Exploring Contradictions of a Knowledge-Based Society

Posted on February 6, 2013 by sandy-awakening

blogimage2We are said to be living in the era of a knowledge-based society, at least in the developed world, and coming soon to you (if not already arrived) in the developing world. “Knowledge-based” sounds so enlightened, doesn’t it, as if we all inclusively are embraced by the promise of a higher level of consciousness. But, hold on a minute.

What does `knowledge-based’ really mean? Who is included, who is not, and who actually benefits? Once you examine the rationale behind this concept, is it an illusion or, conversely, even a vision we really want to support?

For I raise yet another question. If society is becoming so brilliant, why are so many people out of work, from all generations and across multiple sectors? Government spokespeople, meanwhile, gloss over this widespread reality and persist in reassuring us that the economy will improve.

Today’s society – more globalized than sovereign in many nation states – is characterized as `post-industrial’ and `knowledge-based,’ in theory to include highly educated professionals. Before I address that illusion, let me point out that `knowledge workers’ are identified as belonging to the “quaternary sector” of economy. That sector, apparently, overlaps with the “tertiary” and (sometimes included, but often not) the “quinary” sector.

But, let us reflect. Canada (and how many other nation states?) continue to be deeply invested in the “primary sector,” which traditionally includes: agriculture, forestry, fishing and mining – most particularly mining these days. That raises another question: How does the onslaught by extractive industries jive with a knowledge-based society? The answer resides in the purpose of all economic sectors – monetary gain. The perennial ethical concern, of course, is gain for whom and at what human and environmental costs?

Read the title on the cover of Maclean’s current edition: “OIL SANDS CRISIS: How we are BLOWING the biggest money-making opportunity in our history.” Inside, the reporter plaintively describes through four pages of woe that “the most valuable resource in our history” is being obstructed from its economic aspirations [to benefit whom precisely?] by “the green lobby” and “dozens of First Nations groups [to which I say, God bless them every one]. Don’t you love the corporate media diminishing the wisdom in these opponents’ shared concerns about elevated greenhouse gas emissions, and more!?

Canada’s national economic identity, by the way, since Confederation in 1867, is the definitive “hewers of wood, drawers of water.” In other words, Canada’s foremost dependence economically always has resided in the extraction of our country’s natural resources. One wag, in the Financial Post not long ago, questioned this continuing reality in an article titled “Hewers of wood, drawers of subsidy.”

The acceleration of these traditional activities in the past half century has resulted in the clear cutting of formerly pristine natural environments and the contamination of major waterways by the dumping of uranium tailings, run-off from agricultural pesticides and fertilizers, and I could go on.

By the way, I speak of Canada, because this is my homeland. I encourage you, however, to translate what I present here about economic sectors – and the next great economic hope residing in a `knowledge-based’ society – and explore how various economic sectors function in your nation. Also, ask yourself what needs to be challenged, and transformed, to truly raise humanity to a higher level of consciousness, to create a society where no one goes hungry and the planet’s life support system is protected, nurtured and restored.

Meanwhile, back at the homestead, I diligently researched a four-sector economic model and what types of workers are included in the knowledge-based economic vision. Doing so offered the framework to structure my argument here about illusion and reality.

Why do so many economists and politicians have their heads in the sand, very specifically, the oil sands, when much has been publicized about the government’s investments in recent years to bring us up-to-speed into the digital age? In other words, is Canada authentically moving its focus forward, from primary economic activities to quaternary and, as well, finally recognizing the often omitted “quinary sector”?

My research indicates that quaternary and quinary sectors are not always described in the same way. First, here are excerpts from the eHow website about the sector model:

“Fisher and Clark [economic theorists] stated that workers in pre-industrialized societies were predominantly involved in the primary sector, particularly in agriculture. As industrialization occurs in a society, employment becomes concentrated in the manufacturing or secondary sector. In a post-industrial society, manufacturing becomes less important, and the service sector or tertiary sector gains prominence.”

“Later theorists, such as Paul Hatt and Nelson Foote, included quaternary and quinary sectors to the economic model. These theorists felt the service or tertiary sector was overly large and should be divided up. The quaternary sector refers to intellectual- or information-related positions, so its activities include healthcare, education, government, and information technology. The quinary sector refers to top-level executives in any part of the service sector, including CEOs, high-level government officials, and education and healthcare administrators.”

The above-identified stages of economic development are self-explanatory in regard to why these various economic sectors have value to the corporate and government power holders. The sector evolution, however, brings no comfort to the millions of people who have lost jobs around the world because of the outcomes of these economic transitions. And what does the future hold for the human family, unless we reframe how this above model is unfolding globally?

Agriculture is vitally important, as are entire ecosystems and clean water to provide us with life-giving sustenance. Believe it or not, a locally-based environmental researcher has informed me that where I live – in an agricultural region – food security no longer exists. The reason is, both agribusinesses and also a growing number of destitute smaller farmers now are growing cash crops rather than food for human consumption. What will families everywhere do, given a potentially looming food crisis?

