Emerging from the Numbness
A Personal Journey through a Pandemic
12/31/20
“We but mirror the world. All the tendencies present in the outer world are to be found in the world of our body. If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. This is the divine mystery supreme. A wonderful thing it is and the source of our happiness. We need not wait to see what others do.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Two years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, I had begun grieving the loss of two of my closest family members who had died within four months of each other. In that period, I became deeply interested in healing from this loss, and turned my attention to how we as human beings change. Is there an evidence-based theory of change that we can consider for our species to embrace? Who are the “change leaders” and what tools do they suggest we use at this time to become more adaptive and responsive to change? What might they teach us at a time when so many of us want to shrink from the world into a state of fear, numbness, and denial?
How We Arrived at this Time
Back in November 2019, during a work-related retreat, a question emerged on Social Impact Measurements. I was still feeling the pain of my earlier loss and found it difficult at times to be fully present and concentrate during this retreat. The Human Services “Not-for-profit" company where I work hired a consulting firm to guide members of our Social Impact committee and Executive Team in a conversation on measuring our “social impact” throughout the many varied services we offer.
At one point during the day-long workshop, the consultant presented a “theory of change” (TOC) which represented our company's best articulation of both short and long-term goals we hoped to achieve for clients. By defining our “Theory of Change” we could potentially better align our organization with the needs of the participants we serve. That phrase “Theory of Change” resonated deeply in my mind, touching my heart in an unexpected way, and sent me on a quest to discover what other theories on human change there might be. How could I continue my own process of healing from grief? Looking around me, however, I also saw the brokenness of our world. How could these theories be easily implemented to help us better address the realities of both our local and global challenges? In my collection of books, I found “Immunity to Change” by Robert Kegan, long ago recommended by a close friend. Kegan’s ideas about how we must first become conscious of the unconscious forces in our psyche keeping change from manifesting certainly resonated for me, but did not get to my core question: “how might we human beings actually get better at adapting to change?”
With the publishing of his new book “Revolutionary Love: A Political Manifesto to Heal and Transform the World,” Rabbi Michael Lerner delivered a talk at a bookstore in Princeton the first week in December a month later. He reminded the audience that collectively we participate with an evolutionary source which he referred to as “that which is transforming the present into the future.” He encouraged those gathered for his talk to look at the human world as something that has always been transforming. How might we learn to partner with this evolutionary (revolutionary) transformational power, the very Source of this Universe coursing through our being? These ideas and other progressive views that he shared were a great comfort, inspiration, and source of nourishment at this time in my life.
By mid-December, I learned that my close friend Vicki needed surgery to address a potentially life-threatening heart condition. Before the procedure, I stopped by for a visit to offer some support and comfort. Only a few days prior she had been sorting through junk in her garage and came upon an item she had once purchased many years back to mark an important transition in her life, the ending of a deeply cherished teaching job, “The Box: Remembering the Gift” designed by a group of artists in Santa Fe, NM who back in 1992 called themselves the “Terma Collective.”
Originally, the Box was meant to be used in a ceremonial context to conduct a personal or group ritual for change, with each component unveiled and examined in stepwise fashion. Vicki decided it was time to pass this box on to me. On this Saturday afternoon visit, we sat together in her condominium unpacking the items one by one in fascination and amazement at the artistry and wisdom behind each of the hand-crafted elements. This tool it seemed to us might be a useful guide in helping guide us through our own personal process of change. That day I left feeling excited by the gift my friend had so willingly entrusted me to hold, hopeful that the Box might offer us both a powerful way to navigate what was becoming an increasingly uncertain time. Both Vicki’s and my own heart were undergoing a transformation, mine from the deep emotional pain of loss I had been feeling for the previous two years and Vicki’s from a loss of control in her heart’s rhythm. The idea was planted in the darkness of this period to create a website (http://outofthebox.app) and explore ritual and the contents of the Box.
