Planetary Mythologies: 3

Analogy Three

Imagine that you have just discovered a civilization as small as a DNA molecule. You want to establish contact, but since your dimensions prevent you from entering the same space-time envelope, you must search for other means of communication. From observing the civilization closely, you find that there is an informational class that seems to carry messages back and forth among parts of the society, and you observe further that these messengers are actually enzymes of a structure that is isomorphic to one of your own patterns of information. Since you cannot talk directly to the members of the civilization, you decide to talk through a patterning of the bits of information the enzymes carry back and forth. Unfortunately, the very act of trying to pattern an enzyme alters its structure so that a part of your own message is always shifted. It seems that the only time the enzymes are able to carry a high proportion of your own message is when their civilizational structure is either breaking apart or just about to come together again. Fascinated by the problem, you choose your opening and closing epochs carefully and begin to carry on an extended conversation with the civilization.

(William Irwin Thompson) 

Planetary Mythologies: 2

Analogy Two

Imagine a vehicle as large as a planet that began a voyage an aeon ago. After generations of voyaging, the mechanics lose all sense of who they are and where they are going. They begin to grow unhappy with their condition and say that the notion that they are on a journey in an enormous vehicle is a myth put forth by the ruling class to disguise its oppression of the mechanical class. There is a revolution and the captain is killed. Elated by their triumph, the mechanics proclaim the dictatorship of the proletariat and destroy the captain's log, which contains, they claim, nothing but the lies of the old ruling class.

(William Irwin Thompson) 

Planetary Mythologies

Analogy One

Imagine insects with a life span of two weeks, and then imagine further that they are trying to build up a science about the nature of time and history. Clearly, they cannot build a model on the basis of a few days in summer. So let us endow them with a language and a culture through which they can pass on their knowledge to future generations. Summer passes, then autumn; finally it is winter. The winter insects are a whole new breed, and they perfect a new and revolutionary science on the basis of the 'hard facts' of their perceptions of snow. As for the myths and legends of summer: certainly the intelligent insects are not going to believe the superstitions of their primitive ancestors.

(William Irwin Thompson)

The Melon

Travelling, a teacher and his disciple were having a rest. At a certain moment, he took a melon from his saddle bag, he divided it in two and both began to eat it.

While eating, the disciple said:

-‘My wise teacher, I know that everything you do has a reason. Sharing this melon with me perhaps is a signal that you have something to teach me.’

The teacher continued eating in silence.

‘By your silence, I understand the hidden question - the disciple insisted - and it must be the following one: the taste which I am experiencing when eating this delicious fruit, where is it: in the melon or my tongue?’

The teacher didn't say anything. The disciple, excited, continued:

‘And as everything in life has a sense, I think I am close to the answer of this question: the taste is an act of love and interdependence between both, because without the melon there would be no object of pleasure and without the tongue.’

‘Stop it!’ - said the teacher – ‘the biggest idiots are those who think they are more intelligent than others and search an interpretation for everything! The melon tastes good, this is more than enough. Let me eat it in peace!’

Small-scale Innovations

Also on the increase are localized micro-finances whereby communities are issuing their own specific local currencies as a means of promoting local business growth. This is a Depression-era idea and helps to tie-in local consumers with their neighbourhood suppliers. It works by local businesses printing money and then consumers exchanging national currencies for the locally issued one and redeeming them in participating stores. Communities throughout Europe, North America, and Asia are buying food and fuel with such currencies as the ‘Detroit Cheers’ and the Bia Kut Chum. Exchange and credit/barter systems have also been running successfully as in the ‘Local Exchange Trading Systems’ (LETS) that are local, exchange networks that trade goods and services without using a currency. Instead, a credit system is in operation whereby individuals can earn credits by performing services which can then be swapped for gaining the services of others. At present it is estimated that over 400 such schemes operate in the UK alone, with others in France, Australia, and Switzerland.

Such schemes also encourage the interaction and sense of proximity between people and neighbourhoods. We are seeing a shift that utilizes small-scale innovations to replace broader top-heavy dependencies. As elitist Henry Kissinger once famously remarked: ‘Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people’. Such monopolies of control belong to the old paradigm and will find no welcome as people collectively shift towards self-determination. It is predicted that these ‘agents of self-determination’ will emerge as a new social generation of disruptive innovators. A recent UK Report has described this ‘new wave of environmental pioneers’ as bringing in new and unexpected forms of ‘disruptive innovation’. Disruptive innovation is that which is unexpected and arrives, usually from the periphery or bottom-up, to provide services that have previously been monopolised. Such disruptions are highly threatening to the hierarchical status quo, yet often empowering to civil society. The UK Report states that: ‘In short, we need disruptive forms of innovation – cheaper, easier-to-use alternatives to existing products or services often produced by non-traditional players’. It further notes that this is not only a question of ‘new technologies’ but of ‘wider forms of innovation’. There is much disruptive innovation taking place around the world, with many ‘tinkerers’ searching for solutions beneficial for people rather than for profit. And this shall be the new paradigm, the new civic order: a re-organising of the social sphere away from consumerist dependency and exploitation, and towards self-empowerment and community sustainability. People shall be motivated for their families and for other people rather than for profit and those binary digits in a virtual bank somewhere. The fallacy of the old world with its delusional constraints will become transparent and will anger a lot of people. The veil will begin to fall, the curtain pulled back, and Dorothy will see the Wizard as the small grey-bearded man and not as the powerful Maestro. We have been fooled for far too long, and it is time to wake up, to engage with the program of evolutionary change, and to move on. As Doris Lessing wrote:

There is no epoch in history that seems to us as it must have to the people who lived through it. What we live through, in any age, is the effect on us of mass emotions and of social conditions from which it is almost impossible to detach ourselves. Often the mass emotions are those which seem the noblest, best and most beautiful. And yet, inside a year, five years, a decade, five decades, people will be asking, “How could they have believed that?

The time is ripe for a new kind of emergent innovation; one that comes from high energies of experimentation and enthusiasm. Whatever the disastrous social consequences that the world may be forced to live through in the early 21st century, the regeneration will be worth it. Evolution is moving up a spiral and needs to shed some dirty, unclean energies. In short, it needs to get its house in order for the move. And so do we - for we shall be moving too.

A revolution can exist at many levels. It can manifest in physical, emotional, and spiritual change. When that change arrives it is important to accept the uncertain, the unknown. Many people may be forced into action, even if this seems distasteful and unwanted at first. People are often initially afraid of change; afraid of leaving secure territory. Yet we need to change. And when many things are not understandable, the worth of a person will be found not through their wasted thought but through their constructive actions. The next, and final, chapter will discuss some of these evolutionary and potentially radical changes for humankind.

Social Innovations

Frustration and despair can soon shift towards resilience, renewal, and regeneration. When the ground beneath the feet becomes loose, the human capacity to furrow anew comes into play. What is being proposed within this framework of a ‘new civil order’ is that as people are forced to learn new skills, people will take more and more responsibility for themselves. This will manifest also in revitalized concerns for one’s family, friends, and community. A shift of dependency is likely to occur that will take back power that many people had previously given away into external socio-political institutions (and commercial dependencies), and use this to empower themselves. People’s relationship with technology is also likely to undergo a re-evaluation. Instead of being wholly dependent upon complex, unknowable technologies, people will learn to re-design tools to aid and empower them rather than pacify. The view taken in this book is that future years will not see the coming of a super-technological singularity (as envisioned by Ray Kurzweil ), but a re-configuring of our technologies. By this it is meant that instead of technology working beyond us and out of our reach, it will be working for us, and sometimes in more simplified forms. One of the immediate concerns will be energy requirements. Given that a true free-energy revolution is still an uncertainty, alternative energy will need to be harnessed from solar, wind, water, and other natural sources. The corporate red-herring of agro-fuels (mass-produced ‘bio’-fuels) is likely to be rejected by local communities who are seeking to shift to low-carbon alternatives using ‘real’ biofuels. True biofuels are produced from waste such as biogas from manure or landfill or waste vegetable oil. Their development, however, is so far limited. This situation is likely to change once necessity becomes a key factor. Already some local communities are developing their own low-key diesel manufacturing through re-cycling waste vegetable oil. These DIY projects can be developed further by well-organised communities using agricultural processes.

