The Dream of the Oak Tree in the Acorn
Artwork by Felicia Flanagan
entelechy /ɛnˈtɛləki/ noun
1) The complete realization and final form of some potential concept or function; the conditions under which a potential thing becomes actualized.
2) A particular type of motivation, need for self-determination, and inner strength directing life and growth to become all one is capable of being. It is the need to actualize one’s beliefs. It is having a personal vision and being able to actualize that vision from within.
At our Gateway House Vernal Equinox celebration, it has been our tradition in recent years to bless and activate the peas to be planted at Clove Valley Farm. The weather is often still bitey with damp and chill in the air. We gather around a beautiful ceremonial bowl. Before the peas to be planted are poured into the waiting water filled with shells and crystals, we first practice an ancient tradition: putting the seeds in our mouths, providing both enzymatic action and particular energetics to activate the seeds to the specific locality of their planting.
Winter, Lately
In this season of Imbolc, we feel the Quickening. Life SEEMS still dormant, yet we feel movement - the genius, the Geni Loci, which means Spirit of Place. Earth and all of us here, non human and human are vibrating like the giant mycelium we are.
In the Ash Wednesday liturgy which marks the beginning of Lent (just this past week), the 40 day penitential season leading to Easter, one is marked with ashes, typically in the middle of the forehead - the Third Eye and with the following words: “Remember you are Dust, and to Dust you shall return.”
We experience a tangible remembrance in a literal physical way reminding us that we are from the Earth, and to the Earth we will return.
We set intention for the journey into a season of self-confrontation and inward release as we prepare to “resurrect” with the feast of Easter and Oestre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess of Spring from whom “Easter” comes.
Cosmologically we are having quite the portal, quite the moment.
Look at this congruence of astrological, religious and cultural occurrences:
Ash Wednesday (the start of Lent)
The beginning of Ramadan
The beginning of Chinese and Tibetan New Year of the Fire Horse
Ring of Fire / Solar Eclipse on the New Moon
The entrance of Saturn and Neptune into Aries, the Zero Point
By all accounts, whatever you make of all this,
and we take the opportunity to dwell ever more potently in this present moment.
All of these practices or knowings are a form of entelechy.
Entelechy — one of my favorite words — is the Dream of the Oak in the Acorn.
The imprint of the essence of all things
The Genius, what becomes visible,
The Spirit of the Place not yet visible but still present in its potentiality.
How is it that things grow into their fullness of form?
How do we evolve?
How does consciousness evolve?
How do we become who we are?
How does the world survive?
Our essential nature is the seed, the spark, the imprint, the knowing, the soul lesson...
Whatever we want to call it, there’s something that unfolds, influenced by choice, by place, by trauma and tribulation, by context.
Yet there is an essential something that is part of all, the beginning of everything. It imprints all of nature and consciousness.
In all things there is a nascent dream: an Acorn, a seed, the embodiment of potentiality.
And this Acorn’s fulfillment is informed by the Oaks who have gone before it.
Why does it matter?
I offer to us a perspective that no matter how desperate or brutal or uncertain the world, nature, and ourselves may be, there is still within our grasp, our knowing, this Acorn, this Dream of Potentiality.
As we hold the seeds of our dreams, we can practice the discipline of Hope.
We return again and again to our center, The center…knowing that our egoic consciousness, inner narratives, is only a thimble-full of awareness held up to the ocean of creation.
What brings us back to our center? What helps us come back to the entelechic knowing within our spirit. Not full of accretions, defenses, amplified fears.
The power of music to transcend
I offer this hope-inspired practice of mine: music.
We know music is the universal solvent. It’s like a shortcut to our synapses, enabling us to source our primary emotions. Freed from the accretions, defences, conventions of our default cyclical narratives. Music indeed has the power to transcend polarities: we literally hear the vibratory potentialities.
We see this happening now in this historical moment, an outpouring of music in all that we are witnessing and all we are expressing.
Minnesota has become a talisman of hope, of justice. The practice of singing, literally singing, into being the hope and dream for a better world.