Nearer to Christmas time, I felt ready for a positive and radical change in my life and I undertook the first exercise of the Box, creating a photo collage symbolizing my hopes and fears (well mostly my hopes, since the fear part was symbolized as a door which I felt ready to leave shut) – The Photo Mural I created expressed my longing for the future -- to build a more intimate relationship with myself, a loving life partner, with the home where I live, the Earth and greater Cosmos. Also, it expressed my readiness to move beyond the grief from the previous years of loss. In the process of unwrapping the Box, you are asked in the first exercise to identify: “What in your life is calling you forth. What still pulls on your soul?” The authors were clearly interested in inviting readers to view their lives not as a sequence of random, isolated events, but to begin perceiving it as a journey, a process and creation of art. I resonated with the idea that I might be journeying from a small, narrow view of myself and worldview towards an awareness of a vaster mystery and more intimate relationship with Matter, the building block of life and a transcendent Source from which our Cosmos emanates.
A key element of this exercise was to create sanctuary in myself, a place of peace and stillness, a space for reflection on one’s own interiority. From this place I could more easily identify what worked and what did not – what needed to be severed or let go of in my life. “One thing dies, and another thing comes to life,” the box gently instructs us on the visible process of change. It was time for me to let go of dead relationships from my past and begin constructing what Indigenous cultures call a medicine wheel visualizing a circle of physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual supports in each of the four houses of the cardinal directions: North, South, East, and West. I could not have foreseen the vast changes which would be shaping the months ahead, but it turned out that this medicine wheel exercise would help me to identify the supports who would become soul companions journeying with me through this time of transition.
At that early time in the Pandemic, I was oblivious to the dangers of the Covid-19 virus slowly spreading around me. In fact, in Philadelphia, the city where I worked, people did not seem to be too concerned about the risk of spreading Covid-19, as evidenced by the thousands of dancers rhythmically pulsing along Broad Street fully adorned in their flamboyant and colorful regalia amidst a massive sea of jubilant participants, food and drink in hand to celebrate the annual Mummer’s day procession on New Year’s Day 2020.
Just as the Sun in the Northern Hemisphere makes its own hopeful journey Northward again during the Winter months, I similarly felt a sense of hope and emergence from this darkness.
By mid-Winter January 2020, this hope began to erode. I became increasingly alarmed by the growing deaths from the Pandemic as well as the news coming out of the Trump White House which only seemed to generate seismic earthquakes shaking my daily perception of reality and Democracy. I was again reminded of the visioning exercise of the box in identifying what needed to be severed from life. It was time for a change in my life, and I needed to develop a new strategy. Against this backdrop of crisis, I decided to temporarily abandon plans to pursue a Data Science certificate at Drexel University and began pointing my life towards the building of the relationship with both Earth and Cosmos, following teachings articulated by theologian Thomas Berry, the Jesuit paleontologist Teilhard de Chardin, mathematical cosmologist Brian Swimme, children’s educator Maria Montessori and progressive leader Rabbi Michael Lerner. I felt drawn to gain a vaster context for life than the state of fear in which I had been living and signed up for a course with Dr. Toni Nash, one of Brian Swimme’s students. Dr. Nash offered a 10-week Spiritual Leadership class through an online network called the “Deep Time” Network, a forum that gathers people interested in learning how a Science-based Narrative of the 13.7-billion-year evolutionary process of this Universe can help inform and guide our daily lives.
Simultaneous to this training, I also felt called to the Prophetic views offered by both Rabbi Michael Lerner and his wife, Cat Zavis, and signed up for an 8-week “Spiritual Progressives” training course. My weekday nights became exceedingly busy, but rich with new ideas and directions which could help me better navigate the emerging chaos of Covid-19. What came together for me from these two leadership courses was the interplay between two distinct mindsets, one that I termed as being “Shamanic”, or the ability to see one’s being as rooted in and serving a greater community, and the other as “Prophetic”, developing the imagination to see what might be possible amidst other viewpoints which claim impossibility. Ideas from the Photo Collage exercise of the Box on how to begin forming a better relationship with a loving partner, with myself and with both Earth and Cosmos also began to emerge at this time as well.