There are a range of oilseed crops, such as sunflower, rape seeds, soy, palm and jatropha, which can be converted into biodiesel used on its own or blended with conventional diesel. A range of cellulosic materials, such as various waste products from crops (including grasses, trees and wood) can be broken down with enzymes and turned into bio-ethanol. Bio-ethanol can also be produced from a number of crops including sugarcane, sugar beet, barley, corn/maize, grain, and cotton. Using cellulosic biomass to produce ethanol would lessen the strain placed upon standard agricultural land needed for growing crops. Butanol is currently a potential second-generation bio-fuel produced by fermentation from a range of organic material, such as molasses left behind by sugar production or whey from cheese production. Butanol has several advantages over ethanol in terms of higher energy output and being easily blended with diesel. In the future we may see regional areas, and localized communities, adopting a bottom-up biofuels market that would serve to create energy-sufficient lifestyles. This can be achieved not only through a supply of recyclable waste but also through citizen-managed low-scale farming. Genuine biofuel schemes could be located within sustainable programs based within active communities and separate from corporate top-down energy suppliers. This would involve a move from mass production to distributed and localised schemes which would aid many communities. It is foreseeable that these, and more, energy innovations will begin to manifest through grass-roots pioneering and newly emerging citizen information networks. The corporate control and monopoly upon such natural resources, and primary human needs, will be rejected for local empowerment projects. Part of the civil revolution will occur when people, desperate in terms of supplying basic needs, will be forced to create these supplies for themselves. Then there will be no going back; no return to former dependencies.

Projects and schemes already underway around the world include gardening workshops for growing-your-own. Information made available for ‘self-farmers’ will encourage food production to be once again a prime aspect of family and civic life. There is currently a growth in the number of urban gardens and communal composting. Neighbourhoods are sourcing water supplies and introducing local permaculture schemes. Social networks are already established that seek to bring home-gardeners together to share tips, advice, and friendship. One such social network - Freedom Gardens – describes itself as ‘a food security movement person to person…A modern gardening era/movement for the 21st century resulting in efforts to become free of foreign oil, corporate controls, contamination and food miles while creating a sustainable future by promoting local food production’. Inspired innovators are currently developing new sustainable alternatives to industrial agriculture that push towards forming a ‘post-industrial food system’ that is less resource intensive and more locally-based and managed. An array of such start-ups include BrightFarm Systems,SPIN-Farming, Virtually Green, Aquacopia, and NewSeed Advisors. Similarly, new networks are emerging of investors, donors, entrepreneurs, farmers, and activists who are committed to building local food systems and local economies.

In a similar manner the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) elders suggest a re-vitalizing of sustainable, locally-orientated cultures; they suggest the creation of 'liberation technologies'. By this they mean technologies that can be created and used by people in a specific locality to enhance self-sufficiency and respect for the natural world. Wind turbines, solar power, biomass plants, and organic agriculture are all examples of liberation technologies. Likewise, Dhyani, who puts forth Cherokee teachings, states that

This age ending has been a time when people have gathered information about building and about inventions to make life better. Now it's time for people to recognize that the inventions are a creation of mind, to put aside such inventions as cause harm, and to bring forth and further develop those activities that benefit all beings and the future generations.

Alternative technologies are arising that seek to bypass traditional dependencies as the civil movement grows in power and determination. There are now markets for rocket stoves, vegetable oil generators, solar fridges, cheap wind generators, and reusable water bottles used as solar lamps. Innovations are also turning shipping containers into virtually cost-free homes. Social information networks are advising people on how to make their own soap, toothpaste, clothes, and much more. Instead of re-cycling there is now a movement towards pre-cycling; that is, training people on how to exist not only on what they have but to transform their conception of necessity so that non-primary needs are taken out of the equation. Individuals and communities are learning how to live more on less. Part of this re-education is a perceptual paradigm (a ‘new mind for a new world’). For many of us, if we don’t choose to think and behave differently in the upcoming years, then we may be forced into change – and perhaps brutally.

New Civic Order

A prescient report from 1997 forecasted a possible future social scenario that was termed the Great Transition which involved a social shift towards new paradigms of sustainability in the form of Eco-communalism. In this the report envisioned a network of self-reliant communities:

Eco-communalism could emerge from a New Sustainability Paradigm world if a powerful consensus arose for localism, diversity, and autonomy… Eco-communalism might emerge in the recovery from ‘breakdown’. Under conditions of reduced population and a rupture in modern institutions, a network of societies, guided by a “small-is-beautiful” philosophy conceivably could arise.

Physical social networks modelled on self-reliant communities could be established that are based around ecological practices. Already some urban design groups are using industrial ecology techniques, as in the integrated resource management system (IRM). In this way there is a shift that sees urban centres becoming closer to ‘living’ centres that encourage closer physical proximity and interaction between citizens.

Another example of creative architectural thinking is that of the ‘Compact City’ proposal from celebrity architect Richard Rogers. Rogers proposes that the creation of the modern Compact City rejects the dominance of the car and instead favours a design whereby ‘communities thrive’ and the streets are re-balanced ‘in favour of the pedestrian and the community’. Further, Rogers’s ‘Compact City’ design proposes that home, work, and leisure districts/regions/zones become more densely interrelated and overlapped rather than as separated areas.

The compact city idea is to increase the density of shared spaces so that there are increased opportunities for social connection and interaction. There is a rise worldwide in urban innovation that seeks to move towards constructing more compact, sustainable communities. This will become more of an imperative, rather than luxury thinking, in the ensuing years. Such changes will need to be implemented if our social systems are to be resilient enough to adapt to the coming global changes. The emphasis needs to be upon recycling of goods and waste, efficient alternative energy production, localized distribution, and change in such social drivers as consumerism, economics, and general well-being. Already several precedents exist; one of these being the concept of garden cities and the ‘garden city movement’.

This movement was founded in 1898 by Ebenezer Howard in England as an alternative to existing urban schemes. Garden cities involved the merging of town and country, of rural partnerships with urban dynamics. They were designed as self-contained communities containing living, working, and agriculture surrounded by green belts and public spaces. In this respect Howard’s thinking was ahead of its time in seeing the need for both rural and urban improvement as a single process. The garden city movement was inspired by Howard’s first book titled To-morrow: a Peaceful Path to Real Reform (1898). The Garden City Association was founded in 1899 and led to two new cities in England being constructed around this design: Letchworth Garden City in 1903 and Welwyn Garden City in 1920. Howard planned his garden cities to be located on roughly 6,000 acres of land, with 1,000 acres set aside for accommodating up to 32,000 residents, and for an additional 2,000 people on the surrounding agricultural estate. The circular garden city town plan had 120-foot wide radiating tree-lined boulevards, and each city linked to other larger cities via railways. The design for such garden cities even today seems remarkably environmentally aware:

Howard meticulously separated pedestrian streets and vehicle traffic, and residential and industrial areas. When a garden city had reached its optimal population of 32,000, its growth would be halted and another town of similar size would be built within its own zone of land. But the inhabitants of the one could very quickly reach the other by a rapid transit system, and thus the people of the two towns would really be part of one community.

