image by tylertwo
This week the Trump administration sent out an order for missile strikes in Syria. With no concrete plan on what to do after these attacks and no willingness to attempt to resolved conflicts peacefully, the Trump administration is scrambling to figure out next steps. Meanwhile many victims are left critically injured or dead, and many more are at risk for what may happen next. I cannot help but feel the collective humanity is harmed by these actions. These aggressive actions in violation of international law seem like a clear indicator of an uninitiated president.
What happens to an adult who is not brought into adulthood in a conscious way?
There is an African proverb that says, if you do not initiate your young men into the tribe, they will come back and burn down the village just to feel the heat.
I cannot help but wonder if sending out these missile strikes are a form of self initiation. If Trump is blowing things up to feel the impact he has on the world?
The fact of the matter is that all human beings crave to be seen, to be acknowledged for what they can bring, and to have a community support their gifts. For most people today, this is not a part of their world. When an individual does not know who they are and how powerful what they can do in this world could be, they still know there is something inside of them that needs to come out. They still crave to exercise there ability to have some impact, some influence, on the world.
We all crave the big act of initiation, we all crave the community to see us and for us to have an impact, because this validates our existence. The lack of initiatory passages leave individuals up to their own devices, they exercise their power however they can. If we are not seen, we create ways to be seen. We come to practice control over rather than connection with. And the screams of those who suffer these actions echo in the hearts of all of humanity, for the grief in the ways we have let our fellow humans fall so far from the path of our nature.
We can carry a storm in us that changes the seasons, but we forget that the tumultuous snow and rains always have the ability to offer the earth restoration in some way, a new growth that the world can benefit from, rather than fear.
When an uninitiated individual runs a county, this has tremendous impacts in our global community. Wars are created. Villages burn down. Who is feeling the heat? How long with the restoration take?
If led by initiated individuals, a sense of purpose would be felt and known by the individual and the collective that supports and surrounds that person and the greater world.
We live in interesting times, as we continually quote this Chinese proverb. Immigration and human rights violations, global warming, missile strikes, advanced technology, suicide and shooting incidents, rising depression and anxiety rates, the ability to communicate globally and the inability to connect with the person right in front of us. We know so much in any given moment, yet we know so little about ourselves. In the mystery of the future and the mysterious nature of our world, may we find healthy ways to connect with how we can live in this state of mystery and may we move toward initiating our people in healthy ways, so that they can be seen and the world will be better for it.
Join Oaks Counsel next weekend for a council circle on Addressing Our Times, acknowledging the mystery and contemplating our place in it.