Lion King - Guardian of People

Light, as we know, is the opposite of darkness and in psychological terms it represents consciousness – that elusive awareness that connects us to the universal intelligence.

This association with a higher plane of existence is further reinforced by the fact that lions are often represented at the side of earthly manifestations of divinity e.g. goddesses, pharoahs, kings. They appear as guardians of these divine mortals.

So in the mirror of a rapidly decreasing wild lion population we obtain insight into our own current level of consciousness, or rather lack thereof.

But first let’s go back to ancient Greece, where the stories of Heracles and Androcles represent a transition from lion hero to lion king. Heracles needs to prove his hero status with a series of twelve labours, the first of which is to slay a lion and wear its pelt as proof of his prowess. In the story of Androcles however, Androcles proves to be a man of greater stature as he doesn’t need to slay the beast to prove anything. His heightened consciousness represents a more developed emotional landscape where the lion is befriended. Later this act saves Androcles from certain death.

There is a long tradition of lion shamanism in Africa. The first stage of initiation into this spiritual practice is the facing up to the lion. The second step is the assumption of the man-lion identity i.e. befriending it. The same theme of lion hero transforming into lion king appears across many cultures.

This metamorphosis, from one to the other, is important in the modern context. Are we ready, as human beings, to move beyond proving our supremacy over the rest of Nature? Are we ready to befriend the Earth? If the story of Androcles is followed, this act will save us.

As apex predators lions are indicators of the health of the biological system that supports them. Sick and dying lions indicate a sick and dying biological system – the very same system that gave rise to the human species and that humanity is dependent upon. That lions can be seen as guardians of the natural system, and therefore of humanity, is an easy symbolic connection to make.

It is therefore hugely significant that some Maasai, long known for their culture of lion-heroism, have renewed themselves as lion kings. The Lion Guardians programme is an enlightened initiative that aims to save lions. However, it is in the tendrils of light piercing the darkness of our neglect that this programme will prove to be a paving stone on the spiritual path to saving humanity.

]]> http://www.clarissahughes.com/spirituality/are-you-a-lion-king/feed/ 1 http://www.clarissahughes.com/spirituality/in-sickness-and-in-health/ http://www.clarissahughes.com/spirituality/in-sickness-and-in-health/#comments Mon, 08 Feb 2010 12:34:28 +0000 Clarissa http://www.clarissahughes.com/?p=424 It is well known that a gauge of a healthy ecosystem is judged by its predators. The top feeders are a litmus test for everything underneath.

We now learn that the link between humans and nature is at the cutting edge of modern psychological study. As all indigenous people will tell you, when the environment is under threat they experience a profound feeling of spiritual disquietude, or dis-ease. This is now being recognised as a factor in modern psychoses and solastalgia is the term for this environmentally connected psychic distress.

So it is of great concern that the number of big cats in Africa is declining fast. In fact, so rapidly that the estimated number is less than the worldwide population of rhino (some 20,000 odd).

Caused by the usual culprit (habitat encroachment and all the corresponding issues around that) there is now another, more insidious, agent – the substitution of lion bones for tiger bones in traditional Chinese medicine. Ah yes, the downside of globalisation, I hear you say.

What does this bode for the psychological and spiritual health of Africans?

Many urbanised Africans are still relatively in touch with the natural world – they gather firewood, collect rainwater, cook outside, keep chickens and grow a mealie patch.

And so this destruction of the natural world as signalled by the decline in the continents predators is, I feel, more deleterious to Africans than to those cultures who’ve already become accustomed by centuries of separation from nature. It’s a wrench that is happening all too fast to be absorbed and integrated healthily in the collective African psyche.

Soliphilia is another neologism that descibes “the love of and responsibility (my emphasis) for a place, bioregion, planet and the unity of interrelated interests within it.”

As the rest of the developed world now realises it cannot separate itself from nature – that, in fact, nature needs to be nurtured if we are all to survive – is it not possible that culturally and spiritually a synergy could exist? Africa is still relatively connected. African culture bursts with beliefs and stories around its wildlife and rich natural heritage.

I see a great opportunity for mutual enlightenment and understanding on a deeper psychological level here. And this kind of recognition would do wonders for Africans’ self-esteem.

As the title of this piece suggests, we are married to the Earth. Physically, spiritually and everything in between. Never before has there been such an clarion call for us to fulfil our marital obligations. If we abandon our responsibility? Well then, Earth is in no way obligated to us, now is she?

Like the pre-shock waves of a great tsunami (when animals respond by moving up to high ground), we are discerning the outlines of a new human consciousness arising in response to the forthcoming turbulence in human civilisation.

The challenges are well documented: food and water scarcity, climate change, increasing violence and crime due to desperation and a sense of hopelessness. It’s inevitable.