The concept of the garden city was also especially influential in the United States with the creation of Pittsburgh’s Chatham Village; Sunnyside, Queens; Radburn, New Jersey; Jackson Heights, Queens; the Woodbourne neighbourhood of Boston; Garden City, New York; and Baldwin Hills Village in Los Angeles. In Canada there is the garden city of Walkerville, Ontario, and the first German garden city, Hellerau, a suburb of Dresden, was founded in 1909.

Howard also believed in citizen participation whereby the town residents could own a share of the city’s assets. Even today a foundation jointly owned by the citizens of Letchworth controls 5,300 acres of land, including two farms and 118 shops. All the money earned from these ventures stays in the community, and from the period 1997 to 2003 the community’s assets trebled to £160 million. This shows that with the correct organization, intention, and dynamic motivation, communities can be created for the better well-being of its citizens. Also, such living centres can become more self-sustainable and environmentally connected to the Earth. The garden city concept can be an inspiration for those communities wishing to accommodate increased agricultural spaces for growing vegetables. Over recent years there has been a vigorous interest in permaculture as a way of combining living centres with agricultural systems.

Permaculture is a way of integrating the ecology of natural agricultural practices with the needs of the community. The word permaculture, as a combination of permanent agriculture and permanent culture, reflects the social aspects of the system. Permaculture encourages the construction of self-sufficient communities that work with nature’s cycles within the surrounding ecosystem. Permaculture is often seen as a more holistic system as it looks at both the natural (agricultural) and human systems as a whole, rather than as separate systems. In this way localized communities could benefit tremendously from incorporating permaculture practices into their way of life. Not only would it provide a means for self-sufficiency but also help to sustain the local ecosystems at a time of increased strain.

The future years will demand that we change many of our current practices. It is imperative that creative individuals begin to think ‘out of the box’. Civic regeneration requires left-hemispheric thinking as well as the right; lateral thinking as well as rational. The good news is that the world is already awash with impressive grassroots social innovations. It seems that our future will be steered more from the bottom-up than from the top-down.

The Social Collective

Just as humans are a social species, individuals are the building blocks of society. The worth of any society is the sum of the citizens who comprise it. Unfortunately, most political systems dumfound and dumb-down the masses, and castrate the power of the people. Yet this form of social castration has been increasingly contested over recent years by the welcome emergence and rise of some powerful and potent civil movements and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). A part of the upcoming social transitions will be the need for increased social agency. The social community should once again become an empowering body; a collective that invests diverse individuals to work together for the common good. In this way people are encouraged to become more creative, constructive, and influential within collective life. This can work as an encouragement for each person to develop to the best of their capacity; to be a functional human, able to transform dynamic inner power into a productive and useful force. Repeating what was said before, the renowned metaphysical poet John Donne once wrote - no man is an island.

Social scientist and futurist Duane Elgin has researched and written extensively upon the subject of social consciousness and evolving societies. In this respect he writes that

When we communicate and reflect among ourselves as citizens—publicly learning about and affirming our shared sentiments as an extended community—then we “know that we know.” In our dangerous and difficult time of global transition, it is not sufficient for civilizations to be wise; we must become “doubly wise” through social communication that clearly reveals our collective knowing to ourselves. Once there is a capacity for sustained and authentic social reflection, we will then have the means to achieve a shared understanding and a working consensus regarding appropriate actions for a positive future. Actions can then come quickly and voluntarily. We can mobilize ourselves purposefully, and each person can contribute his or her unique talents to building a life-affirming future.

Elgin goes on to state that for a sustainable future to be viable it needs six requirements: to dismantle consumerism; to return to ecological living; to engage with sustainable futures; to create a conscious democracy; to embrace a reflective paradigm; and to work with reconciliation. All these features support a communal immersion; the very opposite of what has been occurring within the western urban landscape. To a large degree modern urban living has contributed in isolating individuals from their wider social community and from the influence of their peers. Many have been starved of developmental input that comes from dynamic social intercourse. Progress cannot be achieved through extremes: neither through total individualism (anarchy) nor through an absolute collective (totalitarianism). As in quantum physics, each living organism has the capacity to function both as a sentient individual (the particle), and as part of the unified collective field (the wave).




In fact, the concept of the ‘organic collective’ has been a central theme running through many science-fiction stories. As just one obscure example, a pulp paperback sci-fi book from Norman Spinrad called ‘The Solarians’ (1966) has the following extract:

‘As the human race evolves, the differences among its individual members become greater, not less. Specialisation becomes more and more pronounced. And if the race continued to be organised on the basis of nations, clans, families of like clustering together…

‘The human race would explode!’

‘Exactly,’ said Lingo. ‘The Organic Group is a new basic unit, based not on the similarity of its members, but on their differences. It’s not merely a good idea – its an evolutionary necessity…And of course, with the basic unit built upon this kind of functional cooperation, the whole civilisation is stable and unified.’

So the growth and development of the individual within a diverse yet coherent collective might be, using the words of Lingo above, not merely a good idea but an evolutionary necessity. To accomplish this may require new forms of social community: emerging micro-communities; transit-orientated communities; garden cities; eco-cities, etc. This could foster a new sense of contracted and coherent communities to replace the alienation of large urbanized areas and suburban sprawl.

Urban life is increasingly out of balance with the needs of the people. This situation will be exacerbated when disruptive events impact the daily life of the urbanite. This is especially so if the individual is dependent upon supermarket food supplies, petrol station fuel, and other necessary external amenities. In short, the average urbanite is partly (and sometimes wholly) dependent upon the plentiful supply of ‘always available’ goods, such as food and energy. As western societies, and their cities, have become increasingly complex, their supply infrastructures have likewise become increasingly complex, interdependent, and fragile. In these modern times, no event occurs in isolation as everything is connected to everything else; thus, everything matters. As most major cities go, life is comfortable within the home, yet moving around within the city offers less and less pleasure, safety, and comfort. As civil unrest manifests, as it is almost certain it will, major European cities will see bouts of violence, disorder, and potential chaos. Perhaps even some areas will become ‘no-go’ zones (as they already exist in some US and South American cities, for example). It is necessary then to address the issue of creating more sustainable social living zones. Until now, too much effort has been placed into creating suburban sprawls that alienate the community; families are either boxed-in their homes or boxed-in the iron-cage of the car. The rise of suburban living has been described as ‘best understood as the greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world’.




It is important then that creative individuals view the upcoming years (or even decades) as opportunities to transform these dense urban zones into more compact, sustainable living centres. For example, instead of segregated areas the city could be functionally integrated between living, working, and leisure areas; mixed-income communities integrated as different skill-sets are likely to be important rather than traditional income status. Also, public spaces can be transformed into well-integrated and interconnected walkable networks and easy-access corridors. A sense of community needs to be re-vitalized through open spaces, parks, and community landscaping projects such as communal gardens and food gardens. Superstores and large shopping complexes should be replaced with local shopping areas and farmer’s markets. Whilst this may sound the death-knell for many corporate giants, their presence will be replaced by something more beneficial to the community. The large supermarkets have exploited and manipulated consumer demand for too long, and many smaller retailers and farmers have suffered greatly over their monopoly. There are already positive signs that groups of individuals are recognizing the urgent need to transform urban living centres.





A recent movement called NewUrbanism was established online in 1998 and has grown to promote ‘good urbanism, smart transportation, transit oriented development and sustainability’ . The organisation promotes policies for national and local governments to revitalise many existing cities and towns into walkable, car-free, mixed-use communities. This has influenced the creation, in 2001, of the Charter of the New Urbanism, which states that:

We advocate the restructuring of public policy and development practices to support the following principles: neighborhoods should be diverse in use and population; communities should be designed for the pedestrian and transit as well as the car; cities and towns should be shaped by physically defined and universally accessible public spaces and community institutions; urban places should be framed by architecture and landscape design that celebrate local history, climate, ecology, and building practice.