Manufacturing is said above to “become less important” in a post-industrial society. Tell that to the thousands, probably millions, of North American workers who have lost their jobs to the developing world, where workers there too often are financially exploited and grossly mistreated in other ways. Again, in my rural region I continually witness what is playing out across the continent – more and more people in small towns losing retail and manufacturing jobs in stores and companies now closed down.

The tertiary sector (and aspects of the quaternary) basically includes service industries, a reality that began to develop visibly in the 1950s. Since then, the `service sector’ has grown immensely to have a major impact on present-day society, what late sociologist Daniel Bell forecast in his 1973 book, The Coming of Post-Industrial Society.

A Wikipedia (Wiki) page describes the “Quaternary sector” as “a knowledge-based part of the economy which typically includes services such as information sharing, information technology, consultation, education, research and development, financial planning, and other knowledge-based services…media, culture and government.”

The eHow website characterizes the “quinary sector” primarily in reference to “top-level executives.” A Wiki page about the Fisher-Clark “Three Sector Hypothesis,” distinguishes the quinary sector as “non-profit,” and on a Wiki “Quinary sector” page includes: health, culture, and research. A 1987 paper prepared for the U.S. Federal Reserve Board identifies in the quinary sector: medical care, education, research, recreation (including the arts).

Again, the theoretical inclusion of these work categories bring no comfort, in Ontario where I live for example, to recently graduated teachers who cannot find jobs, because of major government cutbacks at both the federal and provincial levels to educational institutions. Similar cuts also have happened nationally across the multi-faceted cultural arts sector since 2007/2008.

A further unhappy economic fact is the huge loss of major endowments from the private sector, a loss triggered by the 2008 economic downturn, that has had a serious negative impact on the budgets of universities and colleges across North America and elsewhere.

If higher education holds the key to a knowledge-based society, why are so many post-secondary graduates (of all ages) standing outside a closed door, unemployed?

The above insights bring us full circle to my opening questions: What is a `knowledge-based’ society? What are the types of workers included? And who actually is getting jobs instead of losing them? A summary of the 2008 book Knowledge Workers in the Information Society specifies `knowledge workers’ as: “journalists, broadcasters, librarians, filmmakers and animators, government workers, and employees in the telecommunications and high tech sectors.” The summary adds: “Technological change has become relentless.” No kidding.

Without adeptness in digital tools, employment today is too often beyond reach for many well-educated, experienced professionals – including me – regardless of deep and expansive knowledge, acquired through years of study and practice, in fields pertinent to addressing the social and environmental challenges of our time.

Despite my engagement in ongoing professional development in my own ever-evolving creative professions, and a willingness to be on a continual digital learning curve, the emphasis on a technological skill set that appears on most job requirements far outweighs the value given to knowledge “content.”

Our societal transition, at least in this early “post-industrial” phase, gives much more monetary value to technology and the technology creators of communication “tools” to facilitate production than to the facilitators and producers of knowledge “content” such as educators and creative professionals.

When can we fix that imbalance in regard to whom and what we choose to value?

Again, among`knowledge workers’ it appears that many more are losing jobs than gaining jobs. More recently, for example, an increasing number of government workers also are losing their jobs.

However, even prior to the 2008 economic downturn, many creative professionals no longer could earn a living once the digital world fuelled the misguided assumption of content users that all online information is free. That assumption needs to change.

To sum up, the further major contradiction of a `knowledge-based’ society, that is supposed to include highly educated professionals, in fact is the marginalization, and disregard for the social, intellectual and cultural value of several of these groups of `knowledge workers.’

Can we co-create a more inclusive vision of a knowledge-based society, the vision embraced in celebratory terms such as “the cultural creatives,” “creative class,” and “creative industries”? Such terms were coined by cutting edge (and controversial) thinkers such as American urban studies theorist Richard Florida. He currently is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute and Professor of Business and Creativity at the Rotman School of Management, at the University of Toronto.

In another blog post at a future time, I will address the “cultural creative” angle of a knowledge-based society, from my lifelong insider perspective.

We are a world in transition, after all. If you need a boost to believe in a hopeful future, reflect upon what caring people everywhere are doing towards that pursuit. I invite you, for example, to see my September 2012 post, “Blessed Unrest Heralds an Unnamed Global Movement.”

My next post will offer solace in focusing on the qualities of the human heart that get us through the tough times, crises and traumas, through our life journey in an era of uncertainty. Know always that our innate human creativity is where possibility resides.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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When Will Society Awaken To Planetary Reality?

Posted on January 22, 2013 by sandy-awakening

blogimage2For those investigative journalists who take many types of risks as truth tellers, to inform us about the reality on the ground where it happens, they have my deepest respect and admiration. The focus of the news media is dramatic conflict and, indeed, it is vitally important for all of us to be informed about what befalls the human family and the life support system of this planet. The profound flaw, however, in mainstream journalism is not the journalists, but instead resides within the media corporations.

The foremost agenda of media corporations is to make profits for the corporate owners and the shareholders. That is why, through the past twenty years and more, the media corporations have become larger, gobbling up more and more smaller, independent newspapers and magazines. Moreover, the commercial partnerships with other types of corporations put a damper on certain news stories being published, if the truth interferes with the profits of such partners – including advertisers choosing where to place their ads in competitive markets.

