Re-Conectando: Weaving the Mycelium of the Soul for Peace in Colombia (1)
Van 2018 tot en met 2023 begeleidde Heleen ter Ellen, oud-CIMIC-docent en -leerling, de Waarheidscommissie in Colombia met bijzondere workshops, genaamd: Re-Conectando: Laboratoria voor waarheid en verzoening in de buik van Moeder Aarde.
Dit proces was onder meer gebaseerd op het Werk dat weer Verbindt van Joanna Macy. Voor een nieuw te verschijnen boek over het belang van dit werk in de wereld van vandaag, schreef Heleen samen met haar collega’s een inspirerend artikel, met het mycelium als leidende metafoor. We brengen dit lange Engelstalige artikel in de CIMIC-Nieuwsbrief, opgesplitst in drie delen. Hieronder deel 1.
The Mycelium of the Soul: A Guiding Metaphor
The soul’s mycelium is a metaphor that embodies what we in Re-Conectando have experienced with our work in Colombia as the essence of the human spirit: resilient, interconnected, and continually evolving on the journey of healing and self-discovery.
Like the mycelium in the dark soil, it represents the intricate invisible network of experiences, emotions, beliefs and spiritual connections within and between us. Just as mycelium extracts nutrients from decomposing matter, the soul’s mycelium extracts meaning and growth from life’s traumas and challenges. It embodies the non-linear journey of healing, where diverse pathways lead to personal and collective transformation, empowering participants to move forward, supported by a shared sense of Active Hope.
This metaphor celebrates diversity, fluidity, and adaptability, highlighting our ability as humans to thrive and evolve despite adversity.
From the Ashes of War: Re-Conectando’s Origins
In 2012, the Colombian government under President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC, the world’s oldest and largest guerrilla group, initiated peace negotiations in Cuba, aiming to end a war that had raged for five decades.
The four-year peace process that ensued was a period marked by tense calm, imbued with both hope and uncertainty, following numerous failed attempts in the past.
Amidst this backdrop, a Dutch facilitator of the Work That Reconnects with a deep commitment to the peace process in Colombia teamed up with a young Colombian peace activist and started offering workshops in 2014 titled “Deep Ecology and Peace Construction,” rooted in the Work That Reconnects methodology.
Although relatively unknown in Colombia, this approach could resonate deeply with the country’s ancestral wisdom according to the team. We believed that introducing the Work That Reconnects to grassroots leaders could foster resilience, renew alliances, and inspire creative visions in the world’s second most biodiverse nation.
Our goal was to support the peace process by bringing together people from diverse backgrounds, including many victims, and creating safe spaces where the pain of human suffering, war, and environmental destruction could be interwoven and transformed.
In Colombia, areas of significant violence coincide with the presence of legal and illegal megaprojects, such as oil fields, mining, monocultures, livestock farming, and illicit coca crops, making it one of the most dangerous places in the world for environmental leaders.
When peace negotiations concluded in 2016, President Santos, feeling optimistic, decided to put the internationally acclaimed peace agreement to a public vote. This agreement aimed to end decades of atrocities committed by paramilitaries, the army, and guerrillas, which had resulted in up to 800,000 deaths (with 80 percent being civilians), over 120,000 missing persons, the forced displacement of nearly 9 million people, and widespread environmental devastation.
However, the plebiscite held on October 2, 2016, saw 50.21 percent of voters rejecting the peace agreement. This outcome raised questions: Did Colombians desire to prolong the war indefinitely?
A revised peace agreement was eventually signed in November 2016, but the plebiscite revealed deep polarization within the country. Even among those who supported the peace process, many viewed the agreement merely as a procedure for disarmament, neglecting the beliefs and identities forged during the war and embedded in the collective and individual psyche, including those who had not taken up arms.
Recognizing the tremendous need for broad based accompaniment of this process, it became clear that the peace agreement provided an opportunity to create spaces for what we would later describe as “regenerating the soul’s mycelium”, harnessing its transformative power to transition from a nation perpetually at war to one beginning to imagine peace.
Reality obliges us to say that despite the peace agreement and all of the efforts to transform the country, Colombia still struggles with persistent violence from armed groups, slow implementation of key provisions of the agreement, the drug trade, political polarization, social inequality, human rights violations, economic instability, and displacement crises, making peace seem far away as of July 2024.
Accompanying the Truth Commission
One of the commitments established by the 2016 peace agreement was the creation of a Truth Commission (hereafter “the Commission”) as an entirely autonomous state institution.
Formed in 2018, the Commission included members from various sectors of civil society and was led by Francisco de Roux, a well-known Jesuit peaceworker. The Commission was given a four-year mandate (2018-2022) to address three ethical challenges: 1) clarifying the truth, 2) recognizing the victims and the individual and collective responsibilities, and 3) promoting coexistence, “Buen Vivir,” and non-repetition.
By the end of 2017 we had conducted twelve workshops, and Francisco de Roux, who had participated in our first workshop in 2014 and was convinced of the transformational power of our work, invited us—among many other allies—to support their challenging mission.
