Magic, Myth and Metaphysics

America Unraveling

“The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.” Mahatma Gandhi The election of Barak Obama as our next president has brought a huge sense of relief to many people. The fear that as a country we were headed down an inexorable whirlpool of disaster has abated somewhat. But what is next? The hemorrhaging of resources, money and opportunity away from the majority of people may have a chance to slow down; yet the insane pollution of our own biosphere and the rabid exploitation of our own and other countries’ peoples have not stopped. Huge cultural, educational, religious and economic systems that exploit and serve to maintain injustice, prejudice and fear still exist, with the momentum of many decades or centuries behind them. Obama faces a country and world in deep crisis on almost every level; a crisis that is reflected in many peoples’ personal lives. America is in a time of unraveling, which is going to go beyond the term of Obama’s presidency, even if he is re-elected in four years. Big important systems need to change, and even if they do, the climate is going to bring new surprises. This is more than big; it’s huge. As a society, we have allowed the rampage of economic and ecological destruction to get worse and worse, until it finally is at a point where a great majority of the people said ENOUGH—to at least some of it. But how much, and who has to change? In order for this country to make it through the transitions ahead, each of us needs to heed Gandhi’s warning. It’s one thing to say, “yes, the politicians, rich people and corporations are largely corrupt, science forges forward creating monstrous things with no concern, and some of our religions continue to foster extreme self-righteousness and fear.” It’s another thing to recognize these traits within ourselves and do what we can to get out of our own personal apathy, fear, “can’t do,” and other paralyzing limitations. In order to do this, we are going to need each other. Those of us on the planet at this time are going to have to pull together if we are to survive. We will have to help each other get past our personal limitations, we will have to help dismantle the life-destroying systems, we will have to continue to create and foster the many life-affirming systems, and we will have to provide what physical assistance we can, while also receiving it from others. We must do it together; the nature of the situation is that it is beyond just the government to fix. If we don’t willingly learn to live within the means of the planet—which for many Americans will entail sacrifice—we will be required to do so by the planet itself. As a great start on the environmental part, I invite each person to go to www.conservation.org LINK to measure your own eco-footprint. If you click on “Measure Your Eco-Footprint,” it takes you through a questionnaire that will show you at the end how many Earths it would take if everyone lived in the same way that you do. For more information, visit my Seminars page and my Professional Services page, call (831) 212-2168 or email andrea@awakeability.com “The things that will destroy us are: politics without principle; pleasure without conscience; wealth without work; knowledge without character; business without morality; science without humanity; and worship without sacrifice.”  Mahatma Gandhi

The election of Barak Obama as our next president has brought a huge sense of relief to many people. The fear that as a country we were headed down an inexorable whirlpool of disaster has abated somewhat. But what is next? The hemorrhaging of resources, money and opportunity away from the majority of people may have a chance to slow down; yet the insane pollution of our own biosphere and the rabid exploitation of our own and other countries’ peoples have not stopped. Huge cultural, educational, religious and economic systems that exploit and serve to maintain injustice, prejudice and fear still exist, with the momentum of many decades or centuries behind them. Obama faces a country and world in deep crisis on almost every level; a crisis that is reflected in many peoples’ personal lives.

America is in a time of unraveling, which is going to go beyond the term of Obama’s presidency, even if he is re-elected in four years. Big important systems need to change, and even if they do, the climate is going to bring new surprises. This is more than big; it’s huge. As a society, we have allowed the rampage of economic and ecological destruction to get worse and worse, until it finally is at a point where a great majority of the people said ENOUGH—to at least some of it. But how much, and who has to change?

In order for this country to make it through the transitions ahead, each of us needs to heed Gandhi’s warning. It’s one thing to say, “yes, the politicians, rich people and corporations are largely corrupt, science forges forward creating monstrous things with no concern, and some of our religions continue to foster extreme self-righteousness and fear.” It’s another thing to recognize these traits within ourselves and do what we can to get out of our own personal apathy, fear, “can’t do,” and other paralyzing limitations.

In order to do this, we are going to need each other. Those of us on the planet at this time are going to have to pull together if we are to survive. We will have to help each other get past our personal limitations, we will have to help dismantle the life-destroying systems, we will have to continue to create and foster the many life-affirming systems, and we will have to provide what physical assistance we can, while also receiving it from others. We must do it together; the nature of the situation is that it is beyond just the government to fix. If we don’t willingly learn to live within the means of the planet—which for many Americans will entail sacrifice—we will be required to do so by the planet itself.

As a great start on the environmental part, I invite each person to go to www.conservation.org to measure your own eco-footprint. If you click on “Measure Your Eco-Footprint,” it takes you through a questionnaire that will show you at the end how many Earths it would take if everyone lived in the same way that you do.

