LIGHTHOUSE: Boulder

Boulder LIGHTHOUSE Collective (BLC) is an emergent, self-organized community of like-hearted souls unified by the diversity of our holy uniqueness. It’s presently unfolding into form in Boulder, Colorado.

Boulder, CO. Photo by James BO Insogna.

Lighthouse Metaphor

Lighthouses shine the light of loving awareness into the vast, infinite ocean of possibilities, guiding those at sea home to the island within. They serve as a sanctuary for soul and a vessel for spirit, grounded like a boulder yet reaching out with the unbounded arms of illumined love.

Art by Laurence Comeau

Purpose

The purpose of BLC is for the collective to help illuminate and celebrate the sacred uniqueness of each individual, and for each individual to amplify the wholeness of the collective and holiness of life.

Photo by Nikada, iStockPhoto

Intentions

There are currently three core intentions that serve as our collective north star:

1. To fall in love with one other and become a family of friends, through the good times and the inevitable challenges :)
2. To connect and feel met & stretched by friends who share similar yet unique developmental capacities, orientations, worldviews and life experiences.
3. To serve this “time between worlds” through the experimental creation of a collective art project that explores the interpenetration of the transpersonal and personal, including the relational tapestry that comes alive within the uniquely unfolding constellation of beings that emerge as BLC.

Art by Alex Grey

Pillars

There are currently three pillars that serve as the soul for BLC:

1. Communion: The play of life can be seen as a dance between multiplicity and unity, and the interpenetration of the two. We commune with source, our souls, our earth, our humanity, our society, our collective, our individuality, our physical & energetic bodies, our psychological parts, our dreams, etc. We recognize the Wholeness that gives rise to fractals, and the fractals that create the mosaic of What Is.
2. Creation: Life is a creative act. The unfolding of What Is can be viewed as an unbounded, timeless collective art project that includes everyone and all things. When life is viewed as art, our roles as humans become paintbrushes for Source. We can pray the question and play the answer: what wants to be created through us, as us, for us, by us?
3. Celebration: The fact that we’re alive at all is a miracle worth celebrating! This can look like innocent play, joyful creative expression and ecstatic bliss. It can also look like deep grief, resting in silence and confrontations with our shadows. When all of life is seen as holy, there is no moment that is not worth celebrating, including the moments that we forget! Celebration is a form of awareness reminding us that this, too, is Love.

Art by Shafique Farooqi

Principles

There are currently three BLC principles that serve as a guiding light:

1. Radical Self-Responsibility: RSR includes our individual self, our collective self, and the Self that holds all. We are both the Dreamer and the dreammaker. If we have a vision, dream, desire, request, complaint or invitation we have the radical responsibility to take whatever action (or nonaction) is required to create the more beautiful world our heart knows is possible. Ask for help, lean on each other, and do what we feel is in our capacity. Remember, this is our shared collective…it will only be what we make of it, together.
2. Deep Love: When we love someone deeply, we earnestly try our best to feel empathy, compassion and to put ourselves in another’s shoes. We seek to minimize our projections, assumptions and stories that may cause harm. We lean into vulnerability and see tension as a catalyst for growth, both in ourselves and the collective field holding us. Sometimes deep love means calling someone in, sharing the impact of an action or setting a hard boundary. The invitation is to consistently come back to the inquiry: What would love do?
3. Emergence: BLC is a living organism. Like life itself, it is always shapeshifting and unfolding in often unexpected ways. We can view structure, boundaries, rules and roles as a creative dance of consciousness, holding them lightly yet with reverence and playful sincerity. BLC has a soul. We can commune with it, create from it and celebrate as it. Our responsibility is to tune into the space that is giving rise to this soul, to listen deeply and to move with the flow of what wants to emerge, including at times moving against the perceived flow.

Art by Gregory Colbert

Awarenesses

There are currently three awarenesses that we practice embodying to the best of our abilities:

1. Awareness of Awareness: We are aware of the unbounded, timeless awareness in which all of life unfolds. We strive to stabilize in this awareness and to connect with each other and all of life from the groundless ground of presence.
2. Awareness of Ego Development: We hold a conceptual and embodied understanding of ego development and the multiplicity of worldviews, while also acknowledging the constructed nature of all maps and models, including STAGES, Integral, Metamodernism, Spiral Dynamics, etc. We hold these lightly and recognize the potential harm they can cause while also seeing their value in certain contexts.
3. Awareness of the Transcendental Heart: We rest in the unconditional love that holds all of life, including our boundaries, our limitations, our shadows and our imperfections. We strive to ever-more-fully embody the love that we already are, recognizing the wholeness that is always already here as well as the ability to come into greater awareness and deeper remembrance with it. We are on this timeless journey together, as One.

Art by AI (Midjourney)

In-Person Containers

BLC is an ever-evolving container that holds infinite potential containers limited only by our imaginations. The shape, size, boundaries and colors of these containers are up to all of us to co-create. Some ideas:

• Bi-weekly BLC meetups to explore the emergence of who we are and what wants to be constructed together
• “Consciousness accelerator” co-working days
• Potluck dinners & tea party meetups
• Emergent Dialogue practice group
• Sunday BLC “church” gatherings
• Nature-based ceremonies and ritual practices
• Spotlight Sessions where one member has the “floor” to share, present and/or facilitate a project or passion that is alive for them
• Support pods (meditation groups, shadow work pods, parenting pod, cuddle puddles, grief circles, Wim Hof practice group, etc)
• Community service and volunteering projects
• Psychedelic journeys
• Dance parties!
• Hiking, skiing & camping trips
• Visiting guest speakers and facilitators from the broader Integral network
• Seasonal weekend retreats & gatherings

One Year Vision

By 2024, BLC will have a coliving / coworking home in or near Boulder where 4–7 people live together in a shared space that also serves as a creative incubator and community hub for BLC events, gatherings, ceremonies, etc.

5–10 Year Vision

To acquire land and form a regenerative village that will be home for 50–150 people that share and embody the ethos of the BLC values and orientations, and seek to live fully, wholly and holy into a collectively-held vision for the more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.

LIGHTHOUSE Network

Boulder LIGHTHOUSE Collective is the pilot prototype for an emergent network of lighthouses across the globe. We will strive to make our learnings open source and available to all who wish to create LIGHTHOUSE Collectives in their communities. An online home will weave the nodes, ensuring a generative cross-pollination between the collectives and the broader culture.

Questions, Comments, Suggestions

Reach out to Tucker Walsh: tuckerlighthouse@gmail.com

This is an emergent, self-organized collective. We have the privilege and responsibility for creating the community that would be most life-affirming for our souls, nourishing for our hearts and of service to Life.

Here’s to the unfolding!