Member-only story
The Chips Are Down
“The old soul that dwells at the core of each person has a tolerance for chaos and an instinct for survival. Not in the simple biological terms of survival of the fittest, but a complex involvement with hidden aspects of creation. We can only come to know our soul when the chips are down, when there’s nothing else to do but take on a bigger imagination of the cosmos and of our place within it. The return of cosmic order and cosmic sense always happens at the edge of the abyss, on the brink of disaster where life and beauty and meaning are snatched once again from the teeth of chaos.”
— Michael Meade, “Awakening the Soul”
*
Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee: “From what you say, I feel that you also have heard “the cry of the Earth,” and the real need of the moment is then how to respond. How can we help to bring our world back into balance? Spiritual ecology, which has been the focus of much of my work over the past decade, explores the need for a spiritual response to our present ecological crisis. Yes, we are facing “two existential crises developing with terrifying speed, climate breakdown and ecological breakdown.” But the Earth is not a problem to be solved, but a living being in distress, needing the help of both our hands and hearts.
If you’ve ever been defeated, if you’ve ever lost everything, you know what Michael Meade is talking about…
