Ancestors from my Walker/Ruf side of the family. Probably taken in Ohio. I don’t know much about this side of the family.
“The simple truth is that every single civilization, including the western world, was brought into being from a sacred place to serve a sacred purpose. And when that purpose is forgotten, when its original alignment gets lost, when the fundamental balance and harmony of its existence become disrupted beyond a certain point, then nature has her way.
This is the mystery of birth and death not only for humans, but for cultures too. And for thousands of years it has been understood that, just as civilizations have to come to and end, there can even be times of global extinctions. But always there are people who know how to gather the essence of life and hold it safely, protect it and nurture it until the next seeding.” ~ Peter Kingsley
What do you think? Going back in my ancestry here in America, I’ve been pondering a good bit on how my people came to be and what informed their lives. I’ve been thinking about things that affected me in my life and what I’ve seen over the years listening to people’s stories. I’m combining thoughts from EcoPsychology, Jungian thought, trauma and recovery, and Family Constellation Work.
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The more I awaken in America, the more I realize what it really is. Just like any other mineral, tree, wind, and flesh, it is a child of the universe. Outside of the national propaganda, we are no more special than any other place on this planet. As well, I would say we are rather broken and in a “holding pattern.” In clinical terms, this is called “trauma mastery” where we recreate the same trauma over and over again that originally separated us from Spirit or God or Source. We do this to prove that we can have control in that kind of situation, the kind that traumatized us in the first place.
When dissecting the nuances of trauma on a personal level, I see that America is in the shock of trauma on every level, including the national level. Of course, to the people who have never left this country, it is hard to really feel the “energetic” or “quality” of this place as there is no other place to compare it to. And, quite literally, we are swimming in it every day…we think this is how life has to be.
Fear, paranoia, fight and flight response, and unstable survival instincts color its reality. I think this is important to recognize right out of the gate if you are born in America. No, they don’t teach us this but it is so important to understand. This gets into our energy body at a very young age, even while in the womb as we integrate our mother’s feelings, thoughts, and experiences.
I see this a lot as a wellness guide and herbalist. The impact of these qualities on peoples’ bodies mean a taxed liver, exhausted adrenal glands, and imbalanced thyroid function.
This matrix of unhealed wounds and trauma color our every day lives. To think that we can separate ourselves from it is only to realize that the joke is on us. We have to see it. We have to breath into it. And, like any great wound, we have to see how it colors our every day choices about who we are and where we are going.
We also have to chose to not play into these trauma responses.
It’s not until the wounds of the past are addressed that these narratives will calm on a personal and familial levels. These wounds will continue to push us to our edges until they are revealed and healed.
I can’t think of a time in history that a country of this size was so quickly populated by settlers, almost wiping out its indigenous peoples. Nowhere has there been this level of inhumane chattel slavery. And, never have so many people from so many backgrounds willingly and unwillingly come to a place and either decide or were forced to let go of their traditional or indigenous roots.
There’s a lot of pain informing our reality here in America. And, just like empires tore people away from their villages and tribes in the past and educated them in a particular way to be dependent on the empire itself instead of “place” and their people…these people started to praise nation-hood and the empire instead of their own hearts, their own intuition, and their own instincts.
It’s almost as if the nation needs to disband and take the focus out of nation-hood so that people and families can actually tend to their own wounds and heal their hearts and the places they live in.
We know that every empire falls. In its insatiable thirst to climb higher and amass more power, the separation between the Earth Mother and the Sky Father become greater. These empires always end in divorce. Then, we scatter to the wind in all directions and try to pick up the pieces and create a more wholesome way of life where energies are balanced and the marriage can be restored.
Lindsay Kolasa 