Debunking Millenial Fears; the Green Perspective

Sorry for the absence (likely to continue due to needs of post-production on a short film) but I couldn't resist putting up the opening to an article which manages to combine two of this particular blog's likes in one: green topics + debunking the end of the world.

Entitled "The Apocalypse Makes Us Dumb" by WorldChanging's Alex Steffen, here are the first few 'graphs:

"In thinking seriously about the negative trends in our future, we're severely hampered by the Hollywood idea of the Apocalypse. That idea, in turn, has deep roots in the millenarianism of monotheistic religions (in which there is an End of Days and it's coming soon) and of 19th Century social movements (there is a Dictatorship of the Proletariat and it's coming soon). Millenarianism has its own problems, not least of which is that people do horrible things to others in the name of clearing the way for their chosen perfect future. But for our discussion here, let's just confine our understanding of the credo to what it has done to our conception of the future.

"Believing in a millennial future, or even frequently telling stories of such futures, blinds us both to what history teaches us about collapses and to what we know about our present moment. It makes us bad at thinking intelligently about the future.

"This is a topic that could use careful consideration from a number of angles, but I have about 30 minutes to write today, so instead let's just list some of the futurist fallacies we tend to embrace because (whether we're consciously aware of it or not), we're applying a millennial lens to the events unfolding around us.

"1) The Apocalypse is coming. There is a tendency to believe that big, catastrophic and singular events are going to come and destroy everything: that the Bird Flu or whatever is going to suddenly happen and immediately life will be hell. (The funniest example of this is climate change in The Day After Tomorrow, where sea level rise is so sudden that water rushes down the streets of New York in great rolling waves.)

"2) The Apocalypse is forever. In disaster movies and such, people seem to lack the ability to regroup and rebuild. Sometimes a hero will -- usually by killing a monster/ warlord/ robot/Tina Turner -- win the chance for one small group to start over, but the implication is usually that the rest of the planet's a write off for the imaginable future.

But naturally, you want to read the rest. Be my guest... click here.

Astrology: A Cosmic Operating System

In my dealings with people, outside of those interactions that are truly prefunctory, somehow I find myself divulging that I am, among other things, a student of Astrology.

Usually, I lead up to such a 'confession' with a lengthy preamble, which touches on the idea of astrology as a cosmic 'operating system'. A sort of Windows or Linux for navigating the abstractions of our lives and, as such, while useful and dependable - limited inasmuch as the person using it - in this case, an astrologer - is limited with regards his/her personal intuition, experience and technical knowledge of Astrology.

Which is to say, I try to phase out the more woo-woo side of things vis-a-vis Astrology when talking to the sceptics - or even with those who are more open to the esoteric side of things.

Does that mean I am somewhat 'ashamed' of my interest in Astrology?

Not ashamed, certainly. But if I am honest, I must admit, at the very least, to being embarassed when talking of my interest (actually, my passion) for Astrology with the more materialist, mainstream Science-respecting folks - i.e. the Richard Dawkins brigade.

And it really bugs me when one of them interrupts me with: "Astrology? You mean Astronomy right?"

Naturally, there is nothing in and of itself 'wrong' with using Science as a first stop when it comes to interpreting the unknown or the hard-to-explain. In my opinion, though, there is much that Metaphysics - and Astrology in particular - can offer a marriage with Science. Perhaps I'm naive or misguided in this. Perhaps I haven't understood the strictures of the Scientific Method well enough and that is why I have fantasies of one day Science and Metaphysics coming together.

Then again, from what little I have understood of Quantum Physics, Chaos and String Theory and the like, it seems that, more than ever before, there is a growing awareness that at the peripheries of Science there are answers to be had for just-emerging questions from unexpected (or downright maligned) sources.

On a related note, one of the astrologers whose posts I read voraciously, Lynn Hayes, of the Astrodynamics blog, currently has a link to a fascinating article regarding how the finance world is discretely employing more and more astrologers in a bid to navigate these intensely unstable times.

Here is the beginning of the article:

Christeen Skinner blinks at the screen of her computer and takes another slurp of coffee. It’s half past seven in the morning and she’s preparing for a crucial meeting with the chief executive of the High and Mighty fashion chain.

