Karmic Knowledge

One of my favorite blogs on astrology is Aquarius Papers. In a recent post titled “Autumn and Winter 2006-2007 —We Live In Times of Dynamic Change”, Robert Wilkinson writes:

I reminded a client today that ultimately we need to be preparing for things to come, since much that we take for granted today will not be so a dozen years from now.

He goes on to say that the changes will happen whether we like them or not and suggests that we need to learn to “think in the future.” Well said, Robert!

In my own research into the changes that are coming, I’ve seen a future that doesn’t follow our current model of progress. When I mentioned some of the upcoming possibilities to my friend Candice, her reaction was, “That won’t be very convenient.”

As Pluto moves into Capricorn in late 2008 to remain there until 2024, we will be asked to replace “convenient” with “responsible.” So many of the conveniences we’ve come to rely on are, as Mr. Wilkinson so wisely points out, unsustainable. There are obvious ones that come to mind, like gas guzzling vehicles and gadgets galore that put an ever increasing strain on the electrical grid.

There there are those that are less obvious. Think about the recent problem with e-coli tainted spinach. This was not an isolated incident of carelessness. This is a real danger that can happen again, a by-product of industrialized agricultural practices, a modern convenience that we take for granted, that we think of as normal. Often, when problems like this are brought to the public’s attention, the resulting solution is not one of changing the practice, but of throwing more modern technology at it.

The NY Times this week reported that, a few years back, e-coli from cattle feces found its way into hamburger. Instead of cleaning up the source, meat processors “nuked” the meat to kill the bacteria. Still hungry for that burger?

There are other by-products from our modern conveniences that have been proven to make people sick, yet no steps have been taken to change this, nor have any serious warnings about these ill effects been issued. Common Dreams News Center carried an article originally published by the Independent UK, warning of the dangers of the electrical fields emitted by mobile phones, microwave ovens and even your hair dryer. The report stated:

The International Agency for Research on Cancer - part of the WHO and the leading international organisation on the disease - classes the smog as a “possible human carcinogen”. And Professor David Carpenter, dean of the School of Public Health at the State University of New York, told The Independent on Sunday last week that it was likely to cause up to 30 per cent of all childhood cancers. A report by the California Health Department concludes that it is also likely to cause adult leukaemia, brain cancers and possibly breast cancer and could be responsible for a 10th of all miscarriages.

These so-called conveniences, in many cases, are not convenient at all. A few weeks back I went to Office Max to get some supplies. The checkout line was long, not because the store was crowded, but because the credit card terminal was not working properly. Unless one was paying cash, the checkout process required 4 extra steps to force the machine to accept the payment. At the end of my transaction, the flustered cashier apologized for the delay. “That’s okay,” I told her. “This is the future we’ve been waiting for since we were children.”

When I think of the problems that plague our modern conveniences I am reminded of a book I read about a dozen years ago called In the Absence of the Sacred. Author Jerry Mander wrote that technology is not inherently good or even just plain neutral. He argued that we need to have real debate about the economic, social and environmental costs of any technology before it is adopted. He made the case that only one segment of society is currently making the decisions on whether a technology should be adopted, and that segment is the corporate one. He wrote that in 1992 and it has only gotten worse as the criteria for adoption has narrowed to one factor, the bottom line.

Last week, Ken at Prospero’s Books pointed to an interview with David Abram, author of The Spell of the Sensuous. In the interview, Abram points out that, culturally, westerners have lost their relationship with their senses, that we spend all of our time in our heads. We depend on our computers and gadgets to guide us. With a GPS system in every car, we no longer need to know how to navigate by the stars. With the answer to every question posted on the internet, we no longer have to rely on our own wits.

I was talking with a wise friend and a fellow healer recently about how, when we were growing up, we were taught not to eat berries off of bushes, and god(dess) forbid, don’t eat a mushroom that you picked yourself – you might die on the spot. Food was only safe if it came in little plastic wrapped packages at the A&P.

Luckily some of us have gotten over those beliefs. A week ago my husband headed out to Mount Hood and came home with 4 pounds of wild chanterelles. On the way back home, he stopped in our suburban Portland neighborhood and picked figs, chestnuts, walnuts and apples.

I believe that one of the changes we will be asked to make in the near future is in the way we grow and gather our food. When we visited my aunt in upper, upstate New York, she pointed to the “Salad Train,” a literal train that brings their produce across the country from California. Apparently this is how much of the US gets its food.

While I love being able to buy olive oil from Italy and lobster from Maine and chocolate from Belgium, I think we are going to have to depend more on locally available products. Here in the Pacific Northwest we are blessed by the local bounty and an already burgeoning movement to buy locally grown foods.

My husband and I have gone on wild food walks, together and separately. I feel confident that, if something were to prevent the delivery of food to our local supermarket, that we know enough to survive, at least for a while, on what we can forage very close to home.

I’ve also taken classes in making medicines from plants, and while I’m not a pro, I can brew up a mean cough syrup and turn a few roots into tincture. As more and more organisms become resistant to our modern medicines, a movement is already in place to return to ancient and traditional treatments. Wired News reported recently on a group of physicians who are using honey to treat infections and wounds. Like the research on the dangers of EMFs, this is mostly taking place outside the US, but I expect that, as the havoc created by over-administration of antibiotics reaches crisis level, there will be a clamoring for more alternative therapies.

Of late I’ve had this very strong desire to get my hands on an old fashioned foot pedal driven sewing machine, one that doesn’t use electricity. I can’t tell you where that desire is coming from, only that it is compelling. I believe that in the not too distant future, we will be forced to be discriminating in how we use our daily power rations.

My husband and I have also been re-learning how to identify the stars and constellations.

Even if these skills turn out to be less than useful in the future, which somehow I doubt, the simple rewards of the sensual connection back to the earth below us and the cosmos above us are more than enough. We are reminded to be more in touch with each other, with our bodies, with our hearts.

In his article on the coming changes, Robert Wilkinson tells us:

Open to your future! You are on a journey. Where are you going? You can choose what that looks like, and how it will unfold, through using your gift of imagination.

My third eye viewer tells me that the future has a lot in common with the simpler, saner past.

Mr. Wilkinson concludes by saying:

As we move through these irrational and uncertain times, if we keep our hearts and minds open to the magic of magnetic attraction, we will find our community and learn a better way to live on this Earth in the future, long after the current mess passes away into the sands of time.

I repeat, well said.

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