A message from Carolyn Myss

[Guest guest]

A Message From Caroline Myss

Hello Everyone -

As many of you know, I have been in the process of writing a book entitled,

THE SACRED CONTRACT OF AMERICA. The research for this book began two and a

half years ago now. This has been and continues to be an extraordinary adventure

to me for several reasons; first, I am a passionate lover of history and if I

had to have a back up profession, I would be a military historian. Secondly,

I have finally found a way to combine my work in archetypes and consciousness

with history and an interpretation of the greater scheme of events that form

and guide and shape humanity. Thirdly, it has allowed me to acquire a fabulous

history library, which just keeps on getting bigger. And last, I had not idea

this would take so much time.....

One of the consequences of this book is that it really has become a journey

into the heart and soul of America, and in many more ways that I can list.

From my Marine father, I inherited a passionate love of this nation and his

history of soldiering in World War II inspired my life long interest in military

history, both American and European. We are a warring planet. While I would

love to see, think, and envision peace on the horizon....I hold little hope that

that day will come in our life time. One of the reasons I constantly read the

archives of military history is because it is the study of choices and the

management of power - and why, when options to negotiate peace do exist, why

does

humanity continually choose war.

It's not enough to think of war as something " out there " that soldiers,

generals, and politicians engage in. Have you never been " at war " with someone?

How many times have you found yourself using military language to express your

rage or fear....like, 'I could just kill him/her " or metaphors like, " stab in

the back " or " shoot from the hip " , etc. These are military terms and at the

very least, the language of violence. It's in us, make no doubt about it...it's

in each of us. While we may attribute our inability to forgive to hurt

feelings, the actual healing substance most people are wanting (and this answer

comes from them, mind you...not me...) is that they want to make the other

person

feel bad, they want to hurt them back, they want to punish them in some

way...in a word, they are seeking vengeance, another word for war.

This new age of consciousness...this commitment to become a non-warring human

being - what exactly does that mean? How are we to attain that status of

consciousness? Is that a plateau of peacefulness that once attained, we then

leave

the rest of this raging planet to fend for itself? Where are we when it comes

to working on ourselves and our responsibility to the rest of the world? Does

our spiritual life require that we leave the world behind, as I have so often

witnessed? Like the classic monasteries in which the nuns and monks - from

Catholic to Buddhist - leave the mainstream life in order to pursue God within a

more detached social environment - have new-agers made the same choice in

some way that is lived within a contemporary and more mainstream way? I have to

admit to being extremely perplexed by what strikes me as incongruent choices

that need some serious examination....

The sixties, which I consider to be the full scale beginning of the new age

movement, gave birth to a new level of social/spiritual/sexual/political

consciousness, all of which was soooo necessary. I recall the 1968 Democratic

Convention here in Chicago, with fires and police and hippies and war protester

all

over the place...incredible. I remember so many things about the exciting

decade, and the memory that I am immersed in as I write that is that

consciousness in that decade was experienced, defined, and understood to mean

that a

person became actively involved in making conscious

political/social/racial/spiritual change happen. Those individuals....a type of

rebel-illunimati hybrid of an

archetype - were the intelligencia of society. They were writers, professors,

scientists, philosophers, high voltage political activists....And of course

we had the drug dealers, hippies, and etc....big deal....the polarities of

society will always exist and one side does not negate the value of the other. I

am focusing on the Tom Hayden's and Abbie Hoffman's of that era...Even the

music of that time were about social change and bringing peace and consciousness

into the land, and ending a meaningless war, and bringing love back into the

land....well, not " back " actually - just " into " our lives for the first time as

a conscious collective.

So now here we are decades later....and where are we in comparison to our

" consciousness elders? " And beyond that, to our " consciousness Forefathers and

Mothers - and great Founding Elders? " Well, here's where my curiosity takes

me....