Out of this ‘new urbanism’ movement has also emerged a trend in urban development called Transit Oriented Development, or TOD. For example, in the town of Orenco Station (15 miles west of Portland, US) transit-oriented development has been successfully implemented. It was designed as a neighbourhood community and organized around a pedestrian spine that extends out towards a grid of walkable tree-lined streets and parks. The town promotes a walkable, pedestrian-friendly community and discourages the use of the car and other fossil-fuel transit.




Likewise, Principles of Intelligent Urbanism (PIU) is a theory of urban planning that aims to integrate various environmental, technological, socio-cultural, and mobility needs into urban design. As put forward by architect Christopher Charles Benninger in 2001, PIU works towards maximising human interaction, public spaces and movement, and environmental sustainability. A similar movement has been gaining momentum within the UK and which specifically aims to transform smaller towns into sustainable communities.




The ‘Transition Towns’ movement was established as a means to design a strategy for helping small towns move away from fossil fuel dependency. It also promotes public participation and citizen action within the context of a sustainable and self-sufficient community. The first UK ‘transition town’ was Totnes in Devon, where local town forums were created for citizens to come together and decide on ways to develop low-carbon energy resources. In other words, how better to survive in a ‘post-peak oil’ world. The ‘Transition Town’ network, in its mission statement, aims to

inspire, inform, support and train communities as they consider, adopt and implement a Transition Initiative. We’re building a range of materials, training courses, events, tools and techniques, resources and a general support capability to help these communities…We’re hoping that through this work, communities across the UK will unleash their own collective genius and embark on an imaginative and practical range of connected initiatives, leading to a way of life that is more resilient, more fulfilling and more equitable, and that has dramatically lower levels of carbon emissions.

The ‘Transition Towns’ movement aims to raise awareness by giving talks and screening films in various towns and villages. One of their creative projects has been the introduction of a local currency (such as the ‘Totnes pounds’) that can only be spent in local shops. The move to local currencies is also on the increase in various towns across the US as a way to revitalize local businesses in the wake of the global financial crisis. Representatives of the transition town movement have also conducted ‘oil vulnerability auditing workshops’ with local businesses to see how they can reduce their reliance on oil. Other local projects set up under the scheme include running workshops on growing fruit and vegetables, bread-baking and sock-darning. So far there are over thirty towns and cities in England signed up to a ‘Transition Town’ plan, with others in Ireland, Wales, Scotland, and as far afield as Australia and New Zealand. Schemes such as this, and others similar, are on the increase in communities all over the world. People are reading the signs and becoming motivated and inspired. The writing is, as they say, already on the wall; and as more people get this ‘gut feeling’ there will be more and more alternative community projects arising. It is essential that in these times people – individually and collectively – start to take power back into their own hands. The creative energies residing within the human network has been either ignored or under-used for far too long. People need to take the initiative as familiar structures around begin to fail and dissolve. The opposite, doing nothing and weeping for sorrow or in despair, will do nobody any good. We are being encouraged (or pushed) to show ourselves how wonderfully resilient, resourceful, and creative we can really be. Many of us may be surprised at what can be achieved when a group of motivated people join together. To quote again the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead: ‘A small group of thoughtful people could change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has’.




For now the transition town initiative is largely restricted to smaller towns, where civic engagement and localised sustainable practices from the bottom-up have some chance of success. However, the same model could work in larger cities if they split into smaller scale sustainable neighbourhoods.

Re-evaluating life principles

As events begin to unfold and social changes become more manifest it is likely that more and more people will feel the ‘pull-n-push’ towards downsizing and re-evaluating life principles and needs. The old thinking and energies of self-survival and material gain will need to be replaced with a new paradigm of creation, communication, and collaboration. The new imperatives and opportunities arising will require us to embark on a path towards re-vitalized partnership relations of community. The era of global excess and greed, which filtered down to the masses as consumer excess and credit greed, is no longer a viable future path. We have now been getting a wake-up call we cannot ignore. As one-time business advisor David Korten now explains:

Rather than to give in to despair in this often frightening time, let us rejoice in the privilege of being alive at a moment of creative opportunity unprecedented in the human experience...Let our descendants look back on this time as the time of the Great Turning, when humanity made a bold choice to birth a new era devoted to actualizing the higher potentials of our human nature - We are the ones we have been waiting for.

We have been waiting for the opportunity and challenge to adjust to new changes. In this respect, we have been waiting long enough for what will be an epochal transition. The challenges facing us are not so much about a ‘once change’, leaving us again to sit comfortably in our newly adapted state. Rather, we are encouraged to shift into a permanent state of adaptation so as to be better placed to face uncertainty. Such uncertainties may push social affairs towards reorganization at more contracted levels and scale of activity. In the face of these contractions individuals need to start thinking soon about what courses of action to take. We can walk into the future willingly, or we can be back-flipped kicking and screaming like children. Either way, it seems highly likely that novel social transitions are coming down the line.

Social Transitions

According to social commentator James Kunstler those of us who presently live in the comfortable ‘west’ are facing ‘the comprehensive downscaling, rescaling, downsizing, and relocalizing of all our activities, a radical reorganization of the way we live in the most fundamental particulars’. This may come as a shock to the many who are constantly connected into a networked global world. Does this mean we are to be transported back into the Dark Ages? In a previous post I made mention to an almost Dark Ages scenario that I termed ‘Lock-Down’. This was suggested as a physical possibility should tumultuous events play out over a prolonged period of time. However, once the turbulence has passed (which I feel will be short-lived rather than protracted), there will be a different kind of age. It will be a return to values and relationships no longer obscured by unbalance and folly. The 21st century should be the Age where we recover many of the valuable insights and skills in the art of living. Our efforts and skills, the very basis of our human activities – our spiritual and moral values – need to be re-directed towards creating a more integral relationship between human living and our earthly environment. In other words, we need to discover a ‘way back’ to the Earth that has been forgotten. We, as individuals, need to develop our critical reflexive faculties and to find a balance between inner and outer needs. We require food, clothing, shelter, and community; we also require a sense of worth and belonging, of communion with our environment. In giving shape to ourselves radical new social and cultural forms are needed. These new forms should serve to place the human within the dynamics of a living cosmic, creative, intelligent universe. After all, the universe of which we form a part is a fundamental sacred reality. By losing our connection with the sacrosanct we create a bubble of alienation between our species and our planetary and cosmic home. This is not esoteric blurb, these are natural laws. For many of us the context for our existence has become mechanical and often unfulfilling. We have lost touch with the organic, with the alive and renewing, and exist in material cocoons that are drip-fed. Within this barren context we obscure our natural capacity for intimacy and cohesion with the living sea of energy that surrounds us. We have so far lacked the epiphany (or revelationary experience) needed to shock human consciousness awake to its sacred communion with living processes. Perhaps that shock epiphany will come in the form of crisis transitions. In this sense we ‘need to reinvent the human within the community of life systems’. Instead of being a pivotal force the human has become an addendum or intrusion into organic, living processes because of a lack of spiritual insight and understanding. Cultural historian Thomas Berry reinforces this predicament when he says

The proposal has been made that no effective restoration of a viable mode of human presence on the planet will take place until such intimate human rapport with the Earth community and the entire functioning of the universe is reestablished on an extensive scale.

This point emphasizes that the human presence exists within both a physical environmental context as well as a cosmic universal one. All things thus exist in differing degrees within all levels: this is our integrative creative, living matrix. It is another name for LIFE (Living an Integrated Fulfilling Existence).

New Social Formations

The upcoming decades will be different from what has gone before. Our global society is in the midst of a great transition which will usher in new social and cultural formations. Many nations have been living the ‘high life’ as a result of the prosperity afforded by rapid industrial, technological, and material growth. The long-tail of this – the Technological Revolution – has been fundamental in stretching tentacles of dependency far and wide. Complex structures of supply, demand, and energy, are now near to breaking points.

