The Harmonic Convergence Revisited—Or, Why this Election Is Going to Be One Big F*&#ing Deal
by Lynn Woodland
Does anyone remember the Harmonic Convergence? Back in 1987? It was an unusual astrological pile-up that according to organizer, José Arguelles, was supposed to send a “vibrational signal” to our species to change in the direction of unity and peace. Just a flash-in-the-pan, fringe spiritual event with no lasting consequences, right? There isn’t much peace on earth to show for it.
The event, in and of itself, had some historical significance in that it was massive, and only the second time such a large, global event had been organized to direct consciousness toward the goal of unity (the first being the World Peace Meditation sponsored just months earlier by the Global Family, which became an important organizer for the Harmonic Convergence). Many famous people participated, including John Denver, Shirley MacLaine and Timothy Leary. Even Johnny Carson of the Tonight Show got his audience to chant OM for the event. Probably millions were touched in some way and nothing of this magnitude had ever happened before. Remember, this was before we were all connected by social media and the internet. It was a much bigger deal to organize something like that. But still… ushering in peace on earth? Come on!
As this event was based on an astrological happening, I decided to explore this question for myself by looking at it astrologically. In particular, I looked at the movement of the planet Saturn because, astrologically, Saturn is said to create time frames, stress points and structure. It takes roughly 29 years to transit 360 degrees, full circle, around the zodiac and if you look at the moment in time when something begins, be it a human life, an organization, or the birth of a new impulse toward unity, approximately every 7 years—the time it takes Saturn to move 90 degrees from where it was at the starting point—there will a testing or eventful marker of some sort. What’s strong will become stronger, what’s weak will be stressed, often to the point of breakdown.
So I dug out my ephemeris and tracked the progress of Saturn by precise 90 degree intervals. First I found this date: September 11, 2001, (at the 180 degree mark) the day the Towers fell in New York City—definitely a world-shaking event. I also found a late September date in 2008 (the 270 degree mark)—the time when Lehman Bros collapsed, starting a serious nose dive of the global economy. The loud and dire nature of these events certainly speaks to Saturn’s capacity to create stress and breakdown but do they have anything to do with unity consciousness? And what about the first 90 degree mark in 1995? Nothing as world-changing as the beginning of the war on terror or global economic disaster seemed to happen that year.
Or maybe it did, though there were reputable journalists of the era saying it would never amount to much. The years between 1987 and 1995 pretty closely bracketed the incubation phase of a world-changing phenomenon. 1987 marked the first year that the internet had significantly more users than the tiny, elite group it had prior to this time, and 1995 is when the internet was privatized and really took off in a huge way. So 1987-95 is the period of time when the internet as we know it was developed and launched for mass consumption.
Since then, the internet has played a huge role in evolving global consciousness. It has created infrastructures for new models of egalitarian power and given access to global interconnectedness to nearly everyone. This quietly growing infrastructure has so quickly become a daily necessity that it’s easy to lose perspective of its magnitude. As old infrastructures based on greed, fear and hierarchical power escalate to extremes with dire consequences that could destroy us, this amazing new infrastructure has been growing into a web of life that just might save us.
1995, 2001, 2008…. This brings us to… now. Saturn has now come precisely (to the exact degree) full circle around the zodiac from where it was on 8/17/87. Symbolically, a Saturn return is said to be a coming-of-age time when what’s weak falls apart, what’s strong solidifies, and there’s an opportunity to see the consequences of our choices coming fully to fruition. How does that translate to in the “growing up” of a vibrational impulse? Where have our choices since then led us?
Well, we’re seeing that waging war against terrorism has created more terrorists than ever before. So, the war on terror—maybe not a good choice. And, did you know that only 55% of the electorate voted in the 2012 election? And less than 40% in the 2014 midterms? Consequently, big money interests have been able to pour enough money into elections, especially in mid-term years, to easily swing them toward their preferred candidates. Heck, they only need to sway as little as 18% of low information, single issue voters with anti-abortion/gay rights/gun laws/immigration platforms. Then—oh no!—one day we wake up to find the children of an entire Midwestern city have been irreparably poisoned due to cost cutting. So… political apathy, maybe not a good choice either.
