A brief introduction to Joanna Macy’s Work That Reconnects: a practical, soulful framework which helps us to own our feelings about what’s happening in the world, and transfigure apathy and even despair into creative action.
Read the introduction: Seeds of a Second Renaissance Issue 4 (May 2025) - Joanna Macy's Work That Reconnects
- What’s your experience of moving through the four stations of the spiral which Joanna Macy describes?
- Have you experienced any Work That Reconnects practices? What was their impact for you?
- What doubts or critiques might you have about the Work That Reconnects?
- How do you see the Work That Reconnects and the concept of the Great Turning in relationship with Second Renaissance?
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I worked closely with J Macy in the late 90’s early 2000’s, doing retreats, attending a facilitator training, and assisting her on at least one retreat, and then have used the work extensively in various settings. I loved it and found it deeply impactful for opening inner work for activists, supporting people to work through grief, anger, despair etc around social and ecological breakdown and supporting inner work oriented folks to become change agents. The spiral is simple and deeply effective in my experience, as are the practices to reconnect - opening emotions, cultivating gratitude, seeing with new eyes and considering different ways of engaging in the world. I am less involved now, but will always credit Joanna as an important teacher of mine. Happy to share more with others if there is interest.
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Not being very familiar with the work of Joanna Macy, I wanted a quick intro. The article below is doing that with me. I’d be curious to what extent others more familiar with Macy’s work find the summary presented here on target.
Thanks for the great introduction, @catherinet!
Like @RobertBunge It prompted me to explore resources around her work, which I’ve now also added to my resource doc. These are the ones I came up with, but let me know if you have any other suggestions..
The Work That Reconnects - youtube playlist
Coming Back to Life
(IN 2025) Shambala Warrior Prophecy - The Ordinary Ones Who Do Extraordinary Things
Ep 1: Love and Loss - Sounds True
The Great Turning - YES! Magazine Solutions Journalism
I found the short (6 minute) Shambala Warrior Prophecy surprisingly moving, and the recent (2024) podcast, of which I listened to the first episode linked above, was very powerful too.