During many plant medicine journeys, I fell into the pits of hell. I saw war, famine, torture and anguish as if I was in it. I felt it so deeply that I would be in agony, howling in despair for hours. The plant was showing me the pain of the world as being in me.
Has colonization made us so numb that we cannot, in normal times, feel the pain of a world where millions live in poverty, oppression and hunger? Where species, who have supported us for million of years, are disappearing everyday. Is the food we eat, water we drink and life we live preventing us from feeling and thus acting accordingly? Have we become that mechanized and insensitive?
With our environment toxified by chemical, religious, electromagnetic, radioactive, light pixels and other negative influences, how do we individually and collectively act as white blood cells in a sick and deeply out-of-balance system?
How do we decolonize and rewild ourselves, purifying and transforming the toxicity brought about by dogma, and a mind control education that pushes us to become obedient workers to feed a ruling class’ addiction to control, power and greed.
How do we drink and transform the pus of the world? How do we embrace the pain and oppression of the world as our own?
For many of us, is our longing for community a natural biological impulse to evolve into being an organism? Becoming a part of a whole, with a specific function in the body of the Earth.
Indigenous people, the ones who resisted or escaped colonization (if that’s possible given the might of the the industrial-religious machine!) do not view themselves as separate from their environment. Indigenous people having lived on their ancestors’ land are in on-going communication with their ancestors. They dance in community with the spirit of their ancestors.
Uprooting people from their ancestral land, which war, genocide, private ownership, speculation and imminent domain have done, is a sure way to break a people’s connection with, not only a sense of place, but with its sense of purpose - taking care of the land that has been their ancestors’ home and has sustained them for hundreds and thousands of years.
Without a sense of place and a sense of belonging, we cannot properly function as humans. We no longer feel part of a larger system that we are born from and die into. We do not have a true sense of purpose. We become colonized.
Our longing for community is a natural impulse, a whisper, or sometimes a screaming from the depth of our DNA, our collective memory, our tribal roots, our animal roots.
Trusting that impulse is key to transforming the human world into a new organism where every part is essential and aimed at the same goal-maintaining health and balance in the system.
Where do we now begin, if we are to follow natural impulses and restore balance on Earth, “repairing the World”, as the Hopi say.
Creativity in its pure form IS the voice of the Earth. We need to learn how to listen to our innermost feelings and dreams, and trust these impulses emanating from the heart of the Planet.
We are creatures of the Earth. Our mind, stewed for years in a colonized world, makes us believe that we are separate from that larger body-the Planet, our Mother.
If our heart aches these days, it’s because we are feeling. That means we can also feel the life that it’s possible to create when we extract ourselves from the machine and relearn how to be human again.
We’ve all experienced some degree of community, a feeling of belonging to a larger organism. We feel it in sacred union with someone, with family, a team or in an ecstatic dance. Or while visiting a forest, or swimming with a pod of dolphins.
In these moments, we operate more as an organism, however short-lived. We feed the organism and are fed by it. When that organism is clear about its function, it performs at a higher frequency. That energy heals, inspires and invigorates the cells of the organism.
The threatening circumstances of our damaged natural habitat are activating biological processes in us. Some will become sick (physically, emotionally and spiritually), processing toxicity accumulated through centuries of oppression/genocide/rapes/lies/mind control and pollution of all sorts.
The system of the Earth, in its infinitely perfect design, is equipped to heal.
The pus of the Earth must be understood and transformed.
Community with humans and non-humans is the phenomena that will carry us to a whole new level of existence. We don’t know how human will evolve. We don’t know what’s contained in our DNA.
A Hopi elder said: ”There is a river flowing now very fast. It is so great and swift that there are those who will be afraid. They will try to hold on to the shore. They will feel they are torn apart and will suffer greatly. Know the river has its destination. The elders say we must let go of the shore, push off into the middle of the river, keep our eyes open, and our heads above water. And I say, see who is in there with you and celebrate. At this time in history, we are to take nothing personally, least of all ourselves. For the moment that we do, our spiritual growth and journey comes to a halt. The time for the lone wolf is over. Gather yourselves! Banish the word struggle from your attitude and your vocabulary. All that we do now must be done in a sacred manner and in celebration”.
We have to trust that we can evolve, that we are in it together and that those of us alive in these times are equipped to live and assist in this new birth. Like a birth it can be glorious, messy and terrifying. We are future human beings and doulas all at once.
We are in a chaotic phase of metamorphosis where we are internally dying and being reborn at the same time. The ego must trust that we are all in this together and are all activated by the dire state of the world. The energy pulsing from deep within the Earth, is propelling us into an evolutionary leap to ensure humanity will survive, even if it’s just for a little bit longer.
We are in the process of healing the Planet. We are helping heal the toxicity of the Planet.
The process, however painful is helping bring balance to the system.
We need to feel part of the WE of humanity.
We need to embrace it all. Without doing that, we cannot heal.
We must attune to the greater body of the Earth, to help detoxify the biosphere, while also drawing upon the Earth’s evolutionary vitality to fuel our sacred walk.
This is the new medicine we need to embrace.
“Walk in beauty” they say.
Alright, what do we have to lose anyway?
May the New Year be magical like a forest, full of interesting creatures and wonder.
May we feel at home there, in our own heart, free like all beings should be.
With Love,
