Actually, I generally associate white with empty, as in 'white space' and 'white noise' with black being viewed as being filled with infinite possibility. I do admit to using chaotic/chaos to sometimes described huge events involving many, many people; but that said, there is generally a level of organisation to those events that negates any sense of confusion. Confusion, for me, is more often that not associated with disorganisation. These associations have not negatively impacted how I think about darkness. The void/abyss is not a deep dark scary place to look into; which I do think some people think, especially after they hear that Nietzsche quote 'Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster, and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you.' I prefer to view the void/abyss as that which contains all creative potential: the primal caldera from which all potential possibilities spring forth.
Given the current prevailling attitudes of those in power to make sweeping climatic choices, no, I don't have a great deal of hope in the possibilities of a new age. Yet, that said, given the signs that the majority are shaking off the yoke of illusion and ignorance that they've willingly worn for the past decades, perhaps the glimmer does grow a bit stronger. I am trying to nurture that feeling, even though I often quip that I 'will not give up entirely upon humanity no matter how often they prove they don't deserve it.' Colour me cautiously optimistic.
Environmental issues. Add a healthy dose of anger to my despair, please. There are normal cycles of evolution and growth/death that life goes through in all environments. That is good and healthy. The great swathes of dead zones in the oceans and the land strip-mined and poisoned for profit is not. That is what I will protest and continue to pressure others for change, no matter how hopeless it seems at times. People don't bathe in their own filth or the filth of others, why should they live in the toxic shite of others while the robber barons have pristine views of panoramic landscapes. Make the bastards live on mercury tainted fields and eat food taken from poisoned waters and acreage, and see how fast things would change. Again, though, there is a glimmer that people are beginning to say 'no' to being forced to endure these kinds of situations.
While I don't feel compelled to save the entire earth per se, I do try to do my best to make my corner of it a healthy environment. I teach my children, and hopefully reach others, about conserving resources, looking for the most efficient sources of energy, and the aesthetic pleasure of a clean environment even if you have to pick up the litter that someone else threw to the ground. We are not divorced from the earth, nor have we been given the green light to run amok upon it indulging in mindless consumption and destruction of the environment. We are stewards and caretakers of the garden of Original Blessing that the creator[s] bestowed upon us. If everyone viewed humanity as the touch point of the realm of spirit made manifest, and that we were never kicked out of the 'Garden' save in our own twisted views of life and the earth, the world just might look a bit different.
"The problem with Westerners is that they believe they have been kicked out of the garden. They live their lives as if they had been thrown out of the realm of the divine. But the shaman knows that we always have existed and still exist in the Garden. Life is a feast. You are invited to dine."
~Alberto Villoldo
I think that much of this will be done in the morning pages. What I wish to be public has been discussed in the Dark Moon questions so far, and what inner work is occurring this week will stay cocooned in my private journal for the time being.
Again, a very broad question asked about a very broad subject. In reading this chapter and question, it occurs to me that they are written for, at least it seems to me, an audience that is for the most part unfamiliar with these themes/theories, etc. and that this is written as an introduction to the concepts. Not that that is a bad thing, quite the opposite, we all are new to theories and ideas at some point, and even as we get 'experienced' in the ways of the mysteries, it is good to spiral back to the starting places. We stay fresh that way, and find newer questions to ask and explore, and keep ourselves from becoming rigidly fixed in our thinking.
I do know enough that this idea of cosmic cycles is not unknown to our ancestors. That they knew of this is recorded for us in stone if we but open our eyes and minds to see it and accept the messages left for us.
Again, I'm not necessarily of the mind set that the Goddess energy/awareness ever fully left. Perhaps it's a matter of perception, and the majority of the occidental populace was largely unaware of this current. There have been those mystics within the past that kept the knowledge and awareness of the feminine divine alive, honouring it even if it branded them as heretics and saw their works largely destroyed. It could be that they were charged with watching and safe-guarding the fallow field for that time when the seeds of renewal could begin to sprout. They kept the message alive and passed it along, again, for those with ears to hear and eyes to see.
