Darkness and Light
This is the season when the rhythms of the earth move from deep darkness to light. It is a season that humans have celebrated through the centuries as a time of turning, a time of reflection and of celebration for the capacity of the earth to renew. For many of us, this year is one where the weight of darkness sits heavy.
All around us are the signs of crisis. Politically, the forces of hate are relentless in their pursuit of power. Public life has become brutal. What seems to most of us as facts, that a fair election happened; that there is a pandemic; that people should wear masks; that climate change is urgent, have become polarized issues, denied by a belligerent minority dedicated to white supremacy in all its forms. It seems even widespread death does not shake these deniers into reality.
Yet the earth persists. After centuries of defilement by industrial, extractive capital, the forces of the planet are re-forming, driving us to either change how we have been living or face extinction. This is no longer hyperbole. It is a recognition of the depth of transformation in front of us.
Every Solstice, Starhawk reminds us that darkness is the source of new life. This year she explained, “In darkness, the seed takes root and the new sprout pushes toward the light. In the dark of the womb, the spark of life is kindled. Out of the longest night, the new day is born.”
The possibilities of deep changes are emerging with renewed urgency. The movement for black lives has stirred the largest social movement in history. The sensibilities of indigenous people and the energies of young people whose futures are most at risk are shaping efforts to radically move toward life affirming cultures. Over these last two years we have seen people organizing for work that is meaningful, safety that is rooted in respect for the integrity of life, and education that enriches us. People are finding ways to participate fully in the decisions that affect our worlds. These movements give us a glimpse of a multicultural democracy in action, of the possibilities or real change in systems that are no longer capable of resolving the crises they have brought into being.
These seeds of a new future rarely inform how the dominant culture portrays this moment. To do so would require a shift in the public understanding of power and change. It requires a recognition that the systems that shape all aspects of our lives are deeply flawed, established with the idea that the earth and her people are disposable, to be used for the benefit of a small elite. It requires the recognition that meaningful change never comes from elites, but from the longings of people for a better world.
Recently Noam Chomsky and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez talked about their belief that a better world is emerging. Representative Ocasio-Cortez reflected on the support galvanized behind the Green New Deal. She said, “What is incredibly encouraging is the mass adoption of this blueprint. Once it was released …we started to see movements across the United States — that were not covered by the media — in municipalities and states across the country that started to adopt these targets on municipal levels: the City of Los Angeles, the Austin City Council introduced it, the state of Maine, New York City. And they started to adopt more aggressive targets then, and they weren’t waiting for federal action on legislation.”
She concluded, “Arundhati Roy wrote that another world is not only possible, it is already here. Finding the pockets where this world is alive is what gives me hope…Hope creates action, and action creates hope. And that’s how we scale forward.”