our world has become one in which our comfortable, predictable reality has suddenly been shattered beyond all recognition.

The PsyEarth Journal intends to offer practical suggestions as to how to respond proactively to the crumbling ruin of our outdated ways of being. But for such to occur, the committed stewards of Planet Earth need to step forward.

                           "The rule of no realm is mine,
                          but all worthy things that are in peril
                          as the world now stands, those are my care.
                          And for my part, I shall not wholly fail in my task
                          if anything passes thorough this night
                          that can still grow fair or bear fruit
                          and flower again in days to come.
                          For I too am a steward. Did you not know?"
                                   Gandalf the White,
                                                 from The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

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Our contemporary civilization had been speeding along at a high pace of technological change - like a racecar driver who watches his speedometer but never chooses to glance through the windshield. As with our hypothetical driver, we know how fast we're going, but not where we're going. Consequently, as we rounded a particularly sharp corner, our excessive speed and lack of attention to the road conditions has caused our vehicle to careen off the track, roll many times, and has, in effect, "crashed and burned".

But what next? I think we start by asking the question: how have we become so out-of-touch with basic reality that we precipitated a catastrophic global financial meltdown? I would offer the observation that our failure of late is due in large part to the fact that we've lost sight of our responsibility to our human community, our common good. We've also lost our sense of responsibility to Planet Earth. We've failed to sufficiently preserve and protect her creatures, large and small, her natural resources, and her fragile biosperic balance. We are, by our inaction, allowing her wondrous species and terrestrial treasures to become the casualty of our carelessness and greed.

Are we're in the process of trashing our planetary premises in a final orgy of self-destruction or might we remember, some how, our ancient contract to steward that which has sheltered us so well for so long? If it's the latter, we'll need to de-emphasize our common ways of mindless action or inaction, and instead recall the old ways of honoring and asking before implementing any action.

If we would choose to break free of the present toxic pattern in which we find ourselves, we must move to a new level of relating to our environment, to our governments, to our institutions, to each other, and to ourselves.

Deep down inside, I believe we retain some vestige of primal memory of how to live in harmony with the Earth, and how to recognize "the first knowledge inherent in the dawn," as the Navajo refer to the Divine. It's this ancient, cellular knowing that summons us back to the forest, to the river, to the ocean, every so often. It's the Ahhhh… that automatically issues forth from deep within our chest when we kick off our shoes and stride across a lawn of cool grass or dip our cramped hot feet into a cold mountain stream. It's that sense of peacefulness and quiet epiphany that unexpectedly overwhelms us when we're far enough away from street noise to easily discern bird songs and wind sounds wafting through the trees. What's happening here is that our mind, spirit and soul are reconnecting with the elemental earth essence.

Truly, this most basic relationship has served us well for millions of years. It kept us alive, found us food and shelter, taught us magic and music and reminds us of our universal origin and destiny. So we know it works. We discard or ignore this valuable intuitive resource as our peril. Yet, this is exactly what we're doing. We are ignoring the obvious - that our technology-dependent, high consumption, high waste and prolifigately polluting lifestyle based on ever-greater levels of acquisition of money and materials is somehow sustainable. It isn't. It wasn't. We've reached the end of the trail. And we're close to recognizing that the Emperor is indeed, naked.

Is Fundamental Change Possible?

History reminds us that willful humans have regularly altered the course of civilization through invention, revolution, war, and dogged commitment to a course or an ideal - for better or for worse. Given the present state of our planet on the brink, it's easy to make the case for the necessity of revolution. But what kind of revolution? Or is it evolution that's required. And where might we find the candidate revolutionists/ evolutionists of our current times? Are we them? Of have we, instead, become far too weak-minded and imagination-deficient to know how to fundamentally alter our pattern of living and thinking?

Have we forfeited our power of individual thought to the tyranny of mass media, material acquisition and financial obsession, thereby effectively disabling critical masses of the planet's potential tranformationalists? While we've been dozing in denial, have we allowed Planet Earth to become Planet Titanic? Or do enough men and women of wisdom and responsibility remain available, somewhere, to somehow act on a large enough scale, each in their own individual and collective way, to counter the possible wholesale collapse of our global social/political/economic/environmental foundation?

Common sense tells me to just do it. Not wait for others. Start now. Work with what seem good and true and worthwhile. Begin to shift energy away from the old and offer it to the new. Start inventing and imagining radical new realities. Passive acceptance of the present clearly will not work. The future can't be based on the flawed patterns of the past. We've all got to dive deep into our consciousnesses, our own history, marshal our inner and outer resources and identify and mobilize the necessary resources. We'll need to find and connect with that which is supportive of the authentic web of life. Then we elevate it and nurture it.

A Noble Human Future

We can wake up. We can do better. We can stretch our imaginations. We can move beyond our limited social/political and cultural mindsets. We can release outmoded and unnecessary social, economic and political and historical patters of the past and embrace our fullest human potential. And here's my proposal of how we might go about this process:

Step One: Renovate ourselves. Take responsibility to pursue inner and outer freedom. Regularly purge our minds. Refuse to allow the lure of technological or media mindlessness to usurp our precious time. Dump as much anger, fear, and victimization as possible. Easily said, I know, but not so easily done. But we need to give it our best shot. Reject outright or carefully filter mainstream media, its not-so subtle soul rape and incessant promotion of fear, emotional chaos and economic slavery.

Step Two: Reconnect ourselves to the Source of Life - the Earth, Nature, the small inner voice. Ask for help within and without. Undertake a vision quest. Go on retreat for as long as it takes. Rediscover our personal passion and explore our mission in life.

Step Three: Become educated and aware. Examine our personal histories. Explore past lives, if relevant and future ones, too, if desirable. Learn about what's really going on in our community, our nation, our world. But we'll need to look beyond conventional mainstream media in order to discern truthful, meaningful information. Research alternative information sources and publications.

Step Four: Start or join an alliance of like-minded souls who desire to share their fears and dreams and make a better community, city, nation or world. There's power in numbers and valuable training in healthy group process. Donate money to the appropriate organizations. If you've got extra capital, start a foundation to make grants. Think BIG.

Step Five: There's plenty to do. We need to redesign our institutions -- local to global. We need to redesign our financial system, our governmental system, our corporate system, how we do business, run our schools, treat our environment, and relate to other cultures, other religions and other countries. We need to transition away from squandering so much of our precious financial and natural resources on our military. We need to quickly move away from fossil fuels and power our planet with new energy systems that run on sunlight, bioenergy, magnetism, and zero point forces. We need to address the dysfunctional social/spiritual aspects of our communities that foster and enable the rampant use of destructive drugs which in turn to contribute to the high prevalence of violent behavior.

There is so much to do. But, really, extraordinary knowledge and personal fulfillment awaits us if we can escape from our psychological paralysis and transform our present reality construct. We need to morph our life-reality from a development-arrested consciousness into a full color, large-screen, high-definition expression of our highest human potential. Destiny calls. The window of opportunity is now wide open to allow the Real Revolution to occur -- the liberation of soulful action exercised in concert with the appropriate earthly, ancestral and cosmic forces.

We are called to create a New Era. We have a chance to do things differently. We can act a little kinder, live with more humility, and birth a more compassionate, conscious civilization. If we're successful, it will surely make all the difference in the world.

Pack light, we leave at dawn.