Life calls to Life

That was the end of the faerie tale, when the simple brother’s pet bird awakens the sleeping princess from her coma.  The chirping bird calls back the lost soul from the path to the underworld.  Wealth and power could not accomplish this, only love awakened her elan vital.  The King, her father, offered a portion of his land to anyone who could heal her.  None could; neither magician nor powerful doctor, because the sickness of her soul needed a loving counterpart, in this case the masculine, to complete her, to make her whole.

This idea is central to the Chinese Book of Changes, the I Ching.  Spontaneous affection is the glue of human relatedness, “the all-inclusive principle of union” (Hexagram #54, Kuei Mei, The Marrying Maiden).  When we feel that magic attract us to another person, we can open a door to another world, even call back the dieing so that they can be reborn.  Spring is a good time for such miracles.  The earth which appeared dead is called back to life.  That surprising renewal came for me in the magic of a ceramic coffee cup on Easter morning.

I had attended a Brazilian Santo Daime Work, called a Mesa Branca or White Table Work Saturday night.  We drank medicine, sang and prayed, even called down the healing and protective spirits in their Christian forms of the Archangels Michael, Gabriel, and Raphael, not to mention their Afro-Brazilian counterparts.  The prayer service was profoundly strong, the teachings subtle but noticeably transformative.  Although it wasn’t Greek Easter, I cooked lamb stew.  That was a traditional food in my wife’s family, after the midnight service, where we symbolically received the Light of God in the form of lighted candles, we brought the Spirit home with us.  Christ was called forth from the Underworld and reborn like the spring.  We celebrated.  We broke the fast.  We called him forth with our songs and prayers.  We rejoiced that the Dark Night of the Soul was over.  That was what my Holy Saturday was like.

And in the morning around sunrise I needed my coffee latte.  I had been fasting from coffee as it doesn’t mix well with ayahuasca.  I wanted my morning ritual of coffee and cream and I had my close friend there to complete the night’s ritual. I love drinking with my friends.  So we stopped at my favorite shop in the town where I Greek folk dance.  The barista loved my ceramic cup.  This was not unusual as most of them do.  It is hand cast and extremely light weight, and it fits perfectly into my 2006 Chevy’s cup holder.  But the light, or should I say the “glow” of the Daime was upon me and my friend.  We engaged the barista in conversation.  He told me his friends studied ceramics in the nearby college and that’s why he was so amazed by my thrift shop cup from Ojai.  When I went back to get a refill, my server disclosed that he drinks ayahuasca during trance dancing.  Now I hadn’t said a word about the Daime to him, yet the medicine in him was recognizing it in me.  We formed a psychic bridge of spontaneous affection.  I gave him my card.  We plan to get together and talk more about our experiences.

Life calls to life.  After driving my friend to his home, I drove up to Ojai and arrived in time for the morning breakfast in the Native American Church peyote ceremony.  I was welcomed in and my granddaughter asked me to sit beside her.  After the ceremony I talked to my nephews about the inner feminine in men, our inherited ancestral aggressiveness and how to deal with it along the lines of our lineage.  Then I said goodbye and arrived at Our Lady and All Angels Liberal Catholic Church in time for Easter Mass.  Three traditions, and all affirming the rebirth of the human spirit in their unique ways.  Yes, life calls to life and we are reborn with it.

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Independence Day

After teaching ethics, logic, and the history of philosophy, being a Montessori teacher and school director, and becoming a spiritual counselor, I find myself in 2011 wondering what has happened to Western Civilization. It is crumbling all around us. The old ways of the American Heartland Religion and Puritan hard work have been abandoned like our churches and synagogues, which are now in disuse and for sale by the thousands. Ecstatic dance and Burning Man have more and more adherents. The old morality is discarded. This might seem strange to many, but in my reading of Alice Miller recently I stumbled upon this passage:

