In Native American Shamanism,
the hummingbird symbolizes a Divine messenger.

Personally, I always look at its fragile beauty in awe and contemplate how such a beautiful creature became.

It became, through adaptation and biologically engineering itself to survive.

Beauty arose from such a will.

This will comes from life’s main intent which is to always preserve and propagate, Life. This intelligence and process is called:

Evolution.

The truth of the matter is, scientifically and spiritually, all Life is miraculous.

The factors, elements and context that all must be perfectly aligned to create such a show, are ridiculous and rare. We have survived, evolved and we are here. We are alive.

Humans take this for granted.

I write this article to share a vision and to articulate that we are at an epoch of extraordinary evolution, and why this matters on an micro (individual) and macro (collective) scale.

It is a time when we decide whether we implode, or
thrive as a civilization.

Dum. Dum. Dummm.

I will not be a Debbie downer and list the nauseating facts of our impending or statistical doom. No, I will not tell you about the reality of overpopulation, or the fact that although you are probably reading this on a laptop or smartphone in a nice home in North America, you are in the top percentile of wealth in the entire world. Even that this fact is true, there is still a glaringly obvious wealth gap that is almost comical. (How have we not yet had a modern-day French Revolution? Like, let’s storm the Kardashian house like its Versailles.)

Just. Kidding.

I will also definitely not tell you about Climate Change or the ramifications of human activity (mainly rampant consumption) on the Earth’s health. I will not go on about the insane nature of our current society and how (largely) people are uneducated on the deeper truths of existence and Life itself.

And the Wars. Do not even get me started on the Industrial Military Complex that is one of the main benefactors to a unsustainable system of capitalism.

Everything is backwards.

It baffles me that we are all on the Titanic heading for the iceberg and really, as a Collective, we have no idea. If I was an alien, I would watch life on Earth with my mouth agape in pure shock that a group of sentient, intelligent and powerful beings are destroying their planet, fighting each other and buying more stuff.

But this is not about cynicism, this is about a potential for our beauty, So Up We Go.

“We are not going in circles, we are going upwards.
The path is a spiral; we have already climbed many steps.”
~ Hermann Hesse

There was this time that my Father and I were driving from Vancouver to Kamloops. As we watched the sun set over the Merritt mountain range, we engaged in a lively debate over the true nature of Man.

I argued: “Man has a higher faculty of consciousness. War, poverty and all disharmony we see in our world is a result of us believing that our lower faculties control us. (Lower faculties of consciousness: Fear, Greed, Lust, Control… etc.) I argued that we have the ability to be incredibly beautiful, compassionate, loving and enlightened, and if the majority of our Collective could reach this state of consciousness our civilization would transform.”

His argument: “Man is inherently flawed and we will forever, fight and ramble around in our lower-consciousness, prisoner to our sex-drive and need to dominate one another.”

Basically, to paraphrase what he was trying to say: “Kid stop it with your hippy, utopian ideals and just recognize, nothing will ever change. Man is man and that is that. It is a dog-eat-dog world and Darwin proved that.”

I do not accept this. Nor do I accept that we are destined to implode and remain so ugly.

My rebuttal. First of all, our basic understanding and the popular interpretation of the Darwinian texts must be re-evaluated. There was part of his observations and writing that spoke of the collaboration, unity and benevolence of nature. Totally the opposite of what the mainstream culture has preached.

But, I digress. The real point that I would like to make is that after observing Man and his ways, it becomes apparent that we are ruled by a very primal self until the Basic Needs, the red bar, of the Hierarchy of Needs are met.

Basic Needs mean our biological and physiological needs, such as water, food and shelter. The things that keep the animal side of us alive and breathing.

We are much more likely to be ruled by the lower faculties when sections of the pyramid are not sufficed. When our needs are not met we are focused on the self and unable to give or care for others. All we care about is climbing the pyramid, for ourselves.

We cannot give, because the self does not have enough.

But when these needs are met, the higher traits of Man naturally begin to flow forth. When you have enough and are feeling good you are more likely to give. The little self can give way to a larger Self where you begin to see the unity and connectivity of the bigger picture.

You can give more, because you have enough.

The transcendence of our animal nature into a higher-state of consciousness means that we surpass the brutality of animalism and enter into the freedom of Actualization. The place where Love, Kindness, Joy, Imagination, Awareness and Unity reside.

The beautiful place of humanity.

It is the place of the Soul. The place of “God.”
The place from whence we came.
The top of the pyramid is the
Kingdom of
Spirit.

It is totally doable for us to turn the Titanic around and climb-up the pyramid. It is totally doable for us to evolve, in fact, all the factors, such as our impending implosion and the Universal energies are conspiring for us to do so.

But…

We have the choice to climb.

And only because we have evolved to the point where this is even possible. We have created sufficient technology, the wealth and the resources to engineer a world where we can all begin to suffice Maslow’s Hierarchy Of Needs, on an individual and collective level.

Theoretically, North America and the “Developed” nations must begin to embed within their psyche that sufficing the pyramid is more important than the egoic quest of vanity. And, the “Developing” world must realize that creating societies that mirror our delusional acquisition wealth is not the key. It is about building strong foundations to provide all sects of society with at the very least, the Basic Physiological Needs. Food. Water. Shelter.

I suppose the World does know this, but do we realize that every day we remain apathetic to the plight of our fellow man, we are hurting ourselves?

We will all sink together if we do not begin to help one another.

North America needs to climb to self-actualization and birth a perspective where we realize that we have enough so that we may stop running on the hedonic treadmill of consumption and recognize, the true wealth is fulfillment and actualization of the Soul.

All that we truly want is within. It is at the top of the pyramid and unfortunately, more stuff will not get us there.

All I know is that many have been gifted with glimpses of the glorious evolution of humanity. I see a potential future where if we choose, we can utilize our intelligence and higher faculties to create a new civilization that is conducive for all Life to flourish. I see a life where the Earth is healthy and so are we.

We have the opportunity to thrive on a macro and micro level.

If we do not heed the call, Life will evolve, regardless. It will preserve itself, even if it means destroying our civilization through massive earthquakes, droughts, famines, or a biblical flood. Or perhaps, the cosmically dramatic, asteroids.

Let’s do something before we need to build an ark.

“We have all that we need to become our beauty.”