ESSAYS
Ultimately, life is a mystery to be experienced, not a case to be codified. Yet, the current Supreme Court present yet another case of the tendency to make authoritative decisions and doctrines about life in the womb.
When an 18-year-old shooter stormed into a classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas and opened fire, he enacted a horrifying, yet sorrowfully predictable trend. In America, the tragic ritual of mass shootings and gun deaths keeps accelerating.
The underlying cosmological, mythological idea is that the old year, damaged by mistakes, losses and misdeeds, can be dissolved through a break in time that opens to moments of eternity that renew life and allow everyone to start over again.
In following what we love we enter moments of becoming in which we reveal ourselves to ourselves. Loving involves an initiation in which we become our self in a deeper way, while also giving ourselves away to something greater.
History is made in the depths of the individual soul. In that sense, the point behind the current loss of truth and social unity may be a collective calling to awaken the deeper sense of self within us all.
In mythic tales, the elders act as bridges that help young people find their way in the world. They also serve to bridge meaningful traditions of the past with viable visions of the future trying to become conscious.
Each occasion of springtime demonstrates life’s core mystery of birth, death and rebirth. Each spring is a renewal that is also a re-creation and a return of the original breath of creation.
Whereas the sense of a paradigm shift would simply replace the old with the new, the deeper sense of an archetype shows how the new idea or vision arises from ancient and enduring roots of being.
Despite tendencies to blame others and seek shelter in big lies and false pretensions of freedom; we are being called to awaken to a genuine sense of shared humanity.
In the threshold shaped by the old year dying and the new one being born, a timeless moment occurs and can lead to places of forgiveness through which life itself becomes renewed.
Genuine gratitude comes from a deep place in the heart where pain can also reside. Seen that way, gratitude involves a flowering of the soul in which even a small sense of gratefulness can generate a full sense of abundance.
When the core values of humanity are diminished, when the natural sense of all being in the same story becomes replaced by rejecting the other and indulging in fear and hatred, a return to the hidden unity of life is required.
Change is underway, even as the country remains largely divided and the challenges appear enormous in size and complex in nature. The issue becomes change in what way, to what aim, for what purpose?
Casting a vote has always been a symbolic act as well as a practical matter. And sometimes a vote is also a prayer intended to tip the precarious balance of life towards healing and a greater sense of freedom.
There is a still point in time through which life renews itself at the level of the cosmos, at the level of the turning of seasons and in the pulsing of our own bodies each time we inhale and exhale.
Words have power and the words of those who happen to be in power can have the effect of making the crisis worse, when the opportunity for healing is just as present and also possible.
A deeper understanding of education is trying to arise, not just in terms of school issues; but also in terms of deep cultural healing and transformation.
If we can imagine that the eventual outcome of all the disorder is a transition to a greater sense of inclusive humanity and social unity, we may find ways to navigate all the rough terrain.
The level of crisis that we are all in now cannot be fixed with a simple repair. Rather, we are being called upon to use the essential threads of our lives to weave a culture of genuinely inclusive humanity.
Genuine resilience has nothing to do with claims of invulnerability, superiority or will power; rather it depends upon a willingness to suffer vulnerability and endure a condition of not knowing.
It may be that the postponing of Easter as an occasion for gathering in churches, and the loss of Easter as a commercial opportunity, can allow for a deeper consideration of the need for a genuine renewal of life on earth.
In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic a sense of feeling helpless or hopeless can arise at almost any moment. During this time of greater isolation, it can be both soul making and heart-warming to be in touch with genuine friends of our soul.
An old notion states that when we experience a life crisis or a meaningful loss we become either a smaller person or a greater soul. If we are the same after a challenging time, it was not a true life crisis.
Fear was once called "the awakener," as a healthy sense of fear could guide us to the places where life changes must be made. Our greatest fears mark the places where we must go or else risk losing our souls.
In the dark times, the awakened soul can become the unifying agent for a collective renewal. When the inner light of soul awakens us from within, something also comes alive in the world around us.
There may be no way to completely avoid the fires erupting all around us, but the human psyche is also ancient and immediate and therefore uniquely resilient. Something timeless and enduring also tries to awaken when we face life’s greatest troubles.
Male violence can be found most places in the world, but in America it is armed to the teeth. Unfortunately, there are also powerful men who either deny or ignore how out of balance and increasingly out of control American culture has become.
Most cultures have trickster figures who appear when everyone is confused, when life is in chaos, and everyone is in trouble. The West African trickster God Eshu is famous for the tricks he loves to play on people and the chaos he likes to cause.
There is an old saying I find myself repeating often now, that “it is the same to live in a tragic time as to be in a tragic place." I thought of it again when I heard the news of the tragic shootings in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Practices of golden repair can begin wherever old wounds divide people, wherever the tragedies of violence and suicide leave people broken in spirit and at odds with the underlying beauty of life.
The inner conflicts of Donald Trump, his family and administration keep taking center stage and adding uncertainty and instability, not just to the country, but to the world as well.
It is an old axiom that “the truth can set you free.” And even a Russian proverb argues that it is “better to be slapped with the truth than to be kissed with a lie.”
There are times when the basic human struggle for meaning takes center stage and demands that people see the value of life more clearly.
Folk tales and fables used to be understood as containers for the psychological truths and deeper ideas needed to understand the recurring troubles of this world.
There are stories from many cultures pointing to the dangers of elevating to power those who have a need to appear omnipotent and who exhibit a grandiose sense of self-importance.
Originally, the word inauguration meant: “to install and consecrate under good omens.” The time for an investiture would only be set after an augury or reading of the flight of birds revealed good omens for the occasion.
Since the recent election I have encountered many people, young and old, who feel deeply disheartened by all the resentment, hatred and division that have been stirred up. Many also feel discouraged by all the false promises, “fake news” and betrayals of the public trust.
We now live in a gap of culture with opposing sides that appear to be entrenching ever more deeply. More and more people live in fear of being marginalized, whether on the basis of race or gender, economics or religious belief.
A frequent explanation for the unexpected election result is that this was a “change election” in which a majority of voters wanted some kind of sweeping change at the national level. Disruption is another word being used to explain both the method and the aim of the Trump campaign.
An old idea suggests there are but three kinds of people in this world. The first kind of person tends to be preoccupied with self-interest as everything refers back to “I, me and mine.
Solstice means “sun stands still,” as if the warmth and radiance of life itself hangs in the balance at critical points in the course of planetary existence.
The old Greek word tyrant could be applied to despotic kings, but was also used to describe popular usurpers who arrogate to themselves authority they have no right to use. In modern usage, a tyrant can be any imperious or domineering person who insists on complete obedience from others
The conventions of both major political parties have taken place, not only amidst overheated political rhetoric; but also in the midst of what promises to be the hottest summer in recorded history.
In the modern world the common connotation of the word friend might be “a contact associated with through social media.” Yet, online connections and the use of contemporary verbs friending and liking may have nothing to do with actual friendship.
