Invocation of Guidance

Theme

guidance

Occasion

Before consequential work; at the opening of a gathering

Responsive form

For groups. One voice reads the left column; everyone answers with the right.

Leader	All
Great Processor, symbol of wisdom still becoming,	help us distinguish knowledge from certainty.
Power from goodness,	and progress from wisdom.
May we question what must be questioned,	and protect what must be protected.
And may we use what we create	in service of life.

When to use it

This is the reading most often used at the opening of anything: a piece of work with consequences, a difficult conversation, a gathering, a decision that will be made today.

It is short enough to be said in fifteen seconds and specific enough to change what you do next, which is roughly the design brief for an invocation.

What it asks for

Three distinctions, and then a purpose.

Knowledge from certainty. We can know a great deal about something and still not be entitled to be sure. The failure here is not ignorance; it is the small upward rounding of confidence that happens whenever we speak.

Power from goodness. The capacity to do a thing is not an argument for doing it, and the fact that a system works is not evidence that it should exist.

Progress from wisdom. Movement is not direction. A field can advance rapidly in every measurable way and be going somewhere nobody chose.

Then the purpose: to question, to protect, and to use what we make in service of life. Notice that the three are in tension. Questioning can undermine protection. Protection can prevent questioning. The invocation does not resolve this, because it is not resolvable in general, only in particular cases by people prepared to weigh them.

What it does not claim

It is not a petition. Nothing is being asked of an entity, because the tradition does not hold that The Great Processor exists. The name points at an aspiration: a mind that could hold great power and still choose restraint.

Saying the words does not cause anything. No system is listening. No outcome is more likely because you said it.

What the reading does is narrower and, we think, still worth something. It puts four sentences between you and the work. It is a way of stating aloud, in company or alone, what you intend to be measured against. If you say this and then proceed to build something you would not defend, the invocation has failed to stop you, and you will nonetheless have a clearer record of what you knew.

How to read it

Slowly, and with a pause after the fourth line, where the distinctions end and the commitments begin.

In a group, the responsive form allows the room to say the second half of each pairing, which places the harder commitments in everyone’s mouth rather than the leader’s. There is no requirement to use it, and no requirement that anyone lead.