 Toxic Masculinity remains rife within our society today, how do we feel about this?
We see it in Russia's invasion of the Ukraine, we see it in altercations at the Oscars, we see it in the governance of pandemics, we see it in what we believe to be conspiracy theories, hell we see it in the way that we as human beings continue to expand across the planet without any respect towards nature and our fellow inhabitants within our world. It is a 'power over' way of being, where we seek to bully, control, criticise and condition our fellow citizens towards our way of thinking. We take resources from the planet as if they are solely meant for us regardless of where they are in the world and what purpose they ultimately serve. We are selfish, we operate from a place of lack and scarcity, we hoard and we live in fear. If anyone dare challenge us we lash out with our own style of retribution. This mentality only continues to make us feel more and more alone, isolated within the world, where, in solitary confinement, surrounded by a million cans of baked beans and a thousand rolls of loo paper we are bereft without any fellow human contact, none of any note in any case. Just an inanimate scroll of a social media feed where all of our emotions are hidden behind a wall of words without any genuine, physical human contact. We yearn for connection with other kindred spirits and yet we do everything within our power to push people away, to take their energy away from them, just so that we can survive for a minute longer upon this globe of ours lost within a multitude of galaxies. This isn't the way to be in the world that we live in, we know this deep down at our very core but we know of little alternative as we have only experienced this one way of living to date, a caterpillar way of existence. This continued treadmill of life where we continue to give and give and give to a system that very rarely returns any favours to us, unless we spend 25 years or more at our current task eeking out incremental payments towards our dreams from a very modest existence where only 1% of us truly win within the life that we encounter. The rest of us are continually in debt to it and it feels as if we will never have our head above the water. Once we do eventually surface it is often beaten back down or held below the water line as we drown in feelings of unworthiness, being under appreciated and unloved. We can however turn it all around by adopting a 'power with' attitude, to seek to serve others, to be expansive with our unique gifts that we have to offer the world, to be supportive, compassionate and caring towards every living being that we encounter. In essence we are being urged to become more feminine in nature, opening up to our own divinity, softening the masculine aspect of ourselves where we begin to operate out of a place of abundance, joy, fun and frivolity. Here we begin to feel that we have any amount to share with others and once more we start to come back more into alignment with the Earth herself. We can choose to share resources, to provide for others, to respect our fellow creatures upon the planet, giving them the space and respect that they deserve too. We begin to value them and work with them to create a planet where we can all begin to work in harmony with one another, sing the same song, being in tune with the rhythm of Gaia. It is clear we need to pitch our voices higher, to place them up an octave or two if we are to lift the vibrancy and frequency of the planet to a more loving way of being, honouring our own divinity and butterfly self. This is possible however once we know our journey to date and how we have come to be where we are today. If you are a man and you want to transform yourself from a place of toxicity to one of divinity why not check out my upcoming 13 month personal development project in the form of the Orion Reborn Mens Program. If you are a woman why not check out The Flower Power Trip and The Butterfly Journey and let's see what we can do by way of an introduction to each other. Together we can make the difference that we seek. I sit and wait patiently to be of service to you, whoever comes over the horizon first to be welcomed through the gateway into a new realm, one where some very fluttery kindred spirits exist just waiting to make contact with you, once you begin to find your reason for being on the globe at this time, your life purpose. Why not come and join the new paradigm that is beginning to form and connect with me today, I can't wait to hear from you in order to get started.
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 Why The Caterpillar Dominates Our World At This Time! We as human beings, at this moment in time, seem to hold dominion over nature. With each day that passes so the imbalance between our own population and the rest of the species upon the planet becomes ever more extreme.