“Morality and performance of duty are artificial measures that become necessary when something essential is lacking. The more successfully a person was denied access to his or her feelings in childhood, the larger the arsenal of intellectual weapons and the supply of moral prostheses has to be, because morality and a sense of duty are not sources of strength or fruitful soil for genuine affection. Blood does not flow in artificial limbs; they are for sale and can serve many masters. What was considered good yesterday can–depending on the decree of government or party–be considered evil and corrupt today, and vice versa. But those who have spontaneous feelings can only be themselves. They have no other choice if they want to remain true to themselves.  Rejection, ostracism, loss of love, and name calling will not fail to affect them; they will suffer as a result and will dread them, but once they have found their authentic self they will not want to lose it. And when they sense that something is being demanded of them to which their whole being says no, they cannot do it. They simply cannot.
This is the case with people who had the good fortune of being sure of their parents’ love even if they had to disappoint certain parental expectations. Or with people who, although they did not have this good fortune to begin with, learned later–for example, in analysis–to risk the loss of love in order to regain their lost self. They will not be willing to relinquish it again for any price in the world.” (p. 85)*

These words, written 30 years ago seem totally on point. Our US Constitutional Rights have been abrogated by fear of terrorism. We now have a modified Constitution; our Patriot Act inched us closer to martial law. This is exactly what Miller was saying and what George Orwell was suggesting in his novel 1984. Those of us who were trained to be obedient by the old ways of our European ancestors, which Miller calls “poisonous pedagogy”, are willing followers of the authority figures who make us feel at home. I remember visiting a Parole Officer in his home at Easter time in the late 1980s. As soon as the Pope appeared on television everything stopped. He said, “come everyone the Holy Father is going to speak now” and dutifully his wife and children gathered around him to hear the Father’s words. This was the same man who earlier told me the reason he allowed me into the Juvenile Justice jail to see a Native American client, was because he was listening to the radio before his bus arrived that day, when an Asian man’s voice interrupted the broadcast and addressed him by name and then told him, “give the package to Michael Melville.” When I later arrived at the jail, he felt the Holy Spirit was at work and cooperated with me completely. This man had been raised with the “spare the rod and spoil the child” type of child rearing Miller refers to as poisonous. He followed his inner voices completely. If he hadn’t been a jailer, one might have doubted his sanity. He knew that and didn’t tell me the story until I visited him at his home, when I was looking to purchase it for our private school.

My wife and I were trying to raise and educate our children, and others in the community, in a different way, trying to follow Maria Montessori’s intuition in education and Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s insights in psychology. When we added the ancient Chinese voice of the I Ching or Book of Changes, we accessed the Tao, “spontaneous affection is the all-inclusive principle of union, [of holding together].” If we start from the center of the self, whether we have it from truly feeling loved in childhood, or by discovering it in counseling, we have arrived at the core of our being. Acting from that place brings the synchronous support to us from the Universe. The voice on the radio for instance, opened the jail so I could talk with a Native American boy, whose dreams predicted the only way out of his situation was to face his repressed feelings, his Shadow. His estranged father and mother could not support his artistic abilities. They would not let him live with either of them, only his aging grandmother would accept the boy. I did my best to reconcile the family, even offered to mediate with his father, who rejected and abandoned his only son. For the 4th of July the boy put a gun to his head and committed suicide. It was his Independence Day. A profound lesson for me as his counselor. His friends followed suit, three more suicides on the reservation within weeks of one another. Without hope of a better tomorrow, it is, as the Lakotas say, “a good day to die.” Those of us left behind now know what it means to have Death as an Advisor. We have to find a way to access and integrate our feelings and this means art, some form of creativity. Ironically the boy’s father is a famous artist, who could not love the artist in his son. Crumbling? Yes, everything is crumbling around us.