For more information, visit my Seminars page and my Professional Services page, call (831) 212-2168 or email andrea@awakeability.com

Respect at Sacred Sites

Visiting sacred sites has become hugely popular, with eco- and spiritual tourism businesses booming. While actually being in the presence of places of special energy and significance is tremendously rewarding, many people are not aware of how to behave in a way that respects the spirits of these places.

There are obvious transgressions that would be offensive in any context, such as loud talking, drinking, leaving trash around or marking with graffiti. But another problem that has arisen comes from people who respect the sites, have spiritual experiences there, and leave feeling inspired. Often these people will conduct rituals and leave their “gifts” behind. These gifts are often used-up candles, and flowers that wilt and die, both littering up the landscape. The gifts actually become trash.

Besides this, people want to take souvenirs of the sites with them; stones, plants, even pieces of buildings or graves. This act of taking, especially without any real contact with the spirits of the place, constitutes theft. It is an aspect of humanity’s disconnection with the land and assumed entitlement, which alienates the nature spirits of the sacred sites.

If you are going to visit such a site and want to bring a gift, I suggest that you journey there in spirit before you ever leave home, connect with the spirits of the place, tell them you are coming to visit and would like to bring a gift. Ask what they would like as a gift; what would help or uplift them. They don’t want cut flowers; to the spirits, these are dying and are already compost. The sorts of objects that I have found most popular are small pebbles which have been charged with energies specific to the needs of the spirits. But sometimes a song, recited poem or prayer is welcome; a physical object is not always necessary. Giving music or spoken word is a good practice if you are not sure what the spirits would like, because there won’t be any chance of litter.

And in any case, no matter what you do when actually there, be most careful to fully clean up after yourself! In this way you will show the kind of respect that you probably intended in the first place.

For more information, visit my Seminars page and my Professional Services page, call (831) 212-2168 or email andrea@awakeability.com

Engaging the Soul of America

“The self-esteem of any nation stems from the relationship of its group-soul to the soul of the land.” Caitlin Matthews

One of the great challenges facing us in modern American society is to move out of living in the shallows of our psyches. Bouncing back and forth between our thoughts and feelings, many of us don’t take time to plumb our depths and discover what is there. Beyond this, shallow living can extend to our relationship with others and the world around us. Our country has its own mythic being and consciousness which can only be accessed in the depths as well.

Dreaming the Earth Charter

In March of 2007, I was privileged to attend a conference at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara California, entitled “Nature and Human Nature.” The opening keynote speaker, Steven Aizenstat, President of the Institute, told the story of his involvement with the Earth Charter, which moved many of the participants to tears of joy.

Changing Our Institutions: Economics and Education

Because of their enormous power (granted to them by law) and the historical support of government, corporations’ control of our lives is unfortunately one of the most grievous and entrenched problems in the efforts to culturally change our relationship with nature. Economics, so dominated in America by the value of the unrestrained marketplace, and so dominated in the world by the huge multi-national corporations, has nevertheless made progress with such organizations as the International Society for Ecological Economics, ISEE.

Changing Our Institutions: Law and Religion

Thomas Berry states that the four main institutions which are responsible to aid the shift in human awareness that is necessary for us to begin to value and protect all of nature are law, religion, economics and education. In all four, changes are happening; today I’ll focus briefly on the first two; law and religion.

Reinventing Ourselves

“The historical mission of our times is to reinvent the human....” Thomas Berry

We are at a crossroads of monumental proportions in this day and age, in which everything in culture must change radically in order for the human race to come into balance with the ecological systems of the planet. Berry states that the new cultural forms that are needed “would place the human within the dynamics of the planet rather than place the planet within the dynamics of the human.” This shift is currently struggling to take place on a global level.

We must understand that from where we are in time, the major part of this transition is in the future. Most of us—in various cultures—have undergone extreme historical/cultural shut-downs of our inner sensing and connection with the awesome mystery of life. Because of this, most of us override the natural coding in our genes that relates us to the full expression of our world. This expression has a psychic/spiritual dimension of proportions far greater than we usually allow into our consciousness, even if we love nature, respect other life forms and commune with the divine through prayer and meditation. In other words, our awakening as a species has just begun.

And yet all around us, people are grappling with the colossal issues that arise in reinventing ourselves. Issues of economics, social justice, overpopulation, disease and conflict, environmental repair, invention of sustainable technology, appropriate education, embracing diversity of cultures and life forms, moving away from competition models to ones of cooperation, standing up to oppression that exists in so many forms, widening our beliefs and perceptions of reality—all of these and more boil down to the issue of healing and reclaiming the sacred soul connection that each one of us has with the world and universe. This connection places us within the context of the whole, which is precisely the context that we have largely lost as a species.

