In Hopi cosmology the world we presently inhabit is the fourth incarnation of previously destroyed worlds. Like our own, those worlds were composed of the same primary elements and life forms of plants and animals, as well as populated by peoples challenged to responsibly handle their own natures.
With a mythology nearly identical to that of Noah in Genesis, Hopi legend—or history—recounts the failure of human nature and thus the gathering of the worthy few to be saved, as each successive world is destroyed and created anew, for a fresh start led by the wise, saved ones.
Hopi prophecy predicts that the Fourth World we presently inhabit is in its final stages, with the process of destruction and transformation to the Fifth World quite apparent in current world events. In Book of the Hopi by Frank Waters, on page 33, the Hopi spokesmen state:
“The Fourth World, the present one, is the full expression of man’s ruthless materialism and imperialistic will; and man himself reflects the overriding gross appetites of the flesh.”
The Hopi view of the energetics of the human body is remarkably similar to the chakra system of Eastern mysticism. The Hopi focus on the spinal cord as an energetic pathway with energy centers beginning at the crown chakra. The energy center at the solar plexus or the navel, what the Hopi call The Throne of the Creator, is the place of dominant fixation in our current world. This chakra in Eastern mysticism is called Manipura, the place of personal power.
This center, from a psychological perspective, focuses on the ego/Self dilemma. The Hopi designation, Throne of the Creator, acknowledges that true power ought rest with the Creator, God, Self, or Tao. With the birth of ego consciousness man must learn to exercise personal power in alignment, and in respect for, this higher power. There are many trials and challenges to arrive at this correct alignment.
At one end, the challenge is for the individual to discover, claim, and exercise legitimate power. This is about self-acceptance and self-confidence—emergence from fear, shyness, dependency, and meekness onto solid footing.
The challenge at the other extreme of this chakra is the complete usurping of the higher power of the Self by the ego, the ultimate hubris: I am Man, the Creator. We see examples of this attitude played out daily now on the world stage: man the bully, abuse of power, greed, rape of woman and material world. This is masculine power, dominant and out of control.
This week, IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, known as “The Seducer,” is charged with sexual assault. Arnold Schwarzenegger, “Mr. Universe,” separates from his wife as he admits to a love child. The shadow of Senator John Ensign’s sex scandal extends to other Republicans, and Osama Bin Laden’s apparent porn stash is exposed. In one week the sexual abuse of masculine power by some of the most powerful men in the world is revealed.
In that world view, of man as entitled to do what he wants, the feminine exists for the use and abuse of the masculine will, as well as to feed the sexual appetite of narcissistic men possessed by their own sense of absolute power. That world can never know anything of “the magnitude and splendor of the bliss and ecstasy of a clean, uninhibited and fully abandon-packed sexual union [that] could never contribute to anything derogatory to human dignity.” (From Yoga and Sex by Pandit Shiv Sharma, page 29.)
This quote describes a full union of complimentary opposites: a meeting based on commitment, trust, and mutual respect; the Tao of love. In this union, power is expressed in upholding these tenets to channel the full energy of divine primal love.
The IMF chief is an apt symbol, as well, of a power-based organization that has turned nations into indentured servants to serve the greedy few. Witness the plight of Jamaica when the IMF destroyed Jamaican industry and agriculture whereby undermining Jamaica’s ability to remain a self-sufficient economic entity. This debacle is well-documented in the film Life and Debt.
Beyond the IMF is the complete rape of the feminine physical earth, of its natural resources, purity, and balance by unbridled greed. We see now, every day, the reaction of Pachamama to these abuses in the earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, swollen rivers and floods.
The Hopis prophesized that the revolutionary energies of destruction/transformation of the Fourth World would arise from the peoples who first received The Light of Divine Wisdom in the countries of India, China, Egypt, Palestine, and Africa. We indeed see, every day, the revolutionary stirrings in those lands.
Carl Jung was fond of telling the true story of the rain-maker, told to him by his dear friend Richard Wilhelm, a German scholar and Protestant missionary who immersed himself in the study and translation of the I Ching while living in China. Here is the story, as Jung describes it in Mysterium Coniunctionis, page 419-20:
“There was a great drought where Wilhelm lived; for months there had not been a drop of rain and the situation became catastrophic. The Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss-sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no result. Finally the Chinese said, ‘We will fetch the rain-maker.’ And from another province a dried up old man appeared. The only thing he asked was for a quiet little house somewhere, and there he locked himself in for three days. On the fourth day the clouds gathered and there was a great snow-storm at the time of the year when no snow was expected, an unusual amount, and the town was so full of rumors about the wonderful rain-maker that Wilhelm went to ask the man how he did it. In true European fashion he said: ‘They call you the rain-maker, will you tell me how you made the snow?’ And the little Chinese said: ‘I did not make the snow, I am not responsible.’ ‘But what have you done these three days?’ ‘Oh, I can explain that. I come from another country where things are in order. Here they are out of order, they are not as they should be by the ordinance of heaven. Therefore the whole country is not in Tao, and I also am not in the natural order of things because I am in a disordered country. So I had to wait three days until I was back in Tao and then naturally the rain came.’ “
Wilhelm’s experience dramatically validates the principle of synchronicity, but even further demonstrates the far reaching effect of one individual who finds his way from a state of disorder, like that of our current world, back into the Tao. This is a story of empowerment, the story of how to find one’s way onto the ark of emergence into the Fifth World.
The Hopi spokesmen point out:
“It is only materialistic people who seek to make shelters. Those who are at peace in their hearts already are in the great shelter of life… Those who take no part in the making of world division by ideology are ready to resume life in another world…” (Book of the Hopi, page 408.)
The rain-maker demonstrates the truth of our holographic universe. In a hologram, every minute slice of the hologram actually contains the full picture of the entire hologram. We are all holographic slices that contain within ourselves our entire world. Like the rain-maker we reflect the disorder of our entire world. If but one of us truly restores order within the self we can, like the rain-maker, profoundly influence our world.
What does it mean to restore order, to return to the Tao within the self, in the chaos of this Fourth World we currently inhabit? We must individually address the issues connected to the fixation of this world on the Manipura chakra with all its challenges and how they play out within our personal lives.
What is our relation to personal power? Are we meek, like beggars seeking permission to be in this world? Are we bullies with no regard for our interdependent world? Are we seducers who use and abuse, or lovers fully capable of meeting? Are we in alignment with powers greater than our individual ego, like the Self or Pachamama, or do we rape the planet of its resources for our own greed? Do we care for our bodies, our nourishment, or do our appetites make us ill from greedy overconsumption?
If we can find our way to balance in alignment with spirit, Tao, Self, in all of these questions, then nature will release us onto the ark of emergence into the Fifth World.
Let’s meet in the Tao,
Chuck
