The Inward Outward Arc
Our journeys are not linear. They are wild - more like a pulse or a spiral dance than a sequential staircase, or a neat ascending line on a graph.
We have found ourselves greatly served by the following deceptively simple model, drawn from one of the most recognizable building blocks of the natural world - found everywhere from seashells to sunflowers.
The three elements of this model - two arcs moving around a centre point – form a double-barred spiral that we call the Inward/Outward Arc. And it tells the story of a journey that relational systems leaders must inevitably undertake.
Going Deeper: The Inward Arc
“The longest journey is the journey inwards...”
— Dag Hammarskjöld
The founder of Outward Bound, Kurt Hahn, famously reminded his students that there is more in you than you think. The inward arc represents the unique psycho-spiritual journey of self-discovery by which each of us finds out what Hahn’s cryptic remark means for ourselves. It is a lifelong journey with many layers, and it weaves its way through every stage of human development. It has been mapped and named in countless ways by every culture and tradition. Tewa scholar Gregory Cajete describes it as finding your original face a process that he suggests is the core mandate of traditional Indigenous education. The Catholic contemplative Thomas Merton describes it as a journey to one’s inner centre. Buddhist tradition describes it as a journey of awakening to our original nature. It is a journey of discovering and un-concealing our true nature or deeper self.
The inward arc then, can be thought of as a progressive ripening – a learning journey toward our unique ‘niche’ in the ecosystem of relationships we touch, a process of discovering and then embodying our ‘Big Why’ or our deep purpose. It is less of a physical journey than a process of attunement to the place, as Rilke says; “from which our life flows.” This essential inquiry is not something that can be directed by the mind or will alone, but rather encountered over time and in relationship. The inward arc of the journey is therefore one of “unmaking”, of dis-identification with, of “dying” to, and even dismemberment of the old self along with its certainties and its way of being in the world to make way for what is yet unknown and unseen, to listen for the call, or for the question that won’t leave you alone.
Source: The Generative Heart
“Go within and scale the depths of your being from which your very life springs forth. At its source you will find the answer…”
— Rainer Maria Rilke
At the centre of the model is the mysterious and generative source - a hinge between the two arcs - which eludes simple definition. In a ritual context, the source might be understood to represent the liminal or threshold phase – the “betwixt and between” time out of time when an old order has been unmade while the new order is yet to take shape. Another way to think about source is that it is the conversation that we curate between inner and outer, between the mysterious seeds of possibility that we encounter in the depths of the inward arc and our conscious self. Between ego and soul. The source is not so much a place as it is the way that we attend to those conversations. It is less of a treasure chest brimming with answers as it is an empty space steaming with questions. Attending to the ‘largest conversation you can have with yourself and the world’, we feel, is a critical practice for systems leaders.
Loving the World: The Outward Arc
“You walking, your footprints are the road, and nothing else”
— Antonio Machado
The outward arc represents the journey of engagement, in which people inhabit their everyday world with the seeds of a new way of being, and begin to creatively engage with influence, and ultimately transform their world.
Those seeds germinate and grow within the context of living relationships, and it is precisely through a progressively expanded engagement that the transformative potential discovered during a journey to source is integrated and embodied. The important point to note here is that we do not touch these deeper places, gain insight, and then return fully transformed. We may sense a possibility, glimpse a mysterious image, experience a shift of mind, but the transformational potential of these encounters entirely depends on what we do next – on how we subsequently live with them.
Transformation, as we mean it, is an ongoing process that only finds expression in our relationships with others. The outward arc of the journey is about drawing from our core experiences – our most profound and sacred encounters with the mystery at the center of our being - in order to re-inhabit and renew our everyday lives. It is the living, breathing, moment-by-moment expression of making that encounter visible and bringing something never before seen to the world.
Integration
The inward/outward arc is both a map and an integrating symbol.
It offers a way to represent the graceful order within unfolding complexity found throughout nature. It is the characteristic pattern of a mature galaxy – including our own Milky Way. It evokes the dynamic shape of a hurricane and mirrors the coherence and self-organizing capacity of massive energy systems. And it evokes the original instructions dwelling within every cell of our bodies as the double helix of a DNA strand. It also offers us a symbolic lens to represent aspects of life experience such as patterns of human development, personal and cultural transition, holistic educational processes, and constant pulse of action and reflection.
It reminds us that the way in which we collectively make meaning – especially in the face of complex or wicked challenges – is itself a form of action in the world, just as our most effective actions must be a form of inquiry. From our perspective, the twin spiral is a beguilingly simple way to represent the two arcs of capacity and competence that systems leaders must cultivate and the deeper mystery that lies at the heart of the learning journey. Ways of knowing and ways of doing that spiral around a deeper way of being.