Patricia Pearce

Helping You Be the Change

When the People Lead

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It’s time to direct our energy and attention toward The New.

I feel like I should write something about Donald Trump’s impeachment hearing this week, but the truth is, I’m tired of Donald Trump. I’m tired of the drama. I’m tired of the vitriol, the division, the delusions.

I’m just plain tired. This political drama isn’t where I want to focus my energies anymore. It’s like an energy vampire that feeds on the very thing it seems to demand of us: our attention.

I know that what is ready to arise on this planet isn’t going to come from you or me or any of us focusing on how screwed up the existing system is. That’s obvious. We get it. We don’t need to obsess about it.

The time has come, instead, for us to turn away from the ego’s addictive drama—whether that drama is playing out on the political stage or in the recesses of our own mind—and be willing to turn in a new direction, toward the truth of Love and its embodiment in the world.

Before Trump arrived on the scene, I wrote very little about the political landscape. I was much more interested in the inner landscape, because that’s where true transformation happens.

But when Trump erupted on our national political stage I felt drawn to speak to the phenomenon we were witnessing, because it was so obvious to me that there was much more to it than most people were recognizing on the face of things.

From the outset I saw Trump as someone who is exemplifying the egoic consciousness of separateness that humans must now leave behind, if for no other reason than that the wellbeing of the ecosystem we are part of requires it of us.

I saw that Trump was serving an important purpose, quite unintentionally I might add, by helping us see so clearly how the ego mind operates and the kind of world it fashions so that we could choose differently.

That’s really what the impeachment is all about: giving those in Congress the chance to choose differently. Whether or not they do, though, won’t have any effect on the bigger picture. Unitive consciousness is emerging, even more quickly now because of the excesses of ego that we have seen of late. (As the Tao te Ching says, “If you want to shrink something, you must first allow it to expand.”)

Here’s something for us to remember: it is often the “leaders” who are the last to get on board with big change, and the current shift in consciousness is perhaps the biggest change this planet has ever experienced.

I’m reminded of the story of Jonah, the prophet in the Hebrew Scriptures, who was commanded by God to go to Nineveh and tell them they needed to repent because otherwise they were headed for catastrophe.

Jonah didn’t want to go. He probably had no interested in saving the Ninevites, who were, from his vantage point, the enemies. In fact, he so didn’t want to go that he tried to flee his calling, ended up (long story) getting swallowed up by a big fish and then vomited out on dry land, at which point he finally went to Nineveh to fulfill his function, albeit reluctantly.

Much to his consternation, upon hearing his message the Ninevites repented and their catastrophic fate was averted, which made Jonah exceedingly unhappy.

But the thing that has always intrigued me the most about that story is how the Ninevites ended up repenting. As Jonah walked across the city preaching his message of doom and gloom, it was the people who proclaimed a fast and put on sackcloth. It was the people who turned toward a new way (which is what repent actually means).

It wasn’t until the king got word of what was going on that he too put on sackcloth, sat himself down in ashes, and decreed a time of national repentance, making what the people were already doing a “public policy.”

We get all worked up when the leaders don’t lead, when they don’t have the vision or the guts to forge a new society, or prepare the way for a new world. But the thing is, transformation is never going to come from the Oval Office or the halls of Congress. It is going to come from us, from We the People.

And true transformation, the transformation that will give rise to a world that reflects the Reality of Love, originates within each of us. It is a shift in consciousness that, as I have said before, is an inside job.

It is toward The New, not the old, that I want to direct my attention and energy now. As Buckminster Fuller famously said, “You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.”

I don’t expect the Senate to convict Donald Trump in these proceedings. They might surprise me, but I think there is way too much fear in that body to defect from the ego and its ways. The “leaders” are scared, which means we are the ones who will need to be bold enough to repent, audacious enough to choose differently, radical enough to align ourselves inwardly and outwardly with the truth of Love. And when we do, you can be assured the “leaders” will follow.

