Dark Night of the Globe

 

Calling our current environmental and pandemic crises a "dark night of the globe" may seem rather gloomy and daunting. However, this description holds a serious challenge and a wonderful hope.

Many of you will immediately think of the origin of the "dark night" language in the experience and writings of St John of the Cross (16th Century). John's experience included terrible external injustices and a deep personal spiritual crisis. It was a death/resurrection experience. Out of the trauma, the 'unknowing' and the surrender to what felt as if  his whole world was crumbling, John emerged into new life. He brought gifts of insight, poetry and writing we still draw on all these centuries later. It is significant that he is Saint John of the Cross. Yes. Jesus endured betrayal, abandonment and injustice culminating in a false trial and sentence. He entered the darkest night as he approached physical death on a cross. He begged to be delivered. He wished there was some other way, yet surrendered to going through with it: "Father, if it be possible take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." (Luke 22:42). That surrender to death was the doorway to resurrection.

The speakers in this summit conversation wanted to make clear that the global dark night terminology does not imply that "God caused this". Rather, it is the outcome of human behaviour, selfishness and greed. One panelist called the global dark night "savage grace" as it burns away our illusions and reveals the consequences of aligning with darkness. Darkness is often more 'thrilling' and intriguing. It provides a place to hide. (Sadly, it is also more newsworthy.) Light exposes and reveals the truth with nowhere to hide. Living in the light requires repeatedly dying to the ego and our illusions of separateness and control. 

But the dark night also invites us to recognise our creative capacity to co-operate in bringing about change. We have a part to play in Birthing the New Earth - that's what this summit is about.  As Quantam physics constantly reminds us: we live in a world of possibilities. Not just "nice ideas" but actual change brought about immediately by our attitudes, actions and choices.  (Remember the butterfly effect from the previous post.) 

One of my particular areas of interest is noticing how realities expressed in contemporary science are "hidden in plain sight" in spiritual texts. As a life-long Christian, of course I see this most clearly in the Bible.  Jesus puts "loving your neighbour as yourself" right up there with loving God (Mark 12:30-31). More and more I have come to see that loving my neighbour "as myself" doesn't just mean "as much as I love myself" although that's not a bad start! In a very real sense my neighbour actually is "myself".  What I do affects everyone else - directly or indirectly. The Buddhist image of Indra's net expresses this well. So does a spider web!

So our part in co-creating our future is to own our influence and express our creative potential. If we externalise the crisis as something happening to us we are pretending to be separate from it, denying any responsibility for contributing to change.  But each of us has potential to join in bringing about the light of a new era to follow this dark night.

This summit conversation was fiery and impassioned I felt quite breathless by the end of it! The urgency for "sacred activism" was evident. The facilitator, asked each person to ground it in a final practical word to those listening. The responses:

• What breaks your heart the most? Step up and do something about it - right now.
• What was I born for? I need to make every day a day I honour the truth.
• Words have power - watch how you speak. 
• The present moment is the portal for change.
• Don't get caught in pessimism - that is self perpetuating. In every moment there are infinite possibilities.

What strikes me in all of these responses is that they each bring the focus back to the present moment. It is easy to think it's all too big, too daunting, what could I possibly do that would change anything? There's the tempting escape route again! Both Jesus and quantam science say: "You can't get away with that. You are making a difference one way or another whether you are aware of it or not!" So even if we can't do "great things" let's make a habit of choosing to "do small things with great love" as Mother Teresa said not so long ago.

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Panelists in this conversation:

Catherine G Lucas: Founder of Co-creating Our Future; Author; Birth the New Earth Host.

Caroline Myss: Five time NYT best selling author and Internationally Renowned Speaker.

Andrew Harvey: Internationally acclaimed Writer, Poet, Translator and Mystical Teacher

Paul Levy: Author, Spiritual Emergence Pioneer and Birth the New Earth team member.