The time eventually comes when there is no path visible except that of acquiescence. To acquiesce is not a failure but a logical next step as one faces a truth, either a truth from within or a truth from without, or perhaps a synchronous alignment of both something from within and something from without that will yield in no other way. Acquiescence then becomes the one and only step to take.
Acquiesce with awareness, just as nature’s seasons acquiesce to the new changes that a new season brings. Sometimes it’s just time to let go and take the next best step, whatever that may be. But with awareness you can choose the attitude you take and you can remain open to what will come next. For indeed, even in times of ending there is an opening to something new.
Notice how the changes in nature all around you may seem to occur suddenly but in reality have been undergoing transformation for a long time. Notice how nothing is hurried. Nature takes its time enacting its processes, letting things unfold naturally and without interference. Let your own inner process of change, of spirit transformation, progress naturally as well. To follow your spirit in life is to be as attuned to it and its needs as Mother Nature herself is to the needs of her plants and animals, letting them find their way each day to what is right for them in their slow progress through life. Pay attention to what your spirit needs and tells you in its natural flow through life and as it leads you to your own transformation.
It’s never too late to take a different path, to find a path of heart, a path that seeks love, compassion and kindness as its moral principles rather than greed and selfishness. A path of heart includes a nonjudgmental way of life. For once upon a path of heart it becomes clear that you are just one of the many on the same path through life, that all are as one, seeking to fulfill life in the best way possible. But a path of heart is a path of awareness and that is the difference between that and any other path. For once you have awareness then everything is meaningful in the context of past, present and future karma. Once upon a path of heart no other path will do.
Earth is birthing. Humanity is birthing. The human psyche is birthing.
At the current stage of the birthing process contractions have begun; we are in active labor. The fetus is tightly encased in the birth canal, with no possibility of exit, as the cervix has yet to dilate enough to enable the birthing journey into the light of this world. Stan Grof has named this stage of the birth process Basic Perinatal Matrix II (BPM II).
Nature’s hurricanes, massive flooding, erupting volcanoes and earthquakes, and worldwide conflagrations are all part of Earth’s contractions, closing in upon all life on the planet. Gaia is rebirthing herself into a new configuration of life, which is currently sealed in, like a fetus, in her alchemical pressure cooker of a womb, planet Earth itself.
Humanity finds itself squeezed by drought, tidal wave and famine, as it migrates, seeking safety and new life. Borders are closing. Nationalistic impulses are squeezing in upon sovereign nations, as greed and violence expand, seeking to stave off the stage of no exit.
Political heroes have emerged who promise to restore a former paradisal time of Shangri-La in the midst of this time of no exit. These so-called saviors intend to ignore, defy, or totally control the feminine. The entire world awaits the outcome of the American Election Day to determine how humanity will choose to position itself in the midst of this active labor.
Within the psyche, the ego finds itself squeezed by anxiety, terror, hopelessness and helplessness, as totalitarian archetypes threaten possession from within. Conversely, many people experience religious ecstasy and fervor, as they bathe in numinous identification with the masculine gods of war, certain to fully rein in and control the feminine birth process, within and without.
The fragility of ego muscle, no matter how well armed and defiant, is no match for nature’s current squeeze upon human emotion. The random violence of our time is ego’s impotent attempt to forestall the birth of a radically new world. What then is the correct attitude for ego to assume in this time of no exit?
Ego must face its pending death and rebirth, the story of all new life in this world. Our first breath in this world is also the death of our former life as aquatic beings, who were passively fed oxygen and nutrients in our symbiotic life as one with mother. The end of life in paradisal union with another requires letting go of hoarding our former material security, as we must meet the demands of changed conditions.
In the time of no exit it is possible to get calm. If we can’t escape the claustrophobic squeezing of ego by tumultuous emotions, ego still retains its existential ability to choose the attitude it will take toward the inevitable. Ego can breathe, however constrictedly, and instruct every cell of the body to go calm.
Just as ego knows that the numinous experience of body orgasm will result, if it can calmly let go of resistance to the higher power of instinct, ego can cognitively know that there is light at the end of the tunnel, as it lets go to the inevitable birthing of new life. And what does that new life look like?
Glimpses of new life are evident in the current psychedelic trials that activate the healing forces of the transpersonal dimension of the psyche. During psychedelic experiences, many individual’s hearts are opened by their recapitulation journeys through old traumas, with the resulting inner experience of total love and acceptance.
Others encounter past lives, ancestral trauma, and spirit encounters that break down old ideas and neutralize emotional intensities, while they simultaneously experience their death and rebirth into a broader, interconnected knowing of life.
I am neutral with regard to the coming renaissance of psychedelics as facilitators of healing and rebirth. Carlos Castaneda, mistakingly identified as the father of psychedelics and the New Age, was adamantly averse to their use.
Personally, I know that the mere invoking of intent is all that is needed to reach the holotropic powers of the transpersonal psyche that both break down and refurbish the ego with broadened and truthfully driven agency.
Know that the time of no exit is transitory. No matter how tight the squeeze, the opening will eventually appear.
Be patient, be calm, beware the false prophets and redeemers. Trust your innate ability to find the true light.
Focus on what is going right in your life rather than on what is going wrong. Incline toward the positive rather than the negative. Lean toward looking ahead rather than looking at what you did not get right, do right, or say appropriately. Everyone makes mistakes. Accept your role in the unfolding of your life and look forward to playing a new role in the days to come. It will do you good to be humble.