That is why the alternative media is increasingly important, to address the types of stories that fall off the radar of the mainstream media. As well, of course, is the valuable role of “citizen journalists,” whose most important assets are their ability to capture significant images as they happen in the moment, and then communicate them immediately, and globally, through social media.

Whether professionally trained or volunteer, however, the journalistic limitation is that everything comes to us from particular perspectives, even authentic witnesses on the ground, whether the citizen journalist or the subjects whom he or she is interviewing. All media construct reality, and for that reason, media literacy ought to be essential school curricula at different grade levels, to help students at all ages develop critical thinking skills and to encourage citizens, young and old, to search out different points of view from a variety of sources.

Further to the role of the mainstream media, however, is a much more insidious aspect that directly pertains to the above-mentioned “foremost agenda” to make commercial profits. To do so means that the overall content of newspapers and magazines is framed within a vision of the society within which it is published. In the Western world and, more specifically, North America, for example – and for its branch publications in a globalized world – the vision, hence, the news framework, is industrial capitalism.

Here I am spelling it out so plainly, because we, collectively speaking, in the so-called developed world, are so immersed in this reality of industrial capitalism, that many of us can be blind to other realities even as they unfold around us and under our very feet.

We are blinded, basically, by the illusion that industrial capitalism provides our security, even as this economic system persists in feeding off the authentic life support system, namely, other planetary life, while destroying land-based cultures. Industrial capitalism does so for short term profits that benefit the few, while sustainable life for the long-term, that affirms life for the larger human family, is undermined.

This illusion is foisted upon the younger generations by the power-holders of older generations (plus younger, opportunistic individuals), who exist in willful ignorance and/or pathological denial about what we are doing to our home, planet Earth. They resist telling the truth, that the `affluent society’ to which the young have been conditioned to aspire (oblivious to the increasing poor among us) no longer can perpetuate a comfortable way of life into the future, a way of life no longer sustainable.

What most recently got me shaking my head in dismay are two articles published in the print version dated January 21, 2013 edition of Maclean’s, Canada’s National Magazine, whose cover title reads: “THE NEW UNDERCLASS – Why so many smart, educated, ambitious, young people have no future.”

The first article’s sub-heading on its opening page reads: “A GENERATION IN CRISIS.” The overall theme is to characterize post-secondary students who choose university directly out of secondary school as victimized. The reasons are, they cannot find decent paying jobs immediately, in order not just to be self-supporting yet, moreover, buy a house as soon as possible, and look forward to an affluent future.

The second article, written by two professors, chastises the promotional and recruitment strategies of universities for leading applicants and current students up the garden path of uncertain affluence. These professors point out the need for discernment by aspiring students to recognize the pragmatic merits of community colleges as well, in regard to where best their talents can be developed.

Regardless, neither article indicates a whisper that what the current generation of students are seeking to learn, ultimately, will be applied to a radically different society at all levels in the near future.

These young grads, in my view, have been sold a `bill of goods,’ by members of the older generations who are so immersed in material comfort they cannot see the forest for the trees, even as the forest is being clear cut, to use a multi-layered metaphor.

The older generations include mine, as a boomer. But, with that said, do not paint everyone with the same brush, regardless of which generation is targeted in any discussion. For example, do not believe everything you read about the baby boomers labelled, conversely, either as a generation that sold its soul for money or as aging hippies.

Truth always is more complicated. Some of us pursued a more modest lifestyle on very modest incomes, dedicating our lives to social and environmental justice through various helping and creative arts professions. Sadly, through life, we too often have found ourselves marginalized in persevering to speak to the deeper truths of our time, or dismissed (and stereotyped negatively) as activists whistling in the wind.

In other words, do not believe what you read in the media in reference to stories that stigmatize any generation as a whole. What we need to confront, and try to transform, is human nature, because we as a human species have the possibility to evolve our consciousness.

But, our stubborn, arrogant nature renders too many of us highly resistant to change and willing to recognize what we cannot – and should not even assume to – control, even as events unfold before our eyes. Think increasing climate change and natural disasters.

What we are confronting today is not, categorically, a “generation in crisis,” but what could be characterized as a “society in crisis” or even a “world in crisis.”. But, think about it. Where do those identifiers get us? How often do we buy into the constant bombardment from the popular media about the latest “crisis.”? Do such headlines motivate us to act in a way to make a difference, or do we quickly turn the page or switch the channel, to the next sound bite, preferably to be entertained and avoid having to think or feel deeply?

Fortunately, since I was an adolescent (and younger), I always have had a questioning mind. Even my first serious boyfriend teased me about being a “deep thinker.” However, he actually appreciated that fact. I have felt truly blessed that the most rewarding aspect of my first love experience was the respect in which I was held as a whole person, and the wonderful, serious conversations that we shared together, very differently from most of our more conformist peers. I wish that experience could be so for every adolescent in love.

I remember, and recognize, how young people have brains as well as passionate hearts. For my young adult readers, if you are only now discovering that your high expectations to live affluently – primed by well intentioned, albeit misguided, parents and teachers – yes, feel pissed off. Then, let it go.