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White Supremacy and the Identified Patient

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I would like some wisdom on what we are seeing in our country right now, especially with the violent displays of white supremacy we have witnessed in the storming of the Capitol. I ask the Heart and greater Wisdom to guide my reflections and grant me insight.

What you are seeing now in the eruption of white supremacist groups has been long in the making, and while you might be alarmed to see the momentum, virulence, and violence of this movement, please understand that it is simply bringing to the surface what has long needed to be acknowledged, faced and healed.

We have spoken before of covid meaning “to see together,” and this is something that you are seeing together. Something that has sorely needed to be seen.

You understand that in family systems theory there is something called the identified patient. The identified patient in a family is that person who is outwardly manifesting a dysfunction that exists in the entire family system. Please do not be tempted to see white supremacists as the problem, but to see white supremacy as the dysfunction in the entire system that they are acting out, the dysfunction that needs to be corrected. As the system is healed, the identified patient is restored to health.

The awareness is growing in your country that racism has been a long and destructive influence in the establishment of your systems and that it needs to be eradicated for the new world and new society to arise.

Just as Donald Trump has allowed you to see in vivid display what ego-mind looks like, the insurrectionists are bringing to your full awareness this endemic pattern of racism that is at the core of so much suffering and injustice in your culture.

What is needed now is a massive truth and reconciliation movement in your country to heal this disease. You know that in a medical crisis the symptoms of a disease must be addressed, but that for true health to manifest, the entire body needs to come into its wholeness. Without this, the illness will continue to express itself.

This is an illness that has been growing unchecked and unacknowledged for a very long time, since the inception of this county. And now you are seeing the urgency with which it needs to be faced and healed with grace.

This is not to say that those who have carried out this act of violence are not to be held accountable for their actions. Indeed it is important that they be, but not out of anger or vilification, but out of Love and a commitment to heal the whole. What they are portraying, the belief system and ideology they are enacting, is a fallacy, and the body as a whole must acknowledge that.

It is then the task of all people, especially white people in this country, to address the roots of this assumed supremacy, roots which exist in the mind.

Do you recall how, when you have done meditations envisioning an awakened Philadelphia, how easily you have been able to envision many ethnic groups giving expression to their unique cultural heritage in a beautiful tapestry of multi-culturalism, but when it came to the white people of the city you could not see it clearly?

This is because white culture does not exist as any true expression of identity. Instead, white culture has rested on the idea of dominating those of other ethnicities and cultures. White culture in itself, apart from this role of domination, seems to be a void. A non-thing.

This in part is what is occurring in the uprising of white supremacy. As the nation becomes increasingly multi-cultural, there is no sense of identity, no sense of selfhood for white people apart from that of the dominator. It it this restoration of a true and life-affirming identity that is needed now.

Who are you as a “white” person? You are immigrants of many cultures, lands in which the skin color of the people happened to be fair. Can you see the absolute absence of meaning in this? How fragile an identity it is that relies upon skin color?

Revisit your ancestral roots. Who were you before you became “white”? Before you became “white” you were many things. You were the speakers of Gaelic and had a sacred relationship with the land, which you understood to be inhabited by entities not visible to the human eye. You were dancers around the bonfire at the winter solstice. You were creators of sublime music that touched the soul. You were tellers of stories that spoke of the transcendence of the human spirit.

Shed this empty identity of being “white” and go deeper into your being. Celebrate who you are in your core, not in the color of your skin.

You received a phrase recently in a dream: systemic gracism. This is where your society is headed if you will it to be so, toward the establishment of systems that reflect goodwill toward one another and which support all in their mutual thriving. A society that exemplifies and manifests grace.

What you are witnessing at this turbulent moment in your country is that which must be seen and acknowledged in order for it to be healed, released and transcended. It is opening the way for gracism to take root.

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Joy Lessons from Philly

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Joy opens a portal for a new possibility to come forth.

