There is an old fable attributed to Native Peoples about the two wolves we all carry internally and what one invokes by feeding one wolf over the other. The fable distills the wolves down to one as representative of the light in our natures and the other as representative of the dark. These days I often feel that my two wolves are in a dance for dominance. My Light Wolf, which I have consciously fed with mediation and yoga for 15 years now, is not the Wolf I find responding to the Chaos of current events. It is my Dark Wolf responding, growling, teeth bared, spring loaded and my Light Wolf is not really that concerned about allowing that. All of this energy circling in my Wolves of course is sourced in an awareness of how much is being shoveled out from underneath the foundations of what my Light Wolf holds to be the necessities for greater humanitarian community.
I am a Yogi in the 21st century. The mandate to elevate the vibration of humanity from your mat, cushion, or immediate interactions to create harmony in your world has been the mantra. Until this last election I could release the screwy nature of politics readily. Not now. The instinct to engage with the current political insanity which has lain dormant in me until now has hackles up, head down, and eyes glowing…Yes it is reactive and Yogic practice is all about calming reactivity but at some point we do have to be reactive to protect humanity from the dark which seems determined to rise here now. I know we are multidimensional and as such can impact matter hugely with contemplative focus but there does seem historically to be moments where even passive action had to be projected, aka Ghandi, to accomplish change. So the challenge at this time is a challenge to figure which Wolf to feed to be effective in responsible response to the current World’s voices.
A friend has posed a media Fast in order to offer respite, peace and restoration of balance. A year ago I would have had no trouble with a media Fast. But now it seems almost cowardly and almost a betrayal of the efforts in the populace and the media to quell this fracturing of foundational humanitarian tenets we are all watching vividly and astoundingly ludicrous ways on the Twitter feed, newspapers headlines, and websites.
The “mainstream” media has been under attack for decades now for selling out to the commercial entertainment/glorified gossip money generating drive. The title of journalist used to be as much of a heavy as Dr., Lawyer, etc but the celebritisation of mass obsession with all that glitters has degraded the title to almost the equivalent of “ambulance chaser”, or paparazzi. I didn’t subscribe to a newspaper or watch the news for decades. It was either useless to me or had the agenda of generating fear which I am highly sensitive to. Through periods of previous political upheaval, comedians like Bill Maher were the only tolerable filter for me to receive current information. Yes, I am one of those. But those previous periods pale in comparison to this one. After the Trump inauguration, I subscribed to all the traditional mainstream media news sources, i.e., the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, CNN, The BBC, etc., because they finally have real reporting opportunity. They are all taking up the gauntlet to ring the bell of Calling out to Truth. In the choice to participate in a media “Fast”, I carry a sense of betrayal to the global effort to demand that Truth be the bedrock of leadership anywhere and that Lies or “Alternative Facts” are not objective Truth but subjective Propaganda designed to obfuscate actions which dishonor and destabilize civil community if I step away right now.
Many thousands of people across the nation are engaged using the mainstream media and the FB newsfeed to find out what is needed from when and who to call about preventing the dissolution of laws which protect everything from a woman’s right to choose to clean water. The current face of the old mainstream media is about protecting an America I feel is being gutted from the most wounded part of her. Its my responsibility as much as it is everyone else’s to stay present and informed. Like I said the challenge is about where the comfort zone is now, where the mandate to spread the “light” is really centered now. I am not sure. Which Wolf?
From a Yogic perspective, the MAJOR issue floating in the Zeitgeist since Jan 20th is this- is our hypnotic focus on this seeming death spiral into insane isolationist, religiously driven political agendas a sign of our addictions? Or is it a call to channel all the light we have stored toward the protection of a humanitarian box which strives to serve even those who object to its inclusionary intentions? What exactly are the actions needed here, if any.
These questions are undeniably sourced in Fear. Fear that by feeding the Light Wolf, a largely passive posture which pulls us inward to ourselves and our immediate communities, we are essentially putting our heads in the sand while a predator dismantles all that allows for the stability to survive to practice that passive posture. The other fear is that by feeding the Dark Wolf, an aggressive posture which thrives on battling an enemy to beat back the marauder, we are reinforcing the source of that marauder which feeds off the idea of “other”.
I am at this moment, hanging in that space of question. Which Wolf to Feed. If I feed one, will I lose all that allows me to feed it. If I feed the other, will I kill off the first because it is essentially “other”.
Indeed which Wolf to Feed…
Harpo's Word 