“May you live in interestingly times.”
— Old Chinese Proverb
For many years I taught at Sun Bear’s Medicine Wheel Gatherings throughout the country. During that time I was privileged to meet many Elders from various tribes; Elders who had come off the Reservation to teach the Native American philosophy of life. In listening to them talk, there is little doubt that in the minds of the Elders, what is going on in the world today is evidence of their prophecies regarding the “transition times’ from one age to another, the end of one cycle of time to another and the beginning of another. An example is the age-old Hopi prophecies that foretold the ending of the 4th world – our present time – and the beginning of the 5th world. Each of the previous “worlds” ended in cataclysmic events. The 4th world has descended into social, racial, political, economic, and religious chaos, and it is time for a change in human values, conscience, and consciousness. The “message” is always the same: change or else humanity will suffer the consequences brought on by stubbornness, resistance to change, arrogance, and ignorance. The Elders always stressed the opinion, which they view as facts, that it is time for people of all nations to realize that we can all benefit from the wisdom of the past. In other words, the ancient traditions are just as applicable in our modern times as they ever have before. We, in fact, may very well need the knowledge of the “old ways” now more than ever!
Cycles begin and cycles end. This is the “law,” the Law of Cycles…it is the way the Universe works. According to this natural law, we are experiencing the end of one cycle and the beginning of another. In order to try to understand these times we are going through at the present time, I turn to the Grand Alignment of 2012, when the Sun and the Earth will be aligned to the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. This event has not happened in 26,000 years! While many touted the event as bringing about the end of time as we know it to providing a time of opportunity for a positive “shift” in human consciousness.
What we need to understand is that the changing of an age, a galactic alignment are both times of transition and change; times that the Elders have foretold for centuries, and have been and are warning us about now. Their view of life tells them that we have to change our values, the view of us being “separate” from all that exists, misunderstanding or not caring about the belief that we are all one, our apparent “disconnection” with Nature, and our awareness and understanding of our place and role in planetary consciousness, i.e. Sacred Ecology. This involves immense changes in our motives and actions towards our view of and respect for all that exists. As I see it, we have a long way to go! Can we do it? Will we make the changes that are begging our attention? Bottom line, will we survive and experience that much-needed and necessary shift in human consciousness? Time will tell.
Page Bryant, August 2015
(C) Copyright Page Bryant, 2015. All Rights Reserved. Image courtesy of Fotolia.com.