In February, I took a day off from work to visit my friend Georgette Chalker (aka Geo) who works in the Geosciences department at Princeton University. This day turned out to be quite pivotal in my journey through the exploration of how humans change, as I was fortunate to get a small tour of an exhibit on the evolution of birds and their beak length displayed in Guyot Hall, the Earth Sciences building where Geo works. A key concept that I gleaned was that Darwin felt that those species which were able to successfully evolve were not actually the strongest nor necessarily the most intelligent. Rather, the survival of a particular species seemed to depend on its adaptability to a rapidly changing environment. The exhibit showed that the species of birds which grew a longer beak over successive generations had a greater advantage of survival by foraging for food and gathering nutrients from plants over those bird species with shorter beaks (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_and_Rosemary_Grant).
Later that afternoon, we walked through campus and had dinner and lively conversation at a local restaurant, Mahmoud’s Falafel in town. During the meal we discussed the span of our friendship from its inception working locally in Trenton on Bernie Sander’s campaign to the present, a time when our own fears about the threat of the pandemic as well as the political chaos in the White House were growing. We also examined our views on how we as humans might adapt to the challenge of a similarly rapidly changing landscape as did the birds shown in the Grant’s exhibit. What new strategies might we learn from, and who are the leaders pointing the way towards the evolution of the human? How do we rise together to meet the challenges we collectively face? Geo conceived of a video project which she gave a working title of “The Now of Change” exploring the many ways we as humans are responding to this great collective moment of change. I kept coming back to an idea inspired from Mythologist Michael Meade as well as Gandhi that now is the time when we must become pregnant within our imagination and manifest innovating ideas which might become beneficial for our world and species. Let us be the change for this idea, or as Gandhi said – let us change ourselves so that the tendencies in the world might also change. We all have a part to play through our collective voice by creatively responding to the “Now.” At that time, I realized the need for innovation, but did not yet have a clear idea on how to accomplish it. What changes in ourselves might, then, be necessary for us to successfully navigate the landscape of change through which we are now moving? The framework laid out in the Gift of Remembrance, the idea of change being a journey rather than a single event took an even greater shape.
By March, as more intense feelings of fear and uncertainty were increasingly taking hold worldwide, a different focus began to emerge in my life. The psychological pressures of the change triggered in me a response to become more aware of a vaster context shaping my own life and life on this planet, the greater Cosmos. What teachings might better orient us towards a unifying force in the Universe which we can turn to during times of Crisis? An obvious place for me to start was through the network of my spiritual support system which I had built over many years of Interfaith work in Mercer County, Central New Jersey, USA. At the heart of that circle has been the contributions of Swami Amarnathananda, Senior Monk, and founder of the New Jersey Chapter of an Ashram in the neighboring Middlesex County.
This Ashram system and world-wide monastic order is based on the teachings of an Indian Saint and Social Reformer, Swami Pranavananda Maharaj, considered by many devotees to be a Prophet in modern times. For the past 14 years, I had joined with a small group of devotees in studying the wisdom of the Eastern spiritual classic, the Bhagavad-Gita and learning Vedanta from the Upanishads with Swami Amarnathananda. By Mid-March, we decided to open up and “go virtual” with our small group reading of Swamiji’s interpretation of the “The Bhakti Sutras of Sage Narad” using Zoom to safely reach a wider community. The book has a way of opening one’s hearts and devotion towards a transcendent consciousness rooted at once in this reality yet somehow mysteriously transcending everyday life. In addition, we began our study of the classic Vedanta text “The Bhagavad Gita” which describes a conversation between a great warrior, Arjuna, and his charioteer Krishna centuries ago on the battlefield of Kurukshetra in the State of Haryana, India (follow this Gita series on YouTube). A favorite verse on the topic of devotion in the Gita, Krishna, the Divine Teacher to the warrior Arjuna states: “Oh Arjuna, four types of devotees worship me. They are:
a) A man who is in distress
b) A man who seeks knowledge
c) A man who seeks wealth and
d) A wise man. (Chapter VII/verse 16)
Certainly, by the time of March, I considered myself to be one of those devotees in distress seeking to worship at the feet of the Divine, a traditional way that Hindus are taught from an early age to show respect for those older and wiser. For me, this exploration of Sage wisdom from Vedanta helped me gain a vaster perspective on the pandemic crisis.