I could keep going with all of our not-so-good choices coming back to bite us, but we’re also seeing that the internet has profoundly shaped a whole generation who now takes for granted a high level of connectivity and easy access to decentralized, nonhierarchical, global communities. For the first time, a generation of tech-savvy young people are growing up to have more in common with their peers in other parts of the world than they do with older generations of their own culture.
The people born in the time frame since 1987 are showing an enormous proclivity for embracing principles of sharing, collaboration and egalitarianism, and are much less concerned about such differences as race, culture or gender orientation. Unlike the 1980’s when “young urban professionals” aspired to heights of conspicuous consumption, today’s youth aspire toward collaborative consumption, sharing economy, and sustainability—much of which is internet-enabled.
Might they be the most obvious manifestation of this unity impulse that’s come to change the direction of our species? Interestingly, it’s this millennial generation that is embracing the grumpy granddad of the presidential race. If this leaves you baffled, just take a look at this: http://together.vote/. It’s a real Harmonic Convergence moment.
So this most recent transit of Saturn made its touchdown in January of 2016 (coinciding with a dramatic stock market crash) and the effects of the transit will be felt all year due to the slow and retrograding motion of the planet. Then in mid-February, Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, the most senior and most conservative member of the Court, suddenly and unexpectedly died. Now, for the first time in decades the sharply polarized court is no longer a 5-4 conservative majority and Scalia’s replacement will have unprecedented power to reshape the law of our land in enormously consequential ways—a huge game-changer for years to come.
The Saturn return ends with one more exact pass over the precise degree in late October/early November of 2016. I wonder what will be happening then? Oh, yeah, the presidential election. Hang on to your hats. Something tells me that this year and this election are going to be a wild ride.
This is a pivotal moment. If we don’t wake up and learn to stand together now, the next seven to twenty-nine years are likely to be a lot rougher than the last. But on the other hand, if we get it, if we truly get it, without everyone over 29 having to die off first; if we realize how easy it is to simply show up together—even if it’s just to stay informed and vote every couple of years—maybe even aging baby boomers like me who remember the heady promise of the Harmonic Convergence, will live to see promise fulfilled.
About the author:
Lynn Woodland is an international teacher, author of Making Miracles: Create New Realities for Your Life and Our World, and creator of the online Miracles Course. Her particular expertise is in what gives rise to miracles and in teaching ordinary people to live extraordinary lives so that miracles become, not just possible, but natural. www.lynnwoodland.com.
The Tipping Point - Why it’s Important to Tune Back in to Politics
I’m a spiritual teacher, not a political nerd. I generally keep my politics separate from my spiritual teachings—until I see the two colliding so dramatically that I can’t help but comment. I’m also feeling compelled to speak out because of how many people in my spiritual circle, when asked their thoughts on political turns of events, respond that they don’t pay attention to politics. I understand it. For those of us intent on meditating into a peaceful state, politics is a rough and crude vibration. For those of us who have turned to spirituality as a balm for our heightened sensitivities to the world around us, politics can be the worst of allergens. And some of us have simply given up because we don’t see politics changing anything. For all of you who have tuned out of politics for one reason or another, THIS IS THE TIME TO TUNE BACK IN and here’s why.
People from radically different backgrounds and for different reasons seem to agree that something monumental is about to happen and perhaps is already happening. Many economists are predicting an extreme global economic crash this year—bigger than in 2008. Historian and political commentator, Thom Hartmann, wrote a whole book about this next year: The Crash of 2016, putting together the pieces of why this kind of crash is very possible. Storms, droughts, fires and other environmental incidents are growing more extreme and environmentalists are becoming increasingly dire in their predictions for the very near future.
But not all predictions are dire. Well-known economist and futurist, Jeremy Rifkin, speculates that the increasing availability of free stuff enabled by the internet is quickly leading to an era of nearly free goods and services that will eclipse capitalism, resulting in heightened quality of life for masses of people. (He explains in this fascinating talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5-iDUcETjvo.) Many metaphysical seers are calling this year a powerful turning point in humanity’s evolution, suggesting that we’ve collectively reached a tipping point where there are now enough of us aligned with a high vibration of love to tip the planet in a new, better direction.
