Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.

 

The Center Cannot Hold

The important line to catch in the poem above, The Second Coming by William Butler Yeats is the line “Things fall apart, the centre cannot hold”.This is important because as we look around the world we do see that the center is not holding and a major transformation is on its way.

We see this in the protests against governments all over the world. They are occurring in South America, The Middle East, Asia, Africa, Europe and I’m betting soon here in the United States.

Undergoing The Biggest Transformation in History

We are living in the biggest transformational age in the history of humanity. Not only are governments quaking before the protests of their people, but Climate Change is hovering over us like an enormous tsunami ready at any moment to crash down and destroy everything we have ever known or held dear.

Most people still haven’t grasped the enormity of what is happening around the world. The old industrial rational worldview can no longer hold. It has run its course. The young people leading many of the protests worldwide realize this on some level and understand that their futures are very much in peril.

The Young Know This, The Older Folks Don’t

It is we older folks who still cling to outmoded ideas and can’t accept the big change that is coming, and if enough of us can’t accept it then we are living in the last great days of human civilization. This technological wonderland that we have created will just be a passing fancy, soon be tossed into the ashbin of history.

The Magical Universe

I have written a book called The Magical Universe: Answering the Call of Climate Change for Personal and Global Transformation that takes this problem head on.

On the surface it might sound like a kid’s book, a Magical Universe. Certainly not something for sober-minded adults.

The Magical Universe: Only for the Stout-Hearted

But that would be a faulty analysis. Actually the Magical Universe is only for the stout of heart and mind. Only for those who are willing to look the reality I have laid out above straight in the face and not blink. It is only those who get entry into the Magical Universe.

Perhaps it is a bit like Jesus’s saying that “unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” In short we must complete the circle from innocence, to experience and then back to innocence again, only the innocence you return to is nothing like the innocence you left. It is a mature innocence that has seen and accepted it all and still says yes to life.

The Real Center = Ultimate Reality

The center that is being lost here is our connection to ultimate reality. Some might want to call it God, Brahman, the Tao or the Great Spirit, it doesn’t matter. As the Indian philosopher, J. Krishnamuriti said, “the word is not the thing,” so following that notion, I’ll just call it Ultimate Reality.

The New Mythology

Evolution has gone through many stages which I outline briefly in my Magical Universe book, but go into much more detail in another book I will soon publish called The New Mythology: A New Vision for a Troubled Planet.”

Evolution as a Series of Miracles

The evolution I’m talking about traces the history of our creation from the big bang to the present. It traces the evolution of matter, then of life and finally of consciousness. When we examine this evolution closely we can see the magic in it. In my New Mythology I lay out the 13.8 billion-year evolution story as a series of miracles that occurred at crisis points in the story and kept it moving forward.

The Odds Its Random are Astronomical

Certainly people can look at any individual miracle and say it was a random coincidence and not a miracle at all. But when you look at the totality of the story it is a little hard to accept all those miracles as mere coincidences. The odds of that being so are astronomical.

The Wisdom Universe

What we need to understand is that behind and guiding this evolutionary story is the inherent wisdom and intention of the universe. As we move from one stage to the next, a new equilibrium or center is reached and things settle down for a while. But over time humanity outgrows that stage of development and needs to move forward. It is here where the line, “things fall apart” and “the center cannot hold,” applies.

Each Stage Includes and Transcends Previous Stage

We are in one of those stages right now. The old rational modern worldview has served its purpose and run its course. However, we don’t reject the entire modern worldview. We bring with us the good aspects of it and reject its shortcomings and limitations just as a university math major doesn’t reject the addition and subtraction he learned in elementary school, but he doesn’t stay bogged down in it. He moves on.

We certainly don’t want to reject the modern age completely. We have benefitted greatly from it. The technological improvements to our life and the advances in medicine are critical for our continued well-being.

All Worldviews Fall Apart Eventually

But overtime the views behind the advances have ossified, stagnated, and the natural growth and development that is natural in any living system must continue. When it gets stifled we run into problems like climate change, war, and the massive inequality we see in the world. It is then that we need a new worldview or a New Mythology in order to see the Magical Universe.

The Magical Universe Calls Us Forward

That magic that has pulled us through many potential dead ends in our evolutionary story is still operative today. It is resting in each one of us and it is this wisdom that we must reconnect with. It is the center that we have lost and must reclaim if we are to survive, both individually and collectively.

We Must Now Answer Our Calling

The universe is doing its part; it is time we do ours. What should we do? First, we must quiet our minds down. We have to turn off all that chatter in our head. When we do that, we can begin to hear that small still voice inside and listen to its wisdom. It is talking to us and giving us wisdom and insight into who we are and what we should do. But we can’t hear that wisdom over all that noise in our heads. We have to develop the ears to hear it.

How Bad Does It Have to Get?

How bad do things have to get before we let go of the old and embrace the new? How old do we have to get before we become young again? How much do our children and ourselves have to suffer before we wake up?

As Peter, Paul and Mary sang, “The answer my friend is blowing in the wind, the answer is blowing in the wind.”