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THE MOURNING AFTER
Surviving the Spectre of the Next Four Years

Artwork: OH, AMERICA by����

I thought it was last week that we turned the clocks back an hour, but this morning I feel like we turned them back 50 years.

My��shock and awe over the election results��has given way to deep grief as I allow the implications to set in. I feel like the country I love has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness.��

But as Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech,��this is not a time to give up on all the things we have been fighting for.��It is a time to��come together as a nation and double our efforts��to protect what has been accomplished and keep moving forward.��

Here’s some of the advances we have made that are now��jeopardized:

The Iran Nuclear DealThe Paris Climate AgreementThe Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)Planned Parenthood, Birth Control, and Abortion rightsRacial justiceThe safety of immigrantsEnvironmental protectionBank regulationSocial SecurityBalance in the Supreme CourtRespect in the eyes of the worldNATOGay marriage

The pundits will be talking for days about how this happened and who to blame, from the media, to James Comey, to the pollsters, to Hillary herself.��But we are all in this together, and we all share the responsibility.��

However, three things stand out for me:��

The first one is that we have��no system in place to disqualify��a candidate who had:

never served political officewouldn’t release his tax returnshad 3500 lawsuits pendingwho insulted every race, class, and genderwhose finances were based on cheating and fraudwho lied with impunity

The second is the��elitism of progressives, who think we are so spiritually advanced, so intellectually sophisticated, and can be self-righteous to a fault. We (and I include myself in this category) failed to reach out to those who are dispossessed, angry, and hateful, and relate to their pain.�� When our shadow parts are denied, they take over the wheel. They are now driving the country.��

The third is the failure of the��Electoral College. Though it will take weeks before a final vote is tallied, it appears that Clinton won the popular vote by about 200,000 votes, a slim margin, yes, but this is how we lost Al Gore back in 2000, and three presidents before that. (Andrew Jackson,in 1824, Samuel Tilden in 1876, and Grover Cleveland in 1888.)��How many times does this need to happen to change this outdated system?��

The election is a year-long distraction from the deeper issues that we must address in our world. Though I don’t like the outcome, I am glad it’s over. We have a lot of work ahead of us to come together again and earn back the respect that America once enjoyed in the world. No president can make America great again. Only��We, the People��can do that.

To that end, tune in this Sunday to the massive����event, broadcast online and live in D.C. to help bring the country back together again. It’s free and involves people from both sides of the aisle to start a new day of reckoning. I’ll be there, broadcasting from Kripalu, and hope you will join us.��

Thank you,
Anodea Judith��
11.9.16

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THE MOURNING AFTER
Surviving the Spectre of the Next Four Years

Artwork: OH, AMERICA by����

I thought it was last week that we turned the clocks back an hour, but this morning I feel like we turned them back 50 years.

My��shock and awe over the election results��has given way to deep grief as I allow the implications to set in. I feel like the country I love has just been diagnosed with a terminal illness.��

But as Hillary Clinton said in her concession speech,��this is not a time to give up on all the things we have been fighting for.��It is a time to��come together as a nation and double our efforts��to protect what has been accomplished and keep moving forward.��

Here’s some of the advances we have made that are now��jeopardized:

The Iran Nuclear DealThe Paris Climate AgreementThe Affordable Care Act (Obamacare)Planned Parenthood, Birth Control, and Abortion rightsRacial justiceThe safety of immigrantsEnvironmental protectionBank regulationSocial SecurityBalance in the Supreme CourtRespect in the eyes of the worldNATOGay marriage

The pundits will be talking for days about how this happened and who to blame, from the media, to James Comey, to the pollsters, to Hillary herself.��But we are all in this together, and we all share the responsibility.��

However, three things stand out for me:��

The first one is that we have��no system in place to disqualify��a candidate who had:

never served political officewouldn’t release his tax returnshad 3500 lawsuits pendingwho insulted every race, class, and genderwhose finances were based on cheating and fraudwho lied with impunity

