Brave Men

I am currently reading two books, both very different yet culturally necessary, and each written by someone I would consider a brave man.


The first, The World As it Is: Dispatches on the Myth of Human Progress is written by Chris Hedges.  He is uncompromising in his indictment of our current economic and political system in the West, which he considers morally and ethically bankrupt.  Hedges points out that we are living in times where we have lost our cultural memory, and as a result, we are ever more vulnerable to the forces of totalitarianism.  In addition, he laments the violence and greed which characterize American society, and the ease with which war and militarism have seeped into the psyche of the nation, serving as a reflex response to any threat to its interests.


The second, Of Water and the Spirit: Ritual, Magic and Initiation in the Life of an African Shaman is written by Malidoma Somé.  In this autobiography, Somé shares his painful journey of transversing the colonial intervention into his culture, and finding his way back to a spiritually rich and precious heritage.  Through his story, he reveals the depth at the heart of the shamanic traditions of his people, while trying to build a bridge of understanding to the Western mind - a mind that has lost touch with the ground of its being.


Both men are deeply troubled by the violence and alienation which are so prevalent in the world today, and both call for a remembrance of core human values, and the absolute necessity to honour these values in times where environmental, ethical and political decay are seeping into the collective at an alarming rate.  In addition, while each man comes out of a different religious and spiritual tradition, both are loudly beckoning for a re-sacralization of what is best in us as human beings.


Chris Hedges and Malidoma Somé help to redefine our notion of the Warrior, and reclaim it as beings who honour the integrity and beauty of life.

A Thought to Ponder...

Today I offer you this reflection from Llewellyn Vaughn-Lee:

As this era of masculine dominance comes to an end and a feminine understanding of life’s wholeness is included, we are beginning to experience a different world in which physical, mental, and spiritual well-being are interdependent. We see the signs of this in the new age movement. But the new age movement is often limited by its focus on individual well-being. Our real concern is the well-being of the planet and the whole of humanity. Central to this is the understanding that the physical world cannot be healed from a solely physical perspective, but requires a shift to an attitude that contains a multi-dimensional approach.                                                                         

Confronting Fundamentalism

The events which transpired in Norway this past week are deeply disturbing and horrifying.  The portrait emerging in the news is of a madman so devoted to his own twisted ideals that he could kill so coldly; he clearly feels no remorse, no shame, and no compassion for his victims. So in thrall was he with his vision of a 'perfect' Norway - a white Norway - that he meticulously devoted his resources, time, and energy to fulfilling his own messianic role in a "cleansing" of political elements not in line with his vision of the world.  Shades of fascism rearing their heads within our world yet again.

Last night I watched Rex Murphy of the CBC present a passionate and indignant response to these events.  I kept waiting for him to connect the powerful dots of his arguments to the bigger picture.  He did not.  I was very disappointed.  He wanted to individulize this event, and not turn it into a "political football" (his words).  At the same time, by avoiding the clear racial and ethnic dimensions involved in these acts, he weakened his own moral position.  I wonder if he would have individualized these attacks if a Muslim had committed them in the name of Islam.  I am not so sure - but this remains my speculation in light of the deep bias that is often at work in situations such as these.

In fact, in the hours that followed the attacks, the media were already (erroneously) suggesting that these acts were committed in the name of Islamic fundamentalism.  It's always uncomfortable for the West to examine the shadow of its own culture - its own fundamentalism, racism and hatred.  The fundamentalisms at work in our world today mirror each other.  Fundamentalism and extremism are the scourges tearing at the fabric of unity, diversity, love and compassion - regardless of whether these beliefs are being exercised by a Muslim or a Christian.

Our task, as a global populace both individually and collectively, is to transform fundamentalism and extremism.  There are, and will continue to be, disagreements about how to best do this - and about the degree of cultural openness a society can expand towards while honouring the paradoxical aim to preserve cultural traditions and values.

