It’s the third month of lockdown and we’ve reached a point where people are either bored of it, are not even sure the virus exists (like we’ve all been duped!), or are still very fearful. And of course there are all the stages in between.
How are we to learn from this experience? There are those who have suffered enormously, those that just want to get back to normal and those who really want to use this time to create something beautiful. And why not? The perfect self-enforced cocoon to give life to the butterfly we are all capable of transforming into. Could this go some way towards honouring those who have lost their lives.
This month we are in Gemini and this dualistic, polarised mindset is clearly symbolised by its archetype. The twins, the id and the ego, and the conversations we have with ourselves at this time, could be key.
Gemini, is ruled by Mercury, the messenger god, and is the only one that can travel, carrying information, between the two worlds. But he is also the trickster, he plays the fool and we have to be careful of the information he brings. If we think we can outwit him then we are in trouble.
This is the state of our communication system we currently have working. The Media has become more corrupted, distorting the truth, than most of us can imagine and the Internet sits at the pinnacle of the Media tree.
The more we engage as we try and understand more, the deeper we fall into the quagmire of game playing and fabrication. The manipulation that’s behind the veneer of ‘truth’ and ‘information’ is only creating more chaos and raising more tensions.
The time to strip off the acceptable ‘face’ that covers what is really going on behind the scenes is absolutely now and crucial to our growth. This face that we have learned to wear as we go about our business too often morphs into the beast that trolls the social media and feeds the underbelly of the Internet, the subterfuge that sets the algorithms to create pandemonium.
If you want to get a feel for this in one quick hit, I am reading Ben Elton’s ‘Identity Crisis’ and as usual he sums up the situation in a fast, humorous and terrifying thriller of a book.
Leading up to the lockdown I had been enjoying a few online videos, and yes I know I have to be careful here, where people who have been caught up in some quite vicious arguments, usually on Facebook, have taken all this on board and played the system at its own game. One intelligent man, realising that the algorithms were feeding and validating his viewpoint, created a new identity of an opposing nature to see what he received from the new echo chamber he had entered. The information that was fed back to him, ratified all his fears.
His answer to it all was to get out, stop playing the game, and talk to people face to face. I believe, the street has to be the new Internet until we can find a way to communicate in a healthy way that is kind and from the heart. While we continue to buy into the Internet as it stands, the beast that has grown over the past decades, is not fit for purpose if we wish to emerge from this year into a better place.
I understand that we have created an online world that is almost impossible to dismantle, like our cars. But the lockdown showed that life continued without most cars and planes for a while and we simply adapted. We are adaptable beings and aren’t we worth the effort it might take to choose to make changes that will benefit all in so many ways; our mental health, our physical and our emotional well being.
What will it take?
