Page 51 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - October / November 2018

New Stories Of Our Souls 51

The New Stories of Our catalyze new responses to our predicament. narratives, which can be freely “woven
Elgin reports that when he asks people together.” This may be a great hero’s journey,
Souls how they perceive the future, the answers are whereby humanity learns to trust the power of

telling. “Many people say, ‘We are going to hit love and chooses to evolve consciously. Perhaps
Continued from Page 49
the wall,’” he says. “People have a very it is a great reconciliation, in which the
diminished, impoverished, and frightening view hypermasculine modern world learns to
STORIES OF TRANSITION
of our common future. As a consequence many appreciate the divine feminine and integrate
people pull back in denial, living in the present indigenous wisdom. Maybe we are awakening
The modern narrative has failed us. We and ignoring the future. And if they are not in from a false dream of a dead world and
are not just separate egos competing in a denial, they are often in despair.” reconnecting with the living universe. Maybe
meaningless materialistic world for dominance, Two stories come from these responses. our travails express a great healing crisis. Maybe
in societies that must grow or die. The
One is, “It is not happening,” which allows us to humanity is coming together as an emergent
postmodern narrative too has failed. If we
go on living as we are. The other is, “It is superorganism with a new kind of wisdom and
embrace our feelings and all creatures and other
happening and there is nothing we can do about intelligence. (And perhaps our story is that we
victims of the system, rejecting all “grand
it,” which ends up leading to the same thing – are “waking up from all stories” into unmediated
metanarratives,” we find ourselves lost in the
inaction – as well as depression. Although the wisdom that can even begin to organize our life.)
aperspectival madness of a post-truth world.
collapsing and rebuilding of civilizations has Clear and resonant stories enable us to
There is an integral narrative of cosmic, happened throughout human history, the world understand who and where we are and what we
biological, cultural and personal evolution, and is now one integrated system (geologically and are doing, so we can respond effectively to our
it opens up a space in which many stories can sociologically) – so we will rise or fall together, current challenges. We can contemplate them
reveal new levels of meaning and purpose.
depending on how we respond. and be inspired. They are not mutually exclusive
A single coherent narrative can return,
“We need a story that will take all of us – in a way, each is a metaphor for the others.
one that engages our imagination far more than
to a more promising future together,” says Elgin. Imagine how remarkably different our
the mere ascent of a staircase. The story of the
“But what kind of story is that?” experience would be if these great transition
unfolding and complexification and awakening
Elgin argues that the climate crisis is not stories became the working metaphors for global
of spirit in matter is beautiful, inspiring, and
such a story. The crisis itself needs to be culture – and we followed up by enacting them.
capacious; there is room in it for many stories. contextualized and placed within a story to give Sinking deep into yourself, do you see a
And we are each living out a particular story. We us human beings a way to coordinate and cohere trajectory for your life in any of these stories of
show up most fully in our lives by inhabiting an our imagination and energy. “The climate crisis transition? What powers and capacities are
identity on a journey, so that our way of being is
is fundamentally a communications crisis,” he called into being? In what ways do these roles
organized by metaphors, archetypes, and stories.
says. “We are not going to handle climate require you to practice and evolve? Maybe your
When we fall in love, a sense of joy pervades the
change and the crises that it represents unless we heart says, “The world is in trouble and I feel
being and our attention and interest are
begin to communicate it more effectively. I think called to rise heroically to defend Gaia.” How
magnetized to our beloved. Although we could
for this reason a story is helpful.” Elgin offers can that guide and shape your choices and
do practices to cultivate love and hope and
several overarching narratives that can hold the behavior and capacities to enact that heroic
positive expectations, it is simpler and more reality of climate change and the other, archetype? By inhabiting a narrative, our beliefs,
intuitive to simply arrive in an actual love story, interlocking tensions and crises I have been behaviors, and speech become coherent. The
inhabiting the powerful archetype of the lover. speaking about: fragmented parts are made coherent by the story,
We can fall in love with all existence, with Mary,
Humanity is growing up. We are in our and we also invoke subtle energies and graceful
with Shiva, with our own Buddha nature, or with
adolescence as a human family. We are synchronicities. The laws of the subtle realm are
another embodied human being, but it is a real
rebellious and reckless, our thinking is short- implicit in the structure of mythic and archetypal
love story, regardless. Metaphors are an
term, our appetites large, and our behavior narratives. If you are at first uncomfortable with
empowering shorthand that organizes our
impulsive. All of us adults remember how the “irrational” nature of this principle, think of
attention and neurology and intention.
difficult this passage was in our own lives – it is living a narrative that is congruent with your
Joseph Campbell and other neo-Jungians an initiation that most of us end up figuring out being and the reality around you, one that can
have mapped many great archetypal stories that ourselves because our culture doesn’t provide us empower your participation in life.
human beings have tended to enact: the hero’s with any guidance as we make this passage from
journey, the divine romance, the death and
child to adult. Imagine, then, our entire species THE POWER OF ARCHETYPES
rebirth cycle, the coming-of-age ritual – and on
of 7.5 billion people trying to make this rite of
and on. Meanwhile we are all waking up to the
passage with no guidance. A single metaphor or archetypal story
fact that we are on a journey together – and that
The global brain is waking up. More can much more efficiently and powerfully uplift
it is time for the human species to undergo rapid
than three billion people have internet access our state and our effectiveness than a series of
transformation. So our soul’s archetypal story
today, and within the next few years five billion disconnected daily practices can. All practices,
involves participation in the archetypal meta- will have access. This gives us an extraordinary however powerful, have new meaning and
crisis we are collectively encountering – which capacity to communicate. It is a remarkable
calls for our humility, maturity, and heroism. coincidence that, just as we are in this transition, coherence when enacted as expressions of an
archetypal story. Realizing, for example, that
How can we make sense of this crisis?
we are developing new ways to communicate, to this whole world is my Beloved transforms how
What is our real story? Certainly, the entire
develop collective understanding, and to share I move through my day. Whatever is before me
cosmos is one unfolding evolutionary story. But
human consciousness. This is new in human is God! In these times of challenge, that
its drama contains plot twists – moments of
history. The entire world is being woven metaphor can take us deep, through layers of
extinction, birth, and transformation. Stars and
together into this communicative web. What can defense, doubt, and compensation into a
dinosaurs have gone extinct, as have 99 percent
happen if this “global brain” becomes more fundamental trust in life that can withstand an
of the species in our planetary history, as have conscious and even self-aware? environment of confusion and chaos. Metaphor
whole ecosystems millions of years in the This is a time of planetary birth. Like a is how we are structured. Story is how we are
making. Meanwhile, there have been
woman’s labor pains, this process is painful, built. Archetypal stories make sense to us
extraordinary times in which many new
frightening, difficult, and unpredictable. neurologically.
creatures have developed. So, how would we
Amazingly, on the other side of that pain and
describe our present moment, taking into
contraction is new life! What we are seeing now (Continued on Page 52)
account all levels of physiology, purpose, and
is the labor pains of a new species civilization
commitment?
getting born. How can we help this birth process
Futurist Duane Elgin has observed that The New Voice Of REALITY And Truth
along? How can we hold the intention and “live
social and cultural transformation will depend into” the new life world that is coming? Exposing The Frauds and Scams
on the stories that we believe and inhabit – The Great Transition Story project has Rob McConnell - The Reality Knight
stories that can either keep us paralyzed, or www.xzoneradiotv.com
imagined more than a dozen other positive