By Judith Gayle | Political Waves

Our August has shaped up to be quite a ride, hasn't it? Every morning I wake up, look out the window and think, Nothing is the same. It looks similar, but it's not as it was -- and that's because we aren't what we were. If we turn on the television news, we see clips of people yelling and screaming at town hall meetings, fighting to keep things as they used to be without the basic understanding that it's too late; we can't go back. Once we have an authentic realization, information floods in that changes our outlook forever. Once we get on to our self, our resonance and vibration adjusts to another level and the past is no longer our baggage but simply the practice pages of our life that brought us to this new moment. In the chaos of change, we're free in ways we simply don't appreciate.

Most of us are somewhere between those poles: trying desperately to keep things the same or willing, even eager, to start anew. The first is irrational, the next is necessary but our conditioning makes that process a frightening prospect akin to a first day at a new school, or new job, a step into the unknown. We're fearful of what we don't know because our expectation is that we have to perform at some pre-set level in order to succeed; we have to be 'good,' and 'cooperative.' We have to know the rules and follow them. We have to respond in the right way in order to achieve approval; to behave as expected in order to get along. Under no circumstances should we simply be ourselves -- we need to be the edited version of ourselves, existing within the definitions of societal norms. Yet when the norms change, as they occasionally do, the systems are the last ones to get the memo.

If we look at our systems now, so many of them struggling to survive, we see how woefully inadequate they are; we've spoken about how the Capricorn Pluto will dissolve and reconfigure them, hopefully in time to salvage a bit of their original intent, but perhaps not. Me, I've spoken candidly for a decade that we should not attempt to patch them with band-aids, or plaster over the gaping holes in them; I believe they need to be reconfigured entirely. And that's not because I'm an anarchist and want to see everything fall to bits; it's because the original intent of so much we hold dear in this nation was interpreted by flawed men to create them along the lines of their own personal belief systems, and too often those beliefs were religious, racist, sexist and elitist. In other words, if cause always precedes effect, the original cause at the basis of our American systems has been irretrievably corrupted by human ignorance and avarice. This isn't a nation conceived in life, liberty and pursuit of happiness for only some -- it's for all or we are not living out the blueprint that some say was given to humankind as a revelation to push us forward into a new era.

Ken Carey has written an amazing and inspiring collection of books.

Ken Carey, author of The Starseed Transmissions, wrote a powerful book entitled Return of the Bird Tribes back in 1991; if you haven't read it, I'd recommend that you find a copy. In it he speaks of the influence on humankind of the Star People, particularly in the early configuration of the United States. He channels a Warrior Spirit that has gone the way of peace, much a personification of the Christ Consciousness, who outlines a way forward into sanity. It is a touching book for those who love this nation; and, written years ago, gave many of us a vision for what we must do and be in order to fulfill its promise. Carey describes the original intent of the nation, and the years of purification that would eliminate the dross that stands in the way of her potential; those we're living in now. And while I doubt that we had a good grip on what the following quote meant back in '91, we certainly do today: "Our strategy now is to allow the organizations of fear to dominate in appearance while we subtly drain away the source of their power -- the fear of the people."

Fear -- the oldest enemy to humankind. It would be easier to say it this way: death -- the oldest enemy of humankind. In many ways, they're the same; the wages of sin, the ultimate punishment for drawing your first breath. If we had the Eastern view, that life is a revolving door allowing us in and out of incarnation for the expansion and polishing of our souls, perhaps we would not be so childish in this nation. We are very young, here; not in chronology but in soul level. What some call the naivety of the American persona, brash and confident, I think of as adolescent self-interest. We have never come to terms with our responsibilities of power, and too often found self-protection and delusions of exceptionalism our mantra.

At the moment, I don't see much maturity out there in the world, which seems both surreal and explosive. The Right is showing itself to be a regional party, racially biased, radically motivated and a bit deranged; it will not accept its loss of power and feels its extinction closing in. The Left is less violent, but that's because its world-view is different; what it believes itself to be does not allow for vengeance or gun-slinging or mean-spiritedness. That's one of our problems in addressing the schism that separates us; we are, we do, what we believe the world to be. The Right has aligned itself with the oppressive religious models that control mainstream thought, with corporations that exploit for profit, with the military-industrial complex that promotes a tribal drumbeat and identifies itself only in terms of an enemy. The Left doesn't even speak that language; we would like a rational conversation but we can't seem to get a grip on the slippery consciousness that identifies our opposition. To do that, we need to go back to the Beginning.

Painting from Manafi al-Hayawan (The Useful Animals), depicting Adam and Eve. From Maragh in Mongolian Iran by Abu Said Ubaud Allah Ibn Bakhitshu.

