In 1992, I attended the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, popularly known as the Earth Summit. I was struck by the criticism of existing models of leadership and development and the need to develop global community and interdependence among people of all nations.
Later that year, I met Thomas Banyacya, a Hopi Elder. He was speaking on December 9, Human Rights Day, in the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York City. That day, he delivered his Hopi Prophecy on the need to change our consciousness and come into right relationship with the earth and its resources.
After his delivery, I was asked to escort him to the reception and we became friends. The next year we both attended the Parliament of the World’s Religions.
Though Thomas died in 1999, I continue to listen to his message as well as bring it to others (watch it here). I believe we are still connected. Thomas emphasized the need for each of us to develop a relationship with the Great Spirit and reverence for the earth. More about the Hopi Prophecy here.
I thought of Thomas and his message as I developed the process of first becoming a Reconciliation Leader myself and then training others in the United Nations community. Through the program, I help people develop a deeper relationship to their higher power, to the earth and to its resources.
The Peacebuilding Process to Develop Political Will is my offering for a new development model, lightly facilitated by Reconciliation Leaders to help participants voice and reconcile their concerns in an emotionally safe environment. In this process, political will is defined as the will of the people, and the politician is the Reconciliation Leader.
The pages of my new book, My Soul’s Journey to Redefine Leadership: A New Phoenix Rises from the Ashes of 9/11, tell the story of my soul journey. I offer my contribution to new leadership and development models in response to the Hopi Prophecy to change consciousness in America, based on the need I perceived at the Earth Summit: to develop global community, international cooperation and interdependence, highlighting personal mission and a partnership with a person’s higher power or their own word for the Sacred.
Almost nine years after hearing Thomas’ Hopi prophecy and sharing it with many others, I experienced a dream of the Phoenix on September 11, 2001, in New York City during the World Trade Center attack. That dream signaled a new era for me to share a way for America to enact the Hopi Prophecy.
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I’ve never recollected Thomas Banyacya’s name, but the presentation he made has resonated in my heart for many years. It was the single, most pressing reason that I came to the United Nations and worked within the NGO community for 7 years. I concur; this current week, end of the year 2016, is indeed Holy. I believe people the world over are once again receiving an urgent call. But this one hasn’t reverberated through the ages. No, it rises up in the hearts of each one who would listen, saying: the time is now and you are ready. Just the way you are.
Thanks Robert. I’m not surprised you have heard the call too. I am grateful for your friendship lo these many years we worked tougher in the UN in the NGO community.
and the friendship that is enduring.
Virginia
Enjoyed meeting our dear brother Tom in Oxford England during the Global Sevivial Conference.
Then tree times as he spoke at the UN
More later.
Blessings
JL
Just Love
I have thought and said for years that humanity is at the end of, has exhausted this level of collective consciousness, this level of evolution. To move to another level, the next level of human evolution, will require a dramatic shift in consciousness, it will have to be a spiritual evolution – universally, collectively. It will have to cut across the various levels of development in the tribes and nations of Earth. It will have to incontravertably reveal that there is One System to which we all belong and are interdependent within. It is what I believe Jesus meant by the Kingdom. What a pastor friend refers to as God’s Neighborhood (higher power in all her forms). It is Gaia. The Way has been pointed out for thousands of years but we have yet to manifest in a way that transforms the world. I have also said for years “imagine if all the people of good will in the world got out of bed one morning and simply said “enough”. The world would transform instantly.
Absolutely, Marc. Your view is so important. I don’t know when we’ll get to the tipping point but I am as ready as you are. One thing people miss is that all the issues are one–in the global problematique–and as long as people work for just their issue as is done in the United Nations and around their country and the world (I call it siloing issues), then there will be more delay. Rodi Pipiris, one of my television viewers, told me I restored her hope in humanity. http://www.wccatv.com/video/imagine-worcester. I interview and believe in ordinary people with good intentions. My work has always been to empower “we the peoples” both in the UN and the US. You may want to read my new book–I’m having a book talk online this Thursday, January 25, 7-8 pm. I describe more about the importance of Hopi Elder Thomas Banyanca as a mentor and friend in this dialogue about the Hopi Prophecy we did last year on America’s Soul Cafe. For the book talk and all my online free workshops, go to https://zoom.us/j/5082456843. For more, http://conta.cc/2Epue8Z and Spiritual Renaissance for America http://virginiaswain.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/10-8-17-A-Spiritual-Renaissance-for-Our-Global-Soul.pdf. Hope to talk soon about Reconciliation Leadership!
Oh, and thank you for the link to the talk.