Spherical thinking in MMXIX

If we’re lucky in California, it rains. Today all the seeds we pushed into the dirt are pushing back out. A wealth of water arrives at once, and then we spend months missing it. How to hold today’s wealth for the times ahead? A pulse of carbon. An abundance of knowledge. A year’s worth of rain.

We spent Spherical’s first year running experiments. We collaborated with deep legacies and birthed new initiatives. We studied with planetologists. We dug into core texts to uncover all the thoughts that had already been thought: Gaian systems and bioregional intelligences, cooperating agreements, and evolving lenses for seeing our home planet.

We performed at the foot of Agiocochook to relate histories through its trees, peoples, and currencies. We peered through a telescope on a coastal mushroom farm, exploring summer constellations with green lasers. We watched Pleiadian meteors shower the Chihuahuan desert with an elder biospherian. We took a pilgrimage inland to see an Australian microbiologist describe how to rehydrate Californian soil.

Our focus has been on illuminating blind spots and unrealized potentials. We conducted dozens of strategy interviews, delivered seventeen talks and performances, and helped to run workshops about regenerative futures, reimagining capital, and synergetic geometry. We explored how emerging tech can be applied to radically accelerate women’s health. We draw ongoing inspiration from the 200+ stories we’ve mapped about planetary healing.

This year we aim to share what we’ve learned, and are learning. In a time of hail marys and stacked odds, unexpected alliances are key. Old ideas are surfacing, and right on time.

We wish you and your relations love, rest, health, clean water and good food.

To our reconnections in the new year,

Dawn Danby + David McConville

S P H E R I C A L