Endurance

For many of us across the globe, we are now entering into month two of the pandemic. For others it has been longer much longer with deeply tragic results. In Southern California where spirit has given me an opportunity to be for the next few months, we have been in lock down since the 19th of March. I must say, now that everything is blooming and the days are quite warm, this sitting inside stuff is getting a bit old. What is a particular challenge for me personally is that the place I am staying has no internet, which means I must be incredibly resourceful at obtaining, especially now that the places I had been logging on (libraries, coffee shops, fast food restaurants) are now off limits. I must walk to the local library and sit outside the closed doors with my mask to enjoy the daily five hours of wifi that are still happening six days a week. At a distance of 3 miles, I must say it is actually helping me get in shape physically, for what I am not sure, but I am getting in my daily exercise as this trip to the library entrance is off the beaten path and I never encounter anyone other than an occasional police car and the maintenance crew that waves at me as they go inside the library to dust.

For those of us not on the front lines of the pandemic, this is an odd time. Most of us are laden with the anxiety of economic unknowns. Some of us are crashing like the stock market, others are trying to adapt to the world of teleconferences. All of us have had dreams dashed, plans obliterated, vacations cancelled and businesses stalled. In the States, for those of us who have stomach lining of steel, we watch the administration's daily performances with a mixture of disbelief, entertainment and despair. Fortunately, for many of us our state and local representatives are leading with calm and care, but it is still difficult to watch so many suffer so deeply. For many of us, we are suffering with the loss of loved ones, careers, health and so on. The only solace we all have is that we all, all of us are suffering together. Enduring a pandemic is not something that any one of us individually chose to or consciously contributed to create, and yet here we are, another week of abnormal existence, of trying to creatively live through this, attempting to keep our businesses alive, our families in tact, our health in gear, and wondering what the next chapter will bring.

During my original study of the Black Madonnas, I was struck by the many similarities that these images shared on the European Continent. The somber faces combined with stories of endurance I feel are especially instructive at this time. The Black Madonnas seem to be indestructible, surviving invasions, wars, religious and political upheaval, natural disasters, plagues, shipwrecks and vandalism. For those who were burnt at the stake during the French Revolution, they "resurrected" themselves through the memories of artists who recreated the images in meticulous detail to rein habit their shrines once the political unrest quieted down. What is most fascinating to me is how the restorations were darker than the original, mainly through the requests of the pilgrims.

The fact that so many of these images were brought to the Continent by the Knights Templar also fascinates me. Why would they do that, and why would they place these images in shrines along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela?

The Camino is a path of modern initiation. Before the time of Christ, only a select group of elites was initiated into the mysteries of the cosmos. After Christ, we all became equal in the eyes of the Divine, and all had equal access to the mysteries of the universe, only now, life is the great initiator we all encounter together.

The color black is the color of cosmic will being transmitted to human will. These dark images of the Madonna, the Madonna being the symbol of the Human Soul, for me speak volumes. One of the great endeavors of the Knights Templar was to invite civilization to be a container for the Christ. Rudolf Steiner tells us that the era of the Crusades, where the Templars were the leading figures, was the age of the preparation for the epoch of the Consciousness Soul, the current era we are enduring.

I have always found it instructive that the image of the Black Madonna was the leading image on The Camino. This path of modern initiation has images of the Human Soul, the Black Madonna, with somber faces, a sort of premonition that the coming age (the one we are in now) is going to be very difficult. The difficulties that humans have had to endure since the dawn of our current age fill the annals of history; plagues, wars, genocides, the wholesale purposeful destruction of the planet, and now this current pandemic.

One pundit pointed out the reason this situation is particularly difficult for Americans in particular is that we are a nation of "doers." Another comedian joked that this was a war he was prepared for, since a leading health expert said we must all go home and watch TV. He went on to say this will be the first time prisoners of a war will be fatter than when they became imprisoned.

