Blessings and Gratitude from The Fifth Sacred Thing Production Team!

We did it, everyone!  We're 127% funded, thanks to you--and up in the top 50 of Kickstarter's  most funded projects!  Huge gratitude to all of you who donated, who Liked the site, who joined our Facebook page, who posted and forwarded our links, who have offered so many different kinds of help, support and creativity!  And thanks to Kickstarter for providing this site!

We did this even without being featured by Kickstarter--thanks again to all of you who helped spread the word.  And despite a stock market crash in the middle of the campaign.  As I look over the figures, I notice that we had just a few large donors, for whom we are devoutly grateful, and many, many small donors, for whom we are also immensely grateful, for we know that $5 for one person may be a bigger dent in the account than $5,000 for someone else.  Our average donation was $53.34.

Now, the next phase begins.  Over the next few weeks, we'll be getting the rewards out to those who have pledged.  We'll be putting together our investment packet, and beginning the search for a director, as well as continuing to pull together art, music, and other resources.

Don't expect to see the movie next week--it's still a long term project.  But it is much closer to realization, thanks to you!  We'll do our best to keep you updated, and invite you to stay connected through our website and Facebook page. 

If you haven't done it yet, remember your free gift of The Five-Fold Path of Productive Meetings awaits you at http://www.starhawk.org/Five-Fold_Path.html.  That's the outtake from my forthcoming book, The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, due out in October.

I've learned a lot in these sixty days.  I've learned that having a constant stream of support is like having a wind at your back--I've been sailing on it and it feels really good!  I've also learned that being in a constant state of gratitude is a really wonderful place to be.  We're all raring to go for the next phase, and we hope you'll continue to be part of the team!

Thanks and blessings, Starhawk

We're almost at the end--thanks to all of you who have been such awesome support!  Now's the time to remind your friends--there's just a few more hours left to pledge.  If you Like the site and the project, remember, we still want you to be a backer, even for $1!  It will help our groundswell cred enormously, the more active backers we can claim!  So this is the moment to do it--and if you've recently joined this site, there's a free gift for all our supporters to download--an exerpt originally written for my forthcoming book, The Empowerment Manual, now a stand-alone work called The Five-Fold Path of Productive Meetings:

http://www.starhawk.org/Five-Fold_Path.html

A thousand thanks to you all, Starhawk

Our Kickstarter campaign is drawing to a close in just a few days.  I’ve felt so astoundingly gifted by all of the amazing support we’ve received! From people giving us their hard-earned money, others who have offered us their services or creative work, to all the people who’ve written and told me how much The Fifth Sacred Thing has meant to them—it’s been a thrilling experience for me as an author, like getting a big, loud round of applause!

Now I want to give you all back something—and conveniently enough, I have a little thing to give.  As you know, besides writing movies and Kickstarter updates, I also write books.  And I’ve recently written a new one which will be out this fall from New Society Publishers.  It’s called The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups, and while it may not have the sex and drama of The Fifth Sacred Thing, I wrote it because I felt we really, really need it.  Why haven’t we already transformed the world into the haven of beauty, compassion and creativity that it could be?  Well, partly because of powerful forces ranged against us, but often because our own allies are so pig-headed, stubborn, irritating, short-sighted, whiny, weird and damn difficult to get along with.  Yes, I mean you—and me!  Put us into groups and sometimes we create miracles but too often we end up imploding with conflict.

But I believe we could do it better.  And when we do, we’ll be unstoppable!  Hence the book, which contains much of what I’ve learned in forty years or more of working in collaborative groups and collectives of all kinds.  In fact, there was so much I thought of to say that the book got longer and longer—nearly twice as long as it was supposed to be.  Now, you’d think that would make a publisher happy—nearly twice the words at no extra cost—but alas, it makes the book too expensive to produce.  So, we had to take out a big chunk—and we took out the section I called The Five-Fold Path of Productive Meetings.  Not because it isn’t important, but because I felt it could stand on its own as a slim little pamphlet of 60 or so pages that’s basically my short course on meeting facilitation.  And that’s what I want to give to you all—as a thank you, and because I just know that a whole lot of you are out there working and conspiring to make the world a better place and that work will go more smoothly if your meetings are even more productive than they already are.

So, this if for all of you, whether you’ve kicked in money or simply given us your moral support by Liking this page—thank you!  Here’s the link where you can download a pdf, which New Society was kind enough to design nicely and typeset.

http://www.starhawk.org/Five-Fold_Path.html

And yes, of course, we’d love it if all of you who Like us would become active backers before Sunday, 10:21 Pacific time when this campaign comes to a close.  Whether it’s for a little or a lot, all of it helps us bring more to the bargaining table as we prepare for the next phase.

But the gift is truly a gift.  You don’t have to pledge to get it, it’s yours!  We are deeply grateful for your interest and support for this project, and so glad that you are part of it as we go forward.

Starhawk