Divinely Perfect Disaster

In the midst of election anguish, I want to offer an alternative perspective on Tuesday. What if we sink beneath the hot stream of rage, fear, and dread to a subtler current in us, one that understands life as an unfolding, evolutionary journey in which each step is mysteriously contributing to some larger plan? This is not a plan to which we are merely subject but one that we co-create. Seen through this lens, outer events are the curriculum that our soul engages in an alchemical process of purifying, transforming, and elevating this world.

From this perspective, our soul intentions are linked with the intentions of intimate allies, as well as, more subtly, with those we perceive as enemies. We are creating a school and a curriculum, together. Sometimes it is a brutal school filled with suffering and grave injustice, but even in the darkest moments, I believe there is a higher purpose that our ego cannot grasp, a purpose only glimpsed from the scope of centuries rather than days. We are each being initiated into spiritual maturity through a long and challenging journey.

When I tap this subtler current, I am infused with trust, sensing that the rhythms of life have their own timing and that we complete certain cycles only when we are done with the lessons. The simple question about November 2nd, from my perspective, is what have WE not learned yet as a progressive political movement that is necessary for us to lead America to the next stage of development?

I believe the answer has to do with our willingness to really understand and integrate the shadow. Not to fear it and fight it, to rail against it and deny it, but to begin to look at it in a curious way, with wisdom and understanding. When still in denial of the shadow, we might say, “Bush is a bastard.” When more integrated, we might say, “Hmmm. This is what happens when people are terrified, addicted to power, or caught in spirals of deceit.” That is not the same as excusing, permitting, or condoning regressive policies. There we need our fiercely protective love. But underneath, at the root level, there’s a lesson about the shadow side of American power that is asking to be learned.

That is the job of those of us who want to carry the torch of progressivism now – to really understand and integrate the shadow until we learn the lessons it has to teach and we are able to look unflinchingly and lovingly at the reality of our current situation. When we merely hate the shadow side, we will keep losing politically. Indulging in hatred of the shadow for long periods tends to keep our understanding shallow – over-rehearsed emotion prevents the deepening into wisdom. The shadow is better approached like a martial arts master, honoring its power to be either a ruthless killer or a noble warrior in service to higher ideals. By honoring the gifts of the shadow, we begin to reclaim the noble warrior in us as well.

To ground this discussion in the events of this week, let’s look at the vote stealing from Election Day. A wide variety of sources predicted that the Republicans would manipulate vote tallies through electronic chicanery as well as more classic voter intimidation strategies. And sure enough, they did, in a massive number of ways that are being documented as quickly as activists can. Was this enough to steal the election outright? The answer is “Quite possibly.” The buzz is building demanding deeper investigation.

Beyond the outrage, the simple truth is that power-hungry forces have been taking over the Republican party (and to a lesser extent the Democratic party) and undermining democratic processes through whatever means they have available. One of those means is electronic voting, which makes vote stealing as convenient as pushing a few buttons, provided you have access to the machines. Other means include voter roll purges, trashing registrations or spoiling ballots in minority districts.

To expose the level of corruption that has become commonplace means getting beyond naïve notions of “democracy.” Right now, we have a lot of proud ideals about American democracy but the fact is that our election process is deeply flawed, rigged, and abused. Our media are heavily compromised and have lost much of their power as watchdogs. American democracy is less of a democracy every year. Seen objectively, when compared to historical parallels, we are trending towards fascism.

Progressive folks tend to be naïve about this and often assume a level of basic decency and morality amongst political players. Until the last 18 months of reading and study, I certainly fell in that camp as well. Now that I’ve gotten up to speed, I see that a much more accurate assumption is that the people in power will do literally anything to keep it. If we start there rather than with naïve optimistic ideals and assumptions, we can look more objectively at the evidence, which often has shocking implications.

Did Chuck Nagel, former CEO of ES&S, rig his own election in Nebraska? Was Sen. Paul Wellstone, who died right before his probable re-election in a suspicious plane crash, assassinated for political reasons? Were the anthrax attacks a political intimidation tactic focused on Democratic leaders? Was 9/11 encouraged or even facilitated from the inside? Who made off with the $1.3 trillion in undocumented transactions from the federal budget in recent years?

I believe that we need to start with the assumption that the Bush administration and their friends are capable of literally anything – from assassination to vote stealing to lying to crimes against their own people. Historically, political leaders have done all those things and there’s no reason after four years to suspect the Bush administration is operating on a higher moral ground than those historical leaders. If we strip away our rosy assumptions, our naivete won’t color what we are able to look it. This is important because we must examine the full extent of the shadow before we can learn from it, integrate it, and transcend it. Otherwise, we’ll keep trumpeting proud ideals and wondering why we keep losing.