Apart from the black cat dozing on her lap, the only clue to Christeen’s occupation as a 21st century astrologer is a copy of an Ephemeris that lies open at a page marked “Mercury March 25th”.

“The financial crisis has ensured that I’m busier than ever,” says Christeen. “People in the City need to know what is just around the corner. I can help with that.”

Christeen is one of a growing, albeit secretive, network of astrologers who work for seemingly conservative British institutions such as high street banks, City investment funds and retailers.

Desperate to avoid financial meltdown in the ongoing ‘credit crunch’ and to spot fashions and consumer trends before they start, these institutions have turned to the stars to divine the future.

“Most academics distrust astrology and regard it as mumbo-jumbo,” she says. “The thing is, it works. Nobody’s sure how it works but it does. Most of my clients are businesspeople who are very canny. If it didn’t work for them, then why would they use it?”

One of Christeen’s clients is Judith Levy, chief executive of the High and Mighty retail chain.

“I’m fairly pragmatic,” says Judith. “I will only spend money on an astrologer if the decision I have to take is very important - the kind of decision which will cost me a lot of money if I get it wrong.

“When we launched our Kayak brand a few years ago we used astrology to decide the launch date. Since then, it has gone from strength to strength. It’s one of our best selling brands.”

You can read the rest of the fascinating piece here.








The above image was taken from this site.

Complaining = Disempowerment

Back again, dear readers. And I seem to have taken my sweet time about it. Strange, because I've had mad, hyperkinetic energy to burn of late.

I think I've been caught in the Virgo trap of not wanting to face up to a less-than-perfect body of postings due to the fact that my time and focus for anything non-short-film-related has been shrinking dramatically.

I've been painfully aware of how much could be commented on in this blog re. new memes on the Climate Change scene, my own continuing learning on the Astrology front, my progress in receiving the Munay-Ki rites (and consequent growing interest in all things shamanic)... so much that it has seemed way too much to post on. In other words, I've felt rather less-than-self-confident in terms of taking on the task than my Third House Scorpio Uranus might have had me be.

Still, if there's one thing I'm learning big-time from all the sessions with the shrink re. taking responsibility and choosing positive over negative thoughts, it's that if you choose to see yourself as overwhelmed, that's what you'll experience.

And following on from there... if you choose to complain - which I have done constantly about all the Difficult Stuff in my life in the past, and which I am trying to do less of today - then you voluntarily abrogate your power to fate. You disempower yourself. You stop being, as the shrink says, "the hero" in your life.

I'm working on being the hero more in my life. Like the shrink says, ultimate responsibility for everything that happens to me is mine and mine alone. But such responsibility need not be a byword for blame.

As you can see, changing mental patterns that have long been based on free-floating guilt, dependency, self-doubt and victimhood, are a lot of work to break.

But that sounds suspiciously like a complaint. So I'm going to finish this post right here.





The image above was taken from here.

The Agony and the Ecstasy

So, following on from the earlier post, I thought I'd let those of you faithful readers who've been following the maudlin mimsy of this blog know that my 2012 terrors have subsided, somewhat.

Either I have successfully lured myself into a false sense of security, hoping pole shift and massive die-offs won't occur (despite the unavoidable earth changes we're already witnessing), or time and the work I've done with the shrink and by myself in combating negative thought patterns is helping.

Actually, for the benefit of other fainthearts out there, who may be overwhelmed by the thought of a cataclysm, I thought I might add some websites that address the topic of 2012 and the end of the Mayan long count that are more optimistic.

In general, there's a split between the agony and ecstasy folks regarding this date. So here, without further ado, are the 'ecstasy' leaning ones:


http://www.starchildglobal.com/


http://www.livinginjoy.com/


http://weinholds.org/2012_home.asp


http://www.calleman.com/


I'll let you know of any more good ones as time progresses.

Meanwhile, I don't know about you, but I have a lot of plans for my life - plans that involve a hell of a lot of other people, too. So there better bloody NOT be a pole shift in 2012, or any other time for that matter.

Besides which, I'm far too egotistical to face the fate worse than death of surviving such a scenario. I need people around to angst to.

The illustration was taken from here.