The second is the��elitism of progressives, who think we are so spiritually advanced, so intellectually sophisticated, and can be self-righteous to a fault. We (and I include myself in this category) failed to reach out to those who are dispossessed, angry, and hateful, and relate to their pain.�� When our shadow parts are denied, they take over the wheel. They are now driving the country.��

The third is the failure of the��Electoral College. Though it will take weeks before a final vote is tallied, it appears that Clinton won the popular vote by about 200,000 votes, a slim margin, yes, but this is how we lost Al Gore back in 2000, and three presidents before that. (Andrew Jackson,in 1824, Samuel Tilden in 1876, and Grover Cleveland in 1888.)��How many times does this need to happen to change this outdated system?��

The election is a year-long distraction from the deeper issues that we must address in our world. Though I don’t like the outcome, I am glad it’s over. We have a lot of work ahead of us to come together again and earn back the respect that America once enjoyed in the world. No president can make America great again. Only��We, the People��can do that.

To that end, tune in this Sunday to the massive����event, broadcast online and live in D.C. to help bring the country back together again. It’s free and involves people from both sides of the aisle to start a new day of reckoning. I’ll be there, broadcasting from Kripalu, and hope you will join us.��

Thank you,
Anodea Judith��
11.9.16

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As this sordid election season draws toward its conclusion, it is time to call upon our highest prayers for an outcome that can point us toward a sustainable future. At this incredible tipping point, none of us can remain on the sidelines.

We must vote, but we must also pray.

��

In the next few days, pray that the values of the higher chakras—wisdom, vision, truth, and love—will triumph over the debased improprieties around money, sex, and power.��

Pray that the future will call us forth with the best of humanity, not the worst.��

Pray that we move from the love of power to the power of love.��

Pray that we see the whole picture, not our own selfish needs, and that we don’t vote out of anger or hate.��

Pray that we remember the lessons of Hitler and Bush who got voted in because of a third party candidate, and what happened to millions of Jews and Iraqis because of it.��

Pray that the ways of the sacred will prevail at Standing Rock, and the rampant greed that makes someone like Donald Trump a quasi hero to the dispossessed will give way toward something that enables us to work together.��

Pray that for the first time in 240 years, our daughters will know that anything is possible.��

Pray that the people will come together toward a peaceful acceptance of the outcome without violence.

The whole world is watching what we do on November 8th.

��Millions of foreigners will be affected by the choices we make, and they can’t vote. If we don’t address climate change, their cities will be flooded, their farmland dried up, millions more refugees will be looking for a viable place to live. Already close to a point of no return on climate, the decision we make in this election will affect the whole world and the future of humanity.

Millions of students, getting ready for college will be affected by this decision.

People of color, already oppressed by a racism that keeps many in poverty and kills innocent people, will be affected by this decision. The lives of immigrants and their children will be affected.

Those who are sick and need their health insurance to stay alive will be affected.

What will Americans choose?�� Hate and fear, or hard work and vision? Will we see through the web of lies and vote for the truth? Pray that we will.

Every night before you go to sleep, visualize the future of our world, shining in light and beauty, with a healthy environment, sustainable prosperity, social justice, and spiritual fulfillment.

And we don’t have to stop praying after Nov 8th. There’s still a long way to go. But these next few days need all of our efforts—and prayers.��

Thank you,
Anodea Judith

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Tipping the Balance

As I ponder reality at this time of the Fall Equinox—typically a time of balance between dark and light—I am painfully aware of two things:��

One, that there is a remote chance of a Trump presidency; andTwo, that I live in a country where tens of millions of Americans agree with the values of this racist, sexist, xenophobic psychopath

I’m not sure which is worse, but either one signifies that American culture is suffering from a terrible illness, one that could be life-threatening.

