Friends, 

 

As you may well know by now, we are closing this cycle of outward-facing work as New Constellations. This will be our last communication with you for the time being, and it’s a heartfelt celebration.

 

We have been working with stellar storyteller Caroline McGinn on a tale of our work and journeys over five years. Caroline helped birth New Constellations in its very early stages – as Gemma described in her blog on our beginnings – and we are very grateful to her for lending us her journalistic talents to help us close this cycle.

 

It’s a story told mostly through the remarkable people and communities we had the huge privilege of collaborating with; we hope they will inspire you as much as they have us:

We have also updated our website so it can serve as an online archive of our work, including over 50 beautiful audio encounters with inspiring people and communities, detail on our journeys, our writing, the Mycelium Fund, and more about us (plus our beloved space orbs).

 

To everyone reading this, if you have been involved with, touched or inspired by New Constellations, we would love it if you could help us celebrate the end of this cycle by sharing any or all of our stories of the past five years so that they might nourish and inspire others too: on the journey methodology, how we’ve worked with the whole, our audio practice, the organisational innovation and indeed Caroline’s wonderful closing story (or anything else that resonates on our substack). Thank you.

 

We want to say a round of special thank yous (there are many more on our website): to Caroline, our doula, helping us to begin and end this cycle beautifully, Cassie – a champion – taking a risk on us in our very early days and opening doors and minds for us since then, Hadeel, our apprentice and teacher, wise beyond her years and so appreciated by us all, Hilary, one of the fairy godmothers and wise counsellors of New Constellations, without her we would not have done our place-based work and she has deeply inspired us, Hrund, our Icelandic sea goddess, thank you for helping us to stay true to our InnSæi, Jane, our treasured and oh so wise elder. Thank you wonderful Nat, who joined our team for the Barrow journey and still lives by those stars every day, Kate for joining our team for York, you will always remain in it in spirit, and Victoria for being such a champion of that work. Thank you Rithikha whose sharp and creative mind has inspired us and made the Mycelium Fund what it is, Kim for helping us explore the potential of our community, and Yas, who through our beautiful collaborations changed deep aspects of the journey and how we constellate the stars. A constellation of incredible and brilliant women to whom we owe great thanks for the formative parts you have played.

 

We are also forever grateful to Arising Quo, Be The Earth Foundation, Joseph Rowntree Foundation, The National Lottery Community Fund, Oak Foundation and Paul Hamlyn Foundation for supporting different aspects of our first cycle of work.

 

And the deepest thanks to our beloved crews who journeyed with us, taught us so much and whose many moments of courage, vulnerability and beauty took our breath away. May your stars shine brightly for and within each of you. Know that you will always have a hotline into the chrysalis and beyond should you ever need us.

 

It remains to say that this has been a privilege beyond words. It’s stretched us in ways we couldn’t have expected, challenged us greatly, made us laugh hysterically and cry hard tears. It has restored our faith in humanity and left us with such gratitude to have witnessed the goodness in people. What we are left with most of all is absolute certainty of the potential we all hold within us for truly beautiful futures, however unlikely that may feel and however different we may seem on the surface. Particularly when the world can feel dark and uncertain, that is a profoundly precious gift. Thank you.

 

Gemma, Iris, Jo & Lily

New Constellations

PS. We will share our plans for the future as and when they emerge. If you want to reach any of us personally while we chrysalis, emails to hello@newconstellations.co will get forwarded on.

 

 

As of spring 2024 we are taking New Constellations into a phase we are calling chrysalis, in which we will cease active, outward-facing work for the time being. This decision, made collectively and actively by us as co-creators, comes as we complete a beautiful five-year cycle and body of work, reflected on our website and blog. You can read more about our decision here, and we will share our plans for the future as and when they emerge.