The sixties was a decade of revolution in which the socially minded youth

of America broke with traditions, boundaries, customs, and social limitations

that needed to be broken. In the true spirit of American rebellion, the youth

of this nation cut ties with tribal rules and constraints in order that a new

order of freedom could be initiated into the culture. This rebellion, in

keeping with the greater Sacred Contract of America, ignited the same fire all

over

the planet. America was born to be a nation of rebellion, but of spiritual

rebellion - not in the religious sense - but always toward a break through in

the liberation of the human spirit. From the rebellious decade, we moved into

the seventies, a decade of involution...once we completed our rebellion, we had

to consider the next stage, that is, now that we have more freedom, what

shall we do with it? We turned inward, into the excavation of our psyches, our

emotional natures, our intellectual territory. We adapted a new vocabulary,

embracing the language of eastern cultures and philosophies. We became fluent in

chakras, meditation, energy and vibrations. We discovered the presence and

power of our psyches, of our unconscious, of the wounded child within. We shed

light on the need to recognize the role our childhoods played in who we became

as adults and in the process the archetype of the " victim " was given status. We

laid down a new foundation for what it meant to be a whole person, an

individual comprised of a body, a mind, a psyche, and a spirit. From this came a

new

wave of professions; people dedicated themselves to a combination of personal

growth and of reaching out to help others through professions in the field of

energy health care and healing.

From revolution to involution, we headed into the eighties, the decade of

evolution. Filled with a new awareness of what our interior worlds were

comprised of, we moved onward to a mass commitment to evolve - past our wounds,

past

our histories, past our past, essentially. This new philosophy of the whole

person infiltrated into absolutely every single area of social, spiritual,

environmental, political, and financial life. Businesses started to hold

seminars

in which the well-being of their employees became of value and simultaneously,

the world continued to become an ever shrinking place as computers and energy

communication came into being, albiet in its infancy. But the interior life

- the conscious life - was on the rise. And with that, the contemporary

spiritual culture had a sense of empowerment and a new found dedication to

create a

new future, a global future that recognized we were indeed headed into a one

planet society, like it or not. We liked it then; we don't like it now.

Nevertheless, what was real during those years was this sense of burgeoning

planetary unity. People discussed international politics with an openness that

was

refreshing and hopeful.

Then came the nineties, a pause in the action....From the massive social

movement that was thirty years old by then, a cloud of narcissism descended. The

stock market and massive economic growth along with the internet and its

promise of fast and instant wealth introduced yet another stream of

consciousness

that carried with it a type of two-edged sword - we were indeed able to be

everywhere, anywhere with the push of a button on our computers - and how

amazing

is that - but we had also found a way to make money " at the speed of

light " ....and so we did. Wealth has a funny effect on society. Social

consciousness

drops to the end of the line of concerns when a society becomes more abundant.

It

seems that the rule of thumb is that " so long as we are making money, our

society is just fine, healthy, and doing everything right. " A person has to be

very nieve to think that any country, much less America, operates independently

in this world these days. Like our new model of health, you know that no

organ in your physical body can ever again be considered a " sovereign " organ;

and

likewise, no nation can be thought of sovereign any longer - America included

and most all, in fact. Nations, like our physical organs, will and must

maintain their individuality, but we no longer can consider that we can treat

one

organ of our body - or nation - to the exclusion of all other body parts. Only a

fool would take a drug that " helps the liver but destroys the

kidneys " .....(those commercials advertising medication that can help your

depression but

bring on nausea, weight gain, sexual dysfunction and etc. should be banned from

this planet - those idiots) - The world was on a track of unity in the eighties

with the end of the Cold War and the opening of numerous social portholes,

but somehow a narcissistic wave hit in the nineties that put those concerns into

a type of suspended animation. Certainly events and trends are far, far more

complicated than how I am recounting them. I am jumping from one tip of the

iceberg to another in the absence of time and a realistic attempt to write this

piece....but I am touching upon some very real archetypal patterns that came

in these waves through these decades. We were headed down a path of higher

social consciousness and that path did take a right turn on to a more

self-centered focus in the nineties....so what happened? and what now?

Here we are in a new millennium - and what shall we call this decade? Dare we

even use a word that comes from the lineage of the consciousness

movement????? The next organic phase - from revolution to involution to

evolution to

narcissism would be to " revelation " ....the need to ascend to a higher

perspective

in order to unity and gain a transcendent perspective on where we have been

and where we are headed. But here's the curious social reality that I continue

to encounter. People dedicated to " consciousness " ....what are they/you

dedicated to? Your own growth? Healing yourself? Dealing with your own wounded

child??? Finding your wholistic occupation???? What about the rest of this

planet?

Beyond yourself....what next? The need to discover oneself always includes a

healing phase...but make no mistake, it has to be a phase - and then one has

to move on. You have to take your even partially healed self and get busy with

becoming a positive healing force on the planet. As a part of that, a person

has to, like our revolutionary forefathers and mothers of our founding days

and of the radical 60’s take their higher consciousness into the political

arena

for that is the foundation of social responsibility and change.

