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Times of great uncertainty and upheaval provoke an acceleration of calling that includes the call to awaken the elders and the sage within each person's heart. In the old wisdom traditions, elders were considered to have one foot firmly on the ground of survival, and the other in the realm of great imagination. Seen that way, the elder archetype becomes a source of imagination and vision as well as a resource of resiliency and endurance.
Of course, old age alone cannot make the elder, for growing older can simply lead to a return to infantile attitudes and exaggerations of neediness and fear. Collectively, we fail to imagine aging's meaning as well as its hidden beauty if we look only through the lens of physiology. When it comes to waking the elder there is something metaphysical involved, something transcendent and spiritual that is required.
While those who become “olders” tend to contribute to the divisions in society, those who act as elders foster unity above self-interest and harmony over conflicts. Despite inevitable bodily aches and pains, genuine elders become the deepest source of life-affirming energy in a culture.
Being connected to the sage in the heart, elders become instinctive humanitarians who can embody wisdom and serve the highest ideals of humanity. Having survived their own troubles, elders are not shocked or overwhelmed by the crises and conflicts that exist in the world. Having repeatedly seen how things fall apart, elders have also witnessed the uncanny ways in which both nature and culture find roots of renewal. In the dark times, the archetypal energy of the elders tries to awaken and help find ways for creation to continue.
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