If Our World Is On Fire, What Are Our Intentions?

Yesterday, Vladimir Putin threatened to use nukes (again), the Russian invasion of Ukraine reached its 1000th day, and the planet Pluto (*debatable, I know - see below) made its final move into a completely different home for the next 19 years. The shift from the traditional structure of Capricorn into the innovative mental architecture of Aquarius invites new ideas (great timing, nature). Coincidentally or not, these events have created some immediate uncertainty for inquiring minds. We are looking at a whole host of unanswered questions (for example: Are we actually fucked right now?). 

We are all experiencing the flurry of activity that occurs around moving, (which they say is among the most stressful things we can do in life). No matter where we get our news, or how much outside influence we choose to take in, we are aware of the ongoing division at some level. Our personal degree of connection and/or responsibility aside, we can feel alone as we must decide, for ourselves, which beliefs to take with us and which to leave behind. Who knows what we will need in a future we can’t predict? Likely answer: no one.

In any case, there is little doubt that the majority of us are in the act of making these types of choices. One glance at social media confirms this (in fact, they knew it first). We used to have to gather seeds of information, and now we have so much it requires constant weeding. Criticism is helpful and constructive when emotions are acknowledged. When they aren’t, expect additional conflict. We don’t have to be in agreement to move forward, but ignored emotions are future roadblocks. As United States citizens, we are constantly being stirred, making it difficult (impossible, even) to see anything from all angles. Ignorance is a significant factor in understanding, so how do we break the cycle of reacting to it with pity, disgust, or worse - anger?

The U.S. The Presidential Race has become a societal thought trap that produces a pattern of bad habits. It asks us, indirectly, to be looking ahead in four year increments, as if any administration can affect real change in that time. At our core, we all know it can’t, don’t we?! Yet we continue to buy the conversation for arguments sake. Let’s buy the argument for conversation’s sake! Imagine what could happen when we all start thinking broader instead of bigger? (anchor the soul, and let the creative ego fly!)

Think back on what Wholeness meant to you in 2020.  No matter what, you had an opinion about what we were experiencing and why. Now might be the perfect time to take that vision on an intentional journey: to actively consider what we want, collectively speaking, for the next twenty years! (or 50, 100, dream as far as you want…). I suspect that our Forefathers expected that from us, inherently, but we let that ball drop a long time ago. As a product of the eighties, I had very few examples of creative forward thinking that didn’t leverage fear (or money, or fear about money). My point: I think we are pretty well versed in what we don’t want. Let’s focus on what we do!

Conflict is inherently healthy. We won’t (and shouldn’t) find 100% agreement with anyone else if we are being ourselves, authentically. We are each a specifically unique design, and currently, we are being ‘called’ to a common cause – the nuanced and masterful art of compromise. Our alternative is the underbelly of Pluto’s power, which I would imagine to be something like World War III, (but I don’t want to spend any unnecessary time in that fear). Fact: It takes Pluto close to 250 years to make one full rotation around the earth. For perspective, the next closest, Uranus and Neptune, take 84 and 165 years, respectively. Pluto energy is highly sustainable.

That slow, Plutonian stride serves as a clean-up crew: riding the wake of our other eight planets, and ‘removing’ the leftover and unattached parts of the earth’s energy by any means available or necessary. It is completely detached from our egos and our intellect, which is apparent by its often destructive means. (Nothing with actual feelings could cause so much pain, right?) Still, we find ourselves in the habit of looking up and asking WHY, as if the answer is just out of our reach. Something in us, outside of our patterned beliefs, knows that under all of the chaos, we are deeply connected. In 2024,  if nothing else, we are at least trauma bonded.

By clearing the ‘dead weight’ from our landscape periodically (soul words, don’t blame my ego!), we are given the opportunity to rebuild our concept of humanity as we seek to find common agreement on what that looks and feels like. From there, everything becomes a matter of Intention (or lack thereof), one way or another. Right now, those intentions, – including ‘what they really mean’ – are at odds. These kinds of odds can seem insurmountable if we can’t find the energy to see the positive, which isn’t always available! What we CAN do is seize the moments when we are open to being creative – whatever that means to you. I promise there is at least one person who will disagree with you at all times, and that is a perfect world. Even though it can appear to be on fire. Still perfect. 

Brain food: Our intellects inform our belief systems, which in turn inform our worldviews. From those fundamental differences, we have created the increasing challenges that currently stand before the fields of Science and History (and that’s before the Law has a chance to weigh in). This particular moment in time reminds me of when I learned that Physics and Quantum Physics aren’t really on the same page. On our first intro, quantum concepts blew my mind in a way that continues to remind me of my own ignorance to this day. The more I learn, the more questions I have. It’s like that now. #quantumconsiderations.

