Crisis and Initiation

I have written about some of the astrological mechanisms of the current pandemic, but it must be remembered that the planets are not ‘causing’ the crisis. The planets are simply indicating what is happening, has happened, and will happen. They are karmic carriers that deliver to us the fruits of our past actions, so there is nothing good to come of ‘blaming’ the planets. They can actually be extremely helpful waypoints on the convoluted map of human experience, making times of crisis a perfect time to look to the sky for guidance.

It is important to note that although this is a collective crisis, it will impact each individual differently. The place where most of the action is taking place right now is the sign of Capricorn. Saturn and Jupiter’s entrance into this sign are ushering in a new 200 year epoch by their change of elements. Any major shift in the foundations of society is going to be preceded by a crisis. A major reorientation has to take place in order to acclimate to a fundamentally new working order. (For more information about this change in epoch please see The Era of Earth).

Inside this larger crisis will be smaller, personal crises which may feel gigantic. Medically the word crisis indicates a “decisive point in the progress of a disease” and comes from the Latinized form of the Greek word krisis: “turning point in a disease, that change which indicates recovery or death.” Interestingly, the same word can also mean “judgement, results of a trial.”

The way we use the word now apparently evolved from its medical use. There is an apt German word for mid-life crisis—Torschlusspanik—which alludes to a fear of being on the wrong side of a closing gate.

These etymologies all relate to crises as arising due to being at the center of change. In the meeting of two opposing qualities—whether they be lifestyles, belief systems, or states of health—the human creature can feel severed between a’ before’ and ‘after’ that they are unwillingly thrust into. The goal of traditional initiations was to support the youth across this gaping vertical gap between their former identity as a child and their new life as an adult and contributing member of society. No initiate will ever chose this, as it feels like death. It requires the participation of the whole community to foster this incredible transformation. The reality is that western culture is full of non-initiates. We lost our systems of initiation as well as our cultural memory long ago and so collectively we are still adolescents. True adulthood and being a real human being requires a relationship with Nature, there is no way around it. It is an adolescent mentality (and one I do no exempt myself from) that assumes that Mother Earth should give endlessly with no reciprocation. And there is really no fault involved here since most of us came in to a perception of Nature that was completely devoid of animism. Most of our ancestors were sent running due to one traumatic event or another and in the process lost a lot of the culture that held the keys to right relationship with Nature: the stories, the food, the music, the initiation rituals which almost every culture enacted yearly.

Because of this, it was inevitable that we would require a collective initiation, which we are edging up to now.The goal of the initiation, as I said, is to develop a sensitivity to Nature that will allow us to serve Nature, instead of using and abusing her. The point of life is not to get what we want (despite what every commercial and billboard ad will tell you), it is to ensure life keeps on living: most importantly the wild ecosystems of the world and the animals that depend on them. Humans are meant to work in concert with Nature, always offering to the things that give us life and praising the beauty of life with our words. Collectively we have forgotten this and so we are being thrust into the liminal space of (potentially violent) reorientation.

Liminal space is the space between what we once knew and what is coming, which we cannot yet see. This is the space all initiates enter when they leave their old lives and selves behind and await the process of becoming a true human being. It is natural to want things to go back to ‘normal’ and to cling to the small, familiar securities you might still be able to maintain. But this only slows the process of change.

Shifting from a mindset of ‘waiting it out’ to preparing for a complete overhaul of life as you knew is critically important right now. Get excited! Many of us knew that the way we were operating was not sustainable in the long run, and that a major shift would be inevitable! New technologies were never going to save us from making the lifestyle changes required to truly live sustainably and in respect of Nature. (As a side note: It is interesting to me that this virus lives longest on plastic surfaces, the material that is so pervasive and harmful to the environment. To slow the spread of the virus it makes sense to eliminate as much plastic from your life as possible (something we all should have done long ago, myself included!)

Even with any excitement you are able to muster, moving through any crisis is never easy. And an absolute requirement is to honor the grief of losing a lifestyle or an identity that you were attached to, however dysfunctional it may have been. I suspect that grief is an important part of this pandemic because the virus has its primary impact in the lungs, which in Traditional Chinese Medicine are the organ of grief. Those with repressed or unacknowledged grief may have a harder time here, and can work to somehow let that go to support their physical health. Although it’s definitely helpful to keep moving and not get immobilized by fear and panic, I would say that this is not a time to ‘suck it up’ and just try to get through. It is a time for honoring the individual and collective devastation involved in watching an old system crumble before a new one is built.

As I said, each person will be effected differently depending on where this transit it taking place in their astrological chart. The sign and house involved will require major overhaul and go through various stages of ‘crisis’ over the coming months and potentially years. System overhauls are neither short nor pretty, generally speaking. Most of us have become attached to comfort but there are new priorities asserting themselves, so be prepared to be changed. Remember that your personal difficulty is attached to a larger turning, and we must all work out our piece of the puzzle to the best of our ability in order to align ourselves with Nature so that life might go on living.