I am grateful for the love that flows among all of us in this space tonight.
Each of this talk's four movements ends with an epiphany written since the publication of "Wyrds of Power" and "I, the Dragon." (You could call these writings poems or incantations, but I call them “epiphanies," it's a word I was introduced to in the writings of the great James Joyce.) In the course of my presentation, I will share some powerful images ("Fair Use"); most are the works of great women artists from the 20th and 21st Centuries (which is in itself an important statement).
The Singularity Has Arrived
In 2010, I spoke and wrote about “The Singularity in Anticipation of Itself.”
Many of our greatest minds had been expressing grave concerns about the possibility of a Singularity arising from the growth of Artificial Intelligence (AI). And for good reason.
Meanwhile ...
I was suggesting that no matter what happened with AI, there was a singularity already arising from within the evolution of Human Intelligence, a Singularity resulting from our unbridled folly and genius, a Singularity epitomized by the Planetary Climate Crisis and Sixth Great Extinction, a Singularity that has disrupted the geological timeline itself and hurled us all into an abomination that scientists have named the Anthropocene Age.
Meanwhile ...
I was suggesting that no matter what happened with AI, there was a singularity already arising from within the evolution of Human Intelligence, a Singularity resulting from our unbridled folly and genius, a Singularity epitomized by the Planetary Climate Crisis and Sixth Great Extinction, a Singularity that has disrupted the geological timeline itself and hurled us all into an abomination that scientists have named the Anthropocene Age.
Well, here and now, in 2017, 2018, 2019, the Singularity I spoke in 2010 as "in an anticipation of itself," that Singularity has arrived:
- The Poles melting
- The Alps crumbling
- The city of Chennai has run out of water
- The nation of Indonesia is moving its capital from Jakarta because of the rising seas
- The first Climate Wars have been raging for years (e.g., Darfur and Syria).
- Climate refugees are streaming across the southern border of the United States and rafting across the Mediterranean into southern Europe.
- And what Naomi A. Klein aptly calls “Climate barbarism” is on the rise. Not in "third world countries" as you might imagine, but in some of the world’s oldest and most important democratic nations.
Four or five overarching themes run through my writings and talks since 2010.
We will touch on some of them in the course of this presentation, for example, the need to champion Altruism and Sustainability as Spiritual (and Existential) Imperatives.
We will touch on some of them in the course of this presentation, for example, the need to champion Altruism and Sustainability as Spiritual (and Existential) Imperatives.
As corroboration, I draw your attention to this recent message from Jane Goodall --
“We must eliminate poverty. We must change the unsustainable lifestyles of so many of us. We must abolish corruption. And we must think about our growing human population … It is no wonder people have despaired. But I believe we have a window of time to have an impact.” -- Jane Goodall. These 4 Issues May Not Seem Related to Climate Change. But They Are and We Need to Solve Them Now, Time Magazine (9/12/13)
The Other Side of the Event Horizon
So yes, the Singularity has arrived and we are on the other side of the Event Horizon.
What do I mean by "event horizon"?
Here's the Oxford Dictionary definition:
e·vent ho·ri·zon
noun
ASTRONOMY
noun: event horizon; plural noun: event horizons
a theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which no light or other radiation can escape.
a point of no return.
There is no frame of reference for where we are now. Nothing stored in our DNA to prepare us. No institutional memory to drawn on. No testament left behind by some other civilization that disappeared beyond the event horizon. No NDE could have prepared you for where you are now. This is something else entirely. Nothing has ever returned after slipping into the black hole of the utter unknown. The only way through is on, if there is anyway through at all.
There is real fear and real grief, mind-warping fear, soul-wrenching grief. Or at least there should be. Some of us run far away from it, embracing the illness of climate denialism. Some of us try to block it out and live the best life they can for as long as it lasts. Some of us struggle on attempting to make a difference in some meaningful way. It impacts all of us, whether we realize it or not, whether we verbalize it or not. This is happening. No one is going to escape it.
Here's the Oxford Dictionary definition:
e·vent ho·ri·zon
noun
ASTRONOMY
noun: event horizon; plural noun: event horizons
a theoretical boundary around a black hole beyond which no light or other radiation can escape.
a point of no return.
