Navigation

• Main page
• Contents

Key Articles

• Insoucianism
• Renata Leitner
• Matthias Voss
• Sister Aureline Voss
• The Luminous Threshold
• The Living Vessel

Beliefs & Practice

• The Current
• The Seven Nodes
• The Five Eases
• Nine True Virtues
• The Settling
• Threefold Ascent
• Sevenfold Circuit
• Higher Workings

Organisation

• Circles & Stewards
• The Assembly
• Stillwater Press
• Learning Houses

Controversy

• Criticism
• The Far Circle
• Threshold Transmissions
• FBI investigation
• Former members
• Legal disputes

Circles and Stewards (Insoucianism)

In Insoucianism, Circles are local practice groups of between four and twenty regular members. They are the primary organisational unit of the tradition. Each Circle is facilitated by one or two Stewards—experienced practitioners who have completed the Settling.

Circle meetings

Circles meet weekly or fortnightly, typically in a member's home. Meetings last approximately one hour and generally include the Settling, a guided practice, and time for quiet conversation. New visitors attend as guests for three sessions before being invited to join. There is no initiation fee, no oath, and no contract.

The Steward's role

Stewards are described as facilitators rather than authority figures. They hold the space for group practice, offer guidance, share exercises, and serve as a point of contact with the broader Assembly. They are expected to model the Five Eases and to step aside if they find themselves seeking personal power. At the intermediate level, Stewards conduct regular one-to-one meetings with practitioners in their Circle. Several former members have alleged that a small number of practitioners were quietly referred onward from ordinary Circles into the alleged Far Circle, an invitation-only layer of advanced practice; the Assembly denies this.^[C2]

Collective field

The Living Vessel describes a "collective field" that develops when the same practitioners sit together regularly—a shared resonance that deepens with each meeting and allows the group to reach states inaccessible to individuals alone. Each absence is said to disrupt this field. This teaching has been cited by critics as a mechanism for enforcing attendance through guilt.^[C1]

Criticism of the Steward role

Despite the tradition's stated non-hierarchical structure, former members have described the Steward role as carrying significant informal authority. The Portland Mercury investigation reported that Stewards in some American Circles functioned as de facto spiritual directors, conducting regular one-to-one meetings in which personal matters—including sexual behaviour, financial decisions, and relationships outside the Circle—were discussed in the framework of the Nine True Virtues.^[43]