by Kate deLaGrange
Most indigenous cultures use sayings that express the indivisible nature of All. The Sanskrit Namaste greeting means “The Divine in me bows to the Divine in you.” In Lak’ech is Yucatecan Mayan for “I am another yourself,” and applies to all living beings, much like the Lakota Mitakuye-Oyasin or “All my relations.” This reflects an ancient knowing that all creation is the sacred play of Source, that we are, really, all the same being.
The mystic poet Rumi hinted at this in almost every poem he wrote and referred to I and Thou and the deep joy that comes from remembering and recognizing this. He laughed at the great cosmic joke that separation is even a thing, that we are not all part of the glorious One. He also spoke of the sorrow and longing that happens when we forget this and fall into thinking we are individuals, alone in creation.
It is our tendency as modern humans to view everything outside ourselves as “other.” We pretend there is no interdependency, no system of life woven to contain us all, and that we have to look out for #1. This causes us to see the other as an object, something we either use or experience. This is blatantly apparent in certain views where natural resources are consumed without limits, where human lives are dispensable, where divisions between “Us” and “Them” mean the other side is an enemy to be destroyed, and where many times the “Other” is Nature herself.
There is a way, though, to relate to Life where we do not separate from the other, where there are no discrete boundaries, where we behave (as author Machaelle Small Wright writes) “as if the God in all Life matters.” And it begins with how we choose to relate to “other.”
In January, Psychic Horizons’s Take Action group is sponsoring a 4-week class on Spirit of Activism to teach tools, skills and clear our space for relating, communicating, behaving and making decisions in a way that includes All in a supportive and non-aggressive way.
We’ll clear out the energy of the dominator paradigm that has shaped western civilization, learn about “power with” and explore a working view of Holism for the planet. Whether you want to be on the front lines of taking action toward balancing the world or prefer to work quietly behind the scenes, this paradigm-changing class is for you. Tuesday evenings, 7 to 9 PM, January 7 – 28. Open to everyone. $150. Taught by Kate deLaGrange. In person or on the phone.