But how do we humans deal with this impending turbulence and loss? Physically we are well equipped: we have lots of forewarning (thanks to science), we have incredibly fast communication systems (effective in our response times) and we have a good historical knowledge database (we know from previous experience what works and what doesn’t).  That takes care of the doing side of things.

And then there is our humanity, where our responses will be shaped by who we are, where our being determines our action. It is well recognised that the human spirit finds fulfilment in adverse conditions. Or put another way our lived experience is more important than the conditions we live in, so that by exploring our being dimension we can have a better experience of the turbulent times to come.

If we were to track human history against the growth of an individual we could say we are in the adolescent stage. We have an untidy global bedroom right now. It’s time to grow up.

So what are these signs of the emergent human consciousness?
The transition towns movement and its extrapolation is an early sign. We are also seeing a change in values, especially in the West, as indicated by an increase in altruism and philanthropy. It’s important to note that values change over time and across different cultures and are shaped by conditions of living. For example private wealth creating agendas in the face of collective struggle (e.g. WW2, apartheid and the forthcoming civil turbulence) would have been and will be unconscionable.

Where does Africa sit in all of this? How people respond to crises depends on communities and their leadership and in Africa we are seeing the emergence of a new kind of African leader in the form of Khama, Kikwete, Mills and Sirleaf. Are our communities ready for change? It is important that communities are not driven by fear but rather a genuine wish for a new spirituality. Historically Africa has displayed openness to transformation and new ideas. While recently researching Lake Ngami in Botswana, I learned that Chief Lechoalathebe requested that missionaries be sent up from the Moffat Church at Kuruman, a fine example of being mentally and spiritually mature to transformation.

If Africans can tap into that historical receptivity there is no reason why her societies will not make the most of the forthcoming turbulence. Blaming the West for everything won’t cut it; a genuine revival of that mature spirit, so well demonstrated in the past, will be required.

And it’s not only a one-way street where Africa does the learning – not at all. Before us we have a great opportunity for a reciprocall learning experience where Africa teaches how to live a fulfilling life without all the materialistic stuff , the desire for which has become so entrenched elsewhere. Many Africans live close to Nature, whereas other continents have lost touch with her. Through Africa’s teachings we can relearn respect for the environment and for each other. I remember being moved by a Balozi family greeting ritual where each and every family member was honoured individually with three kisses on the palm of the hand. If we can get that kind of respect back into our societies we’ll be well on the way to a new human consciousness.

The population issue is one that I’ve mentioned before but it’s a subject that can ably emphasise a shift in consciousness. Instead of seeing population control/self-control as a rebellion (adolescent term) against our innate nature, what if we saw it as a gift to others and to life’s biodiversity? The theme of self-sacrifice is universal and appears in most of the major religions.  If we have issues around being dictated to, or controlled, what if we were to see population self-control as empowering and enabling to our children and to others? It’s also possible that we need a quantum of souls incarnate for transformation to work.

So some inner work is before us, where we need to reframe our questions, often widening them up, towards more openness and a new consciousness. It’s happening, and it’s easier to work with it than against it.

Jung had quite a lot to say about the Story of Job and when he wrote his Answer to Job in 1952 it was widely regarded as blasphemous. Hopefully we have come a way since then and denial is not the first reaction. When judged on equal terms, Job is revealed as by far the better “man” over God in this story.    Jung noted that Satan tricked God, by appealing to His vanity.  Omnipotent God may be, but in this story He is not omniscient.

If one views religion as a reflection on the process of spiritual development in people, it is clear from the Story of Job that God is somewhat lacking in feeling and in awareness.  For Jung, Job had surpassed God in the humanity stakes. To be meaningful, it becomes necessary for God to grow into a more conscious entity and to learn what it means to be human. And so God sends his son, Jesus, who in his suffering on the cross “experiences what it means to be a mortal man and drinks to the dregs what he made his faithful servant Job suffer.” God has moved into a more empathetic realm and understands human suffering and pain. This is the essence of Christianity.

Back to Zimbabwe. Who are the lesser men? Certainly not the suffering people. How do those who mete out the punishment compare with the ones who, while claiming to be humanists, sit by?

The content of the Coptic codex is built up by the author when he states that the “Gospel of Judas will shake the very foundations of the Christian faith.” However, when one finally reads the excerpts of the story of Jesus as told by his betrayer, Judas Iscariot, it is curiously satisfying.

Jesus is portrayed as a more complete person, displaying humour. He is not the “victim” as portrayed in the Canonical Gospels. Rather He is in control of His destiny.

Jesus informs Judas Iscariot that in order to fulfil the prophecy He must be handed-over and that He has chosen Judas as the one to perform this task. Judas is chosen because he has the awareness of what he is being called on to do and, one presumes, the strength of character to withstand the consequences of this seemingly heinous act. In this telling Jesus is going into his destiny knowingly, conscious of the meaning of His life and its material termination. “But you, Judas, will exceed all of them. For you will sacrifice the man that clothes me.”

