October 01, 2015
Who Is Driving This Bus Anyway?
Many of us have profound connections to the Divine. Some people hear guides, some channel and some just “know“ things. It is brilliant and exhilarating to actually receive messages from the Divine! It is important to know the voice of your ego too, however, for your individual consciousness has a sneaky way of trying to jump in and steer that bus!
As any spiritual disciple knows, the first stumbling block on the journey to genuine connection is the individual consciousness or ego. In fact, it is probably the only real obstacle in our path. Many try to stamp out their egos, or deny them, in an attempt to make that connection clearer but the ego isn’t going anywhere! It is the part of us that oversees the day to day operations of our survival on the planet, part of the software that comes with the body. Its job is to identify with the things that will insure our success and survival. It defines itself by roles, gender, race, job, birth order, etc. It also evaluates its standing and rank in any environment in an effort to find the niche it can survive in best. In fact, when it retracts from its duties we find ourselves feeling lost and depressed.
One of the reasons there has been a resurgence of interest in the teachings of the indigenous is that our own “civilized” culture has become so out of balance. We have our noses stuck in our phones instead of meeting eye to eye. We take walks in Nature looking at our emails and social media networks instead of interacting with the plants and animals who live there. Unfortunately, the further we get from connecting in with the implicit spirituality in our environment, the easier it is to forget our actions have consequences and the more out of balance we become.
Central to the beliefs of all indigenous cultures is the concept that Nature contains within it a web of consciousness that connects all things. In the Mayan, Hopi and Navajo tribes the weaver of this web is Spider Woman. From her belly she spins threads of conscious thought and crystalizes them into form. Each form then holds within it the awareness of all creation and a connection to all things. The indigenous cultures therefor listen to the trees, the rocks and the wind for guidance. They also know they have the wisdom of Nature within them. “The bear am I” they say, “The canyon walls, the salmon, the stream am I.” Nature contains the wisdom of the whole within it. They know that the flap of butterfly wings today can become a hurricane tomorrow and when they are in right relationship with the butterfly, the storm subsides.