Stories of the Tableau 5

Hierophant – Hanged Man – Sun

To be a willing student, to surrender to the teachings and to have the courage and self confidence to begin a new way is the path of the Hierophant, the Hanged Man and the Sun. 

The world is at a precipice. Climate change was first pointed out to us over 50 years ago. Some of us listened and understood, the rest of us decided to blatantly ignore and continue business as usual. Now it has become a crisis. It can no longer be ignored. Yet that is what a vast majority of us will continue to do. Why? Because it is no easy task to teach those unwilling to learn. 

Learning requires a surrender. There needs to be an acknowledgment of ignorance before there is an acceptance to learn. It requires a willingness to allow your view point to be upended, trust in the teacher and the hope of a reward. The hard part is that new knowledge can bring with it revelations of poor past decisions and realizations of poor present moment practices. In order to accept the teachings there also needs to be an acceptance of the change the teachings call for. 

If the student can put aside their ego long enough to realize the teachings are not a personal judgement then the willingness to change can come easier. Self confidence is the key here. It can no longer be about us as individuals, it needs to be about the collective whole. It may seem like we need to begin again and we do. More importantly we can. It is time to build a new life on the ruins of the old life. 

Today I contemplate how we can teach those who refuse to learn. Stepping into a new realm of knowledge can be exciting and rejuvenating. It can lead to new and wonderful places. Perhaps what is needed now is a focus on the new and wonderful world we can build together.