Refuse and Revel!
April 1st, 2020
Join me in exploring Peter Cawston’s suggestions for how we can conduct ourselves at this time of difficulty. His first suggestion is: – “Refuse to let this thing rob you of your life: revel in every moment of bliss that you can, acknowledge and allow every sad or frightened feeling as also sacred.” [Peter clarifies: “the ‘thing’ that is to be resisted is not the virus itself but the social and economic conditions that led to the pandemic. The virus is part of the natural balance of life, maintaining balance in bat and other species with which it co-evolved. It is habitat destruction, loss of biodiversity, trade in endangered species and global air travel that have led to the leap into humans and rapid spread across our non – adapted species. That’s the human catastrophe that could rob us of our lives. Every act of revelling in bliss and non-conforming with the drivers of that economic and social order is an act of rebellion.”]We’ll explore the other suggestions in future Teas. Their simplicity holds great depth and it is worth ‘unpacking’ each suggestion. Do let me know what you think in the Comments section. PS. If you are experiencing anxiety related to the epidemic, The Institute of Psychosynthesis is offering a free telephone support service. They are great people. You can find details here: https://www.psychosynthesis.org/coron…https://www.psychosynthesis.org/coronavirus-support/
And do read this brilliant essay by Charles Eisenstein. I can’t recommend it highly enough. We are all getting overwhelmed perhaps by talk of the virus, but this is superb and thought-provoking: https://charleseisenstein.org/essays/the-coronation/
5 Responses to “Refuse and Revel!”
It’s great that in one of his videos Charles Eisenstein acknowledges his debt to Lewis Hyde’s book ‘The Gift’ which was my first introduction to many valuable ideas about the human capacity to share and give which have been lost in days of everything being assigned a monetary value. I remember my days as a student, debating the possibility of calculating a visual, recreational, mental health value to a landscape, I hope we can learn a lesson this time which we did not quite learn at the time of the Rio conference (1992) about the need to address inequality and exploitation. Thanks very much for the pointer to this thoughtful essay.
Thanks for this 1st April talk, Philip (I met you last year when about to go on my solo Brighton to Glastonbury pilgrimage). I dreamed about a deer this morning and was already working with it on some visual artwork, so I knew it when in the Sacred Grove.
‘Revel’ in Middle English and Old French means ‘to rebel or rise up’; so by ‘revelling in every moment of bliss’ at these times, we are rebelling against the negative hold the virus situation may have on us.
Halo Sue! I hope your pilgrimage was fruitful. I think it rained a lot? Thank you for that note on ‘revel’ – I’ll tell Peter about that! Perfect!
Hi Philip, Yes nature rained, scorched, dried and blew me away on my pilgrimage and the White Spring showed me some extraordinary things too. I have been performing work based on the walk in people’s homes as a gift to them. I’m now finding the time to make drawings about the experience at last, what with the lock down and all. I hope yourself, Stephanie and family are keeping well. Blessings.
Thanks Philip. I especially Loved the meditation. Once, when working with a client in Alchemical Hypnotherapy (outside in Nature), a deer came & lied down beside us. During the session, we found that the client’s ‘Animal Guide’ was the Deer. It was powerfully amazing & beautiful. I love connecting with these graceful creatures. Thanks for the link to Charles Eisenstein’s site. Blessings /|\
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