It’s been an interesting time here in Philadelphia in recent days as the whole world watched and waited to see if Philly would deliver the needed votes to tip the outcome of the election. Given that this is the place where our democratic form of government was conceived, I don’t think the significance has been lost on anyone that this is the place where its future seemed to be hanging in the balance.

I moved here in 1997, and as a native of Denver it was a big adjustment for me to come here to the densely populated East Coast, far from the open spaces and Rocky Mountains that I love. It was also devastating to see the extent of the poverty in Philadelphia, the poorest of the major cities in the US, which was once a thriving hub of the Industrial Revolution. But when the factories closed to relocate, they left behind working class neighborhoods that became vast wastelands of unemployment and despair.

And yet, when I moved here I fell in love with Philly. I loved the racial diversity, and how this city is such a microcosm of the world. I loved the expansive parks here that have been set aside as a protected watershed, including the Wissahickon woods where the soil sparkles with with traces of mica.

I loved the art and culture, and that I could go hear the Philadelphia Orchestra in their concert hall a mere 15 minutes from my house, an orchestra I used to listen to recordings of when I was a music major in college.

I was also captivated by Philadelphia’s history, by the cobblestone streets of Old City where redbrick colonial houses still stand, by William Penn’s vision that this place be a Holy Experiment where people of all faiths could live in harmony, by Independence Hall where a new vision of government was conceived that dethroned the idea of monarchy.

Funny, Tough, and Joyful

In recent weeks, during this election season, I’ve found myself falling in love with Philly all over again, but in new ways. I have loved the playfulness and humor that is endemic to this place, and how people took President Trump’s comment that “bad things happen in Philadelphia” and ran with it.

And speaking of running, I love that they just organized a benefit run to raise money for Philabundance, our local hunger relief organization, which they are calling the Fraud Street Run (a word play on our long-standing annual tradition of the Broad Street Run).

The Fraud Street Run will start at the now famous Four Seasons Total Landscaping and end at the Four Seasons Hotel in Center City. (If you’ve been appreciating Philly lately too, you might consider donating here.)

In recent weeks I’ve even fallen in love with Philly’s gritty toughness, which I never fully appreciated until now. Here people don’t engage in the gratuitous niceties that I was accustomed to, having grown up in the West. Here people call things the way they see them, and they aren’t easily intimidated or bullied. Lately I have come to understand that when the stakes are high, you want a good dose of that don’t-mess-with-me energy that is core to Philly’s culture.

But I think the thing that has inspired me the most about my adopted city in this whole election drama has been the Joy that has been set loose here—people dancing while waiting in line to vote; people of all colors, shapes, gender orientations and religions dancing outside the Convention Center in what became a block party to protect the vote count.

This eruption of Joy was intentional. The organizers here who have been preparing for this moment understand the power of Joy to de-escalate tensions and shift the narrative of confrontation, and they made sure the d.j. booth was ready so the party could begin.

Joy is a very high-frequency energy. In its presence fear, hate, and anger melt away. Joy dethrones the idea of division, overthrows the idea of oppression. It opens a portal for a new possibility to come forth and take hold.

We know we’re not out of the woods yet. We can see how the old order does not go quietly into the night. But when the people start dancing, the new world is already well on its way.

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The Quiet Coup

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The coup that will change the world is already well underway.

For as long as I can remember, the ritual in our national political theater that has always moved me to tears is the moment after a presidential inauguration when the outgoing president boards the helicopter and flies away. It is an enactment of what is perhaps the most extraordinary characteristic of democracy: the peaceful transition of power.

It brings me to tears because I am aware of how precious it is, how novel it is, in a world that has for so long been governed by egoic drives for power and control, and it exemplifies the fundamental break with the past that the founders of our country made when they decided the United States would not be a monarchy.

Knowing that Donald Trump is completely beholden to the ego-mind, I have always had a hard time envisioning him peaceably getting on that helicopter and flying away, honoring the will of the people and the democratic process. This is not a condemnation of him. It is simply an observation of him. It is not in his constitution to yield power and control.Continue Reading

America’s Healing Crisis

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The US is in a healing crisis, and we each play a part in determining its outcome.