Some of the converging crises now facing us range from global climate, energy resources, urban population growth, geopolitical insecurities, and solar storms. Having the potential for a range of critical impacts to converge simultaneously upon our social systems offers the possibility for a major revolution on a worldwide scale. Some of the consequences of these unstable systems are already beginning to play out on the global stage. If, on top of these crises, we witness the reality of political mismanagement then the ensuing fallout may be exacerbated. The new century for humankind begins as the traditional structures provided by governments, social and political institutions, are overwhelmed and no longer capable of serving humankind in its best interests. Problems and difficulties are likely to rise up, like a tsunami, and manifest in our immediate social environments. Yet unlike a natural tsunami, this one will serve also to clean the slate and clear the brushwood. It will provide the opportunity for individuals and communities to re-evaluate their life priorities. It will be a time for re-construction upon newly emerging perceptions of how better to lead a fulfilling life. Yet perhaps not for everyone: there will still be many who choose to return to the old familiar – tried and tested – ways, especially if they wielded power in those systems. However, this will prove difficult as some of the old systems will not longer be functional. New forms of social innovation will have the energetic support to emerge from the chrysalis of the fossilized structures. By this it is meant that more appropriate and creative social, economic, technological, cultural and political edifices will emerge. New skill sets will be required for the new social and community roles. This may force many to shift from office, administration jobs, from the service and manufacturing sector, towards functions that serve a regional localized need. These may include community teaching (in both theory and practical skills); maintenance and construction skills; localized economies (both currency and barter); permaculture; farming; creative inventions; security management; community committees, and more. Many farms will return to organic forms of agriculture and crop growth in order to combat the rise in soil depletion. According to philosopher Meishu Sama, petrochemicals and synthetic fertilizers negatively polarize the soil. Whilst this may produce apparently abundant growth in the short term; in the long term, they deplete the soil and exhaust its natural growing capability. The food produced is thus often lacking in nutrients and minerals. In short, many methods now employed will be forced – or catalyzed – into change. Never doubt that individuals have the necessary skills to respond to critical needs. As the expression goes – necessity is the mother of invention. New knowledge sets can be learnt and passed on; the days of apprenticeship may become more widespread once again as sustainable skill-sets become more valuable and appreciated than institutional and service-sector jobs. Never doubt that communities can find the resources to re-shape local cohesion and growth. Creativity and inventiveness are central to the human talent for tinkering. Innovation is the prerogative of people, not the governments. Again, as Meishu Sama reminds us, transformation comes from the tiniest changes:

…the fruit is the world and the seed becomes the center...and at the center of the seed itself is its essence. Because of this, in order to change the world the smallest seed only need be changed. It is just like throwing a rock into a pond - it creates ripples. In this way, making this world into heaven, the very center of the center, the tiniest point - that's where the various changes are made. Make these changes and you create a paradise on Earth.

A Call to Consciousness

A ‘Substance Of We Feeling’ is needed like wine grapes need a good soil. As a global community of individuals we are being pushed towards developing and supporting a creative collective consciousness. This is our ‘new mind’ for a ‘new world’, as discussed previously. This in turn is a reflection of our inherent connectivity within a species energy field of information and communion, as verified by the new sciences. Yet this call for a new way of thinking is neither new nor unique. Each generation has supplied its spokespeople who have argued for a more elevated and illuminated way of thought and life. In recent decades this call has come increasingly from tribal elders and indigenous traditions.

In 1977 the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois Indians) penned a paper to an agency of the UN titled 'Basic Call to Consciousness' in which they stated: Today the species of Man is facing a question of the very survival of the species. The way of life known as Western Civilization is on a death path...Our essential message to the world is a basic call to consciousness...The technologies and social systems which have destroyed the animal and plant life are also destroying the native people... As an ‘intelligent’ species we are being called into consciousness; as a necessity rather than a luxury of choice. So will there be a ‘spiritual renaissance’ where the inner search comes home? What will it be like – will it hit home like a sudden bang on the head, or like an inner explosion shaking the body to pieces? Well, not quite (but then again, nobody really knows!). Personally, I am not one of those people to propose that the body will be shed like dead skin and the etheric body to jump into 5th-Dimensional vibrations. If it happens I will be pleasantly surprised and no doubt welcome the humming sensations. However, my understanding is that the way forward will involve harmonizing inner realizations and knowing with physical well-being and humanistic development. By humanistic, I mean a conception of the human within community, ecological, and cosmic contexts: as a functioning part within grander (and lesser) systems. So part of the ‘coming home’ is likely to be the dawning that we are currently living ‘out-of-synch’ with our natural functioning and that we, as a species, are letting the side down. As living, sentient beings, we are veiled from the truths of our own energetic potentials. Some individuals may get the ‘WoW factor’ one day when they realize that their life has been ignoring these truths for so long. Other realizations will come as material systems increasingly reveal the transparency of their corrupt and inept natures.

Through a combination of physical changes on the social, cultural, and political levels, people worldwide will begin to awaken to the audacity of our situation. From this there may be further ‘awakenings’ as the ironic, incredulous, and absurd factors of many of our lifestyles are brazenly shown in the shocking light they deserve. It is my suggestion that these physically coerced changes will coincide with increased cosmic activity (meaning energetic radiations) that are set to impact our Earth and solar region. These radiations may likely stimulate neurological and physiological activity that whilst unbeknown to the person will force in them new feelings, intuitions, perceptions, and conscience. Taken in combination it can be foreseen that the coming transition times will catalyze change upon many levels. However, there is great need to ‘Work’. We will be required to renew our selves and communities – to regenerate our relationship with the world we live in. This is not a time to fear for loss, but rather a time to aspire to new possibilities. A renewal and regeneration brings in new air, new potentialities, and new gains. There is no clinging to the old when there exists much vigorous work to be done. Any spiritual endeavour cannot – or should not – be separated from the physical. The human is a physical creature that is nourished from a physical world.

Whilst we sojourn on this planet, and whilst our home remains physical, we have a responsibility to manifest our spirit within the physical domain. This is what is required of us, and deep within we all inherently know this. We are here to work together.

Unprecedented Times

We are now living through unprecedented times. Yet this is not a time for fear, as with preparation and certitude the times ahead can be navigated. The keys to growth and renewal have been planted within each person. Much will be expected from people in the coming years as they face increased fears and challenges; challenges for which history holds few guidelines. Such challenges, whilst resonating within the heart of each person, will be aligned also within an Earthly context. The spirit does not live in isolation, but walks in life. As Native American ‘Grandfather’ says:

Trying to live a spiritual life in modern society is the most difficult path one can walk. It is a path of pain, of isolation and of shaken faith, but that is the only way that our Vision can become reality. Thus the true Quest in life is to live the philosophy of the Earth within the confines of man…we must walk within society or our Vision dies, for a man not living his Vision is living death…It is very easy to live a spiritual life away from man, but the truth of Vision in spiritual life can only be tested and become a reality when lived near society.[i]

The human species is, after all, a social species (as anthropologists keenly like to remind us). It is easy to behave ‘spiritually’ when one is confined to the hermit’s cave; then our only struggles are with our ceaseless thoughts. Whilst the realm of the spirit may appear to exist ‘not of this world’, it very definitely is an important component ‘of the world’. Again, it is the significant play of polarity – to bring matter into contact with the non-material. Without the material playground, the spirit becomes ephemeral to us; unable to manifest tangibly within our everyday lives. So the life of the spirit needs to become very real for us, and well-lived. By living it, the presence of spirit can have greater effect. As ‘Grandfather’ again reminds us:

If a man could make the right choices, then he could significantly alter the course of the possible future. No man, then, should feel insignificant, for it only takes one man to alter the consciousness of mankind through the spirit-that-moves-in-all-things. In essence, one thought influences another, then another, until the thought is made manifest throughout all of creation.[ii]

Any spiritual re-vitalization requires that each individual feel the worth of their participation; of their presence with friends, family, and within the community. As there is likely to be a forced social contraction, the transition times will usher in the need for more integral communities. Progress will come through action; and knowledge, understanding and growth can also be achieved through right actions and intentions. The window of opportunity being presented to humanity through the evolutionary ‘trigger point’ will provide the energies for growth along new values, emotions, and intellectual reasoning. To miss this opportunity and crave for the security of old perceptions and status-quo material gains will be a sore transitory pleasure. This is neither a conspiracy nor a fairytale – it is a narrative of resilience, renewal, and regeneration. This is a cyclic process that occurs at all levels in some form. However, at this present juncture, there is much necessary change required: call it an evolutionary imperative. Really, it’s quite serious this time around.

