I spent sometime on Wednesday night at the “Stop the Drill” protest in Belcoo, Co. Fermanagh, a little way from the quarry of Atkinson and Glover . This is the company leasing the land on which the fracking tests are being conducted for £35,000. I notice that Acheson & Glover pride themselves on their environmental achievements (See link here goo.gl/FSc4O4). Fractured thinking if ever there was some. Here is what they proudly display in part of the website promoting their environmental credentials. Acheson & Glover (A&G) Group has been awarded a top ‘green’ accolade from Business in the Community’s ARENA Network by achieving Quintile One status at this year’s 14th Northern Ireland Environmental Benchmarking Survey Results Launch. I went to the “Stop the Drill” protest site with the intention of singing some songs and playing guitar. The first thing I did when I arrived at the site was to stand before the gates of steel that are topped by razor wire. It reminded me of earlier times when I lived in Northern Ireland during the Troubles. The wire seems to be more lethal than any I had ever seen before. It left me feeling menaced and a little angry. Looking through the steel gates I saw a pathway between the trees that led to the top of a small incline. I imagined that at the top of this incline was a threshold place. I imagined that beyond this horizon might look like a scene from the Matrix where the machines are using humans as batteries. This setup of steel gates and razor wire was straight out of a movie set. There was no site nor sound of a drill. Inside the gate sat a young man next to a wooden shed like who, despite the light outside the gate, sat in the dark. There were no Doberman Pinscher dogs in sight as had been in evidence when the drill machinery first arrived. Inside the steel gates, the trees stood together behind a fence as if they too might be a threat to the fracking tests. The steel gates were completely covered in placards and signs. One sign in particular caught my eye. It read, “The Gates of Hell.” As someone deeply interested in the way our collective inner world reflects our collective outer world I see the advent of the fracking industry as deeply symbolic of our collective unconscious at this time in our history. Fracking represents, for this writer, a mirror image of the deep fracture that exists within each one of us between matter and spirit. When we as individual human beings heal our internal fracture of nature and spirit fracking will be replaced by clean energy. This energy will reflect our more unified consciousness. Until then we will continue to use dirty energy that reflects back to us the unloved aspects of ourselves that we keep locked underground. Until that split is healed individually and collectively, we will fracture the Mother Earth (mother = matter). While it is essential that this practice of fracking be opposed, the real protest involves the practice of healing the fracture in the human psyche that abhors matter. We see this hatred of matter in many religious teachings and we especially see it in the way we treat our bodies, more especially the way women are trained to become obsessed by their bodily imperfections. There has never been an epidemic of body hatred more than at this time in human existence. I blame the advent of the mirror. This has developed a cult of narcissism which is becoming more evident in the present fashion of selfies, where individuals take photographs of themselves using a mobile phone. It is the personal view of this writer that if individuals oppose fracking while continuing to live a fractured life , one without love or creatively inspire, then not much will change. There will remain the continuing destructive focus on the Will to Power rather than on the Will to Love. The result will be in the long term (which is shortening each day) that the planet will simply rid itself of this destructive energy represented by the egoistic human mind. Fracking represents the draw of the God Thanatos – the God of Death rather than the equally challenging dynamic of the God Eros – the God of Love. Each of us has to choose which we will align our energy system with. This kind of healing practice is called sacred activism. It is the topic of a wonderful book my the modern mystic Andrew Harvey entitled The Hope - A Guide to Sacred Activism. A spirituality that is only private and self-absorbed, one devoid of an authentic political and social consciousness, does little to halt the suicidal juggernaut of history. On the other hand, an activism that is not purified by profound spiritual and psychological self-awareness and rooted in divine truth, wisdom, and compassion will only perpetuate the problem it is trying to solve, however righteous its intentions. When, however, the deepest and most grounded spiritual vision is married to a practical and pragmatic drive to transform all existing political, economic and social institutions, a holy force - the power of wisdom and love in action - is born. This force I define as Sacred Activism The Hope - A Guide to Sacred Activism by Andrew Harvey I think this book should be essential reading, study and practice for anyone who intends to protest about anything. Otherwise the result is, more often than not, that the individual gets burned out, becomes cynical, or despairs. At a deeper level, this can result in a cycle of despondency, despair, anger and violence. This might well be a cycle that those of us on the front line of the protest against this destructive process of fracking will be invited to journey into. This crisis can then become our opportunity to mature into individuals who heal that which is fractured within ourselves, our community, our environment and our world. In the meanwhile I will turn up and sing songs that invite the healing of our fractured mind and hearts so that we then do not take our frustration out on the body of the Mother Earth on whom we all depend for our nourishment and life force in so many ways. goo.gl/FSc4O4
Posted on: Sat, 02 Aug 2014 21:02:46 +0000
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