The Crash
In the fall of 2008, my native country, Iceland, starred heavily in the global news when it underwent a brutal financial crisis referred to in Iceland as “The Crash.” Many individuals and businesses are still digging themselves out of the economic hardships this caused. The crash was a mini-version and forerunner of a much bigger phenomenon that continued, rolling over to the United States and other parts of the world. Old structures of people’s lives and livelihood were broken down, leaving nations bewildered, in ruins, and facing rebuilding the battlefield.
Breakdown and Collective Transformation
No one can deny that the whole world is in peril and going through a large-scale collective transformation. Humanity, as a whole, is experiencing a breakdown of the old systems: health-care, finance/economics, education, religion, politics, and commerce. At the same time, new seedlings are sprouting up through global initiatives such as the Conscious Capitalism Movement, The B-Team, and B-Corp, to name just a few. But before the new can fully emerge, we first have to face the death of the world as we know it. The times seem to be signaling mother Earth’s shedding of her old skin and her need to renew herself. That is her organic nature.
We talk about bringing in these new business models and updating world and organizational structures. We are eager to learn about the how-tos and to measure the results of the applications, and we’re doing a great job of it. But we too often forget to attend to the personal, inner processes everyone needs to take on to become a clear conduit for new ideas and ways of doing business. We cannot move forward without clearing the pipes, dying to the old, and surrendering to the emptiness to make space for the new designs swimming in the ocean of possibilities. Most of us hold on to the old ways like a shipwrecked person holding onto a life raft.
What Ancient Wisdom Teaches Us
That is human nature, filled with outdated ideas, beliefs, and concepts. We cling to dysfunctional relationships, often formed by values from family and society that are no longer in alignment with who we have become. We have habits, routines, and comfort zones we don’t want to give up. And we parade with a false sense of security and power that we think is real, not to mention all the things with which we surround ourselves. But what if we consciously entered into the process of letting go, of surrendering willingly and peacefully? Ancient wisdom tells us that if we are willing to let go, we could accelerate the process of birth and renewal. We could create a much stronger flow of compassion and ways of bringing in the new paradigm for our times while inviting in a higher state of consciousness.
We Have an Ally
The good news is we have an ally willing to guide us through this personal process of inner transformation. It is the Dark Feminine, with her knowledge and wisdom of the natural law of cycles — alternations of creation and destruction, growth and decay, birth and death, light and dark, conscious and unconscious. These are cyclical life processes, which if understood and honored, help us sail the ship with the wind in our sails supported by magic instead of battling upstream forces. It is the Great Goddess, who in ancient times had the role of the organizing principle of the universe who embodied all the powers of the three great mysteries — life, death, and rebirth — within herself. The Goddess was the life force that animated all of existence.
The Dark Feminine often called Kali, or the old, wise crone, teaches us that endings are simply the precursors to new beginnings, just like the cycles of the moon or the seasons. She shows us the three phases of the cycle — creation, preservation, and destruction — as seen in the beginnings, middles, and endings in all of our life endeavors. We are trying to hold on to the preservation phase that has outgrown its usefulness. Most individuals and institutions try to hold on to their old ways, as these make them feel safe. But the phase of destruction is upon us, ready to demolish and turn to dust many familiar things to create space for the new. Similar to bulldozing a building to create space for a modern and sustainable design, a new structure fitting for the times.
What the Times are Calling for
Reinstating the wisdom of the Dark Feminine and surfing into deep and murky waters of the unknown by letting go of the old is not only a smart thing to do but is, in fact, essential. The times are calling for it; the collective unconscious is calling for it.
Every one of us has a responsibility to weed our garden by accepting, integrating, and honoring these ancient, natural energies of the pushing yang and the yielding yin, of flexing and relaxing, of hardening and softening, of expanding and contracting. If we pause and take stock of our lives, personally and professionally, we might muster the courage to throw our obsolete attitudes, beliefs, and structures into the bonfire.
We might eventually get to the zero point where the natural and organic flow of pure and raw creative energy flows freely to create our magnificent new world. That’s TRUE Power.
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First published in the People Development Magazine, November 2019.
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