Posted 12/21/2019 08:29:04
Category: Think Pieces
Are you feeling an inexplicable impulse? An urge you can't quite put into words? Feeling some curiosity about where to go from here? If so, you might be experiencing what futurist Barbara Marx Hubbard calls "vocational arousal," or a "suprasexual" desire to join your genius with the genius of others as you start on a journey toward not only your, but global highest potential and best interests.
About 35 people, myself included, felt an urge this month to attend After 2012: Manifesting Change/Rebirthing Self & Community, a weekend workshop at the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, NY. Led by Hubbard and best-selling author John Perkins, this particular group of "universal impulsers" included: A young mechanical engineer who's a proponent of low technology and wants to build steam engines. A vibrant, engaging man from Maui who plans to produce local TV programs, and who also put forth the radical notion of bringing a new party to the American political arena: the Women's Party. Health care professionals wanting to create new models for elder care attended, as well as psychologists who've written books in their fields but hope to write new ones which are more spiritually engaged. There were college professors, artists and others with innovative ideas about learning and experiencing beauty. And a man whose passion is to develop and perform a one-man stage show portraying the life of Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, the highly decorated and outspoken Marine who in 1935 published "War is a Racket".
Barbara Marx Hubbard talked about mothering and fathering the new world. She talked about how, in the time human beings have been on Earth, we've been able to move our focus from self-preservation to self-reproduction to, now, for the first time, self-evolution. She believes we're entering a time when our most important function is not to procreate, but co-create. She spoke of a time when women will "enter the political arena carrying options for the future" and if you ask me, it can't happen soon enough.
Barbara Marx Hubbard said the breaking down the planet is experiencing may be necessary in order to effectuate the process of breaking through. She said she can think of no point in history when a time of radical forward human progression was not preceded by crisis. She has devised what she calls the Evolutionary Spiral, which tells the story of evolution from the origin of the universe through the present. Alongside the Spiral is the Wheel of Co-Creation, also referred to as the Global Communication Hub (GCH). The GCH is divided into 12 segments into which our talents and vocations fit. These segments include areas such as science, health, the arts, justice, infrastructure and education. Just as the Pentagon gathers data to devise military strategy, Barbara Marx Hubbard proposes designing a federal Peace Room which utilizes the model of the GCH to track and carry out positive activity.
Paraphrasing Darwin, Barbara Marx Hubbard says it is not the survival of the fittest but rather, the survival of what fits best. Relying on the writings of the Jesuit monk and paleontologist, Pierre Telliard de Chardin, she is optimistic. She asserts that mankind is in the process of consciously evolving from homo sapiens to the more compassionate and superior homo universalis. Which makes me wonder…will those who do not consciously evolve, will those who remain asleep, go the way of Neanderthals?
John Perkins, who made an intriguing journey from international banker to apprentice of shamans, to eventually shaman himself, spoke eloquently of the Mayan people he has spent so much time with. Perkins drummed us into powerful shamanic journeys as he told the ancient prophecy of the Eagle and the Condor. The Eagle, representing North America and being symbolic of the rational mind, industry and intellect, could be said to be masculine in nature, Perkins said. The Condor, representing South America and attuned to the heart, intuition and passion, is symbolic of the feminine. In antiquity, so the story goes, the two birds flew together in harmony. But a time came when Eagle and Condor went their separate ways. It was prophesied in days of old that a time would come when Eagle nearly destroyed Condor. In modern-day retelling of the prophecy, this part of the prophecy is said to have been fulfilled at the time of Columbus, who brought Western civilization to indigenous peoples with disastrous results. The ancient prophets also foretold that five hundred years after Eagle nearly destroyed Condor, Eagle and Condor would reconcile and fly together in harmony once again, and mutually thrive. Counting forward from the time of Columbus, you realize that now is the time for that part of the prophecy to be fulfilled! To use Barbara Marx Hubbard's words, we are entering a time of masculine and feminine communication and collaboration which "unites indigenous wisdom with the yearning of the modern world."
It was suggested by one workshop attendee that maybe the Eagle and Condor made love, and John and Barbara are their symbolic offspring. Others suggested that by becoming "vocationally attracted" to one another and making "suprasexual love," Barbara and John were the Eagle and Condor and we, the workshop attendees, were the offspring. For that weekend I was in Rhinebeck, I was able to perceive, and experience, just about everything as sacred. Much has awakened in me since then. I seem to have heightened awareness and new appreciation for even the mundane. My spiritual practices, at least for now, are regular and richer.
On the drive home from Rhinebeck on Sunday, I listened on the radio to the sacred words of Martin Luther King. As we approach the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington, and Dr. King’s "I Have a Dream" speech, it is clear to me that he is unquestionably, as some assert, the most important human being produced by the United States in the 20th century. Some may not know that after the civil rights movement, Dr. King planned to take action to correct other sins of our nation: poverty and military-industrialization. John Perkins spoke with great concern at the conference about the fact that Americans comprise 5% of the world’s population but consume 25% of its resources--and that most of that 25% of wealth is actually owned by less than 1% of our citizenry. What would Dr. King say if he were with us today? What would he want us to do?
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The dam on the pond is being cleared of more than 20 years' growth. Trees have been removed by men with chainsaws and heavy machinery. Now a group of Latino men are removing the many stumps, some quite large. These men are using low technology: pick axes and their bare hands. They scrape along the base of a tree, then the roots, tracing them all the way to their feathery ends. Then they remove from the earth what very much resembles the human circulatory system. I remember that Stephen Buhner says trees' brains are located in their roots. Going down to the pond to check the day's progress and observing the newest additions to the growing pile of stumps seems a bit like Londoners gathering for the hangings at Tyburn, or Parisians at the Place de la Révolution to observe heads roll into baskets.
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The most remarkable thing happened on the 20th. Normally when news outlets replay 911 tapes while reporting a tragedy or crime, I cringe. But the 911 tape of Antoinette Tuff, (what an appropriate surname she has!) needs to be played for people everywhere, and duplicated and stored and protected for posterity the way Dr. King's words have been preserved. Talk about an American hero! Talk about somebody who gets it! Antoinette Tuff, I admire you for being such a strong woman, for reaching out the way you did. It would be an honor, and an education, to hear YOU speak publicly.
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Oh my God. I still can’t believe it. I danced with. Stood before a sacred fire with. Sang under the moon with. Had my face cupped in her dear hands and was kissed on the cheek by...Barbara Marx Hubbard!!!
--DAC
08/2013 (edited 12/2019)