by Robert Wilkinson
There’s a lot of dread and uncertainty in the air. Many are struggling with the fear that the world will be plunged into chaos. While we can expect a lot of upheaval and uncertainty, it usually never winds up being as bad as we fear. It may be worse, but more often the feared thing never manifests as we believe when we are first hit with the shock.
There is a massive dread in the collective consciousness due to fear of the unknown. I learned how not to be affected by dread by observing it but not playing into it or allowing myself to be moved by it.
It is natural to become jittery in the face of potential chaos, whether personal chaos, collective chaos, or both. And we are programmed to be fearful of many things. Our task is to remember overcoming the fear response is one of the most important things we can do in our lives.
I learned to keep in mind that regardless of what provokes fear, fear is a dangerous disease and a useless response. All fear does is generate more fear. When we face our fear and confront it directly, to quote a great Sage, “it will cease to trouble you.”
The antidote to fear is love. It takes courage to reject fear and regard it as an illusion which is not to be encouraged. Whatever makes us afraid, whatever makes us feel dread, is a perfect opportunity to discipline our mind to focus on what strengthens our resolve to love, to be aware, and to understand what we have to understand.
We cannot control the apparently chaotic circumstances we now find ourselves in, but we can control our response to the chaos. No one likes uncertainty; we are now collectively facing an uncertain future. This is a time to think outside of our normal assumptions and routines.
While we have been promised it will be very bad for a lot of people, and many believe this is what was foretold by Yeats in “The Second Coming,”
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;it’s equally important to remember that there are structures in place which will not give way easily and it will take time for any major changes to take effect “on the ground.”
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Surely some revelation is at hand;
Surely the Second Coming is at hand.
We are told it will be a time of unchecked power, and yet in politics there are always those who are ready to manipulate that to their own advantage. A lot of what goes on is one hand not knowing what the other hand is doing, with the other hand plotting to undermine the first hand. We have witnessed “the Lord of the Flies” being created in real time.
Still, it is a passing drama and either we can or cannot do something about a situation. if we cannot do anything about it, then there’s no point in being afraid since it achieves nothing. If we can form a productive response, then we should do that, and not play into the fear. Fear accomplishes nothing except generate more fear.
Yes, it is a sad time, and sad times bring up deep feelings in us. Sometimes what we feel is more rooted in our past frustrations and losses than what’s going on in the present which triggered the sadness. We are all confronting the end of what we have known since birth. That must be grieved, each in our own way. And it’s better to grieve than to stuff the sorrow down which leads to “depression.”
That means understanding our sadness and/or grief is not "depression." Sadness and grief are a natural part of the human condition. However, a true "depression" means something is being forced down that needs to come up.
While life is indeed heavy at times - usually associated with Saturn transits! - these mark points where we must throw off our mental and emotional chains and allow the compassion of our Higher Self to rule our responses.
It's a time when if we feel weak, we must strive to take care of ourselves the best we're able. We do this through being patient, wise, mature, persevering and all the other good Saturn qualities to antidote any patterns leading to weakness, "depression," heaviness, defeatism, and other negative states of mind. I discuss how to take command of your personality and overcome fear, insecurity, and unneeded limitations in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Once we make friends with our Saturn, we know how to respond to every situation we confront.
It is helpful to remember these states are fundamentally unreal due to their impermanence. Life is about navigating the ups and downs as we go round and round in our patterns of experience. Change pattern, and the experience changes. Always.
Some of this helps us stay focused on what is real rather than unreal, permanent rather than impermanent. The mind and feelings are inherently restless, and that's why we need to gently and firmly redirect how we express them so we feel the love, wisdom, and understanding that is our eternal nature.
Life can be painful for all kinds of reasons, but we do not have to suffer one instant longer than necessary. Even when we feel hopelessness, defeatism, discouragement, fatigue, and all the other attributes of the mind suffering over its own suffering, we can still turn our minds to better things instantly, changing our mental and emotional patterns from difficult to productive.
As we change patterns, we change how we experience life. As we change how we respond to experiences, regardless of how difficult those are and how we feel, everything becomes grist for the mill of Soul. That way eventually we do not suffer as we once did, and can maintain a calm equipoise even in the midst of the worst inner or outer storms. Just one more skill to learn and practice on our Higher Path to becoming Masters of the Wisdom.
I’ll finish with something to keep in mind. We are Light. We are here to be illuminated and to shine that light to others. We are here to be awakened, and to awaken others, by who we are and how we live. And we’re never apart from the One Life we all are Together.
We are Eternals in a material situation. We have to learn to manage our responses to what we encounter. Everything is about learning coping skills so we can deal with the world as it is, and as it changes. Our Saturn virtues can get us through any challenge.
When our inner Saturn is healthy, we follow the Path of kindness and harmlessness, detaching from getting hooked into the fear generated by the uncertainty of an impermanent life. That allows us to see all of these weird scenes inside the gold mine as echoes of memories of perceptions of echoes of memories with a degree of detachment and humor as we cruise through another intersection of Fate Street and Free Will Street at a bend in Eternity Boulevard.
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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