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[i] Brown, T. (1991) The Quest. New York: G P Putnam’s Sons.

[ii] Brown, T. (1991) The Quest. New York: G P Putnam’s Sons.

Towards the 'Waking-Up'

Many of the material structures around us have now become a transparent fiction: our financial systems, our job securities, pensions, educational systems, etc. It is becoming increasingly difficult to believe that these structures will continue to provide for our needs. As our rafts search for land, our paddles are being taken away from us. So when we eventually find fertile land it will be from our own efforts – and the cultivation that much more rewarding. As personal circumstances become more affected by the changes occurring in the world it will become necessary that people ‘wake-up’ to new responsibilities and decisions. After all, the upcoming years will be different from what has gone before. This is inevitable even on a physical level, as structures once seen as strong begin to lose their source of strength (literally, their ‘fuel’). And as these physical changes begin to impact and encroach upon each person’s well-being, new voices will be rising and asking for assistance, both tangible and invisible. There is always help for humanity; assistance is available to those who ask with genuine need. Only we need to remember that help often does not appear in the way that most people expect it. However, it is definitely present and available – only don’t expect a rescue!

It is not my premise to debate the dominant western thought-paradigms of Darwinian survivalist evolution and religious Creationism. What I do suggest, however, is that there is an evolutionary ‘design’ which allows for the creative development of living systems as well as planetary, solar, and galactic systems: the micro and the macro. And humanity is very much a part of this wider developmental design, whether consciously or unconsciously. Yet as the changes in social and cultural systems increasingly manifest it is hoped that more people will awaken to the understanding and conscience of their responsible participation. It is with conscious minds that creative action can have a more powerful effect. Especially amid disruptive circumstances it will be paramount that individuals respond with balanced minds and thoughtful actions. This is no time for super-heroes or martyrs: it will be a time to act within the human capacity; away from gratifications of recognition and attention. Diligent work with oneself, with others, and within the community is the action that guarantees a response.

There is no avoiding the fact that negative influences operate within our world, and have done so for a very long time. Such forces resist change; they resist anything that is a threat to their power. It may seem that during the times of transition the negative influences are at their peak. Hunbatz Men, teacher of Mayan science and spirituality, acknowledges these negative forces and contends that it is time to raise the frequency of the global mind: 'Now the world has a dark civilization, a dark culture. We need to re-establish a high culture...by raising the frequency of brain waves...the frequency of the modern mind is going to change in a positive way'.[i] Hunbatz Men claims that the Mayans have known for a very long time of the big sweeping changes that are to come. These changes, he says, are part of cyclic patterns that help to renew and re-vitalize Earth and her living systems.

The upcoming changes, to some degree, are unstoppable yet they function to ‘sweep the house clean’ rather than to reinforce the negative presence. This is important to remember so that we do not mistakenly feel over-powered by the disruptions coming with the change. Such disturbances, however distasteful, are necessary: just as the odour of bleach is distasteful and dangerous yet its function is to clean and purify. As the world struggles to accommodate more and different energies, there will be many ripples spreading out and into the homes of many. And whilst meditation is important as a means of practising inner balance and focused intentions, there will also be a need for disciplined action. Just as there is a discipline that holds the energies of the universe in their creative pattern, so too must human activities be focused with disciplined energy. Part of this can be fulfilled by shifting our ‘patterns’ away from a self-centered material consumerist agenda to a more Earth-centered set of values. As Doris Lessing wrote in her Canopus in Argos series, the ‘broken’ Earth needs to regain the energies of SOWF (‘Substance Of We Feeling’). In the end, real knowledge is simple and free; and it lives within each one of us.

Our behaviour and actions within our communities will be better served if we can realize that the Earth is a bio-spiritual planet. Further, that the cosmos of which Earth is a part is also the context and environment for our enduring reality:

The archetypal journey of the universe can now be experienced as the journey of each individual, since the entire universe has been involved in shaping our individual psychic as well as our physical being from that first awesome moment when the universe emerged.[ii]

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[i] Mcfadden, S. (1991) Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth, Santa Fe, NM, Bear & Company.

[ii] Berry, T. (1999) The Great Work: Our Way into the Future. New York: Three Rivers Press.

Spiritual Renaissance

Human beings also function as energy nodes within the ‘human grid’. We receive, store, and distribute energy amongst ourselves. As open systems, energy is information, and vice-versa. In this context it is important to realise that this energy can be used to fuel individual self-development. The more focused a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, the finer the quality of energy. Much of our energy is lost daily through wasted emotions; when anger, fear, and other corruptive manifestations become assertive and exaggerated. At all times the negative seeks to embolden itself, to present itself as being greater than it is. Again, this is because there is always less negative inside us at all times in comparison to the positive. Thus, the negative needs to pretend it is worse than it actually is if it is to have any chance of great influence over the person. This is something to make ourselves constantly aware of: we can be food for the negative as well as the positive. As in ecology, everything is someone else’s food!

When confronted with an unpleasant event or issue we can ask ourselves: ‘is this a problem or a situation?’ It may help to remember that every problem is also a situation, but not every situation is a problem. By finding out which is which we will have a better basis from which to act upon. With an increase in information and awareness comes a parallel increase in responsibility. We have a responsibility to ourselves, to others, and to our earthly and cosmic environment. As each of us develops according to our own capacity we may feel a strong desire to pass this on to others. Yet it is important that we talk to others in accordance with their level of understanding. There are likely to be times when we feel frustrated that other people are not ‘seeing’ things correctly; that they are not ‘understanding’ the evident truths. In periods of chaotic change, people often search for the tried and tested, the trusted and secure. For many, notions of evolutionary transformation and energetic change will seem nothing more than abstract fantasy: the hallucinations of a mind losing its reality-grip. Fine: all things come to those in their own time. What is important is that necessary energy is not needlessly wasted through vain or egoistic efforts. Frustration and haste can easily eat away at one’s own energy reserves, resulting in the person becoming less effective and functional. This is of no benefit to anyone. As in all endeavours, preparation and timing are essential factors. As Ali (fourth Caliph of Islam) is credited as saying: ‘Three things once gone are gone forever: the word spoken in haste; the arrow once sped from the bow; the missed opportunity’.

Increased acceleration of events is upon us, yet haste will be against us. A spiritual renaissance in the minds and hearts of more and more people will spread as physical events unfold to reveal their duplicity. In this awakening let us be assured that when we strive to develop and lift ourselves, we indirectly yet significantly also lift our world and those around us. In essence, spiritual realization is about realizing the spirit of others.