What remains for me THE MOST curious feature about " new agers " is that we

have become so comfortable with our healing-health way of life, that little if

any hesitation is practiced when it comes to sharing wounds. I have witnessed -

and I have no idea how many times - new people meeting each other at workshops

who, within minutes - and I do mean minutes - reveal that they are victims of

sexual crimes from childhood. The openness with which strangers exchange

their histories is, well, what is it? Is it appropriate? Is one's wounded

history

to be considered a social calling card???? I leave that to the individual to

decide - all I know is that we have completely dismantled any of the more

conventional boundaries that once regulated the secrets of our past. and this is

not a value judgment, just a fact. And for many, this openness is viewed as

essential to their healing. I am shining the light on this discussion NOT on

sharing one's wounded history, but on how open and conscious we now see

ourselves

because we have become so personally revealing. We find that to be a marker of

how liberated we have become.....

But here's the curious point - for all of this new found liberation....I note

again and again and again that none of this exists when we cross the line

into the world of politics. As soon as any discussion of what is occurring

politically in this world comes up, people get angry, uptight, they put those

frowns on their faces, they walk out of the auditorium in a huff and a

puff...and

so on...And mind you, the discussion from the stage - that is, the subjects I

bring up to discuss in this arena, are never about WHO to vote for - that's not

my business and I would never tell another person who to vote for. What I DO

feel obligated to do, is to tell people TO VOTE period - to become socially

active. If you have any commitment to peace, to the future, to making the

planet a more conscious place...and now to just helping it survive - you, as an

American, MUST heed your responsibility to be an active part of the management

of

the power of this great nation. And if you are not an American and reading

this from another nation, still the responsibility to take an active part in the

political health of your nation remains just as valid a call. But why is it

that people can discuss being molested in front of 2,000 people!!!, but bring

up political obligations and the earthquakes start. I can now understand,

because I have seen it again and again and again, how the very mention of

politics

and religion exit as the core forces underneath every, single war and

international conflict. It seems that no matter how conscious we strive to be

within

our private worlds, step beyond that and the capacity to remain centered,

rational, and present seems to all but evaporate. And then there are the many

times I have heard people in this new age field say things like, 'I can't watch

the news...it's just toooo negative " .....What does one say to that? " Oh, that's

right...now that you are so sensitive, it's totally appropriate for you to run

away from this world you claim you are so dedicated to healing. " I don't get

it - how come a person dedicated to becoming conscious decides that the

consequence of their effort to become conscious is the need to NOT look at what

needs healing beyond themselves???? Of all people who should stare right into

the face of the shadow of this world, it is YOU who are working, praying, and

bracing yourself to be a strong, conscious, and powerful force in this world. It

is the Light that needs to stare in the face of darkness, not turn your back

on it.

I am extremely passionate about this matter, not the least of which is

because this coming election may well be the most important one in the history

of

this nation, given the players on the global stage and all that is at stake in

terms of the future of this planetary community of ours. If the heavens have

prepared us for anything in terms of serving the whole, then our time has come

to step into that role now. Like the social activists of the sixties, and our

Forefathers and Mothers who gave us the founding template of the revolutionary

American, we need to become forces of change starting now and continuing for

decades to come. I repeat that I shall never tell a person who to vote for,

but I will always tell a person to vote. Complaining about who is in office or

what is taking place in other nations serves no one and it certainly is not a

force for making a difference. Complaining may make a person feel

" conscious " ...because they are " consciously complaining " , but it is useless. If

you have

strong feelings about what is occurring in this nation and on our planet, then

DO something about it. I believe it was Voltaire who said, " He who will not

fight for freedom does not deserve freedom. " " Fight " means many things,

certainly, from guns to prayers. But if ever there was a decade when conscious

action

was required by those in the " consciousness movement " , then our time has come.

Memorial Day has always been an emotional day for me, again due to my father.

I remember him weeping as they played TAPS while viewing Arlington National

Cemetery. It is heart breaking to see young soldiers die again, whether

American or not. We have entered a season of war and death...make no mistake

about

it. On this day, remember the spiritual vision that is this nation and that

America was conceived of by our Founding Fathers and Mothers - who were Mystics

disguised as political figures - to be a nation where the human spirit would

thrive. They envisioned that a new era of enlightenment would be born from the

efforts of those first revolutionaries. We are at those same crossroads -

America must not become detached from its founding vision or guiding grace. It

is

up to each of us now, in our own way, to ensure that that does not happen.

God bless you all,

Caroline