We live in the midst of a paradigm change. The old order is made up of hierarchical power structures where small groups at the top control and often exploit everyone else. The emerging, new order is an egalitarian form of empowerment, made up of connected communities, both local and global, working cooperatively for the benefit of all. This is no futuristic utopian fantasy; it’s already happening in countless contexts as a result of the heightened connectivity afforded by the internet and the sheer numbers of us who are now connected.
Think, for example, of the huge amounts of information available to us through the internet. Organizing infrastructures such as Google and Wikipedia have put libraries full of knowledge literally in the palm of anyone with a smart phone. This instant access to information, that was impossible just short decades ago, is created by countless individuals contributing small bits of information into various organizing and delivery infrastructures.
There are now endless examples of this kind of resource sharing. It gutted established music and publishing industries as individuals became able to take their work directly to the public without any intermediary. Entrepreneur and best-selling author, Lisa Gansky, describes in her book, The Mesh—Why the Future of Business is Sharing, how cooperative resource-sharing is the hot new business model.
This is the emerging new order. It’s one where individuals are empowered beyond anything we’ve previously known through small efforts contributed by masses of us into an organizing infrastructure. It’s win/win; it’s easy; it’s the virtually limitless power of all of us together. Thomas W. Malone of MIT, established the Center for Collective Intelligence to study this new phenomenon suggesting that the “hive mind” of millions of people and millions of computers all connected to one another just might be able to, “act more intelligently than any individual, group, or computer has ever done before” and solve such collective problems as climate change. This new model of collective power is already replacing many hierarchical power structures that not so long ago seemed inevitable, and it’s already begun to change us.
This brings us to the upcoming election. In spite of many fast, heady changes coming via our quickly evolving technology, the old, hierarchical power structures are still alive and well—perhaps stronger than ever in a last-gasp struggle for control. We see it playing out with a vengeance in our political system.
Thanks to the Supreme Court ruling in 2010 (in the “Citizens United” case) corporations may now pour an unlimited amount of money into elections. This, combined with high public apathy and low voter turn-out, means elections can easily be bought by the highest bidder. With less than a 40% turnout, is it any wonder that in 2012 we saw a wave of ultraconservative Tea Party candidates elected who were heavily funded by billionaires? They vote for billionaire interests while speaking to the sensibilities of easily mobilized fringe groups: anti-gay, anti-brown, anti-immigrant, anti-abortion, etc. Many of these candidates were voted in by as little as 18 or 19% of eligible voters.
We are surely at a cusp where the bad is getting worse while the wave to rise above it is getting stronger, and this dynamic is clearly evident in the scramble toward the 2016 election. Perfectly representing the extreme of old-order power is Donald Trump, telling us that he will fix everything and will run the country as an effective CEO, just as he has run his companies. He claims not to be bought because he can fund himself—in other words, he is at the very top of the hierarchical power chain. Of course, a CEO is basically a dictator who requires obedience from all beneath him, and while efficiency is of the highest priority, the beneficiaries of this efficiency are the small leader class, not the large employee class.
Then there’s Ben Carson, with a quiet, hypnotic voice that make voter suppression laws sound reasonable because, as he puts it, voting should only be “done by the appropriate people.” He doesn’t rouse us or promise to take care of us; he just lulls us into lethargy and sleep.
On the Democratic side, one of the two front runners is Hillary Clinton who, though still significantly funded by old-order, big-business money, is promising to fight for many populist causes. As an experienced insider, she makes an excellent case for being the one best able to do battle with the old-order powers that have created political deadlock throughout Obama’s presidency. She is the seasoned, democratic pit bull ready to fight hard within a stagnant system for realistic results.
In contrast, Bernie Sanders refuses big industry money and is funded largely by small, individual donations and labor union support. More significantly, Sanders has made it clear that the power to change doesn’t reside in him—it’s in all of us together. In the first democratic debate, he was the only candidate who never once used the word “I” in his opening introduction. Even when speaking of his own campaign, he tends to say “we.” He is calling for a movement, a “revolution,” driven by everyone stepping up together.
