The Great Transition
It’s 3:23 in the morning
and I’m awake
because my great great grandchildren
won’t let me sleep
my great great grandchildren
ask me in dreams
what did you do while the planet was plundered?
what did you do when the earth was unraveling?
surely you did something
when the seasons started failing?
as the mammals, reptiles, and birds were all dying?
did you fill the streets with protest
when democracy was stolen?
what did you do
once
you
knew?
– Drew Dellinger, from Hieroglyphic Stairway
“The Face of War in Sierra Leone” photo by Kate Lapides-Black
The Great Transition
We Are at a Turning Point
From Civilizational Collapse to Cultural Transformation
But this isn’t just a crisis. It’s an opening.
As Roger Briggs writes, “We are not just experiencing a breakdown — we are living through the early stages of a breakthrough.” Across the planet, people are awakening to the need for a different kind of civilization. This is The Great Transition — a conscious, collective shift toward a future that works for all life.
A Civilization in Overshoot
These aren’t isolated issues — they are symptoms of a deeper civilizational illness. For 5,000 years, our dominant cultural paradigm — what Riane Eisler calls the dominator model — has prioritized control over care, conquest over cooperation. That worldview has now pushed the planet and our societies into crisis. But it is not the end — it is a threshold.
What Is the Great Transition?
- A systems shift — in energy, economics, education, law, and governance.
- A consciousness shift — in values, worldviews, and ways of being.
This transition won’t be achieved through reform alone. It asks us to hospice the old and midwife the new — with integrity, humility, and participation. It requires rethinking the very memes and assumptions that shape our culture: from “every man for himself” to “we’re all in this together.”
A Third Path: Conscious Transition
“Instead of collapse or dystopia, we can choose conscious transition — responding to the meta-crisis thoughtfully and intentionally, to hospice a dying civilization and midwife a new one.”
This is not abstract idealism. Across the globe, a movement is emerging:- Tens of thousands of initiatives are reimagining food, finance, education, governance, and justice.
- A growing Inner Transition Space — led by organizations like the Inner Development Goals (IDGs) — is nurturing the skills and capacities humans need for this leap: complexity awareness, empathy, inner compass, connectedness.
- The Planet Project curates, connects, and amplifies these efforts through our Positive Culture patterns and Aligned Change Agents.
The Great Transition requires both — the outer systems redesign and the inner shift of consciousness.
Why do we call it the Great Transition?
The transition is great in depth, because the root causes of the metacrises go deep.
The transition is great in scope, because these root causes shape and are shaped by virtually every aspect of human endeavor.
Avoiding civilizational collapse demands a profound shift in culture at global scale – a re-imagining of who we are and how we interact as people and as participants in the web of life.
You Are Part of This
The Great Transition is not something that will happen to us. It is something we are called to participate in.
You don’t have to be an expert. You don’t have to wait for permission. Whether you reduce your plastic use, share a new story, host a community gathering, or reimagine your career as an act of service — you are the movement.
As Roger says:
“Each of us can become activated into our own unique role in the transition. Whether that be small acts in our daily lives or joining with others in larger efforts — the transition is a collective process, requiring the participation of large numbers of people.”
Learn More About the Great Transition
Read Roger’s blog: “Activating the Transition” →
A sweeping yet personal call to action — exploring dominator culture, the rise of partnership, and how inner transformation powers the outer shift.
Watch: Mapping the Great Transition (video) →
A visual tour of the Great Transition — what’s breaking down, what’s emerging, and how you can participate.
Read Steve’s blog: “Living Through Collapse: A New Civilizational Story” →
A curated synthesis of 300+ cultural voices tracking collapse and seeding regeneration — with themes from systems thinking, Indigenous wisdom, and bioregional practice.
| Name | Era | Used By | Main Emphasis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Noosphere / Omega Point | 1940s | Pierre Teilhard de Chardin | Cosmic evolution with a spiritual telos; convergence of consciousness |
| Evolution of Consciousness | 1980s | Ken Wilber, Jean Gebser, transpersonal psychology | Inner development, integral theory, and worldview evolution |
| Partnership Society / Cultural Transformation | 1987 | Riane Eisler | Shifting from domination to partnership; gender, culture, and systems change |
| The Universe Story / Evolutionary Cosmology | 1992 | Thomas Berry, Brian Swimme | Sacred view of cosmic evolution; reuniting science and spirituality |
| The New Story | 2000s | Thomas Berry, environmental humanities | Narrative and meaning transformation — from separation to belonging |
| The Great Turning | 2000s | Joanna Macy | Moral and spiritual pivot toward a life-sustaining society |
| Collapse Awareness | 2010s | Deep adaptation, collapse-aware communities | Grief-informed transition; making peace with inevitable breakdown |
| Meta-Crisis | 2010s | Daniel Schmachtenberger, systems thinkers | Systemic breakdown and phase shift across civilization |
| Regeneration | 2010s–2020s | Regenerative design, indigenous wisdom movements | Ecological and cultural healing at the local and bioregional scale |
| Game B | 2019 | Daniel Schmachtenberger, Rebel Wisdom | New social operating systems beyond rivalry and extraction |
| A Time Between Worlds | 2020s | Zachary Stein | Liminality, plural ways of knowing, transition as initiation |
| The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible | 2013 | Charles Eisenstein | Interbeing, sacred activism, and a story of reunion |
| Planetary Consciousness (Emerging World) | 2021 | UN, global citizenship movements | Awakening to our interconnectedness as one planetary community |
| The Great Simplification | 2022 | Nate Hagens | Biophysical realism; navigating energy descent and limits to growth |
| The Great Transition | 2023 | Systems theorists, cultural futurists | Cultural and civilizational shift; collective reimagining of systems and values |