* Alice Miller, (1984)  For Your Own Good: Hidden cruelty in child-rearing and the roots of violence

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Peace in the midst of change

The meditation on Peace in the Book of Changes has the following transitional line:

Everything on earth is subject to change. Prosperity is followed by decline: this is the eternal law on earth. Evil can indeed be held in check but not permanently abolished. It always returns. This conviction might induce melancholy, but it should not; it ought only to keep us from falling into illusion when good fortune comes to us. If we continue mindful of the danger, we remain persevering and make no mistakes. As long as a man’s inner nature remains stronger and richer than anything offered by external fortune, as long as he remains inwardly superior to fate, fortune will not desert him.  (p. 50)

This seems like an unusual comment on peace, but it represents an ancient truth. If we take care of the inner person, strengthening our spiritual center, we achieve a level of flexibility in relation to what happens in the material world of ordinary reality. Hard times and abundance come in cycles. I learned that from my study of economics and my dad, who was a stock broker. Dad was always talking about the importance of diversification, “don’t put all of your eggs in one basket”. Times change and a good portfolio is diverse and continually reevaluated. As an observant child I knew he was correct. Our family fortunes reflected the cycles of the market and the fortunes of the farmers in our rural area. What I noticed was my dad’s inability to take his own advice. I turned to the study of world religions at age thirteen for a more diversified view of spiritual traditions. I guess that is how I eventually became a philosopher and psychologist.

Now we have evil all around us in the form of war, natural disasters, and economic collapse. What we learned during the Great Depression and the laws we wrote to protect our recovering economy, was forgotten during the past thirty years and history has repeated itself. My dad was surprised and amazed at the depths of ethical irresponsibility his beautiful free enterprise system had fallen to by the time of his death in 1978. His idealism was crushed by the reality of evil within the systems he had spent his life supporting. That’s probably why he never reached his sixtieth birthday. He drank more and more alcohol as his depression increased. Everything he had betted on was just that, a gamble. No matter how you looked at it, people were people. Fighting against tyranny and imperialism in World War II brought a very unhappy realization. America had become the kind of government we were fighting in the name of democracy. The irony is tragic.

What I learned from all of this is the importance of education, of following your heart and exploring what excites you. As the I Ching says we have to remember to be superior men and women by working on ourselves. In that way we can become inexhaustible in our willingness to teach. “The sage sustains and cares for all people and excludes no part of humanity.” (p. 80)

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The Well of Living Water

In the I Ching: the Book of Changes it says

The well is there for all. No one is forbidden to take water from it. No matter how many come, all find what they need, for the well is dependable. It has a spring and never runs dry. Therefore it is a great blessing tor the whole land. The same is true of the really great man, whose inner wealth is inexhaustible; the more that people draw from him, the greater his wealth becomes.

Within us is the Well of Wisdom, the inner well of living water, the source of dreams.

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The Invisible Force

A flower opens to life according to its genetic pattern. The seed falls to earth and depending upon its environment, grows. With nurturing soil, water and sun the plant sprouts, grows and flowers. Each bud opens uniquely following an ancient pattern. Visits from other life forms and wind complete the process of regeneration. This is the cycle of life. And human nature follows a similar pattern. We are somewhat more complex, but, like plants, our environment affects our growth. Our homes, families, location within culture and geography all affect the way we unfold. Growing to our full potential is facilitated by the people we meet and the choices we make. We create our selves in this process, we create our individual life pattern.

Just as we can witness the growth of a plant and come to understand its patterning, so others can observe our growth. Sometimes they even comment upon what they see and hear. We are used to this within our families, schools, and friendships. Occasionally even an elder might comment and advise us. But what if there were someone, or something, which could see our whole process from the inside as well as the outside? Wouldn’t such an observer be an amazing resource?

There is such a person-like-force in our lives, sort of an interactive matrix which invites a dialogue. All human cultures throughout verbal and written history have acknowledged the existence of this force field. Attempts to name it abound, as do descriptions. Paradox is its main characteristic. Metaphoric and powerful, this force inspires awe. Strange and interesting things are presented to us by this source of knowledge and wisdom. Things we are not aware of, but should be, are revealed by it. Possible futures and the consequences of choosing among them are displayed in detail. Diagnoses of illness, treatment, and healthy balance come unasked for and sometimes unwanted and resisted. Dangers and secrets are disclosed by this invisible helper. How does it communicate with us?

