THE SHOCKING TRUTH

The shocking truth is that no-one is in control. We collectively create kings and governments and religions to re-assure ourselves that someone knows what is going on and is in control. At the same time, we kick and rebel against these authorities that we have created, to persuade ourselves that we are free agents. We do not admit to ourselves the re-assurance we get from the authorities we kick against, often through excessive mistrust of them.

And it is at times like the present, where it is clear that governments are not in control (and actually never were) that we can see the truth of this. It is very unsettling for many people: they cannot live with the existential anxiety of not feeling looked after. So they go into a desperate conformism. Or they invent fantastical stories of who is really controlling things, which they then kick strongly against but which, I suggest, they are also secretly re-assured by. Their need for others to believe what they believe is strong, and that says a lot. We want our sense of independence and agency, and we also don't want it. Like teenagers :)

 

We are alone, and when we realise this, we have the freedom and power to shape our lives. We no longer have limiting beliefs which get in the way of the intentions of Spirit, at least not to the same extent. To live this Shamanic Path, we need to stand outside all those one-sided and limiting and partial tides of belief that sweep through society, and that are based on fear of that openness to Spirit, that inner guide, which is the real reason we are here.

 

“How small, of all that human hearts endure, that part which laws or kings can cause or cure.” (Samuel Johnson)

 

So I am having the thought that maybe I won't vote in an election again, on principle. The principle is that our politics are founded on one-sidedness, that cannot see the values of the other parties, and I want to make a stand that says I am about something beyond all of that. I am beyond Brexit and Remain too. Anything that divides people, though I will still try to appreciate the values that are important to people, from whatever part of the political spectrum. What I stand for is the joyousness and expansiveness and meaning that comes from not being identified with any particular standpoint or position.

 

I do not expect this of most people. It would destroy them psychologically to take away too many of their certainties. Look at how crazy the UK has gone since 2016, as first the certainty and identity of EU membership was taken away, and then Covid.

 

We Shamans can use these crises, because we are also still partial beings, we get caught up in these things too, though hopefully not to the same extent. We will also experience the discomfort and anxiety that come with crises, but we are able to sit with that and reflect and be changed by it, rather than shifting into blame and a new set of limiting beliefs. It is a great opportunity for us.

 

And it is also a great opportunity to observe and to learn from the people around us. We get to know plenty about human nature at these times, and what is therefore really going on under the surface in the quieter times. Just how one-sided people are in their thoughts, and how easily they slip into fear, for example. The lockdown fear has been like a blanket closing in, that I sometimes make my own private protest against, just to keep it at bay. Like wearing my Live Dangerously T-Shirt, bought in response to a well-meaning friend who exhorted me to 'stay safe' :)

 

No, we Shamans do not have the false security of collective opinions and collective acceptance to fall back on. We are not identified with any particular way of seeing the world, because we understand that it is all stories; that we need more than one story about anything to avoid dogmatism; and that ultimately it is all the Great Mystery anyway. Sometimes we catch a glimpse of that, and that is where the true security lies: in the continual creative outpouring of life itself, which can never be pinned down or predicted.

 

We Shamans are alone. It is not easy to find companions along the way, who know what we are talking about. We may have plenty of friends – we probably do, because it is in our nature to be of service. And maybe one or two people, if we are fortunate, who we can really talk about this stuff with. But that lonely place isn’t always so bad. Often loneliness is simply loneliness for ourselves. Get on your own, let all those other psyches drift away, get away from the computer and you have just you, and if you just sit there with yourself it is a deep experience, and it can be joyful, and the Spirits rejoice, because they want us to experience our Spirit. It feeds them when we do this. And in this aloneness we can experience our agency, that really it is up to us how we shape our lives, and there is freedom and power in that realisation.

 

And yes, the loneliness can be actual loneliness too, for we are relational beings, we do not exist in isolation, who we are is also everyone we are connected to. And that can be a bit tough sometimes. But remember: your spirit helpers are always there with you, and they may feel you have forgotten about them if you are sitting there feeling lonely. They are your friends, and are always with you in a deep way. They may have particular forms and personalities, or you may just have a general sense of spirit help around you. Either way, it doesn’t matter.

 

This is where the Existentialists get it wrong. They say we are ultimately alone in a universe that has no inherent meaning, only that meaning which we create in our lives. They are so wrong. Meaning is something already there if we listen to ourselves and act on that. The Universe is replete with meaning. And when we listen to ourselves, we realise that we are connected to everything and that we are cared for. And it is good to have periods of solitude and ‘loneliness’ so that we can find that deep centre and sense of connection within. That is where the real security lies, and the real freedom that others will sense, and who in their turn will feel free to be who they are, instead of looking over their shoulders to check on who they ‘should’ be.

 

A few nights ago I dreamed that I was going to meet Carl Jung in the middle of the Amazon jungle. This dream came out of quite a deep decision I had made not to get involved in a relationship unless it felt really right, and it felt like my whole being coming together in a new way. And this dream image was a Mandala, the jungle being the circle, and the Self, the point of balance, being Jung in the middle. 

 

And there felt to be something deeply natural and easy about going to meet Jung, it was saying that the Jungian Self – the central point of balance in the Medicine Wheel – is something deeply natural and easy, we don’t have to ‘try’. (Jung was known for his ability to understand and form relationships with indigenous people.) And this sense of naturalness was reinforced by the substance of the Mandala being the Amazon Jungle – raw and primal nature. And the Amazon is the biggest jungle on earth – it is beyond our easy grasp. So this suggests that the Self we are growing into is limitless and infinitely connected to everything else.

 

So this is the naturalness that I was referring to: it seems to others like we are just being simply ourselves, and we are, but it is usually something hard-won over many years, it takes courage and persistence, it is a deep thing. And people are drawn to it, but it is what we are all, in our own ways, moving towards, and away from the limiting beliefs and certainties, given apparent substance by their collective acceptance, that form the psychic infrastructure of large societies.