Most of what we think of as the Great Religions of the world begin with a creation story that shows Almighty God pissed by disobedience and his creations thrown out of the Garden as punishment; thus death comes to be. This is not only the fable that drives our sociology but is part of our collective consciousness, written into our genetic memory. We're fuck-ups; thanks, Eve. We're unworthy; mea culpa. It should be noted that the Quran is not so misogynistic as to blame Eve, solely; Adam takes his share of the hit. And for all of time since, we've been trying to make up for that first fatal error, with almost everything in our society configured to extend guilt, shame and, ultimately, punishment. That's our primal fear -- that we'll get caught; that's at work in our psyche even if we've done nothing wrong. I know people who have the Shame Dream every night; that they'll get found out, exposed as not as smart, as nice, as ... whatever ... as they should be. And so they polish and shine their exterior, trying to get it right; somehow we got it wired up that if everything looks good on the outside, what's going on inside can still be hidden from the judgmental eye of society, if not Yahweh. Carl Jung punched a hole in that idea when he said, "Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes."

There is a good deal of evidence that the covering over of those things that count as guilts, sins and/or shames lead us to complete denial of our authentic selves; when we are not able to deal with that reality, we project that shame outside of ourselves and accuse others of similar sin. But here's the rub: we can only accuse others of that of which we ourselves are capable -- if we were not capable, it never would have entered our mind. That's one of the problems the Left has in talking with the Right; we don't share the same 'bad' stuff. The Lefties would rather pick apart a policy than go after another human. We truly do think people's lives are their own business; what happens in their bathroom, their bedroom, their favorite pub. Across the divide, the Right, driven by ancient taboos, needs one hell of a rationale to justify their own personal activity, based on their belief about themselves as unworthy sinners and wannabe Saints.

Accepting the touchy, punitive and jealous Old Testament God as our ultimate authority, we've developed a patriarchal, institutionalized system that separates out the worthy and the un, that punishes with vigor and an unseemly sense of enjoyment, and due to an irrational War on Drugs, we now find ourselves the largest jailor of errant citizens in the entire world. Thanks to American ingenuity, we've combined all the Conservative virtues to handle those swelling numbers; we've outsourced them to private corporations, many of them religious in nature. Three birds, one stone; cruel and unusual, me'thinks. Now, in a financial crunch, states can no longer afford to house these numbers, so many will be released early; that will scare the pants off most folks who think that if one goes into the prison system, they're not redeemable as a citizen -- and since we have yet to understand that a competent program of rehabilitation is critical to the nation's wellbeing, we have made it nearly impossible for an ex-convict to reenter society and make a decent life for themselves. We perpetuate the crime loop by our insane instinct to punish rather than assist one another.

The corruption of authority, based on such dicey illusion as what is religiously inspired, has its roots in that soul level I was speaking of earlier. Older souls have a bigger picture, an understanding based on experience that things move along as they will and that their inner travel is of more importance than their outer; they are discovering their own power, yet they instinctually know not to abuse it. Younger souls are more manic, more absolute. Soldiers and cops are often younger souls, emotionally determined to make a difference but unable to break from the collective mind to get past the punishment model. It's not the implications of force and brutality that draw a younger soul level to professions of authority; it's rules. At this level the soul fears its emotional drives, judges them and projects a solution; it then morphs its good intentions into the very thing it fears to be true, reinforcing what it believes about the world. The darker impulses and desires must be repressed. Without the heavy hand of enforcement, there would be chaos, doncha know; there are hoops to be jumped through if we are to be 'safe.' And God threw them out of the Garden.

We beat our children in this nation; you know, spare the rod and spoil the child. We not only defend our parental option to do so but 21 states reserve the right to corporal punishment in schools; all of these Red states, including my own, seem to find this punishment more appealing than other forms of correction: Missouri, Kentucky, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. It turns out that those who get the raw end of this are disabled children; the rationale would be that it's for their own good, like the reports of an autistic child that wandered into traffic causing police to stop him with a taser. Hell, he might have been run over without help from authorities. We think that hitting and pain will teach obedience; instead it teaches violence, and a loss of faith in those we trust to love us. When those who profess to love Life over Choice absolved killing to ensure it, the insanity of all this became apparent.

