There have always been conspiracies. We only need to think back to Roman times, to the conspiracy to assassinate Julius Caesar, immortalised by Shakespeare. A group of Senators successfully plotted to kill him, accusing him of tyranny. The event was recorded by his respected contemporary Cicero and subsequently confirmed by half a dozen later Roman historians. The Senators had the motive and the means. No one seriously doubts it happened.
When I was 15, I was sent to a special educational unit for young people who, for different reasons, had found mainstream education difficult—and whom mainstream education had often found difficult too. Before I came to the educational unit, my life was already difficult. I had a very troubled home life and no real support system outside of education. There wasn’t anyone at home who could offer stability, emotional support, or help me make sense of what I was dealing with, and that inevitably showed in my behaviour. I was navigating situations and emotions that felt far bigger than me, without the support or language to explain what was going on.
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As the political and media world are gripped with the issue of immigration and resurgent nationalism, it is ever more important that a clear spiritual vision is set out that offers a constructive way forward for humanity.
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Leaders of nations are supposed to work for everyone’s good. At the bare minimum they should strive for political and economic stability and justice for all. Some may drive reform or promote social revolution. Others may be peacemakers. But what about forging a spiritual path for their people? Should leadership encompass a spiritual element? How would it benefit a political environment?
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I am sitting in a circle with about a dozen others in a room. I notice none of us have distinct faces but rather visors like the helmets on space suits. There was someone seated at some distance on a golden throne. Although we appeared to be an anonymous group, each one of us had an individual contribution to make. We had a particular energy, like the cord of a harp or a lyre. These were being plucked like a musical instrument. In a way I did not understand - or need to understand – it was part of a kind of cosmic orchestra that guided the evolution of the universe.
Stereotypically politics is seen as 'dirty' and spirituality as 'pure'. For some, they seem to inhabit separate worlds. Yet for spirituality to have a tangible impact on our society and politics to be constructive, they both need each other.
I have always loved trees. The gnarled trunk of an oak, the quirky baobab, the aristocratic redwood, the thorny resilience of an acacia. I love the smell of the forest, the fullness of its silence. Except that it isn’t silent. It’s not even still. Beneath my feet, the trees are “talking” to each other via interlinked roots, their fine hairs integrated into a complex fungal network that permeates the entire environment. These interlaced pathways allow the trees to share nutrients, alert each other to danger, and even help those who fall prey to disease
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Spirit of the Rainbow has at its core the experience of oneness. Our shared humanity comes before any call upon our loyalty such as those of our country or religion. Translating that idea into action is a challenge we all face. This is the story of one of our contributors, Pliny, in taking up that challenge in working with refugees.
Recognising our shared humanity is a fundamental principle in our spiritual evolution. It offers a future in which we can all live and work together constructively and in peace. So the ending of apartheid in South Africa in the early 1990s was a major step forward not only for the country itself but for humanity as a whole
Historically women have faced systematic discrimination from religious authorities, denying them opportunities to preach, conduct rituals and hold leadership positions. Women have responded in different ways.
We start with a fundamental truth that we can too easily forget: our bodies come from particles of animal and plant life that once belonged to other plants or animals and so on backwards through time to the dawn of life on earth. Years from now bits of who we are today will form part of an infinite variety of living things. In essence the same material is simply being recycled through nature in different ways over time. So that on the most basic physical level we are one with our planet.
In our book Riverlution, where we explore the natural spiritual evolution of humanity, the section on womankind discusses the damage done by, "what may be called 'the war on women' – that is the widespread and systematic repression of women and all they stood for that has lasted for centuries". The age-old discrimination against women is a story sadly all too well known. Was it a war? In this article, we will be focusing on womankind’s search for a spiritual voice.