Parsing
the Mystery
“Without
an understanding of myth or religion, without and understanding of
the relationship between destruction and creation, death and rebirth,
the individual suffers the mysteries of life as meaningless mayhem
alone.”
Marion
Woodman (Awaken Website)
Some of us—that is most
humans in the world—are looking at the American political landscape
and wondering aloud, “How on earth did this happen?” Rants of
anger have ground down into questioning ourselves—what does this
say about us, why didn't we see this coming? The truth may be that
our very complacency brought it about. We are a distracted, apathetic
people. Case in point: Only 26% of registered voters in Alabama went
to the poles last Tuesday to vote in the primary races. It seems to
say that we don't care who governs us. In the last two presidential
elections, fewer than 60% of eligible voters cast ballots. So, we get
what we get, and no one should be surprised.
Besides that, however, is
the refusal to look deeper into the mystery of life itself—the
natural cycle of birth, maturity, death, rebirth—happens in all
living systems. We see it in the seasons, in plants, insects and
animals, but we don't so much appreciate that it also applies to us
and our place in the family of humanity. We tend to identify with our
minds and not our bodies, so that when our bodies begin to show signs
of deterioration, we're shocked and mystified. At my age, we talk a
lot about our ailments as though they just came out of the blue and
not out of multiple decades of living. Our societies, too, go through
such changes over time—empires rise and fall and are reborn in
different form.
Sometimes these trends
show up in our myths—our movies and stories—before they show up
in our daily lives. One of my favorite modern myths is the Harry
Potter series in which the witches and wizards, who traditionally are
considered evil, are the saviors of the world. The population
is going along and going along, thinking that the forces of evil have
been forever triumphed over, only to have them reborn and unleashed
into the world. Sound familiar? We thought we had taken care of
racism, but here we go again. We have seen this time and again in our
own history, and in the world's history—example: Hitler and the
rise of the Third Reich in Germany. Most people were oblivious then,
too.
These cycles of
destruction are real, and as horrific as they are when they happen,
they are natural. Take a look at the volcanic eruptions in Hawaii and
Guatemala this month—what could possibly be more destructive? The
big island of Hawaii will be utterly reshaped by the time this
eruption is over, and in Guatemala entire villages have been buried
in ash. Will they rise again like the phoenix? Yes; they will be
reborn. They will begin the cycle again. Destruction, death, rebirth.
America will emerge from this current era changed, but she will
emerge. We can count on that.
In the Spirit,
Jane
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