I have been wondering about the tension between those of us who are calling for change and those who want to return to ‘normal’ and wondering how this will play out.
Like me, you might also be observing the same tension within yourself, not just on the outside …
The Covid-19 life form and its impact, the Black Lives Matter uprisings and its implications … these are not insubstantial matters affecting both our personal everyday actions and the wider, global collective.
This is no time for the faint of heart.
It is quite clearly a matter of life and death. (Has it not always been thus?) Covid-19 and racism both kill, this we know. So, what might that mean?
We are being called to take account, to create change, to adapt and evolve in ways that might have been unheard of a mere few months ago (but maybe long known by our way, way-back people.)
Each of us as individuals is making our way in the world through a lens of perception and set of experiences that are unique and yet we are also experiencing a shared set of circumstances.
Outside of the personal, I see that at the very least;
- our communities are suffering
- our systems and institutions are racist, elitist + outdated
- the economic models are failing us
- our environment is hurting
- our culture is broken
Tough questions are being asked of us as a species and as individuals. Would that there were a consensus on the answers!
We are a messy, complex, diverse, brilliant, curious, capable, compassionate, creative people.
Alas, we are also flawed – contradictory, lazy, biased, selfish and destructive, to say the least.
We are human. We are also family.
There is much work for us to do – out in the world and in our private, everyday.
Here, I am coming to recognise that all of my work involves simply learning how to be human (which may be simple, but is not always easy.)
Taking place is a process of decolonising, disrupting + dismantling and reconnection, relocation + remembering.
It is multi-dimensional, inter-disciplinary and it requires practice.
I am not expert – I am prone to making mistakes – I am trying.
Part of my practice for the last couple of years has been to study the geomythography of Scotland.
I have learned so much of what I know about this from the work of my tutor, Stuart McHardy and archaeoastronomer, Douglas Scott.
Just after lockdown, they published a book, Stones of the Ancestors, detailing some of their finds so far. It’s full of wonderful information and I sat down over Zoom to have a chat with Stuart about it back in May.
I hope you’ll find this conversation interesting. It is a long one, so you might need to watch it in segments, but it holds relevance for us all, no matter where we live or where our ancestry lies.
For me, it serves as inspiration to continue learning how to become a people of culture that the world so badly needs in these times.
May it be so for all of us.
*This text has been adapted from the July 2020 Solar Circular Newsletter
