A contribution by Janice Dolley
Our Sacred Story
To focus on the sacred is to focus on all that is holy and whole and our response to the call of these times requires us to help restore the spiritual dimension of life as an integral aspect of both our own lives and of our society. If we can collectively do this then our future could be very different from our past.
Every society thrives on an underpinning narrative which informs the paradigm, or collective mindset on which our personal and public lives can be based. At the same time evolution does not pause for long and the next pulse takes us forward once again with our current era as merely a ‘chapter’ in the long story of the human species. Whilst indigenous societies have based their lives on holistic ways of living which combine their ideas and daily activities into a coherent whole, western society recently finds itself straddled between two very different narratives.
The narrative of the last few hundred years has been dominated by the rational and materialistic ideas that viewed people and objects as separate and needing to be competitive and conflictual, as possibly Darwin’s principle of natural selection indicated. Industrialisation focussed on the visible material reality and valued the wealth that could be gained by plundering the planetary resources and manufacturing these into goods for human consumption. This encouraged us to see ourselves as separate from other people and from nature. Religion that had sustained society for so long came to be a helpful involvement for some but even then, its purpose was often to ensure ‘salvation’ for the individual. This former narrative still prevails.
However, following WWI the early shoots of a[i] second narrative began with an upsurge in the west of spiritual ideas with Madame Blavatsky, Alice Bailey, Rudolf Steiner and others beginning to communicate that the domain of spirit was important and was not dependent on religion. However, the pursuit of wealth and the need to show that you had achieved this was still a dominant popular story. WWII interrupted that flow as all was primarily for the purpose of contributing to the ‘war effort’. After the end of the war Britain launched into a more joyful period and the journey towards something new began. Then in the early 1960s The Beatles broke onto the scene by singing “Love Is All You Need”. They had clearly caught the emergence of something new, possibly the beginning of the transition from the Piscean into the Aquarian era in which group consciousness seems to be a focus.
Then during the 1960s came the first photographs of our beautiful blue planet from outer space and the astronaut Edgar Mitchell’s peak experience as he came out from behind the moon and saw the universe as ‘a great continuum of consciousness and thought that works as a great oneness in celestial harmony.’ A new chapter in our story was beginning to leave our materially dominated culture behind.
A new consciousness seemed to pour in as a great tidal wave. The Findhorn Foundation was one of the communities that were embracing the new consciousness that was emerging in the late sixties. It was founded on a connection with an inner world and the possibility of listening to the inner voice of spirit that speaks within our own thinking. Its beginnings were based on Eileen Caddy’s inner guidance and Dorothy MacLean’s discovery of how to communicate with the natural world and the devic realms of nature. Many other groupings picked up this thread. The Friends of the Earth was one of the early attempts to highlight the need to care for our planetary home in the early 70s and the Bridge Trust, one of the earliest networking organisations, started to both ground these ideas in practical action as well as to provide steps from the old consciousness to the new. One arm of The Bridge Trust pioneered the first England based organic farm and charity for holistic education and contributed to a shift in consciousness and a spiritual worldview of loving interconnectedness with all life began to emerge and has continued with a plethora of associations, networks and organisations all offering an aspect of the transformational journey to the ‘New’ that seemed to be calling.
This shift was given an impetus by Sir George Trevelyan who offered ‘a vision of hope in a world of turmoil.’ His lectures, courses and books run by the Wrekin Trust, the educational charity that he set up in the early 1970s, were a real inspiration for my generation and some of us took up his declaration that a new humanity was lifting out of the low vibration of sense bound thinking, unlocking the spiritual potential that had hitherto been dormant and was breaking through to a vision of wholeness, a breakthrough to a holistic world view and the challenge to live courageously through an age of change in which we would need to honour both the visible and the invisible dimensions of life.
This was the spiritual side of our story. At the same time the world of science was beginning to move away from its materialistic focus and reveal that all matter is energy and all energy a manifestation of consciousness.
Max Plank on winning the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1919 declared:
“We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.”
Then Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize two years later declaring that energy and matter are the same thing in different forms.
Fritjof Capra in the 1960s published the “Tao of Physics” and as a scientist revealed that all matter is energy and all energy a manifestation of human consciousness. In the 1970s the Scientific and Medical Network began, initially focussing on the new science that was unfolding then increasingly incorporating the spiritual dimension, while in the USA a plethora of new scientists were sharing their insights with such people as Gregg Braden, Bruce Lipton, and Joe Dispenza leading the way.
