The world is slowing down. I can almost hear her exhale in relief looking for a place to relax after making circles around herself for intensifying decades; accommodating world wars; feeding a growing number of people, enduring pollution and abuse; warming up in the process.
Mother earth gives what she has to give, as mothers do. She supports her children with every step they take en donates her resources unconditionally to every lifeform that is born in her lap.
From an evolutionary point of view; we live in interesting times. Only recently did we step out of a time period known as the Kali Yuga.
- The Kali Yuga started around 3100 BC during an extraordinary constellation of planets. According Rudolf Steiner it ended in 1899. Other sources say 2012 or 2020 is the end date and still others believe the end is yet to come in the next one hundred years.
During the Kali Yuga humanity developed a peculiar habit known as ‘money making’. Basically it implied that rather than to share the earth resources, – like we used to do in our Hunter and Gatherer days- , people started to sell things to each other. A side effect of this development was that people who were too late investing in ‘making money ‘ had to pay with their overall wellbeing, as they became subordinates to the people with money. The ‘rich’ on the other hand started fighting amongst each other over material wealth; drifting away from their spiritual roots and sense of purpose. Money became a goal, rather than a means and natural resources that were once available to all earthlings, became exclusive to a small group to ‘earn’ money on.
One would expect people to get their wits back after 1899, when Kali Yuga ended. Time periods however work like tides; tsunami even. At first they seem to withdraw but then swell up, overstepping natural boundaries one more time, overwhelming humanity while excluding nobody, rich nor poor. The aftermath of an enormous contraction; the effects lingering a while longer. Those ‘lingerings-on’ are the times we live in now. We’ve only just come out the overwhelming experience of 5000 years of making money while our minds lost their natural connection with spirituality and disappeared in religious institutions dictating people what to believe.
- As we are right in the middle of this tsunami it is still hard for most people to see the new age coming. Yet there are those already seeking strange new worlds, new life and new ways of civilization. They boldly go where no one has gone before
Those who want to cling to how it used to be, put in one last effort to keep change at bay and start to hoard even more of the matter that used to define their standard of living, hanging on to the old ways of life; unaware that times are changing and new ways of living are opening up.
Now it is up to humanity to break the spell of illusionary wealth created by marketeers, advertising campaigns and politics. It is time to be thankful for the opportunities the world is offering, rather than to abuse her. To dismantle the decadence that grew into our systems like cancer. To stop over- consuming and to only buy what we need and is good for us. To ban the over-the-top cruises polluting the seas; throwing tons of perfectly good food overboard; killing off with their propellers the big whales who follow in pursuit. Time for supermarkets to stop and ‘give away’ stupid plastic trinkets of collectables that only serve the markets to earn more. It’s the consumer who pays for them.
Elsewhere in the world, the storyboard tells of people – many of them children and young adults – who after generations of poverty still lack the funds to build a life without having to depend on charity. Humanity owes them a future. The word charity should be superfluous. It should be normal for everyone to have a normal life; to eat what is needed for nourishment; to wear what is needed to properly dress oneself. ‘High heels, caviar and expensive cars are sóóó Kali Yuga.
Mother Earth, after millions of years of evolution, still has a long way to go with her children. We probably did better in our Hunter and Gatherer days when we were living in tribes. As packs in nature, we might have had the occasional dispute amongst each other, but we at least understood the Art of Sharing and Surviving Together.
For one to do well; all need to do well.
The chance of change has come. We can simply grasp it by taking responsibility over our own lives within the margins of our own ethics; leaving the greedy, matter-oriented politicians, multinationals and those rich and famous who go for appearances and want things exclusively for themselves, to figure out how they are going to live without the power they used to hold. Those who fail to understand this planet is for all of us, miss the point entirely. It is time for further (r)evolution; time to break the spell; to toss the ring into mount doom; it is time to unwind, along with the world.
And in a hundred years from now, in the year 2120, it will be commemorated how the year 2020 went down in history as the year in which people became aware
- how ‘not done’ it is to go on ‘all inclusive’ holidays, while the people cleaning the hotels hardly earn enough to get around. .
- how ‘not done’ it is to book a way too cheap flight to conquer a spot at the hotel swimming pool, while the emission of CO2 should be drastically reduced.
- how ‘not done’ it is to have children play computergames in which they have to eliminate others.
In the year 2120 people will state the year 2020 was the year people started to realize
- they were living in a maddened world, governed by material blindness.
- there was more to live for than buying matter that had been bought many times before in a slightly different version
- how ‘not done’ it was to watch violent television series, together with millions of other people or to watch programs showing people being evicted from their homes or having to outrun creditors.
In a 100 years from now…when the tsunami of the Kali Yuga has finally withdrawn.
Ingrid Schippers
The Hague, March 20- 2020
Click “The World” card to read more on its meaning
