Sixty people from 25 countries and eighteen guides with collectively over 300 years of experience with The Game Deva, gathered in the Universal Hall at the Findhorn Community in Scotland to play the seven day Planetary Game. Trained facilitators, Game aficionados, old friends, first time Game players--all came together to mark the historic 30th anniversary of The Game, created by Joy Drake and Kathy Tyler at Findhorn.

It was a moving beginning, celebrating all that the Game has become in those years. Joy shared that the original Planetary Game was inspired by several sources including guidance she received in the Cluny Hill sanctuary, ancient monastic and Mystery School practices that intrigued her, and the simple necessity that there were more people wanting to play than the newly created five player board Game could satisfy. Joy expanded the format so that each player would walk on a life-size path accompanied by their playing family, people who personified Game cards by taking on the roles of Insight, Setback, and Angel. This larger than life version of The Game with costumes for all and props for particular squares is a sacred theater that enables participants to address the macrocosm through the microcosm. Participants play for the collective, as well as for the personal.

What distinguishes the Planetary Game from other forms of The Game is that it works with archetypes. Its "beam," Kathy says, is wide and several guides are needed to hold the energy. In this Game six veteran guides worked on the floor with the playing families, and ten additional support guides worked with the five groups. With each roll of the die, Intuitive Flash or use of Free Will, everyone in the room became engaged. As players landed on squares and experienced setbacks, radiances, appreciation squares, and the like, everyone else, in their role as witnesses, joined them in processing the experiences. Imagine the amount of energy in that room, and the potential for healing and transformation!

We began with a single purpose for playing the Game: We intend to cultivate presence and firm ourselves in the emerging consciousness . Participants divided into five areas that became the lens through which they experienced the purpose: Nature and the Environment, Relationships and Family, Work and Professional Life, Transition and Breakthrough, and Self and Wellbeing. We drew Angel Cards and soon those divine qualities had joined each group: Abundance for Nature and the Environment, Humor for Relationships and Family, Balance for Work and Professional Life, Clarity for Transitions and Breakthrough, and Expansiveness for Self and Well-being. The guides on the floor, acting as G.O.D. or Game Overall Director, were overlit by the Angel of Tenderness.   G.O.D. dedicated The Game to the evolution of the human spirit and we were off and playing, learning from each others' experiences, from the interactions between the players and the groups, from the miracles of grace, the spontaneity of intuition, the clarity of will and the wisdom of darkness. To our joy and wonder, one or two butterflies joined us for much of the week, enlivening our space and bringing nature and beauty into our midst.

The player for the Relationships and Family group, the first of the five to be born, started out with a Miracle, painlessly releasing the Setback of 'Control' and moving rapidly into the realm of Love. There the group served God by inviting everyone in the room to commit to healing and bringing presence into their blood families. They next landed on the Major Initiation square, the only square that one cannot land on by using Free Will or Intuition. The Initiation indicated the activation of love in relationship when we make the shift from "believing there's something wrong with me to knowing I'm lovable and becoming bigger."

For many of us, that something bigger came the next day when the Relationships player landed on a square new to the Planetary Game --World Work. It was the morning of election day in the United States and a guided Angel meditation supported us in visualizing the emerging consciousness in the U.S., seeing the power and presence of that country brought forth by the Angel of Awakening, imagining the tender unfoldment of purpose and destiny there. Americans in the room were gratified to address the election from such an uplifted awareness; others opened their hearts to America and imagined it as a child waking up. The next day, when Radio Scotland reported the results of the election, it announced: "Yesterday was the day the American people woke up." Cheers all around.

Meanwhile, the Self and Well-being group, clearly a foundation for all the areas, got to see what can get in the way of cultivating presence. The Setback of 'Disappointment' demonstrated how we limit ourselves when we're afraid to make a mistake. Releasing the pain of disappointment was a reminder that the Universe knows best and "everything that comes is guided and is blessed." These truths don't sink in easily. The group received another Setback on a similar theme: "I'll just wait and see what happens. Accept the pain that comes from partial participation or share what you're waiting for." The lesson for the self? Be present with exactly where you are, fully participating in now-ness. It's always as good as it gets; any state of being, whether it's illness or depression or joy, is a doorway to the present--we don't have to wait for the future.

The player for Transitions and Breakthrough, with a personal purpose to embrace uniqueness and move forward with love, learned from a first Insight to release expectations and be willing to trust. The lesson was reinforced by the Insight cards: "You focused on insight rather than hindsight" and "I am able to express myself without using New Age jargon."   As the Game continued, the group received the Insight of radiance through service, acknowledging the role service plays in catalyzing transformation for self and others. Radiant, the player asked for sure knowing of the next step and to surrender to life, and used Free Will to move up to the level of Unity.

Lessons for Transitions and Breakthrough included learning to speak the truth, even when painful; that God's will for us is perfect happiness; that we can be the change we want to see in the world. The group arrived at a Major Initiation, the second of the Game (remember, it's the only square you can't go to voluntarily!). It was a high point for all of us, marking an opportunity to break through old beliefs based in doubt and fear and to move to the sure knowing of a higher presence or power, the knowing that "I am peace, love, joy."    It was indeed a big shift for everyone and to ground this awareness, G.O.D. asked us each to take a personal Insight card. Through the Initiation, the Game was giving us a taste of the emerging consciousness. Now we needed to firm ourselves in it, in our daily lives.   Old beliefs had been released, and while new ones were still hovering, many experienced a kind of fuzziness. Transitions and Breakthrough returned to the mental level to solidify the new mental concepts.

