How do we heal ourselves from the ‘lost-ness’ that afflicts our culture? How do we move on from the strange—and wholly untrue— belief our culture holds that we are separate from the natural world, that our cycles of exploitation, extraction, destruction, pollution are the way the world is, that this is the natural order and there’s nothing we can do to change it, individually or collectively?
Let the Wild Gods Rise. Easy to say and harder to do – but if you were offered a portal, a way to step into the other-worlds, to reconnect with all that we have been and could be, would you take it? If you’re listening to this, you are likely steeped in the mechanical world of our culture – but it doesn’t have to be like this. The other worlds are alive, present…wild—and just within reach. All we need are doorways, places where the veils between the worlds grow thinner and then route maps to take us to—and through—them.
As the old system is splitting apart, a few brave souls are already working to hospice this old system, acting as Death Doulas to the Great Dying—as well as helping people to awaken the seeds of a new world within. One of these is our guest this week. Sara McFarland is a Soul Initiation and Wild Mind Mentor and Guide, Artist of Consciousness and a Death Doula for the Great Dying.
Our Trauma Culture has spread across the globe with terrifying speed and ghastly efficiency. But the tide is turning and people of good heart in many nations are beginning to understand that what we need now is a move towards a 21st Century Initiation Culture. The language is often different, but at heart, this is where we need to go.
How do we Outgrow the death cult of Modernity – opening the doors to a future we’d be proud to leave to the generations yet unborn?
How can we find a way through the obfuscations and extractive values and downright lies of predatory capitalism. Through to authenticity, and integrity and finding language for how we can be who we really are, what our souls yearn to be. And that language is not always English.
Here is a meditation for the shortest night of the year – the time when the sun stands still.
It doesn’t have to be at the moment of the solstice, it’s the connection that counts, the marking of the day. And you don’t have to limit yourself to one pass through – please feel free to explore this more deeply than one single iteration.
As we head into the solstice- that moment when the sun stands still—whether you’re in the northern hemisphere where we have the longest day, or the southern, where it’s the longest night—this solstice feels like a moment of transformation.
Our world is more magical than we know – more than we can know. Increasing numbers of us are realising that the ‘citadel theory of mind’ where we see ourselves as isolated units within the boundaries of our own skulls is not how the world works. But if it isn’t, then how do we engage with the web of life and all that’s around it in ways that are respect, reciprocal and generative?
How do we shift our conversations – and our mindsets – to heal the gaping wounds in our culture?
We grow up thinking we want to be happy (or at least, not-sad). But happiness isn’t enough. What we need is wellbeing, and as Dr Mark Fabian quotes in the dedication to his book, Beyond Happy, “Wellbeing is about wholeness, not happiness, and wholeness is so much more demanding than happiness.’
We are in the midst of the Great Derangement (thank you Amitav Ghosh) – so what tools will help us shape a system that is actually fit for purpose? Who are our elders and what can they teach us? How do we learn to listen to our heart’s (and hearts’) desire and shape the communities of place, passion and purpose that will allow us to emerge into a different culture?