The Role of the Human in the Universe Process

Twelve Principles for Understanding the Universe and the Role of the Human in the Universe Process
by Thomas Berry

1. The universe, the solar system, and the planet Earth, in themselves and in their evolutionary emergence, constitute for the human community the primary revelation of that ultimate mystery whence all things emerge into being.

2. The universe is a unity, an interacting and genetically-related community of beings bound together in an inseparable relationship in space and time. The unity of planet Earth is especially clear: each being of the planet is profoundly implicated in the existence and functioning of every other being.

3. The capacity for ordered self-development, for self-expression, and for intimate presence to other modes of being must be considered as a pervasive psychic dimension of the universe from the beginning.

4. The three basic laws of the universe at all levels of reality are differentiation, subjectivity, and communion. These laws identify the reality, the values, and the directions in which the universe is proceeding.

5. The universe has a violent as well as a harmonious aspect, but it is consistently creative in the larger are of its development.

6. The Earth, within the solar system, is a self-emergent, self-propagating, self-nourishing, self-educating, self-governing, self-healing, self-fulfilling community. All particular life-systems must integrate their being and their functioning within this larger complex of mutually dependent Earth systems.

7. The human emerges within the life systems of Earth as that being in whom the universe reflects on and celebrates itself in a special mode of conscious self-awareness. The human is genetically coded toward further cultural coding, by which specifically human qualities find expression in a remarkable diversity in the various regions of the Earth.

8. Domestication: transition to village life and greater control over the forces of nature took place in the Neolithic period, 12,000 years ago; beginnings of agriculture, domestication of animals, weaving, pottery and new stone implements.

9. The classical civilizations: progressive alienation of the human from the natural world; the rise of cities, elaborate religious expression in ritual and architecture, development of specialized social functions, increase in centralized government, the invention of writing and related technologies.

10. The scientific- technologic al- industrial phase: the violent plundering of the Earth takes place, beginning in Europe and North America. The functioning of Earth is profoundly altered in its chemical balance, its biological systems, and its geological structures. The atmosphere and water are extensively polluted, the soil eroded, and toxic waste accumulates. The mystique of the Earth vanishes from human consciousness.

11. The ecological age: a new intimacy is sought with the integral functioning of the natural world; destructive anthropocentrism is replaced with eco-centrism; transition to the primacy of the integral Earth community.

12. The newly developing ecological community needs a mystique of exaltation and finds it in the renewal of the great cosmic liturgy, which celebrates the new story of the universe and its emergence through evolutionary processes.

Original page online can be found here

-

'In The Image of the Gods' - A Modern Parable

'At the birth of civilisation amidst the ancient rise of the dynasties there emerged a powerful race of beings who superseded all known life in their high intelligence and wisdom. They believed that their inheritance belonged to the stars and that they themselves were indeed a genetic offspring from deliberate breeding with alien intelligences that had arrived from the cosmos to visit their planet Earth in an earlier age : they considered themselves to be in the 'image of their gods'. To this order they built many domains of worship, and erected many centres of astrological significance to study the heavens, the knowledge of the operation of such centres being strictly limited to the higher brethren.

As a further act of worship and thanks to their creators of life, this elite passed a decree where at the ending of every month a human sacrifice would be made as a show of their continuing devotion, and in the hope that their higher ancestors would one day return to view their work. These sacrifices were taken from the regular population of humanoids, as it was the elite wise that were required for the civilisation's constant progress. The choices as to who would be sacrificed were made at random. After a period of time however, the common populace began to grow disgruntled at this state of affairs and became restless at their unvoiced position below the ruling authority. This unease quickly grew and developed into a general state of unrest that was seen by the elite as both a danger to their own positions and to the equilibrium of their society's fabric. They became anxious that a remedy be quickly and effectively found. This question as to how to solve this unrest was sent out to all the great and wise that composed the elite, and to all the most respected and knowledgeable beings.

Finally, after much raised eyebrows, there stepped forward the figure of Jesuem Moham Rosencrantz who was regarded my most to be a highly intelligent individual and a gifted practitioner of magic. He declared that he had looked into this problem deeply and his profound insight and practical knowledge had come up with the ideal solution. This consisted of hypnotising the common people into believing that they were immortal, and if they sacrificed themselves to the gods then their spirit or 'soul' as Jesuem called it ( so as to give it a mystical regal nomenclature ) would ascend to the stars to be beside the throne of their gods and they would continue to exist within eternal peace. Jesuem proposed that this hypnotic trance would lead everyone to believe that the ruling elite were thoughtful and considerate beings who strived for the mutual good of all classes of beings. To add further onto this the populace would be hypnotised into also believing that their present position was a worthy and satisfactory one and that there was no need to strive for any knowledge of awareness of one's self since there would be no need for this as their sole purpose was to live for the community and reach heaven in eternity. This proposal of Jesuem Moham Rosencrantz was welcomed with mighty approval by all the other elite beings, and was soon put into action.