 

Everything will change. Yet humanity will continue, albeit in a different way. Our material structures will change, be transformed, and from this we will have the opportunity to become more human. These are the words of Maya indigenous elders who have anticipated these changes for a long time. It is time for a renewal of the spirit. By this, it is not meant that people should flock to spiritual doctrines. The true spirit is within the heart of each person, and is the responsibility of each person to find their own contact. Each pathway of experience is unique to every person for there are as many ways to the spiritual centre as there are people’s hearts. Nor is the true spirit one of contemplation alone, for the spiritual ideal of our era now is one of considerate action. And through this action, things will change. How difficult or easy these changes will be depends much upon the response of each person. What is important is not the event itself but rather how each person deals with it. The changes we face may be out of our hands, yet each of us has the power to choose how we respond to them.

Willaru Huayta, a spiritual messenger in the Inca tradition, has been travelling the globe telling people that 'The world is at a critical point of transition, which is highlighted by the crisis in spiritual and moral principles. Nationality is no longer important...Human truth is one. The most important thing now is to awaken the consciousness in a positive form.[i]

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[i]  Mcfadden, S. (1991) Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth, Santa Fe, NM, Bear & Company.

Energy Flows & Functions

Our world then, as material and physical as it is, is nevertheless malleable. It can be affected by the strength of one’s own presence, intentions, questioning, and thoughts. Our cosmos is creative, endlessly renewing and replenishing itself. Within this energetic ebb-and-flow we can ‘fix’ ourselves (become the ‘attractor’ for the flux around us) by focusing our presence within each moment. Much of how we experience the future, specifically the coming earth changes, will rest upon how we perceive those changes. Our present generations are now required to direct themselves in accordance with their thoughts. A visionary impulse is necessary if we are to rise beyond these turbulent transition times towards a more constructive future. In other words, if we believe that the future changes will usher in a disruptive apocalyptic scenario, then this will be exactly how it plays out for us. This is the fear equation:  if we are fearful we are likely to attract the negative circumstances (again, like attracts like). And this fear equation has been holding back humanity from developing for far too long. If we perceive the world as life-threatening rather than life-promoting then this will influence how we interpret the changing times. Yet the fear equation is a mask: F.E.A.R. masquerades as False Evidence Appearing Real. To be prepared for the upcoming earth changes we are being asked, as sovereign individuals, which future we wish to embrace. Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner once wrote:

 

An additional way of training our thinking and feeling is by acquiring a quality we can call “positivity.” There is a beautiful legend that tells of Christ Jesus and several other people walking past a dead dog. The others all turned away from the ugly sight, but Christ Jesus spoke admiringly of the animal’s beautiful teeth. We can practice maintaining the soul-attitude toward the world that this legend exemplifies. The erroneous, the bad, and the ugly must not prevent the soul from finding the true, the good, and the beautiful wherever they are present.[i]

 

Another maxim in general literature says: 'Pigs grunt, dogs bark, penguins waddle, what do human beings do?’ Amusing perhaps, and poignant too; yet upon deeper consideration the answer is that human beings do a lot, or rather have the inherent potentiality to do a lot. One of these ‘potentialities’ is the power of focused and directed consciousness. Humans - homo sapiens sapiens - have the capacity to be as bridges between spirit and matter; between creative impulse and physical manifestation; between the angelic and the elemental. Again, to reiterate, we can function as transformers – as facilitators of energy.

 

Human beings can act as transmitters (like energy batteries), directing incoming energy across, into, and through the Earth; in a sense, grounding the energies. Like an ‘earth wire’ in electrical plugs, humans are able to ground energy that radiates from non-terrestrial sources into our earthly planetary body. We serve as mobile transducers, whilst the more static energy nodes are the ancient sacred sites, stone circles, megalithic sites, that can be found dotted all over our planet. Life, including human life, is a membrane layer of transmuting energy. The power of human thought and intention can play a great part in the process of energy transference. The function of the ‘human facilitator’ is thus one of the reasons behind the concept of human pilgrimage.

 

There has been much research upon how the world’s many megalithic sites were used for solar cults, religious worship, or similar activities etc. However, it is hard to find one overall unifying theory that relates to the exact, specific function of these various sites. In general, it can be said that a primary role of such sites is an energetic one. Stonehenge in the UK, for example, had a function to channel energy that was made available according to specific times/events of cosmic phenomena. Thus, the site had to be correctly aligned for these precise energy emissions. Various sites over the world show signs of their function as energy channels - be they stone circles, single stones (dolmens), sacred groves, hills, shrines, etc. Together they constitute an earth-grid that operates to receive and distribute cosmic energies along, and into, the earth. Many Christian churches, once considered pagan sites, are built upon these energy lines; this was part of a functioning knowledge system, now largely forgotten. Larger structures, such as cathedrals like Notre-Dame and Chartres, were constructed to function as energy-accumulators (like batteries), which is often indicated in their design by the use of spirals or labyrinths in their construction.

An important element for energy storage and transmission is correct timing; knowing when specific ‘cosmic energy’ is flowing. Thus, at particular times of the year certain areas are targeted by energy currents entering the Earth. Ancient knowledge made use of this in the original Christian calendars; this was reflected in the names of the saints to which different churches are dedicated (although the system has undergone some degree of corruption). For example, in some cultures there is a specific day of the year which is attached to a particular saint so that the original purpose was for the entire community to gather at the church for their ‘Saint’s Day’ - a day that represented the exact time when the maximum energy was available in that area during the year. Likewise, festivals in specific places in the countryside, along with established pilgrim routes, enabled a line of transmission whereby people would act as the channel, or conduit, for passing along the energy, thus maintaining the energy flow within the earth-grid.

This system is still in place, although the functional use of many sites and events has been weakened. However, the earth-grid is still an operative system and is pulsed regularly with cosmic energies, both according to natural cosmic alignments as well as specific and deliberate ‘energy-feeding’ from external interventions. So the question as what can humans do is partly answered by the concept of energy transmitters. And the more focused and balanced the ‘transmitter’, the finer and more effective the energies. Of course, we can also waddle too, and grunt occasionally!

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[i] Steiner, R. (1998) An Outline of Esoteric Science. Great Barrington, MA: Steiner Books.

Transforming Energy

The 21st century is the meeting point where the wisdom of ancient traditions shall find a synthesis with modern science. Our knowledge systems are converging now to help us synthesize and make use of our resources, to help us advance and continue forward. It is a reciprocal process, whereby assisting the cosmos with its evolutionary design we are given the opportunity to bring ourselves up, as a sentient species, towards greater knowledge and growth. Humans are a required resource within the greater evolutionary design. Several esoteric sources, such as Ernest Scott and Rodney Collin , have indicated the time lengths involved with the inception of cultures by conscious minds. They further explain how there is a set time designated for our present global civilisation to evolve enough conscious minds in order to assist, and/or provide enough energies, for the next planetary phase. This notion, whilst obscure and abstract to some, is not without its active adherents. One term that has come into context for this situation is that of Reciprocal Maintenance.

The term ‘Reciprocal Maintenance’ was used in the writings of philosopher G.I. Gurdjieff to denote humanity’s relationship with the cosmos. This relationship is one where each being exists to support each other, as well as the larger whole. In other words, everything exists to ‘feed’ something else. This term also explains how everything exists for a purpose; how each living organism can transform and supply energy for the whole. In this respect, the function of humankind is to transform energy whilst alive. And naturally, the best ‘quality’ of energy is that which is provided consciously rather than extracted unconsciously. For example, Algae functions to transform sunlight into more complex molecules; plants function to transform sunlight and raw matter into organic compounds; bees function not only for themselves but also to pollinate flowers and thus catalyze food chains.

