"Got To Learn How To Be Human" ~ Thorne Coyle

Aquila ka Hecate writes, in an article about electoral politics in South Africa,that:

It may be only as more of us start to grow up into the realisation that we are deeply responsible, each of us, for our creations, that we may begin to stand outside of ourselves-outside of our wants and perceived needs, outside of our drives to power over and oblivion from,that we can begin to be what we shaped ourselves to be originally- the universe in mortal consciousness, feeling our connection to each other and to all with every fibre of our beings, waking and sleeping in the surety that whatever befalls our brother befalls ourselves, and knowing beyond a shadow of doubt that we all belong here.

I think that she gets this exactly right and that's in spite of a bias that I generally have against the notion, often expressed in both Wiccan and New Age circles, that we have to "work on ourselves," "perfect ourselves," etc. before we can look for real change in the world at large, especially the world of politics. I worry, when I read stuff like that, that it's an excuse to ignore the very real and very necessary struggle to work for peace, and justice, and environmental security and to retreat into a narcissistic focus on "self." Rousseau was very right when he wrote that we must all tend our gardens, but he was very wrong when he implied that retreat into our own gardens was "enough."

But I think that Aquila ka Hecate is correct: we need to, as she says, "grow up into the realisation that we are deeply responsible, each of us, for our creations." And that means our political and social creations as well. George Bush didn't just spring, full-blown like Athena, from the brow of Zeus. We created him. I created him. I am responsible for not preventing him from all the evil that he does. I'm responsible for allowing his war to continue. You're responsible. And we need to deal with that.

And, in the end, political work, work for social justice, work to save the environment -- these are excellent ways for us to, in Aquila ka Hecate's beautiful words, "begin to stand outside of ourselves-outside of our wants and perceived needs, outside of our drives to power over and oblivion from,[and] begin to be what we shaped ourselves to be originally. . . ."

May it be so for you.



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Art found here.