The longest night
Some nights feel much longer than others. Insomnia, illness, dwelling on seemingly insoluble issues can all make a night seem endless. Yesterday I received some unhappy news and tonight is literally the longest night, the winter solstice, December 21st.
I'm now in England for Christmas with my family, including my two daughters, Ella and Lili who have traveled from California. My son Felix and his girlfriend Mae were due to arrive on the 21st but their flight has been canceled due to drone activity at Gatwick Airport. Not something that was even on my radar as a possible cause of flight delays and cancellations, but these days, who knows?
It seems to me that we are experiencing not only the longest night of the year, tonight, December 21st, 2018, something that comes around each year. We are also experiencing a long night of our culture, our society, our traditions, our very way of life.
This sounds over-dramatic perhaps, but look around you. Half the world seems to be trying to migrate away from where they currently live. They are trying to get away from intolerable situations but are hampered and hindered along the way and then when they arrive at their destination there is "no room at the inn."
In regard to migration, many people have pointed out parallels with the timeless Christmas story: Mary and Joseph were forced to travel into a country that didn't want them and had no place for them to birth a baby who just happened to be the Christ Child, "The Light of the World." Last night Channel Four News reported on the growing number of women who are giving birth in England but are not entitled to free NHS treatment and are without means to pay for that treatment so risk deportation for non-payment of medical bills.
All three of the countries I have at some time called home: England, Sweden, and the USA, are each in the midst of crises of government and society. In England there is Brexit. No further comment is needed in this blog post about that. In Sweden there is no government. See my previous blog posts for more on that stalemate. In the USA there is Trump. Yesterday's announcement that the USA will withdraw its military presence from Syria and substantially withdraw from Afghanistan has caused a major rupture within the US government and sent shock waves rippling throughout the world. Time will tell how these major crises in each of these nations will play out and what effects they will have in other nations. One thing is for sure: they will have effects around the world.
The world is too small these days for any national government to think that what happens within their borders only affects their own citizens. Likewise we are all fooling ourselves if we as individuals think that we can go on living with our heads in the sand expecting our governments to make wise decisions and keep us safe. No, it's time for us to wake up from our collective sleep and experience the insomnia that will hopefully enable us to see what's really going on. Our governments and institutions are steered by unseen forces. We need to wake up and see what these are and take back control over and responsibility for our lives instead of giving it to institutions, to organizations, and to governments.
I'm not advocating revolution in the Paris barricades style, but internal revolution of feeling and thinking. Let the light in by recognizing that the light is in you. Even during the darkest night the light is there. Deep within. Instead of a male Christ Child, we are now being given a resurgence of the Divine Feminine. This is manifested in the Me Too movement, the Gaia movement, and what I will call the Mary movement. Looking back in history we can see it was always there, but it was hidden and obsured. Embodied in the North, in Sweden, in the Lucia tradition (see my previous blog post) and in the South in the Virgen de Guadalupe, the Divine Feminine was always with us. I can't find my photograph of the black virgin at Le Puy-en-Velay, or I would share it here. The timeless, immortal essence of Mary has appeared in human form in our western culture at least twice in the last two thousand years: as Mary Magdalene and as Mary Mother of Jesus. It is very apparent to me that right now there is a new, feminine Holy Trinity comprised of Gaia, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of God. This is the manifestation of Divinity and the Holy Trinity in our age. This is the light shining in the longest night.
I'm now in England for Christmas with my family, including my two daughters, Ella and Lili who have traveled from California. My son Felix and his girlfriend Mae were due to arrive on the 21st but their flight has been canceled due to drone activity at Gatwick Airport. Not something that was even on my radar as a possible cause of flight delays and cancellations, but these days, who knows?
It seems to me that we are experiencing not only the longest night of the year, tonight, December 21st, 2018, something that comes around each year. We are also experiencing a long night of our culture, our society, our traditions, our very way of life.
This sounds over-dramatic perhaps, but look around you. Half the world seems to be trying to migrate away from where they currently live. They are trying to get away from intolerable situations but are hampered and hindered along the way and then when they arrive at their destination there is "no room at the inn."
In regard to migration, many people have pointed out parallels with the timeless Christmas story: Mary and Joseph were forced to travel into a country that didn't want them and had no place for them to birth a baby who just happened to be the Christ Child, "The Light of the World." Last night Channel Four News reported on the growing number of women who are giving birth in England but are not entitled to free NHS treatment and are without means to pay for that treatment so risk deportation for non-payment of medical bills.
All three of the countries I have at some time called home: England, Sweden, and the USA, are each in the midst of crises of government and society. In England there is Brexit. No further comment is needed in this blog post about that. In Sweden there is no government. See my previous blog posts for more on that stalemate. In the USA there is Trump. Yesterday's announcement that the USA will withdraw its military presence from Syria and substantially withdraw from Afghanistan has caused a major rupture within the US government and sent shock waves rippling throughout the world. Time will tell how these major crises in each of these nations will play out and what effects they will have in other nations. One thing is for sure: they will have effects around the world.
The world is too small these days for any national government to think that what happens within their borders only affects their own citizens. Likewise we are all fooling ourselves if we as individuals think that we can go on living with our heads in the sand expecting our governments to make wise decisions and keep us safe. No, it's time for us to wake up from our collective sleep and experience the insomnia that will hopefully enable us to see what's really going on. Our governments and institutions are steered by unseen forces. We need to wake up and see what these are and take back control over and responsibility for our lives instead of giving it to institutions, to organizations, and to governments.
I'm not advocating revolution in the Paris barricades style, but internal revolution of feeling and thinking. Let the light in by recognizing that the light is in you. Even during the darkest night the light is there. Deep within. Instead of a male Christ Child, we are now being given a resurgence of the Divine Feminine. This is manifested in the Me Too movement, the Gaia movement, and what I will call the Mary movement. Looking back in history we can see it was always there, but it was hidden and obsured. Embodied in the North, in Sweden, in the Lucia tradition (see my previous blog post) and in the South in the Virgen de Guadalupe, the Divine Feminine was always with us. I can't find my photograph of the black virgin at Le Puy-en-Velay, or I would share it here. The timeless, immortal essence of Mary has appeared in human form in our western culture at least twice in the last two thousand years: as Mary Magdalene and as Mary Mother of Jesus. It is very apparent to me that right now there is a new, feminine Holy Trinity comprised of Gaia, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the Mother of God. This is the manifestation of Divinity and the Holy Trinity in our age. This is the light shining in the longest night.
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