First of all, happy 2013 y'all! I, personally, feel optimistic about 2013, but perhaps not in the way most of you reading this will feel. For the future, I've been shown much loss, much sorrow, more violence, more war, a lot of earth upheaval - particularly flooding and drought and earthquakes (natch :D), and yet I've seen the changing, little by little, of our collective humanity. This past election caused me to (quite literally!) stroke out, especially after reading months of racist, homophobic, pro-war, pro-weapons, the emergence of a fanatical religious wave - whether Christian or Muslim - denial of climate change comments under political articles referencing those topics. I simply could not believe (or, rather, did not want to believe) that so many of my fellow citizens could be so callous, so filled with fear about their neighbor, so obtuse when it came to the Earth-raping by Big Energy and climate change caused by same in conjunction with Big Business, so judgmental where it concerned their less-than-fortunate neighbors, so unenlightened in their belief that those who follow a different or rather same-sex gender preference when matters of the heart sing are evil, as well as the belief that women are still "less than." It sickened me and caused my own mind to reel from the utter hatred of it all. But along with all that mind-numbing insensitivity, I've witnessed little things that have given me great hope and a tiny sense of peace that can be ours if only we allow it to be the "new" norm: neighbors helping neighbors during a calamity, ordinary people taking a stand against the bullies in their communities, businesses giving charitably to their communities without any thought of reward, the lone individual who, tired of seeing her children sickened by a fixable problem caused by drilling or mining or tainted vaccines or chemical/agricultural waste dumping, taking on a giant industry...and winning. All of these fill my heart with hope and the realization that each of us has the power to change that which we can no longer tolerate because it isn't beneficial to us all. Oh, it takes a village, for sure, but it always starts with that one individual who says, "I'm not taking this anymore; something has to be done." And armed with a solution to replace the old paradigm, the chances of change are infinite, because it's one thing to bitch about a problem, but it's quite another to solve that problem. Anything else is, just, well, bitching, which doesn't cause the problem to go away or cause a company to change its business model.
With that thought, that one person, supported by a community of activists, can make positive, lasting changes, here's my dream vision of last night. Please keep in mind that when I dream of myself, "I" am not "me" - I may be the actual victim if it's a murder dream (as I was in Laci Peterson's case), or I might be in the body of a killer (as I was in Casey Anthony's case) or I might represent the collective whole for other types of dreams. In this dream, I represented the Shaman/connector but also the individual:
I was in a future time in which religious zealotry ruled. This future was similar to ours in that One God was the choice of the zealots, and I remember thinking that these people also were fanatics of the Christ. I was shoved into a huge tent, decorated all in white with gold accents: gold ribbons, gold carpets, gold chairs and couches. A woman appeared, dressed in white, and smiled menacingly at me. "You do not believe?" she asked. "No," I replied, adding, "I know there is no 'god' but rather the power of the universal One." "But, are those not the same?" she asked. I replied, "No. By universal One, I mean an individual as part of the whole. Each of us has the power to be god. Each of us is our own savior. Each of us has the power to change that which we cannot tolerate as a society, as a human, as a compassionate, empathic soul and as a sentient being. We are the universal One." Laughing, she told me she'd show me the power of God. She threw her arms open wide and manifested a being shaped like a ball but covered in feathers and threw it at me, shouting, "My God is more powerful than you, Shaman!" I was a bit awe-struck when I caught the ball/being. I marveled over its feathers and shape, and then I became very, very afraid. For whatever reason, I knew the ball/being meant me harm and was very powerful, indeed - just as organized religion of any faith is in our world - just as any big corporation is in its business practices. I tried to throw it back at her, but it was as if the ball paralyzed me. Knowing I was about to face imminent death and had no power to challenge its superiority, I thought, "Huh. I reckon he is." Then I felt a hand on my arm, then many hands, and I felt no longer paralyzed, and we, the universal One, threw the ball/being back at the priestess. I said, "Your god has no more power than any one of us here." As the vision faded, the woman's expression was one of shock, dismay and sadness that her challenge was defeated, and the ball/being growled, "God." (Still gives me chill bumps to think of it.)
