Perhaps the best antidote to the worst of times is to pull inward, to go into the quiet of self in some way that suits you. Perhaps you like to pray, to sit in meditation, or to dream of something for the future that invigorates or inspires you. Perhaps you like to write or draw or dance or tell jokes. Perhaps you enjoy the company of innocent children and all that they offer. Find both solace and purpose in the small gifts of everyday life that calm you and center you. Turn inward to find your source of inner wisdom and give of your knowledge when it is asked for and withhold it when it is not. Hold the place between the past and the future in calm balance within you and let it become your mode of operation as you weather through these difficult times.
The dominant feature of those who hold power in the world at this time is cruelty. The rhetoric and behavior of those warring entities is both disdain and indifference toward the suffering of adversaries and a polarized philosophy that can only see solution in the destruction and elimination of opposition. Understanding the energetics of cruelty can truly lead us to a path of peace.
As we enter the autumn of our seasonal cycle, we must acknowledge Nature’s Law of Destruction as the necessary precursor to new life. We are indeed in the cosmic season of Kali Yuga, the Dark Age of Degeneration. World leaders are under the spell of such energy, channelling it with gusto. If we suspend all judgment, we see the necessity of this breakdown and can turn our attention to the process of preparing for renewed life.
Beyond the destruction of autumn lies the barren season of winter, where life moves inward to the darkness of the soul in the shadowland of Self. Winter offers a peek into the Dark Night of the Soul, where we are invited to face and resolve our inner mysteries. It is here, if we are ready, that we discover the covert defenses we have utilized to avoid our deepest feelings and needs. One such defense is that of reaction formation.
Sigmund Freud introduced reaction formation as an ego defense that “transforms an unacceptable or anxiety-provoking impulse or feeling into its opposite” (from Brutus AI). For instance, instead of consciously acknowledging an unacceptable desire or emotion, we act outwardly with just the opposite of how we truly feel. Thus, we might act affectionately toward someone whom we actually feel hostility toward.
A more nuanced appreciation of the dynamic of reaction formation is the energetic exchange that occurs when something is transformed into its opposite. For example, the intensity of affection one might feel for a person, that is then followed by a felt sense of rejection by that person, might result in a corresponding emotionally intense feeling of hatred toward them.
This compensatory emotional reaction assuages and redirects the original energy of affection, while it also protects the ego from the feeling of rejection. Such is often the motive in stalking behavior, where one can be said to be in love with hatred.
Cruelty might issue from disappointments at the primal-need level of human development when one is most vulnerable, sensitive and needing of attention. The British psychoanalyst, Melanie Klein, went so far as to suggest that a frustrated infant would assign one of its mother’s breasts to be the ‘good breast’ and the other the ‘bad breast’ to energetically balance its joys and sorrows and preserve a lifesaving connection to its ‘flawed’ human mother.
Cruelty, however, permits no such defensive option. Cruelty bespeaks such a deep experience of felt rejection at one’s core, the shame of which is reactively transformed into the pleasure of rejecting others and bathing in their extreme suffering. The scapegoating of others creates a playing field where the ego is justified in its fixation of hatred, with an intensity that nullifies its deep sense of inner rejection and abandonment.
When we are able to acknowledge and feel the truth of our deepest disappointments, we are freed from defensive illusions and entitlements that fuel cruel thoughts and actions. These actions allow us to experience love for ourselves, at the deepest level, and love for all who have taken on the challenge of loving in human form.
Planet Earth is the planet for the accelerated experience of refining love. Taking the Night Sea Journey of Recapitulation allows us to gather, from all our disappointments, a loving acceptance of everything. Immortal souls we may be, but in the context of a mortal life love is challenged to grow amidst its greatest adversary, death itself.
To move beyond the defense of reactive formation to true loving acceptance of all that is, is the foundation upon which new life will grow in the New Age, beyond the Kali Yuga of now.
Those of us now present in human form are privileged to contribute to this energetic emergence, most especially through the practice and acceptance of all that is, within and without.
Do not let the sadnesses that permeate the earthly realm get you down. Know that from a higher perspective and a higher plane of thought there is something else that is happening, that other intelligences have your back. Yes, times are hard now and they will get harder but that does not indicate that it is time to give up. It just means that it is time to gather your wits about you, sit quietly and wait. All things change over time and time is in constant motion, thus time and change are always re-intertwining, re-forming and re-newing.
Give thanks for the everyday gifts you are given, for the first glimpse of the rising sun, for the song of the birds, for the baby’s cry, for the earth beneath your feet and for the scent of autumn leaves in the air. Staying grounded in nature is one of the best healing medicines there is. Just walking barefoot in the grass or crunching over some fallen leaves will bring you back to your senses, literally and figuratively. Letting the sun fall upon your shoulders, feeling its warmth is a sure way to reconnect with the loving hand of Mother Nature and all her bounty. No matter where you live, if you look up at any time of day or night you can connect with nature in the heavens above, no matter what lies at your feet. Give thanks for the opportunity to witness and experience the glories of the natural world all around you.
Stay grounded in your hope for a better world to come, one where love for neighbors is uppermost, where love of compatibility in all sectors of life is apparent, where kindness and compassion find their place in the hearts and minds of the many, and where the only war is against the mention of war, against the words of dislike, distain, and domination over others. Keep the rhetoric curbed toward love, kindness, compassion and harmony, the solid foundations for a new world order. If you want to restore the world to its own Divine Order then begin the restoration now by using those tenets of Divine Order, every day, in your own life.
