I always seem to get the address wrong but is this right for a
contribution?
[Host note, Yes, as long as you send it to learning-org@world.std.com,
the message can be approved for the list. -- Johanna, temporary LO host]
In recent correspondence with Rick he encouraged me to "contribute when
moved" as in the Quaker tradition. I want to pick up the discussion
again and "Traditional Wisdom" seems to be the best title but what I
want to cover is a confluence which is apparent in my studies at
present and which has, for me, vast implications for the systems
movement and certainly the learning organisation.
It was Kit Williams in his book "Masquerade" who had Sir Isaac Newton
musing "All my life I seem to have been only like a boy playing on the
sea-shore and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother
pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of
truth lay all undiscovered before me".
I may be a little young to have come to such a conclusion but for a
variety of reasons which we might call coincidences (anyone read the
Celestine Prophecy"?), a series of ideas have come my way which
together amount to the emergence of a major new research direction for
me and maybe, in time for many. Let me explain.
I am a systems lecturer at the open University in the UK and I have
been in post PhD paralysis for a couple of years. I have been "waiting"
for the next thing and have been wary about jumping on any of the
alluring threads which presented themselves. However, I am now ready
to jump.
What is the confluence of ideas?
1. Systems thinking itself - UK and US versions - mainly Checkland in
the UK and Senge in the US. These provide the "permitted" academic
interest in wholeness.
2. Wholeness is not new - I have found the tradition (the Ancient
Wisdom) goes back in Greek thought to the Socratic and Platonic view of
Innate Ideas and in other cultures (Hindu, and Taoist most notably).
3. The discovery of large bodies of thought working of the Ancient
Tradition but not really focused on the current systems academic
community, e.g. Koestler and Manly Palmer Hall.
4. The increasing credibility of Astrology as a means to tie together
Spiritual and material aspects of the human condition as well as
putting "science" in its place as an act of faith in the measurement of
effects rather than the understanding of causes.
The 4th aspect of this set is probably the one which will be seen as
being most provocative to this community.
I would like to flag a new book just published as the core text upon
which I have settled. "A New Study of Astrology" by John Addey,
published by the Urania Trust, ISBN 1 871 989 06 X.
In the book, posthumously published, John sets out the empirical
evidence that the astrological study of effects has considerable
veracity (quoting the work of Michel and Francoise Gauquelin) and
develops his thinking concerning the nature of the causality of these
effects; a point taken up by Professor Peter Roberts, Professor of
Systems at London 'City' University in his foreword:
"The second important message which John brings is the idea of
expanding the vision of contemporary empirical science beyond what he
defines as "efficient" and "materiel" causes, out to (in Aristotelian
terms) "formal" and "final" causes. Thus, he points out that although
being born with Mars close to an angle in the birth chart might appear
at first sight to be the cause of the observed martial qualities in the
subject, the true state of affairs is that the soul-body combination
has found an appropriate time to appear as an individual in the world"
(p. xii).
On this list space is short but I would like to offer this quote from
John concerning the value of Astrology:
"The need to restore heaven and earth to one another in the present day
life is clear and urgent. "The unleashed power of the atom", wrote
Einstein, "has changed everything except the way men think". This is
precisely what one would expect. Physical discoveries bring physical
changes - it is metaphysical discoveries which change the way men
think. In this sense, the rediscovery of the true principles of
astrology, with their vast potentialities, by the scientific world,
will prove of infinitely greater importance and be productive of much
more far-reaching consequences than the discovery of atomic energy.
Those who have not contemplated the potentialities of this science can
have no conception of the revolution which its re-introduction into the
scientific field will have." (p. 175-176).
John Addey indicates a science of astrology which can harmonise with
empirical science and lead to holistic views of humankind and cosmos
and God. The ramifications are breathtaking. An approach which can
systematically and systemically link our individual soul's needs with
cosmic considerations according to spiritual values may seem like
moonshine (!) but I believe it is hugely worthy of sincere study. I
welcome thoughts.
--S.G.Bell@open.ac.uk (Simon Bell)
Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>