Spring Into Action

I'm feeling such an intensity of revolutionary passion right now that I really don't want to be sitting in front of a computer. I want to be out in the woods, or out in the streets, or out dancing with all of my best friends, or making love out in the moonlight. But since none of those other options seem possible right now, I'm going to pick up where I left off last time and throw in a bit of Spring exuberance for good measure.

I don't know about you, but I didn't come to this lovely planet of ours to sit idly by while the forces of destruction and domination tear everything to pieces. Life here is so beautiful! The earth and sky are a living sculpture of colors, and even the most conformist of the people who live here are such complex and fascinating souls that I could explore the depths of their lives forever. The more I let go of my lingering attachments, the more free I am to have an increasingly more profound, more personal, and more ecstatic experience of that beauty. Yet even as I feel this beauty in every cell of my body, I can also feel the steady march of a so-called progress that threatens to tear all of this to pieces.

Why, oh why, do so many of my fellow humans allow themselves to be swept up into systems of horrific destruction that threaten to extinguish life as we know it? Sure, we were born into it, and it's hard to break out of it from within. There are so many paths to conformity, and so few paths to change. But if a few of us can see through the lies of consensus reality, then why can't all of us break the spell? Why, instead, do so many fall in line behind our so-called leaders and the systems of domination that actively enact our own enslavement and mass destruction?

Forgive them, Earth Mother, they know not what they do...

Call me a radical if you like. Call me a fanatic, or a zealot, or an extremist. But whatever you do, don't call me apathetic, because my passion is the bane of all apathy. I vow now, as I have vowed so many times, that I will not leave this lovely planet of ours until the Earth is whole again, and all people are free, and joy runs rampant through the four corners of every land.

Passion alone, however, is not enough. Only passion focused by discipline, channeled in the service of some collective strategy, will be enough to bring the Earth some measure of freedom, peace, and happiness.

So what do we do? How do we channel our passion for a better world into some sort of concrete course of action that will effectively create the change that we desire?

This brings us back to magic. Magic is all about raising energy and directing it toward the creation of change within us and around us. Whether you see this as a poetic metaphor or an explanation of some very real but oft-unseen forces of nature, it's still a good framework for action.

Your mission, then, should you choose to accept it, is to turn your entire life into one great big ongoing spell that will create the changes you desire.

Do you want to live in a more peaceful world? Then you must learn to eat peace, drink peace, awaken to peace, and dream of peace. In this way, your understanding of peace will deepen, and every action you take will be infused with that knowledge of peace. You will become an architect of peace, or a sculptor of peace, or a musician of peace, or a dancer of peace, creating works of beauty that establish a physical home for peace. Once you have created space for peace in the world, you can expand that space and connect it with other similar spaces, building a network of peace that envelopes the Earth and transforms it into a place of peace.

I realize that all of that may still sound too abstract and mystical for some people. But it's a start -- an overarching vision that can serve as a foundation for the particular actions we take toward peace, and justice, and freedom, and joy, and harmony with the Earth.

Each of us is a living, breathing spell. As we cast our personal spell each day, we are shaping the world around us, whether we like it or not. If our spell doesn't actively seek to bring greater joy, and freedom, and justice, and peace into the world, then the energy we are raising each day is going to be sucked away from us to fuel the existing system of domination and destruction. If, on the other hand, we make a conscious effort to reorganize our lives in the service of our most benevolent and joyful visions of the world, then we have already succeeded in challenging the system from within, even if our actions have no immediately visible outward effect.

Let us turn every moment, then, of every day, into a spell for a better world.

How do we do it? How do we break the harmful spell of the existing system and cast a healing spell of our own?

There are no easy or universal answers. But if you ask me, it all starts with our experience of joy. When we feel a deep sense of joy, we are usually experiencing a degree of harmony between our innermost hopes and dreams and the circumstances of our external reality. Our joy, then, is one of our greatest guides in the pursuit of our dreams.

What brings you joy in life? I'm not just talking about idle entertainment, but true joy that runs deeper than any fleeting amusement. If you can find such joy, even for a moment, then you've discovered a clue about your own personal path to revolution.

Revolution, however, goes beyond the personal experience of joy. Revolution seeks to take this experience of personal empowerment and make it available to as many people as possible. Once you've found a piece of your own joy, look into the joys and sorrows of others around you and search for new understandings and experiences. Your joy is an end unto itself, but the true magic starts when the energy raised by your joy also becomes a means to supporting the joy of others. How can your own pursuit of happiness also help others to become more free and joyful?

As you experience this joy, and feel the flow of joy and sorrow through the lives of others, you will become more sensitive to the ebb and flow of energy in general. This awareness will increase your ability to enact revolutionary change in cooperation with those around you. What physical, emotional, mental, social, economic, and ecological structures are in place around you to control the flow of energy? What are some of the "bottlenecks" in these systems that cause the most harm and suffering? How can you and your loved ones reshape this "energy infrastructure" to support a smoother and deeper flow of joy and freedom?

There are people in this world with a detailed understanding of such energy systems who actively use their knowledge to do harm. They seek to gain power by creating and maintaining social, economic, and political systems that actively harm and oppress others. In essence, they are casting a spell -- a spell that allows them to suck the joy out of other people's lives in pursuit of ever-greater levels of power for themselves. They are the tyrants, the fascists, and the profiteers of the world -- and on the surface, their spell seems quite powerful and successful.

But we can use our own understanding of these energy systems to serve in our own liberation and the liberation of the entire world. On an individual level, we can do everything in our power to break free of their oppressive systems and bring more joy and freedom into our lives. On a community and society level, we can channel energy -- in the form of money, and time, and land, and other forms of tangible wealth -- toward the creation and maintenance of our own cooperative, humanitarian, ecological, and liberatory systems of energy. The spell that the oppressors are casting is powerful -- but the spell that we cast, individually and collectively, will be even more powerful than anyone can currently imagine. Through our love of life, our endless creativity, and our dedication to our visions for creating a better world, we will cast a spell so powerful that nothing will ever be the same again.

I know that all of the above may be a bit long-winded and non-linear. But the basic message that I hope you will take with you is that each of us carries an incredibly beautiful and powerful spark of creative magic within us. Whatever you do, don't let anyone convince you to ignore or dismiss or doubt the presence of this power within. Instead, use your own joy, passion, and intuition as a guide in finding that spark of magic. Know that when you and your loved ones share this spark with each other, you will discover the power to change your lives -- and the world -- for the better.