It's a hard lesson when we've learned that the dogma we've been taught as a child is erroneous. Jesus, the Buddha, and others have tried to teach us that we each have the power to harness energy and use it beneficially for all; religious leaders have, for the most part, twisted and perverted that knowledge into worshiping a certain person, a certain god, a certain philosophy, whether it benefits a few or not, and usually it only benefits those leaders' pockets. It's a hard lesson when we learn that our parents aren't really all that powerful after all, and that businesses and politicians lie and would stop at almost nothing in order to hold power and influence in our daily lives, often when that very same power and influence harms many. The whole point is that we shouldn't be worshiping any thing, nor should we ever believe that one person/thing is superior to us. We should be celebrating life and each other, whether through the yin or the yang. Stop being so afraid or resigned to the status quo; that powerful entity (whether corporate or a person or a god) is not more powerful than you! Stop being paralyzed into thinking that you have no power. Celebrate that you have the power to challenge that which most believe is superior; make a change for the better! You, and your community, and therefore the extended universal One have all the power and energy to harness at your disposal, if you just tap into it. The next time you feel afraid or unworthy or abandoned, remember that you have the power to change that. Same thing goes if you see an injustice being committed or a person who just needs a shoulder on which to lean: stand up for the person/being who is harmed, lend your shoulder! Don't accept the corporate/religious/political line that there is only one way/one solution; just as there are many ways, many solutions, there is more than one hand on your arm - there are many, but you must take that first step and connect.
This year when mama nature or our politicians or Big Business throws atrocities at us, we will desperately need our fellow mankind to come together as One. One arm, many hands: much more powerful than most people realize and accessible to all.
With that thought, that one person, supported by a community of activists, can make positive, lasting changes, here's my dream vision of last night. Please keep in mind that when I dream of myself, "I" am not "me" - I may be the actual victim if it's a murder dream (as I was in Laci Peterson's case), or I might be in the body of a killer (as I was in Casey Anthony's case) or I might represent the collective whole for other types of dreams. In this dream, I represented the Shaman/connector but also the individual:
I was in a future time in which religious zealotry ruled. This future was similar to ours in that One God was the choice of the zealots, and I remember thinking that these people also were fanatics of the Christ. I was shoved into a huge tent, decorated all in white with gold accents: gold ribbons, gold carpets, gold chairs and couches. A woman appeared, dressed in white, and smiled menacingly at me. "You do not believe?" she asked. "No," I replied, adding, "I know there is no 'god' but rather the power of the universal One." "But, are those not the same?" she asked. I replied, "No. By universal One, I mean an individual as part of the whole. Each of us has the power to be god. Each of us is our own savior. Each of us has the power to change that which we cannot tolerate as a society, as a human, as a compassionate, empathic soul and as a sentient being. We are the universal One." Laughing, she told me she'd show me the power of God. She threw her arms open wide and manifested a being shaped like a ball but covered in feathers and threw it at me, shouting, "My God is more powerful than you, Shaman!" I was a bit awe-struck when I caught the ball/being. I marveled over its feathers and shape, and then I became very, very afraid. For whatever reason, I knew the ball/being meant me harm and was very powerful, indeed - just as organized religion of any faith is in our world - just as any big corporation is in its business practices. I tried to throw it back at her, but it was as if the ball paralyzed me. Knowing I was about to face imminent death and had no power to challenge its superiority, I thought, "Huh. I reckon he is." Then I felt a hand on my arm, then many hands, and I felt no longer paralyzed, and we, the universal One, threw the ball/being back at the priestess. I said, "Your god has no more power than any one of us here." As the vision faded, the woman's expression was one of shock, dismay and sadness that her challenge was defeated, and the ball/being growled, "God." (Still gives me chill bumps to think of it.)
It's a hard lesson when we've learned that the dogma we've been taught as a child is erroneous. Jesus, the Buddha, and others have tried to teach us that we each have the power to harness energy and use it beneficially for all; religious leaders have, for the most part, twisted and perverted that knowledge into worshiping a certain person, a certain god, a certain philosophy, whether it benefits a few or not, and usually it only benefits those leaders' pockets. It's a hard lesson when we learn that our parents aren't really all that powerful after all, and that businesses and politicians lie and would stop at almost nothing in order to hold power and influence in our daily lives, often when that very same power and influence harms many. The whole point is that we shouldn't be worshiping any thing, nor should we ever believe that one person/thing is superior to us. We should be celebrating life and each other, whether through the yin or the yang. Stop being so afraid or resigned to the status quo; that powerful entity (whether corporate or a person or a god) is not more powerful than you! Stop being paralyzed into thinking that you have no power. Celebrate that you have the power to challenge that which most believe is superior; make a change for the better! You, and your community, and therefore the extended universal One have all the power and energy to harness at your disposal, if you just tap into it. The next time you feel afraid or unworthy or abandoned, remember that you have the power to change that. Same thing goes if you see an injustice being committed or a person who just needs a shoulder on which to lean: stand up for the person/being who is harmed, lend your shoulder! Don't accept the corporate/religious/political line that there is only one way/one solution; just as there are many ways, many solutions, there is more than one hand on your arm - there are many, but you must take that first step and connect.
This year when mama nature or our politicians or Big Business throws atrocities at us, we will desperately need our fellow mankind to come together as One. One arm, many hands: much more powerful than most people realize and accessible to all.
