filibuster Archives - Owl Medicine: Shamanic Healing

Photo: L. Weikel

Radically Positive

Tomorrow (Tuesday 18 January 2022) has the potential to be a radically positive day in the United States. Conventional wisdom, of course, suggests that it will merely be a sad (and infuriatingly disgusting) affirmation of the dark, anti-democratic trajectory our country seems to be insisting upon taking.

I’m speaking of the Senate beginning formal debate on the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act. It is utterly disgusting to me that this is even a ‘thing’ in our country in the 21^st century – that due to the rooted-in-racism origin of the Senate rule establishing the filibuster, it takes 60 votes to even begin debate on bills in the Senate.

The only way debate will be taking place tomorrow on this voting rights bill is because it will be attached as an amendment to a bill related to NASA that has already passed the Senate, and then the House (with amendments), and is now going directly back to the Senate. What a convoluted process to even open debate on such a fundamental and defining aspect of our system of government.

Just think of it! Voting: our sacred opportunity to have a voice in our government is under as great a threat now as it was 60 years ago. There are forces at work (that have lurked in the darkness for the duration of our country’s existence) that will do anything to skew the table as to who has the power of the franchise. Talk about things being ‘rigged.’ This needs to end.

Cause for Optimism

You’ll recall that I began this post with the shocking suggestion that tomorrow may end up rendering a positive outcome. My teeny tiny sliver of hope comes from the stars. Because…why not?

First of all, we just enjoyed a full moon tonight (the 17^th), and full moons usually bring with them a sense of culmination and fulfillment. Well, ok. I’m ready to embrace the idea that the forces of racism and blatant (as well as subtle) attempts to disenfranchise our fellow citizens have run their course. It’s time for this revolting attitude and mindset that enshrines inequality to come to an end.

And beyond the full moon is the fact that Uranus, the great planet of revolution, lightning-like change, and enlightenment is ending its retrograde course and turns direct on the 18^th. It’s time now for us to stop hanging back. It’s time for some major disruption in ‘the way things are done’ – in a positive sense – by jettisoning the filibuster or simply having a couple of Republicans actually stand up and courageously take a stand ensuring voting rights for all citizens.

Oh my, wouldn’t that just be a radical notion? Wouldn’t it be utterly thrilling if we suddenly witnessed the entire Senate stand up and link arms in solidarity to the fundamental building block of our nation? Yes, I know. I’m a dreamer.

But who knows? Maybe we’ll witness something amazing tomorrow. Wouldn’t that be a radically positive outcome to a battle that needs to end now?

(T+41)

Skyrunner Leaping Over Obstacles – Photo: L. Weikel

Momentous Week

No matter how you look at it, this is going to be a momentous week in the history of our country. I know, I know. It’s as if we live in a land of hyperbole anymore. “The most consequential election.” “ The worst (and most) wildfires ever.” “The scariest pandemic in a century.” We all know I could fill the page with the myriad examples of extremes being exceeded we find ourselves dealing with every day.

All of which is why I don’t toss out that first sentence lightly.

So much has changed in the past five years or so (and that’s only the most accelerated change) that it’s virtually guaranteed that the direction our country takes by the end of this week could easily mark a mass transformation of the trajectory of our country. We will either be poised to meet the future with optimism via a change of perspective and values or we will be hamstrung by the old way of doing everything and subject to oppression by the moneyed few.

Infrastructure Impacts All of Us

If our lawmakers pass both infrastructure bills, we will begin addressing climate change as a priority, thereby enormously benefiting the planet and humanity but also, on a smaller scale, creating a huge new sector of quality jobs that will finally begin re-growing the middle class.

If the entire Biden agenda is not enacted and the more ambitious of the two bills is ‘postponed’ (read: smothered), a startlingly large portion of our country will plunge into even greater despair than many of us imagined possible during the Trump presidency. Those most disappointed and despairing will include vast swaths of precisely those who profess cynicism and mistrust of ‘the government.’ I truly believe most people who hold extreme views of our country are actually people who have lost hope that anyone will actually pass laws that benefit them.