By April, many other classes began to shift from being held “in person” to the online platform of Zoom. I worked with our local Ashram’s Yoga teacher, Abhoy Sircar, to deliver his Weekly Yoga class via Zoom and began practicing each morning with a fellow student, Badarinath who kindly provided a few of us with a morning routine for the entirety of 2020. Work became more intense during this month, as I ran into some unexpected complexities implementing a Time and Attendance software system with a project of fourteen team members. The effect of the pandemic was beginning to be felt throughout our company, especially among our 24-hour operation of the intellectual disabilities residential program. Many employees were told to plan to work from home for an indeterminate period. For the remainder of the year, I did just that and hosted dozens of online team meetings through the end of the year.
By May, my focus had shifted from my workday life towards a greater awareness of my interior life. The material from the classes I had begun in January on Shamanic Leadership and Progressive Politics offered me additional insight into building a relationality with Earth and Cosmos, my original intention from the exercise with the Terma Foundation’s “Gift of Remembrance” box. I grew increasingly interested in how my own culture, mixed European Immigrant, might encounter a more fundamental understanding of the ground of Being, the inner workings of Nature. Fortunately, during this period, I again encountered the work of the Cuyamungue Institute, an organization dedicated to exploring ecstatic trance postures and consciousness run by the husband-and-wife team of Paul Robear and Laura Lee. The Institute also shifted its venue to offering online sessions for participants worldwide. During one of the Sunday Q&A sessions held in May, Laura Lee mentioned that an Astrophysicist who worked on the James Webb Telescope Project and taught at the University of New Mexico participated in the work of the Institute. This prompted me to continue thinking about the importance of the integration of Science and Spirituality. In this case, I wondered if there might be a way to bring the work of Ecstatic Postures to the Deep Time Network community, a similar online venue for individuals interested in the imaginative power of Science-based narratives on Cosmology (such as the story presented by the movie “Journey of the Universe” and other interpretive Science storytelling).
The month of May also brought Geo Chalker and I into a pivotal conversation with a young indigenous artist and change-maker, Cristobal Martinez, who spoke during an online presentation for the Princeton Art Museum (see recording at Contemporary Conversations: Artistic Practice in Response to the Present | Princeton University Art Museum).
At the Q&A portion of his talk with the Museum host, I had the opportunity to ask the following question by way of the chat:
“Cristobal -- each example that you have given offers us a unique perspective on how we might heal from a number of both personal and societal illnesses. Am eager to know more about your theory of human transformation and how we can apply this theory to help us navigate the Covid-19 crisis? Can you speak more about your views on how we humans might transform at this time?”
He provided a very nuanced answer to this question, and I did my best to write down his words to ponder them more deeply. Cristobal mentioned that there needed to be a certain kind of condition, a prerequisite that all who are involved in change would first of all be amenable to the transformation of what he termed “the Self”. He also mentioned that during a particular art project called “Repellent Fence” conducted on the U.S. and Mexico border that it did not matter how much people rivaled each other…that somehow folks came together to help foster along this (multi-year) project. There was something about change being like the needle which points to a setting on a radio dial or metronome, and moving that needle whatever small amount we are given the opportunity to work on -- to participate in the work of transformation is humbling, so that if we move the needle just a little bit forward so our sons and daughters, nieces and nephews might pick up their portion of that work, that’s all we might be able to accomplish. “The best thing now,” he shared, “is to learn to be empathetic with people we don’t agree with, and to listen to others” – Cristobal’s art is a testament to that kind of listening and to the spirit of transformation at play, particularly among Indigenous-led collectives in our world today. Cristobal spoke of the importance of artists telling their story of what is happening to our world and putting forth visions of how we humans might change through a process of collaboration even when there might be disagreement.
