“In the beginning, the world was whole and beauty prevailed. Life begetting life until the waters, then the lands, were filled with creatures.”

To be alive at this time is to live with and acknowledge the end of the Holocene; the end of an epoch of diverse life bursting forth with creatures representing the unique manifestation of 14 billion years of evolution. A bursting forth of stunning diversity and ever-unfolding complexity. A bursting forth of consciousness and self-awareness; the awareness of our own consciousness. The Universe waking to itself. An understanding of this process leads to the energizing question, ‘what comes next?’

The term created for this time is Anthropocene; the epoch, far, far shorter in duration than Holocene, in which the species Homo-sapiens have emerged as a dominating and determining force in the trajectory of the planet. The question that begs and begs and begs is ‘how will our self-awareness, the awareness of our role in this continued unfolding affect our life-expression both individually and collectively – in the form of our institutions and human-systems.