If you want to be truly outraged about something, as we all ought to be, read an article published online Sunday, January 20, 2013, in The Independent, titled “Goldman bankers get rich betting on food prices as millions starve.” This article is a brutal reality check on how affluence benefits only the few at dear cost to life itself for the many.

More important, my young readers, is to refocus your energy, and for you to feel fortunate that you have an entire lifetime ahead of you to seek knowledge and gain experience as you prepare yourselves in facing a very different reality – starting now.

Seek out wisdom, both inside the educational institutions and also in all walks of life, among those individuals of all generations who have fuller environmental awareness to address the challenges ahead.

Actively develop your own critical thinking, coherent writing, problem solving and analytical abilities. Moreover, discover your own creative inner strengths and capabilities that are within you, and that you will need to call upon and apply, sooner than later.

Some years ago I heard, correctly or not, that the Chinese character for “crisis” also symbolized “opportunity.” Philosophically, that is a very appropriate way to look at our situation at this historic moment, as a human family.

The environmental consequences from climate change and related short-sighted, self-serving human interference with the natural laws of ecosystems globally also can be characterized as A WORLD IN TRANSITION AND TRANSFORMATION.

That article in The Independent, cited above, illustrates why established financial systems exploiting “crisis” in the most vile, selfish way, must be replaced by differently structured systems in human communities, locally and globally.

Foremost in regard to our future survival is to learn that we, as a human species, live in bio-regions – to recognize that fact as our top priority – rather than limit our identities to categories, political and cultural, that can be divisive as human constructions always are, from nation states to individual municipalities.

Believe me, a bio-region does not function as disconnected units, but as per the natural law of interrelatedness at multiple levels. Our survival is interdependent with all planetary life, because bio-regions, in turn, are interconnected around the planet. The world of Nature can teach us, as students of life, how to heal our disconnectedness.

In that primary recognition, as we work collaboratively together, across generations, across borders, and across cultures, we can create a world worth living in, where we experience what really matters – love, compassion, joy, beauty, and the light of human potential in the great project of our future, the healing of ourselves and a wounded planet.

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On the Days It Feels Glorious To Be Alive

Posted on January 14, 2013 by sandy-awakening

The air was crisp, almost making one’s nostrils sing to breathe in the fresh cleanliness of a beautiful winter day, the falling snow light and fluffy as it settled on the newly delivered eight cords of wood. While tossing the split logs into the cellar, it was cold enough not to sweat and warm enough not to be shivering in one’s boots. The activity was exquisitely invigorating.

On such days, feeling fully in charge of my life and liberated from the unavoidable tedious routines for survival, for a while, it feels glorious to be alive. Here I am, living my life’s dream, taking care of my own small plot of earth that, in turn, takes care of me.

Doing so began by choosing a lifestyle of voluntary simplicity. Since the 2008 economic downturn, however, it has become essential simplicity. Yet each and every day, I give thanks to have a roof over my head, the basic necessities of life, and the freedom to express an awakened awareness about what really matters about living.

This gratitude to be alive heightened following a serious car accident four winters ago, which could have been fatal. I wrote about it in my first blog post, after launching my website in December 2011. Surviving that event deepened the very concept about existence on this earth, and how we give meaning and purpose to this phenomenon.

Why am I still here? What are the spiritual lessons still to learn? Who do I value in my life encounters and who values me – from the Higher Self within us? How and where can I be a helper, in ways that I feel valued instead of exploited? These are questions that any of us can reflect upon.

What I have learned as so important for a person’s continuing growth through life is to be open-minded and open-hearted to new experiences, instead of fossilizing into familiar, comfortable habits, to which older generations can become accustomed and to which younger generations are socialized to aspire.

Of course, one could extrapolate on that reality of human nature, in regard to the entire fabric of mainstream society, in which so many people insist on maintaining “business as usual” while the threads in the fabric of our collective existence in a globalized world are pulling apart, stitch by stitch. Indeed, in catastrophes, whole rows of stitches rip apart, leaving people in despair at the losses of everything they depended on for a sense of security.

We live in a time when many people are confused and overwhelmed at the choices between love and fear in regard to welcoming, or not, the possibility of co-creating a new humanity as we journey through an increasingly visible period of transition.

But in writing this post, I really do not wish to speak about the big issues. Instead, I simply want to relate a story to illustrate how I make meaning of life, day-to-day, to transcend what, otherwise, easily could become the constant angst of what tomorrow may bring.

One aspect to make meaning is to discover the joy of living in the moment, with gratitude. Doing so means engaging in the dance between joy and despair, and letting go of control and feeling stuck so that joy can take the lead.

For I have learned the hard way, in taking the road less travelled, as a helping professional and activist, that allowing the woes of the world to take over one’s life is the perfect recipe for repeated burn out, and can almost destroy one’s health.

Since relocating from a major city to the countryside, I listened to the call of my own soul, rather than the well-intentioned cautionary remarks from some friends, most of them sadly no longer walking with me in my new life. Through life’s journey, we inevitably grow apart from some people and, in certain cases, discover we honestly never were in sync, to even have a glimmer of understanding about each other’s soul.

But, to be fair – and what is a profound reality about life’s journey – it often can take many years through a lived life before a person even gets in touch with his or her own soul. Many stories exist about how particular individuals do not find their true calling until their later years, possibly not until a life crisis provokes a radical change of heart and mind.

