Calling the Circle : The First and Future Culture

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Summary: Circles for Business, Home or Community
Review: Baldwin's book provides easy to follow guidelines on how to use circle methodology in a variety of settings. You can do some of the pieces or all of the pieces and they apply in multiple settings. I often facilitiate meetings with clients and found Calling the Circle to be one of the most valuable tools I have for taking a group beyond the flip chart and multi-voting.

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Summary: Calling the Circle: The First and Future culture
Review: Christina Baldwin's Calling the Circle is a book that offers information critical to our survival as a human community. How do we break through our cultural barriers and relearn how to treat one another with respect and honor the collective wisdom that we so desperately need at this time in our history? Read this book to find a proven methodology, a way of being together that, when practiced allows us to connect on a heart level, to honor and understand one another even though we may disagree. We need this information now more than ever.

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Summary: Lovely Bookl
Review: The Council of Grandmothers Planning Committee for the Annual Gathering of October 1999 in Oracle, Arizona made a commitment to use Christina Baldwins "Calling The Circle", along with "A Guide to Peerspirit Circle" by Christina Baldwin and Ann Linnea as the foundation of their Gathering. Creating a center for safety, placing our sacred objects, using a talking piece to lovingly speak our truths, the importance of the timekeeper, using a bell to go within, the self monitoring, and the listening, really listening, worked and it was rewarding and magical! The evaluations of these women on their small circles of 12 to 13 along with the large circles of 50 include words such as "supportive, empowering, want to continue them in my other life, very harmonious, non-ego dominated, very compassionate group, good as a teaching tool for this kind of process." I recommend Christinas' Circle book for any organization, corporation, school or group, any age and all ages, male and female. It successfully brought women who had never met before to a level of sharing, working and bonding, previously not realized at our Gatherings. Thank you Christina and Ann! Judy O'Leary, The Weaver, Council of Grandmothers.

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Summary: a book whose time has come
Review: This book has been waiting for us to get ready to do something really different-- speak honestly and heartfully and listen compassionately. I've been looking for some way to help elicit the level of conversation that is missing all around us, and calling the circle is an essential tool that needs to come back into the mainstream. Baldwin's book is not the only one out there, but it's a classic, and when you look at her website she's been walking her talk a long time...PeerSpirit is what she calls her circle methodology-- it's highly adaptable. Try this at home. Then try it at work. Then try it in your neighborhood. We will surprise each other with who we really are!

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Summary: a book whose time has come
Review: This is a book for our times. Christina provides a much needed paradigm - a new container within which human interaction can happen in a spirit of respect and tolerance. It is an important answer for anyone who has ever wondered how to be a peace maker in their own lives and in the world. I have used what Christina teaches, and it enhances every interaction all the way from talks with my spouse to large organizational meetings. It is useful at every level of life. It is beautifully written, and it leaves you with highly useful tools in your hand and hope in your heart.

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Summary: What the world needs now!
Review: This is a book for our times. Christina provides a much needed paradigm - a new container within which human interaction can happen in a spirit of respect and tolerance. It is an important answer for anyone who has ever wondered how to be a peace maker in their own lives and in the world. I have used what Christina teaches, and it enhances every interaction all the way from talks with my spouse to large organizational meetings. It is useful at every level of life. It is beautifully written, and it leaves you with highly useful tools in your hand and hope in your heart.

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Summary: An outstanding piece on bringing people together in council.
Review: This is an excellent introduction to the use of shared leadership techniques in groups of all kinds from business to spiritual groups.