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The world will indeed watch as Barack Obama is sworn into office on January 20, 2009, and not just because he is the first African American President, but because he represents the return of the American soul. Obama’s rock star charisma animated a wave of hope and electric patriotism the likes of which this nation had not known for years. Under the Bush administration, patriotism morphed into political fear and hostile sentiment against fellow Americans as well as foreign nations, a deliberately devised plan of divide and stay divided that came directly from the Rove camp. But as we leave behind an administration of defined by war, economic collapse, environmental catastrophes, and constitutional abuses, we must ask ourselves if the philosophy of closing the door on endless disasters and innumerable crimes for the sake of moving forward is the wise path. Do we just close our eyes on eight years of war crimes, torture, and a myriad of other constitutional abuses? Or, to put this question another way, are we or are we not a nation governed by law? And, in addition to investigating matters regarding the rule of law, how shall we learn from our past if we decide not to look into our past? As someone who has dealt in matters of healing for more than two decades, I know for a fact that when a human being becomes ill, healing necessitates a thorough investigation into what choices an individual made in the past that caused him or her to fall out of alignment with a core Sacred Contract. Those choices need to be reviewed lest that individual continue to repeat those same patterns because history shows people do continue to repeat the errors from the past unless they consciously learn from their mistakes – ergo, the great adage, “A person who does not learn from the past is destined to repeat it.”

America is many things but it is not a nation with a wisdom tradition - but it needs to become one and soon. It needs to become a wiser nation that is capable of introspective politics with a deep regard for its philosophical and spiritual roots. It needs to return to a respect for high principles and considerations of the generations to follow and not just on behalf of who is going to shoulder the enormous debt created by the carelessness of the Congress and Senate under the Bush administration.

We were founded by philosophers and political mystics, men who held high dreams about what the human spirit deserved in terms of right government. America was born to be an experiment in the rights of the spirit as best as could be incarnated by men who could see the potential if successful for the benefit of all humanity. And certainly they could see their own hypocrisy as slave owners in love with freedom, but it was a beginning, a first step in an era of consciousness that was filled with slaves, serfs, indentured servants, and over-stuffed monarchs. Theirs was a bold choice – a very bold and daring choice – that began a course of democracy that changed the world and came to represent a quality of individual freedom unknown on the entire earth prior to Jefferson scripting the Declaration of Independence and later as so many of these Founding visionaries created the American Bill of Rights. Freedom for these early Americans meant freedom to speak out, to think, to learn, to go where they wanted to go, to practice their religion of choice, to own land and grow their own food, to create their own occupations, and to challenge their government should it fall into moral decay. These are the greatest freedoms in life. These are freedoms worth protecting at all costs. They did not start their America – this America – for the right to invade another nation. In fact, they wanted nothing to do with war unless to defend the nation. Thus invasion was considered against the values of this nation. And invasion for the sake of furthering high end economic lifestyles would have been viewed by these legendary figures as a crime fostered by an imperialist culture, not a rebel state set on a course of individual freedom.

During these past eight years, America strayed from its Sacred Contract, plunging into the abyss of a single-minded shadow vision that has resulted in this nation tumbling into its decline. It’s not that this nation is inexperienced with crises. It’s been through a civil war and a bloody one at that. Most people don’t realize how soon into its creation as a nation that America experienced this violent earthquake of its vision and that had the Civil War succeeded in breaking apart this nation, the great founding vision of democracy would have evaporated from the face of this earth. But America made it through that crisis under the moral and spiritual guidance of Abraham Lincoln, whose spirit held the union together with an almost mystical power of will and determination. He was a man who knew he had a destiny, a man with the soul of a poet, a visionary, and a mystic who was passionately in love with America and its founding vision of democracy.

Many other difficulties followed the Civil War and certainly many sins, such as the way the Americans of the time stole the land of the Native American people. This is not a nation without blood on its own hands. The great irony of America is and always will be its Sacred Contract to set a course for freedom while having been born as a slave nation that continued to enslave so many of its own people well into the 20th century before granting them full civil rights. America is a nation of numerous contradictions, its history of slavery to freedom being among the deepest.