Another benefit in being open to new experiences, at any stage of life, especially if you already have dedicated your life to noble causes for the larger good, is to expand your love for other people and the earth to include yourself.

That awakening took the greater part of my own life, to no longer immerse myself in the world’s troubles, but instead to learn how to create inner and outer space, to revitalize joy that had been absent for too long. Doing so required slowing down, experiencing the world of Nature that I felt so intent on protecting, and regenerating my energy through a self-sustaining way of life rather than give away all my energy continuously.

So, looking back on that particular crisp winter day, I smile at an extra, unexpected delight that happened. Mackenzie, the lad whom I hired to help me, asked whether he could listen to his favourite radio music channel. I put a radio in the cellar, and cranked it up so that the country-western music could be heard for a quarter mile.

To be honest, country-western music has not been on the list of my preferred musical genres. Regardless, I learned something about how a familiar, longstanding preference can change, when we let our self be open to serendipitous opportunity. Such a moment depends on the larger context, such as the setting, the activity, and the companionship.

No other music could have been more suitable! I was so energized that, after Mackenzie went home for dinner, I continued tossing logs indoors until mid-evening, lit by the barn light and the moon, the music booming. Everything looked beautiful, as the long shadows of the trees, bushes and pasture fence stretched out along the snow.

The peace of the countryside is captivating. Even so, nothing lasts forever, because the yin-yang of life is our fuller reality. The power of experiencing bliss is for the reason of its fleeting quality.

Five days later, one late evening, I experienced the other side of my pioneer lifestyle. My century-old farmhouse has a wood/electric furnace and two woodstoves. Electricity is so expensive that I burn wood as much as possible in the colder months. But, the dark side of burning wood is the potential build-up of creosote.

Creosote is a tar caused by burning wood that is “green” (not properly cured for several months in the sun) or “wet” for other reasons. If it builds up, it can cause a chimney fire and burn down your house.

Given the lack of money to pay for this winter’s wood supply, I delayed delivery for many weeks. Eventually I had to ration my final pieces of last year’s supply of wood in the furnace. Hence, I was not burning enough wood to get a healthy, hot fire going, through maybe three weeks or so. A few weeks is all it takes to cause a problem, as my chimney sweep just informed me.

So, what happened? For the umpteenth time, after a few days of using my newly arrived wood, once again I heard the danger signal of sizzling wood, which means it has not dried out sufficiently to burn properly and obstructs getting a fire hot enough to avoid creating creosote.

First, I heard the smoke alarm on the second floor go off, and running upstairs to wave a towel underneath would not stop it. Then I put my hand over the air vents in my two spare bedrooms above the furnace chimney side. The heat was red hot, and a vertical band of black soot already had accumulated on the wall above each vent.

Next, I raced down to the cellar, and looked at the heat gage on the pipe behind the furnace. I almost had a heart attack – the gage was at almost 1200 degrees, and I knew that it was out of control. Then, I almost went into orbit up the stairs to the phone in my main floor home office, and perhaps 15 minutes or so later, the whole volunteer fire department of the closest town arrived, bless them.

They were impressive to watch, and learn from, the firefighting team spreading out to every floor including the attic, to check for indicators of fire. Very soon they determined the fire – which very shortly could have reached the chimney – was contained in the furnace. One firefighter showed me a nifty instrument that can see through the walls, ceiling and floorboards, to reveal hot spots in the air ducts. Wow!

Meanwhile, they took apart the scalding pipe and left it in the snow, for my chimney sweep to put together and finish cleaning out a huge amount of creosote in the back of the furnace. He also would have to chop out the remaining large, hardened chunks of creosote not knocked out by the firefighters, chunks that were close to choking off any air flow from the furnace through the pipe and out the chimney.

So, dear readers, my message for today is, metaphorically, keep the air flowing in your life journey. Sometimes it gets too cold and other times it gets too hot. That’s the yin-yang of life. But flow is good.

Most important of all, do not let your mind and heart get clogged up from old habits and fear of change that stop you from experiencing any flow at all, and harden you like a crusty chunk of creosote, snuffing out the light of life.

Choose to be wood in the fire that burns brightly, rather than smoulder and end up at a dead end as tar stuck in the darkness of a furnace wall or pipe. By burning brightly, you affirm life, giving warmth to others and welcoming change that lights up the world. In doing so, you transform your own energy from the physical plane closer to the spiritual plane and, thereby, evoke the lightness of being that, in one’s final act, is like the clean white smoke that billows up the chimney into the sky and the heavens above.

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Indigenous Prophecies II – Hopi Vision of Purification

Posted on January 8, 2013 by sandy-awakening

In 1994, I witnessed a noteworthy historic moment, at an international Indigenous film festival held at Scottsdale, Arizona. This event happened when issues of cultural appropriation and identity politics were being hotly debated in the academy and in popular culture during the 1990s, and at a peak. One of the few non-Natives present – as a freelance journalist writing for two Native American magazines – an unanticipated Hopi declaration made me wish I could disappear through a crack in the wall, from cultural embarrassment.

