We live in a dualistic Universe; hot and cold, day and night, masculine and feminine, good and bad, etc. These are all two sides to the same coin, Oneness, expressing itself as twoness.
In the 60s, a stalwart group of people labelled as Hippies, broke out of post-war conservatism to explore more creative ways of living. Music, clothing, hair, sexuality, altered states of consciousness and communal living were all part of this creative movement, which took shape around the world.
In essence, an awakening was taking place among these vanguards of humanity, leading up to what we know now as the Age of Aquarius.
For some in that era, the idea of materialism, capitalism, and living on Earth, was not very appealing and their pursuit centred on escaping this realm, to reside in a more conducive place, another dimension. Now there is nothing “right” or “wrong” with this idea, it was merely part of the experience and experiment.
This idea of escapism has to some degree been carried forward to this day, whereby some people cannot or do not want to acknowledge the reality of two sides of the coin, but to become totally focussed on one side only.
Popular books like Napoleon Hill’s “The Power of Positive Thinking” helped sway some of this thinking, to only think positively and avoid at all costs, our “shadow side”, the other side of the coin.
There is a huge difference between acceptance and denial.
Our pursuit of completeness or wholeness, must embrace both sides of our personalities, the good, the bad and the ugly – whoops, that’s three!!
Focussing on the good side will definitely provide some slight, temporary relief, but will eventually lead us down a path of destructive, compulsive and addictive behaviours, in pursuit of more “goodness” to mask and deny the “badness”. It is rather like a drug, the drug of avoidance. The more we avoid the reality of the other side of the coin, the more antidote we will require and the antidote referred to here is, distraction.
Much of our modern media, TV reality shows, News bites and movies, are designed to distract us from the real issues occurring in the world and within us. It is the easy route out of our woes, to get hooked on this type of “entertainment” and it directly opposes the principle of “The way out is the way through”.
In my estimation, it is almost impossible to become whole and awakened without embracing our shadow side, or put another way, the dark wolf that reside within. For it is within this side, that I believe the route to our true power lies. It is well hidden amongst our pain and suffering, our darkest thoughts and feelings, our abberated behaviours and only by turning, with courage, and facing these demons, can we find the joy and relief we seek.
Hiding our head in the sand may give us some temporary respite, but no long-term gains.
Rise above your fears, but first of all, acknowledge their existence and characteristics.
Towards a new humanity – authentic in every way.
foremost question we need to think about as a throwaway society is, where is away? There is no “away”. We all inhabit just one planet, so what we do in terms of environmental degradation to our Mother Earth, we will all bear the consequences of our actions, along with our children and our children’s children ad nauseam.
These teachers, when supported and motivated, will play a major role in developing the capacity and awareness of the local community, for environmental protection. Local communities need to re-learn how to grow organic food at home, how to manage wastes and how to protect the rapidly reducing resources of the island before it’s too late.