Penny McManigal, designer and Artist for Peace

This "Weaving the Dream!" Millennium interactive Live Art Project has been designed to be easy to organize for 50-200 people, inexpensive ($50-100.), simple to plan and to co-create!

You can co-create "Weaving the Dream!" in a small yard, in a park, on a beach or high on a mountain top. You can create it in a church or community hall. Invite your entire neighborhood, your church or school; invite the entire community! "Weaves" can honor existing Sacred places or you can create new Sacred spaces by weaving your memories of yesterday into the potencies of today, thus co-creating the "new fabric" of tomorrow.

• An attitude of good will throughout
  
• Your commitment to manifest this vision
  
• A Team of similarly minded co-creators (3-5 will do)
  
• Planning
  • location,
  • date, time and guest list;
  • send invitations in plenty of time,
  • collect materials for construction of sacred circle,
  • choose your own "gift" of cloth and have extras on hand,
  • organize setup time for sacred circle, plan out the celebration (e.g additions of any special commentary, music, folk dances, potluck supper, volunteers to help set up and clean up, taking photos or taping the event, etc.)

• 25 poles, bamboo (7 feet long), inside diameter 3/4"-1", ends hollowed (or substitute: pvc pipe,1 inch wide. Priced around $2.25 for a 10 foot length)
• 25 rebar (reinforcing steel rods) 3/8"x 17" sections, (40 feet total= $ 8.00 (total + cost for cutting into sections with a rebar cutter.)
• 1 volleyball net (approximately 30 feet x 4 feet) about $25.00

Materials for assembly:

• 24 colorful pieces of cloth (pennants) for pole tops (approx. 12"x18")
• 1 special flag or pennant or wind sock for the center pole
• Many lengths of "gifts" of cloth* for "weaving" (3-4 feet long x 6-12" wide)
• Construction Materials: sledge hammer, scissors, 30 or so strong rubber bands, connectors: market bag "twisties", twine, thin wire, many clothes pins, safety pins, heavy tape or string; laundry pens (for making prayer flags), other decorative "goodies".
  
  • Optional: Use a 7 foot ski bag as a great carrier for bamboo poles!
  • The Sacred Circle can be enlarged easily by doubling all materials.
    
• Guests: bring "gift" cloth* and any desired musical instrument
  

Set Up Time (45 minutes to one hour, if all materials are assembled)

How to Construct the Sacred Circle

• choose level area for the 10 foot diameter circle
• assemble all needed materials
• construct 10 foot circle with 12 pairs of evenly spaced pairs of rebars hammered 1/2 way into the ground and 1 in the center of the circle
• fit the bamboo poles over each of the 25 rebars
• secure the volleyball net between each pair of poles with thin wire, or twisties, string, etc. (leaving the space between two sets of poles open for a "Gateway" to the center). Bottom of net touches ground.
• tuck colorful cloth "pennants" into tops of each pole (secure with rubber bands)
  • Optional Gateway: the final opening size can be adjusted by the circumference of the circle. An extra piece of cloth can be added to the open space to make a "gate" which can be opened or closed, if desired.

How to "Weave" the Sacred Circle

To give you some idea of the possibilities, the following is a compiled description of the process of "Weaving the Dream!" (from The Healing Summit in Monterey in 1997 and at Sacred Theater in Ashland, Oregon in July 1998).

All of the participants gathered in a line, holding their "gifts" of cloth and small instruments. The line began and ended with 2 drummers as the participants proceeded toward the Sacred Circle and then circled it several times. (This would be also be a good time for someone to read some poetry or for all to sing a song).

The circle disbanded as each person began their own process of weaving their "gift" cloth into the netting. Some people began immediately and others sat in silence at a distance for a time before doing so. As "The Weaving" began and the drummers continued the sacrality began to be felt. Some guests tied their cloth "peaces" to those of the person next to them, others wrote prayers with laundry pens on small squares of sheeting (creating prayer flags). As the interactive co-creation continued some participants added additional contributions of cloth. The Weave began to grow. A musician played a zither in the center of the circle. The organic and colorful "weave" began to come alive as an image of wonder and shared wholeness!

Finally everyone gathered around The Weave, holding hands. Going around the circle, one at a time, each person spoke a word or short phrase of their intention for "Weaving the Dream!" for the future of our planet. The ceremony ended with all raising their linked hands high above their heads! (This would be a good place to end with a prayer or song for Peace in the New Millennium).

You are invited to co-create your own "Weaving the Dream!" event in the way you choose. We invite you to share your ideas on our Message Board so that others can benefit from your creativity as we plan for the simultaneous and worldwide, shared event of Weaving The Dream!.

Thank you and pax (peace)!
Penny McManigal

"Weaving the Dream!"