For the first time in history, the Hopi had closed their community, Hotevilla, to outsiders for an undetermined period. This decision was not taken easily, because the Hopi – as filmmaker/photographer Victor Masayesva, Jr., pointed out – always had been the most hospitable to brothers and sisters from the four directions, who brought good hearts and a willingness to learn. The closed doors now specifically were aimed at the White brothers and sisters, because some visitors violated the Hopi trust.

The foremost theme of the panel discussions at this film festival was the issue of cultural appropriation of Indigenous spirituality, most particularly in regard to its exploitation for purposes of entertainment and, ultimately, self-serving commercial revenues by primarily non-Indigenous people.

The atmosphere of the film festival auditorium was electric with outrage throughout these discussions. The final straw, however, described by Masayesva, was the Hopi people welcoming a certain group of visitors. The Hopi later discovered that these visitors had ulterior motives, namely, to glean information about the Kachina ceremonial figures, subsequently to re-create as cartoon characters.

In quickly browsing a website for Marvel Comics, still available are at least two comic book series in which a Kachina character is included, yet sorely misrepresented. This is a disgrace, in my view. For I totally understand the outrage by Indigenous people, who continuously have suffered one indignity after another as a consequence of the willful ignorance in Western society, systemically, in regard to Indigenous spirituality.

And, by the way, such disrespect – increasing in regard to spiritual traditions of all human cultures – is one of the signs, according to Hopi prophecy, that human beings now have arrived at the time of the `Great Purification.’

As a disillusioned journalist by the late 1980s, and awakened as a media literacy educator, several of my published writings, in journalism and education, spoke to the painfully visible trajectory of a consumer and celebrity Western mainstream culture. This trajectory, foisted upon other cultures as well, has sought to reduce every person and every other life form on this planet into a consumer, commodity or marketplace – in other words, to value life foremost in terms of money. For many years, therefore, I have seen what is coming, and it has saddened me, because today’s growing chaos was avoidable.

What the particular Hopi prophecy on the `Great Purification’ refers to, in fact, is what we have been witnessing at a steadily increasing rate in daily news, and sometimes more directly in front of our eyes where we live. This purification is happening on every continent, to include geological upheavals, and increasing economic, political and social chaos.

I once had the privilege to be at a traditional gathering where I heard, in person, Hopi elder Thomas Banyacya (1909-1999) describe the two paths that humans could choose, based on a petroglyph called the Hopi Prophecy Rock. (See photo below.) He carried a hand-drawn replica of this prophecy and described each symbol. The paths were materialism or enlightenment. Different outcomes would follow, in accordance with which path was chosen. Enough said.

Before I provide other website references for this Grandfather’s life work and the message of Prophecy Rock, I first want to return to the example of how and why the Kachina is misunderstood and its spiritual symbolism violated.

I do so to illuminate the root cause of the unfolding dilemma that the Great Purification invites us to address – the loss of our connection to the earth and all the planetary species and elements that support our very existence, and also rejection of our spiritual Source.

First of all, here is a definition of “Kachina” in Wikipedia: “a spirit being in western Pueblo cosmology and religious practices.” I cite this Wiki page intentionally, to show an example of Western cultural bias in the below citation by a Wiki entry source:

“The central theme of the kachina cult is the presence of life in all objects that fill the universe. Everything has an essence or life force, and humans must interact with these or fail to survive.”

The Western cultural bias that I want to identify is the use of the term “cult,” given its present-day, popular usage in reference to marginalized groups which have bizarre practices according to mainstream society. However, in looking up the definition of “cult” in Wiki, it also reads:

“The word originally denoted a system of ritual practices. The word was first used in the early 17th century denoting homage paid to a divinity and borrowed via the French culte from Latin cultus “worship”, from the adjective cultus “inhabited, cultivated, worshipped,” derived from the verb colere “care, cultivate.”

The above shows an example how the original meaning of a word can change so radically that its intention becomes distorted, often negatively, in regard to how it is understood and applied in modern usage.

In other words, the current popular use of “cult” cheapens the authenticity of ancient, longstanding Indigenous spiritual beliefs and practices and – important to note – a spiritual awareness once understood universally among all our land-based ancestors!

Next, to clarify why the commercial exploitation of the Kachina ceremonial figures by Marvel Comics is so profoundly offensive to the Hopi people, I quote here a passage in a book edited by David Howes, titled Cross-Cultural Consumption: Global Markets, Local Realities (1996):

“Prescriptions for individual conduct in ritual, namely a purity of thought, emotion and intention, and prescriptions against the misuse of ritual knowledge, which specify supernatural retribution, are utterly central in Hopi discourse. Dissemination of ritual knowledge, either orally to unentitled parties or ipso facto in published accounts violates ritual sanctity and effectiveness and may damage the spiritual health of the community.”

Elaborating on the root cause of the growing chaos at multiple levels, that the human species experiences today, is to emphasize the abdication of human responsibility to treat each other, and everything that sustains life, with respect, reverence, love and compassion. Further spiritual qualities, universal in the perennial wisdom in all human cultures, such as humility and gratitude, also need to be revitalized.