Through visions, dreams, and fantasies, the Invisible Force speaks to humanity, inviting individual unfolding. Its language is metaphoric and hence difficult for modern man to comprehend. We are told by our sciences to disregard its images as meaningless, to align ourselves with modern methods of living, to give up the old, outdated beliefs. To the extent that we follow the advice of the dominant paradigm, we limit the scope of information. Modern humanity has shifted brains. Now we listen primarily to the left brain. We favor logic and analysis over interconnected visionary expressions. But this doesn’t stop the Invisible Force from trying to help us, to remind us of who we are and where we are going. Its intervention in our conscious process often disturbs our sleep. We have nightmares. We experience story lines we don’t understand. When we share the images, our stories are often dismissed as unimportant or meaningless with words like, “it was just a dream”. The result is an impoverishment of the environment.

We are given opportunities to unfold to our full potential by a Force which knows our every thought, feeling, and action. Something which has accompanied our life process in the most intimate way imaginable wants to tell us a story, one which will help us grow. If we open up to this Force and listen to the imagery It presents, we can use Its infinite wisdom as our aide. That’s what we have always had available. Yet very few people have learned the art of interpreting Its messages. During some historic periods this art was kept alive through secrecy. It was regarded as dangerous to the power structure, because the art taught individuals about how to access the interactive and universally available source of information. Its use made the hierarchical structures of society unnecessary and to some extent irrelevant.

What do we call this art? In ancient Greece it was called hermeneutics, navigating the psychic realms the way the god Hermes does, symbolically. Merlin practiced this craft as he bridged Celtic and Roman cultures. The alchemists had various ways of talking about the process, but most frequently, it was called in Latin “opus”, the work. In modern times, in order to be accepted by science, the craft has been renamed “analytic psychology”. The conscious mind must be kept focused on dreams (as Freud discovered), because that is the royal road to the unconscious, the realm of psyche. Carl Jung and his colleagues broadened Freud’s insight that mythology was the story of psyche, thus rediscovering the ancient art and refining it. Anyone who has an artistic ability can learn this craft, provided they are willing to do the work of turning inward and listening to their dreams and fantasies. One must seek out a teacher who has learned the art. As the I Ching says, two lakes touching provides nourishment to both, the teacher and the student. Self learning is possible but very tedious. Having a teacher makes the process more enjoyable and life affirming.

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Core Shamanism with Michael Harner

My son Davi got an invitation for dinner and asked me to go as his guest. We met several MDs, PhDs, dreamers, authors, and academics. Then Michael Harner spoke about Core Shamanism and how he found drumming journeys had the same effects as medicine journeys. This means everyone can access the inner world of spirit by themselves. We need no religious tradition to guide our acquisition of knowledge, just the willingness to experiment. In fact he said that that is the essence of Shamanism, experimentation. If it works, keep it. If it doesn’t, discard it. The benevolent spirits will help anyone who approaches with a loving, compassionate attitude. No wonder the organized religions got rid of these folks, they undermine the power base.

If you know your history, you will remember the ancient gnostics were the shamans of their time. Gnosis only comes through experience. It is a special form of knowledge. The Mystery Schools of the first century provided situations where one could discover what Michael Harner did in the twentieth century. What Harner did for indigenous cultures, Carl Jung did for the esoteric Western Mystery traditions. Jung found the connecting threads from dreams and analytic psychology to alchemy, gnosticism, and Ancient Chinese Wisdom literature. It was nice to see the whole thing connecting tonight. Like the ancient symbol of the uroboros, the snake with its tail in its mouth. Modern Anthropology connects with Psychotherapy.