I write and speak a lot about the illusory nature of the egoic mind that perceives all things through a concept called “separateness.” In the mystical experience this idea is revealed to be a fallacy, a trick of the mind. When the veil of illusory separateness is lifted, we see that everything is an interconnected whole. One could say that the mystical state is a united state in which all is seen to be inextricably interwoven and where the separate self we have always thought ourselves to be simply doesn’t exist.

At the dawn of this new millennium, as people all across the globe are increasingly awakening from the trance of the separate self, we suddenly find ourselves in the midst of a pandemic that is accelerating the process by revealing in unmistakable terms the inescapable nature of our interconnectedness.

We are coming to see, thanks to COVID-19, that we must care for our neighbor not simply out of a moral obligation to do so, but out of the recognition that at a fundamental level our neighbor is ourself, and our personal wellbeing is inextricably tied to the wellbeing of all.

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Bringing in the Light

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This is the time for new patterns to become anchored in form.

Last Tuesday morning I was meditating, holding in the energy of Love all that has been happening here in Philadelphia in the wake of George Floyd’s murder, all the anger, the pain, the public outcry for justice, and as I sat I wondered what it would be like to be able to join with other energy workers in Philadelphia to hold this collectively on behalf of our city.

As soon as I was finished meditating I texted my friend Zoana, a gifted energy worker, and asked if she knew of any local groups that are joining together with this intention. She didn’t, but said she would be happy to help organize something.

So we wrote an email that same day letting people know that we would be tuning in three times each day, and we sent it out to energy workers we knew inviting them to join us, and asked them to forward the invitation to others.

Clearing the Way

The next day when we were tuning in, the energy that Zoana and I both sensed coming through felt extremely intense. I wouldn’t describe it as angry. I would describe it as fierce, a Kali energy come to clear out old patterns so that the new can arise.Continue Reading

Of Looting and Love

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Beneath it all, racism is a denial of Love

It’s early Sunday morning and I’m sitting on my roof deck. It’s a beautiful morning, cool, sunny. The flowers in the pots lining the edge of the deck are starting to come into bloom: bright yellows, reds, purples. The birds are singing. A gentle breeze is blowing.

Over Center City Philadelphia, about a mile and a half to the south, a helicopter is hovering, only one. Last night, when I could see the smoke coming from the building the protestors had set on fire, there were half a dozen.

To loot (v): to rob especially on a large scale and usually by violence or corruption.

1619: The first ship bringing human beings abducted from the continent of Africa arrives in Point Comfort, in the colony of Virginia.

Last night an old friend of mine, Tyrone, emailed me from Denver to say he was thinking of me. He’d seen the news coverage from Philadelphia, and he told me and Kip, my husband, to stay put and stay safe.

Tyrone and I first met in high school when mandatory bussing in Denver started. He had to get up hours before dawn to catch the school bus that took him across town so he could get to our white suburban school and integrate it before the first bell rang.Continue Reading

Ode to Trump and the GOP

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You have proven yourselves once again to be the party that liberates the enslaved.

Dear Mr. Trump and the GOP,

I want to thank you for all you have done in such a short period of time to help me come to clarity about the world I want to live in and for showing me that I don’t need to let any rule or precedent from the past stand in my way.

Your astounding ability to envision, claim and fashion the world you want has prompted me to ask myself: What does the world I want to live in look like? I don’t have the complete answer yet—it’s still coming into focus—but here’s what I can see so far:

The world I want to live in and help create is joyful and kind. It’s a world where everyone has the opportunity to express their unique genius and radiant Self. It’s a playful and creative place where all are flourishing together, celebrating one another, and living in constant wonder of the miraculous Now and of themselves as one-of-a-kind expressions of Existence itself. Mine is a world where the Earth is abundant and thriving, and we humans are fully aware of our oneness and interdependence with all Life on the planet.

In short, it’s a world where Love reigns.Continue Reading