One piece of music came to me on New Year’s Eve. I’ve listened to it obsessively, sharing it far and wide. It evokes within me a transcendent sense of entelechy. A vision of the new world, even in the midst of this one breaking apart. It has inspired within me the dream of an event at the house of prayer for all peoples we come together and sing (more on this coming).
I invite you to pause and hear this piece for yourself:
Christopher Tin - Waloyo Yamoni
The choral work 'Waloyo Yamoni (We Overcome the Wind)' is the climactic finale to Tin’s song cycle 'The Drop That Contained the Sea,' commissioned by St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, Pacific Palisades, CA.
Gateway House: Imbolc Ceremony 2026
So grateful to all who participated with music and with fire on a single digit winter night.
Imbolc, this year, offered us the extremity of weather to be with the extremity of these times. This video only captures a taste of the electric, spiritual energy we all experienced that night. Thank you for making this Imbolc a night to remember.
Imbolc Participants 2026
The Quickening | Amy Little
We Are Rising | Lane Gardner
Brigid | Meryn Oakwood
Tubishvat | Lori Wynters
Bella Ciao | Sarah Urech
Encircling Love | Marann Langlois, Ruth & Elizabeth Cunningham
We were grateful to Lisa Klotz for her new Imbolc song dedicated to Brighid, and to Namyrah Nayfeld for her spoken word piece "God Herself, Untamed."
Thank You to Jill Olesker, Sveltlana Zabolotnaia, Trish Stanger, Amy Little & Marann Langlois for production support.
Please enjoy the video!
We are profoundly grateful that Gateway House received an extension on the offer from an anonymous donor to match all contributions up to $10,000.
We have now completed our match!!!
Gratitude to all of you who contributed. A Special Fire Ceremony is being offered for each of you who shared your resources with our Gateway House mission and communal outpouring of Love in Action.
Save the Date :)
Spring Equinox Ceremony
Friday, March 20th | 5 pm
Gateway House, 12 Fairview Ave, Rosendale
Gate of Balance
Our tradition of Blessing the Clove Valley Farm Peas with Aileah Kvashay will return!
Performances: 7pm-ish
Details to come.
$15 Donation | Potluck & Fire
Please RSVP to 845-417-5430 for parking info.
Gateway House Sanctuary Meeting
Friday, February 27 | 6:30 pm
Gateway House, 12 Fairview Ave, Rosendale
Looking for deep community in these times? Of all the offerings here at Gateway House, this is most critical now.
Gateway House is committed to holding sanctuary within ourselves, our communities and our world.
We have now formed the Sanctuary Singers, with contributions from many Gateway House musicians and singers. We've had one extended rehearsal to date, and intend to continue into the future with more rehearsals, as well as sing at rallies and actions in the Mid-Hudson Valley.
For more info on our Sanctuary work, click HERE
Join us. RSVP to 845-417-5430
Inquire for Signal Group access
The way you look at things changes the things you look at.
Learn more about this work here.
Monthly In-Person Group
Saturday, March 7 | 3 – 6 PM | $50
Saturday, April 11 | 3 – 6 PM | $50
Gateway House | 12 Fairview Ave | Rosendale
Space is limited; Advance registration is now required.
Please fill out this Registration Form below.
An Invitation to the Practice of Biodanza
As explorer of the many modalities and forms of spiritual growth and healing, Biodanza is the spiritual somatic form which I have practiced consistently over the recent years. Boidanza deeply nourishes me personally, and allows me to sustain and embody the depth of my own work at The Outer Edge and Gateway House. Biodanza cross pollinates with both Constellations and Ceremony. Join us!
Wed Evenings, 7:15pm
You can find detailed info and the event calendar at the New World Ritual & Dance, the Hudson Valley's Biodanza center.
Holding a still point in the turning of the wheel,
Kathleen C. Mandeville, M. Div.
Community Pastor, Consultant, Facilitator, Coach
Through The Outer Edge, Kathleen offers personal and organizational coaching, employing the modalities of Systemic Constellations, ritual, pastoral guidance. Her specialities include working with healers and creatives, as they achieve the true expression of their soul’s mission. Combining heart centered intuition with hard headed strategy...'Cuz, baby you're a firework.'
Contact me at The Outer Edge Coaching to schedule an initial 30 minute consultation.
