Earlier in the year I posted a series of articles about the need to regain a symbolic consciousness -- the need to see the symbolic meaning of events that happen in our inner and outer lives. Recently we have been witnessing the worst ecological disaster in North America with the oil gushing from the depths of the Gulf. We have heard the anger of politicians, the fear of fishermen and others for their livelihood, and the futility of BP to stem this ecological disaster and stop the oil from polluting the shoreline and the sea. But have we been able to look beyond this tragic play of events to recognize the symbolic story that is being told? Can we learn what life is telling us before it is too late?
What is the deeper meaning of this disaster as the flow of oil meets the flow of water -- as our ecological system is destroyed by our need or greed for oil? Symbolic consciousness is not just a tool to listen to our dreams. The signs that speak to us are in the outer as well as the inner world. Symbols tell us the deeper meaning of the images and events that unfold around us. Do we dare at this moment to look beneath the surface to what life is telling us, or do we just regard this event as another glitch in our material culture. The government's response is to halt further deep sea drilling. And while BP tries to fix the leak and restore its image, it continues to invest heavily in the tar sands development in Alberta Canada, "the largest and most environmentally destructive endeavor of all time," which has already devastated an area the size of England and Wales. But this appears safer than the sea, maybe because the devastation can be more contained, or is hidden in the far north.
But there is another story being told if we dare to look and listen -- if we are awake to the symbolic meaning of life. One "resource," oil, is destroying another even more vital "resource," water.
Water is the source of life. Something in our culture has turned against itself, and the technology that has caused this cannot save us. The oil is still pouring. There is no quick and easy solution to the oil slicks washing up on the shore.
One of the ways to work with symbols is to hold these images in our consciousness and be present with them. In this way we allow life to speak to us in this ancient language, which has always been the language of life itself. This is the ancient wisdom of listening to life.
Traditional cultures knew this wisdom, just as they knew the wisdom of nature, plants and the seasons. They knew how to watch the weather and their sailors knew how to listen to the winds. They also knew how to read the book of life just as they knew how to listen to their dreams.
We have lost this essential wisdom, and now life is screaming at us, crying to us, imploring us. Will we wait for the well to be capped and talk about financial recompense while the lawyers bring their lawsuits? Will we once again "have the experience but miss the meaning?" Or before the clocks strikes 12 can we regain the wisdom of our ancestors and hold the real meaning of this experience and finally listen to life itself?
The difficulty is that there will be no easy answer, no quick fix. The images that are speaking to us are too potent and too powerful. They are about the primal values of life itself. But if we dare to hold these images in our consciousness maybe we can make a step toward recognizing that life is a living being that can speak to us. Maybe we can return to a relationship to life that honors it as a sacred whole whose voice can be heard. Maybe we will not have to wait until the next disaster or the next before waking up to our real responsibility to life and the planet.
Of course it is a big step between watching the disaster on the news and recognizing that it is happening to each of us, just as through this crisis life is speaking to each of us. But when we see what our technology, our lifestyles, our values, have caused does it not touch the heart and soul of each of us? We are all responsible. And we need to return to the core of our humanity, to the sacred connection to life that is within each of us. We need to be attentive and listen.
This quality of awareness belongs to the ancient wisdom of the earth that was always known to our ancestors. And when the earth is crying out to us with such a potent image as it is now, is it not our duty to listen? Only when we hear what it is saying, not just in our minds but also in our souls, will we know how to respond.
If we are to reclaim a real relationship to life and to our planet, we must listen to the real story that is being told. It is not just a story of a deep well disaster happening in the Gulf. It is about how our present civilization is causing the waters of life to be polluted and how at present we cannot stop it. And this disaster is taking place all around us and also in our own souls. Only if we listen to life will we know how to respond.
For more on symbolic consciousness and the waters of life, see Alchemy of Light, Working with the Primal Energies of Life.
Andy Borowitz: BP Says It Has Successfully Controlled Flow of Information on Spill
Larry Cohen: There's No Such Thing as an Accident: A Prevention Approach to the Gulf Oil Spill
Adam Clark Estes: HuffPost Meetup On June 8th To Discuss Gulf Oil Spill
BP plans to replace containment cap next month - Yahoo! News
Louisiana Oil Spill 2010 PHOTOS: Gulf Of Mexico Leak Reaches Land
Disaster in the Gulf- msnbc.com
Gulf War oil spill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Reuters.com | Gulf of Mexico Oil Spill
A New Setback in Efforts to Contain the Gulf Oil Spill - NYTimes.com
Today Show: Gulf Oil Spill Aerial View (VIDEO)
Oil Spill to End Family Fishing Business?
Poll: Federal response to Gulf spill rated lower than Katrina efforts
US Reopens Part Of Gulf For Fishing; Closed Area Now 32% Of US Waters
I see a tragedy which is happening and has already happened in many parts of the world sometimes hardly covered in the news.
I see a technology highly developed and effective when it comes to exploiting the planet but strikingly impotent and disappointing when needed to relieve, remedy, mend the consequences of its abuse. I sadly see man powerless, unprepared, small, weak when faced with the planet’s violent response to his aggression.
Carl Sagan wisely saw: “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known”
I see a tragedy which is happening and has already happened in many parts of the world sometimes hardly covered in the news.
I see a technology highly developed and effective when it comes to exploiting the planet but strikingly impotent and disappointing when needed to relieve, remedy, mend the consequences of its abuse. I sadly see man powerless, unprepared, small, weak when faced with the planet’s violent response to his aggression.
Carl Sagan wisely saw: “There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known”
On my way to work in the City of London I pass through a Park, an oasis of green. Over decades huge Plane trees have grown there, swaying their majestic branches high in the heaven and over city people relaxing on benches underneath.
