Musings

Today I use this space for some musing. I doubt it really has anything to do with anything but it is what is in the field for me today so I'm going with it.

We watched two movies yesterday that were both highly thought provoking and left me with similar unsettled feelings that remind me that there is much I do not truly understand about what goes on in the world. There are plenty of platitudes and easy assumptions and judgments one could make but if those are ruled out what's left?

The first movie was The Rite with Anthony Hopkins which is now playing in theaters. Nothing new in it, all about the Roman church's practice of exorcism 'spectacularized' as only Hollywood can do it. One can easily chalk it all up to beliefs or psychological phenomena and it may well be so. I really don't know. I get that these things do happen and there seems to be some kind of revival going on in terms of the number of people requesting exorcisms all over the world today. I happened to catch an interview with Anthony Hopkins on Piers Morgan last night where they also showed footage of an actual exorcism and interviewed the daughter of the 'possessed' person along with an American expert on the topic. I don't know what any of it means really, I'm just left with the question 'what's really going on here?' and does it matter in any way? It isn't in my sphere of influence, if such a thing actually exists, but I do remember reading quite a bit about it many years ago. Fascinating topic really. The various groups who study such phenomena come up with all manner of explanation for it, the most common being possession by something evil which they call the devil which must be resisted and fought all the way. An interesting tidbit from the interview last night was that the person in the video clip had 16 exorcisms and eventually died of cancer. Doesn't sound too effective to me but then that is only one example. I do wonder about the resurgence of belief in exorcism as a means to deal with the unexplainable. I am also aware of the practice of 'soul retrieval' by shamans all over the world. This has also gotten more secular attention in the past few years as it seems more acceptable to the more new-age types. Stuff happens, we try to deal with it as best we can by labeling it and creating rituals around it and around and around it goes, same old stuff in new forms.

That was also the sense I was left with after watching a documentary someone lent us called The Secret of Oz by Bill Still about solutions for a broken economy. He basically takes us through the history of money and the various ways of creating it over the centuries starting with the Romans. I was particularly struck by how little education there is on one of the most pervasive symbols of power in the manifest world. I had seen a couple of other interesting tidbits about it in the recent past but this documentary did an excellent job of explaining how it works and what some alternatives might be that made a lot of sense to me. Again it was shown how ideas just go round and round, taking on slightly different form without effective fundamental change.

As I write I am aware that behind the unsettling feelings is the great unknown and feelings powerlessness which we tend to resist and be in denial of for the most part. This is not at all unlike the experience people have in dealing with their every day lives. I had a remarkable session with a client the other day that also reflected this essential powerlessness and the way we tend to rail against it. The stories and projections these deep feelings of powerlessness engender are endless it seems yet all reflect back to this most basic of human experiences. We are generally so busy going out there and trying to do something about whatever form our sense of powerlessness has taken for us that we tend to neglect the reality of it and the opportunity to find deep peace in the midst of the powerlessness or whatever has shown up that we are resisting.

The basic lack of trust in Life seems to dictate the need to act or rather react to what is through the illusory lens of beliefs and assumptions in ways that ensure the constant repetition of ineffective strategies and behaviours. This is undoubtedly as it must be, until it is not. In the awareness of these patterns I have the privilege of entering the void and resting here, flowing with whatever it is the Universe is doing. If there is something for me to do about it, I will undoubtedly become aware of that too. Awesome!