During that time the new consciousness was beginning to spark several small associations, many environmentally aware and beginning to talk about ecology, the valuing of our souls and the importance of the interfaith movement. The centenary of the first Parliament of World Religions was held in both Chicago and Bangalore in 1993. Meantime the evolving end of religious and spiritual traditions was moving fast, such as the Alister Hardy Research Trust proving the over 70 % of people interviewed across the world attested to having had a spiritual experience and groups such as “Christians Awakening to New Awareness” (CANA) exploring the evolving edge of Christianity towards the universal and highlighting the need for transformation. At the same time the sacred teachings from India and China were spreading more widely. The Brahma Kumaris World Spiritual University now with centres in 120 countries has, with others, spread the awareness and practice of meditation.
During the 21st century this narrative has been gaining ground with an emphasis on collaboration and co-creation. The Aquarian impulse towards synergy moved the Wrekin Trust in 2010 to start the first meetings that lead to the formation of the One Spirit Alliance which brought together over 100 spiritual groupings, each focussing on a different aspect with a willingness to collaborate with others and by 2012 it was recognised that a new narrative was now underway. The Findhorn Foundation put on “The New Story Summit” in 2014 and the team were surprised by the global response when most of the 300 places had been taken up in the first few days including 50 representatives of indigenous traditions and 50 young people.
Then in 2018 in the UK Dr Jude Currivan launched a new approach that evidenced a convergence of science and spirituality with her book “The Cosmic Hologram.” This was followed by “The Story of Gaia” and more recently the Unitive Narrative which brings together the discoveries of quantum science with the emerging spiritual world view. This is currently being adopted as an underpinning narrative by the some aspects of the UN as well as other groupings and corporations with the Science of Love being a natural next step.
As I write in 2024 this new paradigm is increasingly opening to a spiritual worldview but facing pushback from the mainstream media and those political and economic interests invested in power and control. This brings us to the crossroads that seem to face us today, but today the stakes are higher because we have now the weapons to destroy ourselves. It seems logical that the development of any society needs to work through the possibility of self-destruction if it is to progress into higher dimensions of being and it maybe that we are at that stage.
However, the tide is turning, and an increasing number of people are now realising that we are all interconnected and different expressions of the One life and One humanity and that all is based on love. Love is not only the supreme source and sustainer of all life but also the message of the invisible Church of Love, that Colin Bloy, who set up the Fountain Trust to encourage local groups to meditate together had discovered, speaks of a church, or ‘community of faith’ which would include all because:
“It has no fabric, only understanding. It has no membership, save those who know they belong.”
A new era of love is underway alongside a growing recognition that all aspects of life are indivisibly connected and that we dwell in an intelligent and cosmic reality. If this could be widely experienced and expressed it will have the potential to carry us through this age of turmoil to something new. We now need to ask ourselves whether we are in fact spiritual beings on a human journey and whether we have the capacity to live together in harmony, to respect each other and treat others with the care compassion and kindness that we ourselves like to receive. With a new understanding of our creator as the pulse of life itself present in every atom and within each of us, with a greater realisation of the deep interconnectedness of all life in the omnipresent One Life, and the consequent need to love all our neighbours as ourself ,we can shift with the energies of the Aquarian era that are propelling us towards a greater global consciousness.
Currently our sacred story is under threat from the corruption and self- interest of the many who have infiltrated or been placed in positions of power, often carrying out programmes of ‘mass formation’ (aka brain washing) that prevent us from seeing that we are currently engaged in a battle for the soul of the human race. Most people at the grass-roots are good and kind, caring and compassionate but we need to see through the smoke and mirrors and be willing to offer our prayers and stand up for goodness, beauty and truth in order to ensure that our story remains a sacred one for the many generations down the line.
We have the power to speak, write, vote and act as empowered sovereign beings and begin to co-create with others of like mind. The research of Lynne McTaggart has shown that a powerful collective intention held by enough people does bring that intention into being. Only then can we trust the prediction of Sir George Trevelyan that:
“Out of the confusion of a crumbling society, will emerge individuals that are touched by higher guidance. These will inevitably flow together with others of like inspiration and a new quality of society will begin to form. This is the true adventure of our time.”
The time for this adventure is now when wrong comes up to meet us everywhere. We can and will collectively rise to this challenge and when we do this will ensure that the next paradigm will be a cosmic and multi-dimensional one and our collective story will indeed continue to be a sacred one.
Janice Dolley