The
Woman Clothed with the Sun
A great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the
sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she
was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for
delivery. And another portent appeared
in heaven; behold, a great red dragon. . .
And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to bear a child,
that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a
male child, one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her
child was caught up to God and to his throne, and the woman fled into the
wilderness, where she has a place prepared by God. . .
Now war arose in
heaven. . .and the great dragon was thrown down.
And when the dragon saw that he had been thrown down to the
earth, he pursued the woman who had borne the male child. But the woman was given the two wings of the
great eagle that she might fly from the serpent. . .
Revelation 12:
1-6, 7-9, 13-14.
CHAPTER ONE:
Women Who Will Transform The World
Sometimes,
it takes one woman; sometimes, it takes many.
Almost always, I’ve found, when there are enough women in the room so
that everyone stops counting, women become free to act like women.
It’s then that we can eliminate double
standards, and accept that men and women are different – and that they bring a
different range of experiences, skills, and strengths to public life. It’s then that we can start to value women as
much as men and to retool our institutions to fit the broad range of choices
that women – and men – make. It’s then
that we can expand our definition of leadership – and of the language we use to
describe it. It’s then that we’ll have
more representative government, better schools, and more effective
diplomacy. We’ll have stronger
communities and a fairer society. We’ll
be able to reduce conflict and build a better future.
It’s then that we can take advantage of all
that each of us has to offer. And it is
then that women will rule the world. And
when women rule, we will have changed the very definition of power. We will have changed the world.1
The Unveiling
The Unveiling: the unveiling of the code
that describes how to access Wisdom, thereby transforming ourselves and our
world.
As we begin the 21st Century,
humanity is confronted with the need for fundamental transformation at all
levels of life. The old ways of living
in and perceiving the world are no longer capable of dealing with the rapid
changes and global scope of the complex problems that face us. We must evolve to meet the new needs of the
times. We will have to adjust to a
paradigm shift in our core beliefs and in the way we understand the world and
our place it in, for we can no longer ignore our responsibility for creating
the problems that face us nor can we be easily absolved of our guilt in
creating them. Like God and the Devil,
we have become creators, both of great good and of great evil.
Since
the human psyche naturally looks for unifying images to make sense of chaos,
and these fundamental changes will involve a psychological death before new
life can grow, our collective psyche has reanimated the apocalyptic images of
Western culture, as well as Native and Eastern images, to try to make sense of
current world events. The Book of Revelation is sometimes
called The Apocalypse, but we have to
remember that an apocalypse is an
unveiling, an opening into the hidden dimensions of the Divine reality
behind our mortal reality. Many people
are trying to see beyond the veil, trying to understand the meaning of these
times through these apocalyptic images.
The
events of September 11, 2001
have become a marker for this unveiling.
The Fundamentalist Christians believe it is a sign of the Second Coming,
a marker on the Rapture Index. Jungian
psychologist Randy Morris believes that the events of 9/11 can be seen as a
revelatory experience, a visitation from “beyond the veil” to enlighten us
about the state of our national consciousness and shadow.2 After September 11th, the world’s
heart chakra was blown open, and for a moment, we became one world. Unfortunately, September 11th
soon became the rallying point for the forces of war and imperialistic
exploitation, which is symbolized by the great dragon of Revelations, but it also became a call for people of goodwill and
conscience to unite in spirit and dedication to create a world of peace and
prosperity and freedom for the whole world.
That one moment of unity gave us a glimpse of our future.
The 2004 Tsunami in South
Asia overwhelmed our psyches just as surely as the waves
overwhelmed their victims, for we had never before seen such devastation from a
natural disaster. It made us feel our
vulnerability in the face of nature’s destructive power. It also proved that modern people are so far
removed from their instincts that they actually stood on the beach and let
their children play as the waters pulled back before the waves came crashing to
shore. Only ancient tribal people and
animals were in touch with their internal warning system, removing themselves
from danger.
The
April 20, 2010 BP Gulf Oil Spill and the devastating March 11, 2011 earthquake
in Japan and the subsequent nuclear meltdown at Fukushima, which has displaced
over 100,000 people and poisoned the land and water are both urgent reminders
that our technology is not going to save us but rather destroy us if used irresponsibly. And yet, the powers-that-be refuse to take
action to change the way we live and do business. Their attitude is ‘business as usual’ – an
attitude that is so wrong-headed that it leaves me speechless. So now it is up to each of us to take a stand
for Life and use our gifts to re-create the world.