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Holding Together, Leading and Following

As Indigenous people we understand we are part of an interconnected weaving of life. We are born into a complex family system which reflects the environment and its processes. Just as we have a personal mother who nourishes and cares for us, we have an environment which mothers and teaches us. Observing our surroundings we come to see that every person, plant and animal has a place in the great web of life. We are all connected/related to one another. We are all part of the Great Mother’s Body, she gives life, heals and kills her children. That is what all indigenous cultures have noticed about their lives. As a culture develops over a very long time, being aware of its surroundings, how the cycles of life work, and how humans fit into the picture, it is taught orally to members of the culture. After thousands of years of oral transmission, some cultures devised written symbols to preserve their wisdom. The oldest collection of written knowledge of which I am aware is the ancient Chinese Book of Changes (I Ching).

Based on observation, each meditation in the I Ching is a short discussion of an image or picture. The written Chinese language is a picture language. Like the ancient Egyptian language, you have to know something about the symbols in order to read the meaning of any text. As we say, a picture is worth a thousand words, it speaks directly to the soul of the observer, evoking personal communications, some universal, some individual. If we look at meditation #8 Pi, we see a river over the earth. The text says, “The waters on the surface of the earth flow together wherever they can, as for example in the ocean, where all the rivers come together.” How are humans reflected in this image from nature?

All of us are composed primarily of water, with various objects floating through and contained by our inner river banks. Symbolically we are like the river and the earth. We contain the water of life as it flows to the sea, where it merges with the great water once again. The water cycle continues when the sun shines on the water, turns it to vapor (water in gaseous form), and warms it so that it invisibly rises higher and higher into the sky. As the water vapor gets higher and higher, it gets colder and colder until it condenses and the wind blows the water vapor together into clouds. When the clouds become more and more dense and collide with the mountains, they release the water in the form of rain or snow. The water falls to earth and the cycle begins again. Like the water, we dissolve our present form and join the great water, the world of Spirit, perhaps to reincarnate and continue the cycle. But there is another way we are like the image, and this is the primary teaching of the meditation, which is translated as Holding Together [Union].

The image is composed of five yielding lines and one strong line in the usual place of the ruler of the image. The text says, “The yielding lines hold together because they are influenced by a man of strong will in the leading position, a man who is their center of union. Moreover, this strong and guiding personality in turn holds together with the others, finding in them the complement of his own nature.” The relationship is reciprocal, leader and supporters balance one another, they complement each other rather than conflict with one another. That is the way a group becomes effective, by holding together. The text goes on to describe the seriousness of being the leader and what the qualities of a leader must be for a successful union of people to take place.

A leader is a central figure around whom others unite. The center position carries great responsibility. That word ‘responsibility’ literally means ‘able to respond’. Any leader must be able to respond to the needs of the group which he or she is facilitating. Whether the leader is a man or a woman, this basic condition must be fulfilled, they have to be aware of what is going on and respond to the situation in an appropriate way, in a way that will hold the group together. If the leader doesn’t have what it takes to hold the group together, the Chinese text says, “it only makes confusion worse than if no union at all had taken place.” In addition to making sure you have a real calling to be a leader of a spiritual community or group, the timing is also important.

Groups come together, people hold together, in response to certain situations. If we understand the basic nature of group formation and coherence, we also know how important the timing is. The text says, “Relationships are formed and firmly established according to definite inner laws. Common experiences strengthen these ties, and he who comes too late to share in these basic experiences must suffer for it if, as a straggler, he finds the door locked.” This is a hard teaching, especially for the 21st century new age mentality. It isn’t “all good”. Sometimes “going with the flow” and being “in the present moment” is just what needs to happen. And many times our spontaneity must be tempered by conscious intent. We need to make sure we arrive for the ceremony in enough time to participate in the experiences which will make us part of the group. This often happens in Native American ceremonies. People will show up early, maybe even a day early, so that they can help prepare, support, and make smooth the tasks of the ceremonial leaders and those whose land we are using. Showing up later means volunteering to help out in whatever ways one can. When you know what happens, you lend a hand and make things easier. But there is a point when you have to be on the site when the ceremony begins, otherwise you miss out on the bonding process and the feeling of involvement in the event. At that point one becomes an observer rather than an active participant, and in some cases, excluded from the group activity.