I’m going to look up Quantum Science when I take a break from writing this, but for now let’s meander around this idea – before I try to define this space for myself (and limit what is possible).  More often, it appears that Nature/Universe/God is forcing us to pause and re-evaluate our overall understanding of its relationship to our lives. That’s notable. We have reached a point in our intellectual human development where we are struggling to agree on some very simple scientific concepts. At the same time, the historical truths that we learned in elementary school are standing in question all over the place. We used to call this information common knowledge. Truth and Lies have always blurred those lines, but today, 50% of us believe that the other 50% is lying to themselves and others about reality. #plutoquandry.

So what are we to do when common knowledge no longer exists, yet we are still trying to apply common sense where there is no common agreement? Spoiler alert: I don’t have the answers, but I know they start with each of us (who can and are willing) getting very clear within our own minds about what we actually want. There are bonus points (manifestational magic) for creative solutions, of course. If you’d like some guidance, Our Raw Material can help with the hard parts using our simple thought practice. Fun fact: it was designed with a little help from the ideals of an unlikely historical resource – Thomas Paine. (who was writing his own version of human support the last time Pluto passed this way, just saying…)

Underneath our world’s heaviest matter, our collective (Soul) energies exist, whole and free from constraint of any kind. Under the weight of public opinions about right and wrong, good and bad, positive and negative, our individual (Ego) energies are free to create the reality we want for ourselves. This is true for every single one of us, whether we believe it or not. Both of those voices are at play within us at all times (Soul and Ego). Sometimes we are able to listen to/hear each voice (amazing); and sometimes they are left to fight it out because we get stuck in the weighing, unable to take action (frustrating). We spend a lot of time in the middle of their organic conflict (humaning).

We have piled so much shame and blame on top of these deeply rooted awarenesses that they have become hard to see, and even harder to believe. At our worst, we find ourselves in a suspended state of ‘fight or flight’, where we lose the desire/capacity to hear our collective voice at all. Paradoxically, we are told that our ego voices are selfish, and we forget their purpose  - protection and representation of our solo individuality. Hard truth: there is equal value in attention to ego energy and attention to soul energy. Balancing these two distinct voices will organically re-establish common ground. Common sense was probably never real to begin with - perhaps there just weren’t enough voices in the mix, eh?

It would have been nearly impossible for our Forefathers to anticipate our current global environment from their 1776 worldview. To be sure, there were a lot of smart men in the room, which speaks volumes to the founding flaws we have encountered in our system as time and history continue to test the mettle of our Democracy. The material was ego-heavy, by design, even though there were efforts to the contrary. On September 19,1796, as Washington left office voluntarily (for the good of our governing body), he cautioned against the  dangers of ego rule, saying “the spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism.” 

As our country’s first leader, he could see that this would eventually happen to him, too, if his ego were left unchecked. I believe we are lucky he took that public stance, even though many thought it a terrible political move. He knew he was right, and It set a tone of respect for our democracy and its processes, even in disagreement. His intentions, along with the other Founding Fathers, tried to look as far into the future as they possibly could, and think about the possibilities that the future citizens of our country would be facing. In that effort, they neglected people who weren’t white men from the jump, indicating that their vision lacked some necessary insight (the trappings of argument and personal legacy clearly in front of what equals a whole person). Founding flaws, indeed.

This feels like a good time to point out the obvious: at that point in our country, our population was created by people who were cast-off, crazy, criminal and unestablished enough in their home countries to find the prospect of risking life and limb on a boat that may or may not make it across the ocean enticing. It’s worth jumping on a thought train with that for a second when we think about immigration. I’m not saying let anyone and everyone in, but I am asking that we look at our country’s origins for guidance. 

Much of our recent history has been recorded and evaluated, frame by frame, in ways that our Constitutional Framers could not have foreseen from the my-word-against-yours mentality that automatically checked the box on what was true before it ever had the chance to come up. Let’s not forget that a lot of people struggled with reading and comprehension back then… oh, wait - I guess that part hasn’t really changed. So herein lies the root problem: we can only imagine what we are able to conceive.  Everything else is a big unknown. This X factor exists outside of what we used to consider logical conclusions. The larger the group, the less logical any common conclusion becomes. 

Here’s the cool part: It’s One Note of Connection, but it’s what we’ve got to work with until we create some lasting intentions to see and believe things more broadly – all of us. We all share this One Note, equally. We each get to imagine what we want to happen from there. It is our song to sing. When you find yourself bothered by the disagreement around you, pick up your personal drum and start intentionally resonating with your own creative vibration, starting from that One Note. That is the place where we find real connection. Our soul/ego awareness grows from there. 

George Washington alluded to this when he left office at the height of his popularity. During his intentional bid for unity, he prayed for the success of our democratic system. The very same one that has remained in place for nearly 250 years, during which time our country has grown beyond the bounds of what he imagined, and into what we have become today. This is our World, however you choose to define it. Taking it One Note further, what is the very best you can imagine for it? 

*Sure, Pluto lost its impressive planetary title a few years back, but let’s be real: that did nothing to slow its impact. As an energetic force, Pluto’s rotation will still level some shit, no matter how we classify it, scientifically. I don’t normally write from the astrology side of things (Quan is on it!), but today seems like a good day to cross those streams.