Prophets in every major spiritual belief system have foreseen certain events that would befall human beings, if we chose to forfeit these spiritual teachings. This perennial wisdom is what unites us as a human family. It speaks to a spiritual reality – that many people reject, at our peril – that all human beings are, in essence, spiritual beings who come from the same Source and will return there.

Thomas Banyacya was one of four Hopi elders selected to travel the world in 1948 and carry a message of peace through relating the Hopi prophecy, after two nuclear bombs fell on Japan. The nuclear bomb was identified in Hopi prophecy as a “gourd of ashes.” That WWII bombing marked the beginning of the trajectory toward the `Great Purification’ unless we could learn how to live as a human family in peace.

Several prophecies are grouped together in visual imagery on the Prophecy Rock. Here is the best photo that I could find to illustrate the original rock, focusing on the specific prophecy about the two paths to choose from.

A number of websites show written interpretations of the `Great Purification’ prophecy. However, I prefer going to a primary source when available, and discovered the only online presentation by Grandfather Banyacya in a YouTube excerpt from the 1986 documentary Hopi Prophecy by Japanese filmmaker Kiyoshi Miyata. This version looks and sounds a bit rough, but please stay with it, because the message is what matters.

My final recommendation is to study a Hopi website about Thomas Banyacya who led a life of remarkable courage and integrity. The website includes the related activities of other spiritual elders and shows links to learn more about the Hopi culture.

May these insights nurture hope rather than despair about how we still can grow and learn how to appreciate each other and work together to heal our blessed planet Earth.

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Indigenous Prophecies I – Mayan Shift of the Ages

Posted on December 31, 2012 by sandy-awakening

Thirty years ago I made a commitment that led me down a spiritual road of learning that I initially had not sought, nor anticipated, yet which indelibly transformed my consciousness. The commitment was to become a messenger to build cross-cultural understanding between my Euro-western culture and Indigenous cultures. The journey has been outer and inner at many levels, outside and within mainstream North American culture and, inevitably, within my own soul.

Cultural knowledge that I acquired was gifted to me through the trust that I earned from many Aboriginal people mostly in Canada – First Nations (Indian), Metis and Inuit – through my interviews with them and, more importantly, the factual way in which I presented their perspectives. They saw my work not only in mainstream news media but also published in their own newspapers and magazines (before Canada’s federal government cut grants, silencing most regionally-based Native media).

The spiritually traditional people observed my genuine interest to learn about their cultural ways, through my regular presence at elders’ gatherings as well as numerous conferences during the renaissance of Aboriginal culture in the 1980s. The unexpected further gift, therefore, was to be invited to traditional ceremonies, in First Nation communities where I visited for other journalistic reasons.

At these various types of events, I was privileged to witness the extraordinary orations of spiritual teachers and healers, and also political leaders, many of whom since then have crossed over to the world of Spirit. Their orations were extraordinary, first of all, because of the poetic beauty and powerful use of language. Also profoundly impressive was the depth and breadth of understanding about their own cultural histories and spiritual values – that they lived experientially each day – and their no nonsense clarity and critique about the consequences of centuries of colonialism that have continued, unresolved.

As well, even then in those early years of my own journey, I heard the Mayan and Hopi prophecies that very recently have received cursory mention at best, if at all, in mainstream media. Worse, yet not surprising, are the further distortions and sceptic dismissals, because of the emphasis placed on a 2012 apocalypse – to make money – in constructed TV documentaries and entertaining movies indicating the end of the world was supposed to happen, instantly. For the reason that the world did not end and we still are here, ancient prophecies, Indigenous and otherwise, once again are yesterday’s news.

Regardless, may Spirit bless the resilience and perseverance of the traditional Indigenous people who relentlessly continue to go forth and share the wisdom in their spiritual teachings to whoever has an intelligent mind and caring heart to listen and learn. For the traditional elders understand their spiritual responsibility not simply to teach and pass on perennial insights to apprentices. Their task as they see it, moreover, includes raising awareness, throughout the human family, about the essential need to live more harmoniously with each other and awaken our interrelationships with all planetary life.

This message – lovingly – is communicated in an important documentary titled Shift of the Ages. The film focuses on the story ofShift-of-the-Ages--285x190 one Mayan spiritual elder’s quest to relate the truth about the message in the much talked about, yet often misunderstood, Mayan Long Count Calendar – and more. What this particular Mayan calendar importantly predicted was not the end of the world per se, but instead the fact we are entering a new cycle during “a period of rapid transition spanning the end of one cycle and beginning of another.” This new cycle is referred to as the `Great Change of Suns.’

Shift of the Ages maps the quest of Don Alejandro Cirilo Perez Oxlaq, the Grand Elder of the Mayan people as a mystical Aj Q’ji, and Day Keeper of tradition. He also is known simply as Grandfather or “Tata” more familiarly among his Mayan people. His spirit name is Wakatel Utiw, “Wandering Wolf” in English, given to him during a spiritual initiation on a mountain top, as a youth.

As the film story begins, we see Don Alejandro sleeping, followed by a sequence of fleeting images that evoke the dreams in his sleeping consciousness. They juxtapose visions with the reality of the present day frenzied, out-of-balance, and imperilled, global human and environmental condition.