Just as sugar increases the growth of cancer, and gasoline fuels a fire, the illness of disenchantment, selfishness, bigotry, and the rule of the dollar over every conceivable moral decision will become fatal if it is fed by a Trump regime change.

The world is living in a tinder box right now. Not only are we increasing the global temperature and burning up forests that would otherwise be carbon fixing, we are living in a time of flaring tempers, police shootings, terrorist bombings, increased drug addiction, and financial corruption.

Feeding hatred at this time could literally throw us into a third world war, one that humanity would be unlikely to survive. It’s that serious, folks.

This is not a time for making a statement via third party candidates, much as we might like to vote our conscience in that way. This is a dire time when the future health of the biosphere is on the verge of a disastrous tipping point, and the preservation of everything we hold dear could tumble into unprecedented chaos and suffering.

This is not a time when we can say there is no difference between the two candidates. Not a time when we can let sensationalism override our good sense. Not a time for us to be complacent and sit back and say the world will go as it will.��

The world will go as we collectively make it go. Not only through our votes, but through our advertising, our news media, our stories, our conversations, and our actions.��

You may love Hillary or you may hate her. It’s not a time to look for perfection or to be ruled by emotions, but by a deep concern for the future of humanity. Elevate the conversation to what is really important. This is a time for all hands on deck. Do your part to tip the balance in the right direction.

For more food for thought, .��

Blessings,��
Anodea Judith
09.21.16

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Tipping the Balance

As I ponder reality at this time of the Fall Equinox—typically a time of balance between dark and light—I am painfully aware of two things:��

One, that there is a remote chance of a Trump presidency; andTwo, that I live in a country where tens of millions of Americans agree with the values of this racist, sexist, xenophobic psychopath

I’m not sure which is worse, but either one signifies that American culture is suffering from a terrible illness, one that could be life-threatening.

Just as sugar increases the growth of cancer, and gasoline fuels a fire, the illness of disenchantment, selfishness, bigotry, and the rule of the dollar over every conceivable moral decision will become fatal if it is fed by a Trump regime change.

The world is living in a tinder box right now. Not only are we increasing the global temperature and burning up forests that would otherwise be carbon fixing, we are living in a time of flaring tempers, police shootings, terrorist bombings, increased drug addiction, and financial corruption.

Feeding hatred at this time could literally throw us into a third world war, one that humanity would be unlikely to survive. It’s that serious, folks.

This is not a time for making a statement via third party candidates, much as we might like to vote our conscience in that way. This is a dire time when the future health of the biosphere is on the verge of a disastrous tipping point, and the preservation of everything we hold dear could tumble into unprecedented chaos and suffering.

This is not a time when we can say there is no difference between the two candidates. Not a time when we can let sensationalism override our good sense. Not a time for us to be complacent and sit back and say the world will go as it will.��

The world will go as we collectively make it go. Not only through our votes, but through our advertising, our news media, our stories, our conversations, and our actions.��

You may love Hillary or you may hate her. It’s not a time to be ruled by emotions, but by a deep concern for the future of humanity.

Blessings,��
Anodea Judith
09.21.16

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Protecting the Sacred

��

Here at Sacred Centers, we like to put the sacred front and center in all that we do.��

So you can imagine how I felt hearing about the violation of Native American sacred lands by the construction of the Dakota Access pipeline.

We’ve all heard about the hazards of the Keystone XL Pipeline, but while its completion has been halted, at least for now, the����has gone largely unnoticed.��

Until now.

There are many levels to this horrendous story.

