Something Big Just Happened! How to Participate in What's Emerging Without Knowing Exactly What's Emerging.

19 hours ago

15 min read

Everyone knows something big just happened!

So big that some are in shock.

Others are scrambling to prematurely come to conclusions about what it means for their sense of identity.

Sadly, many people aren’t sure whether it’s safe to relish the joy and relief they feel after the dramatic repudiation of a decade of absorbing abusive rhetoric and witnessing state-sponsored violence against other humans.

There is No Going Back to Normal Now

What I’m most excited to talk about in my post is what this moment calls for more than immediate action. A sense of liberation and power secured after years of not knowing whether we could overcome the darkness can sweep us up into action that could unintentionally be founded on the same assumptions that created the infrastructure for the systems that are falling now.

How do we avoid that?

First, by trusting the momentum that is already present for new ways of thinking about our relationship to ourselves, others, and the planet. We got to this point, which is a huge achievement, and now our job is to shift from resisting and overcoming to noticing what wants to emerge not from our minds, which are attached to our old assumptions, but from a deep state of knowing within us and as part of the collective unconscious.

From a place of trust, we can relax into allowing ourselves to imagine what can be, and once imagined, realize it already exists. We simply must be attuned to the signals that will direct us how to move towards it. Like Einstein, for example. It is said he received the entire theory of relativity in a dream. That dream didn’t come out of nowhere. Einstein wondered about something and in the darkness of sleep, when his mind was offline, the answer came.

From a depth psychology perspective, we must build the capacity to participate in this moment by leaning into what’s trying to emerge instead of being consumed by the urgency to return to an old state of normal, which no longer exists.

Before we talk more about this…

What’s the Bigger and Deeper Thing Happening?

There are many frameworks and lenses through which we can examine this dramatic pivot point. See if you can identify the deeper thread and allow your imagination to wonder about where it seeks to go from here without your mind prematurely limiting the possibilities.

Culturally, Americans overall rebuked the resurgence of racism, misogyny, and Christian white nationalism that had come back out of our collective shadow with a vengeance over the past decade. The winners and losers combined reflect a strong embrace of the United States as a multi-cultural melting pot that believes in the dignity of all humans, not just some.

Through a social justice lens, more white Americans than ever awoke from their slumber of privilege, exploring deeply the truth of the physical and economic violence done to native populations, enslaved African Americans and their future generations, other people of color, women, and a host of other targeted groups. Americans saw through hidden and sinister foreign policy agendas, now able to connect the oppression of Palestinians, for example, to their sense of security in their own freedom.

Economically, Americans became conscious of the intentional degradation of the institutions and laws put in place almost a hundred years ago to protect workers from the excesses of capitalism. More people now understand the lie of trickle-down economics, the propaganda that has turned regular Americans against themselves, tricking them to support leaders and policies responsible for redistributing trillions from the greater community to the top one percent over the past fifty years.

Still, others educated themselves about the Constitution, affirming their sense that the “We the people part,” was losing. People became aware of the sinister efforts to dismantle the establishment of public education free of religious indoctrination. And twenty-six years after the devastating U.S. Supreme Court Ruling referred to as “Citizens United,” Americans are more conscious of the disease of money in politics and its contribution to runaway corporate power, which has resulted in the poisoning of our food, water, and planet.

I think it’s worth pointing out that in the Preamble to the Constitution, which states the purpose of the Constitution:

“We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”

The language itself includes these priorities:

Establish justice.
Insure domestic tranquility.
Provide for the common defense.
Promote the general welfare.
Secure liberty for ourselves and future generations.

Calling on astrology, mythic traditions, and critical theories can help one perceive the deeper levels of transformation that are occurring. For example, the split off and demeaned feminine resurfaced through social justice movements in the sixties and returned angrily in the 1980s (recall the symbolism of Thelma and Louise blowing up that semi-truck). That decade witnessed the passage of the Violence Against Women Act, all fifty states finally outlawing marital rape, record numbers of women running and winning elected office, adoption of family leave policies, and more.

But today, the feminine (in women, men, movements) has emerged already in her power. There might still be anger, but it’s more generative now. The question isn't whether we should be angry. It's whether we can remain psychologically present enough to decide what to do with our anger. Anger has always been the spark for movements and creative expression. Whether there is still anger, I sense a readiness for transcendence, transformation, reunion, and reconciliation of the feminine and masculine into true partnership within us, between people, and ultimately reflected in new organizational structures and economic policies.