AwakeAbility’s mission is to assist in the reconnection with that inclusive context, both for individuals and societies. Approaching the issue from its fundamental core in our spiritual dimension as humans, AwakeAbility starts with the knowledge that we already are whole and connected; we have simply covered over this awareness. This goes far beyond intellectual understanding, to direct experience. Each of us is divine spirit expressing through a particular body/mind, and each has something important to contribute to the whole. Finding and expressing this contribution brings about our own joyful fulfillment. Every one of us impacts every other; indeed the entire universe resonates with the impact of each of our lives, as we are individually impacted by the rest; it truly is one holistic ongoing event.

Opening our understanding to the larger context of universal evolution, rather than the limited, propagandistic perspective found in most history books, we can see that the universe is headed towards greater and greater awareness of itself (see for example the lectures of Brian Swimme entitled “The Earth’s Imagination” which can be found on Amazon). If we are to reinvent the human race, the intelligence, brilliance and dedication of every one of us is needed. The issues have become so complex and the imbalances so serious that the awakening of every individual has become urgently important. In the infinite grace of the cosmos that awakening represents not only a coherence with universal evolution, but also our own individual freedom from suffering.

For more information, visit my Seminars page and my Professional Services page, call (831) 212-2168 or email andrea@awakeability.com

Living Simply

We can still see it around sometimes: the bumper sticker that says “Live Simply, that Others May Simply Live.” This is of course a message of the necessity for self-limiting in a world where everyone’s simple choices are making such an impact on everything else.

The Rights of All Beings

Continuing thoughts on the writings of Thomas Berry in his book The Great Work, today’s discussion centers more specifically around the rights of beings other than human. Berry takes the radical stance that not only is our unrestricted industrial economy responsible for the wanton devastation of the natural world around us, but the Constitution itself is part of the problem. He says, “...the American Constitution...guarantees to humans participatory governance, individual freedoms, and rights to own and dispose of property—all with no legal protection for the natural world....The other-than-human modes of being are seen as having no rights. They have reality and value only through their use by the human.”

This glaring omission of course came about because of the historical context of Western society in which our forefathers lived when they wrote the Constitution, and in which we still live. It is the result of centuries of shutting down our awareness of all aspects of the planet besides ourselves; drawing in our worldview to one of pure self-interest, combined with an attitude of supremacy and entitlement to use and take whatever we want from the planet without the responsibility of giving anything back. It is the outcome of disconnection. The forefathers were, obviously, of the ruling class which extended this attitude of entitlement to other humans as well. They came out of a culture of having serfs, servants and slaves. As a society we are still struggling to move away from valuing human exploitation. Many in our culture have not yet come to the awareness that rejecting non-human exploitation is just as fundamentally important.

But the truth is that the Earth is one unit, with the humans taking up only a tiny part of the whole in terms of physical mass. In psychic and practical terms however, given the entitlement attitude coupled with modern technology, humans have come to utterly dominate the planet to the point that evolution is no longer possible in the natural way it has gone on for eons. Human choices and our power of creation and destruction have too much impact. Because as a species we have dominated the planet without having the racial maturity to see past our own self-interests, we have taken our destructive powers from merely killing other humans—homicide and genocide—to killing the other life forms and the planet itself—biocide and geocide.

The rights of all beings are a universal legacy regardless of our human acceptance of them. While recognizing that all other forms of existence, whether we deem them as “living” or not, must be protected in order for humans to survive, we will not actually survive unless we can alter our underlying standards to respect the authentic right of all things to exist beyond their utilitarian significance to us. This involves giving up some things that we have come to expect as granted; indeed taking life itself for granted is one of the problems of modern society.

Every day, every one of us has the opportunity to see many times where we stay disconnected, assume entitlement and take what we have for granted. Undoing cultural attitudes and coming back into a place of comprehensive respect and voluntary moderation is the task that presents itself urgently to each of us every day, whether or not we feel that we have chosen it.

For more information, visit my Seminars page and my Individual Services page, call (831) 212-2168 or email andrea@awakeability.com

Transforming the Earth

“We must transform the earth by implanting in it what we discover of the spiritual realm. Our task is the transformation of the earth. Therein lies the only reason for seeking higher knowledge.” --Rudolf Steiner

Given the dire state of ecological imbalance in the world today, most people now agree that we need to transform the earth, or at least many parts of it, in order to restore our air, water and land areas. But what does it mean to do this?