Monday, March 21, 2011
The Black Swan
The Black Swan
Now we know how it was
at Pompeii,
when the volcano
began to rumble
and people looked at each
other in confusion and fear.
When the monster wave approached
the shore
of this ancient seaside land,
people stopped to gaze in disbelief
and ask one another
what was happening,
no one had ever seen
a wave so big before.
In early Europe, there were
travelers’ tales
of black swans,
but everyone knew this
was a myth,
that swans were never black
for white was their given color.
Then one day in Australia, they found
the truth behind the claim.
Now a black swan is swimming
into our living rooms,
we are turning our heads,
we stare in disbelief
at this creature formed from
impossibility.
Which way shall we turn?
Is the world preparing
its own untimely end,
or are we readying
for something else,
a leap into universal
light?
Dorothy Walters
October 28, 2008
In earlier centuries, travelers brought back reports of black swans, but of course no one believed them since a black swan was deemed to be an impossibility. Ultimately, such creatures were discovered to exist in Australia. A recent book made the point that "a black swan" is in fact a metaphor for any event that is totally unexpected and thought of as impossible. The recent combination of happenings in Japan would be such an event--no one imagined such a combination of catastrophes might occur. Other recent examples might be Katrina, the meltdown of the financial market and the resultant worldwide recession, the current revolts against dictators in the middle east and Africa. Some feel that the major turning points in history are inevitably "black swans," the result of circumstances beyond our imagination.
On the positive side, many of us believe we are preparing for--and indeed are already in-- worldwide spiritual transformation and that Kundalini is a major force in bringing this seemingly impossible event about. The "black swan" here is that the unbelievable can become the actual. Those of us who have experienced spontaneous kundalini awakening have a special reason to support such convictions, since what has happened to us is well outside the "normal" flow of events.
