The Shapeshifter Reloaded

The Shape-Shifter is a popular motif weaving through movies (such as The Matrix) and fairy tales. It appeared as an asylum seeker, begging the rich young prince for food and shelter. Subjected to his lack of compassion, haughty and dismissive arrogance, she exposed him for what he was: beastly.
Luckily, in time, the prince’s steadfast and faithful Soul Companion otherwise known as Belle or Beauty – or what Carl Jung would call his anima or ‘feeling function’ and popularly described nowadays as emotional intelligence – came along to redeem and set him free.
             Whether we behave as heroes or cowards, in our own self-interest or with compassion towards others, the shape-shifter is emerging in extraordinary ways to restore balance.  I know, I have personal experience of Big Mama’s tough love.  And let me tell you, you need to find a backbone, hold the line, and take her medicine. She don’t joke when it’s time for her children to grow in consciousness.
             My own shape-shifter appeared as a critical illness – a silent killer.  I could either have buried my head in the sand, take allopathic drugs and succumb to a posthumous existence because that is the norm response, or I could chose to face an inconvenient truth, acknowledge my culpability and seek to change a particular way of being that had brought me here, and live.
    A young woman very dear to me met the shapeshifter on the motorway one day. She lived to tell the tale. This was no mere accident, the symbolism and metaphors were up in her face; there was no ignoring the message. This was about life change. A couple years later she asked me to accompany her to the precise spot of the encounter so she could leave an appropriate libation in gratitude.  
         It is very difficult to carry on business as usual when the very foundations of life as we know it is being shaken to the core.  Eventually, we are forced to come to terms with the fact that the structures we have erected, which we believe are essential for holding our world together, are dysfunctional and have to be re-engineered or they will  fall on top of us and crush us to death. This is true at both the personal and global level.
           Fundamental change requires a 180-degree shift such that we are no longer able to live with ‘business as usual’, but it takes enormous courage and a disengagement from what I call the matrix of collective thought which is forged by what the majority of people accept and acquiesce to as the ‘norm’, even when this ‘norm’ does not actually deliver what we want. 
          But apart from shifting some of our habitual and ingrained patterns of behaviour which no longer serve us, such as the shadow addict, victim, rescuer, hedonist, vampire, we might also cultivate some new patterns expressed in the light – such as the benign alchemist and magical child – in order to have a positive impact on our world, and especially on those we care about. 
               When the planet is ready to take an evolutionary step, climate change, the supreme re-creator, is one of Mother Nature's modus operandi.  As I said in an earlier post (Obsession and Addiction, December 2012) we may well be part of a civilization that is wiped out by that shift; or we are part of a civilization that gets to re-imagine life on earth, once some of us arrive on the other side of the tipping point.  Or, we are part of a generation that finds a way to simply flow with and survive climate change AND re-imagine a different way of being on the planet.
              In the final analysis Mother Nature just is – beautiful, bestowing, nurturing as well as destroying of a way of life no longer fit for purpose.
 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

When a President Cried

Image
At a time of year when Christians around the world are commemorating the birth of the Divine Child, some parents in Newtown , Connecticut , USA are mourning the death of their children. There are probably hundreds of children around the world – in under developed countries, in conflict zones – who will die every day up to Christmas and beyond. But right now the focus has been on what one British newspaper described as a massacre of innocents. How horrendous to lose your child in such a manner. Schools should be one of the few places where you expect your children to be safe.   I worked with several of the paramedics who were first on the scene dealing with the carnage on the trains at various metro stations after the 2005 London bombings. Many, especially the younger ones, suffered severe post traumatic stress. Not trained for such horrors, those teachers immediately on the scene at that school in Connecticut will carry the scarring from that day for some time. How many more
Read more

Personal Health: Reflections in a Global Mirror

Image
{Revised November 2022} This blogpost, first written in 2013, has been revisited in the light of an apparent 'awakening' to the urgency of an impending climate catastrophe.  Currently ( 6 to 18 November 2022)  our illustrious leaders are at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the UN's Framework Convention on Climate Change' (COP27) being held in Egypt. Opening the Conference, António Guterres, Secretary General of the UN said we are on the “highway to climate hell”. That received some interesting responses, including mocking derision. (See [3] below.  We are still talking instead of doing.  When will we get to serious adaptation, upscaling infrastructure to mitigate the impact of climate change and save lives? We are told that as things stand right now, current climate policies will condemn the world to a disastrous 2.8-degree temperature rise by the end of the century. Our collective goal is to limit that rise to 1.5 degrees. Whilst we are getting there... Greenho
Read more

Tough Love in Winter

Image
Yesterday I talked about ‘Big Mama’s’ tough love (The Shape-shifter Reloaded). Today I wanted to share just a snapshot of such an experience, which began at a point when I had just arrived at the foothills of healing.   As the years went on – 5 of them to be precise – I understood that this process will continue for the rest of my life because temptation is with me everyday.   I have to be vigilant because I simply cannot afford to go back to the old ways. Whenever I do slip, I simply observe and acknowledge it; tomorrow is another day.                But that's not all. Mother Nature's healing also confers gifts as an expression of her gratitude, because when we heal ourselves, we also heal the earth; and when we heal the earth we heal others.  So watch out for Gifts of Healing, might be the title of a book I can feel emerging.        The big freeze of the last week or so reminds me of another January, about four years ago when the UK was in the midst of its coldest win
Read more