First of all, consider that we are facing unprecedented disaster through the continued burning of fossil fuels that contribute to the growing climate crisis. Given that fact alone, it doesn’t make sense to spend $3.8 billion for a nearly 1200-mile underground pipeline to carry toxic, fracked oil from North Dakota across four states and under the Missouri River (where it could pollute the water) to get it to Illinois.��This alone is insane.��

Secondly, the pipeline construction passes through Native American burial grounds and sacred lands.��

Thirdly, after a court order was filed on Friday to protect and stipulate just where the sacred lands were, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Energy Transfer Partners Company desecrated those exact areas, only��12 hours��after the evidence was filed, on a holiday weekend. This could only have been deliberate.��

Fourth: In response to this desecration, hundreds of Native Americans gathered from many tribes to stage a peaceful protest in protection of their lands. They were met with biting attack dogs and pepper spray. The appearance of these dogs on the site were evidence that this was a pre-meditated attack, as the dogs were apparently transported from Ohio and purposely set out on the crowd.

The tribes have obtained a temporary order to halt construction through this Friday, but this whole thing needs much more public attention. We cannot live in a world where money and oil dominate everything that is sacred while driving us faster into extinction.

You can find out��.��

You can��.��

Thanks for listening.

Anodea Judith
09.08.2016

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Today, more than ever, we need a balance of men and women in leadership.�� And while women have been flowing into the workplace for several generations now, the percentage of women in leadership roles still lags far behind men.

Here’re some stats:

While women hold nearly 52% of all professional jobs, only 14.6% are executive officers, with only 8% being top earners. In the health care and social assistance fields, they are 78.4% of the labor force and only 12.4% of board of directors and none are CEOs! By these lights, politics is doing pretty good, with 20% of the American House and Senate comprised of women, and maybe facing our first woman president in 240 years. (.)

Why is it so hard for women to break through this glass ceiling?

The cultural concept of leadership is predominantly masculine. Male leadership tends to be head-centered, strongly directive, and absolute. (Waffling is seen as weak, rather than a deep consideration of changing factors, for example.) Male leaders are expected to be powerful and commanding, but it often requires them to be out of touch with their own feelings and vulnerability—which is seen as antithetical to being powerful leaders.

Women’s leadership looks and acts differently. By the very fact that we have different bodies, brains, and hormones, we lead from a different place. We take our guidance less from the abstract realm of the mind than from a deep knowing within the truth of our bodies.

Women bear children from their bodies, they feed them at their breast, they feel things deep within their bodies that enables them to lead with compassion and connection—not as power over, but power with.

When women have to compete in a male culture, we have to change our natural shape to become something we are not. We can do this, of course, as we have for centuries. But it comes at a cost—and that cost is often our health, to say nothing of our authenticity.

Women, for example, without the same amount of testosterone that drives a man, tend to push forward from their adrenal glands instead, often developing adrenal fatigue.

But there is another way to lead. It is not invulnerable power, but that very power that comes from knowing our ground, feeling our guts, moving from our belly, expanding through the heart, voicing our truth, shining with vision, and holding a consciousness of the whole rather than a part.

Our bodies are one whole organism, not an assemblage of parts. And the body doesn’t lie. Every movement we make, every word we speak comes from an embodied experience of truth. What we feel inside cannot be proved by an outer authority; it is not a command, an absolute dictum, but a statement of reality. It is a truth that resonates with other bodies, and builds a resonance among a group, inviting something real to emerge.

As women adorn their bodies, they are a shining example of leading with beauty. Our bodies are full and round and supple. We come in different shapes and sizes. When we own this, and embrace the wild beauty of variety, we allow others to have the freedom to be who they are.

We can also lead with a compassionate touch or a sacred movement like a bow. This puts people in touch their own bodies, and brings them into their own truth.

Our world is collapsing because the masculine way of life has turned us away from our bodies, away from the earth, and away from the emotions, that are now running wild in their shadow form of fear and hate.

When a woman leads from within her body, it is felt by everyone in her presence as love. It is felt as congruent, connected to our common reality, the survival of a species that is gloriously embodied in an equally glorious world of beauty and wonder. We lead from this connection, not separation, from example rather than command. We shepherd, rather than dictate.

Returning to the body is returning to the goddess, to��mater,��matter, mother. It is��through��the female body that we give birth to the future.

