Merging to One

November is the month we give to giving thanks, but I think we should be giving thanks every day of every month, so I am going to merge in a different direction.

The dictionary definition of the term "merge" is to "combine or cause to combine to form a single entity." Companies merge into bigger companies on a far too regular basis. (So much for capitalism.) We merge into traffic and become one part of the greater flow on a highway.

In shamanic practice it is common to merge with a helper or teacher. I've been thinking a lot about merging lately, not just shamanically, but in daily practice.

When we merge into traffic, for instance, we become part of one flow. Sometimes on a highway at busy times, a traffic light at the on ramp will allow one vehicle from one lane to go and then another. If people follow the traffic signals, then vehicles merge smoothly into the single flow. The many vehicles become one moving line of traffic. If someone does not heed a signal and speeds ahead out of turn, an accident may result, holding up, and potentially harming, other vehicles and their passengers. If someone does not heed a signal and remains stopped past go time, that can hold up the flow as well, causing a break in the smoothness, and also potentially an accident. At the very least, not heeding a signal may hold up someone just long enough in another vehicle, that they miss an appointment. Or maybe nothing happens, except the loss of a smooth flow and feeling of oneness. Balance is lost.

A principle tenet of shamanism is that We Are One. What does that mean?

Much like the above everyday example, merging to become one means merging into a flowing community, cognizant of all the other beings in that community, and interacting with those beings- not hindering or preventing them from their own being part of that community. Shamanic practice has the overarching purpose of bringing balance. If that balance is lost, then some beings suffer.

For instance, to bring another everyday example to light, the CEO of a large corporation has a bottom line to meet for shareholders. While technically those shareholders are part of the One corporation, and so is the CEO, and so are the employees and so are the customers, each has a different role to play in that particular organism being One corporation, and the balance may shift in such a way that one role is favored over another in daily workings. Then that corporation loses balance and becomes ill. Worker frustration with low wages can be one example of this. Shareholders are putting in money, and they want to get even more money back. In the quest to ensure that happens, workers may be denied raises. The company may appear to be highly successful, but cracks begin to appear, illustrating imbalance on a larger community scale. Those workers may no longer be able to afford daycare for their children, and they may require help outside their paychecks in order to buy food or pay rent.

This concept applies outside the bounds of a human community, because in the larger scheme of things, more than people, of course, are part of the One. When we as a human community choose to use more energy, whether oil, gas, coal, wood, wind, solar, geothermal, creating access to and using that energy affects all the beings on the landscape, seascape, or underground. I don't think I have to go into details on this! I often pick on a long time friend who has spent his adult life teaching, researching and working in the conservation of natural resources. And he drives a large "gas guzzling" vehicle, these days being retired, around and around town looking for friends to chat with or out to the trails on the edge of town to walk his dog. When we do not tread lightly, imbalance occurs, and every single one of us reading this entry on a computer or phone, and myself writing here on this little laptop, are part of creating that imbalance.

Have we merged into One easily flowing technological society? Or who have we left behind? What beings suffer?

Your thoughts, always, are welcomed.

#hjertehagenhealingpassages #shamanism #merging #weareone