People are continually surprised that those who rise to power tend to abuse it rather than learn how it can be used to enhance justice or produce genuine beauty.
Yet outer power that is not rooted in the genuine nobility of the soul will always lead to cheating and manipulating in order to retain a false order in the world.
It is most common in this world for people to rise to the top who have not done the work of inner transformation. This causes those who become subject to the abuses of power to believe that all power is abusive and all authority must be unjust.
Authority is a big word that troubles most people, especially in the form of “the authorities.” Yet, the roots of authority go back to words like “author, augment and authentic.” There can be forms of “genuine authority” that develop from authoring things and being truly creative when faced with the inevitable inequities of life.
Authenticity involves acting from one’s deepest essence so that the “uniqueness” of one’s soul awakens and can be “brought to life.” Such an inner awakening is the deeper purpose of initiation; a self-revelation that allows a person to be truly authentic and act with first-hand knowledge and inherent creative force. When in touch with the authentic essence of the soul, a person can draw on the threads of being that can alter the darker aspects of fate.
Authentic authority is rooted, not in the common world, but in something deeper that is both more creative and original. As fate would have it, that which is truly authentic and original in a person exists deep within; it remains hidden, buried like gold that must be mined in the dark depths of the earth.
In order to reach the gold seeded in the soul some descent into the depths of life is required. Since such descents are always painful and forbidding, most people avoid them at any cost. Because such descents are necessary for true growth, life provides them in the form of fateful events that pull each of us deeper into life than we would choose to go on our own.
We all harbor a golden seed in the depths of our souls; that is the true gift of life. Yet, in order to find the key and unlock the hidden brilliance, we must come to know the darkness within us. We must enter the darkest places in order to find and steal our own golden inheritance. That is the nature of life here on earth where gold must be mined in darkness and in the depths of one’s heart and soul.
Michael Meade is the founder and director of the nonprofit Mosaic Multicultural Foundation and creator of the “Living Myth” podcast. At 6 p.m. Thursday, April 7, Meade will present a free online event, with donations welcome, “Coping in a World Gone Wrong,” aimed at communicating how being soulfully present in our lives settles the psyche and helps us cope with a troubled, unsettled world. What moves and heals and stirs the individual soul can also move and heal the world. To find out more about Meade’s work, listen to his podcast and register for the event, visit mosaicvoices.org.
