Crisis Codes: Coming Soon

Unlock Your Unique Purpose in the Meaning Crisis

New book, coming soon

It’s been almost a month since you last heard from me. The pause comes not because of neglect, but because an existential reckoning that’s been reshaping how I see my work, my role, and even my sense of purpose.

I’ve spent the past two decades pouring my heart, mind, and soul into systems change initiatives and a bioregional project in our rural valley. Now it’s time for a change. I am stepping away from systems change work as it has usually been practiced.

This decision has not come lightly. For years, I believed that with enough effort, creativity, and collaboration, we could ‘fix’ the systems unraveling around us. I carried the faith that movements, projects, and innovations could stitch us back together. But over time I’ve come to see that much of this work — however passionate and well-intentioned — often reproduces the very logics of modernity we hoped to escape: the drive to control, manage, and solve, as though collapse were just another ‘problem’ on our to-do list.

I no longer believe collapse is a problem to solve, or even an outcome to avoid. Collapse is metamorphosis.

And those of us feeling the sharp pangs of eco-anxiety, meta-consequence angst, and collapse dread? We are not broken. We are imaginal cells.

You know the butterfly story by now…

Inside the dissolving body of a caterpillar, imaginal cells hold the codes for the butterfly. At first, they are attacked by the caterpillar’s immune system, seen as threats. But they cluster together, sharing signals, forming resonance — and in that clustering, they (sometimes) survive long enough to co-create a new body.

This is how I now see the role of ‘liminal humans’ in these times. Not fixers, not saviors, not architects of a grand solution (I’ve been guilty of that — many times!) Instead we’re imaginal clusters — those who carry tremors of the new in their cells, those whose grief and anxiety are signs of sensitivity to Earth’s metabolism, not pathologies to cure.

So I am stepping away from systemic change work to convene gathering spaces, to create sanctuaries where imaginal energy can be recognized, nurtured, and woven into resonance.

And because this shift needs its own language, I have been writing.

🌱 I am gifting a book called Crisis Codes.
It is my attempt to map the deeper context of our times: to reframe collapse not as catastrophe alone, but as compost for transformation. Starting this week, I’ll be releasing one chapter every second day here on Substack until the whole book is out in the world.

This is not a handbook of solutions. It is an invitation. An invitation to those who feel unmoored, overwhelmed, or ‘too sensitive.’ It’s an acknowledgment and a recognition that we are not alone. We are part of an imaginal cluster. We carry codes for The Great Turning.

Comments will be open for each chapter. Please do provide feedback. Let me know what lands… and what doesn’t. I’d love to hear your feedback.

The book will include a dozen or so AI prompts to use as sparring partners in the exercises suggested throughout the book. I’ve had fun with these and they’ll be made available here for paid subscribers only. They will, however, be included in the no-cost book once it’s completed.

Included in today’s post is the back cover blurb, with the Introduction coming tomorrow.

Thank you for walking with me to this threshold. Let’s step into the goo together.

Michael

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Back Cover Blurb

When a caterpillar begins metamorphosis, dormant imaginal cells suddenly activate. Each carries a Crisis Code, a set of protocols that do not conform to the structure of the caterpillar. The dissolving caterpillar perceives a crisis and attacks these cells as foreign invaders. But the cells persist, find each other, and birth an entirely new creation. The imaginal cells hold a piece of the blueprint for navigating the caterpillar crisis and eventual transformation.

Humanity entered its own metamorphosis in the 2020s. You sense it everywhere: failing institutions, collapsing certainties, everything about to change. You’re carrying one or more Crisis Codes for humanity’s transformation — those uncomfortable truths you can’t ignore, but the system rejects.

The contradictions that keep you awake. The urgent knowing that something is breaking. The vision of what could be. A deep desire for non-conformity. Business-as-Usual attacks or rejects these insights precisely because they threaten what’s ‘normal.’ But like imaginal cells, your Crisis Codes contain protocols our species desperately needs for navigating crisis. This book is about putting your Crisis Codes to work, in service of others rattled by the process unfolding.

The Promise: Generate an abundant income by serving humanity's Great Turning

The Path: Become a regenerative force in sacred economies 

Our quest is to transform your deepest contrarian insights into the content, community, and livelihood our changing world craves. Whether you’re a wisdom holder with hard-won insights about institutional failures or an emerging visionary whose intuitions clash with dying systems, your perspective is essential fuel for humanity’s next chapter.

Crisis Codes goes beyond personal development into species transformation. You’ll shift from feeling overwhelmed by chaos to becoming a regenerative force in our emerging economy. You’ll create meaningful abundance by sharing authentic wisdom with others navigating the same metamorphosis. You’ll join a mycelial network of conscious beings activating their Crisis Codes while weaving new economic patterns based on genuine service to planetary healing.

Together, we’re not just decoding humanity’s Momentous Leap — we’re embodying the sacred economics our new creation requires. Read this book and step into your role as an evolutionary entrepreneur, generating prosperity through authentic service to the living Earth.