This portrayal gels much more with the idea that Jesus is the Son of God (and therefore omniscient) than someone who bumbles along and is betrayed by a mere human being.

This is a Gnostic text (gnosis means knowledge in Ancient Greek) and the sect apparently expounded an idea similar to that of Carl Jung. The self-knowledge of the Gnostics and theme of Individuation in Jungian psychology appear interchangeable. The everlasting nature of this notion really appeals to me.

Perhaps the externalisation of Judas the betrayer in mainstream Christianity is a projection of that unconscious content that is within us.

This has whetted my appetite for more on the Gnostics. Elaine Pagels here I come.

A spiritual reconnection with the Earth is something that more and more people are realising is an essential ingredient to humanity’s psychological health. In fact the Wilderness Leadership School makes it their business to sensitise people to this reality.

During a recent sacramental visit I became reacquainted with Belinda Kruiper, widow of Vetkat Kruiper, renowned Bushman artist. Immersed in the society of the formerly dispossessed Belinda is trying, in her own way, to demonstrate to her husband’s people a way of reconnecting with the Kalahari on their terms. These people of the Kalahari have long been marginalized from their land and way of life.  However, a recent land claim awarded a large portion of the Kgaligadi Transfrontier Park to the Khomani San and a community-owned and run lodge has been erected and is operational.

Talking with Belinda I learned that the lodge had been a disappointment to some members of the community. For example, air conditioning isn’t high on the community’s priority list, but management insisted that it was essential if they were to break into the highly competitive tourism market. The complex world of 21st Century luxury tourism is something this community is not yet equipped to understand.

Belinda talked about small groups of the Khomani San going onto their land and being in it for a few hours, a few days, a few weeks. She spoke of an elderly woman who couldn’t sit on the ground anymore at home, but when she went back to her ancestral lands had no problem sitting with legs out straight in the traditional manner on the Kalahari’s red sand. She spoke of how the previously divided Kruiper family had reunited and how Oom Dawid would go out into the bush and walk and walk and walk. A great sense of healing is starting to evolve out of these simple acts.

Listening to Belinda as she sat on her neatly made outdoors bed (it’s far too hot to sleep inside in December) at her house near the Kgaligadi Transfrontier Park, and hearing her articulate her hopes and aspirations for her community, I couldn’t help but think of the French maxim “il faut reculer pour mieux sauter”. It is necessary to retreat in order to leap better.

If a retreat into the wilderness is what the Khomani San need to better equip themselves for fast, modern life, then so be it. In fact, they are no different to any other people in this regard. We all need that reconnection. The irony is that the Khomani San, formerly despised outcasts, seem to be more aware of it, more conscious of it, than many other so-called sophisticated societies.

One of Freud’s friends, Carl Jung, has had an even greater impact of the life of the modern. The Swiss psychologist took the idea of the unconscious mind further and said that the libido (in the true sense of the word i.e. life force) lived therein. He believed that if modern man was to retrieve his sense of meaning it was his task to bring aspects of the unconscious to light, as best as he was able.

In his practical work with patients, and during his own personal journey into the unconscious, Jung observed that there were two facets of the unconscious mind. One was the personal, where all the unconscious psychological material of the individual was stored. This he called the unconscious. The other was a much greater underground fount of material that is common to all humanity, the collective unconscious. The constellations of commonalities that he discovered in the collective unconscious he called archetypes. By exploring the worlds of dreams, art, mythology, world religion and philosophy he could identify many of the archetypes. He also spent much time studying Eastern and Western philosophy, alchemy, astrology, sociology, as well as literature and the arts.

By dint of his incredibly powerful intellect and personal courage (a journey into the unconscious is not for the faint-hearted) Jung determined that the malaise affecting modern man – psychoses, neuroses and addictions have spread like a fungus on old bread– could be cured by the process he called Individuation. This process is a journey of transformation and involves the bringing-to- consciousness of psychic material in the personal and collective unconscious. Similar to the world’s major religions, the process is a journey which encounters the self and the Divine. He believed that our main task is to discover and fulfill our deep innate potential, as individuals.

Jung believed neither in the good nor evil of the psyche. Like Mother Nature it is capable of both great gentleness and violence. It nurtures and it destroys.

Many Jungians understand that a wilderness experience can foster an encounter with the unconscious. I can personally vouch for the transformative effects of the wilderness and it is this aspect that the Wilderness Leadership School seeks to promote. Many people, including Al Gore, have learned to appreciate the wilderness from this esoteric standpoint.

Jung was way ahead of his time and his contribution may only be fully appreciated by future generations. In the meantime my biggest fear is that the human race will have destroyed the wilderness before it realizes how much it needs it – and then it will be too late.