In
the past century, uncounted people have dreamed of giant tidal waves sweeping
through the land or hanging suspended in the sky. R.J.J. Tolkien called these his Atlantean
dreams, feeling they were past life memories.
C. G. Jung saw these dreams as harbingers of the Aquarian Age, an age in
which there will be a great upsurge in the collective unconscious (symbolized
by the ocean) so that the archetypal patterns that make us human can be lived
out consciously. An age of conscious
humanity. From ancient times, the image
of the Age of Aquarius was seen as a deluge, an upwelling of the waters of life
that brings freedom from tyranny. Like
the giant tidal wave, this energy will destroy those aspects of civilization
that cannot or will not give way to individual freedom and creative
collaboration. We have now experienced
the reality of these dream images, and yet the archetypal image opens us to a
deeper understanding of the transformations our world must undergo; not just
physical changes, but the transformation of the hearts and minds and bodies of
humanity. But just as these newest
disasters created fear and vulnerability, they also engendered compassion and a
clearer vision of reality. A global consciousness
is forming.
Many
people live in fear of such disasters, while others call upon their bravery and
determination to deal with these disasters in a courageous way. Hurricane Katrina in 2005 saw New Orleans overwhelmed
by the waters, except this time, nature was abetted by human neglect of the
levees that were to protect the city.
Natural disasters have become commonplace, or rather, they have become
common knowledge. Before our modern era,
we might never have found out about the devastating tsunami in Asia, which caused more deaths than many wars. Because of modern media, we have come to
realize that floods, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, devastating fires,
mudslides, tornadoes and hurricanes have all occurred with startling regularity
in the last decades of the 20th and first years of the 21st
Century. Global warming is accelerating
at an alarming rate, and yet our governments are slow to impose restrictions on
corporate violators and individuals have been slow to take personal responsibility
for conservation. Our old paradigm,
which cannot encompass this emergency, makes it hard for people to take
action. Only a new paradigm can. A good first step is to recognize the
dangers of global warming and then get the nations of the world to join
together to do something about the human causes of global warming. The Earth’s ecosystem is breaking down. Mother Earth is getting sick. If we let this continue, we will destroy
ourselves as well as everything else on Earth. Good stewardship of the Earth must become part
of our spiritual lives.
Then
there are the equally devastating results of our failed Western economic
policies that have ravaged the environment and caused a widening rift between
the rich and the poor. The wars of the
20th Century and the war on terrorism that has begun the 21st
Century have shown us that hatred and intolerance are still viable rallying
cries to men who would rather dominate than love. Cancer and AIDS have reached epidemic
proportions. Corporate scandals of corruption,
vast public and private debt, violence and addictions are pervasive in Western
society. The world appears to be
descending into chaos. Our ego-centric
Western consciousness, which tried to transcend the human condition and
transform this planet into a 'safe' place, has instead brought us to the edge
of destruction, both in war and in peace.
Our
world is literally dying, and our corporate philosophy of conspicuous
consumption, the materialistic shadow side of the Christian belief that this world
is unimportant compared to our heavenly home, is the major cause of the
problem. Where once religion and
philosophy steered humanity towards its purpose, we now have the corporate
media pounding out our glorious new purpose: to consume! After the tragedy of 9/11, President Bush
called on Americans to go shopping. It
only got us into more debt and now we see the bankruptcy of these
policies. Our economic policies are
killing off species at cataclysmic rates.
We are destroying forests which might contain cures for many of our
diseases and which certainly clean our polluted air. We are poisoning our waters, which is LIFE to
everything on this planet. We are
depleting the topsoil that grows our food.
We are poisoning the land with our toxic wastes and causing mutations
and birth defects in ourselves and the other species we share this planet
with. We are killing ourselves! And yet, while American supermarkets, fully
stocked with food that we finally realize is killing us, spring up every mile
or two, millions around the world are starving to death. Yes, we are killing ourselves, but it seems
that Western culture intends to kill off everyone else before it has to die
itself.
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