It is what we do with the knowledge in the time that we are given it that matters. For myself, I will continue seeking, questioning, and learning to live in harmony with my environment. If I can share this path with others, then the more the merrier. What is interesting to note, is that some of the ideas touched on in these questions [namely the reemergence of currents and energies] is being discussed on various lists. Both the idea of approaching the new flows with openness and respect and the idea of trying to control and retain 'traditional authority' over the reemerging, stronger currents. Interesting times, indeed.
And as always, I do reserve the right to revisit this answer with additional thoughts, observances, etc., as time and wisdom reveal them to me.
The rest left off, as most of you reading can guess where it is going and fill in the blanks. If you can't leave a comment and I'll fill it in. Part of my solitude is the practise of my morning pages. It is a free and unfiltered conversation with myself and I find that I get out of sorts and cranky when I miss this time for whateer reasons. The one time that I have been skimping on is my walks at lunchtime. I need to begin gifting myself with them again. Walking the trails through the woods at lunch time is very satisfying and an exercise in moving solitude. It is just me and nature, and I can let my mind wander, take in the beauty around me, and/or just walk with an empty mind and let the tension drain out of me. My gift to myself this new seasonal cycle is to begin taking this time again.
First, I loathe with every fibre of my being the term 'herstory' and other associated made up names designed to market feminine empowerment as the superior way of viewing the world. If you absolutely must attribute gender power to the words, use history and heritage. Actually, if you must do that, please just stay away from me until you've matured and can hold a meaningful conversation without finding an invisible threat in a word. I was going to say until you ripen and fall off the tree, but I am trying to be nice today. It may not work as my head is about doing me in at the moment. I am not afraid of the word history and do not feel threatened when someone uses it in my hearing. However, I'd be reasonably cautious around the words 'I will kill you' if they were uttered in my presence. See the difference?
Secondly, I'm not at all sure that I believe in the concept of 'innocent victims' in a major cultural shift. This question, to me, is at once very simple and too broad to discuss in absolutes. I'm not even sure that human cultural development is about matriarchy versus patriarchy, so much as it is about evolving and devolving mental attitudes toward interacting with our environment. In many ways, the past can be viewed as a growing organic creature. The idylls of childhood when cooperation and empathy are discovered and valued, then brash adolescence when everyone else is wrong, stupid, and invincibility is not an illusion but a mental absolute. Then comes the realisation that maybe we aren't as invincible as we thought and maybe, just maybe we better think about things again. I think that we are, for the most part, in the 'maybe we need to think about things' stage and that is why we are seeing a re-emergence of older ideas and principles. We're not content to hang out at the mall any longer and are beginning to enjoy browsing through the library to find knowledge that we can live and work with, and that we can pass along to those who will follow us.
Do I perpetuate a tension between victim and oppressor? Oh hells no. I refuse to participate in the culture of fear and mass hysteria. Dear gods, that is one of the single biggest issues that would get me frothing at the mouth about the past eight years under the Shrub administration. I refuse to duck and cower at shadows on the wall, especially if those crying wolf about those shadows want me to trust them to do my critical thinking for me. I will protest that. I will scream and kick and refuse to be dragged down that path. Will I go out and knee-cap some male for his gender due to perceived past injustice done to women with the blessings of the Patriarch bogey man? No. But if that same male [or female to be honest] tried to hurt me or mine, it's a fair bet that anger and violence would then occur.
To reclaim our sanity doesn't begin with a radical swing to the opposite polar extreme. There is a good reason why all the mystery traditions teach the value of the middle way. Yes, women have been the victims of atrocities in the past. But so have men, and we cannot heal and move forward if we allow ourselves to forget that.
The rising place of awakened feminine currents in all aspects of our world should not be given prominence over the wounded male current. We need to heal that wound so that the male can once more value the life-affirming qualities of the natural masculine current. Father Time and Mother Nature, the Green Man and the Lady of the Wood... they have always been present and point the way to wholeness to those who will listen. Those of us who have been listening and living this balance, well, it falls to us to show others how this can be done and we cannot teach with a fist closed in anger.
Written and discussed in my morning pages.