Bernie Sanders isn’t a brash and entertaining reality TV star like Donald Trump, nor the handsome, charismatic “rock star” that Barack Obama was eight years ago. He’s not the polished and high-powered Hillary Clinton ready to break the gender barrier as our first woman president. He’s just another old, white guy. In fact, he’s known for being rumpled, curmudgeonly and none too charming. So what does he have that’s drawing the crowds, especially younger people?
Perhaps it’s that he’s speaking to something that has already collectively shifted within us, and is asking us to tap a power source that we’ve already begun to take for granted in other contexts: the power of all of us together. Maybe it’s because he’s offering a path so simple that it requires nothing more than large numbers of us making tiny contributions; or because his message—that we can accomplish any magnitude of change together—is the purest representation among the current presidential hopefuls of the new order. And because, unlike 2008, now we’ve reached the Tipping Point.
The revolution that Sanders describes doesn’t require a pit bull, a rock star, or an authoritarian TV personality telling us what to do. Neither does it require marching in the street. It doesn’t even ask us to fundamentally change our sensibilities to embrace a radically un-American socialist agenda (Sanders’ idea of democratic socialism isn’t much different from FDR’s). What’s more, the infrastructure for this revolution is already in place—it’s voting, and not just once for a president, then tuning out for another four years. It’s time to start paying attention, not to how bad everything is but to how open the possibilities are.
Trump, Carson, Clinton, Sanders. If we take the players out of the equation, these four might well represent the bigger choices for life we have in this Tipping Point era of monumental change. Some of us will surrender our power altogether in a Stockholm syndrome kind of attachment to the very structures that keep us entrapped. Some of us will sink into apathy and sleep. Some of us will fight, even though the odds seem overwhelmingly against us, because it’s better than giving up. Others of us will step into a new paradigm where change can happen quickly and without fighting, simply by showing up together.
We’re in unprecedented times environmentally, economically, technologically and spiritually. At this Tipping Point, change will come whether we’re ready for it or not. It will come with a crash while we’re sleeping, or one hard-fought crumb at a time. It will be wrenching if we try to cling to what used to be. But, just possibly, it will come with ease and grace as we all choose it together. And you? How will you move into the new order?
About the author:
Lynn Woodland is an international teacher, author of Making Miracles: Create New Realities for Your Life and Our World, and creator of the online Miracles Course. Her particular expertise is in what gives rise to miracles and in teaching ordinary people to live extraordinary lives so that miracles become, not just possible, but natural. www.lynnwoodland.com.
February: The Hidden Gifts of Love
Seasons of the Self by Lynn Woodland
In the wintry month of February we’re still in the season of hibernation, introspection and energy turned inward. While the candy-heart overlay of Valentine’s Day certainly is a cultural rather than seasonal phenomenon, it’s well-suited for late winter. After all, when the weather and still-short days drive us indoors, we tend to find ourselves in close quarters with our fellow humans. And when our attention turns within, there we are with our own hearts. Love and relatedness bloom, or we become acutely aware of their lack. Sadly, or fortunately, depending on your perspective, a scarcity of love is more a state of mind than of opportunity.
I became profoundly aware of the connection between love, healing, and attitude, as well as the incredible capacity for any two people to give and receive the gift of healing love, in my work with the attitudinal healing movement. In 1983 I started a Center for Attitudinal Healing, modeled after the original Center founded by Jerry Jampolsky, for people dealing with life-challenging illnesses. Rather than using professional counselors, we paired clients with volunteers who’d received training in how to listen compassionately, see everyone as a teacher, and define healing as a process of joining in love with others rather than fixing them. The healing that resulted between these volunteers and clients was miraculous and deeply moving.
Not only did these nonprofessionals seemed to know just the right thing to do or say when coming from a place of love, the traditional roles of helper and client quickly disappeared and the learning and healing flowed both ways.
That we are all students and teachers to one another is a foundation principle of the Attitudinal Healing movement and, in my experience, a fundamental truth. It’s one that doesn’t require the high intensity of catastrophic illness to manifest. It’s our true relationship to one another at all times, though we’re often blind to it. Everyone we encounter has something to offer us and the more we seek it out, the more we’ll find it. Believing in the goodness and wisdom of others helps to call it forth, even from those who didn’t know they had it to give.