Anodea Judith
08.29.2016

__________________________________________________________________________

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Then, we invite you to join us for a magical, nourishing “soul sanctuary,�� in which you’ll be guided by 7 leading spiritual teachers and facilitators to reconnect with your spiritual essence in a community of empowered, awakening sisters.

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In all the hype about the election, laced with pseudo-entertainment from the latest “What did Trump do this time?�� many of the real issues are getting lost. Climate Change is one of those issues. While given a brief mention by the Democrats and rampant denial by many Republicans, it is inarguably the most important issue of our time.

If the impending climate crisis is not mitigated, the quality of life to which we have become accustomed will not be available for anyone. Not the rich, certainly not the poor, who will be even more affected, not one nation over another, and not the animals, the plants, or the forests. It is a global crisis of epic proportions, unlike anything humanity has ever faced before.

Recently I read a horrifying article about a father who left his toddler daughter in a parked car on a hot day with the windows up. When he found her four hours later, still alive but dangerously overcooked, he put her in a swimming pool to cool her down, alas too late to save her precious life.

While this is the story of an idiotic and needless death, it struck me that it’s but a microcosm of what we are doing with humanity in general, in our failure to address climate change. If we wait until we need life support to take action, it will be too late.

While I don’t generally like war metaphors (war on drugs, war on poverty, and the oxymoron of war on terrorism) , noted climate crisis activist, makes the point that climate change is actually making war on all of us at a level that can make ISIS look tame.

Climate change is taking over territory, killing humans and other species, ravaging farmland, destroying property, and spreading epidemic disease (such as Zika). Like the massive mobilization and retooling that was done in World War II, the same efforts need to be mobilized for this climate induced World War III if we are to survive its continued onslaughts.

“In every war, there are very real tipping points, past which victory, or even a draw, will become impossible. And when the enemy manages to decimate some of the planet’s oldest and most essential physical features—a polar ice cap, say, or the Pacific’s coral reefs—that’s a pretty good sign that a tipping point is near. In this war that we’re in—the war that physics is fighting hard, and that we aren’t—winning slowly is exactly the same as losing.”�� —Bill McKibben

For better or worse, facing a common enemy has always united a people. But this time the enemy is not a foreign nation, tribe, race, religion, or gender. This enemy is not something we can combat with boots on the ground, superior air strikes, or better weapons. It is not an enemy we can kill but a severe challenge that we need to solve.

But it is an enemy that can unite humanity in a common task, overriding our differences to battle an even bigger threat. It might just be the perfect enemy to bring humanity to its next level of cooperation.

Bill McKibben says it better than I can, so . ��

Whether we know it or not, we’ve all been drafted.

Anodea Judith
08.17.2016

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I have never been so absolutely riveted as when watching this week’s Democratic��National Convention. It is truly history in the making, the flowering of humanity at a��pivotal time, the coming together of diversity, the triumph of love over hate, and the��breaking of a glass ceiling that opens to a new world.��

Not that it’s been smooth or predictable. If you’ve paid attention, you know that��the Hillary and Bernie camps haven’t been the epitome of harmony, that those in the��spotlight have trails of history behind them, and that the press seizes upon any��potential conflict with an exponential magnifying glass, whose shards broadcast��division everywhere.��

But there is something much bigger here that is emerging, something palpable and��inspiring. It is a shining light in the uncertainty of change, a possibility that at last,��America may be awakening as a beacon of hope in a world whose future is dangling��by a thread.��

America has been a world leader for a long time, ever since we were the first��adolescents to break away from our parent country back in the American��Revolution. As a nation, we have been known for many things: strong and powerful��protectors of other countries; leaders in science and technology; the best in��entertainment and media; and one of the freest places on earth. A noble past.��

And for a while there, we were moving away from that nobility. Our wars and��domination, our rampant consumption, our crass media, our refusal to take��responsibility for what we’re doing to the planet, were indeed a frightening��downturn.��

