I cannot begin to express the depth of my sorrow and my anger over the assault on the United States Congress and Capitol on Wednesday. It was an attempt to overturn an election and halt a Constitutional process that has defined this country throughout its history: the peaceful transition of power from one Administration to another. Seeing a Confederate battle flag carried through the Rotunda of the Capitol building, I felt shock and dismay. In a matter of minutes, a mob, with the instigation and encouragement of the sitting President of the United States, was able to accomplish what no Confederate troops were able to do during the four years of the Civil War.
That this happened is inexcusable, but it is not a surprise. For some time now, my subtle colleagues have been saying that the United States is facing a test of its principles and its ideals. Having proclaimed ourselves as a union, a republic, in which all people are equal before the law and possessing a right to equal opportunities to grow and thrive and pursue happiness, we cannot escape from having our collective feet held to the fire of proving it. If this is our destiny, to be a vision of what is possible when people come together and work together, then we will be asked over and over again to make it so until it is second nature to us, its reality as much a part of us as our blood and bones.
As Wednesday's event showed, we’re not there yet. We’re still choosing the destiny we wish to fulfill. Will it be the one enshrined, however imperfectly, in the vision of our Founders, a vision of reaching across differences to build an equitable and free society together? Or will it be the vision of a world, not unlike that of Pottersville in the movie It’s a Wonderful Life, in which the country is divided between the winners and the losers, between those who dominate and those who must submit, between those who have and those who have not, a country in which those who achieve power conspire to hoard it and never let go?
One doesn’t have to be psychic or have contact with subtle beings to have seen the forces gathering over the past several years to bring us to this particular boiling point. Day after day, the signs have been there to suggest that some form of collision of world views was coming, mainly because our divisions were being fed and stoked and widened. Perhaps Wednesday's events will be the shock that brings everyone to their senses and allows reconciliation and healing to begin to happen. Perhaps not - we may have further, perhaps even worse confrontations to come. As my subtle colleagues are fond of saying, “What unfolds is up to you and your choices.”
What, then, are we to do after an event like this?
First, those who instigated, nourished, enabled, and enacted the assault on the Capitol, on Congress, and on our democracy need to face consequences for what they have done. We need to let our Representatives know that this is our will as citizens and require them to keep up the pressure until this is done. If those responsible are excused or there are no consequences, then such collisions and confrontations will continue, and the next ones may be worse. Why not, if those who do these things feel they can do so with impunity? The hard truth is that we cannot be soft-hearted about this. We cannot take this democracy for granted. A line was crossed, and if we choose for the United States to succeed, this line cannot be crossed—or even approached—again.
Beyond this, we need to do what we always need to do in healing and blessing our world. We need to be in ourselves the quality and spirit of life we wish this country and our planet to embody. If division lives in my heart, then I will create a world that is divided. Indeed, if I feel I can be a winner and not a loser, I may seek divisiveness as a source of power and safety, If unity lives within me, then I will seek a world of cooperation and community in which we are all winners, each in our own unique way. Either way, I choose what I am.
This is, for me, the gift of Incarnational Spirituality. It offers me a vision of the sacredness and wholeness of incarnation, a vision of my potential as a whole individual. It offers an evolving practice that honors and strengthens in down-to-earth ways both my individuality and the larger community of life in which I participate. It helps me realize that I contribute to the incarnation of the larger wholes of which I am a part—specifically in this case, the incarnation of the United States as a force for blessing in the world. This gives me power and purpose right where I am, for I can choose and act to bring the greater, nobler spirit of America to life in my own daily relationships.
In the days ahead, whatever they bring, we don’t need to tear this country down and apart in our desire to be right. We can build up the country by choosing our ability to stand together, respecting each other in our Light.
In this moment of living history, I invite you to stand steadfast in the Light and Love of your Presence. Together, we shape the unfolding incarnation of wholeness in our country and in the world..