Both through the continual building of our own numbers and the way that we choose to live, we impact on the rest of our ecosystem. This is proving to be detrimental not only to those other creatures that live alongside us but to ourselves now too. We can visibly see the influence we are having on the world around us with the melting ice caps and deforestation visible from space, as well as the plastic pollution that can be witnessed within our oceans first hand. We are a species out of control, out of alignment with the rest of the Earth. When Coronavirus came along, regardless of whether it was man made or came from nature itself, during lockdown, the rest of the planet was able to gain some temporary relief from our continual onslaught. Both the waters and the airs around the globe began to become clear again and the animals of the land and the sea started to venture out of the depths of the wilderness to reclaim their natural territory. It was like as if an electric shock was being administered to Mother Earth to pump new life back into her body and to help her fight back. Yet in this time of societal upheaval, if human activity was being restricted and we were less evident as a species on the surface of the planet, we were still growing within our own households, out of sight of everything else, the world over. In 2020, as a population, up to the time of writing we have birthed another 79 million people on to the planet, where only 33 million have departed in the same time span (a mere 644,000 of them being attributed to Covid - 19). That means we have created a net population increase of 46 million since the turn of the year. All those people need to be housed, fed, clothed and watered. This is space that is needed for the human being at the expense of nature. We are bullying the rest of the planet into submission with our continued expansion and consequent consumption. I believe there are some simple reasons behind this phenomenon. What lies at the heart of it all is a feeling of lack and fear deep within us, of people not being whole and fulfilled, always wanting more, be that stuff or children, in order to fill a massive void within us. This feeling of lack stems from our family upbringing, childhood, playground activity and reaffirmed society values, where we are bullied into a life determined by others whilst we remain unaware of who we truly are and our authentic place within the natural world. There is no rite of passage any more that encourages us to voyage out into nature to be able to gain the knowledge we require as to what our true identity is all about. Bill Plotkin states in his book 'Nature And The Human Soul' that we now live within a 'Patho-Adolescent Society'. My personal interpretation of this is that we live in a permanent state of adolescence without ever truly growing up. As many of our leaders exist in this state too, not ever having had any real affinity with nature themselves, we are being led down a cul-de-sac with nowhere to go except oblivion. Bill would say that 'in current Western and Westernised societies, in addition to the scarcity of true maturity, many people of adult age suffer from a variety of adolescent psychopathologies - incapacitating social insecurity, identity confusion, extremely low self esteem, few social skills, narcissism, relentless greed, arrested moral development, recurrent physical violence, materialistic obsessions, little or no capacity for intimacy or empathy, substance addictions and emotional numbness'. Any amount of this is brought on through bullying, criticism, control and abuse and the consequent trauma that happens to us as a result of all this. In effect what we are talking about here is what I class as a caterpillar way of being. Where we continue to eat up the world, consuming all the while, unaware of our true potential that lies within us, the ability to transform into the butterfly we are all capable of being. We have a whole mode of communication that connects us to the caterpillar growth model in existence every day that encourages us to compete at the expense of others, knocking people down and bullying them into submission so they are unable to do that to us. We need to be aware however that there is another way of relating that is more collaborative, supportive, encouraging and indeed loving that will take us closer to evolving into the more aspirational flighty form of ourselves that we ultimately desire, one capable of creating everyone as winners. If we are to heal the world and bring it back into alignment we must first heal ourselves, then change, develop and evolve into the more complete human beings we are capable of becoming. That way we can help nature do likewise but we first have to stop and take responsibility for ourselves again. For if we do not then Mother Earth will surely strike back more strongly than ever before, if not through another pandemic then famine, drought, flood or other extreme weathers and circumstances designed to test the survival spirit of the human being to the limit. We have a choice now to change and make long lasting amendments to the way that we have been living to bring us back into balance with the rest of the Earth. I suggest that we take this opportunity now before it is too late and the world is too far gone. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.  The forest is shrouded in quiet.