America is no stranger to great wealth or to the sudden loss of it. This nation tumbled into a Great Depression eighty-years-ago. As all Americans know, October, 1929, is noted as the beginning of the Great Depression. The Great Depression woke up the American spirit in that the isolated location of America permitted many Americans to live in the illusion that the problems that plagued the “other” people of the world could not possibly make it across the Atlantic or the Pacific – certainly not a wave of national poverty. But the market did collapse and just like that.

As I teach my students, always look to the archetypal realm for coordinates that give you an indication of what the collective soul of a nation is feeling. Shortly after the stock market crumbled, the social language of the day noted in newspapers and on the radio that America was, “financially crippled”. Crippled – that’s how Americans described themselves in the 1930’s. In keeping with the psychic nature of epidemics, and epidemics tend to emerge out of a traumatized social event or catastrophe, the polio epidemic struck in the 1930’s, crippling children around the country. Indeed, America was now completely crippled, from its tribal chakra through to its spiritual crown.

A president was elected during the 1930’s who also a victim of polio – FDR. He was exactly what the collective soul of America needed, a leader who knew what they were going through in terms of being psychically crippled, and yet he was a man of wisdom and strength. Many Americans were not aware that their president had polio, given the absence of television and snoopy, disrespectful reporters. The few reporters who did know honored his request to keep his condition private was fairly well respected. Toward the end of the 1930’s, it was apparent that America could no longer remain isolated from the climate of war that was brewing around the war. Certainly America was already in a warlike relationship with Japan. But war was also a way to unite a shatter and broken people who had become disconnected from the powerful Sacred Contract of their nation. And a worthy and honorable cause can lift the national pride of a nation and unite its people like nothing else. All Sacred Contracts – yours as well as a nation’s – requires “rebooting”, or constant nourishment from its citizens. A loss of faith in a nation depletes or de-animates a Sacred Contract in the same way that a loss of faith in your life de-animates your own Sacred Contract, resulting in an inability to connect with hope and optimism. A person can tell you to be hopeful and to think positive, but it is impossible to feel hope and to feel positive. That was the psychic climate of America in the 1930’s, with its breadlines and high unemployment.

But then America entered World War II and its golden years began. The Allies were desperate for the weaponry that America could so easily and safely manufacture and manufacture it did: weaponry, planes, tanks, ships, uniforms – twenty-four hours a day. America was alive again and thriving. By the end of the war, America was economically, “back on its feet again”, as all the economists and journalists of the day noted. Not surprising then that by the 1950’s, Jonah Salk discovered the vaccine for polio – America was more than ready to not only shed its epidemic consciousness but make an evolutionary leap in consciousness to the “Self and Wealth” generation.

Enter our generation: We are the “self and wealth” generation. We are the adults and children of Self-awareness literature, rapidly self made and inherited wealth, which is our blessing and our curse. We grew up with more abundance than did our parents and thus we grew up with a sense (cents) of entitlement. We grew up in an America that was on the rise, sky-rocketing on world good will as a result of World War II and abundance like it had never known. There was nothing we could not do or attain or get – absolutely nothing. We could even lasso the moon if we wanted it – and in fact, under President John F. Kennedy, we did just that. Though the possible threat of a nuclear war with the Soviet Union loomed somewhere in the background….that threat was way in the background, drowned out by the sound of the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and the Beach Boys.

Then came the Vietnam War and a first crack in the bubble of post World War II patriotism. From an archetypal perspective, the antiwar protests represented far more than the war protestors, students, and “intellectual liberals” taking to the streets challenging the right of a nation to force its youth to fight in a war. Symbolically the antiwar protests represented a profound shift in the balance of power within the archetypal structure of the nation itself. Warriors go to war when the tribe calls upon them. That’s the code of the tribe. The anti-Vietnam war protestors broke through an archetypal pattern within this nation’s psychic field, one that unfortunately took its toll on the soldiers who fought in that war. Consider that the theme of the 1960’s was the “birth of the Self” and indeed the Self went through birth canals in every possible manifestation: sexual, religious, political, drugs, civil rights, women’s rights, emotional rights. It would make sense from an “archetypal birthing” perspective that the “Self” would also experience a difficult birth through the canal of, “the Self versus the archetype of tribal warfare.”