Cristobal’s work and indigenous perspective led me back to consider how we in the Western cultural framework might incorporate techniques taught by the Cuyamungue Institute, along with perspectives on Spiritual Leadership shaped by the material from Toni Nash’s thesis “Cosmological Commitment in a Time of Planetary Crisis: Values for a Vibrant Earth”
In July, Summer Solstice (a piece from “Living Earth Devotional”)
July also brought a daily awareness of the harsh realities before us, an increasing rise in Covid-19 cases and global deaths, and an American administration barely able to show moral courage and leadership, let alone back the science of Pandemic management.
August and September
A unique opportunity came in August to make a presentation to the Cuyamungue Institute as part of the Sunday Lecture series on the topic of “Mythopoetic Imagination and the Journey of the Universe.” See the following for a summation of the talk: On Interspirituality and Shaping a New Worldview - Interspirituality.org
The September Equinox also brought preparations for the High Holiday season of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. I began a new Deep Time Network class on “Cosmology, Consciousness and Birthing the Ecozoic” with Astronomer Steven Martin. I learned about a Ted Talk given by Physicist Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams where they put forth their own “Theory of Change” - In summation, Nancy stated that:
“People can actually change very quickly to become the larger person they are meant to be. People don’t change from learning facts, but from discovering that a big new identity is available to them, one that is meaningful and exciting and connects them to people they want to be a part of” – this is how we fall in love, how addicts recover and how people have a spiritual awakening…”…this is an ability everybody has. Our species is central to the Cosmos and central to the future of Earth, and those of us who are alive at this pivotal moment may be the most important generation ever. If we could simply live up to this identity that would transform the world.
October – Awakening Mythopoetic Imagination by changing the dream
My current “Theory of Change” continues to be shaped by Gandhi’s notion that the world changes as we become the change we wish to see, changing our own body and psyche first before attempting to change the outer world. In a dream last night, I had not been able to travel to a certain nearby town. The path I took led to a place in the nighttime which I dubbed “Portville,” at a restaurant where people were waiting to be seated. The place felt as large as New Brunswick, New Jersey or even Philadelphia. I had been here before in my dreams, though, upon waking, I realized this was not a physical location, but one existing in my mind’s eye. The overall theme and feeling from my dream was angst, so I remembered that I could become the change that I sought. Not getting to where I wanted to go could become “being present where I most desired to be” – In waking life I have been concerned with how I might become better credentialed to accomplish a career transition and continue working for the next 10 years from a place of purpose and passion. What if I were to lead from that place of change, with that as my NorthStar, where might it take me next? And if we humans could learn to lead from that Prophetic place of change, the space of “being present to where I most desired to be”, where might we end up collectively?
November and December – In November, Laura Lee, Director of Research and Outreach from the Cuyamungue Institute and I together decided we had lots to explore on the subject of how humans change, and how we come to a theory collectively on change. We began a project of recording an expanded conversation into a podcast series.
– first session from November 2020
- second session was recorded in December
Here are some of the thoughts from these talks.
How Do We as Humans Change?
Chronologically, not a lot of time has passed since Darwin published the first edition of “On the Origin of Species” in 1859. As scientific theories go, it is young at 163. In this past year, my attention has been focused on how we as a species can more consciously accomplish change. What physical, emotional, mental, psychological tools can we use to enhance our ability to change? Can we begin to steer the process of change both personally and on a larger human scale addressing Darwin’s thesis that survival of species is based upon their adaptability to a changing environment? Our species’ great adaptability can become the seed of our own downfall when the imagination or symbolic consciousness begins to point us away from Nature and our true Self. Life has a way of continually asking us to be present to the here and now. Treasures of symbolic consciousness (great literature, music) abound, yet attunement to Nature still eludes us. Nearing the completion of this pandemic year, I have pondered the question of how to return to my own “human-ness,” rather than running from it, to become more fully my Self in a more relational way connected within the web of life.
I have looked for a Theory of Change in the work of the human services non-profit where I work. Who are the thinkers such as Bob Kegan who writes on “Immunity to Change,” encouraging organizations to articulate their own Theory of Change and get better at it? My mission now is to jumpstart a dialogue on this with others, and potentially refine and improve my own Theory of Change. What I have so far comes from the work of Thomas Berry through Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Abrams. They write that “People don’t readily change when presented with a set of facts, but only when they are offered a larger identity.” What is this identity that we need to live into which could potentially transform the world? That identity includes greater love, cooperation, kindness, and connection with Life and this wonderous Cosmos.