Another high point of the Game came when Relationships and Family served God through Nature and the Environment. Aiming to deepen the experience of co-creation with nature, the Relationships group took everyone outside into the dunes, led by the Angels and singing, "Earth my body, water my blood, air my breath, and fire my spirit." Each player took a handful of compost and restored it to the earth. The player for Self and Well-Being literally united himself with Nature by throwing compost on his head.

Nature, having been served, had a correct Intuitive Flash to create a Miracle. Blessings flowed and pain was released. The Miracle brought an experience of the other squares newly created for the Planetary Game: Global Insight, Global Setback, and Global Angel. We addressed a global Setback of 'Avoidance' and a global affirmation that 'you're moving with openness and sensitivity' by committing to work consciously with nature.   Each person placed into the sanctuary commitments such as spending more time in nature, being more conscious with consumption, not using toxic chemicals at home and work, and using a compost bin. In gratitude for the Miracle--for cultivating presence in relation to nature and firming ourselves in the emerging consciousness--we were led into dance by all fifteen Angels! We got to see just how many Angels can fit on a single Game square . . . .

A dramatic and memorable point in the Game came through Work and Professional Life. Work had been responsible for birthing Nature and the Environment, by landing on a synergy square and expressing its power to move individuals and groups. The group had the unique experience of the Revelation square where participants came down on the floor and offered feedback to the area of Work and Professional Life. Comments pointed to the role of Work in emerging consciousness:   "You hold the key to solving the problems we face. Stay present to what's needed." "Find new ways to work with love to incorporate a different consciousness at work." "May all people have work that sustains them on all levels--physical, emotional, mental, spiritual." "Work group--you bring a lot of power." "Partner wisely with nature." " Look at patterns of nature in creating a new consciousness."

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off with love we go," sang the Work playing family only to be stopped by a Setback through 'Conflict'. The player climbed into the black inner tube, his Setback came to join him and they sat with the pain of conflict. Was it fear of conflict, could it be conflict with God? At the same time, Nature landed on a Miracle and through the grace of the Miracle, the pain of conflict was lifted. Unwillingness to express the truth was transformed to humility and sensitivity and we learned that in our work with others, we need to "walk barefoot and naked, aware that people are holy."

When Work and Professional Life used their Free Will to return to the path, the player received this feedback: "Divine displeasure: the heavens proclaim Jupiter and Saturn square. It's not advisable to take on too much at this time. For failure to listen, take a divinely prepared Setback now." The G.O.D.'s huddled--the circle of six creating a chalice for inspiration was in itself an image of the emerging consciousness--and came out with the lesson card: "You have little tolerance for people who do things differently than you. How does that affect your relationships?"

A Global Setback landed on by Self and Well-being added to the collective experience of pain: "Looking for the worst in people? Expecting the worst in situations? No wonder you live in a hostile and painful world." Everyone could relate to Work and Professional Life as the group wrestled with the pain of now two Setbacks. Are we maintaining our personal well-being in our working lives? If we're tired and working too much, how do we bring presence into our work, see the best in people, or experience presence?

Work and Professional Life received an additional pain, and was plunged into the Dark Night of the Soul, from a Setback of 'Righteousness'. The player, with her Setback, donned the black cloak and dark glasses of the dark night and sat in the isolation and pain of one of the more moving and profound experiences of the Game.

Self and Well-being landed on a Miracle and with great empathy and sensitivity lifted Work and Professional Life out of the Dark Night of the Soul. Forgiveness streamed forth to God and human and there came the dramatic discovery that when we lose our ability to be present, we lose God and our work can become an instrument of dark feelings.

While Work was in its dark night, the player in Transitions and Breakthrough was breaking through old pain of sexual hurt, and learning to feel good about her sexuality. In a moment of exuberance, she invited everyone to dance with her in support of a healthy expression of sexuality. In a subsequent breakthrough, the player learned that she could also express her love, specifically to her husband. The Game responded with a Global Revelation that moved all groups to their next playing level.

When Self and Well-Being drew the Insight, "Someone removed the safety net and you unhesitatingly kept on walking," each group recognized its particular brand of safety nets: work and professional reputation, the need to be loved and accepted, fear of speaking out. Self and Well-Being taught us that we can leap and land on our own feet. Yay!

The multilayered, complex, joyful, and deep experience of the Game was coming to an end. In a final Miracle, the Relationships player led a simple, profound meditation bringing forth our experience of presence and of the emerging consciousness. With our breath, simply by breathing in, we can bring ourselves to the present, to presence.

Throughout those seven days, four of which were actively played on the path, moments of tender insight abounded, spontaneous Intuitive Flashes from the bleachers gave jump starts to experience, human moments made G.O.D. accessible, humor and mind-blowing skill from the guides led us through deep waters. It was a magnificent Game that we will continue to integrate, to live with, knowing that individually we are all of it, and that collectively these archetypes are playing out. All the time. It is all happening in perfect timing and we are cultivating presence and firming ourselves in the emerging consciousness.

We ended the Planetary Game with gratitude and deep appreciation. We thanked the Deva of the Planetary Game, all the guides, chronicles, participants, and invisible beings who supported us; the being of the Universal Hall, the Findhorn Foundation and Community. Tenderly we sent our blessings and prayers out on butterfly wings across the planet, that our work in this Planetary Game quicken the process of firming humanity in the emerging consciousness.

Written by Jill Sayre Wolcott (long time Transformation Game Facilitator and former Findhorn resident)