In the scheme of things, we can say that humanity functions as a transformer of energy: for ourselves, the community, the Earth, and for the cosmos. Our possibilities, and capacities, as human beings may in some way be dependent upon the degree to which we are able to fulfil this function. We can say that this is one of our primary functions as sentient biological organisms. In an old Vedic allegory there is the story of the Horse (feeling), the Carriage (instinct), the Driver (thinking) which are at the service of the ‘Passenger’ or ‘Owner’. However, the problem is that the ‘Passenger’ has fallen asleep within the carriage so the Horse and Driver go where they please, and often at a speedy pace! Thus, the purpose and destination of the ‘Owner’ is being ignored. This allegory informs us that ‘Man’ is ‘asleep at the wheel’ and has failed to wake-up and take control of the situation; namely, to steer oneself to one’s correct destination. By ‘waking-up’, an individual can learn to contribute conscious energy, in greater or lesser amounts, through conscious creative living and purposeful participation in life. On the other hand, if not enough individuals are contributing such energies, other means may be employed to extract the necessary ‘fuel’ from us. It was Gurdjieff’s stated belief that the overall quality of humanity’s conscious energies has been deteriorating over several millennia - especially in so-called ‘civilized’ societies. Whereas we had been prodigious ‘energy-transformers’, we were now pale reflections of former capacities.

This suggests that humankind has been forsaking its ecological function in the world; has been reneging on its obligation of ‘reciprocal maintenance’. Many have speculated upon these ‘other means’ employed to extract the energies from humanity; usually focusing on events that release extreme emotions such as warfare and natural disasters. This view offers a radical, and unpleasant, reworking of human history. It suggests that warfare, disasters, calamities, etc are not the result of accidental, sociological, and/or political causes but may be interventions created to fulfil the needs of a cosmic evolutionary ‘eco-system’. However this may be, it is not my intention to speculate on these matters, but rather to focus on the positive aspects of how humanity may relate to conscious evolution. In this respect, evolutionary design does obligate humanity to function as good energy transformers (as in all living systems). In our own ways we can all ‘return some energies’ if we act according to the right kind of perceptions and behaviour. It would assist us also if we took to reminding ourselves that we are not alone, nor separate in our lives, but instead are interrelated to all processes social, terrestrial, and cosmic. We are, in all senses, a part of the unfathomable creative, universal fabric of life.

There is far more depth and wisdom to our lives than is taught in our educational establishments, mainstream media, or institutional religions. Yet this tyranny of perception is entering a transition period also, as increased information floods our physical and non-physical channels. The world of the glittery and gritty consumerist struggle is being invaded by change from all angles. Nothing is immune to these changing times; not even our own immune systems. Many of us have immune systems that have been conditioned and strengthened from birth to accept the perceived socio-cultural paradigm of our circumstances. Now, along with many systems and institutions, our own inner systems are beginning to desire alternative food, and more nutritious energies. We know something is amiss when there is an inner urge to start looking for pieces of a different puzzle, when external experiences increasingly fail to ‘sit right’ with us. In some sense these stirrings will indicate a struggle between powers: between your own inherent power of self-determination over the power from consensus social forces. Everywhere and in everything power is prevalent in society. It thrives upon the material energies produced. Yet there are degrees of power, and genuine power is the power to empower others. And above all: subtle energy is powerful and powerful energy is subtle. Let us remember that energy goes where attention flows – so, what’s your attention focused on? It is now becoming well-understood that like attracts like is a universal axiom. This relates more appropriately now with what the new sciences are telling us about the power of ‘intention’ to affect bio-information fields. We need to exercise our intentions to ask the ‘right questions’. As Grandmother Twylah of the Seneca Indian tradition has stated: ‘Each person should ask themselves four questions: i) Am I happy in what I'm doing?; ii) Is what I'm doing going to add to the confusion in the world?; iii) What am I doing to bring about peace and contentment?; iv) How will I be remembered when I'm gone?’

Conscious Evolution

Life is an evolutionary journey and humankind is on an evolutionary path. This journey towards more evolved forms of intellect, understanding, and creativity requires capacities that lie latent within our very selves. To accept conscious evolution then is to accept that individually and collectively we have a responsibility towards our future. This involves purposeful thinking and action; to use our creative capacities to guide our lives and the communities in which we live. To envision a creative, dynamic, and positive future is a preliminary step upon the path of conscious evolution. First, we make the choice for ourselves; then we give intention and commitment in order to give life to those choices. At its core, conscious evolution is a spiritual endeavour in that it affirms the potential capacity of each human to participate within a creative cosmos. It affirms our use and commitment of powerful physical and spiritual energies. It also gives rise to a new worldview – a new perceptual paradigm that views our evolutional process as a lesser step within grander processes. The opposite of this (which has been prevalent for far too long) is for unconscious human energies to be used without our knowledge or knowing participation.

 

Conscious evolution is also a very real social movement providing for a higher level of cooperative communication and action. It is a partnership understanding that offers personal development and learning, community building and assistance, and ways towards practical, positive social change.[i]

 

Conscious evolution also implies that each human, each part, is an integral and interrelated part of the whole. The following personal experience highlights this interconnectedness:

In 1983, after three days and nights of praying and fasting on a mountain top, I snapped a twig with my fingers and had a revelation. I saw that this simple action had changed the world, and that it would never be the same again. I could never put that twig back together the way it had been. This was a small change, but an important change nonetheless. As the sound of the snap reverberated within my mind, I understood how everything I said and did changed the world. What came with the snapping twig was not an abstract idea or a philosophical insight, but a living experience of how all my actions influence creation.[ii]

The new sciences have revealed that the concept of integral relationships is now a reality; that all living organisms are energetically integrated within a shared informational and creative field. As an evolving species, we are encouraged to work together towards this synergy, or gestalt: where the whole is greater than its sum, and thus leads to emerging properties of the collective. However, we can only function in accordance with our level of knowledge and capacity. We cannot be told what is, or what needs to be done; we can only be guided until that understanding becomes an inherent part of ourselves. Then we have an organic sense of how we should act to fit in with the dynamic whole. Yet we can modify our thoughts, action, and behaviours through self-observation. We can learn to clear our minds of antiquated belief-systems and accumulated junk in order to allow these new thoughts to penetrate. We may think we learn, yet often we learn rote without the thinking. We should aim towards a conscious digestion of information: to learn how to learn; to know how to know.[iii]

In a similar way, Pierre Teilhard de Chardin talks about the collective, unified soul of humankind as a ‘conspiracy’ of individuals who conspire together to evolve to a new stage of life. De Chardin wrote tirelessly of how continued evolution towards cosmic spirit was a conscious duty hidden, sometimes forgotten, within humankind:

In us the world’s evolution towards spirit has become conscious. Our perfection, our interest, our salvation as elements can depend therefore on nothing less than pushing this evolution forward with all our strength. We may not yet understand exactly where it is taking us, but it is absurd for us to doubt that it is leading as towards some end of supreme value.[iv]

The over-arching question for de Chardin was how modern humanity could best organise, maintain, and distribute the vital energies required for this process. In this there are precise conditions necessary for the storage and utilization of energies. Referring back to what was said in Chapter Two concerning living complex systems, in order to defy entropy living organisms are required to absorb, store, utilize, and distribute energy. The human and the cosmos are both two examples of creative, dynamic, living complex systems; hence, the rules still apply. How we store and utilize our personal energies is of paramount importance and should become central to our lives.

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[i] For more information see - Banathy, B. H. (2000) Guided Evolution of Society: A Systems View. New York: Springer.

[ii] Mcfadden, S. (1991) Profiles in Wisdom: Native Elders Speak About the Earth, Santa Fe, NM, Bear & Company.

[iii] Recommended reads include Shah, I. (1996) Learning How to Learn: Psychology and Spirituality the Sufi Way London: Octagon Press. Shah, I. (1998) Knowing How to Know: A Practical Philosophy in the Sufi Tradition. London: Octagon Press.

[iv] Chardin, T. d. (1974) Let Me Explain. London: Fontana.