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Chiron Files by Eric Francis
Dear Friend and Reader:
The strange sequence of events I described in Friday’s edition was actually pointing to something bigger, which we learned about Saturday morning in Tucson. Thousands of birds falling out of the sky, fish floating to the surface of the water and many other odd developments, all surrounding an eclipse of the Sun — pointing to a political assassination — was reminiscent of something you might read in a Medieval astrology textbook. But it was happening right in our time.
Our moment of history is characterized by fear and inflammation. That has many people in an edgy state of being, and makes many others vulnerable to manipulation. There is inadequate care for those who are mentally ill. Most other people deal with psychological or emotional issues they identify by taking medication rather than by going to therapy.
We also live in a time when it’s easy to become detached from reality, and get lost in a kind alternate universe, be it the iPhone, World of Warcraft, or one’s social and family dramas. There’s always something to think about besides what really matters. And what matters now, I believe, is noticing that the fear and swelling are indications of emotional wounding; of an injury that must be tended or else get much worse. The wounding of millions of individuals adds up to a collective injury that is being expressed in the obvious pain of our society.
That pain is reflected everywhere from our struggles in relationships and with our children, to a population that is sleepwalking through our collective wealth being used to commit murder in other countries. It’s represented by what we eat, how we feel in our bodies, how we struggle with time, and how we feel about ourselves. And it surfaced Saturday when an angry young man took it upon himself to use a “Second Amendment solution” against a government official — hurting many other people with her and spreading fear through the Western world. And, reprehensible as the actions of this assassin were, he also lanced a boil, calling attention to those who profit from what amounts to mass emotional abuse projected onto the population.
These days I’m wondering less about when we’re going to wake up to the political and economic situations that surround us and more about when we’re going to acknowledge our need for emotional healing. Talk among news commentators today involves toning down the vitriolic political rhetoric. I’m wondering about the feeling of wounding underneath those harsh words and the emotions that drive them. I’m wondering about that occasional thought that so many have, when they access a quiet moment, that they must change something deep and significant in their approach to life.