The last word of counsel given by the ancient Chinese sages is this: “If a man has recognized the necessity for union and does not feel strong enough to function as the center, it is his duty to become a member of some other organic fellowship.” We can’t sit idly by and watch others build community. If we are aware of the need for community, we have to join in and be a productive member. There is no instruction on what kind of group this might be, only that it should be ‘organic’. An organ functions within a system, it is a part of a larger whole, a living organism is such a whole. We are individual organisms and we are living within a larger organism, a spiritual community. Perhaps it is our family, our extended family, or some other group organized around a particular purpose like a school, a religious tradition, a service to others, a sporting activity, or even survival (a gang). We might be unconscious, unaware of the need to be connected to other people. That sort of isolation will begin to manifest problems eventually, which might wake us up to the need for love and relationship. The I Ching only speaks to those who are awake. If you can’t be the center, then join an organically constructed group. That is the secret, if there is one, of human relatedness.

For twenty five years Athena and I functioned as the center of our organic fellowship. Starting in 1976 we had family celebrations every Sunday based on Dolores LaChapelle’s Native American ceremonies book Earth Festivals (1976). We experienced expansion and contraction of our circle of friends and spirit family until 1981, when we left our Southern California community. Melville Montessori Home School became our new center.   Our family continued Sunday celebrations. Many of the activities we found valuable in LaChapelle’s book and our adaptations of them were introduced to the school family and practiced on camping trips into nature. When Athena and I separated in 1997 and divorced in 1999 after 32 years of marriage, I was in the place the I Ching describes. I recognized the need to be part of an organic fellowship and knew I could no longer function as the center, so I started looking for the group of which I could be a part.

In my search I have supported Sweat Lodge, Vision Quest, Sun Dance, and Medicine Lodge communities looking for the group with which I resonate. The funny thing about us humans is that we continue to grow. What works at first, at a beginning level of development, we often out grow. Then we look for a new community, one which reflects our new level of understanding and its values. If we find one, we join forces and support until we discover that we have outgrown that group. This process seems endless until we become elders, then things change. We must either function as the center or support from the side. We find our role as an elder is to remember the wisdom, the teachings, the protocol, how to support others, and how to act in a respectful way, so that the younger people have a good model. That means being approachable also. We have to be open, honest, authentic, transparent, vulnerable, and loving, unconditionally. That is also necessary in an organism which continues to thrive. We are the beauty of life, the wonderful children of the Creator. If we remember who we are, we can live it and thereby transform our culture.

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Honesty, authenticity, transparency, and vulnerability

Honesty about my feelings brought about confrontation and change. When my brother quit responding to my telephone calls, I was puzzled. What had I done to create his response? I had some ideas, but I needed the truth. So I asked him to sit down with me and explain. He said he would. That was two years ago. Every time we met at ceremonies he was polite and so was I. Still no communication. After my encounter with the Vampire a couple weeks ago, I called my brother and vented my feelings onto his voice mail. Still no response. So this weekend I took the opportunity to confront him during a public ceremony and expressed my hope that he would forgive me for whatever I had done so that we could talk to one another again. He interrupted me and told me “we can talk later.” So after the meeting we did talk.

What he told me was amazing. He had nothing to say to me, so he didn’t call. “Why not call and tell me that instead of leaving me hanging for all this time? Why didn’t you keep your word and communicate like you said you would?” That would have saved us both a lot of time and concern. What he told me was that he felt uncomfortable with my expression of affectionate behavior toward others during ceremonies. Basically he was telling me not to be myself, to stuff my love back into our family straight-jacket. For years I have been talking about honesty, authenticity, transparency and vulnerability; that we need to practice these ways of being with people we love if we want the world to change. There is nothing to be ashamed of. We are human and we make mistakes. We apologize when we become aware that we have hurt someone else. But we cannot apologize when we don’t know what we have done.

