Imagination is the missing ingredient most needed to turn things around and truly change the dire conditions that prevail on earth at this time. It is when the power of imagination becomes diminished that people cannot envision ways through the conflicts and dilemmas of life.
This quote, by one of my greatest mentors, Michael Meade, refers to the cynicism and nihilism that grows in times of great upheaval. In his most recent book, Awakening the Soul, Meade writes about the global rite of passage in which we find ourselves. By paralleling similar time periods in history and culling wisdom from our collective stories and myths, he also lays out the challenging but necessary path forward.
There is an original agreement of the soul that forms the inner shape and precise aim of each life… the pattern that brought us to life in the first place. Strangely, when the world around us seems about to collapse, the inner pattern of the soul is moving closer to the surface and trying to become known. Amidst the flood of changes, mass confusions, and the great forgetting already underway, the awakening of the innate character and purpose of the soul becomes increasingly important for both the individual and society.
I’m planning to see Meade in Santa Monica in early April. He holds lectures and workshops regularly. I participated in one of his retreats in Seattle last year and it was life-changing. Highly recommend.
Detail of The Monk by the Sea by Caspar David Friedrich, 1810
