Connections of The Soul
The heart-bone is connected to the soul-bone.
The initiated adult has learned to withstand uncertainty, has paid a debt to the gods through his loss and his grief, and has decided to make beauty with his life as the future ancestor that he is.”
Excerpt from Belonging: Remembering Ourselves Home by Toko-pa Turner (belongingbook.com)
“At any meaningful turning point in life, we must face our deepest fears in order to grow. And typically a turning point can feel like the worst thing that could happen to us. At one level we are at a collective turning point, we’re at a place where we must stop and listen to the body of humanity, even listen to the voice of the earth.
But the essence of a pilgrimage is not simply that we arrive at some Holy Grail place somewhere in the world. Rather, the outward journey is intended to separate us from the daily rounds of life, in order that we might make that great journey, which is the inward journey.
There may be a great crowd of seekers if we should arrive at the holy place, and yet, each seeker is alone in what they find. Each sees the Holy Temple of the great stone from their own vantage point and in their own way, and each awakens to a deep sense of self, or soul, that albeit is found in that aloneness, tells them they are never alone.”-- Michael Meade, “Living Myth Podcast #166”
If humanity is truly at a great turning point now, there will be confusion and grief before we collectively find certainty and wisdom. Much has been lost in the advance of civilization. Great strides have been made in manipulating the outer world, but we are still in the dark as to who and what we are inside ourselves. We are presented with a time of reassessment now. We have an opportunity to see where we are and how we came here. We can use this time to look around and see what we have built.
I think we should ask ourselves if we want to continue to build it. Is this the world we want? If not, what do we want? The logic of our current path is death to all life on Earth, including you and me. If we can see we’re going in that direction, maybe we can change course.
Those who are intent upon turning our beautiful Earth into a moonscape are well organized and dead certain of their objectives. Those who live for love and beauty, not so much. You can be sure that the forces of status quo will assert themselves now. They will try to capture even more power. They are far from seeing the error of their ways. And this opportunity to consolidate their control over methods and means will not be wasted. We have to expect that and be prepared for it.
But crisis is an opportunity for everyone, including those who long for a kinder, more generous world. Extraverts might find this time of social distancing more trying than introverts, but it’s a time of reassessment for everyone.
In America, where the ideal of every man for himself holds sway, there will be upheaval. The cruel implications of our system will be in the spotlight., There will be people in power who will refuse to consider another way. They are truly afraid empathy will turn us all into weaklings. How can you get rich that way? Impossible.
I don’t think you can expect to change people who have accepted the logic of exclusive self interest, because they are not guided by logic. They are guided by small heartedness, if that’s a word. Empathy is dormant. It plays no part in their life, except for members of their tribe, perhaps.
Obviously, human beings need to grow in vision and a sense of relatedness to the whole. We need to stop thinking of ourselves as detached from the web of life. If we can come back to the simple realization that we living beings are one family, that we are meant to care for each other, that love is the guiding principle of life on Earth — not tooth and claw — then we can go forward.
Otherwise we can go full speed in reverse.
May heart values come to the fore now. May we invent new ways to live on this planet, with care for all forms of life. May we discover interior riches and wisdom. They are there to be uncovered. This time in seclusion is our chance to find unsuspected riches.
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- Anima Fire is my publication
- https://medium.com/anima-fire/medium-com-anima-fire/home