A Path to Wholeness

There is a hidden thread of wholeness connecting us all. But how could that be when there is so much division in the world now? We live in a time when the greatest need is to restore the balance and harmony of the whole, within and all around us.

To get beyond the separation between us, imagine there is only wholeness. Imagine all things in the entire Creation making up an interconnected whole in which all things are of this wholeness-in-motion.

In this wholeness, all things are interdependent, complementary, parts of the same whole, balancing, integrating, and uniting all aspects of the whole.

This is the way things started off, as the first peoples observed a greater harmony around them. But this innate sense of wholeness became broken into separate pieces. In the following storyteller’s history of the world, we she how this happened, where we’ve come from, where we’ve been, and where we are now heading.

There was a time when people gathered around campfires, the center of community life, to share stories that embodied the values and principles they lived by. These stories held the community together and gave them a shared purpose. They were unitive narratives, essential to their individual and collective wellbeing.

Then there came a time when communities expanded, spread out, became more diverse, and experienced conflict and disorder. Out of this discord emerged divisive narratives that maintained separation.

Today, as we approach a consciousness of global integration, a new story of our wholeness is needed to frame this interconnectedness. It is time to come together again through unitive narratives, to share our own story of living into wholeness.

Through this story of how stories evolved over the millennia, we see that nothing may be more vital right now than a healing vision that guides us back to our original, innate wholeness.

This is exactly what A New Story of Wholeness provides. By decoding a pattern hidden within us meant to assist us in the journey to our fullest potential, we arrive at a consciousness of wholeness that connects us all.

This universal pattern, at the heart of mythology, mysticism, ritual, and psychology, is also found within the basic structure of story itself. Beyond beginning, middle, and end, on a much deeper and more meaningful level this pattern consists of beginning, muddle, and resolution.

It is the muddle, or the challenges we face, that is the core of the pattern that brings the all-important process of transformation to its completion, or resolution. In A New Story of Wholeness, this pattern is described as a blueprint for living into wholeness, consisting of the three parts, Call to Wholeness, Path of Purification, and Return to Wholeness.

This pattern guides our evolving consciousness, transforms our lives, keeps our focus on the wholeness of all things, and keeps humanity on its evolutionary path.

In my mid-20s, this journey to wholeness was just beginning for me. A series of interconnected adventures—watching the first moonwalk, sailing with Pete Seeger on the maiden voyage of the Hudson River sloop Clearwater from New York City to Albany, attending the Woodstock music festival, living in a cabin in the woods, having Joseph Campbell as a mentor, living in a Franciscan monastery, and returning to the college I had graduated from 3 years earlier to teach a course on folk-rock lyrics as poetry—gave me the first-hand experience of seeing how all things are tied together, with only artificial boundaries, in a greater wholeness. These experiences turned into a memoir and the foundation and framework for a lifetime of work around this theme.

Our own journey of returning to wholeness can begin by discovering that our deep, inner story connects us all as one human family. This pattern is part of our archetypal DNA. As the archetypes making up this universal pattern of transformation buried in our unconscious begin to emerge through our lived experiences, we awaken to the unifying power of an innate pattern that reshapes and redirects our lives toward fulfilling our inner potential. At the same time, this leads us through a creative process resulting in a deeper and more meaningful relationship with all others. This pattern of transformation ultimately connects us with the wholeness of the entire creation.

We are the storytelling species. Let us reclaim our identity as whole beings living in harmony with all things around us. May we share widely our deeply lived stories of wholeness to bring us back together as a human family, one story at a time.

Adapted from A New Story of Wholeness: An Experiential Guide for Connecting the Human Family by Robert Atkinson (2022)