Dear readers,

Don't be afraid of your magic, use it!

This quote from adrienne marèe brown, derived from their Essay “believing in magic” is written on one of our SOCIUS postcards. The text begins with the sentence: "This is for all those who find it difficult to believe in magic, but who also know how important it is to do so.

And I feel like I've been caught out!

🪄 Do I believe in magic? Yes!

🫂 In view of the many small personal, professional and major socio-political crises, do I believe that “we should continue the human experiment”? - Actually, yes...

🎠 And if I don't feel at all magical in the merry-go-round of everyday personal, professional and socio-political life? Do I manage to break down my nicely built walls, drop my shoulders and open up? - Sometimes...

How we can perhaps also make a magical difference with gestures of openness and listening and contribute to the protection of democracy is something we are currently very concerned with. We want to use our actual spaces in Berlin, Hamburg and Halle to contribute to communities that provide space for mutual listening, resilience and creative being and give us strength and hope to find our own individual expression for democratic coexistence.

A community space that we as the SOCIUS team create for ourselves every year is our annual workation in September on the Croatian island of Brač. We use this wonderful place to invite openness for creativity and strategic development within and between us. And it is not uncommon for us to have one or two new ideas, a product or a strategic development in our SOCIUS luggage when we return from there cheerfully invigorated to our everyday work in autumn.

Because the openness for magical moments is quickly lost in the small details of everyday project work. That's why we are building spaces for ourselves and also for and with you in which listening, dialogue and creativity are possible.

Depending on your thematic interest and/or your region, our SOCIUS labs & salons in Berlin, Halle, Hamburg and online in autumn are well suited!

Our topics are:

• 🧭 East-West dialogues
• 🌀 Inclusive communication
• 👣 Leadership in self-organisation
• 💭 Think - listen - heal in organisations
• 😷 Chronic illness in organisations
• 🖤 Grief in motion
• 🎭 Social Presencing Theatre
• 🔥 Community building
• 👀 Visual sensemaking

And in cooperation with our friends from ARLINA - Institute for Applied Future we offer a 4-day ritual in Stolzenhagen. Not a retreat.

There is also already a look ahead to 2026: we will have a Art of Hosting Training in Leipzig and our training programme Self:organisation:development is expected to start again in April.

We look forward to magical encounters with you in autumn!

Lysan Escher

Yi-Cong Lu, Denise Nörenberg, Hannah Kalhorn, Julia Hoffmann, Christian Baier, Nicola Kriesel, Andi Knoth, Joana Ebbinghaus