These evocative images, in turn, through the film are juxtaposed to the visual beauty of the rainbow-coloured Mayan ceremonial clothing and also the awesome magnificence of ancient architecture and the world of Nature, cinematically to engage us in our body, our emotions, and our senses, to facilitate the connection between our mind and our soul, as the story unfolds.

The website for Shift of the Ages thoroughly outlines the film’s synopsis, with added sections of information about Mayan knowledge and related links. In my post here, I instead want to focus on a few highlights in the film, and why I encourage my readers to enjoy the beauty of this insightful story.

One important highlight in it is to clarify the confusion about the Mayan calendar. Mayan spiritual elder Rosa Maria Cabrera explains that the Long Count Calendar is only one among a number of Mayan calendars. She explains how Mayan time is cyclical rather than linear, and the distinction between the Long Count calendar and the sacred Cholquij calendar as related to Don Alejandro’s role as a Day Keeper.

The film story’s several layers, therefore, offer more than a biography about Don Alejandro and his responsibility to fulfil a spiritual destiny. The story includes voices of other spiritual elders and guides, men and women, Mayan and from other Indigenous nations, who communicate insights to deepen the viewer’s understanding.

We hear about the Continental Council of Elders and Spiritual Guides of the Americas, while we see Don Alejandro travelling widely to communicate his message. These travels span a seven year period after a synchronistic meeting between filmmaker Steve Copeland and the Mayan elder. Don Alejandro invites Copeland to document this portion of his mission, to dispel “end of the world” misconceptions of Mayan prophecy.

Synchronicity, by the way, is key to awakening possibility for spiritual events to unfold, when a person is willing to be receptive to the unexpected. I know this phenomenon to be true, given my own serendipitous adventures. Experiencing it is why I give Steve Copeland full points for staying the course to be taken along a journey, not knowing the destination. Doing so, of course, also creates a more powerful documentary film.

Speaking of intrigue and the inevitable emotional arc that strengthens a good story, the further layer in Shift of the Ages is an aura of suspense through the second part of the film, as Don Alejandro seeks to recover an ancient Mayan spiritual Staff of Authority passed down from his ancestors through 2,000 years.

I will leave you, dear reader, in suspense as to whether or not he recovers the Staff. What I will tell you, however, is how beautifully instructive it is to watch how Don Alejandro addresses this dilemma. The reason is, his approach is a spiritual teaching for the viewer, in and of itself.

Essentially, he travels not once, but twice, to places where he undertakes rituals for spiritual guidance in regard to how he ought to proceed, to get back the Staff. For he generously had shared the Staff through the years with elders in other nations, who always returned it, until a particular Bolivian elder decided to keep it and use it for personal political gain.

Another highlight in the film is to learn about the longstanding significance of the symbolic spiritual partnership between the Eagle and the Condor. The Eagle represents the Indigenous people of North America, and the Condor, the Indigenous people of Central and South America.

Historically, the Indigenous peoples of the Americas had close ties at many levels, from ceremonial to trade, until colonial powers ruptured these ties through strategies to destroy Indigenous cultures from the inside out – spiritually, socially, economically, and politically. Part of Don Alejandro’s quest is to mend those broken ties through a series of gatherings among tribal nation members of the above-identified Continental Council.

Hereditary Chief Phil Lane, Jr., a representative from North America, speaks on camera about the ancestral wound and intergenerational trauma still to be healed. As part of his own multi-faceted work through many years, he has launched business partnerships between Indigenous peoples in the North and the South. He characterizes the symbolism of the Eagle as masculine, focused on the mind.

Grandmother Elizabeth Araujo – who explains earlier in the film the world of Spirit experienced by Don Alejandro – further identifies the masculine emphasis in the North as the reason why technology is so advanced. Speaking to the need for balance, she describes the feminine of the South as a “more mellow and softer energy, a lot of heart and connection with the earth.” Grandmother Elizabeth is an Aj Q’ij who works with women internationally, and also travels with Don Alejandro in the role of translator.

The purpose, ultimately, in bringing together the Indigenous people of North and South is to align the best of what each of these principles bring to human wholeness. (In a few of my earlier posts, I have referred to the need for alignment of the feminine and masculine principles in Western culture. See, for example, The Alphabet Versus the Goddess – Ways to Perceive Reality.)

Shift of the Ages speaks to our time, a time of turbulence that will continue and intensify. As we enter this new cycle, the imperative more than ever is for us as a human species to adapt more harmonious and respectful ways to walk on this earth, while preparing ourselves for a challenging future.

A wonderful gift for yourself, to bring in the new year of 2013, is to watch Shift of the Ages, available FREE online until January 15th. At a future time, DVDs also will be available to buy. Also consider the possibility to host a screening.

Donations until January 15th are optional yet, of course, appreciated. Read how the donations will be used, clearly explained on the website, for example, to support Don Alejandro in future travels for his spiritual work and also related to the work of CommonPassion.org, one of the major contributors behind this film production.

Please know that any film productions and books that I recommend is done in accordance with my personal choice, without payment from filmmakers and authors nor at their request. Also, I carefully explore, on the internet and elsewhere, who and what are behind projects that I support.

Blessings for a Happy New Year, and with my gratitude for taking your valuable time to read my blog.

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