Center for Spiritual Democracy

THE WOMEN'S COUNCIL (1999-2001):

Inspired by Chief Jake Thomas and in honour of his profound message of "the women getting strong again" Diana Stone convened a Council of 13 Women from across the country who met, prayed, were in ceremony and shared their stories and experiences for over two years.

Read an excerpt of her story below...

Photo: Diana Stone and Dr. Apela Colorado

"Inspired by the Iroquois Clan Mothers, I believed that their collective experience, power, wisdom, insight and love would guide the Center on the next step to be taken. This proved to be true. We examined our roles as women, as mothers, as citizens in a troubled world. We explored our responsibility to ourselves, to one another, and to the future. We shared our grief. We shared our triumphs."

What came out of the Council of Women “getting strong again” was the commitment to partnership with men who knew the power of the divine feminine within themselves. This is no simple task. As women, we struggle with it ourselves. How do we discern the difference between the feminine strength that informs our divine nature and its inclusiveness and the feminine strength that compels us towards competitiveness in “a man’s world?” The truth is that there are lots of men who want out of the aggression-based “man’s world.” They recognize the ways in which the hierarchy has run amok. They know themselves more deeply; and they are guided in a different direction.

The other awareness we came to in the Council of Women, was that only through empowering the youth could any real change take hold in this country. The young people’s vision of the future was growing out of a much different experience. Out of this commitment to future generations

I partnered with David Fisher, a San Francisco businessman whose passion for working with young people matched mine. We created the International Youth Leadership Council, comprised of young leaders from around the world who first gathered in September 2000 at the Sate of the World Forum in New York City. The Forum, founded by Jim Garrison and Mikhail Gorbachev, was usually held in San Francisco and I’d attended regularly as founder of the Center for Spiritual Democracy.

In 2000, the event was held in NYC to coincide with the United Nations Millennium Summit, the largest gathering of Heads of State in modern history. A few blocks away at the New York Hilton, the State of the World Forum 2000 gathered together more than 2,000 leaders of civil society as well as a number of heads of state from around the world to discuss the most compelling challenges confronting the human community at the turn of the century.”