There is no frame of reference for where we are now. Nothing stored in our DNA to prepare us. No institutional memory to drawn on. No testament left behind by some other civilization that disappeared beyond the event horizon. No NDE could have prepared you for where you are now. This is something else entirely. Nothing has ever returned after slipping into the black hole of the utter unknown. The only way through is on, if there is anyway through at all.
There is real fear and real grief, mind-warping fear, soul-wrenching grief. Or at least there should be. Some of us run far away from it, embracing the illness of climate denialism. Some of us try to block it out and live the best life they can for as long as it lasts. Some of us struggle on attempting to make a difference in some meaningful way. It impacts all of us, whether we realize it or not, whether we verbalize it or not. This is happening. No one is going to escape it.
- It’s hardly surprising that researchers who spend their lives exploring the dire effects of climate change might experience emotional consequences from their work. Yet, increasingly, Cobb, Shukla, and others in the field have begun publicly discussing the psychological impact of contending with data pointing to a looming catastrophe, dealing with denialism and attacks on science, and observing government inaction in the face of climate change. “Scientists are talking about an intense mix of emotions right now,” says Christine Arena, executive producer of the docuseries Let Science Speak, which featured climate researchers speaking out against efforts to silence or ignore science. “There’s deep grief and anxiety for what’s being lost, followed by rage at continued political inaction, and finally hope that we can indeed solve this challenge. There are definitely tears and trembling voices. They know this deep truth: They are on the front lines of contending with the fear, anger, and perhaps even panic the rest of us will have to deal with.” -- David Corn, It’s the End of the World As They Know, Mother Jones, 7/18/19
- The impact of climate change on mental health is a looming public health crisis … “We are searching for terms to capture this deep feeling of pain in Arctic nations – words like eco-anxiety or ecological grief – but for me, something called ‘solastalgia’ perfectly sums up how people living on the frontline of climate change feel. It was coined by the Australian environmental philosopher Glenn Albrecht. It is also related to an Inuit word that refers to a friend behaving in an unfamiliar way. It means feeling homesick when you are home. Many of these islanders are in mourning for a disappearing way of life.” Howard’s biggest concern is the lack of acknowledgement. We are challenging the medical profession to acknowledge the world we are inheriting. Schools and universities aren’t considering how climate change will affect people from a medical or a psychological perspective, so we are not training a new generation of medical professionals to help people in a fast-changing planet, and this is intolerable. We are moving too slowly on this.” -- Dan McDougall, Life on Thin Ice, Mental Health at the Heart of the Climate Crisis, Guardian, 8/12/19
Just as the planetary state of emergency demands rEvolutionary action, i.e., voting, marching, protesting, greening your life, going to court, divesting, whatever, just so this planetary state of emergency demands deep, true, sustained self-care be embraced as a rEvolutionary act.
Unplug frequently. Eat consciously. Indulge in forest bathing, and if that's not available to you, maybe commune with the night sky on your rooftop. Meditate (which simply means wrap yourself in the shawl of silence, breath as if each breath was just a gentle kiss on the brow of your soul, and let go, let go, let go for just a little while). Sleep more, and better. Move into fuller embodiment through yoga. Allow yourself unstructured time. Choose well. Whatever self-care means to you, cultivate that, because it is as meaningful as any other aspect of your commitment to all you love, to the planet, to all of life.
Unplug frequently. Eat consciously. Indulge in forest bathing, and if that's not available to you, maybe commune with the night sky on your rooftop. Meditate (which simply means wrap yourself in the shawl of silence, breath as if each breath was just a gentle kiss on the brow of your soul, and let go, let go, let go for just a little while). Sleep more, and better. Move into fuller embodiment through yoga. Allow yourself unstructured time. Choose well. Whatever self-care means to you, cultivate that, because it is as meaningful as any other aspect of your commitment to all you love, to the planet, to all of life.
“You Must Do the Impossible ...”
Another overarching theme running through both "Wyrds" and "Dragon" is the Ascendancy of the Feminine. I have spoken and written about numerous aspect of this particular theme, which I consider the most vital and impactful of all of the contributing factors in our further evolution. Yes, if we are to have a future, if there is to be a great shift, if something new is to emerge from within the Singularity, it is, I am certain, dependent upon the Ascendancy of the Feminine in the human psyche, in society, in culture, in business, in science and especially in government.