It is certainly not just the United States that has these essential problems with self-awareness; I was saddened by the reports out of Phoenix of an 8-year-old Liberian refugee that was raped by four young boys, 9 to 14, also refugees. That she escaped her country to this one and still suffered a fate similar to so many African women is heart wrenching. What is truly repugnant about this story, however, is the behavior of the family, who feel the little girl brought shame upon them. Here is the heart of patriarchy; here is the core of ignorance. We still use sex as a moral cudgel, a chit to trade, a commodity to sell and we cannot even think of our genitals without shame. Not long ago this entire nation frothed at the mouth over a nanosecond's exposure of children's eyes to Janet Jackson's nipple ring -- yet we have no problem at all bombing and even torturing children that get in the way of our geopolitical intentions. Our soldiers come home to us having done murder at the nation's bidding, unable to shake off the guilt, consumed by the shame and often turning to violence or suicide to silence that internal voice. Is any of that sane? Are we not swallowing our own tail in a loop of self-victimization by our interpretation of the old rules of the Old God? Can we get off this Karmic wheel, please?

Shame, guilt and punishment: self-hatred, self-judgment and revenge. Pernicious thought-forms that have taken us through generations of lifetimes, wounded and weakened; if you watch your thoughts today, you'll find each of them woven into your consciousness. They're weeds; yank them out whenever your recognize them. As long as those are the core concepts that drive our moral code and intrude on our social contract, we will loop in Jung's 'dream' and never awaken. Yet, that is not our destiny; we must deal with this archaic misinformation here and now, pushing ahead toward the 2012 juncture; we're, one by one, reassessing the old ways, the Old God.

Our inner-self is stirring and looking over its baggage, wondering what's too dear to discard. Left to its own devices, perhaps it would keep everything, yet circumstances are forcing us to let go so that we can find balance in this new terrain; we're paring down to what is essential. We're discovering that we aren't defined by stuff or relationships. We're coming into ourselves spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically, and we are noticing the thread of love that binds us all together in this leap; nothing else has the power to dissolve shame, guilt, punishment or fear. Nothing less will allow us to take our rightful place as co-creators of the future. The astrology of the last weeks has been a game-changer, we're poised on a new set of variables that will replace the old once and for all; the new game will take all the self-love we can bring to the table. We need to come to terms with the skills we need for this adventure.

Angeles Arrien is a cultural anthropologist. She speaks to a future that requires each of us to step up into our power; you will find some of her thoughts here, from her shamanistic book, The Four-Fold Way: Walking the Paths of the Warrior, Teacher, Healer and Visionary.

Arrien says that there are three kinds of power; that each of us, male or female, need to develop them because if we will hone them, and use them, we cannot be ignored. We take an automatic position of leadership when we become authentic to ourselves; when we stop giving our power away to outworn ideas or ancient mythologies that insist we are less than creators of our own lives.

1. Power of presence – Being really present in each moment
2. Power of communication – Speaking my truth
3. Power of position – Being willing to take a stand

She indicates that the four archetypes in the book's title are known as 'change masters' -- in the old paradigm code, these would be something for us to aspire toward; in the new paradigm we are entering, these are roles we acknowledge that we already own and seek to strengthen. In the new paradigm, everything is within us -- ready to access, to be discovered and exercised. In the new paradigm, we develop these skills not for what we will receive, but for what we can give; in that way, we achieve joy as well as extend it. In the old paradigm, guilt, shame and fear of punishment would keep us from ever stepping into our own awakened power, yet without these vampire-like thought-forms that suck our will away, there are no rules except that we take responsibility for our creations. Our lives. Our futures.

I have no big grievance against the Old God; He got us here. There are no mistakes; only lessons. I'd like to think we've learned them now; know the hollow sound of self-flagellating guilt, can tell a shame thought from a productive one, find ways to heal one another rather than punish. If you need more examples, turn on the television and watch the news for a while; the worst of our child-like old paradigm fears will fill your screen. As our president, who often feels like the only adult in the conversation, said not long ago, quoting I Corinthians, "When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things." Even the youngest soul on planet Terra is ready for a leap; we must leave the childish need for outside authority behind -- easily corruptible and misinterpreted -- finding within ourselves the Source that brings us into alliance with our Soul's purpose.

We are destined to all become 'change masters;' the warriors, teachers, healers and visionaries that tomorrow awaits. I've spoken often about holding the vision of a healed world; today, that vision is coming into focus and remember, that will only be a hope unless we come from the end point, infusing our emotion in what that looks and feels like, what it would mean. We must know we're already there, moving at lightning speed in ways we can't even fathom; and much as our power is within us, so is the template for the world we're creating. It's a sane one, brought into being from love; and love is neither old nor new -- it simply is.

We've spent an entire world era discovering what love isn't; it's time to find out what it is, experience the miracles it can bring to each of our lives. If not now, when? And if not you, beloved -- who? Say no to unfounded fears, then; we'll find the strength to handle the authentic ones if we let love lead the way. The New Paradigm demands a New God-sense; and surely, as you visionaries know, the only rules come from our awakened heart.