We’re full throttle into one of those spells of history that exceeds the ability of most people to make sense of it; to contain what they perceive within their preconceptions. In other words, we all approach the world with pre-established beliefs, and compare what new things we perceive to them. If the new things are too intense, or challenge what we already think, we tend to either shut down or have our minds blown open — or just simply blown. And not in the earlier sense of that concept (the Sgt Peppers album, Burning Man). I mean hurt.
Collectively, we’re experiencing this increase in energy in a compromised state, and I would suggest, it’s not a voluntary process in the way we usually think of that. Rather than openly choosing, we set ourselves up to be forced, to be pushed, to be backed into having no other options. It helps to be open and flexible, for example, when you’re being presented with new information or new experiences. Most of what we’re open to now is fear.
Our other portals are being systematically closed by fear, by divided awareness, by pain and by what we do to avoid pain.
Most of that is by shutting down; closing ourselves off to the world, to people, and to ourselves. By blocking out genuinely natural energies (eros, for example), or by mingling them with fear, we set ourselves up for even more fear, because fear is in part the result of resistance and a lack of trust in the flow of life.
One of the ways that people “avoid fear” is to indulge deeper in it — for example, horror movies; most of these involve chaos; and the influences are coming in from every direction. The 2012 movie is about to come out. I’m sure it will be a smash hit. That’s a lovely example of what we do to ourselves. It’s official website begins, “With the Mayan calendar ending in 2012, a large group of people must deal with natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions, typhoons and glaciers.”
The premise here is that volcanoes follow schedules, like trains. If the calendar predicts the disaster, then it’s not a disaster. The calendar is supposedly astrological in nature, and dis-aster means “against the stars.” So this sounds more like a happy coincidence. In fact there’s a glacier right outside my door right now, and we are great friends.
Another premise is that the Mayan calendar is “ending.” No calendar ends; your datebook ends, but time does not end and the calendar itself does not end. From what I have read over the years, it is true that the 13th baktun of the Mayan calendar is ending, and that means that the 14th baktun is beginning.
If this implies natural disasters, I would remind everyone that we’ve been dealing with that since the beginning of time, and also for quite a few years in the millennial era. Does anyone remember the Asian tsunami and the hurricanes and all these floods and droughts? And bank failures? And just about anything else you can name?
Earlier this morning, I was reading one of those let’s freak out websites pertaining to the supposed pole shift. It was sent to me by a reader asking my opinion; this happens a few times a month. The site she sent took me back to another website by a guy telling us how to “survive 2012.” His “official website,” as he calls it, begins, “Author Patrick Geryl came to the staggering conclusion that the Earth will soon be subjected to an immense disaster.”
Just try to visualize that. He’s sitting there typing…and then…
Well, then he declares that right after he’s done writing this website, he’s going to devote his time and energy to creating a survival group. Off to Wal-Mart! Better stock up on survival stuff.
The problem with all this dis-aster (external drama) is that it generally leads us to ignore the personal growth factors involved in being alive: the exploration of our existence, the privilege of relating and sharing. Even while we’re busy dealing with hurricanes, locusts, earthquakes and bank failures, we still have relationships and we still have a relationship with ourselves. We still have the option to be at peace with existence, and the privilege to to seek that peace; or alternately, to view our relationship with existence as a battleground.
This is what you might call the spiritual piece; the place where we can take ownership of our existence, which includes the way we reassemble the “reality” that we perceive, once it’s held in the confines of our mind. Once there, what we do with it is our business, though that choice affects many others. I would propose to you today that those who invest their energy in freaking themselves and others out are not using their minds creatively.
But I promise you, they long to. We all do.
I’ve lately taken up a practice around fear (and also pain, anguish), which is to dedicate the energy of these emotions as fuel for realizing my intentions (or you could direct it to healing, peace-on-earth, other goals). There’s a lot of power locked in there, might as well use it!
love Anna
oh my goodness. I have most certainly been crippled, nay paralyzed by fear of one outcome or another for the better part of my life. I recently had some discoveries about fear that came to me from a collective of inspirations from others…Rudyard Kipling’s ‘If’ gave me pause to reconsider my relationship with fear…it helps me to think of fear as a part of myself I’m not fond of admitting is there at all. So, I give it an archytypical-symbolic ‘voice’ and try to communicate with this aspect of myself to understand what the subtext of my personal fears really are.
Just now, I’m reminded of the tarot trump, The Fool. The Fool isn’t fearless, in fact the fool is too naive to be fearful sometimes…but, the fool is always courageous enough to risk moving forward anway…even if he knows he may fall…perhaps the fall is worth the whole of the journey…imagine what Alice saw when she fell into the rabbit hole?