Recently workmen started digging big holes in the grass. I thought they were for planting. I asked. "don't know" was the answer.
The holes were for a big fence. I wondered weather some kind of performance was going to be held there. Posters about the work made me think that way.
Next, there were pictures on the fence: "In the view of the artist: the new station.” I was shocked! The pictures showed a futuristic appearing place with not one single tree.
Next day, passing again, I slowly was able to face the hurtful reality: all those trees would be cut down.
I felt so much pain, that I thought to myself:’ I will take another route, it’s just too painful to witness this destruction step by step’
Then I thought of the rainforest. How often had I heard and seen videos about it’s destruction. Yet only now, that I witnessed it in my life, I actually f e e l the pain w e inflict on Nature.
I decided to take this experience as a wake up call not to run away but witness, be aware and emphasize with the the pain of the Earth.
When I asked for help, the image changed and I could see the earth from above and I knew, that she wants to be valued for her beauty. After that our planet began to vibrate and asked: “Can`t you feel my love buzz?” I’m shocked , because all what we have done to the world is also a rejection of her love ??????
Imagine, what it means to your heart, when you have to express so much love, but nobody, even not your partner, children, parents and friends, are aware of it? The circle of love can not close……. broken heart !!!!!
And when I try to feel the love of the earth, something begins to change, until some thoughts came in, that this symbolic language is nonsense and not more than a fantasy. This is also a kind of pollution and it makes me very vulnerable, when an expression of love is disgraced by such thought patterns.
I see the oil, made from 'the past' as someone has said, as an old structure - my patriarchal conditioning - my thinking - my mind.
The waters of life, the feminine, this is my body. It is through the feminine in me that I can access the deep waters of inspiration and feminine wisdom. I do this by being 'present' in my body, not my mind, and listening to what my body tells me.
"The body holds the wisdom, the mind expresses it" a wise friend told me. Not the other way round, as this culture tells me.
The feminine way - to 'be' and not to 'do'... to listen.. to be receptive. A woman gives birth, so, to hold a space into which something new can come. To honour the sacredness of all life and to connect and value the place of the feminine..
Find some notes from a conversation with a friend when we asked 'how do you redeem the Earth?"
Through her came "Sing a song to me; give something back to me, nothing is too small or too humble and by breathing deeply and long with me, I'll abide in you".
Yesterday at a Gathering one woman shared this: "Only the Song through the land hallows and heals"
This was from the Sumerian culture written 3500 years ago.
This is the feminine way.
Afterward there was a wonderful memorial made of two streams of blue light where the towers once stood reaching towards infinity. It was a poignant reminder of the ephemeral nature of our lives. We received loving support from around the world. The Netherlands sent us millions of daffodil bulbs that bloom every spring around the City reminding us that life and beauty can never be destroyed.
But then no one wanted to pay the electric bill to keep the lights going. Unity dissolved into vengeance and fear. Commercial real estate interests are building a new tower.
We learned nothing.
If I had my wish, in response to this oil spilling our president would call for a national day of mourning and repentance. Let every American honor the dead oil rig workers, the devastated communities and slaughtered wildlife. Let every American stop for one day the wanton, reckless consumption that is breaking Mother Earth's back.
If leadership is not going to come from the White House let it come from the people. Our old way of life has reached its end point. Let us create new ways of being on this planet.
What can you do to help build a new world - today?
For our part, we must both realign with the sacred in the inner world, and witness for that in our actions in the outer world. The latter means resisting the golden calf of consumerism that goes unquestioned in our society and using all means possible to bring about campaign finance reform. Only when citizens can buy their own representation will our government again be "of the People, by the People, and for the People" and the Ship of State begin to turn from it's treacherous course.
Also remembering an article describing the level of oil spill that the people of the Niger Delta have lived with for decades, their protests thoroughly silenced to serve 'greater interests'. This story is not new. but its arrival in the USA, like the volcanic dust over Europe's air space, changes the way we understand it, perhaps giving us a chance to look again and look deeply, as Llewellyn so wisely suggests, at what we prefer not to see.
The nearer language that I have found in an article by Gloria Reuben who said:
"Last fall I traveled to West Virginia to witness mountaintop removal coal mining. I had never seen such destruction of the environment by the hands of man. It was shocking to see how years of corporate disregard and greed had obliterated Mother Nature and left people in the surrounding communities struggling with their health, their income, their honor, and with that fundamental human right: clean water.
We have got to reclaim this country for us, the real human beings."
The extremely good comments to Vaughan-Lee's article show a hunger to hear what he has to say, the need for a deeper understanding of what life is trying to tell us or at this point screaming at us.
As he says: We need to return to the core of our humanity, to the sacred connection to life that is within each of us. We need to be attentive and listen."
THIS SHOULD BE THE HEADLINE OF THE DAY! Please keep this article alive and visible on the HP. Thank you.
I'm certainly holding the images of the spill in my heart, and trying to understand what it means for me (and for us) to take real, living, responsibility right now...
Deep in meditation, I saw a woman's hands in prayer. Next to her, I saw a man's hands in prayer. Then there was a circle of hands in prayer and there were lights above the hands. I saw this circle become a spiral of circles inside the body of the Earth, and also around the body of the Earth, out in space. I heard: 'see the Earth as a prayer'.
I looked at what I had heard. I asked myself what does this mean? I realised then that the Earth, not just us, is a conscious being of Divine remembrance and She is also a place of Divine remembrance in this universe. She is a most beautiful prayer - you only have to look at a sunrise or sunset to see this.
If enough people put their hands together and prayed with Her, prayed that humanity may come back into a sacred relationship with Her, that they may become the true Guardians that they were created to be, maybe, just maybe, could the world wake up?