But even if we appreciate this notion in theory, we may still go through life thinking only certain people have the love, support, approval, wisdom and gifts that we need and that others are unattractive, annoying, invisible, or have nothing we want. This is what makes life lonely.
To bridge the gap between theory and experience, here’s an imagination game I occasionally do in my classes. Imagination is the doorway into intuition, so what starts out as something we’re just “making up” can sometimes evolve into profound truth. Whether you believe you’re in some way transcending time, distance, and separateness to connect with the highest wisdom of another, or simply connecting with a wiser part of yourself, you may find unexpected insight through this exercise and it can’t help but change how you look at people which, in turn, has a way of changing what happens between you.
Begin by bringing to mind someone whom you think of as a wise teacher. This could be a person you know or someone you only know through their work, such as an author, world leader or historical figure. It could be someone either living or dead.
Now, picture the person in your mind’s eye and take a moment to simply open your heart. Imagine you’re sending an outpouring of gratitude for all that you admire and appreciate in this individual. The power of love is well documented. It keeps us healthy; it empowers our prayers; it’s a gift that, when given unconditionally, is always received, even when it’s not registered consciously. Imagine that your love is awakening and calling forth the best in this person.
Many philosophers and cutting edge scientists have speculated that all minds are part of one consciousness. So, even though you’re not physically present with this individual and may never be, imagine there is, none the less, a reality where all minds meet. Picture yourself visiting with your teacher and imagine that a real meeting is taking place in this realm of pure consciousness. Your mentor may speak to you, or show you something, or simply radiate love and healing.
You might imagine yourself in the role of your teacher, seeing yourself from this other’s view. In this role, speak to yourself. Offer wisdom, healing and whatever gifts are most needed. If you have a request for specific assistance or a question, ask for these and allow the teacher to respond.
But this isn’t the end of this exercise. While it’s easy to imagine a favorite mentor as having the gifts we most need, the truth is that everyone is a being of profound complexity, wisdom, and depth with gifts to give. That includes our friends, family, coworkers, complete strangers, even the people who thoroughly annoy us. So, bring to mind now your most intimate peer relationship. This could be a spouse or romantic partner, or it could be a close friend. Repeat the previous exercise, this time letting your intimate peer come to you. See past the person you’ve become so familiar with to perceive the rich, complex being that includes but isn’t limited to the personality you know. Imagine this individual as having facets you’ve never seen, and wisdom and love you’ve never experienced. See what new gifts this person has to give you when you open your mind and heart to them.
Now that you’re warmed up, do this exercise one more time-this time with the last person you’d ever imagine as having “gifts” for you. Just as with your mentor and peer, imagine this being has important wisdom, guidance, healing and love for you. And just as you did with the other two, let yourself open to receive it. Bring to mind the most important question of your life, perhaps one you posed to your mentor. Imagine that the higher mind of this person has something significant to contribute to this matter; something you would have missed had you not opened yourself to it. See what it is and don’t be surprised to receive an unexpectedly different view with a new perspective worth considering. End by thanking this person for their gifts.
If you do these exercises deeply, you may see changes in how people relate to you. You may never be able to look at people quite the same way again and, before you know it, you might even notice your world has become a lot less lonely.
Lynn Woodland is author of Making Miracles-Create New Realities for Your Life and Our World, from Namaste Publishing and creator of The Miracles Course, an online coaching program for living a miraculous life. Lynn welcomes your comments: [email protected].
More on her work at www.LynnWoodland.com
January: A Time of Symbolic Renewal
The Seasons of Self by Lynn Woodland
The rebirth of light that comes at the winter solstice heralds the beginning of a new year. It’s a doorway of sorts into a new cycle of life-a fresh start, like a new fallen snow where, briefly, everything seems clean and unmarked. The renewal we feel in this deep, dark season of winter is an inward one. Unlike the rebirth of springtime that propels us out of doors, the garden we’re growing now is an internal one. We all sense this on some level, explaining the collective flurry toward self-improvement as we make New Year’s resolutions, join gyms, and renew our intentions to quit bad habits.