And apologies might not be appropriate. If we value our actions, we may not feel the need to apologize. Clearing the air helps a lot. If I had known what my brother found objectionable in my behavior, I could have considered changing. In this case I would not have done anything differently, except to take better care of myself and spend less time worrying about what others think. As my nephew said to me, “Tio, you know who loves you. Stop trying to get acceptance from those who don’t.” He was right! I know who loves me for who I am and who tolerates me. I choose to hang with those who love me. As the I Ching says, “among human beings, spontaneous affection is the all-inclusive principle of union.” If we listen to our elders, and the Chinese elders have said this for thousands of years, we need to listen with our hearts and give love and affection to others when the opportunity arises. Waiting for the “proper” moment models a lack of authenticity. When we are transparent about our feelings, we give others the permission to do the same. Being vulnerable with your loved ones is a sign of strength. It means you trust them. Why waste time with people who don’t love you?

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Become Green “Man”

All of the literature of the men’s movement stresses the importance of being accepted as a man into the men’s lodge. Separating from the hearth and nurturing, from the comfort of home, men are forced to let go of their mothers. Adolescent men are abducted (with the support of the women) by the male elders, who teach them how to live in the environment and tell them the stories of life in the men’s society. The initiates go on quests, inner and outer, where Great Mystery tests them and teaches them through experience. If one survives this phase, he is gifted an ability, a vision, a dream, which will serve him and help the community survive. Becoming a man within a tribe is proving oneself. We may marry and have children, and grow old. Then it becomes our duty to teach others and to join an organic fellowship, if we cannot serve as the center of one.

In this modern age of isolation we have the Internet and personal relationships which create the men’s lodge. I invite you to help start a grass roots, underground, secret society composed of Green Men, a secret society of men dedicated to individually making changes to re-green our planet.

To become a Green Man one needs to choose a personal image to wear which discloses to the group your alignment with the general principles of supporting the rebirth of life on the planet.

This could be a face peering out of green leaves and vines. Traditional in Western Europe.  The adjoining image is by Cynthia Matyi, and Ecological Green man.  Check out her site at http://matyiart.com to purchase a print.

It could be a form of the alchemical symbol for green, the circle with a cross inscribed, such as the Celtic Cross. Again traditional in Northern Europe and Britain.

It is a circle quartered by the cross which is used by Native Americans. The four directional symbol is called the Medicine Wheel and has a vast history among indigenous peoples. Again Traditional.

The Egyptian and Coptic Greek heritage have green Osiris, God of Vegetation and Rebirth.

Whatever your roots may be, the rainbow covers all of us. It is the symbol of Creator’s promise to remember us. Great Mystery remembers all of the relatives and will not send another flood, like that of olden times. (Karuk tribal story) We are all children of the Great Mystery, of Creator, the Source.

Those of you who wish to join me in dedicating our lives to restoring the green on our planet can do so. Become a green man. Wear your “colors”, your insignia, whatever it is and teach people how to recycle, plant and grow organically, sustainably, honor all of our relatives, and kill with respect. Check out Avatar in 3D for further ideas.

How do you want to act? so that you are the change, the change which helps Mother Gaia live.

Green Men are spirit warriors. We might have to become guerilla warriors. Merlin and Gandalf were wizard warriors; this is our lineage through the Celts of Western Europe. Hippocrates, Asklepios, and Socrates emphasize the method of questioning in dialogue with one another. Hellenistic culture had a place for Dionysos and Osiris, gods of Vegetation and Rebirth. Dionysos is patron of stories, of the theater. Teaching the stories of life on the stage, acting them out.

That is what we do, isn’t it? Act it out? Unless we can talk about our feelings, we must give them expression through action. Channeling our inner process outward in creative ways transforms us. Creative expression liberates us. This is how we heal ourselves, through artistic expression. Heal yourself and heal the planet. We are one with all there is.

