Values of The Great Turning

Most values lists are concerned with qualities of a good person. The Great Turning Values however ask a larger question: what does it mean to be a good ancestor? This is a list of values rooted in the Great Turning, which is the necessary transition from an industrial society to a life-sustaining civilization. It invites you to explore how you might show up for all of life, across time, across species, and across the many communities, human and more-than-human, with whom you share this world.

What are the Great Turning Values?

These values are rooted in the Great Turning, which is the necessary transition from an industrial society built on extraction and endless growth, toward a life-sustaining civilization that can actually survive and thrive on a finite planet. 

If you’ve explored values before, this list may feel different from what you’ve encountered on psychology websites or personal development resources. Most values lists are concerned with qualities of a good person. The Great Turning Values however ask a larger question: what does it mean to be a good ancestor?

It invites you to explore how you might show up for all of life, across time, across species, and across the many communities, human and more-than-human, with whom you share this world. Not just yours.

Unsurprisingly, this list includes values that Western frameworks tend to leave out, like grief, trauma and pain. Grief is here because if we love the living world, its destruction should move us and that grief, rather than being a problem to overcome, is a form of caring intelligence. Trauma is here because many communities carry wounds that shape what justice and healing must look like. Pain is here because bypassing difficulty in favour of “positivity” is itself a form of disconnection.

The Great Turning Values recognise that personal flourishing and planetary flourishing are not separate. For all flourishing is mutual.

How to Use This List

There are many ways to engage with these values:

You might like to explore what these values mean in your context. Use your senses to feel into them.

• What might this value look like?

• What might this value sound like?

• How might it feel to embody this value?

Feel free to write down your own personal definitions!

• Reflect on what values you are standing by as you engage in holding actions. 
• If you’re helping to build Gaian structures, these values are great contemplations to reflect on community building efforts. 
• Notice where something feels missing in your own efforts to unlearn and shift consciousness.
• If you facilitate the Work That Reconnects, you might share this with participants when introducing the Great Turning, or in Going Forth; especially after they have spent time to think about their own strengths through practices like Callings and Resources.
• This is not an exhaustive list. Feel free to use terms in your language and culture. Or come up with your own!

Values of the Great Turning List