The 1960’s carried the archetypal theme of birthing the voice of the Self and that voice of the Self made its way through every door and passageway that had previously been controlled by group-thought forms or the social mind. Returning soldiers became the targets of the emerging Self as they represented “blind trust” in a tribal cause, pitted against the awakening of individual consciousness. Thus, the two extremes roles that the anti-war protestor and soldier served, both of whom were archetypal heroes to the birthing of a new era of consciousness, if a person could but see that clearly. Today this same polarity exists only the silent one is the anti-war protestor who has gone into silence lest the protests against the war be viewed as anti-patriotic. The Bush administration successfully managed to make the right to protest antipatriotic, never mind the issue one was protesting. Just protesting alone is sufficient to be declared antipatriotic; thus, blind faith in the government’s policies successfully replaced faith in the principles of the nation under the Bush administration. Clever, that. But even with all the feigned patriotism for the American soldier serving in this accidental war – which is what Bush now calls it – an “oops, if I’d just be given better information, why all those people wouldn’t be dead right now and Iraq wouldn’t be destroyed and American would be broke…but, oh well,” – our soldiers are completely neglected when they arrive home – thanks to the policies of G W Bush. Check out Walter Reed Hospital, for some eye-opening fun facts on how American vets are given care post Iraq…that is, if you have the stomach for these types of facts. Gotta love that dress-up patriot of an almost EX-president who managed never to serve in a real war, right?

Now, I promised you that we would head into positive information but actually I consider all of this positive. I consider any information that I learn something from as positive, especially if it opens my eyes. That Americans only want good news and information that makes them happy speaks about their absence of realism and that’s not the way I write. And it’s not the way I live. So, before we get to the positive consequences of this derailment, we must first review how this happened to us because if we don’t learn from the choices we made, we will make them again and again and again.

If you came to me for a reading because you were in a health or a life crisis, I would immediately review your Sacred Contract and then I would evaluate your physical crisis as all problems begin in the realm of your patterns of power. These first become dysfunctional and those dysfunctional patterns, in turn, supply energy to your mental, emotional, and physical conditions. Based upon the law that the microcosm reflects the macrocosm, this same dynamic holds true, thus the archetypal patterns of the Sacred Contract of America contain patterns of power that reflect the governing purpose of this nation. Let me say immediately that by no means does America’s Sacred Contract position it as a superior nation or one that is incapable of enormous acts of aggression in this world. No Sacred Contract is a document of superiority or privilege. Rather a Sacred Contract is a cosmic pattern of potential and opportunity unique to a person or a nation. How an individual or the people of each nation unfold that Contract depends upon how conscious they choose to be about their lives or their government. A nation can fall into great darkness, as Germany did under Hitler and the Nazi regime, and then exorcize those demons to return to rebuild a nation anew. But evil can possess a nation or a people, it can take hold of a group of individuals and wreck havoc within a country for a period of time, as in Darfur. People are mass murdered and human rights are violated constantly on this planet and we must ask ourselves each day, “What is the reason for becoming conscious if not to become aware of the power of light over darkness, both within ourselves and outside of ourselves?” And then, “What is our responsibility as individuals to respond to the darkness in the collective? If not you, then who? Who should have responded to the Nazis when they came for the Jews? And when the Nazis came for the gypsies and the homosexuals and the intellectuals who challenged the rise of fascism? And when other evil leaders such as Stalin initiated his purges and murdered thirty million of his own countrymen and women – who should have stood against that? Whose responsibility is Darfur? These are not small questions but they are questions that must be reflected upon by every human being who sets his or her foot upon the path of becoming a conscious human being because at some point the reason for becoming conscious ceases to be about you and it becomes about others. You become a conscious person in order to become an agent of profound change for others, not just for yourself. In that choice, you discover the real meaning of your highest potential.

