This is the thirty-fifth issue of my free newsletter. Your feedback is most welcome!
Dear reader,
If you have the opportunity, please see cosmologist Brian Swimme’s latest DVD series, “Powers of the Universe.” With no audiovisual aids and only occasional glances at his notes, Swimme gives the most eloquent and compelling view of humans’ role on the planet that I have ever heard. I will just offer a brief glimpse of the series in this and next month’s newsletter. Thanks to the Earth Team at the Jubilee Community in Asheville, I’ve been privileged to watch these DVDs with a supportive group in which we create ritual and discuss what we have seen each week for eleven weeks.
Swimme sets out to reveal the ways in which the qualities of the universe are present in all earth’s manifestations, including us humans. Swimme asks, “How does each power express itself in our psyches, emotions, achievements, losses? How can we become a space where the powers can operate through conscious self-awareness? ... How can we consciously amplify this process that is already taking place?”
Swimme points out that we are living on “a withering planet” and that a new form of humanity must emerge, now that our current industrial form of civilization is coming to a close. “Our new identity is in terms of the planet as a whole, of Earth… We are a primary mode of Earth. All other modes—Muslim, Republican, lawyer—are secondary… We are the way the Universe proceeds in conscious self-awareness… We are going to the powers of the Universe itself, to the processes that gave birth to us, for guidance.”
The powers of the universe which Swimme so beautifully describes are:
Seamlessness
Centration
Allurement
Emergence
Homeostasis
Cataclysm
Synergy
Transmutation
Transformation
Interrelatedness
Radiance
Seamlessness: Swimme contends that the universe is 99.99% empty space, or generativity, possibility, and that therefore, this is also true of humans. He believes that humans’ role is to enable the powers of the universe to enter a new form. We need to remove the obstacles to our thinking imposed by modern industrial consciousness, which he describes as the “box universe.” Thinking outside the box means allowing the natural powers to move through us, allowing nature to draw us into contact with her rhythms, the ocean, the birds. With centration, we can experience confidence rooted in ancient energies, freedom from conformity, joy of being a cause rather than just an effect, and an experience of deep union, love and connection.
Allurement: Like atoms, we respond to the forces of attraction and allurement. Chlorophyll lights up with the sun’s energy, creating an intimate dance between the earth and the sun. In our natural state, we have an erotic relationship with the natural world, but that is destroyed by the industrial society, which reduces everything to a “resource” for us to use. “There is no eros in plywood,” says Swimme. And we even commodify sex with humans, in order to control it. If we enable allurement to unfurl in conscious self-awareness, we can become the place where the universe houses sexual attraction. We simply need to allow allurement to burst forth. There is a thin veneer of civilization over the old, wild energy. We can enter a deep adoration which opens us so that our Beloved begins to shape us; we can be molded by what we love, whether it is a human, a river, a tree, or a bird. We are tender and easily wounded, so we put up membranes to protect ourselves. However, these membranes can break down with the intense desire to merge and commune with the Beloved. In deep empathy, we know that we are the cause of another’s joy and that they are the cause of our joy.
To illustrate what a fecund part of the universe we live in, Swimme gave the example of the Large Magellanic Cloud, which is next to the Milky Way. The Magellanic Cloud had stopped making stars altogether, but after it had an encounter with the Milky Way, it started making stars again!
Emergence: Thirteen billion years ago was the flaring forth, the emergence of the universe. The Cenozoic era is ending now, due to human activity, and the Ecozoic era is birthing. Humans have become a geological force. Now we are called upon to reinvent our forms of energy acquisition, agriculture, economics, education, architecture, religion, every aspect of our culture.
Swimme describes moments of emergence in the universe’s history:
1) Carbon was formed as stars imploded, fusing helium into carbon at millions of degrees of heat. “In extreme states of heart and mind there are possibilities for emergence.”
2) Our planet Earth emerged, not frozen like Mars or gaseous like Jupiter, but supportive of life.
3) After some 10 million years of confusion and ambiguity, when oxygen was posing a major threat to life, eukaryotes appeared, which found a way to use oxygen. “Intensity leads to creativity to resolve the tension,” says Swimme, noting that this amazing creativity exists “even without the help of brains, or hands.”
How can emergence show up in the human? We can align with the creative power of the universe, assist and amplify and accelerate the creative process. Swimme offers four suggestions:
- Begin with the assumption that creativity engulfs the universe and each of us, and enhance that creativity.
- Forget about pleasing everyone; the earth loves chaos! Upset the established order!
- For emergence, order must be destroyed, so disturb the centers of power. The universe has always supported the forces working for vibrant life and a mutually enhancing community.
- Cherish your restlessness and dissatisfaction, which help you work for the new era.
“The highest degree of tension that can be creatively borne” is the ideal for humans. Co-creation with others and with the universe will stretch us into our fullest potential.
Homeostasis is what keeps our blood pH in the range of 7.35 – 7.45. Our DNA has carried that information for eons. The universe maintains and protects that which enables life to bloom. In a kelp forest, there is a balance of sea otters, sea urchins, and kelp. If there are too few sea otters, the sea urchins will proliferate, and the system will move out of balance, only to self-correct at a later time when the sea urchins die off from lack of food supply.
For 4 billion years, the sun has been getting hotter, yet Earth’s temperature remains approximately the same, in a zone where life can flourish, just like a mammalian body exposed to extremes of heat and cold, yet maintaining a fairly constant internal temperature.
On the cosmic level, there are an average of 10,000 supernova explosions per million years. Sometimes there are only 8,000 and sometimes there are 12,000.
Swimme asks, “Why isn’t homeostasis working?” As we watch the withering of our planet, he reminds us that we as a species are trying to maintain and preserve a sub-unit (humans) rather than the earth as a whole. Protecting the U.S. standard of living at all costs does not allow for homeostasis to work for the whole system. Whenever we identify with a sub-system, it is an illusion, whether it’s racism, sexism, or anthropocentrism. Instead of seeing humans as separate from the Earth community, we must see that the Earth matrix is primary and humans are derivative. An Earth-based rather than human-based understanding is necessary. All creatures, all natural entities must be seen as having the right to be. Water has the right to be in its natural state. Let the police and military protect bioregions! As in a human body, all components must be healthy in order for any one organ to be healthy.
We must tell the story of our origin, to keep the larger picture in mind, Swimme exhorts. We are in denial of the fragility of the planet, and prefer to hear assurances that everything is okay. Mass extinctions of other species create the condition for mass extinction of humans.
Next month: the powers of Cataclysm, Synergy, Transmutation, Transformation, Inter-relatedness, and Radiance.
May we be blessed with an awakening into our full identity!
Cathy Holt
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