Sometimes when you cannot see the light, and you find yourself alone in the growing dark, it is because in this place, the light is you.
As always, this post is an invitation to slow down and be really present. If we don’t reset our state of presence, we allow the weight and intrusions of the previous moments in our day, to overshadow this one, and rob it of its gifts. Presence is what deepens connection and connection is what deepens meaning.
With the context and insights from astronomy, we now know what our ancient ancestors did not, we now know that there is no wolf or giant serpent devouring the sun during an eclipse, and we don’t take to the streets clattering saucepans and shouting at evil spirits, but we do stop in our tracks. We do however get reacquainted with questions about our place in the cosmos.
We get the word eclipse, via ekleipsis meaning “an abandonment”, the literal meaning is “a failing, forsaking”.
The last time there was a total solar eclipse more people in America watched and were captivated by the event than the Super Bowl in that same year and there was a marked swing in public sentiment on social media towards a sense of awe for the enormity of the natural world and our dependence on it. There is a natural psychological association we have between an eclipse and a sense of doom, or end-times, which we associate with words like doomsday and apocalypse. The word Apocalypse comes to us from an Ancient Greek word which means to “part the veil”, literally “to reveal”.
What does this say to you, if anything?
I have spent the last 9 years of my life, becoming increasingly aware of the mounting existential risk we face as a species. I wondered quite earnestly why so few people seemed to care enough and just pottered along with their projects of wealth and career as if there wasn’t a storm mounting and as if we weren’t all sleepwalking towards a cliff. I became further frustrated to understand that those who do care, invest all their energy and attention flogging the dead horses of religion or politics, or celebrity billionaires. As if those circuses are miraculously going to turn out a fresh answer after one more spin of the same wheel.
As a philosopher I harangued everyone, pissing everyone off, accusing them of apathy, ignorance and foolishness. I don’t feel I was wrong exactly, but of course, this did not work very well, because that is what everyone else was already doing on social media anyway. I had to bite my tongue. And I learned that those who cannot raise their words, raise their voices, and that those who can do neither, raise their fists.
Even so, I felt the need to do or say something of consequence. In the dim light of ambivalence, or the shadow of utter indifference, or the worse, the dark umbra of a conditioned inhumanity, pacifism and the prudence of self-concern become a fool’s game and kind of ‘looking away’.
As a poet, I kept trying to speak to the heart of great need and searching in vain for the perfect metaphor for the moment, but the moment kept changing.
WAITING FOR THE LIGHT
The Light has been swallowed whole.
We are in the middle of a night
where the phantom of dawn
seems to lie in every direction.
where the signal for your tomorrow is a static crackle,
as we stand at the frontier of our unrealised potential.
And we cannot trust which way to turn.
We are waiting for the light to return.
And it will not return.
We have to become the light.
Where Are We Now?
We are at a natural checkpoint in our evolution as a species, an inevitable threshold, based on the cultural operating system we have created for ourselves. We are facing the consequences of our own power —the impressive but uninformed leaps of progress, ignorant of the necessity of integration with each other and our environment, and out of pace with the wisdom and self-awareness required to wield that power.
This was our first test.
We built this world. If you think about it very carefully, we are already on our road to godhood. See what wonders we have made for our Selves. See what horrors we have made for our children. We didn’t do it consciously, and that is precisely the problem —we did not know what we were doing and who we were becoming while we did it. We are now hitting the inevitable wall of our own engineering, to the careful design of godhood, which makes absolutely sure that none cross the threshold who cannot help carry the burden of Life, not just suckle at her teats, and drink from her tears.
We are now at a crossroads of sorts. History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme. There is a sameness to the way all civilisations peak, evolve, transcend or regress. There are only two likely outcomes from where we stand:
Either we dream our way out of this nightmare. We dance our way out of the dance, we play our way out of this game. We find a better way. We stop arguing about what is right as a pointless pursuit. We abandon the projects of politics and ideology as effective vehicles for cohesion and we find the courage to have difficult conversations and to try new things.
Or
We let the natural process take its course, we keep living unconsciously, just waiting for someone else to fix things, we wait for another show to come out on Netflix, or for a scientist to invent a Deus Ex Machina that will save us from our selves. We invest in another cycle of US elections to prove what a terminal dead-end that is and we let the sociopaths keep making our choices for us.
Doing nothing, just plodding on with life seeking comfort and hoping it will all come out in the wash, is a casting vote for apathy. The only cure for apathy is discomfort. The only cure for extreme apathy is extreme discomfort.
Wherever we step forward now, will define the shape of the tomorrow we will inhabit. You cannot demand sovereignty if you don’t actually know how to lead yourself and manage the care of yourself and contribute meaningfully to the care of your community and your environment. That is the test we are facing.
I, of course, cannot inspire you. You have to go looking for that in yourself.
We don’t need followers now, we need leaders —true leaders, not just those eager to stand up and be seen. We need dreamers and pioneers. We need people who have the courage to go first and be thought a fool for trying.
Self-sovereignty requires self-leadership and self-leadership requires self-mastery, which demands self-awareness, self-accountability and self-care. This is where we are now. You don’t just get the progress and advancement forever. The storm doesn’t mount forever. Sure, the sky has always been falling, but what did we seriously think was going to happen with all that momentum? Eventually, the test comes.
Our Test will be Crisis.
We made this World. We can do better, and we already know, we can do worse—this is becoming easier to imagine and harder to wish away and harder to count on fate and providence to wipe our backsides for us, without waking up and helping to steer, or perhaps getting out the current imploding game and helping to push towards one future or the other.
What Can Any of Us Do?
When people ask me, “How do I discover my purpose? Against all this madness, what can I hope to do?”, my answer is always the same: Stop hoping. No One Else is Coming.
Whatever you are searching hungrily for, afraid you might not find, become that thing. If you seek shelter or light, or if you are longing for something beautiful, if you are searching for daring leadership, find your courage and go first.
Be the shelter.
Be the light.
Be the iron edge that others may count on for strength.
Be the kindness and the stillness and the grace and forgiveness, and the compassion and the generosity, be the heart of every place you find yourself.
There is no greater purpose.
The sign above the door reads: “Welcome to the age of self-permission. Don’t expect everyone or anyone to treat you like an adult if you aren’t prepared to act like one.”
We are so incredibly empowered right now. We are young godlings, waking up to the enormous power we wield, but also to the limits that nature and our environment can tolerate.
We are who we repeatedly choose to be.
THE NEAR FACE
Above the restless earth
a boundless sky,
the near face
of a boundless heaven.
And below it, looking up,
us,
that face of creation
staring back in wonder at itself
unaware as yet
of the boundless sky within.
There are eclipses
in the heavens,
and ways also
in which our moon
sometimes eclipses our sun,
but also
ways in which the human spirit
may yet eclipse
all the clamour and suffering
on this earth.
—Rocco Jarman
Your support helps make this work possible.
If you are taking value from these, kindly like the post, add your comment, and share it with someone who would appreciate it too, or consider supporting my work with a paid subscription (only $5 per month).
Those who cant raise their words raise their voices.