We Can Begin Again Together

by Dane Rudhyar


9. Prelude to Rebeginning


The radical reorganization of our present social structures along the lines suggested in the preceding chapters, and the expansion of the collective consciousness of mankind so that it embraces all human beings and indeed all types of activities within the Earth seen as an organic whole — these may indeed appear today as a utopian hope. What emphasizes the utopian character of this hope is the rather obvious fact that such a metamorphosis would necessarily imply the synchronous, if not preliminary, transformation of at least a sizable minority of individual persons. Yet the hope is voiced increasingly, not only by a large number of young people whose "Great Refusal" may be making history, but also by men and women who have the vision of momentous changes in mankind and in the planet, Earth, under the impact of some "divine" manifestation.

This is not the first time that this kind of collective expectation has occurred. It seems that whenever a cycle of human existence is ending, the intuitive presentiment of thorough changes takes the form of such a utopian hope for some miraculous event and/or divine intervention — indeed "right now." The hope is utopian in the sense that while a transformation is indeed about to take place, it has so far never occurred instantly and when it gradually took form, its so eagerly foreseen ideal character has been sadly perverted or hidden under the waste products, or shall we say the karma, of the past historical cycle.

It has been said by Biblical scholars, particularly Albert Schweizer in his book, The Psychiatric Study of Jesus, that Jesus literally expected a totally transforming event, the end of the world, and that when the disciples he had sent to proclaim its coming returned without any visible change having taken place, he retired into the wilderness and planned his ultimate sacrifice to shock men into a radical catharsis. This may be a correct interpretation of the Gospel's words; but most likely it is not. It is the kind of interpretation dear to the mentality of intellectual men who fail to understand the use of symbols and of paradoxes — a use necessitated by the special nature of the prophetic and super-mental consciousness.

There is no instant utopia. Even if a vast telluric cataclysm brought about the sinking of sections of the present continents, destroyed many of our largest cities near the ocean and remade the map of the world, perhaps through a sudden shift of the polar axis of the globe; or if a nuclear war or a devastating epidemic shocked the remaining groups of men into a conversion to spiritual values — even then it would probably takes a relatively long time thoroughly to remodel or rebuild the structures of the social life of traumatized human collectiveness.

Nevertheless, this does not mean that the prophetic vision and even the devotional and over-idealistic expectations are useless. To return to the symbolic illustration which I have used through this and my preceding books: when the seed falls into the ground after the symbolic fall equinox, it may seem lost in the decaying mass of leaves and the damp pungent humus, and soon it may be covered by deep snow; yet it lives, and without it there would be no future vegetation. There are mental and spiritual as well as biological and physical seeds. To the disintegrating leaves, the seed is a utopia. Yet it lives, impervious to the death of the yearly cycle. It embodies the periodical victory over degeneration and universal entropy. Men of little faith and narrow intellectual mentality are hypnotized by the degradation of energy; nothing can stop the entropy-trend, they claim. Seed-immortality for them is a non-sensical unrealistic utopia, a subjective dream.

The seed does not need to argue with what is condemned to disintegration; it simply is. It knows by an incontrovertible kind of knowing that a new spring will come. Every part of its being is polarized toward this new spring. The seed not only knows spring is coming; it is building, in mind and with incorruptible faith, patterns that will be vernal realities.

Yes, it may take a long time in terms of mass realization. But the seed is, in a sense, a microcosm of the future cosmos. At least it enfolds within its consciousness the archetypes that will some day be realized into vast harvest-bearing fields. Within its protective walls it can already prophetically experience — shall I say, proto-experience? — the future. And such proto-experiences sound already the keynote of tomorrows, distant as they may seem to the man of myopic mind or impatient imagination. They are necessary. They set patterns in the spiritual-mental force-field of the Earth. They fecundate this field. If they remain true to their seed-being and impervious to decay, theirs will be the supreme triumph — victory over cyclic death.

These statements had once more to be made at the start of the third Part of this book, because we should now be able to show how men and women of the present day who respond to the ideals of transformation and global social organization broadly formulated in the preceding chapters can begin to work actively for the concrete expression of these ideals. It seems, however, that the pressure of the reactionary forces and the inertia of the masses clinging to what they have — or even eager to obtain privileges and comforts so long denied them — are still so powerful that no program of reconstruction on a large scale is possible. Nothing can be so dangerously futile as a premature revolution.

This should not be construed, however, as a denial of the value of youthful activism. There are times and places which require the dramatization of issues which absolutely need to be forced to the attention of a society stubbornly refusing to acknowledge their existence or finding easy ways of rationalizing its unwillingness to alter obviously obsolete patterns — such, for instance, as patterns of education, or shocking social inequalities of treatment. Such restrained and essentially peaceful dramatizations do not constitute, however, a political attempt at overturning the very structure of society. They simply should be meant to accentuate the necessity for change, and to arouse individuals and small groups to face consciously and actively the challenge of self-renewal. Obviously, the masses of the population are not ready for a fundamental social transformation — because the historical cycle of our Western society has not yet quite run its course.

When autumnal storms shake brown leaves to the ground, it is no time to think of germination. But it is time for seeds to drop to the ground and free themselves from the dying plant. It is time to concentrate on the seedhood of the seed, that is, to become more clearly aware of what it means to belong to the realm of the seed and not to that of disintegrating leaves. What is crucially important is the transformation of consciousness, rather than public action.

For this reason, in the last section of this book, I shall only attempt to deal with two essential issues which relate both to the clarification of problems and opportunities inherent in the development of the consciousness of individuals who have become committed, or who could become committed during the process of their early growth, to the building of a future civilization. These two issues refer (1) to the formation of what I call "seed-groups" and (2) to the kind of education which would give to the future generations a constructive start in what could, and hopefully would be, a life of total dedication to the actualization of the potentialities for all-human rebirth now being released within the Earth-field.

When I say "development of consciousness," I do not merely mean a quiet inactive type of meditation-process, valuable as meditation no doubt is for most people. Consciousness develops through relationship; and relationship implies action of some sort. But there is internal group-action as well as external public activity. What is essential today is what takes place within the seed — and not any frantic type of activity urged by emotional distress and impulsive reaction to autumnal circumstances and the decay of leaves. The seed must be impervious to decay. It must be strong within its seed-hood. It must know what this seed-hood implies — what its functional meaning is. It cannot allow itself to be sentimental, especially where death is at stake. It must be steady, serene through all storms. It must never lose faith. The vivid realization of the abiding presence of "Man" must remain an inextinguishable flame at the core of its being. The Vestal within must keep the flame burning.

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