The only fear then is getting too big, too small, or drinking the wrong kool-aid at just the right time and place.
Maybe it’s okay to be afraid, to have fears…until we let them go-or let them morph into another friend-they’re ours for the loving.
Wish me luck. I wish you blessings!
-OE
Thanks for your stunning piece on fear dear Eric. Have been dealing with a lot of it in my own life recently. Firstly because my dad had a heart attack, and secondly because at the beginning of this month I was about to start teaching classes again of really bolshy, difficult kids. I was consumed by fear in the days before I had to resume classes, absolutely dreading having to deal with it all over again. But at the same time I tried to open up to the fear – to live it rather than fight it. The kids this time round have turned out to be hard work, but not nearly as tough as previous years, my dad is stable- and I had a real breakthrough in that I realised that the more one is prepared to open up to life, including to the shit that gets sent ones way, the more one can experience an intrinsic energy and vitality inherent in life. Life stops being merely terrifying and uncontrollable and starts to be an exciting adventure too. Uhm – these are still baby steps – but it feels like the start of something incredibly new and positive.
Love
Liz
I think at some level, modern civilization is addicted to fear…some societies more so than others and some individuals much more so than others. If a person is convinced they’re going to be dead tomorrow, they’ll probably find a way to make it happen. Relatedly, if the masses are convinced the world is coming to an end soon, they too will probably find a way to make it happen. I am convinced that both individually and collectively we can find ways manage our fears much more constructively.
I found this in the Wikipedia entry on fear:
According to surveys, some of the most commonly feared objects are spiders, snakes, heights, water, enclosed spaces, tunnels and bridges, social rejection, failure, and public speaking. In an innovative test of what people fear the most, Bill Tancer analyzed the most frequent online search queries that involved the phrase, “fear of…”. This follows the assumption that people tend to seek information on the issues that concern them the most. His top ten list of fears consisted of flying, heights, clowns, intimacy, death, rejection, people, snakes, success, and driving.
Speaking personally, my biggest fears are: bees and wasps, watery depths, romantic rejection, failing to manage my more lethargic tendencies, right wing authoritarians in our political system, excessive corporate power over our political system, climate change, nuclear explosions, horror movies, haunted houses, sudden loud noises, and scary nightmares that are difficult to wake up from.
I think I manage most of these fears pretty well except my fear of flying stinging insects. Put me in an environment with bees and wasps everywhere and I will surely go into a mild panic and make every effort to exit the scene as quickly as possible. It’s a borderline phobia. I take this fear very seriously in the midst of a situation, but I also know how to laugh at myself after it’s over. I have some pretty funny stories about things I did during bee and wasp encounters.
Hi Jamie… if we all believe that there was a world-wide flood that wiped out most, but not all, of the human race, then we retain those fears in the oldest, primordial parts of our brains,
I actually think the source of the fear is a little closer to home. If 99.99999% of the human race has been squeezed, yanked, cut or vacuumed out of the womb, the impression sticks around – pretty much for the duration. As I have written elsewhere, most of us have taken a wallop coming in, so we figure going out will be equally as unpredictable and painful.
It is this collective, 7 billion, cringe which drives the massive harvest of fear we see unfolding around us. The trick is to climb back down the rope of the spinal cord until you can feel where it drops into the Abyss. Keep going. . . there’s a point –a synapse, really– where fear becomes the Friend.
As we roll along, I see the inevitability of this journey. Going down, the Fear is a banister in the stairwell that has gone dark – at least until that cord picks up and twirls around the other way. Then it is all it has ever been. . .
“Your face flashes toward me like a sword.”
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I don’t get people who are on board with the whole 2012 disaster type thing. I read a book years ago called ‘Catastraphobia’ which just said that if we all believe that there was a world-wide flood that wiped out most, but not all, of the human race, then we retain those fears in the oldest, primordial parts of our brains, this fear of a coming disaster to befall us all. I think this fear has been perpetuated my many people & many organizations thru the centuries & years. I am no longer a believer of this type of disaster to destroy us all & I don’t believe in Armageddon! For those who want to remain living in fear of something in the future, they can continue this thought, but to me it seems quite irrational.
2012 to me is a promise of a better future, using better thoughts than fear. Maybe it’s about a change in attitude about time, I don’t know.
Eric,
Thank you, your last paragraph is especially well taken. i would suggest that the creative approach you recommend include shifting focus to something else, even if just for a day or (if we can’t spare a day), a moment or two.
Perhaps we are simply looking in the wrong direction for a clue.
I keep looking at the damned 2012 movie poster every day as I drive in to work.
