CO-CREATE A GREEN TENT CIRCLE !

Call two or more women together to dream and plan a Green Tent Circle. This can be a tent, a yurt, a canopy of trees, a blanket on the ground, room in a home, church, community center. Circle Principles and Guidelines ensure a safe, sacred place for sharing stories and planning actions in caring for one another and Mother Earth. When you display the Green Tent Circle flag your circle is open and ready for all who enter.  ​

CIRCLE GUIDELINES

To co-create a circle, all you need is the desire, the willingness to attend the gatherings and to agree to follow circle principles. Each group determines their own guidelines. Following are some agreements that have helped circles to function more successfully for all participants.
  •  ​Create a circle.
  • Consider it a sacred space.
  • One person speaks at a time.
  • Speak and listen from the heart.
  • Encourage and welcome diverse points of view.
  • Listen with discernment instead of judgment.
  • When in doubt or need, pause and silently ask for guidance.
  • Share leadership and resources.
  • Decide together how decisions will be made.
  • Work toward consensus when possible.
  • Offer experience instead of advice.
  • Decide together what is to be held in confidence.
  • Speak from your own experience and beliefs rather than speaking for others.
  • Open and close the circle by hearing each voice. (Check-ins and check-outs.)

CIRCLE PRINCIPLES

The following are some suggestions for creating
a successful circle:
  • Create sacred space. This includes physically preparing a space to accommodate the participants in a circle, usually with a centerpiece or altar.
  • Listen with compassion and for wisdom. This includes listening without an agenda, suspending judgment, being curious and finding the underlying meaning in others' statements. Also, it is listening for wisdom as it comes through each participant.
  • Speak from your heart and experience. Speak one at a time. This includes saying what is true for you and speaking to the center of the circle, not to another individual. We offer our experience and feelings to the circle, not our advice. Also, we speak one at a time and invoke a talking piece when needed, to ensure that all are heard.
  • Invite silence and reflection when needed, in you and in the circle. This includes listening to our own inner guidance before speaking. Also, we request silence and reflection in the circle when we feel it is needed.
  • Take responsibility for your experience and your impact on the circle. This includes demonstrating self-respect and self-restraint. We self-monitor to ensure that our needs and expectations are being met. We ensure our contribution adds to the positive experience of all in the circle.
  • Keep the confidence of the circle. This refers to our confidentiality agreements. What is spoken in the circle, stays in the circle to help ensure a safe environment for sharing our experiences and feelings.
  • Make decisions, when needed, by consensus. This refers to our decision making process. Should a circle need to make a decision, it is generally desirable to come to a consensus. These guidelines can be used as a starting point for group agreements in any circle, knowing that each group will add or delete as they see fit.
"Circle Principles
and Guidelines
ensure a safe,
sacred place
for sharing stories
and planning actions
in caring for
one another
​and Mother Earth."
​​Guidelines and Principles were developed by the Millionth Circle Conveners in 2001.  www.millionthcircle.org  ​
The link is to Millionth Circle Conveners workshop Experience the Power of Circle that is an excellent teaching tool to learn about circle, experience being in a circle and how to start a circle.  

Meeting Recording:
https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/share/Tyz8bRWN7kBwhVt1YiLIw0qCkwb7_4Fau7wxqcDsdlQbu7ge1gBib9zv3X7uBew8.q5N0XfSO8CaVOs0h

Access Passcode: vh3Px!Hq