To our knowledge, this was the first time the Work That Reconnects methodology was implemented and funded at an international institutional level. It was also the first time a Truth Commission incorporated a non-anthropocentric approach, recognizing nature as a victim of conflict.
Our team had grown to include several Colombian colleagues from the fields of theater for reconciliation and audiovisual arts. Given the depths of personal and collective traumas throughout all sectors of Colombia, our intention was to continually alternate the Work That Reconnects—with its collective and transcendental approach—alongside theater, rituals, and more personal, nature-based healing and regenerative soul work.
We recognized that these elements were inextricably interwoven, much like the mycelium network, to foster a holistic healing process.
A few months later, our deep ecology initiatives were rebranded as “Re-Conectando: Laboratories of Truth and Reconciliation in the Womb of Mother Earth.”
From its inception, Re-Conectando was viewed as a crucial ally in enriching the soil for the Commission’s work in the regions and preparing participants for the process of truth-telling and encounters with their perpetrators in subsequent events organized by the Commission.
Unlikely Dialogues in the Womb of Mother Earth
During the work of the Commission and in spreading its legacy thereafter, Re-Conectando traveled extensively across the country. It was crucial for our team to find in each region a “womb of Mother Earth” that provided a safe space for our healing work, allowing participants to express long-silenced truths without fear. We sought nature reserves not just as picturesque settings adorned with jungles, caves, waterfalls, and mountains, but as territories that had been stigmatized by violence and were now healing themselves and their communities through meaningful ecological and social initiatives.
Selecting participants from these polarized and fragmented regions was equally vital to the process’s success. This selection took up to 6-8 weeks, involving research, patient conversations with potential candidates—often initially suspicious and exhausted from decades of war and peace work—and careful collaboration with civil society and state organizations, particularly the Houses of Truth established in 28 territories.
Many participants were direct or indirect victims of unimaginable violence, including forced displacement, massacres, assassinations, kidnappings, torture, and rape.
Some were ex-combatants from various sides of the conflict seeking reintegration into society through restorative justice. Depending on the region, these might be local leaders from indigenous, afro and rural and urban communities, scholars and journalists, activists and artists, LGBTI-people, ex combatants from all sides (guerrilla, paramilitary, armed forces) and sometimes even local entrepreneurs or politicians.
In our invitations, we acknowledged the violence inflicted on Mother Nature by the capitalist paradigm and our lifestyles, driven by a schizophrenic sense of separation from nature for many of us living in the Industrial Growth Society, even in Colombia, the most biodiverse country per square meter on the planet.
Our extensive, sensitive and respectful approach created ideal scenarios for the “Unlikely Dialogues” the Commission hoped for, inspired by the pioneering work of John Paul Lederach.
These dialogues, especially when set amidst the untamed beauty of nature and enriched with “wild conversations” with other-than-human beings, gave deeper significance to the concept of the soul’s mycelium.
Colombia’s diversity is reflected not only in its vast ecosystems and species but also in its rich tapestry of ethnic cultural expressions. Just as mycelium thrives on diversity, interactions among individuals from various backgrounds brought a multitude of perspectives, insights, and experiences to the group dynamic.
This diversity enhanced our discussions, sparked creativity, and fostered critical thinking, leading to deeper understanding and personal growth for each participant and the communities they represented. And it especially enabled significant experiences in building relationships across former and dangerous boundaries.
A Rite of Passage: Reweaving the Social Fabric
We understand that a peace process involves much more than laying down arms. The hearts and minds of former combatants—and all participants—need to be disarmed, and these broken individuals must be rewoven into the fabric of the community.
For this to happen, Re-Conectando introduces the power of ritual in most of her dynamics, as it allows participants to engage in a structured, symbolic act that fosters healing, reflection, and renewal.
Participants begin their journey with Re-Conectando by physically leaving their everyday environments and entering the nature reserve. This departure symbolizes leaving behind former roles, identities, and conflicts.
Guided by our activities, they engage in rituals that mark the start of their transformative journey, entering a liminal space—a threshold between their old lives and the potential for new growth and healing. This liminal phase is characterized by uncertainty, vulnerability, and openness to change.
Drawing on the concept of sacred time and space and propelled by the Work That Reconnects spiral, the rituals conducted in often breathtaking natural settings evoke a sense of sacredness and reverence.
Victims, activists, and ex-combatants see a lush forest with new eyes, a place where they can feel safe and be received without judgment, allowing themselves to be touched by its healing beauty.

In a country where nature has often been the backdrop for hiding enemies, assaults, bombings, torture, detaining hostages, and mass graves, and where gorgeous rivers have carried poisonous mercury or dismembered bodies, these rituals open up a mutual process of healing and care.
Men and women who previously carried weapons and faced the harsh choices of killing or risking being killed for their ideology now learn with humility to make offerings of gratitude or ask permission before entering a wild sanctuary. It all invites participants to transcend their individual concerns and connect with something larger than themselves.
Pablo, included as a child soldier in the FARC guerrillas, shared his experience: “I was kidnapped by the guerrillas when I was 11, but then I decided to stay. I lived in the jungle for 35 years and didn’t come out until the peace agreement. When we arrived and you told us to ask permission to the river before crossing it I wondered where the hell I was? But now, after this whole experience with Re-Conectando, I realize that even though I lived in the jungle and never cut down a tree or killed an animal unless I needed food or shelter, I never saw nature as I do now. I feel more respect and see it as a living being with the same rights as we humans have.” (Laboratory in Caquetá, July 2019).
