The way we see it, there is a world wide evolutionary shift, or surge, of consciousness
going on. We are in it. We get to accept it and adapt to it, or not, depending on how much
pain and misery we want to experience. This is not the first evolutionary surge of
consciousness on this planet, but it may be the first worldwide one.
As we are seeing it, with our admittedly narrow perspective, these surges have been
happening throughout history and before. Previous surges have been to some extent
localized. In the dominant culture they have been identified with single male figures: Lay
Tzu, Moses, Gautama Buddha, Jesus, Mohammad (Blessed be he). There have doubtless
been similar surges that we area not aware of, for instance the Iroquois grandmothers, that
have not entered the awareness of the dominant culture.
We are using new terminology to talk about this process. It is based on an ancient concept
which has accumulated much baggage over the years, enough to become a cuss word. . We
are backing the concept up to before the baggage accumulated, and nudging it onto a more
helpful and, we think truer, track. The word is christ. The concept is that of a messiah,
someone anointed to take care of things, to be in charge, and make life smooth and
peaceful.
Going back to the beginnings of the concept, we can see, these millennia later, that this
idea of a single (male) figure has not worked well enough to claim our abiding loyalty.
But there is something, a force, a dymanic, that is both within us and larger than us, that
moves things along toward fulfillment, that is the dynamic of evolution. It doesn't work to
passively expect it to take care of everything as we twiddle our thumbes and go about our
narrow lives. We called to particpate in it. We can join it.