But now I see a new emergence not of technology or military power—but a blazing��demonstration of what it looks like to embrace the diversity of our world; to solve��problems with diplomacy over force; to work together toward a vision of what we��can��become, rather than be ruled by a fear of what we��have��become.��

This election is more than a contest between two people, two parties, or even��between a male and a female running for president. It is a stark contrast of world��views, each in their extreme.��

The world of elitist domination through empire, rampant with fear and control,��tainted by racism, violence, and xenophobia, with the American dream being��reduced to the size of your bank account—an old story, ruled by the love of power.��

And next to it, the early green shoots of a new world, albeit a messy one, of tolerance, cooperation, collaboration, hope, and yes, the power of love.

I have lived through eleven elections since I became old enough to vote. I have seen��the wasteland wrought by the love of power and the emptiness and despair that��ensues, but I have also seen the impotence of naïve idealism. I know that a few��random votes can make the difference between whether a million Iraqis die or��whether climate catastrophe is addressed in time. It is not a time for apathy or��divisive grievances, but a time to bring all hands on deck and steer this ship to a��viable future.��

This may be the most important election of our lives. We can stand together or we��can fall apart.��

It is the people’s choice now, and we are choosing a worldview. We can choose love��over hate. We can choose inclusion over exclusion. We can support a woman who��has taken every abuse possible, and still remains standing, to change the tide of 240��years.��

Do more than vote. Believe in it. Carry the banner of possibility from your heart into��action. We are making history. Together.��

And, by the way, I’m with Her.

Blessings,
Anodea

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This year’s Summer Solstice is a once in a lifetime event.

On June 20th, the highest, fullest point of the sun, typically considered masculine, will coincide with a full moon, typically feminine. This only happens once every 70 years or so. The last time was 1948, just as the world was recovering from the shell shock of WWII. That not only seems like a lifetime ago—it was.

I see this as signifying a confluence and balance of gender values. While the masculine sun waxes and wanes in a yearly cycle, holding its power for a longer time, the moon cycles monthly from dark to full. But rarely does the full feminine coincide with the full masculine.

It’s an interesting time for this to happen—a time when gay and trans issues are up everywhere, a time when a woman might be our next president for the first time in 240 years, (even the chance of a female vice president), and a time when the heat of the life-giving sun threatens our civilization through global warming.

A new kind of balance between masculine and feminine is desperately needed, and perhaps this year’s ancient holiday signifies a turning point in our maturity as a species.

Fullness represents maturity, and despite the way it may look, the people of the world are maturing. In adulthood, we learn to work together. We learn to get along, to cooperate, to co-create, to collaborate.

I know it may sound hard to believe, but consider the larger movements underneath our tragedies. Despite the fact that a single, crazed hate-monger can shoot out a gay bar, the larger world is rallying around gay rights and gun control. It took a long time to legalize gay marriage, but finally it happened. It’s taking a long time to pass gun control, but eventually it will happen too, and I hope it’s sooner rather than later. I may not see it in my lifetime, but eventually we will outgrow war as a way to solve conflict, and learn to control population through better means. Women’s right to birth control and child-bearing decisions are an important part. It’s been less than a hundred years since we gained the right to even vote.

The male-dominated world is falling and a new noble masculine is rising—as men come together in integrity, to protect, to lead, and to innovate—separating the men from the boys. A new feminine is rising, and while it has to look fairly masculine to begin with, there is a deeper order underneath that is ripening, an order of compassion, equality, and peace.

This doesn’t happen in our leaders alone, but in each and every one of us as we expand ourselves to embrace both feminine and masculine within, and to honor the divine feminine and masculine without.��

Make this Solstice count for something that brings wholeness to your life. Honor these archetypes in your meditation or practice. Celebrate that life does move on, children grow up, and parents come together to create a new generation.

The Sacred Marriage is a integration of opposites: heaven and earth, mind and body, masculine feminine, dark and light. And from this marriage we become the parents of the future.

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