The symbol of this task is best embodied not in a particular religious symbol, but in the sacred and universal symbol of the circle.  Each individual sits in the circle in their full integrity, but the circle can ever expand to hold more difference and diversity without erasing the identity of its participants. Indigenous cultures - ones which were often subject to the kind of  ethnic "cleansing" the Norwegian extremist espoused - often practiced the wisdom and truth of the circle that the world so desperately needs today. 

The circle is inherently inclusive, loving and infinite - without beginning or end.  It envelops us all in an embrace of belonging, as our deepest source of belonging does not reside with our families or even our cultures, as central as these forms can be to our identity.  First and foremost, we belong to the earth and to all that is - to this great cosmic mother whose various creative chemical and biological permutations through billions of years resulted in the extraordinary event of each one of our births.  When we deny this truth, our hearts shrink and close, and we become more intent on control and perfection. The identification with an ideal that lives outside of the earthly realm becomes a fantasy of "purity."

United in the truth of our deep connection with the earth, our hearts can expand to receive and honour all of life.  In so doing, we can hold an ever increasing consciousness of the truth of diversity.  Diversity supports life - it is at the heart of the life process itself. 

May this wisdom come forth to guide us through the rocky storms ahead.

Healing Trauma

I have lived through a very painful experience of emotional abuse and bullying for standing firm and honouring my core beliefs and conscience. I write this because it is very important to own the truth of my experience.

No other analysis of this phenomenon is as clear-headed, and as validating for the victims of insidious and perverse abuses of power than Marie-France Hirigoyen's Stalking the Soul: Emotional Abuse and the Erosion of Identity.  Hirigoyen's insights are so important because she acknowledges the impact that such abuse has on a person's soul.  It is the hardest for others to comprehend, confusing for the victim, and challenging for witnesses to take a clear stand because of its subtle, yet brutally corrosive impact.  It is also challenging because the abuser engages in highly skilled manipulations and is able to create doubt and deflect the ethical responsibility for their actions.  In fact, they can be quite brilliant at turning the entire situation around and forcing their target to carry the shame for their own actions through character assassination and projected role reversal.

How can the lessons and wisdom gleaned from such an emotionally and psychologically violent encounter be woven into a blanket of healing?

I've arrived at some answers for myself, but being on the receiving end of someone else's unacknowledged grief, pain and rage remains an enigmatic dance of unconscious dynamics. One thing that I am certain about is that only the faith in your own soul (your core spiritual essence) and its connection to the soul of the world is strong enough to pull you through such an ordeal without breaking you.  The love and support of people who care for and love you, the assistance of skilled professionals, and attention to your physical health are all key. Yet the ability to be in the world, trust again, rebuild your life and work, and renew your commitment to what you believe in, can only occur when you surrender to a force within yourself that is infinitely loving, compassionate and just.

There are so many deep traumas in our world which ache for healing.  I know that my own vulnerability has connected me more deeply to the vulnerability of others, and to the wounds present in life.  I don't feel connected in a weak and sentimental way, because I am acutely aware that healing trauma requires true grit, strength and courage.  However, I feel a deeper kinship with others through my experience.  The act of deepening compassion continues through my encounter of walking through the fire and being tested to the core.

Trauma is experienced when human beings confront something so overwhelming (either emotionally, psychologically, or physically), that it forces a re-circuiting of their being in order to circumvent the unendurable. Only a force, a belief, an experience, or a value greater than us has the ability to give us a fighting chance against the overwhelm that could break us into less than who we are. I surrender to that which opens me more fully into life and love, not to that which asks for, or demands, less. 

From this deeply surrendered place, we may find ourselves graced with the wisdom that our painful shattering can be an initiation into a remembrance and renewal of who we were meant to be.  

Sacred Vulnerability

I recently bore witness to a loved one's passing.  The indelible imprint from this time is the deep realization of the power and vulnerability of breath.  At a certain point in the dying process, one becomes aware at such a visceral level that one, single breath separates the mysterious chasm between life and death.