The general humanoid was thus turned into a walking automation, believing in their mundane life and looking towards death as a gateway into the realms of the holy. And so this ancient civilisation remained intact and continued to prosper for many generations, producing much intelligent thought and practises that are sadly lost to the world of today ; known only to the wise few as secret knowledge. Sadly, the only remnants that have remained from this early order is their magic that has been passed through the genetic gene pools for thousands of years. The power of this initial trance state created by Jesuem was so intense that it has survived until this present day in the consciousness of virtually every human. Most people are still living within a diseased sleep, unaware of their state and their lack of knowledge. They still carry with them the idea that once dead their eternal 'soul' will ascend to the land of the gods, and so while alive they maintain this slaved duty to the social order.

It is of interest here to also note that this notion of ascending to the stars has been expanded and developed upon through the ages to incorporate its opposite - namely that if a common man throws his life against the grain of social order or strives to upset the morals of the 'elders', then that being will find their 'soul' being cast eternally into a sphere labelled as 'damnation' which is said to be torturous and an existence of constant pain. Such half-weaved tales have planted themselves into the framework of many present civilisations and the human psyche is now a torn and damaged instrument, affected by bad programming and mental shocks. There will never be a cure for this disintegration until the humanoids begin to become aware of this problem themselves.'

A Modern Parable?

Originally posted here on October 4th 2007

-

Around The Corner?

These days there are just too many signs to ignore the fact that 'something' is around the corner... and the feeling that things just might get worse before it gets better. I was reminded that:

In 2007 Lord Cameron of Dillington, first head of the UK Countryside Agency, famously remarked that Britain was ‘nine meals away from anarchy.’ Britain's food supply is so totally dependent on oil - 95 per cent of the food eaten there is oil-dependent - that if the oil supply to Britain were suddenly to be cut off it would take just three full days before law and order broke down. "We rely on a particularly vulnerable system. Britain needs to invest seriously in agriculture infrastructure if we are to avoid food crisis" said the noble Lord at the time.

A commentator I sometimes read is Dmitry Orlov who has for a number of years compared the collapse of the Soviet Union (he was there), to the forthcoming collapse of the US. Yep - I said 'forthcoming'; Orlov believes it is inevitable. Not only has he been thinking/researching this for the past 2 decades, but he's been actively publishing about this online since at least 2006. At this time back then he was discussing hyperinflation in the US.

Here is a link to a talk he gave in December 2006: it's long so you may prefer to just look at the slides! See - http://www.energybulletin.net/node/23259

Or, for an easier soundbite there is a 11-minute video he recently did with satellite channel Russia Today:

The bottom line of Orlov's hypothesis is that people in the West are just not prepared - for anything. And everyone believes that everything will just get better without any real trouble...

Now we have the G20 proposing that the IMF issues SDR's - Special Drawing Rights - as a reserve global currency 'should' it be required...!

Read -'The G20 moves the world a step closer to a global currency'



Whilst 'The Daily Reckoning' - an influential economic newsletter - had this to say about SDR's:

My brain went into some kind of weird spasm when Zhou Xiaochaun, head of the People’s Bank of China, went on record as saying that he doesn’t trust the dollar to be the world’s reserve currency anymore, and wants, instead of gold, the International Monetary Fund to expand the supply of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs), which is just another stupid fiat currency, to use as the world’s reserve currency!

I can tell by the way you are not screaming in fear and frantically clawing your way to the nearest exit in a generalized panic that you do not know what a Special Drawing Right is. So prepare to scream and claw when I tell you that — according to the Economist magazine, which I cite as a source since you never believe anything I say — an SDR is “a synthetic currency created by the IMF, whose value is determined as a weighted average of the dollar, euro, yen and pound”! ...these Chinese are smart enough to reject an over-valued fiat dollar, but then being so stupid that they prefer, over gold, a basket of four fiat currencies, one of them being the damned dollar, along with their four corrupt governments, which collectively own the IMF by virtue of having funded the damned thing in the first place!

AND - At the same time the Swiss are slipping into deflation territory:

Read - 'Swiss slide into deflation signals the next chapter of this global crisis'


Something is smelling bad... and I have a gut-feeling that 2009 will not be everyone's favourite year. Question is: should we be concerned enough to do anything?

As Orlov says:

It is human nature to want to postpone making unpleasant decisions until the last moment, and we can do so with impunity, provided we leave enough options open for us to choose from. Every day that we live contentedly within the status quo, we restrict our options further and further, by making ourselves increasingly dependent on more and more systems over which we have no control, and on which we cannot rely. But there are also small, conscious steps we can take that break some of these dependencies, and create new options for ourselves. If we take enough such steps, then when the time arrives for a major, life-changing decision, we will be ready.

