In the ‘sixties, there were a lot of us about. We called ourselves seekers, but others had less complimentary – yea, derogatory – names for us: hippie was one of them; living on the land was another. We didn’t care: we were poets, musicians, philosophers and we were catalysts for Earth Shift. At the beginning of the ‘seventies, we thought everybody in the Universe was a believer; the world was going to flip overnight, heaven-on-earth was imminent. We could and would create the World We Chose.
I lived in Northern California at the time and the world was my oyster. Communes were two a penny; Buckminster Fuller domes proliferated, tree houses, goat shed shacks converted for summer living, tipis abounded, everyone had an organic garden and all kinds of people drifted through, joined and disjoined, contributed (sometimes) and accepted free food, board and lodging. It was light-hearted, fun and nobody thought it was going to end. We had come full circle: the Great Spirit was on our side and We Were Invincible.
In my particular neck of the woods – I kid you not – Cat Mother (& his All-Night News Boys) were neighbors with Gene Clark of The Byrds. The Fifth Dimension sang the song ‘Age of Aquarius’. Fulleresque geniuses came from the Bay Area for an overnight stay and helped build hyperbolic paraboloid structures in two days. Fuller’s other shape, the Dome – sixteen plywood boards bent and bolted together – were like the Amish equivalent on the East Coast: erected in a day. Small villages of these instant creations appeared on The Ridge, the known hangout of the Alternative Lifestyle. Redwoods nodded wisely as humans found summer shelter in their root boles, bluejays didn’t object to sharing nest sites. Gray whales waved huge arms in passing as if signaling approval of the human race.
We all promised to hold the vision forever and as silently as the movement started, it faded into individual dreams as we each followed separate paths and drifted away.
Some, I know for a fact, became convinced on their return to the ‘real world’ that their dream was a fantasy and that they should follow the rest of the human race in amassing great fortunes or becoming famous for their contribution to the corporate world. In the intervening forty years I often wondered if I should write and remind them of our Pact. I didn’t, of course. Others stood firm in their belief in themselves and their dream, but found the 9-to-5 a killer and succumbed to heart disease, self-doubt or disappointment in relationships and love. It was a difficult time for believers: the age of Thatcherite Britain and Reaganite America. I retreated to an organic garden of my own making, lost myself in writing about my dreams, having a family and getting on with life: the act of watching one’s genes grow into another being is hard to resist. The Path (and the Pact) were still there, but tucked away in a subliminal stratum. Life moved in circles of parenthood, overdrafts, insurance, schooling and subsequently into computers, cell phones and the internet. Imperceptibly we grew old, let some things go, held on to others and became different people. They say the body changes all its cells completely every seven years. In six times that number, it isn’t surprising that the bodies and minds of those dreamers forgot everything they promised themselves in a few brief years at the dawning of the Aquarian Age.
Until February 14th this year. Then, according to respected and accurate ‘progressed’ chart astrology analysts, Planet Earth did in fact enter the Age of Aquarius. On that day, lyrics of the song from the Broadway musical ‘Hair’, made popular by the Fifth Dimension in 1969, came true:
When the moon is in the Seventh House, And Jupiter aligns with Mars
Then peace will guide the planets, And love will steer the stars
This is the dawning of the age of Aquarius
The age of Aquarius Aquarius! Aquarius!
Harmony and understanding Sympathy and trust abounding
No more falsehoods or derisions Golden living dreams of visions
Mystic crystal revelation And the mind’s true liberation
Aquarius! Aquarius!
It is ironic that those visionaries in 1969 had to wait half a lifetime to watch the rest of the human race reach epiphany: it took scientific and engineering and electronic miracles like the internet, satellite communications, jet travel and cell phones to bring about an electromagnetic shift in planetary consciousness. Now, with the miracle of virtual friendships, instant messaging, spiritual .ning sites – even blogs – the world has begun again on the Road Less Travelled.
Tomorrow (July 28th, 2009) there will be a planet-wide meditation and spiritual convocation of believers in our common destiny: for one hour we may all, if we wish, visualize, contemplate, dance, sing or ‘Om’ together in celebrating our shared ability to create the World We Choose.
This one-hour appointment with our Higher Self is the initiative of Fire+The+Grid, a group of young people (about the same age as we were in 1969) led by Shelley, musician and lyricist Bradfield and singer-songwriter Anael. They fired the planetary grid in July 2007 and were surprised that 800,000 other people joined them in a wave of world meditation. Tomorrow – at 1919 Rio de Janeiro time (conveniently, at 11:19p.m. in your time zone wherever you are) – we shall do it again: fire the planetary grid of light, dream dreams and send beams of potential round the world – another chance for all of us to create the World We Choose. This time it is expected we will be joined by upwards of one million souls. Don’t take my word for it – you can check the truth of this at http://www.firethegrid.com and, if your inner child (or cosmic dreamer) is still active, you too can be part of creating the New Heaven and the New Earth.
In 1969 a seed was planted in human consciousness. Without the internet and instant sharing worldwide, there was only intuition, channeling, a medium frowned on by middle-of-the-road humanity. In 2009 we’re all in the middle of the road: the Road Less Travelled, and we’re in it together.
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