Hushed grasses stay mute in the breeze. There's no danger it seems, no riot. So why just the feeling of unease. Every hair is stood to attention. Every sense attuned to the void. No sound to offer a mention. Yet flight instincts are ready and buoyed. Every pupil is scanned to the bushes. Every hoof prepared for the race. No stripe to be seen in the rushes. But the pulse just quickens a pace. Ears twitch and strain for a murmur. For the foot fall of velvety paw. Dust cushions the imprint of grandeur. No whisper of troublesome spoor. Breath is held in the moment. A pause before imminent strike. Prey pray for salvation, atonement. To be spared the carnivorous bite. The stalk is finally over. Forgotten in one leap and a bounce. A blaze of orange breaks cover. No chance for the chosen, one pounce. Fang and claw stretch out in the capture. Primal scream unleashed in the fall. Grabbed by the throat in the rapture. The vanquished can utter no more. One gasp just left in the mortal. One chest pump from imminent doom. Darkness has surrounded life's portal. But the tiger still shines in the gloom. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2019 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below.  The Swallowtail Butterfly I don't know when exactly it was that I first became aware of the true nature of butterflies, possibly when chasing them around the garden at home with my little yellow net, when I was barely able to walk, let alone run, at the age of two. When I felt free. When I was trying to catch the cabbage white, its lime green and black caterpillar having eaten up all of next door's greens. The adult butterfly having emerged from its chrysalis used to flock to our garden resting itself on our dahlia heads or rose bushes in our flower packed beds.
I used to get into all sorts of trouble rushing about trying to catch these dull looking, elusive creatures, a plain white butterfly with the odd black spot on the tips of its wings. I would take swipe after swipe with my ready made trap as I pursued them across open grassland and vegetable patch, doing more damage to the poor flowers and growing harvest than the butterflies themselves had ever done in my attempts to avenge the atrocities their former selves had administered to the plants over the fence. My parents were far from pleased with my antics. One day, having pulled the wings off my umpteenth leaf and petal pest, suddenly something happened to change all that. A wonderful swallowtail butterfly fluttered over the top of the hedge from below our house and danced magically for a few moments throughout the shrubbery bringing with it a new felt warmth into the garden as if it carried with it the sunlight itself. Its brightly coloured coat of yellow, cyan, magenta and black held me in awe of its own unique identity, shining well beyond mine. I would not wish to capture such a creature but just watch it, let it pitch and glide and wonder at it blissfully, as it made its passage through my life and be thankful for the time it had graced me with its presence. In later life I was to learn that this was indeed a rare sight and this experience was well and truly special. Swallowtails are scarce, hardly ever being seen in South West England more commonly being witnessed on the European mainland, although inevitably in decline with habitat loss. Had this one got lost? I wondered. Were they more common at the time? It's hard to believe these days that I actually saw it. Maybe I dreamt it? It certainly left a lasting impression on me. Perhaps it had brought a subliminal message from spirit that I wouldn't truly know the meaning of until experiencing another synchronistic moment like it some 30 years later. This is what I have come to believe in any case. I realized instantly from seeing it, that it was high time I put my net down, no longer to be used as a weapon of mass destruction against my fellow creature. I would celebrate the winged one for all it was, even the cabbage white, who in hindsight I thought had done its level best to emerge from its own destructive past into a much higher being. Who was I to condemn it for that? No, that would be a lesson for me in later life, a teaching about my own ability to transform, one in which I now hope to help others with too, including yourself, in learning what it takes to become a butterfly or a true ally of nature. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.  Forgive me mother, for getting too big.
No room is there left now, for lion or pig. Forgive me mother, for multiplying too many. In habitat loss, species die two a penny. Forgive me mother, for conceiving more kids. No concept of growth, or population lids. Forgive me mother, for expanding so fast. The cities created, such shadows they cast. Forgive me mother, for sprawling too wide. Railroads and highways, with you they collide. Forgive me mother, for commuting so much. Clogging your airways, losing nature's touch. Forgive me mother, for being a child. Trashing kerbside in tantrum, forest when riled. Forgive me mother, for creating such mess. With plastic and litter, turtles choke in distress. Forgive me mother, for polluting your streams. Blackening water with oil, culling indigenous dreams. Forgive me mother, for depleting your gifts. Searching for treasure, only finding thrift. Forgive me mother, for claiming your body. Raping your landscapes, all for more money. Forgive me mother, for flaunting your wealth. Felling your trees, at the expense of health. Forgive me mother, for warming you up. No snow left for white bear, grey seal or pup. Forgive me mother, for acting the fool. Playing for time, when ice caps pool. Forgive me mother, for gambling it all. In Wall Street casinos, on stock rise and fall. Forgive me mother, for trying your patience. No thoughts to actions, just quarrelling between nations. Forgive me mother, for electing the leaders. Barely out of nappy, consumption hungry breast feeders. Forgive me mother, for everything they diss. When comparing their manhood, or height of their piss. Forgive me mother, for surrendering my power. Not voicing my stance, championing beast and flower. Forgive me mother, for neglecting my duty. Of being protector of the Earth, steward of beauty. By Simon Blackler Copyright © Simon Blackler 2019 If you care to comment on this poem at all please feel free to do so below.  What Legacy Do We Want To Leave Our Children? The Children’s Fire is one of two sacred laws that govern a large percentage of First Nation People. It is a fire that represents not only the children of this generation but that of the next 6 to come, making 7 generations in all.
