Three Things We Can Do to Survive as a Species
I know with every molecule in my being and every strand of DNA that ribbons itself back through time, weaving in and out of ancestral memory and into the center of the earth, touching the core and the root system of the dark mother, that humans are at an existential turning point. If we intend to manifest a grounded miracle, perhaps some kind of black swan event, so that our children for generations to come may not only survive, but flourish on this beautiful planet, our Mother, that our path at this moment on earth is threefold:
𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗡𝗘: 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗜𝗦 𝗡𝗢𝗧 𝗢𝗣𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗔𝗟 𝗢𝗥 𝗔 𝗟𝗨𝗫𝗨𝗥𝗬
It is the responsibility of each one of us to face our familial wounds and the mindsets we have taken on, and how we have carried dysfunctional patterns of trauma, abuse, shame, and unmet grief from generations past: face it, feel it, and transmute it.
Once we are able to do this, we have liberated our personal voices and shifted not only our personal soul’s karma, but the karma of all within our family.
𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗪𝗢: 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘 𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗧𝗢 𝗙𝗔𝗖𝗘, 𝗠𝗘𝗘𝗧, 𝗙𝗘𝗘𝗟, 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗛𝗘𝗔𝗟 𝗖𝗨𝗟𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗔𝗟 𝗧𝗥𝗔𝗨𝗠𝗔
We need to look at cultural trauma squarely: our roles in it, our families’ roles in it, and the way we continue to be harmed by it, perpetuate it, or in most cases, both. This includes patriarchal trauma, and the rape of the earth.
Whether we are men, women, trans, or nonbinary, we have participated in harm on one side or the other, so this work is to both understand and meet the patterns of colonizing. On a cultural level, the work is to understand the way we have colonized and brutalized each other; to name and face colonial mindset and how it is taken over indigenous people and indigenous lands; and to understand, where applicable, the parts of ourselves that have become a colonizer.
Part of the conditioning of having grown up in capitalism and a materialist culture is to become deeply aware of where we’ve extracted from, manipulated, and raped situations and people, both literally and metaphorically. We need to face where we have perpetuated physical harm as well as emotional, energetic, and spiritual harm. Becoming aware of our conditioning for exploitation, including in the entrepreneurial world, in the ways we work with people and have chosen money over people’s human needs in life is part of the work.
𝗡𝗨𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘: 𝗧𝗢 𝗨𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗕𝗘𝗙𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝗣𝗘𝗢𝗣𝗟𝗘 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗡 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗦𝗧𝗘𝗗 𝗢𝗡 𝗧𝗛𝗜𝗦 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗛, 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗦 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗘𝗔𝗥𝗧𝗛 𝗪𝗜𝗧𝗛 𝗛𝗘𝗥 𝗢𝗪𝗡 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧 𝗧𝗢 𝗘𝗫𝗜𝗦𝗧 𝗔𝗡𝗗 𝗧𝗢 𝗕𝗘𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗚
Her right to be free and whole unto herself is unequivocal. Before we became human, we were originally part of her, just as we see the trees, grasses, plants, other animals, waters, and flowers as being part of her today.
Historically, when we started to try to control her, we exiled her and ourselves in the process.
At this point in time, we have to understand the necessity of healing from these cultural traumas, toxic belief systems, and states of exile; claim our essential personal responsibility to heal what we can, starting within; and return to the understanding of all people’s right to belong, grow, and thrive, as well as the earth’s rights herself. It’s our only chance.
The work happens within us, not outside of us.
Tanya Taylor Rubinstein is the Founder of Somatic Writing, a depth-based, trauma-informed process for liberating voice and writing books to shift the culture.