They no longer believe that our country is one where those who commit great crimes are held accountable. How many of us despair of ever seeing justice truly meted out to those most egregiously and blatantly giving the finger to all of us who do actually play by the rules?

Held Hostage

Now? Let’s face it. We are being held hostage by a cynical minority that cares only about its ability to wield power and nothing about the common good. They don’t care about us.

We have to care. It is up to all of us to stop believing the lies and stop cowering in fear of each other. The only cheaters are those accusing everyone else of cheating. The actual liars are those caught lying over and over to all of us – but are never held accountable.

Those who are busy stoking our fears of anyone who doesn’t look like us are the ones who want us to give up on our country (and fellow citizens), baselessly reject our long-standing ability to conduct free and fair elections, and smear our internal and international reputation for being a place where honest work, integrity and innovation are rewarded and celebrated.

The Outlook

I’m sure you haven’t noticed that I’m fired up about both the stakes involved in passage of the infrastructure bills as well as the craven brinksmanship and utter disregard for our country being shown by the Republicans’ refusal to raise the debt ceiling. Their behavior is akin to a fanatic holding a gun to their own head. And the filibuster is a relic that is killing our democracy.

So what is the outlook as this week unfolds? What might be in store for us as the battle for our democracy unfolds before our eyes? I asked Ellen Lorenzi-Prince’s Tarot of the Crone for insight, since a Crone is probably the only one brave enough to look this stuff in the face and call it the way she sees it. This is what she said:

I – Magician – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

I – Magician

I am the Something

That comes from Nothing

I am the Mistress of Illusion

I am the Mistress of Reality

I am the One

Who Passes between

A mask with living eyes bursts out from the darkness of a cave. The Magician is the force that can manifest itself out of the void and out into the world. She is the ability to appear and act as one wills, the confidence to live one’s own life and no other and the power of originality. But the mask is also illusion. Your very body is the mask your soul wears, how your soul happened into flesh at the time of your birth. The Magician is one who knows both reality and illusion and who crosses between.

The animal of the mask is the Crone manifesting in the form of her familiar, her first companion and her aide in the making of magic. Magic crosses the boundaries between worlds, bringing the energies of spirit into form and dissolving forms back into essences. Magic will do the same for you, if you have the courage and the confidence to take it into your hands and shape it to your will.

The Outcome

Four of Swords – Tarot of the Crone by Ellen Lorenzi-Prince

Four of Swords – Reason

Necessity to guide me

Purpose to ground me

Construction begins

Construction to last

Four blades of a windmill stretch in each direction in a gentle sky. Solidity in thinking is represented by Reason. There are no figures in this card, illustrating how reason’s products and effects can appear disassociated from human sensibility. Yet the card also shows how the power of logical thought and planning can benefit humanity, by harnessing natural power and building the structures that define civilization. Clarity of thought, separated from both desire and daily routine, will redefine the problem and provide the steps necessary to resolve it.

The Obvious

My interpretation of the guidance represented by these cards is that if anyone has the ability to be a Magician in the circumstances our country and Congress is facing, it’s Madame Speaker. Love her or hate her, she is a Magician when it comes to doing her job. And unlike another arguable “Master” of the realm, she genuinely has the wellbeing of the populace at heart. She actually cares about regular people and wants all of us to have a better quality of life – and hope for our future.

The Outlook card, the Four of Swords, sure seems to indicate that perhaps – just maybe – our country really may begin the process of rebuilding our infrastructure after this week. We will begin to harness our natural power, which includes our innovation and optimism. Given even half a fighting chance, our country can rebound from the pall that’s come over the majority of our population over the past 40 years. We can begin making things again. We can create a country and a world that’s sustainable and in harmony with Mother Nature. We just have to have the will to do it.

Maybe we can learn something from the Magician in the House.

(I gotta believe.)

(T-60)