So, back to America and to what is happening to us now and where we go from here. The inauguration of Barack Obama represents far more than the historic swearing in of America’s first African American president. It represents a shift in the compass of power of America as it enters the global era, leaving behind America’s century of wealth and military domination. The days of international cooperation and diplomacy have begun with crises on every front. And in addition to that, we need to rediscover ourselves economically. The days of manufacturing cars and electronic goods and exporting them offer but dim possibilities of high returns.

As we look at the economic future of our country, here we must once again refer to the archetypes of our nation, for what exactly built the economic backbone of this nation and what exactly destroyed it? Listening to the experts blather their way through this situation by demanding huge piles of money with no accountability, I cannot but think, “This is a solution? Isn’t this the type of economic behavior that got us into this mess?” And that’s exactly it – America morphed its creative instincts during the decades of Self and Wealth to produce renegade archetypes that have done far more harm than good. The “financial engineer” and the “legal engineer” archetypes emerged during these past thirty or forty years to earn great status in our country and they have done far more harm than good. Engineering the law in order to out maneuver the law in a nation that has long relied upon the good governance of the law to maintain order is the highest risk to the balance of this republic – but that is exactly what America has done. Among the worst criminals in these actions have been our own Congress and Senate who have allowed the laws of this land to be twisted and even broken in order to serve the paranoia of the Bush administration. And in setting the tone to disregarding the laws from the top down, permission was given to act as a free for all in unrestricted greed as the focus of this government shifted from the interests of the country to the interests of the corporations.

Financial engineering brought down Enron along with other companies and now it has brought down the real estate and banking systems, thanks to subprime mortgages. The Congress and Senate are not filled with that many foolish and stupid people that they did not see this coming; but they are filled with self-serving people who were held hostage by Bush/Cheney fear tactics and the interests of lobbyists. So where does that leave us as we look to rebuild this nation?

Well, I promised you good news, so let’s get to it. If healing is the target, than crisis is the bow and a bow is but the device to transfer energy. America needed to wake up. It needed to break out from the dark spell of fear from the Bush administration and reconnect to the soul of America, a soul that is fundamentally one of service and humanitarian interests. Toward that end, among America’s most powerful archetypes are the Pioneer, the Visionary, and the Entrepreneur. We are standing at a crossroads of history, between eras. We are living at the close of the fossil fuel era and the need to break into the era of energy. Already we are a species whose lines of communication are all energetic. While I was doing a workshop in Santa Domingo last year, I had several conversations with a few businessmen who own the largest wheat plantations in Guatemala and Venezuela. They were in the midst of shifting their wheat fields from growing wheat to raising corn for ethanol, as they felt the future was in alternative fuels. The problem for them was that they were the leading manufacturers of flour for these countries and they owned all the bakeries as well. They could see that their decisions would have major consequences in terms of creating a shortage of food in these countries but they were willing to allow that shortage to happen because of the personal profit they would make. They saw this as a decision essential to the times.

Food shortages have always existed but they are rapidly increasing. Food is something that America has always been good at producing, especially wheat, corn, soy beans, and other grains. Why can’t America pioneer ways to become the ecological breadbasket of the planet? Why can’t America turn to its land and become masterfully productive at finding alternative ways to produce food for exportation? If we can’t produce equipment, why can’t we grow food? Surely there must be ways to utilize the creativity of the land industry that could convert to massive exports. Anything is better than printing dollars and pouring them into black holes with blank-faced experts who have no idea where billions of dollars have gone. Surely Americans are capable of creating ways of responding to the needs of this world rather than becoming dependent and fearful, returning to the days of the Great Depression. The fact that we are on the verge of a new era already says that the inspiration abounds for those who are ready and able to make bold choices. Granted, the majority of us are not farmers, but we do not have to be farmers to think creatively.

