- Kaiāulu
- Posts
- Growing Our Spiritual Arms and Legs: Chief Phil Lane Jr. + May New Moon, 5.16.26
Growing Our Spiritual Arms and Legs: Chief Phil Lane Jr. + May New Moon, 5.16.26
Chief Phil Lane Jr. on the planetary civilization being born right now. Plus: Ilarion Merculieff joins the Ancestral Wisdom Collective.
Aloha Kākou,
At our April New Moon Ceremony, Hereditary Chief Phil Lane Jr. of the Yankton Dakota and Chickasaw Nations, founder of the Four Worlds International Institute, shared a teaching that traced the arc of human civilization and where we find ourselves right now.
Chief Phil began by naming something most of us feel: the world's challenges are growing, and some of the most prominent thinkers of our time have concluded that conflict is simply human nature. That we are, as he put it, like cobras. A cobra is a cobra.
"But the one thing we have is we can completely change our consciousness. We can completely go from one stage to another, just like we go from infancy, to childhood, to adolescence, and now adulthood. We're collectively leaving our adolescence, and now coming into our spiritual adulthood."
He traced the evolution from family to tribe to city-state to nation, and pointed to what's emerging now: a planetary civilization being born through the very upheaval we're witnessing. He called it "the birth pangs of this transformation."
Then he offered something that reframed suffering itself. He compared our time here to the time inside our mother's womb, where we grew physical arms and legs and eyes and ears.
"Our purpose here is to grow our spiritual arms and legs and eyes and ears. To learn how to be more kind, more compassionate, more loving, more forgiving, more humble, more just. And so the more challenges you have in this area, the stronger you're going to get."
Chief Phil closed by connecting the New Moon to the spiral of renewal: each cycle not a repetition but an upward turn, carrying forward what he called "an ever-advancing civilization, spiritually."
Click the image above to hear Chief Phil Lane Jr.'s full sharing.
Ilarion joins Kaiāulu's Ancestral Wisdom Collective
Kaiāulu is honored to welcome Ilarion ‘Kuuyux’ Merculieff into the Ancestral Wisdom Collective for a three-month First Quarter Moon teaching season beginning on the summer solstice.
Ilarion's life and work carry a simple, ancient invitation: the return from the mind to the heart. His gatherings create space for a deeper kind of listening, one that helps us remember an older, more rooted way of being in relationship with life.
Ilarion joins Kumu Hula Puna Kalama Dawson, who offers teachings at the Last Quarter Moon, and Mamo Lorenzo Izquierdo Arroyo, who teaches at the Full Moon. Together, their guidance supports a living lunar rhythm of ancestral wisdom, ceremony, and practice.
Ilarion's First Quarter Moon gatherings will take place on June 21, July 21, and August 19. The New Moon ceremony remains free and open to all.
🌑 May New Moon Ceremony
These gatherings were born from a call by the Council of Indigenous Sages of Colombia to synchronize ceremony across the world. Each New Moon, Elders and wisdom keepers gather to cleanse, attune, and renew together. All are welcome.
Date: Saturday, May 16, 2026
Time: 7:30 AM Hawaiʻi | 10:30 AM Pacific | 12:30 PM Colombia | 1:30 PM Eastern | 7:30 PM CET
Join Zoom Meeting:
Meeting ID: 829 1391 4758
Passcode: Love
Help Keep the Ceremonies Open
These monthly ceremonies have been offered freely for the past three years. Coherence Lab has been stewarding this kind of community practice for over eleven years. If these gatherings have meant something to you, a contribution of any amount helps us keep the circle open.
Together, we're weaving a blanket of peace around the world.
You are warmly welcome in this circle.
Me ke aloha pumehana,
Prajna & Kaiāulu's Council
Reply