Be mindful of the power of the words that you use to describe yourself or to even use while thinking about yourself. Those words, that vocabulary, has the power to shape you. Caroline Myss reminds us of that power when she says:
In order to maintain a wound, in order to maintain an image, a dark image, you have to maintain a dark vocabulary. You have to haunt yourself, in other words. You have to have a dark vocabulary . . . . constantly retelling haunting tales to yourself or about somebody.
"Secrets of the White Shaman" by Will Hunt
Will Hunt writes the story of archaeologist and artist Carolyn Boyd’s quest for the key to unfolding the mystery of the ancient rock paintings in the caves near Dead Mans Pass near the Rio Grande. This director of SHUMLA (Studying Human Use of Materials, Land, and Art) has “developed a system to understand this enigmatic art.” He elaborates: “Working like a detective, she discovered a symbolic code that reveals narratives in the paintings, which she believes can be read, almost like an ancient language.” Of course, she has her detractors, but her narratives seem very plausible and, at least, very telling of our fascination with man’s drive to understand his reason very being on the planet.
Boyd refused to believe what Harry Shafer writes in his Ancient Texas, “‘The meanings [of a culture’s symbols] are lost when a culture comes to an end.'” She struck out to undercover connections between then and now. The human narrative woven into all symbols. And she succeeds in a remarkable way.
She said she was “reading a story that hadn’t been read for thousands of years. ‘I was looking at an account of the formation of the cosmos . . . with multiple levels of meaning. It is a creation story, a prescription for ritual, in a sense, a cosmological map.”
What cave paintings are you leaving behind? Do you have a creation story, a prescription for ritual, a cosmological map? Is is decipherable? Will it survive thousands of years? Is there enough life in it to embue with enduring meaning? Where does our culture stand at the moment? How do you stand in it?
Be mindful of what you read right before you go to bed. It is wise advice to not actively use your mind for an hour before you retire, and I think from now on I will heed that advice. Last night somehow in my internet travels, I came across a blog by Anthony Flood. I cannot even pretend to retrace the thread of thoughts and words that led me there. Once there, however, I learned a new word, anarchocapitalism.
I had to turn to Wikipedia to get a fuller sense of what the word means though context alone had given me a strong sense of what it espouses: “Anarcho-capitalists see free-market capitalism as the basis for a free and prosperous society. Murray Rothbard said that the difference between free-market capitalism and ‘state capitalism’ is the difference between ‘peaceful, voluntary exchange’ and a collusive partnership between business and government that uses coercion to subvert the free market.” Interesting delineation. I wonder what human fields either system would emerge from?
In Mr. Floods’ blog entry, he posted a presentation by Peter Schiff to the Austrian Scholars Conference that was over an hour of I-told-you-so about the collapse of the economy. I wish it had been an hour of here’s-what-might-work-to-repair-the economy. At any rate, it was interesting to hear the history of how we got where we are. The bottom line is: people will see what they want to see when we focus on the short-term. The systems in place seem to propogate folly in large part because everyone involved seems most interested in amassing wealth and material goods without understanding what role wealth plays in perpetuating the status quo and how long term perpetuation of the status quo affects the world and the myriad humans sharing that world.
I do think that the aforementioned gentlemen are thinking long term, though I do not necessarily agree with their viewpoints. But I am grateful that we live in a society where discussion occurs. Now if we could just get the media to participate in educating the populous rather than indoctrinating or entertaining. Entertaining indoctrination is deadly.
The bottom line is we need to stringently analyze our daily assumptions and this can only be done by listening to perspectives outside one’s own–as uncomfortable as that may be. Strident calls to muzzle opposing opinions serves no one, especially our children who will suffer mightily from our inability to do so. However, I suggest you do not engage in such activity right before bed. Quiet would better serve you–as it would have me.
I have been watching videos of Caroline Myss workshops based on her upcoming book Defy Gravity. She discusses the axial shift that we are experiencing on the planet that many of us recognize in its most obvious form—the meltdown of our economy. Her structure for discussing this shift is based on the chakra system, but she has added a new layer to her understanding of the chakra system. She has shifted her thinking about our human energy system and prefers the word Grace to Energy.
It’s exciting to see the evolution of her thinking. She has truly claimed her role as a revolutionary thinker and challenges you to join her. And where are we going?:
“We are headed, all of us, into the global age, an age of the psyche and soul. This is the age of mystics out of monasteries, where the inner life will emerge as equal in authority to the physical.”
Are you ready for the ride?
Even though I have lived in a multi-cultural environment for most of my adult life, I have not felt prepared to accept the global age. But we are a global community. There is no denying it, no running from, no hiding from it. I’ve tried. This depletes your “grace-level.” And baby, we are going to need to replenish our grace levels as we step into the age of the psyche and soul.
My new favorite word is Grace. I have come to a new understanding of its meaning, which is helping me to navigate my world in a new and more peaceful way. Below is “a word about grace” taken from the May Newsletter of Caroline Myss.
A word about grace: the ear-mark of grace is that it carries with it the power to transform the receiver. Grace is a “verb”, not a “noun”. The instructions that come through grace lead to action of mind, of heart, and of soul. As you listen with the eyes and ears of your soul, you hold the intention to “see what the other cannot see and hear what the other cannot hear” so that you may be a Light for that person in the Night. To request grace as a prayer, “I ask for the grace of Illumination so that I may see clearly what this person cannot see and hear clearly what this person cannot hear. May I serve as a Divine Light in the Night for this soul.”