Consider Greta Thunberg's rise to the world stage:
- In August 2018, she began striking (i.e.,taking off from school) on Fridays, and stationing herself, holding her protest sign outside of the Swedish Parliament in Stockholm.
- By December 2018, she was speaking before the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP24) in Poland.
- By April 2019, she was speaking before the European Parliament.
- In March 2019, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize (NOTE: Although the Committee did not award it to her, at least in 2019, she's in excellent company, Mahatma Gandhi was nominated for the Noble Peace Prize five times and never received it, even after he was martyred.)
- In September 2019, she led many millions of people in a world-wide climate action.
Now, the Old Testament is a troubling and hurtful book in many ways, a relic of the patriarchal violence that will be mostly (but not wholly) irrelevant in the ancient future that is on its way. But one particular prophecy has been speaking to me recently, whenever I ponder the world-wide uprising of Greta Thunberg and her young cohorts: The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea. -- Isaiah 11:6
Of course, this prophecy is often cited in regard to Jesus of Nazareth, in different ways by different theologians and mystics. He taught in the Temple when he was a little boy, and later, in the course of his mission, he exhibited a powerful connection to the children that came into his presence. The example of Jesus is drenched in the innocence and love that overflows from that prophecy. But I don't think Isaiah was talking about him.
Jesus was grounded in the Deep Feminine. It's so warped that he became the poster boy of the perversion that has been the patriarchy. I once wrote a story, "The Lost Years of Jesus." In that story, I wrote that the Madonna was not his biological mother, she was his Guru, a great Bhakti saint, like Amma. Her darshan was his immaculate conception. And yes, the Magdalena, maybe she had a professional life, maybe she was the mother of his children, but certainly she was his Tantrika, she initiated him into the dark mysteries. This is the Jesus that I know. And I am certain that if he were approached for his insights into Isaiah's prophecy, Jesus would point down the corridor of time directly to young Greta Thunberg and her cohorts throughout the world.
Jesus was grounded in the Deep Feminine. It's so warped that he became the poster boy of the perversion that has been the patriarchy. I once wrote a story, "The Lost Years of Jesus." In that story, I wrote that the Madonna was not his biological mother, she was his Guru, a great Bhakti saint, like Amma. Her darshan was his immaculate conception. And yes, the Magdalena, maybe she had a professional life, maybe she was the mother of his children, but certainly she was his Tantrika, she initiated him into the dark mysteries. This is the Jesus that I know. And I am certain that if he were approached for his insights into Isaiah's prophecy, Jesus would point down the corridor of time directly to young Greta Thunberg and her cohorts throughout the world.
Well, the Singularity has arrived. And we are beyond the Event Horizon.
A little child is leading us. And we must do the Impossible.
A little child is leading us. And we must do the Impossible.
The Secret Engine of the World
The first of the new epiphanies, "Secret Engine of the World" --
- What are you called? Bruja? Baul? Bodhisattva? Tantrika? Aghori? Troubadour? Dakini? Bhakta? Curandera? Yogini? Wizard? Sorceress? These are all just cover stories. Your true designation is beyond human speech. Authentic, mystical love, real love, is the secret engine of the world. But this authentic, mystical love, this real love, does not act like fire or water; it does not incinerate or drown that which it encounters. Authentic, mystical love, real love, moves like a vast glacier; whatever it does not crush or bury, it pushes forward. Yes, this love glacier levels mountains and forges canyons, it breaks the unbreakable and reshapes the earth. The love glacier is so massive that it takes a lifetime just to glimpse it, and even then it can only be seen as far as the horizon; it moves so slowly it is almost undetectable, and so it takes a lifetime to measure its grinding progress. Authentic, mystical love does not act like fire or water; it does not incinerate or drown that which it encounters. this love moves like a vast glacier; whatever it does not crush and bury, it pushes forward. This is the secret engine of the world. How utterly empty and free you must be to revel in the movement of this glacier, knowing that all you have ever had or wanted will be torn up and ground under, and that then in the glacier's aftermath there will be only a long fathomless silence, in which you will be no more than the shadow of a raven on the white stillness of the deep snow. -- Richard Power, March 2019
Yoga of Primal Reality
A third overarching theme in my work since 2010 has been what I call "the Evolution of Yoga and the Yoga of Evolution," and as a subset, my "Yoga of Primal Reality."
