NOW IS A MAGIC HOUR

The sunset of one world and the dawning of another

Any period of phase transition such as humanity is going through now is accompanied by tumult and chaos. Imagine the turbulent waters at Cape Horn at the lower end of South America, where the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans meet. Two huge forces of nature confront one another, each with its own power, its own rhythm, its own tides. Such is the interface of a worldview that dominated the 20th century, now increasingly inadequate to the challenges that confront us; and the worldview of the 21st Century now seeking to express itself. One represents a world that in many ways is falling apart, and the other represents a world that is struggling to be born.

Kanok Sulaiman

The worldview of the 20th century is transactional and mechanistic; the worldview of the 21s century is relational and holistic. Transactional, mechanistic ways are failing us; it turns out that we can’t change the world by tweaking the pieces of the machine because the world is not a machine. The universe is consciousness. It is energy. Those two things are causal while the material world is a realm of effects. Learning to navigate consciousness is the power that alone can transform the world. And the greatest navigational tool is love.

People born after the year 2000 are literally not 20th Century people, and many are clearly chafing at the idea that they should live their lives at the behest of bad ideas left over from a former time. Every generation as with every person must individuate, and a younger generation is freeing itself not just from a former generation but literally from a former millennium. The times in which we live are a particularly dramatic example of old meets new, and only one will lead to the survival of our species. Lack of compassion for people and animals, and lack of reverence for the earth itself, are the hallmarks of an increasingly unsustainable way of being in the world.

As the great eras collide, these times are indeed chaotic. Both worldviews seek expression, arguing their superiority and competing for primacy in the world. In the midst of this chaos we as individuals must make a choice: will we live our lives at the effect of these times, or as transformers of these times? A neutral life is no longer possible.

Old paradigms, old formulas, old ideas are falling away, to be replaced by a radically more enlightened way of thinking and behaving. Any system unaligned with radically humanitarian values will not survive the chaos. The idea of a loving world is bursting out of its utopian confines despite the mockery and derision of the old order; that dying perspective is simply holding on like a ghost to a body in which it no longer resides. The birth pangs are in many ways intense, but a more evolved version of our humanity is being born.

This is a time of endings to be sure but it can be, if we choose, a time of amazing new beginnings. The key at such times is to not look back. Do not be afraid of ghosts. Do not be shaken by the death rattle of a dying world. In the Talmud it is written, “During the times of darkest night, act as if the morning has already come.” When the world is chaotic we can find peace within our hearts. And then we can share our peace with each other. We can forgive, we can bless, we can love, we can create, we can make space for the new in ourselves and in the world. Miracles will follow. This is a moment of chaos, yes, but simultaneously it is a magic hour. It is the sunset of one world and the dawning of another. Day has turned into night, now the night is turning into day.