Are we at a so-called tipping point in Western society, waking up to a new stage in the evolution of human consciousness? This transformational shift brings new worldviews, new values and behaviours, and new ways of being in the world. We have often used the idea of a quaternity – heart, mind, body, spirit – in our work, and each stage of development transcends and includes all of them with a new spaciousness of perspective. We see more of reality and our place in it. We become more integrated, whole human beings.
Or are we actually moving backward in evolution to an earlier stage, one characterized by violence, degradation, inhumanity and greed? Our treatment of each other and our planetary home speaks to a darkness in us we see as an “Other”, something separate from ourselves we reject or ignore to maintain our self- image as a people, as a country, as superior or deserving. This is the “Discarded Other” at the global level, the quest of our collective Dark Night of the world journey.
What signs do you see of a new consciousness developing? What signs do you see of a regression in our consciousness?
The clues to both a positive and a negative future are in play. Paradox is a characteristic of deep change. As has happened at each developmental stage in human history, these evolutionary leaps in consciousness are always a double-sided blade – destruction and creation, death and rebirth. We are at a choice point where our leadership is critically necessary to a future that our great-grandchildren can enjoy.
Because the purpose of the Dark Night passage to develop our consciousness is not just so we can fulfill our individual destinies as human beings, but so that we have the spaciousness of perspective, the capacity to lead with the breadth and depth of understanding the world needs. The issues we face are global in nature; we are all in it together, and we need to act from the whole, rather than just the part we occupy.
We need to act now, from a place of wholeness and integration, from expanded consciousness. The journey to this expanded consciousness is through the Dark Night, the portal that opens us to the deep transformation and death of the ego that is the prerequisite for leading from and for the whole.
How would you characterize your journey to spirit? How do you see your role in leading from and for the whole?
For opportunities to develop your consciousness, visit Consciousness Offerings.