World Turmoil, What’s a Pagan to do?

Ebola is emerging as a threat to thousands of lives; the images of desperate communities are seared upon our collective conscious.

 In Europe, war has broken out, as the actors in the conflict continue to side step any responsibility. Images of bombed out cities flash across screens piling the horrors of war upon our daily menu of information to digest.

Terror has gripped the Middle East; innocents are murdered in the name of a group using an acronym that defiles the name of a respected Goddess for many in our community. 

How do we as Pagans manage to keep our spiritual focus in times that trigger anxiety on a mass scale?  As an activist that believes in the potential for a better world these are trying times.

Below are some of the ways that I use to keep my center when disaster literally or through media surrounds me:

Grounding

Grounding is an approach that always helps. By grounding I mean the physical action of putting my hands in the dirt and sensing my connection to mother earth, feeling the energy, experiencing the threads that tie my corporeal being to the elements.  From this experience spiritual grounding begins to flourish within my consciousness.

Ritual

The temptation to view world events as beyond our control is tremendous.  Such a stance however, encourages us to internalize the stresses that these events encumber us with.  Engaging and crafting personal rituals that seek peace, compassion, healing and understanding surrounding these events is proactive and recognizes that each of us have the ability to seek the world we wish to live in.

Participation

Letters to world leaders, donations to those providing relief and actual volunteering of time have all been strategies I have used to engage, participate in solutions and bring about change. 

Our world is lacking in voices that urge compassion, compromise, understanding and real action in support of these principles. Someday it may be your letter that touches the inner being of a major actor in one of these world events.  We as Pagans can make a difference if we refuse the inner narrative that tells we are helpless to affect change upon the human condition.

These three suggestions have worked for me. What works for you? Please share your experiences in the comments section. We are in community, together we can manifest change.