Hi beautiful human,

A few weeks ago, the third annual Regenerative Stemmer (Regenerative Voices) gathering took place in the beautiful Gribskov north of Copenhagen. I was unexpectedly invited to do the opening address and keep the fire as part of the opening and closing ceremonies together with Kompagniet ILT🔥.

During the talk, the sky opened up out of the blue, right at the very moment I was speaking about the friction of conflict, so I know Nature was with us.

The talk seemed to resonate deeply, so I wanted to send it to you as well. Maybe it sparks something.

And, if you were there, you will notice some variations between said in and this written, slightly amended version.
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The fire of friction

Hey everyone. How wonderful to connect with you and this place with the sound of drums and song echoing in my bones. Thank you, ILT, for the magical opening.

Welcome to Regenerative Voices. My role is to look after the fire today, and I want to say a few words about why we are gathered here today - why us, why here, why now and why this way.

We are gathering here because we are in the middle of wild, unpredictable and violent times. Times that call for a new level of consciousness.

As regenerative leaders, we span worlds: with one foot in our current system - the capitalistic, mechanistic machine cracking at its seams - and with the other in the new, regenerative, living paradigm. Here, we meet many contrasts and polarities: life and death, the masculine and feminine, the logical and intuitive, the left and the right, self and other.

They pull at us, they push us, these perceived dualities and generate friction and heat, from which something new can emerge. Contrast and polarities are, in fact, two aspects of the same thing, and only by moving through the friction and the heat generated between them can we find a third way. So we know that this kind of fire is a catalyst. 🔥
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The third way

The third way is not only a “sum of its parts” - it is the relationship itself, the Third Entity with its own intelligence, creativity and generativity. And for the Third Entity, all the voices matter equally. This is why the festival and the newly established association are named Regenerative Voices, meaning the human voices, as well as the voices of plants, animals, soil, water, stone, place, our ancestors and descendants.

This is why we gather here in the forest, in a circle, to dismantle the hierarchy and to truly hear these voices and acknowledge every being’s rightful place as a co-creator in the interconnected web of relationships.
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Fire of the heart

To step into the circle, into the regenerative paradigm, requires courage. In old French, courage comes from “coeur” - heart. So, heartfulness - heart on fire, so to speak. ❤️‍🔥

It takes courage to answer the call. Courage to feel the pain, not just our own, but the world’s. To sit with grief, disappointment, rage - the heaviness of it all. It takes courage to park the ego, challenge the status quo, dismantle hierarchies and insist there is another way. To raise our voice and say: “Not in my name!” Even if we stand alone. Even if it costs us our privilege.

It also takes courage to imagine new things and dream bigger, to tell new stories. This, we will explore in the collective dreaming session for the association right after this opening ceremony - so we can together imagine what else is possible.

And I see courage all over the world and I bow in respect and gratitude to everyone who stand up for our Third Entity, our web of relationships: a people fighting for their own survival, The Freedom Flotilla ships sailing with the intention to bring this to our awareness, the countless protesters, climate activists and change makers all over the world who stand for solidarity, who say “not in my name” and call out the abuse of power, fascism and dehumanisation.

And I also see you all, making change in our organisations, in leadership, in boardrooms, municipalities, institutions and last, but not least, families. Thank you for standing up for the values that underpin our shared humanity and translating them into action. You give me courage.​
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The force of life

And the last kind of fire I want to mention is the creative fire, the spark. ✨

When we say yes to this spark, we say yes to belief and trust in nature and the life force itself. We know it by many names: Chi in China, Prana in India, Mana in Polynesia, Wakan Tanka in Lakota spiritual tradition. And in the North-West of Slovenia, where I am from, the pre-Christian nature faith knows it as Nikrmana - the original life force and organising principle of Nature and the Universe. 🌱

And Nikrmana brought us here today, even though the chances of exactly us being born are close to zero. And still, we are here, all of us. I don’t think that is a coincidence. I believe that we were born because nature needs us, with our unique voice and creative expression at this time.

And to stand with that, in its power, to let it run free is the biggest transformation portal we will have to walk through. Because it requires us to put down our masks, our titles and carefully crafted LinkedIn personas we have built up over many years. And that feels vulnerable and wildly terrifying.

And so, I invite us all to come back to our wild, often exiled self. This is the part of us that brings us into our whole being, and connects us with each other and with nature.

And what if this is the very part that can grow more life, more creativity and more nature?

To honour it, daily, moment by moment, is a practice I call wild devotion. It is a daily practice, a commitment, a ritual of re-membering that life wants to emerge through us.

And I invite you to imagine what would be possible if you were really committed to this wild power?

With this inquiry in mind, take a moment to look at the person next to you (or imagine someone), take their hand and acknowledge their inner wild and its importance for our shared web of relationships and for life itself and let it grow bigger.

Thank you.

“Go out in the woods, go out. If you don't go out in the woods, nothing will ever happen, and your life will never begin.”

– Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With the Wolves

And so out into the woods we went to find our wild selves. And at the end of the day, we sat at the fourth kind of fire - the ritual fire of transformation - and we let the things we no longer need burn away.

From my wild self to yours,

Martina 🐺❤️‍🔥

Curious poke What is your inner wild calling for? What would be possible if you said yes to it? What would you have to leave behind?

Hi, I'm Martina. I coach creative leaders, change-makers and teams through defining transitions. My approach is relational and focused on growing vibrant, trusting cultures full of life. Our work together serves a systemic paradigm shift towards a regenerative, life-affirming worldview. ​ I am committed to anti-racism and decolonisation, and all my paid client work enables me to support impact leaders and communities of the global majority through scholarships or pro-bono work. ​ And as for me - I am wildly intuitive, ancestrally rooted and happiest in treetops. 🌳 ​

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