The voters of Texas brought its state back into balance by electing a white man who embraces the compassion of Jesus, and a Mexican American woman as governor who just appointed a former Republican legislator as the co-chair of her transition team. New Mexico elected its first woman Native American as governor, and eight black women now hold all the state-wide elected roles in Georgia. Whereas there had only been three black governors in our country’s history, five were elected last week, and as I write this, it is likely that Mississippi, where the population is 40% black, will elect its first Black senator since post-Civil War Reconstruction. There’s so much more, including the first openly gay man to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Looking through a feminist lens, the breakdown, fluidity, and rejection of gender reflects the dismantling of limiting and stagnant ideas, which sought to control and keep the feminine in check. No more. Today, there are secure men everywhere explaining to other men what feminism is (the right to self-determination for everyone). These men have taken their power back from patriarchy, which had required them to reject their own feminine, leaving a hole that can only be filled by reclaiming the part of themselves they’ve been indoctrinated to reject, shame, and project onto women and men seen as inferior to them.

Spirituality (a sense of connection or oneness as opposed to religious doctrine) is also a useful lens in understanding the deeper meaning of current events. As former presidential candidate Marianne Williamson suggests, regardless of our failure to live up to the ideas captured in our founding documents, our country was founded on an idea that had never been put forth before, that humans are born with inalienable rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. You could say our founding documents were spiritual documents, a moral compass of sorts.

At the same time, Elie Mystal, justice correspondent at The Nation, and author of Allow Me to Retort: A Black Guy’s Guide to the Constitution, is technically correct in his assessment that for black Americans especially, “the Constitution is trash, but doesn't have to be.”

We are at a crossroads spiritually as a nation, but the fundamentalists want to take the easy way out by making it about a literal end of days. The righteous road is self-examination, self-knowledge, and self-awareness to relieve the Other from responsibility for validating our existence. We are worthy because we exist, and when you realize this, you naturally hold yourself to higher standards. So, this pivotal moment in history is as spiritual as it is political.

A Little Help from Beyond

The rise of independent media during the four-year break after the first Trump administration was critical to laying the foundation for the powerful shift in consciousness that resulted in this historic election. In hindsight, that four-year period feels almost intentionally orchestrated by some mysterious hand, perhaps Hermes the Greek god known as the guide of souls. He often makes his presence known as a Trickster and messenger during times of uncertainty. In fact, he was my constant companion during midlife unraveling and reconstruction, often pushing me over the edge into expanded consciousness or encouraging me to become swept up in something that my inner rule follower might not have approved of.

Because of the proliferation of independent media and democratization of social media platforms, millions of regular Americans became activists and educators to the masses. The more that states tried to ban books, the more people read those books, finding truth for themselves instead of allowing corporate media to spoon feed them lies or incomplete truths.

The rise of political, legal, and historical social media channels is ensuring that Americans understand that what has happened does NOT reflect an embrace of one political party. Further, the blue wave did NOT occur ONLY as a rejection of the other party, which had capitulated to the man who was and is the figurehead of a sinister fascist movement, paid for by powerful wealthy men.

Instead, a careful analysis should act as a warning to the party that has been entrusted with the task of enforcing the rule of law, reversing policies that are causing harm, and taking the lead from the voters when it comes to reimagining systems that serve the interests of more humans.

On the day of the election, I felt oddly calm and not attached to what the outcome would be. I was prepared to adapt to whatever the results symbolized in where our country and the world are in the larger reckoning we are experiencing. What I felt more curious about was whether people would miss the fact that a win for democracy did not equal an embrace of the democratic party, which had also become beholden to corporate interests.

What meaning would voters give to a win for Democracy and the rule of law and how would that be interpreted by the Democratic Party?

In the first days following the election, the answers are emerging. I sense Americans will no longer delegate their power to any party. Voter demands for new party leadership are pissing off the establishment. More of this! A threshold has been crossed.

A Collective Midlife Unraveling

What happened this past Tuesday is a bottomless pit of insights. What has happened is so big that it is difficult to pin down what it all means. But in the confused state, the mind is distracted enough for a sense of presence to occur. And this is exactly what we want, space to simply be present without prematurely acting based on the assumptions that created the systems that want to die right now.

You might be feeling a sense of liberation, followed by anxiety. The liberation is the key that you’re perfectly positioned to help rather than hinder what’s trying to emerge from our collective psyche. Liberation from old constraints + a touch of anxiety at not knowing what will replace them + deep knowing that we are being pulled forward what’s in the process of unfolding = the capacity to pause, perceive more, stay with it, let more information arrive, allow your field of perception to widen, discover what wants to emerge, act.

