What to Do In A World Gone Askew
A beloved teacher of mine in the world of Jungian psychology once told me this dream:
I am in an unrelenting storm of whirling energy. Everyone is panicking, running about helter-skelter, desperately seeking shelter or escape. Every so often, a bolt of blue electricity tears through the crowd like a buzz saw, threatening anyone in its path. In the midst of the pandemonium I stop to notice that this spiral nightmare is like a crazy amusement park ride, and that everyone has a seat. I quickly find my own and climb into it. No sooner do I click into my place then everyone around me stops running and finds their own seat. Things slow down. The blue bolts of lightning soften and stop and calm takes over.
How like the world these days! Faster and faster we spin, breathless to keep up, to outpace what feels like an inevitable calamity ready to strike at any time. When we are out of our seat, our center, askew from the ground of our being, the world around us can be too much to bear.
But if we—like the dreamer—can take a minute to stop, notice, and click into our own selves, come back down into our authentic place, we may notice that the world around us responds in like measure.
The word for place in ancient Hebrew is Makom. It is also one of the names of God in the mystical tradition. The ancient Sefer Yetzira (Book of Formation) tells us: Shuv laMakom! Return to your place! You have a home, like all beings, a place of sanctuary and recharging. This Makom is within you. It is where you are truly yourself, and therefore, where you are in harmonious alignment with the cosmic powers.
The dream says: When any one of us stops, remembers, and re-clicks into our deepest authenticity, it affects all of us. Whether near or far, we affect the whole. A man praying from his heart anywhere in the world reshapes the entire field for us all. A woman acting from profound self-respect and inner knowing sets off ripples that help to straighten and correct the dizzying messages that fly about us. The noisy bolts of misguided energy can relax, and we all benefit.
So, what to do in a world gone askew? Find your own seat—your Makom, your God place, and buckle up! Doing so may set off a chain reaction of calm and sanity that
Join Tirzah and friends on March 26 for her Ancestral Healing Workshop, just outside of Boulder, CO. A powerful way to "take your seat." For more information: Call 303 819-1339