THE CROWNED ONE
Dear Crowned One, you have got me on my knees….gratitude, grief, wonder, horror. I am in awe of how fast you have transformed human culture throughout our planet in one or two short weeks. The idea of the “Great Turning” from the industrial growth society to a life sustaining society has been with me for decades thanks to my beloved teacher Joanna Macy. But never did I ever think it would turn like this, on a dime. Everything closed, empty, sold-out - everyone confined to being home with their families in the name of public health, forced to slow down and turn inward in some way. This is at best, uncomfortable for most Americans. Of course fear is understandable in the face of this deadly disease, but what about the fear of economic and cultural collapse of The “American Dream”? This so-called dream was built on becoming a cog in the industrial growth wheel, while our social lives got swooped up into the consumption-based culture. As Erik Rittenberry writes “You’re merely going through the motions in a fast-paced, consumer-centered culture that has transformed our once beautiful land into an asphalt wasteland strewed with digital billboards, fast food joints, soulless malls, and complete carnage. Your constant craving for objects and status (the American way) has robbed your life of its freedom and creative zest. You live routine and stressed and you’re chained to a sluggish and predictable way of living.” This is blanket judgement that does not apply to everyone of course, but there is a deep fear in our culture and therefore in our psyches that underlies our decisions to stay in a job longer than we feel we should, or to buy that shiny thing even though we know we shouldn’t. But here we are face to face with it all in a cuarentena (40 days) or a quarantine, as we call it in English.
The Cuarentena is a practice that I have honored in my life many times. I’ve stayed in for the 40 days following the birth of my babies, and also prayed for 40 days after a loved ones passing. In fact, tonight is the eve of the 40th day since my fathers passing, and I have honored and prayed for his soul every day and taken retreat from normal life to grieve. I have also practiced monthly “red tent” or “dark moon” retreats for many moons. So it is from a place of deep reverence for the cuarentena, and my spiritual practice of retreating to fully resurrect and rebirth anew, that I support this Corona inspired 40 day quarantine, together with my beloved family. I urge anyone reading to take this time for more stillness, silence, cozy togetherness, and deep listening to what your heart and soul are saying behind all the noise, anxiety, and fear. Feel what comes up, be the One that Feels. as Pixie Lighthorse says in her book Honoring Grief. I know that facing our feelings takes us on a much different path than running from them, stuffing them, numbing them, and I think this is what is being asked of us from mama Gaia at this time.
Corona, the Crowned One, has made swift and substantial changes on this planet unlike any I’ve seen in my lifetime. She is powerful and undiscriminating. She has single handedly cut CO2 emissions faster than any other technology or strategy known to humankind. NO I don’t think lockdown is the end game but I do think it is an on-ramp to us awakening, to the masses getting real with our vulnerability, interdependence and connection to this planet and to each other. What a glorious, tragic, wonderful, horrific awakening, isn’t it? A New Earth is birthing, the wheel of fortune is spinning. Where do you wish it to land? What is the gift being given to us in the middle of this chaos?
