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 The Gather the Women idea began to emerge in my consciousness in November
2001 when I started receiving a series of phone calls from WOVA members
who felt drawn to share their visions with me. This in itself was an
unusual occurrence -- rarely do I get phone calls of this nature. So
when I got three calls within a period of a few weeks from WOVA members
who did not know each other all using the same words to express their
vision, I knew I was supposed to pay attention. The words each of them
used were: "It's time to gather the women... it's time for women's wisdom
to come forth."
It was these calls that prompted me, on November 12, 2001, to register
the domain name "gatherthewomen" feeling that this action
would help to ground the energy of these women's visions. On November
20, I sent an email to the WOVA Board of Directors telling them about
the phone calls, about my feelings that it was important for WOVA to
help ground this energy and to advise them of the action I had taken
in registering the domain name.
I was at that time preparing for WOVA's upcoming Feminine Face of Leadership
Conference scheduled for January 31-February 2, 2002. The GTW domain
name and idea just sat on the back shelf until after that conference
and the flurry of activities it generated including formation of Global
Action Forum (GAF) committees that where to follow up on the two action
ideas that came out of the FFL conference: one to create a network of
networks and the other to create a Global Call to Prayer (GCP).
The Gather the Women idea came alive again in March 2002 when I started
receiving phone calls from women who were not WOVA members wanting to
share with me their visions to gather the women. I told these women
that I had registered the domain name and asked if they might be interested
in becoming WOVA members and serving on a steering committee to explore
what we could do with this vision. They all enthusiastically agreed.
The WOVA Board gave the go-ahead to form a steering committee to explore
a Gather the Women project and several board members agreed to sit on
that committee. Between March and June I continued to build the Gather
the Women steering committee. I invited those women who had called me
and also WOVA members who had attended the Feminine Face of Leadership
Conference. In total 15 women had agreed to serve.
About this same time I had the opportunity
to read a book entitled "Birth of the Chaordic Age" by Dee Hock, founder
of Visa International that served as the inspiration of how we could
actually gather hundreds of thousands of women throughout the world.
Each gathering would be self organizing and WOVA would provide the Gather
the Women website as a hub for connection.
On June 21, 2002 I set up an email list for our newly formed steering
committee and the first messages were posted on June 22. Most of our
steering committee members did not know each other so I asked woman
to post to the list a short bio and a statement as to why she said "yes"
to being on the committee.
On the 4th of July we started working on our first task: an opening
statement for the website. The only thing we had agreed on was that
the date of the event would be on March 8 to coincide with International
Women's Day. On July 7 we began planning a date and location for our
first "in-person" meeting (which occurred on September 13 in Corte Madera,
CA). On July 8 I took a two-week "leave of absence" from the committee
to complete some WOVA tasks that needed my attention. I instructed the
group to continue exploring the opening statement and to try to come
up with a unified vision.
During my "leave" I met with WOVA Board Member Kimberly Pheil who had
agreed to design our logo and we began exploring what symbology would
be appropriate. I felt the Flower of Life was important to include and
she felt the universal symbol for woman was important. During our animated
discussion, she put her arms up in a circle surrounding her head and
I all of a sudden I saw the symbol -- women's arms creating the circle
for the symbol of woman while surrounding the flower of life. Kimberly
got so excited, she jumped to her feet saying "I've got to go NOW!"
and left immediately to work on the design. The finished logo was ready
on July 18.
During this time I also became aware through my daily meditations that
Gather the Women would be the vehicle through which we could bring
the masculine and feminine energies on the planet into balance. I realized
that this unbalanced state was the underlying cause of most of the
challenges we are now experiencing globally. Gather the Women, working
at the CAUSE level, would open the door to creating a world of harmony
and peace.
On July 21 I returned to my email and was
a quite overwhelmed to see that 97 messages had been exchanged on the
list in my absence and there seemed to be no coherence or agreement
of the direction of the project. Everyone had a different idea of what the event should look like.
Following is the email I posted to the list on July 22:
Dear Sister Gatherers:
I had a remarkable experience this morning in meditation. Last night
I took all your visions and opening statements to bed with me and re-read
them just before falling to sleep. This morning I awoke at 5 am, took
all your visions and opening statement suggestions into our meditation
room, lit the altar candles and surrendered the event to Spirit asking
to be shown a picture that would incorporate all the many inspirations
that you have shared over the past couple of weeks. What was shown
me was so grand and unexpected that I hope I have the words to adequately
share the vision.
Someone received guidance that the number 3 was important. Someone
else posted a message that said she saw the event beginning on the
third day of the third month of the third year of the millennium--03-03-03.
(That date, by the way, had been originally chosen for our next Feminine
Face of Leadership Conference). When I read this post, I immediately
went into a "Wow, that's great, but the event needs to be on March 8--
that's the date we all decided on and Lili has much invested in holding
it on that date.
With that in mind I kept asking to be shown how we could incorporate
the two dates. All of a sudden I saw the story of creation-- 7 days
beginning on Monday, March 3-- with each day adding to the energy and
momentum that culminates on the sixth day-- March 8 -- with the physical
gathering of women (and on the 7th day we take our queue from God/Goddess--we
rest!)
Each day starting with March 3 (day 1) would have a particular focus
that would prepare each participant for the culminating event in March
8: For instance (and these are just ideas I'm suggesting as a starting
point -- I'm sure you all may have more inspired suggestions):
Day 1 (March 3) A Day of Prayer and Meditation
(Let there be Light)
Day 2 (March 4) A Day of introspection, reflection and contemplation
(A Day of Learning)
Day 3 (March 5) A day of Healing and Forgiveness
(Joanne's healing circle ceremony)
Day 4 (March 6) A day of connection
(Sharing from the heart, story telling, listening & being heard)
Day 5 (March 7) A Day of Mindful Action
(Being the Change we wish to see in the world)
Day 6 (March 8) The Day of Gathering: We let our Light Shine
(Celebration, Inspiration, Seeing the World through Women's Eyes)
Day 7 (March 9) A Day of Rest, Nurturing and Gratitude
Every day builds on the previous, preparing participants and the planet
for the infusion of love that will embrace our Mother Earth as women
gather on March 8 in every town and village throughout the world to
weave the Flower of Life. This is Harmony's Way. It is the way of the
Feminine. The Time is Now. Let the Gathering Begin.
Let me hear your thoughts. I'm certainly not tied to this idea and
if the consensus of the group is that we stick with the one day event
on March 8, I would fully support that. However, if you all resonate
with the idea, then I have some ideas to share about what we could
do with the website.
Only Love Prevails,
Carol
---- end email message ----
From that point on the committee worked on wording and vision and content
for the website. We met in person twice: once in September (see photo
below) and once in November. We formed committees to do certain tasks.
In all it took us 9 months -- from the equinox on June 22 as we posted
our first messages to the list to March 8 when thousands of women gathered
throughout the world with the intention of grounding the feminine energy
to bring the planet into balance, harmony and peace.
During that time we effectively spread the
word and built an interactive website where participants could register
to participate (by March 8 over 4700 women had registered in 67 countries),
could list their events (over 450 events were listed in 23 countries),
and could share their visions and prayers. The website continues to
expand and serve as a hub where participants can take part in GTW Discussion,
Action and Inspiration forums and connect with one another through our
online directory. The committee completed its work and the list was
closed on March 31, 2003 after exchanging 23,354 emails. Here is the
closing message I sent to the list on March 31.
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