Yoga is evolving rapidly, in our lifetimes, and this evolution is being driven by women, particularly in the West. Many of us in this circle are intimately involved in that evolution, in one way or another.
Yoga is evolving rapidly, in our lifetimes, and this evolution is being driven by women, particularly in the West. Many of us in this circle are intimately involved in that evolution, in one way or another.
What do I mean by “Yoga of Primal Reality”?
It isn't a school or a system or a certification, it's just a suggested frame of reference, a perspective, an attitude toward the path of yoga and toward human incarnation itself.
It isn't a school or a system or a certification, it's just a suggested frame of reference, a perspective, an attitude toward the path of yoga and toward human incarnation itself.
I will touch on two aspects, just to give you a sense of what I mean.
The technology of yoga reveals that we have five bodies:
- Physical Body (Annamaya Kosha)
- Energetic Body (Pranamaya Kosha)
- Psychological Body (Manomaya) Typically, in translation, Manomaya is referred to as the "Mental Body," but I call it the "Psychological Body," because I say it includes the intellect and the emotions, the whole psychological construct.
- Wisdom Body, or Intuitive Body (Vijnanamaya Kosha)
- Bliss Body, or as I call it Sat-Chit-Ananda Body (Anandamaya Koshas
But I suggest you view the five bodies in a very different way, in the opposite way, actually. I say that the Bliss Body, the Sat-Chit-Ananda Body is the all encompassing one, the outermost one if you are drawing a diagram, and then the next one in is the Intuitive Body, and then the Psychological Body and the Energetic Body, and then the Physical Body is the innermost, the one at the center of it all. It's held there, the Physical Body, deep inside the immensity of your primal nature as pure Sat-Chit-Ananda, pure Being/Consciousness/Bliss, pure Sakti/Siva, pure Energy and Intelligence, wrapped in the swaddling garments of the Intuitive Body, the Psychological Body and the Energetic Body, pulsating inside of a bubble, a luminous bubble (aka the Universe, the galaxy, the star, the planet), inside of that radiant bubble, you live and move and breath as a human in this incarnation, as if in the palm of the Goddess' hand, and this is Dreamtime. I suggest to you that turning our understanding of the Five Bodies inside out changes everything -- if we allow it to.
We have five heads. We have ten arms and ten legs. That's the meaning of all the iconography of goddesses and gods with multiple heads and multiple limbs. Not something outside and beyond to pray to or worship, and not something in the distant future to aspire to over lifetimes of sadhana. No. This is our reality here and now. This is our primal reality. Here and now. And the mystical journey, the quest, whatever name you want to give it, it is nothing more than self-discovery and celebration.
This view changes our understanding of the nature of siddhis (i.e., powers). I suggest that even and especially in your present condition and circumstances, you are dripping with siddhis, bristling with siddhis, siddhis that you have taken for granted throughout your life: the five senses are siddhis, creativity is a siddhi, sleep is a siddhi, common sense is a siddhi, sexuality is a siddhi, sense of humor is a siddhi, walking, dancing, running, singing, all siddhis, powerful, magical powers. Here and now.