The examination of the shadow side of American power is part of our initiation into spiritual maturity. In fact, I believe that it is the single most important key to unlock the greatness of our country because it will allow us to complete the curriculum around power and allow us to undertake the curriculum of the heart in a more substantial way.

If you choose to take this journey, I warn you that the rabbit hole goes very deep. It is not a journey for the faint of heart. But it’s a crucial one and will allow us to approach the current situation more strategically after we have each gone through the stripping away of our illusions.

Right now, the people who are supposed to be our political leaders are either in denial of their own shadow and therefore unable to contemplate it in others, or they are too vested in the perks and privileges of their place in the system to take on the real shadow work. Kerry, for example, accepted the official poll results uncritically, and when given an opportunity to fight and challenge, simply folded his cards. In a Berkeley speech last night, when asked point blank by a ten-year-old questioner whether the election was stolen, Dennis Kucinich, who has often been a hero to me, said he “hoped” that the election was not stolen and tip-toed around the question. That’s as far as our political leaders seem willing to go. Almost none of them will take on the truly sinister stuff.

So it’s up to us – the grass roots, the people who have embarked on the journey of personal transformation and are now attempting to create deeper, systemic change. To become effective agents of that change, we each need to go through a profound disillusionment – to pull away the reassuring blankets that insulate us from the naked truth. When enough of us have done this work, our political leaders will follow.

The only way to deal effectively with the shadow is to not to shrink from it, run from it, or hope it will go away. It takes study to understand the face of corruption, deception, and greed and see the desperate, addictive hunger that lies underneath. After we’ve done our own study, we can expose it in such a way that others can hear. If our exposure comes out of hatred, we are still not learning the lessons.

The initiation into America’s shadow is still incomplete, which is why November 2nd was a dark day for so many people who opposed Bush. There is another level of stripping that we must be willing to undertake, a peeling away of the veils of illusion to see things as they truly are. That is why I see November 2nd as a divinely perfect disaster – it can catalyze our collective awakening. It is a powerful moment in our shared curriculum, one that is forcing a deeper maturation than if Kerry had simply won and the shadowy truths were never forced to the surface.

In undertaking this initiation, a key learning for me has been that there is nothing that Bush, Cheney, or his team have done (or any Democratic president, who have often engaged in similar deeds) that is unthinkable for me. As Goethe said, “There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable.” In one meditation retreat two years ago, I spent several days being taken over by the shadow, just breathing in the intoxicating power of my dark side, feeling how it inflated me. I wanted to conquer, control, and kill. I was gleeful over scenes of slaughter and mayhem. I wanted to rule the world. It was disturbing and profoundly tempting, leading to a deeper understanding of what evil really means, not from a perjorative sense but from an experiential understanding of that force in my own psyche. On the other side of that immersion, I found myself able to understand those who live out the shadow side and even appreciate their essential role in our planetary evolution

When I look at Bush, Cheney, and their cabal, I see people who, by virtue of their own power drives, hungers, and fears, have allowed themselves to be taken over by shadow forces. They have drunk the intoxicating elixir of power and they are distorted by it and controlled by it.

And that is their gift to all of us, a full demonstration of what unconscious power does. Our task is to look at it with clear eyes and an open heart and undertake the fiercely loving actions necessary for us to outgrow this level of development as a country. They are teaching us about the shadow side of American power, a lesson we need to learn to wield our growing global power with greater wisdom and love. May more of us learn the lesson.

For those of you who want to take the next steps on your journey into facing our collective shadow, I highly recommend two books: David Ray Griffin’s New Pearl Harbor and Michael Ruppert’s Crossing the Rubicon. Together, they will open your eyes and lead you deeper, although they will not provide the spiritual, redemptive context.

I also strongly encourage you to get involved with exposing the vote stealing in this last election, since that is the biggest opportunity of the moment. Start with www.votergate.tv (which was hacked today, so you’ll have to wait until they get their excellent movie on Electronic Voting back up) and www.blackboxvoting.org, which is organizing massive challenges under the Freedom of Information Act.

Finally, remember that we are not doing this to eradicate the opposition. Ultimately, we have created this collective moment with them as an opportunity to take an evolutionary leap as a country by facing the shadow side of power with unflinching courage and unbounded compassion.