It is said in the ancient teachings here in Alaska, and in other Indigenous cultures, that
when women come together in true sisterhood,
connect to the womb inside them, inside us,
and to those around them, around us,
and then, collectively, ceremonially,
put that energy beyond ourselves,
great healing can begin:
a sacred container may be formed
for something truly new
to possibly be birthed into the world.
This must happen for humanity to have a future.

That is why we do these circles.

And this is how...

The way we circle is held by guidelines of traditional Indigenous Talking Circles.
Indigenous Talking Circles exist in many Indigenous cultures. While different in forms and names, they share similar guidelines. These were first recognized, gathered and handed-down to us by our Yupi’k Elder, the late Grandma Rita Blumenstein.

Talking Circle guidelines - WOP version

* At the beginning of every such circle, the facilitator will read aloud these guidelines, (like setting the table for the meal, even if everyone knows where the forks are).

Talking & listening: This is a talking circle, in the sense that: the Circle does the talking. We do the listening, as deep as the womb. LISTEN FROM THE HEART.
(It’s ok to listen to the silence together, too.) A lot may come up and spark things in you. Allow yourself to go through the journey the circle takes you on.

Innocence: Listen with the innocence of a child, hearing something for the first time (like the first time you heard of a dragon, a platypus, that adults were once kids). Allow the innocence that’s there before opinions are formed. Let a story be offered alongside another story, truth by truth, like dishes at a potluck.

Respect: respect yourself, other-selves (in the circle & beyond), time and attention.
This is a potluck of offerings. Please be respectful even if something doesn’t nourish you, for it may nourish others. So no-need to object to anyone’s offering, but quietly choose what to take into your plate and palate.

Free: Let yourself and others be free of judgment, arguing or planning responses. Come without agendas, titles or assumptions. Listen without trying to advise or advertise, or comfort someone, unless they ask for it when they share.
Listen without trying to do anything, but listen and share spontaneously.

Speaking: SPEAK FROM THE HEART. You can’t interfere with anyone’s sacred path, nor with their words. No cross-talking. Let the words come Through you; NOT From/for you. Everyone will be given a chance to share theirs, at least once.
You don’t have to take it. Even if you don't speak - you will be heard.

Ripen - Share your words when (and if) they are ripe. Be lean of expressions.

Truth: We only speak of what we know to be true through our own lived experiences. (Don’t speak on behalf of anyone, but yourself, even if someone was with you in a situation. For two who share a situation may experience it in very different ways.)

Expand: Make room for different truths that may be opposite to yours, but just as valid. (The deer and the lion may share the experience of the very same chase in very different ways. Yet, both experiences are equally valid truths.)

Confidentiality: Traditionally, these circles are confidential. Even people who shared the same circle wouldn’t talk about it outside the circle, unless they got permission from those spoken to and spoken about.
We, here, have our Wisdom-Keepers’ permission to share their part with the world, so more people can be introduced to such circles, and may experience some of it.
If and when we go into BORooms, where participants share - that part is never recorded or documented, and is confidential. Please keep it that way. Thank you.

Changes: Suggested changes will be offered now, before the circle commences - and discussed till consensus is reached.

WOP’s suggestion in case of triggers:
Center yourself: At any point, if you feel triggered by what the circle brings-up for you, please use the “Down-to-Heart-Namaste” movement (your left hand & then the right) to center yourself.
If you need more support, please leave the BORoom, and go back to the main meeting room / Heart-Space room where you’ll be just listened to, witnessed and held-without-touch by our team, and where you’ll also support others who may come there to be held and hold in that way.

Thank you for helping us co-create this.

Welcome to the circle.

For a more expansive explanation of our Talking Circle Guidelines, please refer here.

In 2016, I, Yael, was a single-mother-of-two in Israel, who was a TED volunteer translator, who saw a video of a man talking about things I felt when I gave birth! I traced him, wrote to him, and started working with him on translating the video. He was (is) a traditional messenger of his tribe, the Alaska native Unangan (Aleut) people. And the more we worked on that translation and more of the ancient teachings he and other Elders he works with carry, the more I felt it's speaking my secret inner mother-(Nature)-tongue aloud. So I didn't know if I was falling in love with him, or with his culture, or with Alaska; nor did I think he'll ever know...
Long story short: He came to Israel and we discovered we're a couple in 2018. At the end of 2019 we got married, and now I'm living with him and the two girls in Alaska.

***

In Feb 2019, two women - one Arab, one Jew - were brutally killed in less than a week. Both were young. both by men. Both brutally. Both could have been my daughters. They were my other-selves. And as I was aching, thinking of my daughters - the one who could be, and the ones that are, and what kind of a world I'm raising them into - I realized the men who killed them, are also my other selves; they could have been my sons.
And as I was crying over this at night, a Social-Media "friend" I hardly knew, sent me a personal message. She was a Palestinian from Gaza. She asked how I was. I shared in the honesty that caring questions open when one's in a vulnerable place. "But," I shared in tears, "I feel the hurt is much deeper than just murders, or just our region. It is all over the world, and it is in each of us, humans." I could feel the imbalanced masculine in me bashing the feminine, threatening to kill it.

And she felt me. I could feel her, a woman completely different to me: different nation - "enemy" nation, different mother tongue, different age (- much younger), different family situation (not a mama, not single) - that woman knew me, resonated with me, beyond borders, geography, politics, words... I parted with her with deep gratitude. Then, I had a somewhat similar conversation with another Social-Media "friend",  a Jewish settler, who knew one of the women who were murdered. 

And so I thought: a young Palestinian, a Jewish religious Settler mother of several kids, a Kibbutznikit single-mom -  if we could just, all three of us, sit together, beyond our differences, beyond labels, and just resonate, remind and be reminded and recall the feminine in us, between us, and around us...
And so I suggested online-circles.
And we realized to do this right, we need to go beyond ourselves. We need ... you.

We need you internally - for we are all our other selves:
we all have the Jew and the Palestinian, the settler and the refugee in us; the black, white, red, yellow and brown;  the outsider and the insider and the in-between; the parent and the child, the masculine and the feminine, the governing and the governed, the hurt and the hurting. We are all mirrors to our inner-child; and the more mirrors - the less blind-spots.

And we need you externally - for if we sit with different women from different places, not just the Holy-Land, then this is no-longer about the conflict, but about coming together; this is no-longer about combat & politics, but about the coexistence & pro-existence; this is no-longer about the war, but about the womb and the power of the feminine. And that is a force even governments cannot stop.   
As so, we started having online circles a year before the pandemic.  More women joined. Some left, some stayed.  Other genders joined, making way for the feminine to lead, as the core ripple of each circle was and is led by our Women of Wisdom.
Some circles have taken place online. Some in other ways.  Some "spoken word" bits came, too (like this one, that broke out like water, just before our first circle) and the heart-beat hasn't stopped since.

What does your heart and belly say? Will you join?