The promise and the group's Law

Symbolic identity

A promise is spoken for one year and renewed: it is a commitment to the cycle, and like everything that belongs to a cycle, it comes back.

Why a promise and not an oath

An oath is spoken forever, before an authority that guards it from outside, and breaking it is betrayal. A promise, in Kosmabeko, is spoken for one year, before one's own circle, and renewed: at each bridge festival of the Door, whose wrapper is the common rule, the members who wish to say it again. The promise fixes nobody in a pole.
Whoever decides not to renew their promise does not break it: they let it close.

How it is spoken

The promise is first spoken after the first eight-week cycle in the group, not on the day of welcome: nobody promises about what they do not yet know. It is said in the circle, before a guide, with a hand on the neckerchief. Each branch has its formula, and members may say it in their own words as long as they keep its commitments.

The three formulas

Promise of the Branch of the Pole

I promise to play with everyone and to take care of my island;
to open the door and respect the limits;
to play with all my heart and to rest when it's time;
to keep the rules and to help change them when they don't work;
and to teach what I learn to whoever comes after me.

Promise of the Branches of the Edge and of the Landa

I promise, for this year and before my circle:
to belong without dissolving and to stand out without isolating myself;
to open paths without losing the ground, and to set limits without shutting myself in;
to give my best without emptying myself, and to receive without taking from others;
to uphold our rules and to have the courage to remake them when they no longer serve us;
and to teach what I receive to whoever comes after me.

Promise of the Branch of the Systence and of the guides

I promise, for this year and before my group,
to keep open the tensions that make us live:
that no one be erased by the group nor abandoned to their solitude;
that our bonds neither dissolve nor turn into a wall;
that what flows among us neither burns us nor freezes;
that our rules neither become an idol nor get lost in disorder.
I promise not to break the cycle that sustains me nor that of those entrusted to me,
to care before testing,
and to pass on, without possessing, what was passed on to me.

The promise of the Branch of the Systence is, almost word for word, Kosmovia's Pact of Process said in the first person.

The group's Law

The group's Law is not a code of prohibitions. It is the description of how a beko lives when they live aligned with the cycle they are part of. It has nine articles: two per dimension —one per pole, since no pole is better than its opposite— and one that closes them. The word «beko» names the learner who is, at the same time, a transmitter.

For the little ones

The beko belongs without dissolving.

They are part of their circle and their group, and do not let the group think for them.

I play with everyone, and I'm still me.

The beko stands out without isolating themselves.

They have their own word and offer it to others.

I have my island, and I show it.

The beko opens paths and tends their bonds.

They reach out to others and keep those channels alive, because a bond nobody tends dies.

I make friends and take care of them.

The beko sets limits and respects those of others.

They know how to say no, and they listen to the no of others.

I say «no» when something isn't right, and I listen to other people's «no».

The beko burns in what they do.

They put will, effort and joy into their circle's tasks.

I do things with all my heart.

The beko honors rest and pain.

They rest without guilt, let others rest, and do not run from their own sadness or anyone else's.

I rest when it's time, and I stay with whoever is sad.

The beko receives the unexpected as information.

When the plan breaks, they look for what the storm teaches instead of cursing it.

If something changes, I don't get angry: I think about what to do.

The beko upholds the common rule and helps remake it.

They keep their circle's agreements and, when they stop serving, propose changing them in council.

I keep the rules and help make them better.

The beko teaches what they learned.

What they received they give to whoever comes after, knowing that what they give comes back transformed and that every cycle closes so that another may begin.

I teach what I know to whoever is newer than me.

The Law is discussed. In the Branch of the Landa, each article is read in council during one week of the cycle, and the circle looks for real examples in which the article was kept and in which it was not. A Law that is not discussed would be a frozen rule: exactly what its eighth article asks to avoid.