The formula is quite simple, but the mind is stubbornly attached to what feels familiar. This is where my midlife meltdown comes in handy. The benefit of living through a midlife unraveling and reconstruction while studying depth psychology is that I become quite good at sensing more of reality, not from a place of security, quite the opposite, from a sense of desperation to make sense of what was happening to me.

You could look at what’s happening in our country (or even the world) as a kind of midlife unraveling, as seen through the lens of C.G. Jung’s theory of individuation, which can be described as the process of coming into relationship with our unconscious to meet our authentic or highest Self.

It’s a sneaky process, which often begins with subtle whispers from your soul that something isn’t quite right, although the surface of your life seems perfectly fine. Over time, the whisper can become a roar as you rationalize and excuse circumstances that you’re not equipped to deal with or even have the capacity to entertain consciously.

But then there’s this moment, when the truth of the situation emerges and you KNOW what to do, even though acting on the truth is going to be the hardest thing you’ve ever done in your life, and you’re going to feel bad about the suffering choosing yourself is going to cause. The truth does set you free eventually, and the sense of liberation begins to overshadow the fear of uncertainty.

This is where we’re at collectively. We’ve crossed the threshold into the unknown. Right now, you can probably sense the inevitability of the collapse of the systems that have become so corrupt, there is a consensus that they must die.

The Hangover Phase

On Wednesday, I experienced an all-out hangover. It is true that I had one extra drink Tuesday evening, but it was more than that. Since the summer of 2020, I had adapted to being on guard, wondering if I was supposed to return to the activism of my twenties, then taking a breath for four years, and eventually, feeling disbelief in 2024 at the ease with which many Americans either gave up or were seduced by the words of the silver-tongued adjudicated rapist and greatest grifter in our history.

I had found a new role as a podcaster, author, and depth psychology coach, holding space for self-reflection. My only agenda was to help my clients develop a sense of self-validation and emotional sovereignty as the world around them collapsed.

After a long period of uncertainty and allowing myself to be swept up in enlivening experiences and creative expression, I moved back home, ready to bring my new lens to the community that I love. Never did I expect leaders and organizations to be ready for a depth psychology approach to leading people and organizations while navigating these uncertain times.

And then last Tuesday happened. Beneath the surface of a hangover is a very clear message: stop, rest, hydrate! Exhaustion and confusion are perfect right now. In fact, the danger currently is finding meaning too quickly, coming to conclusions too quickly about what to do in the transition between the old and the emerging new paradigm that isn’t visible yet.

Stop, rest, and hydrate! This is a perfect prescription for these times. As neuroscience suggests, deep inhales and extended exhales can help our central nervous system feel safe during circumstances that once didn’t feel safe. If we can remain present, our mind can observe without being consumed.

We can:

Recognize patterns without assuming they tell the whole story.
Generate interpretations without insisting they're correct.
·Ask questions rather than rush toward answers.
Collaborate with intuition, emotion, experience, and unconscious material.

In a state of presence, our mind can become a partner to a deeper source of wisdom based in our bodies and intuition, instead of fearing the unknown. From here, we can gain clarity about how exactly we are to participate in the collective unfolding of what’s ahead.

Assumptions Can Become Infrastructure

My first post-divorce relationship served as a vessel for my deep transformation. Being attracted to a fundamentalist Christian was like a cruel joke. I remember the conversation between the two of us about whether humans were innately evil or good. My former lover was adamant about the truth of the former, that humans were inherently evil, born of original sin. In that moment, I realized that my naively optimistic view that humans were innately good had evolved to an understanding that humans simply are humans, with the potential for good, bad, and everything in between. I came to understand that humans are reflections and expressions of consciousness itself, which is seeking to know itself. Now, this was a major shift in my assumptions about humanity, and that shift contributed to my capacity to hold the tension between what many perceive to be opposing forces.

But from the capacity to hold that tension, what depth psychologists refer to as C.G. Jung’s transcendent third function, is liberation from assumptions based in fear of the unknown.

This is part of the lesson we are to learn today. Stagnation and corruption are fueled by a divide and conquer strategy. This is an old lesson, reflected in teachings that are thousands of years old, and yet, humans still succumb. The antidote to corruption is the capacity to avoid reducing things to a binary choice, and instead, identify the deeper assumptions of the belief. For example, you could say that the fear of trans people reflects the fear of rejecting the binary in favor of complexity and fluidity. After all, neuroscience suggests that the brain’s reticular activation system seeks to find evidence of one’s belief system, and most of our beliefs are not consciously known, and the assumptions underlying those beliefs even less known.

