Worldviews and the Evolution of Consciousness
Awakening our neutral mind is part of the evolution of consciousness needed to adapt to the shift from the Piscean to the Aquarian Age. The shift in ages not only installs a new energetic context within which we live, it offers us another way of relating to ourselves and each other. To optimally navigate in the new planetary energies, we need an expanded worldview and heart-centered consciousness.
Aquarius is know as the Water Bearer. The water pouring out for the Water bearer's pitcher is consciousness. Aquarius thus represents the higher mind, which is connected to the Universal Mind. We connect with the Universal Mind through our neutral mind, where we gain an elevated perspective of the world and our oneness and are able to each be an instrument of change and peace.
Humankind is being offered an opportunity to awaken after a deep, dark, unconscious sleep. Our individual and collective challenge is to be born again in a higher heart-centered frequency. This chapter gives an overview of the nature of our internal shift.
The Influence of Culture and Mass Consciousness
As we proceed, it is important to keep in mind the basic neutralist of universal energies and archetypes, none of which are inherently good or bad. The only question is how we use these energies, which depends upon our level of consciousness.
Our experience of universal energies (discussed in detail in the next chapter) is also influenced by how they are expressed in our culture and mass consciousness. For example, the social and cultural values related to the unconscious Pisces energy find expression in drugs, alcohol, other addictive habits and fundamentalist religions. Conscious expressions relate to our connection with Spirit, trust, surrender, and an experience of oneness with the Divine.
Aquarian energy is inventive and innovative in many areas, including mass communication through electronic multimedia and technological advances. We can either get lost in a cold technical maze or we can use our connectedness to work together to make changes that support the higher good of all and be channels for innovative solutions to our global problems. It is up to us whether we remain a slave to lower consciousness or make the effort to wake up and upgrade our participation.
There are many factors and circumstances that both undermine and serve to impel individual empowerment. These include religious dogma, traditional values, the mechanistic worldview, materialism and consumerism; and political, economic, and corporate powers that manipulate and subvert personal power. Next we examine the scientific and spiritual worldviews from which we operate and how they influence people.
Science and Spirituality
Inner/Outer Seperation Worldview
It is critical that we understand that our psyche is molded by the predominant scientific and philosophical worldviews that are accepted, not as one possible view of reality, but as the single basic truth that "unquestionably" explains the way things are. The Newtonian mechanistic worldview and Cartesian philosophy have dominated our view of ourselves, the world, and the universe for several hundred years.
The Newtonian worldview defines the physical world in terms of what we can objectively measure, see, predict, and control. The Earth is considered to be mindless matter and thus denuded of any intrinsic soul or consciousness. Reductionist analysis can be myopic, fragmented, and not necessarily rational, as it excludes and dismisses anything that does not fit into its viewpoint. It labels anything it can't explain as absurdity or dismisses it as irrational. True rationality recognizes the limits of logic and embraces the mystery of life, as well as subjectivity, emotions, and feelings.
In is early twenties, Descartes pronounced, "I think therefore I am" (referring solely to our rational mind), not "I feel therefore I am" (referring to our emotions and body). The Cartesian revolution therefore espoused a radical separation between human subjective inner world and the external physical world of matter. Furthermore, our inner world became defined in terms of mind and thoughts only. This view of reality has resulted in the alienation of human beings from Spirit, Mother Earth, and our own soul.
The worldviews thus instruct us to believe that our inner and outer words are not only separate and exist independent of one another, but that they are devoid of the feeling, flowing component of existence. In this scenario, our internal world is dominated by our mind and thoughts (feelings are ignored). Meanwhile, the external world (our planet and the rest of the universe) is considered to be an inert mass or empty space, devoid of sacred meaning and spiritual value.
Disconnection from Spirit
The denuding of our internal reality, the physical world, and the universe of aliveness and feeding has resulted in serious psychological dysfunctions and the near destruction of the Earth's ecosystem. We have been led to believe that we live in a soulless universe, which has fostered our disconnection from Spirit and distanced us from the sacred component of life.
We experience a deep ennui when we are not only unaware, but deny the fact that human life is rooted in a transcendental reality that is imbued with Spirit and meaning. Thus, the root cause of our malaise is feeling alone and separate from the spiritual dimension of life that sustains our being.
New Sciences
The deep probing of modern physics into quantum world of the atom now reveals that the dynamics of reality are antithetical to the mechanistic worldview. Under this level of scrutiny, our previous view of the basic concepts and our relationship with (1) time and space (2) cause and effect, and (3) subject and object totally break down. The former presuppositions of an inherent dichotomy and separation of (1) mind and matter, (2) physical and non-physical, and (3) nature and Spirit are no longer deemed tenable.