Each New Year offers a symbolic door of opportunity. Symbolic because nothing outwardly has changed. Just as a fresh snowfall doesn’t really clean what’s underneath it, the New Year hasn’t changed anything but our minds. Yet it’s this very shift in perception that creates the opening for personal transformation. So, in keeping with this season of inner change, here’s a self-improvement exercise that looks within to find the direction of our highest growth.
Before going any further, put yourself in a relaxed, quiet frame of mind with some deep, slow breaths. Read the next section carefully, with your imagination awake because you are about to meet the symbolic “door of opportunity” that this New Year holds for you:
Let your awareness be soft and open. Imagine how it feels to shift your vision from focused attention on a small detail to a broad focus that takes in a whole landscape at once and let your mind relax open in this same way….
Now, allow to come to mind the image of a door. Close your eyes for a moment before reading further and let this image appear. See what pops into mind first and simply notice everything you can about it….
Imagine that this door is calling you to do something with it. You’ll know what to do because it will feel natural; it will be what you most want to do. You may want to open the door to let something or someone in. Or you may feel drawn to walk through it. If so, what do you see yourself stepping into and what do you see yourself leaving? You may want to close the door to put something behind you or to protect what’s inside. Take a moment to simply let your imagination explore the scene, the door and your relationship to it….
Doors are potent symbols of transformation. Rich in metaphorical meaning, doors can open to let in some fresh, new element, or they can offer a threshold to cross, compelling us to take a step, to act or to move into a new realm. And sometimes they need to be closed, putting an end to a chapter of life, creating closure, or to preserve warmth and protect our inner sanctum.
Opening to let something in, closing to put something behind us, closing in cocoon-like, and taking the step that begins a new journey are universal aspects of growth that we all go through at different times.
Consider that the door you just imagined is offering you a personal metaphor full of meaning and information as to how you can move more consciously with the current of your growth at this time. Here are some questions to help you get started in understanding its relevance for you.
If your door was opening to let something in, ask yourself, how are you becoming or needing to become more open? Do you need to relax personal defenses, trust more, and let people in? Did your door let in light and a breath of fresh air, urging you to open your mind? Do you need to consider a fresh perspective and be less stuck in familiar ways of thinking?
If you felt called to walk through the door in your visualization, how are you currently moving from one state to another in your life? Is it time to take action, summons courage, move into the unfamiliar, be bold, or come out of hiding? Is there an initiation of sorts calling you to step out of the small confines of who you have been to become something more? Is it time to come out of your comfort zone?
If your door was closing, what were you closing it on or closing out? Is there something in your life experience that you’re ready to let go and leave behind? Is it time to put the past behind you? What endings do you need to attend to in order to move into the next phase of life free of unfinished business? Or, if your door was closing something in, are there ways you need to create stronger boundaries in your life? Do you need to say “no” more often? Do you need to pull in, conserve energy and be in a cocooning phase to let something incubate internally? Do you need solitude? Or do you simply need to exercise control over whom you let into your inner sanctum?
Let the imagery of your door suggest an action that is an appropriate stretch in the direction of your growth. It could mean inviting someone in: perhaps literally by having an unaccustomed dinner party or figuratively by taking an emotional risk to let someone into your heart. It could mean taking some bold action to come out of hiding, get moving, or transition to a new realm. It might involve setting limits, conserving energy, or taking time for yourself.
Doors are everywhere and we open, close and move through them many times a day. As you perform the mundane, physical act of going through doors, hold in mind the metaphor of your inner door. If your door was letting in fresh air, stand at the doorway for a moment before leaving your home and invite new energy into your life. If you were boldly walking through your door, imagine taking a powerful step into a new realm as you walk across thresholds. Or, give extra attention when you close your door and bring to mind all you are putting behind you or protecting. Let the physical experience of doors this week be a constant reminder and affirmation of the inner growth you have set in motion.
Lynn Woodland is author of Making Miracles-Create New Realities for Your Life and Our World, from Namaste Publishing and creator of The Miracles Course, an online coaching program for living a miraculous life. Lynn welcomes your comments: [email protected].
More on her work at www.LynnWoodland.com