How to Remain Sovereign in the Face of Uncertainty

Our minds are designed to seek patterns, establish coherence, and make meaning from experience. But when the ground beneath us is shifting, that same capacity can become a limitation. We may mistake our familiar interpretations for truth, or our need for certainty for wisdom. The invitation is to notice when our minds are trying to close a question that needs to remain open.

How can we remain in uncertainty without forcing certainty?

Emotional sovereignty is not the ability to control what you feel. It is the ability to remain in relationship with what you feel without allowing it to determine your entire perception of reality or dictate your next move. The road to emotional sovereignty is often a meandering one involving uncovering the root of negative emotional reactions and decisions that undermine us. But the new insights are worth it. Suddenly, you have free will.

To explore the topic of sovereignty through an archetypal psychological lens, click here to read my post: Artemis Rising: Why Sovereign Women Make Men Stronger. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth podcast.

Curiosity and a sense of humor can help. When we replace the need to know with, “I wonder if…” we shift from fear of uncertainty to possibilities thinking. Further, viewing our thoughts, emotions, and experiences as data points and scenes from a movie can help us avoid being consumed by them.

Sovereignty isn't separation. It's the capacity to remain fully yourself while staying in relationship with life. Sovereignty isn’t binary. You can be many things at once while not being identified, defined, or limited by one or the other. It’s shocking how long it’s taken me to realize this in my own life.

How You Show Up Affects More than You Know

We cannot participate in creating a different future using only the consciousness that created the conditions we're trying to transform. That's why the capacity to remain in the unknown matters, but how does this play out as individuals, leaders, and members of different communities?

Individually, we must become conscious of our assumptions, and in relationship, we must become capable of holding differences without immediately making someone wrong. You might ask yourself, “How do I remain grounded in myself when my understanding of the world is being challenged?”

Organizationally, we must create conditions for new ways of thinking and relating. As a leader you might ask yourself, “How do I create conditions in which people can think, relate, and respond intelligently rather than react from fear?”

As a member of different communities, we must stop surrendering our discernment to the very systems and identities we are trying to move beyond. We could ask ourselves, “How do we participate in the emergence of something new without simply reproducing the assumptions and power structures of what we're leaving behind?”

Reflecting on these questions contributes to our capacity to:

Expand perception.
Resist collapsing complexity prematurely.
Create enough psychological space for something new to become thinkable.
Then discover the role that is ours to play in the unfolding future.
Essentially, how can we remain psychologically awake enough to participate in history without being consumed by it?

Can we:

Be aware that something is happening;
Notice what we’re noticing;
Name our assumptions about what we’re noticing;
Stay curious;
Not prematurely decide what it means; and
Watch what becomes possible?

The momentum is already there. I sense it. I witness it in my clients’ capacity to take back the projections that once made it easy to make someone else the bad guy. I notice it in my teenage clients and adult children who demonstrate a higher degree of self-awareness than I had at their age. I see it in once marginalized groups that have shed their fear and acknowledged that their life experiences have prepared them for this moment.

Your Role May Only Become Clear As You Meet It

Your whole life has been preparing you for this moment. The role that is yours to play may only become clear as you meet it. The intersection of all the different ways to examine what’s happening is wholeness, authenticity, and the expansion of consciousness, which is always about love.

Today is the first day of your journey to participate in what’s emerging. If you’re intrigued, here are select articles, videos, and interviews that will take you deeper into a depth psychology approach to finding meaning and your role in the new world.

Blog post: Navigating Election Aftermath: Processing Emotions, Setting Boundaries, Countering Violence & Rebuilding Community. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth Podcast.

Blog post: The Armageddon: It’s an Inside Job. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth Podcast.

Blog post: Artemis Rising: Why Sovereign Women Make Men Stronger. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth Podcast.

Blog post: Transcending Division Requires Understanding What's Being Worked .Out.Through the Division. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth podcast

Blog post: The Hidden Dynamics of Leadership: Why Self-Awareness Matters More than Most Leaders Realize. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth podcast.

Chapter 1: The Discovery of You, from my book, Your Soul is Talking: Are You Listening? Click here to listen on Dose of Depth Podcast.

Self-Reflection in a Time of Conspiracy Theories: A Chat with Jungian Analyst Vlado Solc. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth Podcast.

Corporations and Our Collective Shadow: A Conversation with Dr. Elizabeth Martin about the Citizens United Opinion. Click here to listen on Dose of Depth Podcast.

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