When the shit hits the fan, we will all have to make our stand right where we are.
There aren't and won't be any safe zones.
I've been giving a lot of thoughts lately, and kind of think of it this way (using the toltec analogy):
In past small groups of warriors formed a group to journey into the unknown, the nagual. While it is a dangerous task, they had the comfort of a safe place they could return to. They journied until the group was able to withstand the definitive journey.
In contrast, now, the nagual, the eternity is coming to pay us a visit. I think it will be much like a judgement day (except that you won't be judged by your sins :p).
We won't have the luxury of safe zones those small groups had.
However what we need to do is not much different.
"There is no decent place to stand,
in a massacre." (LC)
Good point Rudi - the ability to have a safe place to retreat to is very essential, for an individual or a group. It is all very well to say we have to provide for that internally, and that is true. But it is also a strategic necessity to have it in the physical, and I have give much thought to that.
Yet it is also true that it may very likely be a luxury we find ourselves without.
Another quote from Cohen, Julie told me about yesterday, is that he is supposed to have said somewhere, "You think America is bad, wait till you see what comes next."
In all this confusion, uncertainty and speculation, a safe place would be very handy. First we need a place in our own mind, where nothing matters, and we can relax - we are not responsible for the world, nor even our own survival in the final account ... it is all a passing dream.
I would love to find a physical retreat that could slip past the turmoil. I have spoken before of the Sufis, who existed in some of the most turbulent parts and times - they split into three groups to survive:
The first removed themselves, and set up habitation in remote and secret valleys. The second went underground, kept their practices and purpose hidden. The third joined the oppressors, and tried to bring sense and wisdom to their leaders (most of those were killed).
In times like we are contemplating, not all of humanity goes rabid. Many people genuinely seek something of deeper meaning in their life. There is an opportunity for us to play a constructive and beneficial role with such people. It may be some time yet before a collapse, and in that time, we could find for a change, that there is a place for people like us, which did not exist in the mad days of greed, money and fast lanes.
Perhaps the qualities we aspire and value, which have been dismissed and denigrated till now, could once more find favour among the more mature and serious minded. There could very likely be an important
task for us, a role to play in the wider arc of humanity.
In there, we may find a temporary safe place. Just don't rely on it too much - we will all have to become children of the wilderness again one day.