America needs to move forward now and not think of returning to the era of “self and wealth”. The American dream needs to be redefined, not as the right to financially engineer one’s way through something, but as the right to create a new livelihood and the obligation to take care of our freedom. And Americans can do this. We can envision this nation as an ecological wonderland, a place where we can create the energetic technology that is needed to feed and fuel the here and now of humanity. We are a people who have “service” in our bones and in our blood. Entrepreneurial enterprises can emerge out of the disintegration of this economy as we release the old, gird our loins, and envision ourselves as “re-energized” in our psyche and souls. These past years have de-energized our spirits. War does that, as does years of living under the politics of fear and being fed endless lies by an administration that decayed in national and international respect years ago. A people need to respect its leadership. In voting in Barack Obama, we voted to return to the Sacred Contract of America because this man represents the rule of law. He is a Professor of Constitutional Law, a man who respects the Bill of Rights and the fundamental principles upon which this nation was built. This election was a turning point for us and many recognized that as we looked upon the two candidates, a former POW whose language was filled with battle cries and wounds versus a man who promised a hope and a new America. We chose well. We chose the spirit of America over the illusion of the power of America. We chose the real power of America. Well done us.

It is my belief that America is at its most fragile time and in that fragility, it holds the potential of a new birth. For all that a new President can bring to a nation, still its recovery is in our hands and in our hearts and spirit. The well being of America is in our hands and it is up to us to reach into our own Sacred Contracts and reach for the soul path of our lives. Go for your how highest potential. If not now, then when? America is in its cocoon waiting to see if it will make it to the stage of a healthy butterfly. So many Americans have the idea, “Oh, America will rise again. America will get back on its feet again.” It’s great to have that type of faith in America but these are different times than those that have gone before and America now needs to take its place as an equal at the world table of leaders and not as the “leader of the free world.” As a result of these past eight years, we have lost the high moral ground we once held and perhaps it’s not a bad thing for this nation to stand on equal footing with the rest of the nations, given that we all share this one planet. In fact, perhaps it’s a great blessing in disguise. We have entered the era of global equality, not global domination. If we learn nothing else from the past eight years of the Bush/Cheney folly, we must learn that invading to get what we want based upon contrived reasons and “misinformation” is itself a moral crime against the people of this nation as well as the rest of the world. And no people should ever tolerate years of being lied to by their own government, much less knowing that they are being lied to on a daily basis and looking the other way and calling that silence “patriotism”.

As Americans, we cannot afford to ever believe again that bad things cannot happen in this nation or that America is protected from ever having a dark or self-serving administration. It is not. We can enter into cycles of darkness and downward economic times – indeed, we are in just such a cycle. Your neighbors can lose their homes and it is possible even for you to lose your job. America and Americans are not protected from the business of life – and somehow we had gotten to the point of entitlement in which we thought we were. We believed that we could even buy whatever we wanted, whether or not we had the money. We had taken the American dream to the level of the American fantasy – no wonder it crashed and burned.

But America’s Sacred Contract remains intact, ever present. And the enthusiasm with which the American people responded to Barack Obama and his message of hope, anti-torture, ending the war, and realism about the fact that we will need to sacrifice to make it through the years ahead but – Yes We Can make it – tells me that the spiritual grace from this nation’s Contract is once again animated and on the mend. Americans should rally in their hearts, even if right now you are going through a time of difficult change. Think of America’s Sacred Contract and reflect upon creating something with the future in mind or being a part of something of service. This is the grace through which we will rebuild this great nation and with this grace, America will indeed be great once again but great in spirit, as it was once envisioned by those who first saw its potential.

Welcome back America and may God bless and watch over President Barack Obama and his family.

Caroline Myss

Copyright 2009

Sacred Contracts: 2009
Oak Brook Doubletree Hotel – Oak Brook,
IL In this 3-session CMED program, you will explore your Sacred Contract and learn how to see your life through the profound realization that you indeed have a destiny to fulfill.
Sacred Contracts course and registration information