André Hofer - Heaven and Earth - 1 - Now

They even killed those beings whom they loved more than anything in this world: their wives and children.

What pain, what suffering!

In order for those men to be conditioned to such an extent, they had to cut themselves off from their inner feelings, to kill their inner voice and subjugate themselves entirely to an ideology:

All for the King, all for the Fatherland! By doing this, their own lives gained meaning and significance at the same time, and the feeling of belonging to a group conferred a correlative value to their existence. The body had to be strong and was thought to be functioning best as a machine, for only the best would survive; and so, to be ready for every possible event, they were trained as far as the utmost limits of human strength can go.

Meanwhile, the state of the Nation was being analysed with masculine intelligence and rationality in the Head Office of the powers in charge. New strategies were developed, established and propagated, commands were given in the hierarchical echelons, from top to bottom; and when one had excelled in his duty, one was decorated with a medal. Man could work himself up the hierarchical ladder; even, when necessary, this was achieved by selling one’s grandmother! All of this was also blessed by the Highest Power, i.e. by God Himself; this, at least, was proclaimed by the masculine representatives, who were chosen by God’s grace. Therefore, that is why nobody should now object, for Heaven’s sake.

Our Father in Heaven and the patriarchs knew what was good, correct and legal, as a matter of course and rising above all doubts. Hence, everything was in “apple-pie order”. There was no room for sickness, frailty and challenge, and by rebelling against the authorities one could risk one’s neck, one’s own “freedom” or one’s own life. This self-evident claim of the forceful powers not only referred to their own territory, but was extended to include other peoples and nations; e.g. as the last President of the United States phrased it so aptly: “Whoever is not for us, is against us.” This means in other words: there is only an “either – or”, a “swim or sink”, an “eat or die”.

Within these spiritual and secular structures in the Western world there developed different systems in economics, science, education and culture. Quite outstanding results have been achieved in all these areas to date. Nobody would dispute this, but this is not what is meant here and now. “Masculine” pride is, in my opinion, mostly out of place. It is rather high time to look at, and really study, where this millenia-old regime has brought us.

When we look at the Earth’s present situation, the climate, the widespread poverty, the so-called social system in the industrial nations, the interdependence of economy, politics and media (“lobbyism”), ancient conflicts between certain nations, wars about raw materials (commodities) and religious systems, increasing technological and medical possibilities and, not to forget, the rational educational system, we must be honest with ourselves and state that, in many aspects, we are now touching the limits, the borders of the tolerable.

Our human race has arrived at the boundary of self-destruction, and it is now high time to take fundamental decisions. And all these decisions finally end up in the one question: “Force (Money) or Life!”

The “Powerful” on this Earth seemingly have as yet not recognised the signs of the time, at least they behave that way. They still believe that we can carry on, despite all warning signs. Personal interests are still put before the interests of the bigger picture.

The patriarchal “hamster wheel” keeps on turning, the rat-race is on, we must achieve, learn, know, be fit and compete, own, be No. 1! We must be good, pray and confess our sins, so that we will be eligible to enter Heaven. And if someone comes along and tells us that we already have Heaven here on our beautiful planet Earth, at least some of us, and if we all “work” together on it, then we could see to it that this will be so for all of us, s/he would probably be ridiculed as a dreamer, utopian, quixotic esoteric or mystic.

Anyway, that’s how it was until now.

‘Psychological Strain’ is a well-known concept in psychology: one keeps on doing something until finally, it causes so much pain and strain that the behaviour cannot be sustained any longer. Only after arriving at that point does mankind need therapy and opens up for help, for new ways and means. Having said this, it is a wonderful omen that more and more people, especially the male genre, are beginning to realise the borders of their limits, which is called ‘Burn-out’. When we really love our planet Earth and life in all its wonderful diversity, we should in a sense wish that many, many more of our masculine species may reach that point sooner rather than later. However, there may be, perhaps, another way available, e.g. the way of simple awareness. The mere awareness of having become unsettled in small as well as great matters may suffice, of having placed the masculine before the feminine in all aspects of life, of doing before letting something happen, achieving instead of growing, intruding instead of welcoming, reason instead of feelings, spirit before body, knowledge before wisdom, force before elemental power .

Every great change begins in small increments. The German nation was able to witness some 20 years ago what an initially insignificant Monday demonstration achieved in the end: more and more people joined, because a handful of brave people had the heart to shout out loud what the majority of the nation were feeling deep in their souls. So a great movement was born, culminating in the legendary call: “The Wall must go!”

Nothing could have been more to the point than that.

And the same applies to the masculine :

“The Wall” is there too, the wall separating the masculine from the feminine , from feelings, from perceiving signals of body language, from solidarity with Mother Earth, from simple growth and ‘letting things happen’, from intuition, wisdom and care.

Your equilibrium is called upon here, your well-being and, thus, your own contribution to the equilibrium and well-being of the ‘big picture’. You should not suppress your inner femininity any longer, but rather accept it, even though other masculine species may call you “mollycoddle”, “woman-driver”, “wimp” or “softy”.

The time of the ‘lone warriors’ is certainly over now. When you love your wife and your children above everything else, and you are willing to give everything up for their well-being, it proves that you have a heart of gold; but do not forget yourself in all of this: You do not have to sacrifice yourself, and it surely is not a matter of vieing with other fathers in order to ensure that your family is better off than the others. The point is that all families should be better off! Even you! There is enough there for everyone to share!

And that is why I, right now, would like to ask you to take your foot off the pedal, stop, get out and breath deeply in and out: slowly inhale, slowly exhale. Stretch and uncurl yourself!

How are you? What is your body telling you? How do you feel?

Just forget for a moment everything you have learned so far and what others want(ed) from you. Are you perhaps tired? If yes, there is nothing wrong with it! It is okay! You are okay!

GET TO KNOW YOURSELF!

This is neither selfish nor irrelevant, it is rather all- positive.

Or, to repeat it differently: Come back to your sanity in this world, which is growing more and more insane. Ask yourself what you perceive, so that you know the truth again for yourself, irrespective of what any public authorities may have to say about it.