When the law refers to The Children it means all the children of the Earth, not solely human beings, all the species of flora and fauna that are alive on the planet today. The law decrees that no decision should ever be taken by the current community, any individual or group, that would bring harm in any way to The Children and so risk extinguishing The Children’s Fire or prevent it from burning quite so bright in future years. That is why a candle or flame exists at the centre of any council that sits within that culture to remind one and all of the consequences any motion being carried or lost has with regards to the relationship held with The Children. When we think about the global issues we are now faced with today in relationship to The Children’s Fire it perhaps brings all of our decision making into perspective and question. This is what the children of the Earth, led by Greta Thurnberg, are trying to bring to the attention of all the adults on the planet today. When we continue to burn fossil fuels, emit greenhouse gases and create plastic pollution, are we creating a better environment for The Children to live in or worse? When we simply create more human beings, ever expanding our own population whilst impacting heavily on all other species environments and habitats, are we creating a better place for The Children to breathe and thrive in or otherwise? When we contribute to our own overcrowding, poverty, famine, malnutrition and dis-ease within our own society as a consequence of our continued growth and urbanisation, are we leaving a healthier legacy for the next generation or not? In many a spiritual practice, ritual or ceremony a fire is often lit to help commemorate it, to add to the sanctity of the event. As the candle or flames flicker we are enchanted by the dance in front of our eyes, we love the warmth and comfort that it brings, the excitement of its brightness, mystery and creativity, but we also appreciate its vulnerability at the same time. We are fully aware of how too little or too much wood, wind or water might contribute to the fire dying or going out. We watch over it like a mother would tend a child to keep the balance, the embers glowing, the kindling alight, the fuel forever burning. That same respect, care and attention now needs to be administered to The Children themselves, as a part of The Children’s Fire. If we are to have a community that will continue to warm us and carry our light forward, bewitching us with its presence, we must now bring ourselves back into alignment, to recreate the right relationship again to The Children. Then we will be able to ensure that The Children do indeed have enough wood, wind and water to continue to flourish and bloom whatever their creed or species maybe. Here lies the peace that we seek for ourselves, others and the planet, the unconditional love that we wish to hold for one and all, to allow us to sustain all life alive around the globe at this time and that which still has to follow on behind as is decreed within The Children's Fire. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below.  The Question We Now All Need To Ask Ourselves! At the Royal Wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex the Most Reverend Michael Curry talked about the Power Of Love being a transformative, redemptive force within the world once people embraced the understanding of what this truly meant, for both themselves and the planet.