As Gandhi writes: An inner change in us can potentially change the world. The vehicle for change starts within each one of us. Through the practice of yoga, ecstatic trance, meditation we can create Sanctuary in ourselves, enlarge our own experience of Interiority and come into that larger identity which Nancy and Joel speak of, thereby becoming change agents in the world. We need to better attune and listen more carefully to the inner guidance we receive and be discerning. Otto Scharmer talks about this as “building a literacy of transformation” – we have cultural literacy, but not a great amount of literacy about navigating inward change. What mythology, films, stories around positive change are out there? Star Wars shows the process of change, follows the sequence of the Heroes’ Journey (from a period of crisis emerges this great epic story) – Michael Meade and others guide us in turning back towards (Laura Lee of the Cuyamungue Institute recommends Gwen Spencer’s approach to teaching the Hero’s Journey to give yourself a new ending and pathway.
Laura Lee adds: “With the foundation of the Hero’s Journey, how might we re-write the story of our own life? We are each the hero of our own journey, our own story. I found that when viewing my life in mythic terms, when noting the sequence of events, the doors that opened and closed, the mentors and threshold guardians that led me this way and that, I sensed the presence of an unseen, knowing hand, one that knew me better than I knew myself, who was co-writing my story with me.”
Coming from the realm of Science is a wondrous story of the Journey of the Universe from the emergence of particles comes galaxies and eventually us. I appreciate Brian’s illumination and celebration of this new, emerging story of the Journey of the Universe, tracing our evolutionary arc on the cosmic stage from the Big Bang to this moment, and the potential for us and all of life. Yet, why do we depict so much chaos and destruction in Sci-Fi, repeated ad infinitum, when exploring this exciting frontier of the next “rung of the spiral” beckons? Can we tell more stories from this growing realization of all we are, have been, and can be? I am waiting for the movie that opens with the many people now finding and enacting new rituals to maintain the harmony of our cosmos, with some realization that the chaos has grown in the last few decades in which the monks around the world have been displaced and dispersed. Some storylines to showcase the power of ritual and its role in helping maintain this balance, and that we need to continue this, and collectively we spontaneously find new ways to activate this. We see our world slowly going out of kilter on many levels – can our scientific age, while pushing its worldview forward, embrace the old and find a cause-and-effect for the role of ritual? We treat our Universe as a
“What You See is What You Get” equation, where we have effectively pushed the Creator out, where the living Universe is seen as a clock slowly running down, when it is so much more. Where our place in this Universe is so much more. Our Ancestors knew this. We have not yet defined the entirety of what more there is, but we will know in our bodies, hearts, and mind when we embrace it. We cannot go backwards, but we can pull it forward. We can invite it back into our lives, activate it, dance with it, to fulfill its gifts, its vision for us, and the potential it offers.
The documentary film “Baraka” offers an interesting take on our evolving nature with global representations of the concept of “blessing” expressed on a cinematic canvas. A Solar eclipse becomes a seminal metaphor of change. In the company of storytellers such as Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung and others, the work of the Cuyamungue Institute touches upon more ancient archetypes which are reborn in each generation. As stewards of the research of the late anthropologist Felicitas Goodman, both Paul and Laura are midwives to the continued emergence of a technology of consciousness - Ecstatic Trance Posture work, acting as a “way station” for pilgrims on the journey of inner exploration. Films such as “The Power of Myth” with Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell depict the mytho-poetic language at use across thousands of mythologies, which when spoken or read often leave viewers in a state of deep resonance. Truth eloquently expressed can resonate and light up a deeper aspect of Self. Paul and Laura have travelled to France visiting the caves of Lascaux where the ancestors once read the Earth, the Sky, the molecules of life in a way like how we in the modern world might read a novel. The late Anthropologist and founder of the Cuyamungue Institute, Dr. Felicitas Goodman says “we must keep this work scintillating for the next generation, this work has to remain relevant to the next generation as it has to us” - In essence, our forebears saw great relevancy in ritual and ceremony, and made great efforts to pass this sacred wisdom down to us. The Cuyamungue Institute is dusting off layers of ritual, presenting them in a way made accessible to us moderns, while still retaining the dynamic and effective core – its essential steps. Says Laura, “Goodman did for the world’s ritual of calling in the spirits, what Joseph Campbell did for the world’s collections of myths – finding what they all had in common to arrive at the core, the essential steps. And in this way, she cleared the way for us Westerners to reclaim our Indigenous ancestral wisdom.” These rituals offer younger people a way to awaken their imagination. Goodman hit upon a formula that works. Future generations will lead us there. What happens when collectively our species sees the Interiority of subjective consciousness as being a new frontier?
