Keeping Circles Strong

A few short weeks after 9/11, a group of women leaders who were gathering for the fifth World Conference of Women at the United Nations, met in New York City and posed the question, “What can we do to make a difference?” They decided that the most powerful thing to do would be to gather in circles.


Jean Shinoda Bolen, author of The Millionth Circle, was one of those women. She promotes circles as a method for moving from the patriarchal power structure to a more egalitarian system. In Bolen’s words, “Once the principles are understood, the significance of women’s circles can be appreciated as a revolutionary-evolutionary movement that is hidden in plain sight. It appears to be just women getting together talking, but each woman and each circle is contributing to something grander.”

There is a ripple effect, both from circles as a whole and from each woman who attends. As women sit with each other in sacred space, their trust in themselves and in women in general grows. In a culture of sexually objectifying images, online relationships and cell phone business meetings, sitting face to face in an attentive environment without agenda can have a profound impact. Isolation melts away into community. Thoughts share equal space with feelings. Concepts give way to the primal and sacred experience of a group of beating hearts present with each other. Circles are an interactive, open-eyed, communal meditation where members listen actively and speak authentically.

After circle, women go out into the world with a deeper embodied experience of this safety, trust and self-awareness which then informs all their relationships on a day to day basis. The woman who questioned every choice she made thinks twice before doubting herself. The woman who was afraid to speak up discovers she has boundaries and can express them with more strength and confidence. The woman who thought she was alone finds it easier to ask for and offer help, for she has experienced the caring of a community of women.

On the metaphysical level, every circle adds to a resonant field of group harmony. Beyond what we can see with the five senses, there is the quantum field, where each circle adds to the group consciousness. Like the hundredth monkey, each circle is a tiny step closer to the day when conflict is resolved non-violently, and true, conscious community is the norm.

Join or begin a circle. Change a current meeting into a circle format. Start at home at the dinner table, by taking turns speaking, by making certain every voice has space and by listening without judgment. Some women have taken the circle into the business world and are co-creating projects. Sometimes quietly, gently and privately and sometimes publicly, women in circle are changing the world. Sage Knight