Source: motherpeace.com

“Wholeness is possible when human qualities, now usually designated as masculine or feminine, are seen as part of the spectrum for everyone.” So writes wise woman Jean Shinoda Bolen. And when you consider that ‘heal’ comes from the same root as ‘whole,’ it really makes a whole lot of sense.

In our culture that works so diligently to divide head from body, body from feeling, human from nature, politics from reality – to pit one against the other, creating a false and compelling sense of hierarchical value . . . I find myself thinking – a LOT – about healing into wholeness. As I also do when, as now, I am holding internal intensity at two ends of a seemingly irreconcilable spectrum.

The other morning I pulled a Motherpeace Tarot card from the deck spread out before me. The four of wands emerged, its golden background highlighting four young women celebrating their rite of passage with joyful abandon around a circle, centered on an altar to life. ‘Each holds a wand, symbolic of the masculine energy being integrated into their lives as they enter adulthood. The symbolism of four is stability, the four directions creating a space where something special can occur.’

I have pulled this card before at times of transition in my work. I can be very goal-oriented when it comes to moving forward with running my business, readily getting caught up in the external details of plans, schedules and deadlines. At the same time, without the centering and balancing awareness of my connection with Earth, her seasons, the four directions and their powers, I would lose both purpose and meaning of the work I’m striving to build. Without centering ground, I would be little more than hot air.

Isn’t it time to heal the divides that keep being hammered at us – or rather, driven between and among us? From where I stand, the only outcome of this trajectory is ever-increasing extremism, fear-mongering and the almost certain destruction of everything truly meaningful. What about the more realistic, sustainable and inclusive concept of integration?

What the world does not need is ego-driven leaders hungry for blind power. Nor does it need the rest of us to sit back and follow blindly as if we had no ability to think for ourselves or contribute to the common weal. What we need is wholeness—within and among us—of clear rational thinking and decisive action guided by compassion, vision and inclusion. We need to grow up past adolescent finger-pointing doings and move into ourselves as whole, integrated beings. How we will get there is through acknowledging the values, needs, hopes and fears we share as people, first and foremost. We are in this together. Isn’t it time we started to act that way?