At least the jury is out for most people. For me - I'm an eternal optimist and I know that it will all work out in the end... YET, it's just the 'meantime' I'm concerned with... what's the point of having savings in the bank when there's either an extended bank holiday (read 'Argentina'), or hyperinflation (read 'Zimbabwe'), or tits up (read 'Soviet Union')??

These days there is too much complacency and not enough asset-building. What's really needed to secure a valuable life? Credit for HDTV 52" screens, or physical resources?

If you had 6 months advance notice of 'something' around the corner - what would you do with your time?



Maybe it's a case of 'Hope for the best - but plan for the worst'!

Then my next thought is.... perhaps we are not actually in control of our lives; only we think we are. We ´think´we are the commanders of our own actions, yet in reality we are...

In the end - things happen to us.

-

The Great Work

At each stage man has to abandon the secure, the trusted, and - for his present moment - the ultimate. At each stage he has to struggle with the denying force of inertia. He has to surmount a mental obstacle as once he had to surmount biological obstacles. If he succeeds, he learns more, understands more, gets closer and closer to participating. It may be that he is now required to confront - and accept - the mechanism of his own evolution...

...History is not the equilibrant of chance and hazard. It does not just happen. The script for the long human story was written by intelligences much greater than man's own. Certain gains and goals for mankind - and for the biosphere of Earth - must be attained within certain intervals of Earth time. These gains are esential for the balance and growth of the solar system of which the Earth is a part. The solar system may itself be subject to a similar pressure in the interest of the galaxy of which it is a part...These intelligences are coercive in proportion as their material is unconscious. They are persuasive in proportion as their material is conscious. The universe is a gradient of consciousness and on this gradient the Earth occupies a low level. Its highest raw material is mankind. Mankind is collectively unconscious of the evolutionary process of which he is a part and he is subject therefore to determinism approaching a hundred per cent.

Even so, the direction imposed on mankind is only relatively coercive. Because of the high energies which are potential in him, man may not be compulsively directed. Means have to be employed which do not outrage the integrity of his potential nature. This is achieved by arranging a bias in favour of those situations which contain developmental possibilities and by limiting man's opportunities for making involuntary choices. About this line there may be marginal interplay of determinism and free will. On the "present moment" of a man or a generation of men these pressures may appear both random and hostile.

Responsibility for this process on Earth lies with an Intelligence which has been called The Hidden Directorate...Below this level, certain members of ordinary humanity, in whom qualitative changes have taken place, are in touch with the Directorate and may at intervals share its consciousness. This group of advanced human individuals is what has been referred to as the Hidden Executive. It is the reality behind all legends of 'masters' and 'initiatives' from earliest historical times to the present. There may be several Centres on earth from which the Executive operates, corresponding to the division of responsibility for humanity assigned before the Withdrawal of 12,000 years ago...

...The Executive works to implement the overall plan of the Directorate. This activity is at extra-sensory level. The Executive also operates at the level of ordinary life through a descending order of initiated subordinates. These take part in the ordinary life of nations and are almost wholly, but not quite, unsuspected. Those active within ordinary life have been known by many names at various periods of history - and pre-history...

...Side by side with action on humanity-in-the-mass, the Executive and its subordinates are concerned with local attempts to raise the conscious level of individual men exceptionally. Such specially selected ordinary individuals may aspire to qualify for participation in the work of the Executive. The process by which they may so qualify is the Magnum Opus - the 'Great Work'. This is equivalent to a vertical ascent to a higher level as opposed to a gradual rise with the evolutionary tide. Opportunities through which ordinary men who have 'begun to suspect' may qualify to enlist in The Great Work are never wholly absent at any time in history, but in terms of the Earth's time-scale, they occur irregularly. Such occasions are related to extra-terrestrial events and these events are not at the discretion even of the Directorate.

When 'the solar wind blows', a major operation of soul-making is begun by the Directorate. As a result, a relatively large number of human individuals may complete a significant part of The Great Work in a single generation. A small number may reach completion. Both categories will serve the evolutionary process of mankind thereafter, but their post-mortem situations may be different. Knowledge of such matters has never in any time of history been absent, but it has always been available in the form of alllegory, never explicitly. Many of the Greek myths are allegorical descriptions of sequences in the Magnum Opus. In recent historical times, corresponding to the development of intellect, suggestions have become increasingly explicit. They have probably never been more explicit than at the present time. This may suggest that the end of a major era is envisaged.

There are indications that an 'Occasion' is currently developing and that its possibilities are being focused chiefly in the West. It is not possible to conjecture whether this is a major or a relatively minor event. It seems safe to assert that it exists. If this is so, and if it is true that information about these matters is now explicit, it may be objected that it is hardly explicit enough to indicate a line of action to those who might be ready to respond.

It may be that matters will never be more explicit than they are and that a successful search for a Source is - and always has been - the minimum price of admission.'

-