The Systems Within: An Orientation to Systemic Alchemy (July 2025)

Intention

Human beings, shaped over hundreds of thousands of years as social creatures, have evolved a deep instinct for belonging and attunement to others within groups and systems. In our evolutionary past, exclusion from the group often meant survival was at risk, and so our consciousness became finely tuned to the "voice of the tribe"—its rules, dynamics, and expectations. This voice, often ingrained before we develop a clear sense of individuality, continues to influence us in ways we may not fully recognize.

The goal of this program is to cultivate a clear awareness of the systems within you and the systems you are part of—whether family, work, or societal networks. These systems can shape your decisions, relationships, and even your sense of self, sometimes creating barriers to growth or success. Yet, they are also a source of profound strength and connection.

This course provides a grounded, experiential and embodied framework to navigate the subtle yet profound ways systems influence our lives, empowering you to live with greater clarity, intention, and individuality.

Context

The Systems Within Orientation is a new configuration of a formerly standalone course. This updated version is a distillation of key elements of a new offering --The Systemic Way -- a long-term development and practice program in systemic alchemy.

This program is also useful as a standalone course, to explore your own triggers and entanglements with the systems in which you work, for instance as team leader or coach, or transformational organization leader. It will allow you to do your work more freely and unencumbered, thereby becoming a clearer vessel for transformational work in general. 

Approach

There are three main components of The Systems Within Orientation:

• Gaining experience in working with simple systemic constellations, which are dynamic, moving maps of any system of interest (family, work team, organization, etc.). We will setup simple structural constellations -- creating a dynamic map of various systems to which you belong.
• An understanding of the potential for a new type of systemic alchemy, where we aim to catalyze the transmutation of non-functional energies and patterns in organizational, social, and societal systems into higher vibrational patterns and energies.
• Understanding the world from the viewpoint of a shamanic practitioner. We will briefly explore the roles, geography and practices of non-ordinary reality (NOR), including spirits of various temperaments, allies or helping spirits, power animals, teachers, etc.; the geography of the three worlds, including the life tree; and practices, like journeying, power retrieval, soul retrieval, information gathering, etc.

Journey of the Program

The first day we will work with your Family map and understanding something about your place within it. We will also examine the structure of the NOR world and the relationship of systemic maps to NOR.

The second day will focus on your Professional role affiliations with which you identify, your training, and organizations to which you have belonged or currently belong (including existing company / client). The other component of the second day will be to engage basic shamanic practices such as journeying and information retrieval. This provides an integrating worldview, essentially a shamanic orientation to future work, and provides an integrating context for the work done in the remainder of the program.

A theme throughout will be the inner system, which we will pull like a thread through the program -- asking: how does this system still live in us, and therefore “run us” unconsciously? Some external parts need to be acknowledged so they can be at peace and let go.

Outcomes

• You will identify blocks to doing clear work with new client systems, based on the systems that unconsciously run you.
  
• You will identify – and may begin to resolve – hot button issues from the systems (family, ancestral/tribal, organizational) that you belong to – those that still express themselves through your consciousness and behavior.
  
• You will feel more confident in doing healing and transformational work with team-, organizational- and societal-systems.
  
• You will learn the most basic skill of systemic work, representational perception.
  
• You will become familiar with basic structural constellation formats, and be able to use them for yourself and others in small groups.
  
• You will have a deeper understanding of the shamanic worldview and how it integrates and aligns with the Dynamic Systems Mapping approach.

Program Leader

Michael K Spayd has been leading transformational processes for over three decades. His training includes an extensive background in systemic approaches (family therapy, relationship systems coaching, systemic constellations, Human Systems Dynamics), as well as consciousness studies and transformational processes. He has been a teacher of Integral theory and its applications for more than 12 years. He has trained thousands of coaches and introduced many new methods and human consciousness technologies to his community. He has long aspired to teaching the use of systemic constellations to students, and to starting a school of organizational shamanism.

Format / Duration

Two full days, approximately five hours each day, spaced with an integration day off between the first and second days.

Dates:

• July 14 & 15, 2025

Time each day:

• 10 am to 3:00 pm ET (US)

Supplements: homework, program chat channel, readings.

Cohort max size: 10