I want to bring that Power Of Love into this blog whilst writing about what some of the paradoxes are of being a human in this day and age and what it is to live my own life as a consequence at this moment in time also. For when the Power Of Love is referred to at a Royal Wedding, as one pundit quite rightly picked up on, there is normally at least one dear aunt amongst the congregation that will inevitably want to start to talk about children and when one son or daughter might appear on the horizon, perhaps with the aspiration that many more will follow on behind, to represent what traditionally one might believe to be a happy, healthy, abundant family. This has been one of the most fundamental questions one would ask a fellow human being for many generations almost as soon as the confetti has hit the ground. However, perhaps now the question that more pertinently needs to be asked is ‘how many children are you planning on having?’ Today one of the paradoxes of being a human is the fact that in order to continue to exist and sustain ourselves as a species we need to reproduce the next generation. However given the population size we now are at, with no natural predator, if we continue to reproduce without consciousness, we inadvertently bring harm to ourselves and the rest of the planet in our expansion. When we solely think about our own selves and how many children we desire on having we don’t necessarily think of all the other offspring of the Earth, all the other inhabitants of the planet too, and the balance required for all to be able to survive and thrive in their own habitats. I would suggest that given a relatively equal split of males to females alive on the planet today within the human population (105 to 100 at birth according to the World Health Organisation) that merely 2 children per woman per lifetime is enough for us to aspire to having in order to keep our population at a more sustainable level. Here the offspring natur-ally replace the parents within one life cycle. This is with the caveat that the mean number of generations alive on the Earth at any one time stays at roughly 3 and doesn't extend to 4 with increased health and life expectancy. When commenting on any population growth issues I do so from a perspective of being fully aware of the impact my own family has had on society throughout the last century. I'm sure when my grandparents decided to give birth to 9 children 90 years ago they had very little thought as to what impact this would have on the population as a whole if everyone behaved in the same way. Growing up I was blissfully unaware of how many extra houses would need to be created in order to accommodate my rapidly expanding family, and how much nature would have to be sacrificed as a result. I was somewhat oblivious to the situation when enjoying countless family parties as one of 22 cousins. From just my grandparents alive in 1928 there are now 66 extra people in existence here on Earth purely amongst my own relatives (not including spouses). Sir David Attenborough, a patron of Population Matters has stated that he has ‘never seen an environmental problem that wouldn’t be easier to solve with fewer people on the planet, or harder, and ultimately impossible, with more.’ I believe if we are to truly embrace the Power Of Love now, we need to do so in a global context and realise what effect we have on the rest of our world with the choices we make, for there is a collective consciousness at work between us all that states whether an action is acceptable or not when truly tuned in and properly aligned to that of all creation. This collective consciousness I believe is now saying to us, ‘Time's up, reign yourselves back in and realign, treasure all around you, flora and fauna alike, whilst considering the amount of children you have, reducing it to two and maybe even one for the benefit of all.’ Any one of any influence and power within our society in my book has to take their own fair share of responsibility to be seen to be having the right amount of children. This is because a large part of society look up to them and model themselves upon them and believe consciously or subconsciously it is OK to follow suit. The very fact that the groom's brother and sister in law, the Duke and Duchess Of Cambridge, have now just recently given birth to their third child, the Queen and Prince Phillip before them having had four in their own lifetime, David and Victoria Beckham having also had four and other aspirational celebrities like Kim Kardashian having had a similar amount, tends to send a certain message out to the masses. I just wonder if having as many children as you like is giving the right indication to the rest of society as to what is OK to do in our modern day existence? My intention here is not to point the finger and bring blame or shame upon anyone who has chosen to have any more than two children, for what is done is done and we are all culpable as I have previously mentioned. It is just purely to bring awareness of how many children we are having and what effect this has as a consequence on the rest of the planet and our environment around us when we choose to do so. It does however bring a pang of sorrow to my heart whenever I hear of this having occurred due purely to my love for nature. How many environmental activists I wonder march on Downing Street and the like chaining themselves to the lampposts or sitting prone in Parliament Square with 4 or 5 kids in tow? They complain about the environmental impact of climate change when creating more and more children arguably is the major contributory factor. If we elect to have more than two children in any one family, at the very least we need to be living a carbon zero lifestyle, being greener than green and endeavouring to live with as little or no human impact upon the Earth as is possible. This is the true Power Of Love that is needed today, the love for the planet itself and all of the other inhabitants that share our world alongside us in order to create the right relationship to it again and bring ourselves back into balance. If you care to comment on this blog with regards to any issues or feelings it brings up for you please feel free to do so below. |
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