When we put ourselves in balance, the Tao will allow the rain to fall. According to the story of the Rainmaker which grandpa Jung always told, seeing what is out of balance and putting oneself in balance in the middle of all the chaos, that’s what the rainmaker did. He sat in a hut by himself, meditating, drinking tea, cooking, and whatever was needed to recover balance. Then it rained, the drought was over.

That’s how I personally want to help the planet, by putting myself in balance first, by taking care of myself first, my inner world, my child. My image is Merlin’s Round Table, where the child, wizard, king, lover, warrior, all of the other ancient patterns of light and dark, all sit with me. I am the “I” of consciousness, an aggregate of psychic events called the “ego” in western philosophy. Getting all of the people to the round table to discuss and cooperate is what we call the integration of the personality. Jung’s word for this process is individuation, of becoming a whole, unique person.

Our allegiance is to our Mother, the source of life on this planet, and we may have to defend her against destruction. Hopefully we can band together in the loose, informal way of men dedicated to the survival of the planet, green and blue like Pandora where the Na’vi live in James Cameron’s mythic story.

This is a group which every man should be able to freely join. I am sure there will be disagreements and conflicts in the future which will be discussed and resolved in a good way. We need the elders back in the wisdom seats, put them there when you can. Elder Green Men are honored and respected out of common curtesy. We listen to one another and talk. We teach through our stories, which anyone can understand.

Stories we have lived, those are your stories gentlemen, the ones you tell each other. We don’t have to have the same experiences, if we can imagine having them while someone tells a story. We grow through processing images, creating neural networks of associated memories. Tell the story over and over again and you create a pattern, an expectation through which we filter perception.

Thanks for extending yourself. I am looking forward to our conversations.

Feel free to extend the membership in our secret society to your brothers who share our goal.

Michael

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Leadership: Holding Together Organically

Holding together requires a strong, guiding personality in the center and receptive, yielding individuals who support and balance the leader.

In the I Ching Hexagram #8 [Union/Holding Together] It is written,

“If a man has recognized the necessity for union and does not feel strong enough to function as the center, it is his duty to become a member of some other organic fellowship.  . . .  Water flows to unite with water, because all parts of it are subject to the same laws.  So too should human society hold together through a community of interests that allows each individual to feel himself a member of a whole.  The central power of a social organization must see to it that every member finds that his true interest lies in holding together with it.” (p. 37, Wilhelm translation, 1950, 1967, Princeton University Press)

Support comes from those who realize the need for community.  When our children grow up and away from home, we are no longer the center of the family.  When they marry and have children, they become the new centers of their organic fellowship and we can find ways to support their growth and development.  But sometimes they are too far away to visit and too busy for much phone contact.  Perhaps we are now retired from our professions and have a lot of time on our hands.  What do we do?  Deteriorate physically and emotionally?  Often this happens.  We know that we need to be in community.  We cannot function as the center.  The ancient path suggests we start looking for a group of which we can become a part.  That is what will sustain us.  Relationship.

When my marriage of 32 years ended, I was in exactly the above position.  I needed to find a group where I could continue to grow, where my individuality would be encouraged and my wisdom appreciated.  By following my heart I found my way there.  It was lonely and bumpy at times, but I remembered the I Ching’s advice and kept myself open for relationship.  The Spirit led me to the Native American Church of my ancestors.   Now I lead through example.  I bring a healthy high protein dish to share at Ceremonies.  I support my brothers and sisters who are in leadership positions.  I enjoy their strength and enthusiasm.  And I lend a hand in whatever way I can, usually by standing or sitting with the younger people, telling stories of life, listening to their stories and reflecting who they are.  Now I am leading as an elder, one with experience and wisdom.  My counsel is sought.  People listen.  My teaching is now individual and personal.  Mentoring instead of lecturing in a college classroom.  It’s a delightful change and well suited to my advancing years.

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