Michael Meade: Our Divided World

Deep bow to Michael Meade and the much needed 

wisdom that he continuously gifts us with.  

— Molly

 

Results of the recent election involve the increasing evidence of how truly divided we are as a country, as a people. While the map of red and blue states may be simplistic, the urban/suburban and exurban/rural divide seems as real as the growing disparity between the rich and the poor. The coronavirus pandemic increasingly endangers everyone, but it also reveals the greater vulnerabilities that communities of color have always suffered. We live in a divided world where the splits and fault lines keep growing greater.

In refusing to accept the vote counts and encouraging his followers to believe that the election was stolen from them, Donald Trump once again sows division and tears at the very fabric of the culture. The divisions in American life did not begin with Trump, but he has exploited them at every turn and made it more difficult to see how collective healing and a sense of unity might be found.

Healing basically means “to make whole.” Healing, health and wholeness all hale from the same roots. The word wealth also comes from roots like “well-being and welfare.” Hence, the old idea that trading virtue for wealth or principles for power does damage to the well-being and the welfare of everyone involved. 

The wisdom of the rite of a peaceful transfer of power after an election is that it demonstrates that there is something of greater value than simply holding onto personal or party power. After the contention of an election, something needs to represent the underlying unity of life and the continuity of society over time. 

The deluded idea that there are simply winners and losers in this world is not only a misunderstanding of politics, it also signals a loss of soul. Those who insist on winning at all costs wind up losing decidedly; for they lose all sense of their genuine self and can lose their connection to the basic sense of humanity. At best, politics tends to divide in order to clarify issues; at worst it tends to polarize and demoralize people.

"The issues that divide people most deeply did not begin in politics and politics alone cannot heal the divisions it creates or wounds that it reveals."

Questions abound about how the new administration might be able to govern effectively with the country so fiercely divided, while also facing so many crises. At the same time, many people feel a great concern about how to reach across all that separates us and try to heal the wounds and make things whole again. Before modern times, traditional societies would have two major ways to approach collective healing. Myths and folk tales could be used to remind everyone that we are all in the same story. And, rituals of healing and renewal would be used to bring people back to the origins of life and the beginnings of time. 

In particular, creation myths and the rites associated with them could reveal the connections between the divisions found in life and the underlying unity that can heal and make things whole again. Typically, creation begins with separation and division. In the beginning the light separated from the dark, the earth separated from the heavens, and time separated from eternity. In mythic terms the presence of opposing forces was there from the very beginning and this original split that produced the origins of life, appears again whenever things need to begin again. 

Many ancient societies considered that at critical times the energy in the world could deteriorate to a point where life could suffer a loss of essential qualities. Such a loss of life quality could also be seen as a loss of soul, the very quality that connects people as well as all parts of the living world. 

"When the core values of humanity become diminished, when the natural sense of all being in the same story becomes replaced by rejecting the other and indulging in fear and hatred, a return to the underlying source and hidden unity of life was required."

Such rituals of renewal would involve a return to the origins in order to reconnect to the time when all the potentials of life were present, when everything was there in potentiality. However, returning to the origins also meant acknowledging the forces of opposition that make life possible. In that sense, healing, renewing and making life whole again requires some way of feeling and understanding that there are times when life becomes divided in order that a genuine sense of renewal can be found. 

It seems to me that we are in one of those times of great division when all issues seem to separate us and all wounds seem to surface at the same time. At such a time it is helpful to know that being near the splits in life can also mean being near the energies of renewal. The old saying was that there can be no true healing unless the original split is touched; for the purpose of feeling the original split is to stimulate life and renew life itself. 

As we have repeatedly learned in recent times, the basic agreements and common institutions can divide and fall apart at any moment. At the same time, we are the descendants of ancient peoples who survived many collapses and left stories that remind that healing and a deeper sense of wholeness are also nearby and become both more important and more possible when the original split in the world is acknowledged and touched. Healing requires touching the original split again. 

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