I am so sick of the numbers game, the Y2K mind panic of 1999-2000, and anything that will try to shock us, like a jolt of electricity with fear–enough to get up out of our chairs and tranquilize by retail or other abusive substances.
And as Eric put earlier last week – “What is it that We Aren’t Afraid of?”
Fear as a habit does not feel natural, and I get tired just looking at that fricking billboard.
francesca:
“Apocalypsis” — I like that; good word!
Ain’t it the truth — we all got measles and mumps when I was a kid and then we were immune to getting it later on when it was liable to be more harmful.
My son got both the measles and mumps at a year old anyway — was that dispite the vaccine or because of it?! Certainly the “high level autistic” symptoms were Mercury poisoning.
I’m “in” — there is no such thing as time in the real world. That’s such a hard one to live by each day as the programming runs deep.
World-Weary Sigh Emanates From Next Bathroom Stall
SCHAUMBURG, IL—A deep, drawn-out, world-weary sigh emanated from an occupied bathroom stall at a local office building Monday, witnesses reported. The sigh, described by those who heard it as “somber,” “resigned,” and “a sad reminder of the crushing pain, anguish, and, ultimately, meaninglessness of life,” escaped from the core of the man’s being at approximately 12:32 p.m. and echoed quietly off the stall’s dividers. After 30 seconds of complete silence—a brief respite from the workday which the man seated on the toilet bowl likely used to contemplate his place in this world—he flushed the toilet, emerged from the stall, forced himself to smile, and returned to his job for yet another day of monotonous, unfulfilling work.
Thank you Eric — I really enjoyed this timely post today and Lorin’s input was also very positive and inspiring as well.
You wrote recently in November’s Inner Space advising Virgos to let the lessons of Saturn in Virgo sink in, all the while being aware of the “action points” necessary to apply those lessons. I really felt that energy this morning, as what could have been the beginnings of a hideous panic attack was kept at bay by my owning and naming what was at the root of it all; giving it some room but at the same time allowing my new found confidence to root me in a more positive action driven mind frame. I’m still aware of feeling psychically fragile yet I won’t let it get the better of me this time around. I can do this; I can do this…
I’m so eager to shake my routine and as Lorin says: “when I channel my energy creatively I always, ALWAYS feel better, more hopeful, and as if the reason for this existence is a good one.” I know now I can face down my fears by not shoving them away somewhere but by just letting them be. I would rather not be that toxic person that people steer clear of but instead someone who emits a positivity that is both intoxicating and contagious!
“Oh yeah there you are Fear; now please go sit/stand over there if you want to, but I am too busy to indulge you. I have many, MANY wonderful things to do today so buhbye!”
😉
Good Morning Eric:
Thank you for this today. Actually, I’ve been thinking about this a lot lately. Not really understanding why people are scaring themselves so much. Why they choose fear over everything else. Or why they choose not to think for themselves but prefer to swallow and wallow.
When all the hoopla about H1N1 first started and we were hearing “we’re all gonna die!” you posted that wonderful picture of the little-one licking the pig’s snout. I printed a copy of that pic and put it outside my office door. It’s still there. That’s my answer to all those who freak themselves out.
I don’t know where all the H1N1 pandemic is. It’s certainly not here, and I work at a university where students are constantly ill with one thing or another. Perhaps we’ve just been lucky so far. Perhaps I’ve put myself in a bubble about the whole thing. Perhaps we’re being feed (another) load of crap.
And then there’s the 2012 business. Are there really, truly people who think the world’s going to end then? I mean REALLY? That’s pretty much beyond comprehension to me. Personally I’m excited. And hoping I’ve got/will get my shit together enough to roll with the changes.
Thanks again for Planet Waves. It’s been a Life-Saver.
All my Best to you.
Lynda
Oh and Hi Folks, I have been reading you every day but been a little lazy about commenting, much love to you all.
It’s interesting – I have found that lately when I hear someone talking about “disaster” or “disease,” whether global or personal, I do my best to direct them to a positive viewpoint. I do this for myself as well. I also find that some people I am just not around as much, because the constant focus on the negative becomes toxic to me. I just do not think the world makes sense in the framework of doom and fear. This is not to say that I do not have my own fears and worries – but I feel better able to detach and see them for what they are, and do my best to consciously decide to choose a more positive way of thinking. To walk around believing that my big dreams (which are idealistic both creatively and romantically with Aqu Moon, Venus & Jupiter, plus all the fire burning through my chart) ARE possible, and dare I say, essential to my core being – well, that makes me feel good and is helping me learn to love myself for who I am, freaky idealism and all. I find when I channel my energy creatively I always, ALWAYS feel better, more hopeful, and as if the reason for this existence is a good one.