The power that human beings often masquerade behind obscures our shared fragility.  As I read David Abram's beautiful new book, Becoming Animal, I am made ever more conscious of the humble yet exquisite mammals we are.  Sinking into our glorious corporeality, we cannot be anything but grounded.  Grounded and aware of our limitations - and inspired and awed by our deeper underlying interconnectedness.

In grieving the death of another in our shared field, we open ourselves to the raw vulnerability of loss.  Our grief, often expressed in tears and cries, lets our breath follow the final exhale of our loved one - reverberating in our own soulful song with all that is.

Leading Out Unconditional Love

Wholeness can only be led out through unconditional love.  It is the unity of all experience which has the power to heal when it is woven into a new pattern.  Unconditional love - the love that holds true in the face of all experience -  is not a sentimental enterprise. It is gut-wrenching, soul-searing work.  It demands that you see what actually is - not what you want to see, not how you would like things to be, not how you imagine things to be in your fantasy.  Instead, it forces you to deal with what is true, what is real, what has happened.

Sorting this through and holding faith that the painful pieces can, in fact, be transformed into something beautiful is an act of radical courage.  Is this not the kind of courage we are being asked to embody both in relation to our own lives, and to the state of the planet as a whole?

We have made a mess of this planet.  We have made a mess in our systems. We have made a mess of relationships.   Denying this mess is not helpful.  Yes, there are myriad reasons to hope.  Yet hope without action is useless in cleaning up the mess. 

Where do you find the strength to face the mess and begin?  Only in unconditional love, I think. I am not sure anything is powerful enough to really turn things around other than this.  Radical compassion - the compassion born of our shared human experience encompassing all the joy, the pain, the mistakes - lets us move from self-recrimination into expression, and from judgement into healing.  Perfectionism leads towards a denial of our humanity, while acceptance weaves us closer together. 

Together, we can clean up this mess much easier than if we tried to go it alone.  Our leadership is not only born of our strength, but more potently from our humility.  Leading with love is the only path that seems viable enough to help us navigate the tricky terrain our world is facing.

It feels more nourishing to be feasting at a communal table than basking in individual glory.  Today's heroes and heroines may well be those who know how to honour all who sit in the circle.

Communal Gifts

In many Indigenous traditions, one's engagement with one's story and its connection to a larger story is an imperative - a rite of passage that one must undergo in order to move beyond what can often be a petty personal perspective into one's deeper and truer purpose on this planet.  This process brings the individual into contact with his or her essence and deeper gifts as a human being. This rite of passage is often lost  or ignored in broader society, and narcissim is on the rise.  In fact, this narcissm has become so pronounced that it often veers into pathology.

The loss of rites of passage makes it difficult to make the transition from one stage of life to another.  How does one "find a place" for challenging experiences and feel an inner permission to let go, move forward, and integrate the teachings from one phase into the next with clarity?  Without these powerful rites of passage, we are left holding too much in a cracked vessel, and what we are holding is bound to spill out into our immediate realms - often unconsciously.

Living one's gifts is the best way to find peace within oneself. It is in community that one can come to know one's gifts, but when our communities and even our families are so fragmented, our gifts can lie dormant.  In a power-driven and celebrity-driven culture, scarcity infuses the notion of the gifted human being.  In indigenous teachings, each person is gifted.  The community is responsible for helping the other come to know their gifts by mirroring them and leading them out.  The underlying competition that is at the core of our psychic and social lives in modern culture does not consciously engage in the process of leading out communal gifts - it often forces people to invest in the notion of "the best" at the expense of all else.  In addition, our culture is so grounded in analysis and critique at the expense of a more heart-centred and soul-centred perspective that one can be constantly assessing rather than affirming others. Tremendous wealth and connection is lost through this imbalance.

Protesting that "when all are gifted, none are gifted" may seem like a reasonable stance.  Yet the recognition that all human gifts are unique and essential to the community as a whole makes that argument less compelling.  Instead, it might be more worthwhile to consider how one can better embody the classical African concept of ubuntu - I am because you are.  This succint yet profound kernal of wisdom is a generational undertaking in a world as pathologically competitive as ours.