Shifting the Paradigm
Thoughts from the late Native American Artist, David Paladin (“Painting the Dream” by Lynda Paladin)
In summary, this year of Covid has led me to begin developing my own Theory Change on a personal level by taking Gandhi’s adage of “Becoming and embodying the change” we wish to see in the world, and developing contemplative technology to help better perceive the outer world as being reflective of the inner. Frozen mindsets that produce structural racism, practices and behaviors which erode Democracy, Colonialism, economic inequality are the enemies mentioned by the “Gift of Remembrance,” Brian Swimme and others. These old mindsets must now be transformed into guardian allies which can express elements of the Shamanic, Prophetic, Sage and Mystic, archetypes which lay in our Collective Psyche waiting to be liberated. Listening to these archetypes can help turn gargoyles into guardians and stimulate our imagination, opening the pathways of creativity again.
What other behaviors do we in society need to transform and sever? How might we be led to evolve into a more compassionate global presence? In the Podcast interview with Laura Lee from November, she expressed feeling excited to be part of a vast and mysterious Universe, where she can contemplate the vastness of the night’s sky. For her, the practice of trance postures helps her transform into a larger cosmic identity, one that truly realizes the stars as our ancestors. As Laura Lee has noted, “gratitude is a piece of the download from Universe, it embraces and enfolds us in Universal love.”
In Antoine St. Exupery’s “Little Prince,” the Fox offered wisdom to the Little Prince that “what is essential is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see truly.” The Universe enfolds and embraces us in Love (which itself is both embodied and ecstatic). This revelation might not be completely visible to the human eye, but felt kinesthetically through the heart.
Drawing from the Hindu culture, another pathway to the heart can come from an understanding of the Dark Mother who is honored as Mother Kali in various forms such as the Goddess Durga. Kali is the one responsible for the ending and beginning of time, yet paradoxically she is also known as the loving Mother.
Like many other faith traditions, Hinduism teaches us to have hope in life while not glossing over or bypassing the real suffering, hardship, and pain that people experience in this world. Could it be that life within the context of a vast evolving Universe has, in fact, arranged the most beneficent circumstances for us to evolve as well?
In a favorite movie of mine from childhood, the “Incredible Shrinking Man,” the hero is beset with the shrinking of his body, suffering unexpected travails and hardships as a result. Ultimately, his perspective shifts towards the larger Cosmos in which his small life is embedded. He eventually finds a peacefulness in finding that in some small way he has an active role in a much vaster of life. How would our lives change if we learned to say “yes” to all aspects of the Universe (both destructive and constructive cycles)?
Seen through the lens of the Hero’s Journey, difficult and rocky times like those we are living through now during this time of pandemic can be viewed as a societal passage through the “Dark night of the Soul,” a concept arising from a courageous faith in the Human spirit even during the darkest despair. By the end of 2020, I was beginning to feel that these trying times can help us all emerge stronger from the numbness of the loss of a sense of normalcy, of friends, family and loved ones. We can learn new ways to change, becoming more collaborative and relational even a bit more human through our experience of a deeper kinship with all of life.
Brian Tucker - Writer, Activist, Interspiritual Explorer – http://interspirituality.org
