THE COUNCIL OF ALL BEINGS
WORKSHOP MANUAL
A Step by Step Guide

A working draft of January 1998
prepared by Eshana (Elizabeth Bragg, PhD)
Update in progress, February, 2001 (Ruth Rosenhek)

The aim of this manual is to provide potential facilitators with enough material to facilitate a weekend length Council of All Beings with no previous experience or additional resources. The manual is based on the workshop-form most commonly used by John Seed, Eshana, Ruth Rosenhek and others. Many other people throughout the world facilitate different versions of the workshop, and facilitators should by no means limit themselves to the processes outlined here.

CONTENTS

Getting Set Up
.....The Venue
.....Publicity
.....Financial Arrangements
Length and Format
Facilitation
.....General Points for the (First Time) Facilitator
.....Co-Facilitation

THE WORKSHOP PROCESSES
.....Introductory Processes
.....Milling
.....Mourning
.....Council of All Beings
.....Grounding

TRANSCRIPTS OF JOHN SEED'S INTRODUCTIONS TO PROCESSES
.....Introduction to Workshop
.....Introduction to Mourning
.....Introduction to Council of All Beings

Some additional resources:

* Thinking Like a Mountain: Towards a Council of All Beings (1988) by John Seed, Joanna Macy, Pat Fleming and Arne Naess (New Society Publishers: Philadelphia, PA)

* Despair and Personal Power in the Nuclear Age (1983) by Joanna Macy (New Society Publishers: Philadelphia, PA)

* The Web: Global Newsletter of the Council of All Beings Facilitators Network (avail. from Rainforest Information Centre, PO Box 368, Lismore NSW, Australia - this is available to facilitators of deep ecology workshops (email eshana@peg.apc.org with contributions and requests)
* various resources for circle-making (publications, CDs) from Wisdom Circles (contact Cindy Spring at 3756 Grand Ave #405, Oakland CA94610; phone 510-272-9540)

This manual is growing and changing with every workshop we facilitate. Please add your own insights, experiences and suggestions by sending us an email to rainforestinfo@ozemail.com.au or by writing to PO Box 368, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia.

We are always interested in illustrations and photographs; poems and short pieces of creative writing inspired by the Council of All Beings workshop. Short chapters by different people about facilitating the Council in different cultural contexts (e.g., with children, in corporations, universities, as a part of direct action, cross-cultural settings - Japan, Russia, Chile, Poland)

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