Let me begin my talk by saying that what I have to say today are my thoughts and opinions. Take what resonates with you, hold it in your heart and leave the rest.
This morning I want to talk about change. I made a reference to some impactful changes that I saw on the horizon and someone suggested that I speak about the subject. I want to start by defining a couple of terms. First the idea of MACRO Change being large and systemic, our political system, our cultural systems and even the patriarchy which has been at the front of the line for 5 or 6000 years. While we may notice some of these kinds of changes, they may not impact our daily lives to the extent that we are aware of them, until or unless they are pointed out to us.
Then there is the opposite concept of MICRO change. This is change that is happening to me, to my friends, to our common groups including the Madonna Interfaith Community. This change impacts our daily lives in a myriad of ways that we notice because it’s in our faces.
I would like to propose the idea that we are in between “ages” right now. In his book, IN SEARCH OF STONES, Scott Peck states, “One age does not turn into another overnight. Between the Age of Faith and the Age of Reason there lay at least 300 years of confusion. An old Age does not die easily.” And, “…were we able to look through the eyes of those [church] authorities at the dawning of the Age of Reason, we would not only have seen a crumbling of faith, we would also have been filled with terror at the impending disintegration of civilization and loss of all that gave meaning and coherency to life. Perhaps the greatest sins of religion are not those of faith per se but of faith threatened.” P6.
Are we between the Technological Age and what is to come? Who knows what they will call it? I think these kinds of things are named after the fact.
Looking at Macro change now, I think we can all agree that many of the systems that have been in place for decades if not hundreds of years are being challenged, questioned, and even torn down. And while this is tough going, these changes that are happening are good things. It looks, on the outside, as if everything is crumbling. This is frightening to many, the majority I would say. But if you can see these systemic changes for what they are, the dawning of a new Age, I don’t think it is so frightening. Things need to crumble so that new things can be built.
Micro changes that I have noticed for me and for many of the people I know in spiritual circles are also happening. An example of this is meditation. For me, I have been meditating in the same way for years. I light a candle and some incense on my altar, sit on my cushion and begin to calm my mind to connect with Source. I suspect many of you have similar practices. Only it’s not been working for me. I have been struggling to mediate for months and months. Finally, I asked my guides what was going on and the answer was two words. New pathways.
New pathway is the answer whenever I ask about these changes. What I mean is this, the old ways, the old paradigm of doing what we’ve always done is going to become less and less effective for us. In my case, I still wanted and needed to meditate, I just needed to find a different way of doing it. So now, I’ve changed the time, from morning to nighttime. I still light my candle and incense, but I then get into bed. I begin by giving myself Reiki and opening that Universal Energy and go from there. Sometimes I do fall asleep, but then I dream dreams. Or not. The point is that connection with divine is met. My guides come to me where I am. Here I was thinking I had to “raise my vibration” to be able to hear them. They said nope, they were right there, no matter what vibration I was at.
I think, I feel, that going forward many of the things we all do to connect with Divine, to comfort ourselves in sorrow, to maintain our world, are going to fall away, crumble, if you will. To borrow a concept from the Tarot, we are in Tower time. The Tower card signals a time of cataclysmic and inevitable change so that new can develop. Like my example with meditation, old ways are not going to be as effective anymore. I want to challenge you all to look at the ways you have been doing things, the things you’ve been doing for years, and ask yourself if they are really still connecting you or are you doing them out of habit. I want you all to see that things are crumbling in a Macro sense as well as a micro sense, because they need to be made new. It’s time.
This is impacting our group as well, in many aspects. From a new president of the Madonnas, to some new and different ways of thinking. Not everyone is going to like what happens. I challenge you to ride it out. I challenge you to see the changes for what they are, the crumbling of old paradigms so that a new Age can come forth. The Madonna Interfaith Community stands at a fork in the road. We can move forward into the New age and be Wayshowers, just like we were back in the 1950s when our group was founded. The death of an organization is rigid tradition and unchanging ritual. To keep the life blood flowing, we must adapt and change along with the crumbling down of things we thought were foundational, without losing who we are at our core.
I think we have a huge opportunity in front of us. We can be those who show the way to others. People are searching for spiritual connections without religion. Religion is old paradigm. New pathway is honoring and connecting with the Divine Feminine. People are afraid of the crumbling of this age and are confused by what the future looks like. We can be the Wayshowers that clear away confusion and calm the fears.
I always say, change is hard. Even good change is difficult. I say this because I have and am currently living it. My friends are living it. Our country and even the world is living it right now. Things are not going to go magically back to “the way they were” because that wasn’t working for a whole lot of people. Don’t be afraid to challenge your own ways of doing. Or when you think to yourself, wow, that’s just not working anymore. You know why. We are in a huge Liminal spacetime between the Age before and the Age that is to come. And we have the honor, a great opportunity, and yes, even a duty to show others how to get on this new path.
~Marie Wilkes