Hal, Makam and …
Most of us here tonight identify in some way as being on the path, I experience it as a pathless path in truth, perhaps you do too, but it is also aptly described as mystical path, spiritual path, occult path, yogic path, tantric path, depending upon the shades and hues of your particular predilections …
But whatever you call your path, whatever technologies you rely on, whatever iconography you have decorated your interior reality with, however far the dynamism of Hal and Makam has taken you, it is vital to ... Well, I will just read you this from "Dragon" --
- “There is no way around the psychological realm, or beyond it, the way to traverse it is to go straight through it, there is no other way, no matter how vast your understanding of the Adwaita Vedanta is, it doesn’t matter how profound your realization is, you will still have to make your way through the psychological realm, no, there is no way to transcend it or transmute it or escape beyond it, you have to go through it ..." -- Excerpted from "I, the Dragon: Chronicles of An Epic Life Among the Humans," p. 241
The Cauldron of the Dark Goddess
The second of the new epiphanies, "Cauldron of the Dark Goddess" --
- In the beginning, the dark goddess knew a loneliness so fierce that no creature could possibly comprehend it. Indeed, the revelation of such a loneliness would obliterate you before you ever arrived at its fullness. Before the dark goddess there was utter nothingness. She is the shadow of that nothingness, and as she emerged from it she was already dancing. Undulating, she shaped a huge cauldron. And into that cauldron she poured five elements that she pulled from her root, from her yoni, from her brain and from the midnight blue flesh of her vastness. The fresh water of intimate, personal tenderness. The love of the all in one. The salt water of agape. The love of the one in all. The blazing magma at the core. The lava flowing. The blazing hearth. The raging forest fire. The dark wet soil. The adamantine. The avalanche. The high winds that carry the Saharan sands over the Atlantic. Myrrh and frankincense wafting from an altar. The very breath moving in and out of your lungs. And of course Akasha, the laughing, sighing emptiness of space itself. These five elements swirling in the dark goddess' great cauldron form a world, three worlds in one actually. A beauty so exquisite it is unbearable. And then on that three-in-one world, a sorceress takes shape from within the swirling elements. And as she dances, this sorceress casts her own long shadow, and this shadow is itself a portal, which opens back into the being of the dark goddess, whose shadow, in turn, is a portal opening back into the ferocity of that original emptiness. The sorceress stomps on the earth as it engulfs her. She whirls in the fire as it incinerates her. She spreads her great wings into the insatiable hunger of the sky as it devours her. This is the truth of all creation, of every incarnation and of each beat of your heart. How deeply are you willing to lean into this truth? How ready are you to meet what awaits you there? -- Richard Power, June 2019
Occult Anthropology
All of my talks since 2010 have evolved organically, I haven’t been executing some grand vision that was revealed to me, I have just acted upon one intuition after another, but looking back I can see how they are all interconnected and interdependent …
Delivered in January 2019, "Dragon Bone Broth" was maybe the twenty-first or twenty-second of these talks, and it introduced my explorations into what I call "Occult Anthropology."
The presentation was organized into four sections.
The full text, slides and embedded videos are included in posts on this blog:
- Palace of Mirrors
- Spiritually Transmitted Diseases (STDs)
- The Problem with Men
- A Taxonomy of Magical Beings
Two new ways to classify humans (both magical and muggle) have revealed themselves.
First, we are looking at whether a creature is feral or non-feral.
Note that I did not say "feral or domesticated." This is because our research indicates that the opposite of feral is not "domesticated." We have encountered numerous beings who although raised as "domesticated" humans had strong feral strains in them. Therefore, feralness is not something limited to those among us who have raised ourselves on the streets and on the run. Feralness is something else, something mysterious. It is both a powerful energy and a peculiar way in which psyche and soma are structured. You are either feral or non-feral. It's how you're wired. You could have been raised "domesticated" and yet be quite feral, you could have been raised yourself, on the run, and yet be quite non-feral (although this is much rarer). The origins of feralness remain mysterious, and perhaps that's for the best, but it is detectable, palpable, undeniable. Determining whether a creature is feral or not reveals a lot about their psychology, the nature of their journey here and their reasonable expectations in regard to circumstances and relationships.
Second, we are looking at which of the seven phylums a human (whether magical or muggle) belongs to, e.g., Chordata (reptile, amphibian, mammal, bird, fish), Mollusca (e.g.octopus, squid, etc.) or Anthropoda (spiders, insect, crabs, etc.). And what family of animal within that phylum the being belongs to, e.g., if within the Cordata phylum, is the human's psyche-soma reptilian or mammalian, etc. or if within the Mollusca phylum, is the human's psyche-soma cephalopod, e.g., octopus?
How these two new methods of classification relate to the taxonomy of magical and muggle beings is yet to be determined. For now, these classifications are all independent of each other. If, for example, a being is classified as a peri or a centaur or a dakini, it does not mean by definition that being is feral or non-feral or reptilian, mammalian or cephalopod.
