What Is The Authentic Call?

The focus of The Berkana Institute is the community.

Start out with the word "birkana"; it's an old Norse word for birch tree. The Book of Runes by Ralph Blum adds that birkana "denotes a form of fertility that fosters growth both symbolically and actually. It is the rune that leads to blossoming and ripening. Birkana is concerned with the flow of beings into their new forms. Its action is gentle, penetrating and pervasive."

From this word origin comes comes the name of an institute founded in 1991, THE BIRKANA INSTITUTE. It lies on the foundation of people, people being together, in caring and generosity. And those people coming together can make it through anything, even the very worst possibility, as long as they're together. Thus, this institute seeks to create communities of people that together can provide support and foster a spirit of inquiry that works to create a promising future for the benefit of all.



The institute builds on four key activities in its work and the work of its partners. They look for trailblazing leaders and communities; connect them to each other; provide nourishment in the form of relationships, resources, learning, and support; and focus on their stories as examples of the future that is happening in the present.

Something to consider in regard to Berkana's work is the authentic call: what is it that signals that true call, that need for something general or specific. Frequently, it shows up as a disturbance, an itch, a longing, in one person, although it may seem to come from a group. Generally it is that one person who says it first, although it can be taken up so quickly by a group, that you can't distinguish that one person.

Voicing that call brings that longing to a level of consciousness in others, so that they then become aware of its relevance. It then becomes the voice of the group, bringing a collective longing, a realization that there is a call, and then this core group helps to make it come true.

Meg Wheatley leads a series of conversations around the US.

The thing to remember is that the original voice, the person who first puts words to the longing, plays this critical role in making possibilities real. But that same originator has to be able to let go of that longing into the collective group, so that it can become something larger. In a sense there is a critical moment to let go; if you hold on too long and too tight, that longing dies out, along with the chance of making something bigger; but if you let go too soon, it's not strong enough to sustain, and thus gets extinguished. In a sense, the original person/voice needs to think about the longing as both my longing and never my longing, in order to let go at the right time bring it to larger realization.

Leading communities into the future now.

Thanks for information from this write-up on The Berkana Institute: http://berkana.org/about/; this post by Phil Cass on The Berkana Institute blog: http://berkana.org/an-authentic-call/; and the above link.

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