The Network of Light
By
Angelo John Lewis
From an e-mail exchange from Angelo John Lewis to three members of the Planning Circle of the Diversity and Spirituality Network (DSN), Spring, 1996:
“In my previous note, I mentioned the image of DSN as a “seeding” organization, with multiple sister organizations. I think I have a better metaphor. It is called the Network of Light…To backtrack a little bit, some years age I began hearing inwardly the phrase, “Network of Light.” At the time, I had no idea what it meant. I just trusted that some day the meaning would unfold. I am still far from clear what the vision entails. But I have some notions. When the time is right, the Spirit within me will give it life.The genesis of the idea came through the following circumstance, which I believed happened about a year before Zachary and I started our discussions (Editors note: These “discussions” led to the founding of the Diversity and Spirituality Network in 1995)…
I was visiting Rachele Rhodes, a dear friend, in NYC. (Editors note: Rachele Rhodes died in 1997). At one time in her life, Rachele served as an administrator in the human potential scene. She abandoned this type of life, perhaps in part because she developed serious health problems: a rare form of cancer. Despite her physical condition, she lived in the world with a degree of trust that I have never beheld elsewhere.Anyway, Rachele was in from southern California and visiting her daughter in NYC. Apart from friendship, I had a “hidden agenda” that motivated my visit. I intended to ask Rachele if she would consider working for me as a kind of personal assistant, setting up appointments to do counselings, arranging seminars etc.,: things she has done for me in the past.On our long car ride from NYC to Trenton, NJ, I introduced the subject. Rachele told me that she was just then doing more or less the same thing for another friend on a one-shot kind of basis. She did a lot of these types of things and was good at this kind of work. The odd quality of this particular engagement was how Rachele found herself thinking as people called to through herset up appointments with her client. During these calls, Rachele found herself realizing that she herself could just as easily counsel these individuals. She had after all frequently counseled cancer patients, others with chronic conditions, and friends. Helping others, Racheleexplained, was simply part of her life. Knowing Rachele as I did, I had no doubt she spoke the truth.
At that moment in the conversation, a realization clicked. I felt the first stirring of the dream of the Network of Light. I abandoned my idea of Rachele “working for me” and instead began to envision a more lateral relationship, indeed, an interwoven series of lateral relationships. The phrase, “The Network of Light,” plus the first clear outline of its meaning emerged. I shared my vision with Rachele and with her encouragement immediately began putting it into practice. I contacted two other friends – one of whom knew Rachele — and explained the idea to them. Our common denominator was that each of us was involved in the healing arts. Each of us agreed to explore this new form of relationship.
The idea essentially was for each of us to contract to serve as an unconditional support for each other. Although we weren’t certain what would emerge, we saw as a possible outcome a network that would deliver “business” to one another. Before that could occur, we felt the need to do some teaming (we all lived in different parts of the country) through letters and conference calls. We kept this going for a few months, but, alas, my energy began to go in other directions (probably survival!). As the initial glue of this group, I unhinged. The idea — for that time — died.Sometime after DSN was born, I began to have a feeling that after DSN there would be one final project of my life. I know now that that project is the Network of Light.The essence of the idea is to build supportive cells of light workers who are together because of friendship and not denominational affiliations. These light workers would coalesce in a rather pure way, not for any particular intent, but simply because they enjoyed being together and wanted to support one another. As my cell (Koji, Rachele, Jesse and I) were all wellness practitioners of one sort or the other, we envisioned as a possible outgrowth of our relationship a means of generating “work” (i.e. clients, seminars) for each other in our various cities. We felt this would be a much more natural way of marketing than the usual mode: i.e. renting hotels, doing mass marketing, etc.We also believed that as our cell solidified, individual members of our cell would in turn start other autonomous, yet interwoven cells. With care and proper seeding, our co-creating might lead to “light linkages” that would encompass and nurture the planet as a whole.
Many of the details of this vision have yet to come clear. But I feel now that somehow this Network of Light metaphor is closer to what I envision than the “seeding” analogy I used in my previous e-mail, in which I described how I see DSN evolving in parallel with other “cells.”I am very sure that we are being guided in invisible ways to elaborate a formless form, not only for ourselves, but for the world. We are being guided and are players in the esoteric design that weaves patterns behind the visible face of all things…
