You are that butterfly. But, ironically, the caterpillar within you must die. Read what I mean in this week’s edition of “Isn’t That Ironic?”.
The world, and all the people in it, are going through an almost unbelievable metamorphosis that seems to be historically unprecedented. We are in the chrysalis, and the butterfly will emerge. But for the beautiful butterfly to emerge and fly in the sky and manifest all the beauty and freedom of a butterfly—the caterpillar must be destroyed. We can look at this whole process as destruction because the caterpillar is truly destroyed. But it is equally true to say that the butterfly is not really destroyed, just transformed. So it is with us.
We are witnessing incredible destruction all around us. It is not just in human deaths. Perhaps surprisingly, that is really a small part of the destruction. We are seeing the destruction of society, of the arts, of sports, of long-held beliefs, of whole professions, of industries, of our social structure, of respect for people and professions, and the list goes on. It is a form of social collapse. I don’t know how drastic it will be, but it is definitely social collapse, also called societal collapse.
Societal collapse is quite common—far more common than you might imagine. It typically marks the end of a civilization and can be caused by massive disease, famine, natural disaster, war, etc. It sometimes happens when a civilization has become so rigid in its thinking, its social structure, or its economic organization, that it cannot adapt to change. All that people thought was eternal, natural, unchangeable, and proper is swept away and destroyed. This is usually, though not always, associated with a huge reduction in population and a reversion to a much lower level of technology. Think of the fall of Rome in the fourth century AD or the late bronze age collapse in the twelfth century BC.
Yet there are other, less dramatic, examples of societal collapse that I think may be more similar to what we are experiencing. It might be more like, for example, the collapse after the great flowering of European medieval civilization in the tenth to twelfth centuries AD. It fell into the disaster of the thirteenth century. The plague swept through Europe repeatedly, killing a third of the people, in some places half. The climate suddenly cooled, leading to crop failures and famine. Amid these disasters, man fought man in the Hundred Years War. In many ways, it was the end of medieval civilization. Writers at the time talked about it as the end of the world.
Yet out of this collapse, the stranglehold that the guilds held on labor was loosened. The economic and political foundation of serfdom was mortally wounded and freedom was able to slowly emerge. Amidst the despair of destitution and the inevitable human search for spiritual meaning, the theological straightjacket of Catholic Scholasticism was cast aside and minds were gradually opened to a more expansive view of spiritual truth.
It took centuries, but gradually the divine right of kings was smashed by the Magna Carta in England and similar events elsewhere in Europe. A reawakening of knowledge and industry came with the Renaissance. The Reformation forced a spiritual pluralism and an acknowledgment of the personal spiritual journey upon a Catholic Church distracted from spiritual pursuit by its centuries of political responsibility. Without the social collapse of the thirteenth century—the destruction of the medieval caterpillar—the butterfly of an enlightened Europe could not have emerged.
We are experiencing a similar collapse today. It is not the “fourth industrial revolution” imagined by those adolescent intellects that understand only power. It is something far greater than that. And those selfish minds that seek to impose a modern “divine right of kings” must be swept away with a new “Magna Carta”. Our new “Magna Carta” must be, not simply a "power of barons" to balance the power of kings, but a new world constitution that prevents the accumulation of power that could enslave others. It must recognize the rights and responsibilities of each person for their own lives.
I hope you are beginning to realize that our oft-lauded government institutions do not help people solve their problems in life. Most often, they do exactly the opposite. We need to learn again that it is not charity to do for a man, what he could and should do for himself. It is enslavement. Throughout the world, we have allowed ourselves to become enslaved by the promise of something for nothing. There is no such reality. You have heard the old Chinese proverb. Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. I say, give a man a fish and you make him your slave. Teach him how to fish and you set him free. The time has come for all of us to be free. Whatever you want for your life—do it yourself.
The butterfly must fight its own way out of its chrysalis. If you assist it, it dies. So it is with man—with our present metamorphosis. This is true for us as individuals and as a collective. Each of us must struggle against the forces of oppression and coercion that we face in our daily lives. You might be fired from your job if you speak the truth to power. So be it. You might be de-certified by your professional association if you call out the lies within it. So be it. You might be insulted and ostracized by your friends and neighbors if you try to show them how they have been deceived. So be it. Your business might be bankrupted by a boycott organized by a collection of communist zealots. So be it. You might be assaulted by police for peacefully protesting against the tyranny of our oppressors. So be it.
You must find the courage within your own heart to do what you believe is right. The courage is there. You already have it. It is within you because the spirit of God is within you and it knows no fear, only love. To fly free like the butterfly you truly are, you must accept the death of the caterpillar and struggle through the chrysalis of fear—on your own. But you are never truly on your own. God is always with you. God is within you. If you are willing to accept it, God is you. If you are Christian then you know that the Holy Spirit dwells within you. You are God expressing through you in your manifestation as a particular human being at a particular moment in time. You are already “one with God”. You simply need to recognize this reality.
God Bless You!
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