But are we supposed to just sit around and watch TV until given permission to re-enter our lives with face masks and at six feet distance from anyone we encounter for the foreseeable future? Are we incapable of doing anything of consequence? I am reading Entering the Castle by Carolyn Myss (A library book that my county has told me I can hang on to without fear of late fees until the reopening at some point in who knows when.) The book is an interesting overview of Theresa of Avila and her famed Interior Castle. Myss also makes reference to St John of the Cross and his experience of being imprisoned, and how this led him to write his landmark Dark Night of the Soul. In both of these treatises, deeply insightful messages are conveyed as to how to have intimacy of the Divine, and that such intimacy often comes through suffering, isolation and the removal of all familiar aspects of daily life. What Myss points out throughout her book, is that we are all vessels of grace, and that by invoking grace, we can bring about deep healing within ourselves and others.

At this point in the pandemic, the question of how to re-open nations and economies is the major focus of attention. When is it too soon, is the cure worse than the problem, isn't poverty and economic devastation just as toxic to people's health as a virus? My perception is that the virus has done much to force all of humanity to simultaneously examine the major weaknesses and injustices of modern life. From the insanity of our global supply chain for pharmaceuticals and medical equipment, to the lethal quality of general poor health, to the sick relationship between humans and animals, to the dangers of an industrial food system, to an economic structure that really only benefits a very few and leaves out large segments of hard working people while simultaneously destroying the planet. Case in point: the major deficiencies for the medical professionals is protective gear and testing for the virus. The coveted protective gear (masks, gloves, gowns) are produced mostly in the region of China that was the first to suffer the pandemic and to be shut down to everything. The swabs that are needed for the testing for the virus are mostly made in the northern region of Italy, the epicenter and tragic location of death and destruction for Europe. The two main things needed to "combat" the virus, were made in the two places these objects were completely unavailable due to massive outbreaks and restrictive measures to stop the spread.

For me it is no coincidence that the 50th Earth Day was celebrated while the petroleum industry collapsed, now demand is all but vanished, and the industry is essentially awash in the substance having to pay others to take the stuff off it's hands. All  of this is happening as air quality is the best it has been in decades in major city centers and while wild life is venturing out of hiding and our air quality is improving. The Earth definitely had a great "Day" this year for sure.

Please if you are having a difficult time emotionally and spiritually with this ongoing pandemic, reach out for help, there are many free call in services with professionals and so forth, I am sure there are options where ever you are, just reach out please, you are precious and we need you. It is perfectly rational and healthy to be emotionally over burdened right now, with so many uncertainties regarding health and the economy. I cry about once every four days or so, usually on my walks, but I cry mainly because it is all very sad and upsetting at present.

Besides making sure our emotional health is being supported, the other thing  we can be doing right now as the sleeping sick giant of the global economy struggles to come forth, we can all be vessels of grace, we can channel "hot grace" through our prayers to heal anything we can think of, people, systems, animals, politicians you name it. We can ask that this grace lead us to imagine a world beyond the lock down. It will take much endurance and dipping into the chasm of cosmic love to address the injustices this pandemic has uncovered. Myss says that we are to be Mystics without Monasteries, active in the world, we can be mystical activists. We were all born for this actually. As Theresa of Avila would say, we are to pray as if God were in charge and work as if we are in charge. The prayer we can do now, and the work is to figure out what sort of post pandemic culture we wish to have and work tirelessly to bring that about when the time comes. Work by helping register people to vote, help people to register to vote absentee, volunteer to help your community in any way you can, we can all pick up trash in our local regions. For those who have more energy, volunteer with civic and faith organizations that are addressing the numerous injustices the pandemic has uncovered, and of course support the arts and culture in your area as this is very important for any healthy society, and the arts have suffered and will suffer greatly as things like healthcare, housing and food will take much focus of local and national governments in the aftermath of this crisis.

Each one of us, each one of you is a vessel of deep love, and it will take that kind of love in the rocky days ahead. As Rev Dr Martin Luther King Jr said, the long arc of history bends towards justice. What he said and led by example was that the bending towards justice depends on us all. So while we all sit and wait, the one thing we do not have to wonder about is loving our community and the planet enough to channel divine grace through our prayers, and let those prayers inspire us to acts of courage and endurance when we restart our lives. I for one do not want things to "go back" to the unhealthy status quo, I want culture to move forward, towards justice, which is another word for love.