Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture [Paperback]

Christina Baldwin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 1998

The original small-press edition of Calling the Circle has become one of the key resources for the rapidly-growing "circle" movement. This newly revised edition brings Christina Baldwin's groundbreaking work to an even broader audience ranging from women's spirituality groups to corporate development teams.

50,000 years ago, women and men gathered around campfires to decide the key issues in their lives. Today, groups everywhere are discovering a new form of this ancient ritual for communication, mutual support, teamwork, and social change. Now, in a book as consciousness-changing as Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade or Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, Christina Baldwin offers this powerful new tool to everyone who longs for a community based on honesty, equality, and spiritual integrity.

In this simple, profound practice, participants sit in a circle, pass a talking piece from person to person, and speak and listen from the heart. Christina Baldwin gives detailed instructions and suggestions for getting started, setting goals, and solving disagreements safely and respectfully. She also offers inspiring examples of circles in action: a women's spirituality group, a father and son in crisis, a PTA group that averts a school strike and a work project team that accesses a new level of creativity and caring.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

The original small-press edition of Calling the Circle has become one of the key resources for the rapidly-growing "circle" movement. This newly revised edition brings Christina Baldwin's groundbreaking work to an even broader audience ranging from women's spirituality groups to corporate development teams.

50,000 years ago, women and men gathered around campfires to decide the key issues in their lives. Today, groups everywhere are discovering a new form of this ancient ritual for communication, mutual support, teamwork, and social change. Now, in a book as consciousness-changing as Riane Eisler's The Chalice and the Blade or Peter Senge's The Fifth Discipline, Christina Baldwin offers this powerful new tool to everyone who longs for a community based on honesty, equality, and spiritual integrity.

In this simple, profound practice, participants sit in a circle, pass a talking piece from person to person, and speak and listen from the heart. Christina Baldwin gives detailed instructions and suggestions for getting started, setting goals, and solving disagreements safely and respectfully. She also offers inspiring examples of circles in action: a women's spirituality group, a father and son in crisis, a PTA group that averts a school strike and a work project team that accesses a new level of creativity and caring.

About the Author

Christina Baldwin is the author of Calling the Circle, Seven Whispers, and most recently Storycatcher, which won a 2006 Books for a Better Life Award. She teaches and lectures extensively through her educational company, PeerSpirit. She lives outside Seattle, Washington, on Whidbey Island.

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Rep Sub edition (March 2, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553379003
• ISBN-13: 978-0553379006
• Product Dimensions: 6 x 0.5 x 9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,279 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Christina Baldwin is a writer and seminar presenter of 30+ years experience. She has contributed two classic books to the exploration of journal writing, including the well-known classic, Life's Companion, Journal Writing as a Spiritual Practice, revised and reissued in 2007 after 100,000 original sales. This work led her to a long study of personal growth and group dynamics and as a result of that experience she wrote Calling the Circle, the First and Future Culture to explore how social container releases needed wisdom. In recognition of the requirement for increased spirituality, she wrote The Seven Whispers, A Spiritual Practice for Times Like These. Her legacy book, Storycatcher, Making Sense of our Lives through the Power and Practice of Story, reminds readers of the necessity of story to communicate in all areas of professional and personal life. Continuing the exploration of collaborative dialogue, Christina and Ann Linnea wrote a new classic, The Circle Way, A Leader in Every Chair, which documents applications of PeerSpirit Circle Process as a foundational tool for local to global change.

Christina holds a B.A. in English with honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Macalester College, and a M.S. in Educational Psychology from Columbia Pacific University. She currently lives on an island near Seattle, WA, from which she travels extensively to lecture, teach, and call people and organizations into conversations of heart, meaning, and activism.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Works! From individuals into a community of sharing., November 19, 1999

By 

Judy O'Leary ([e-mail]) (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Paperback)

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.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An outstanding piece on bringing people together in council., September 14, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Paperback)

Baldwin's "Calling the Circle" is by far the best book and methodology out there on using the "circle" as a form of bringing people together into communities and teams with clear intention(s), respect, compassion and openness. This process is also marvelous in helping people in conflict situations to be able to hold those "challenging conversations" with honesty and integrity. A truly outstanding piece of work that is a must read for today's business and community leaders who need to deal with so many critical issues with very diverse communities of people.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What the world needs now!, October 15, 2001

By 

Catherine Wilson (Brooklyn Park, MN United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Calling the Circle: The First and Future Culture (Paperback)

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.