Moreover, recognizing that the universe does not exist in a static state, modern physics has accepted probability as the basis of reality. The belief system through who we view ourselves and the world determines (1) what we see, (2) what we pay attention to, (3) what we consider important, and (4) how we choose to act. Therefore, what we observe is not reality itself, but our interpretation of what we perceive through our personally tinted glasses. Something is lost and missing in our mental and emotional filtering process.
New Science and Spirituality
New scientific discoveries are leading to the same conclusions that mystics have experienced for eons -- that the human psyche, the quantum realm, and infinite space are interconnected by the same operating principles and energies, which means that the cosmic macrocosm and the human microcosm exist in a state of oneness.
In order to know and be ourselves, we must therefore have a way to guide and awaken our relationship with the cosmic forces that are the animating energies and creative potential of our being. In unawakened states, when we deny or repress these energies, they express as illusions, stress, neuroses, and pathologies. In awakened states we can experience these same energies as health, vitality, peace, and love.
Our Spiritual Instinct
Over many years of research, Carl Jung discovered that "the absence of a spiritual approach to life was in many cases to root cause of the psychological and existential problems that his patients were experiencing," as explained by Keiron Le Grice in The Archetypal Cosmos. Similarly, Yogi Bhajan said that 100% of our problems are rooted in our disconnection from our soul. In our secular world filled up with practical survival concerns, our loss of a spiritual perspective haunts us with a nagging sense of meaninglessness.
The good news is that our innate spiritual instinct for merging, desire for cosmic connection, and need for inspiration sooner or later lead us on a spiritual quest. There comes a time when our beliefs about how the world "is" and our fantasies about how the world "should be" create excessive inner conflict and tension. Our psychological discomfort serves as a motivating factor to reconcile our inner world to be more in tune with reality. We then set out on a journey that leads us to (1) expand our awareness, (2) drop our illusions, (3) accept what IS, and (4) open ourselves to a transcendental experience.
From Alienation to Acceptance
Achieving individual autonomy and freedom is a fundamental component of our spiritual advancement. However, the dogmatic assertions from the mechanistic worldview "that we are rational self-determining beings, masters of our own destiny, armed with free will and with the power to shape our life in the image of our choosing," as Le Grice put it, further attach us to our egotistical mindset that believes that we can control everything. The "I am in charge" posture leaves no room for Spirit and impedes our ability to relax into the cosmic flow. This mental/mind dominant view of who we are reinforces our isolation and alienation by cutting us off from the living dynamics of universal energies.
It is obvious that there is more to personal empowerment than being in control. Despite our "well-meaning pretentions" to act rationally and be autonomous empowered beings, we are still very much slaves to the "unconscious influence" of repressed emotions that surface as inexplicable impulses and feelings that cause us to act and react irrationally.
When we deny or attempt to transcend, instead of experience and integrate, universal forces into our psyche, they express in destructive and dangerous ways as "obsessions, compulsions, neuroses, manias, and depressions, drives and complexes, symptoms of disease and illness, idiosyncrasies and eccentricities." These undesirable expressions subvert our good intentions and conscious goals.
Moreover, the approaches that deny our emotions and feelings and attempt to control, correct, prevent, and disregard what we judge as bad have the side-effects of making us feel guilty, shamed, inadequate, and even worthless. We need another strategy that is open to recognize, accept, respect, embrace, love, and work with the powerful unconscious forces of our soul. So how do we overcome the sense of alienation from ourselves, the cosmos, and Mother Earth?
From Illusion to Reality
To overcome our naive attitudes, superficial relationship to our being, self-deception, and illusory ideas about the nature of human life, we must experience the primal universal forces free of belief systems, dogma, morality, mental fantasies, and philosophical interpretation. We must experience what IS, not what we make up, hope is true, or believe is righteous.
To penetrate our soul reality, we have to be honest with ourselves and not hide behind denial strategies that attempt to protect us from the initial, and often inevitable, pain. This requires an inner awakening, not just thinking it is a good idea. Awakening is not just about changing our belief system. It is about transcending the need for beliefs that are merely psychological support systems. If one system can be replaced by another, then beliefs are only a superficial and tenuous rope (at best) to the Divine.
We must actually experience our oneness with the universal forces that live within us and build an authentic relationship that we can count on to support and nurture us. As Nietzsche realized, what we need is "an actual metamorphosis in the psychological structure of the human being... who (can) fully assimilate the lost power of dynamism of the instincts in a new form of creative individual spirituality." It is our inner emancipation that makes it possible to experience our personal relationship with the Divine and our Soul.
Want peace? This is how you get it. Go inside to your neutral channel and stick with it. Want to be strong, stable, and maintain your own balance? Neutral is your best friend. Want to be decisive, centered, and free? Don't look for approval, appreciation, or alignment outside of yourself. Want contentment and satisfaction? Find the above in your own heart and love yourself.
Source: The Power of Neutral: A Guide to the Mind and Meditation, Part 1: Our Spiritual Journey, 3. Worldviews and the Evolution of Consciousness by Guru Rattana, Ph.D.