CADS
Following up on our research into Spiritually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) and its various strains, we have discovered a new mystical and mental health issue: "Cognitive Atrophy and Dissolution Syndrome" (CADS). CADS is not an STD. (Although those who have CADS are likely to be ridden with STDs.) CADS is a progressive disease, which leads to a kind of atrophy of the cognitive function, and if allowed to rage untreated, the utter dissolution of it, i.e. there's no healing it, no getting it back.
What does CADS look like?
A friend of mine, an authentic Tantric worker, posted something about climate change and the sixth great extinction, it wasn’t a political statement, it was a humanistic statement, a mystical statement, a Gaian statement. My glance happen to fall on a comment made by one of her “FB friends”: “The Green New Deal is UN global control. Please, please stop spreading this fear based propaganda and use your critical thinking skills to look at the actual facts. The planet changes climate in cycles, along with the other planets in our solar system. Any solution that doesn't involve stopping all wars, and using the advanced antigravity technology the government already has, is ridiculous. Look for global control offered as the solution after all the well-meaning public has worked themselves up into so much fear from articles like these, that they are willing to give up their rights in order for solutions that won't do a thing about the real problems: pollution and deforestation.”
Well, that’s just insane.
The comment wasn’t made by someone on that side of the ideological spectrum typically associated with climate change denialism, it was from someone who probably see themselves as either very progressive or somehow beyond politics. The person's political ideology and aesthetic sensibilities would resonate with ours in many ways. But they're suffering from CADS.
Two years ago, in Manhattan, at a book event for “I, the Dragon,” I found myself engaged in a dialogue with four people in their late 20s or early 30s, creative professionals, living in Brooklyn, They were all emphatically arguing that the earth was flat. They were serious. I offered some tangible proofs and several compelling thought experiments to counter their delusion, but it was a futile effort. But these young people were suffering full blown CADS. It's a form of disassociation. I don't think they really believe the earth is flat. I think that just don't really believe that there is any reality at all, so they embrace the absurdity and run with it. And again, these young people weren't from the extreme opposite end of the ideological or cultural spectrum, you and I would resonate with most of their political views and aesthetic sensibilities. They've just been driven crazy.
These are just two examples of those among us suffering from CADS. I could offer you countless others, but you might start recognizing some of your friends, or even yourself.
Communications and Entertainment Technology: There are successive baselines. First, we had a generation that grew-up watching TV, then they were followed by a generation that grew up watching TV, playing computer games and surfing the Internet, and now we have a generation that has grown up dependent upon the amazing reach of the smartphone. Furthermore, each wave of new technologies has been embraced by those who grew up along the previous baseline. And yes, with each successive wave, there has been a furthering weakening of the cognitive function.
Social Media: Have you gone down the Rabbit Hole? Gotten lost in the real and/or imaginary lives of others? Gotten lost in generating the stream of your own real and/or imaginary life? Scrolling, scrolling, scrolling, down, down, down ... Entranced ... If not checked, it can lead to further weakening of the cognitive function ... Meanwhile, as your social media activity is tagged and analyzed, news stories begin to appear in your feed, news stories which some artificial intelligence has determined would be of interest to you, some of that news is real news, which would indeed be of interest to you, it is benign, but some of that "news" is actually weaponized, toxic, i.e., disinformation. Malignant. Calibrated to send you down a rabbit hole within the rabbit hole. Weaponized disinformation meant, in turn, to weaponize (or disarm) your mind. Some of it generated to serve corporate agendas, some generated to serve geopolitical agendas. Poison. It weakens your cognitive function even further.
Festivals: To walk off the threshing floor for a few days. To shed the armor of coping. To immerse yourself in the desert or the deep forest. To drop the mask of getting by and getting on, and for just a little while, choose a mask of ritual power. To celebrate. Self-discovery and self-expression. To swim in a sea of resonance. Tribal discovery. Tribal expression. The great festivals of our privileged sojourn on this sacred land. "Lightening In A Bottle." "Symbiosis." "Enchanted Forest." "Northern Lights." "Beloved." "Burning Man." All this, yes. Transformative. From burn-out to bliss-up. But tell me, do you organize your life around the festival circuit? Have you come to view the expanded space and slowed down time of the festiva