Identity Unknown
When participants first arrive at the laboratories, they are unaware of each other’s backgrounds. This is intentional, ensuring that interactions are not influenced by identity positions that could spur enmities or hinder genuine encounters. The initial phase of the Work That Reconnects spiral, “Coming from Gratitude,” helps create a safe container, what we call “the membrane of trust,” for the new ecosystem we’re building together.
Delegates from the House of Truth explain the immense task and opportunity the country faces with the peace agreement. Theatrical games are introduced to encourage creativity and free expression. Mistakes are celebrated, viewed as sources of growth and learning—nourishing rather than embarrassing experiences.
An essential part of building trust is the “Farmer’s Market of Care for Life”. This activity allows everyone—even those who have committed atrocities—to share how they are working towards peace, restorative justice, and “Buen Vivir” in their communities.
We are often astonished by the love, care, courage, and creativity hidden within these individuals. This process gives everyone a dignified place and role in our village.
Some participants exemplify the Re-Conectando principle “the medicine is next to the wound”, like Virgelina, a formal high placed FARC commander and participant in our Laboratory in Caquetá.
She tells us how she and her former guerrilla comrades founded “Caguan Expeditions” after the peace agreement was signed. Their unique tour operator offers rafting adventures called “Rowing for Peace” on the turbulent El Pato River in Caquetá, a river they had often crossed during the war.
Using their deep knowledge and strength, they now invite Colombians from all backgrounds, including victims and ex-combatants, to join ex-guerrilla guides in this daring meeting space in order to begin to break down the barriers of stigma and exclusion.
“Sitting down and rowing alongside someone who was once my enemy, or someone I harmed, and now having to row in unison, team up, and overcome obstacles together to avoid being swept away by the strong currents, is far more powerful than merely distributing peace agreements and talking about peace.”
“Our commitment is to keep rowing for peace. Because rowing for peace is not just about reaching a river and going downstream. It’s about helping each other to strengthen and build retaining walls that, at this moment, are creating bridges so that peace can flow.”

Fostering Trust for Truth-Telling
The Commission has emphasized the importance of fostering trust as a fundamental condition for truth-telling, addressing one of the main losses left by war. This trust is crucial for revealing not just a mechanical truth, often repeated by victimized people or perpetrators who have given testimony countless times, but a healing truth, welling up from the deep waters of their wounded souls.
Francisco de Roux, president of the Truth Commission, states: “We do not want a truth that deepens hatred and feelings of revenge, but a truth that opens us to compassion for what happened to us as a country, with our 9 million victims. We need a truth that can help build a new country together.”
During our laboratory, the mission of the Commission comes alive when we share a 40-minute recording of a personal message from Father Francisco, who recounts the suffering of many victims he witnessed during the peace negotiations in Cuba.
His straightforward yet compassionate stories awaken painful memories in most of us. Following the viewing of the video, we engage in the “Museum of the Unspeakable,” an image theater exercise inspired by Augusto Boal’s Theater of the Oppressed.
Statues and frozen scenes represent the horrors of war locked within our bodies. As we “visit” the museum and project our own memories onto the statues, we uncover the many faces of suffering and begin to embrace the complexity of Colombia’s history.
The images are polysemic, allowing us all to project our own experiences with the war onto them. This ocean of projections creates a deeply embodied way to enter the Truth Mandala.
Among the various practices of the Work That Reconnects offered, we discover—not surprisingly—that the Truth Mandala takes on essential meaning for the work of the Commission.
It begins with the truth of participants’ deep traumas and pain, which have rarely been addressed. It seems only normal that we put our shields up to protect ourselves from feeling the pain, especially the warriors.
Vulnerability is often seen as weakness and can hold us back from opening up, or shame inhibits us to do so. But the sense of containment produced by the group, the ancestral Mother holding us, and the metaphor of interdependence carefully woven through every moment of the process, all contribute to the practice of care as an embodied principle that upholds trust among the group.
And then we discover that vulnerability is an extraordinary source of power and strength. Because it shows our heart, and we accept that rather than hiding our pain or shame, we can offer it as a gift.
It is often at this moment that participants learn about the groups to which others were associated. Former guerrilla members, paramilitaries, and soldiers face both their victims’ truths and their own sorrowful and regrettable actions.
Likewise, victims learn about and are exposed to the vulnerabilities of their perpetrators, creating a horizontal relational ground and fostering connection. These transformative moments of deep understanding can only occur when participants feel safe.
Helena ter Ellen
Voor meer informatie: www.reconectando.org
Het tweede deel van dit artikel verschijnt in Nieuwsbrief#60 van februari.
NB: This article will appear in the forthcoming book Coming Together in the Great Turning: Collective Liberation and Work That Reconnects, by Aravinda Ananda, Molly Brown, and Kurt Kuhwald. New Society Publishers. Fall, 2025.
Lees verder (inhoud januari 2025)