the world can be branched into this common axis (or "trunk of the tree"), through a conscious and explicit outreach project which it might be possible to organize.

We are calling this outreach project "A Thousand Bridges" -- bridges from existing groups and institutions to a common center and point of agreement -- which we imagine might involve contacting groups anywhere in the world that resonate to a common call to wholeness and the One.

A CENTRAL INTEGRATING PRINCIPLE

Axis Mundi is a complex idea, that cannot be proven in any empirical way. The evolution of the Wikipedia page for this idea shows how challenging and how rich the concept really is. In my files, I have four versions of the Wikipedia article -- from 2007, 2009, 2011, and 2014. They are similar and overlapping, but the editorial changes and competition of ideas is evident.

As opportunity permits, we can create a comprehensively inclusive review of these Wikipedia articles that combines all the elements these scholars thought worthy of inclusion at one time, which they might have removed later. In the pluralistic context of this Alliance, we do not need to rely on any one interpretation of the Axis Mundi. We can understand it in broad and soft terms as one idea seen through many alternative ideological and cultural lenses.

ALIGNMENT

The power of the Axis concept for organizing an interspiritual movement emerges from its power to "align" spiritual energies -- in individual human beings, and in groups. The mystery of alignment -- "What IS spiritual alignment?" -- no doubt needs extensive discussion and clarification. But it does seem clear at the intuitive level that the idea is of most basic importance.

We have been using this graphic image as a primary illustration of the concept. It's a simple axis or line of alignment, shown in the context of a sacred sanctuary. It's a "guideline" -- in the literal form of a line.

Spirituality and religion, we might simply say, are all about alignment -- about the discipline and belief and conceptual/institutional structures that are involved in aligning energies, thoughts, groups, policies and governance -- into absolute center through spiritual practice and awareness. Spirituality and religion are about human beings aligning their energies and actions much as eastern yogis "align their chakras" in pursuit of enlightenment.

http://interspirit.net/alliance/axismundi.cfm

Though the My Alliance suite of internet tools we are developing, we propose to create a kind of "cold-call boiler room", where volunteer networkers inspired by this vision could begin to conduct their own outreach. If you are aware of some group or individual that you believe should be connected into this process, we'll give you a suite of tools for contacting them, and inviting them in to the network in the simplest and most direct of ways.

By adopting the bandwidth and data processing power of the internet, the entire breadth of the global Interspiritual movement can be consciously convened.

INTEGRAL BRIDGE DESIGN

We might want to be collecting data from each group in these general categories:

• Related symbolism from this group or tradition (what symbols do they use that are like the tree or axis, and in what way?)
• What doctrines do they advocate that are related to or identical to whatever appears or coalesces as the central doctrine of this Axis/Tree?
• What practices do they advocate that relate to the practices that seem common to the Axis?

More or less, in initial terms, the "tree" of our projected outreach looks like this.