Gulp… what this short piece touches on may be misinterpreted and misunderstood, but know that I realise the topic of identification is a complex, multi-layered theme, that I believe has something to do with the our society’s continued retreat from its numinosity. I realise that many sOul’s feel that they do not fit in  or belong, some don’t even feel at home anywhere, and that there can be a massive relief when a label can be applied to psychological qualities that hitherto before  kept innate attributes marginalised or hidden, cloaked in shame and anxiety.

However, aside from the cynical observation of why there is such a ‘hard’ push for labelling – be it psychological, sexual, generational or otherwise, from vested interests at this time, what they are doing behind the scenes to divert attention and what is in it for them to push so hard, there are two contrasting ideas that arise within me, as I loosely reflect away from the genuine human considerations that marginalisation generates.

Firstly, it seems that the deeper into matter we descend, the greater the hunger for identity there is. The closer to spirit one ascends, the less inclined towards attachment the soul becomes. In an increasingly secular world, the further and further removed we have become from the immanency of nature, our bodies, our being, our community and our essence. Does it really matter what skin colour, gender orientation, sexual preference, religious identity, ethnicity any of us are. We all hurt, bleed, love, care; we all experience joy, pain, elation and suffering; we all want to know love; we all know sadness; we all feel desire and hunger; we all wish to preserve life of those we love and protect. Love is love, regardless of body parts, which ironically is not the biggest facet of being in a relationship, despite how our media have encouraged us to sup and dwell from the lower chakras, locking us deeper and deeper into the world of sensation, ownership, security, attachment and identification.

Surely, we are at a point in evolution where we can truly accept, without judgement, another, and therefore not require an identity attachment to a single ‘group’? I realise that as a white Western man, some may say that is privilege, and how I can know what it must be like to be a woman, born of colour and poverty; or someone who feels like they are a man in a woman’s body or being gay in a religiously fascist country or family. And that is true. I can’t know that. It has not been my reality. But having worked intimately for three decades with people of all walks of life and persuasions, acceptance, non-judgement and compassion have been qualities that I have been fortunate to have engaged and cultivated, reaching the conclusion that it does not matter what you are; what matters is how you handle yourself, how you handle others and how you choose to live.

Many of the spiritual traditions talk about being in the world and not of the world, and identity falls into that latter category. The more identified you become, the less free you are and the more onto the path of judgement one walks. Which leads me to point two:

The concern that factioning can create in the world that is emerging. Already I can hear the anger that reigns inside many when they are focusing on ‘other’ – be it ‘they’ who are behind the governments’; be it ‘those’ trans-persons/ those homosexuals/ those snowflake Millennials/ those psychologically damaged Boomers/ those immigrants/ those anti-vaxxers. The media are hell bent on division and division leads to fear of the unknown, which in turn opens people up to manipulation and propaganda. Just look at how successful Goebbels was in the 30s, using very reasonable, national socialism to turn faction against faction. And you can see it happening again.

Yet who is truly asking the question – why is this happening? Who is pushing it? What are ‘they’ distracting you from? But away from that conspiratorial thought, the point for me remains the deeper into matter that we dive, the further decompartmentalised we become. And this contrasts who we truly are – One. We are stars; we are light; we are all the same, as anybody who has held a loved one at the end knows – whatever animates the body is the person, as what is left is literally the sleeve or carcass that carries the true essence of the person – their quintessence. We are not physical beings at our core, therefore do we really need to focus on the exteriority of our being? It matters not in the end. Knowing love, being love, expressing love, is really all we are and want, and in time knowing lOve, being lOve and expressing lOve is what we hunger for.

It is my hOpe, within this time of mass awakening, that we focus on that essential part of our humanity, and not on the divisive labelling that creates suspicious, resentment and division.

Remember that this is a truly profound time in the Earth’s evolutional journey, which we are part of, each of us choosing to be here to experience this time, for numerous reasons. It only takes one act of sincere kindness to change another’s world, perception and reality. Keep that in mind, if what these summary sentiments resonate with you.

Thanks for taking time to read and reflect.

A