Surviving the World’s Perfect Storm
A high percentage of souls in the world right now are angry, scared, and apprehensive about the future. Anger, fear, and other negative emotions abound everywhere. There seems to be an overwhelming amount of pressure on the inhabitants of this wonderful planet Earth. You might even call it a world wide perfect storm. An analogy might be the movie called “The Perfect Storm” in which a series of meteorological events caused a horrendous, and destructive storm. The series of events happening in this world right now have reached this high magnitude. An aware person certainly might ponder the outcome, and wonder what they can do to “Ride this one out.”
The elements that make up the storm can be summed up largely with three words “Decrease, Opposition, and Return.” Let’s take the first element of “Decrease.” We see significant evidence of decrease in all area’s of life. The financial global markets are to put it bluntly, crashing. This causes a decrease in all of the other areas, a domino effect if you will. One of the dominoes is a decrease in tolerance, which results in anger and fear. Another component of this perfect storm is the political climate, which by a strange twist of fate is happening at the same time as the decrease. The world political climate can be considered a component of “opposition.” This opposition is fueling the fire of anger, hatred, racism, and religious intolerance. This is done by stirring up our most basic and primal fears of anyone who might be considered different, or a threat to our survival. The third element of the storm, “return” is cyclical change. Change is a fact of life, but this cyclical change is the ending of the old and the beginning of the new.
Now the “Decrease” part of the storm can be largely attributable to the souls who inhabit this planet, and live in this world. Decrease comes when there is too much increase, a re-balancing if you will. The increase we are talking about in this instance was an increase in the egotistical elements of greed, false pride, and materialism. The “Opposition” element is connected with the political, ideological, and religious (not spiritual) components of our world, and is showing itself in very ugly and angry ways. Again we have the emotion of “anger” being a particularly destructive component of this storm.
Let’s talk about the element of “Return” or cyclical change for a moment. In a normal world and planet, this is a natural thing and takes different forms. However because of the aforementioned components of greed, false pride, and materialism, the planet may be forced into a premature or early cyclical change, called global warming. The greenhouse effect, global warming, and pollution of the planet, are all the results of the self-centered thought “grab all you can, while you can.” This attitude of the powers to be, or the world’s leaders, is without regard to our natural habitat. The rich get richer (materialism) and the earth suffers in return. The good people on the planet who have mistakenly put their faith, future, and protection in other people’s hands are having a rude awakening right now. The result being more anger and fear.
It isn’t a very cheery scenario or picture, I know. But there are measures that you can take to protect your sanity, and remain centered and calm. In fact if you look at the situation from a different point of view, you have the possibility to emerge from this period of time, stronger, healthier, and wiser. You may ask, how?
Again I will use the analogy of the storm, “Batten down the Hatches.” What does this mean in real terms? Simply this, “Go Within.” When they batten down the hatches on a ship they go within for protection. Your goal should be to stay in the eye of the hurricane and not the wall. The “I-Ching” an ancient Chinese Oracle, has all of the aforementioned terms of Opposition, Decrease, and Return, as names for hexagrams (64 in all) of cyclical change, and phases we may experience.
The “I-ching” is like receiving advice from a wise master, your higher self or the deity of your choice. In times of decrease it advises us to “be still, lessen the power of the ego and misfortune will be avoided.” When our resources are limited and difficulty surrounds us, our egos generate angry and unhappy emotions. This also happens when we are unable to achieve our goals. In the current political climate this is evident. One side may think that their ship is going down and their ego’s become infuriated. This hardens them so much that they propagate and display anger and bitterness. Also because of this intense world situation, in most peoples lives this same scenario and reaction is taking place. In other words, they find opposition affecting them and their relationship with others. Do you see what I mean by the perfect storm?
Take the advice of the wise sage. Be still, meditate, and “return” to your quiet center, like a spring returns to the inside of a mountain during a time of drought.
Withdraw from the media, newspapers, and negative influences. If you find yourself screaming at someone on TV, turn it off. Sacrifice the ego, for it is powerless against the currents of life. You can’t force progress by arguing, manipulation, or making excuses. In a sense you are retreating to the calm eye of the hurricane, instead of getting caught in the wall, and are flowing with the storm until it dissipates.
The “I-ching” or sage also speaks of this opposition. I quote: “Misunderstanding truth creates opposition.” you might add “distorting truth” to this also. It speaks of events in life, which can tempt us into negative thoughts and mistrust of others. It can cause us to mistrust life, and believe that it is working against us. The lessons that we and the planet as a whole are experiencing, are lessons that we need at this time in our evolutionary process or journey. Whatever is happening now must happen. We can’t resist, because even if we try we can’t prevent the progress of cyclical changes that must take place. Its time to display our higher and more loving aspects of ourselves. Transmute the anger and hatred to love, and let go of dark thoughts and aggressive actions. Embody the sage, Jesus, or some other high spiritual person or purpose that is your ideal. It’s time to strengthen your inner light and reserves.
The I-ching’s comments about “Return” offer a positive possibility to this story. It says, “A time of darkness comes to an end.” This is a turning point, the greatest adversity can be put behind us and the light can return. It warns that it can’t be forced, and so you might as well rest and act only when you can move gently and innocently. Return also means to return to the light within yourself. Growth is only possible when we relinquish the expressions of the ego: Pride, impatience, anger and desire. Let things develop naturally in their own way. “Simply observe and accept changes as you observe and accept the rising of the sun.” Gather your strength for a new growth ahead, and a return to the light. It’s up to you as an individual and all of us collectively to change our consciousnesses, or it will be changed for us.
