The Wonders of Oz

January 26, 2007

Today is Australia Day, the day when Australians celebrate their country and their selves. Australia in my opinion represents the cutting edge of the Aquarian Age, which I'll explain in a bit. Since we are in Aquarius season, I'm going to extol and elaborate on the land down under, aka Oz because I love it dearly and because I see it as emblematic to what is going on for all of us, planet and species and energies included. What is going on this week is essentially what was going on last week and for that I refer you to last week's Update in the archives section of in2light.

I had the wonderful experience of working and living in Australia for half of last year in two, three months segments. Mostly I was on the Mornington Peninsula south of Melbourne in the state of Victoria across the waters from Tasmania and Antarctica beyond. I also spent two wonderful weeks in Queensland on either side of Brisbane on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts. On that trip, I gave talks about the Steve Irwin family, their karma and mission. That came about because after the gigs were already booked, Steve died of a stingray barb to his heart. As I drew up the family's charts and such, I realized how significant their story is and the story of Australia itself is.

I had the pleasure to visit the Australian Zoo where the Irwins live (they created it and I encourage you to visit), before I gave the talk about their karma in a town only miles away from where they were mourning. This was an honor for me. I have great respect for the Irwins, their mission, Australians and Australia. It is not an easy place to live in any way, but it is oh so wonderful........... I want to deeply thank all of the Aussies who were/are so kind, generous and welcoming to me. I won't mention ya by name mateys, but I am forever grateful to ya. True blue.

Note: You can check out my Archives for two essays I wrote concerning the Irwin story: 9/8/06 Crikey! and 9/22/06 Pull the Barbs Out of Your Heart. I had been bitten by an Aussie spider within days of arriving in the first week of August and the effects were considerable for two and a half months. The writing might be a bit patchy cuz I was cruisin' on the weirdest neurotoxin shamanesque trip that I'd ever experienced, and I done did a lot a trippin' in my day.....

Australia is a wondrously strange place. The strategies of evolving plants and animals there are so different compared to most any place else. It's not an environmentally genetic hotbed like the current fullness of theAmazon basin, but I reckon it was indeed. It is the driest continent these days and it sits in the IndoPacific as a massive island about the size of the 48 US states with a human population of 20 million. There's not many large predators and there's more venomous kinds of critters than any place else on the planet. Oz is a name most appropriate.

It happens to be the leading edge of time; that is, the new year/new day begin there on the other side of the date line; literally, they are always ahead. Aussie's have an amazing culture of invention; you should see what all they've cooked/cook up on relatively minimal resource base far away from the mainstream. The island effect insures considerable creativity. So does the light, which is exceptional in quality. These days the sunshine is rather more like radiation because of the extreme hole in the ozone layer likely caused by human pollution. All the better for mutating I reckon.

The people are very community based. They have to be to get through the challenges of living in a formidable place a long way from previous home. What I see there is a set of issues that we all are facing acutely now or soonly:

Living together, all species, on a limited resource base planet with the struggles and karma of post colonialism.

They bridge to Asia, which is where the power base is swinging to in our time. They have first, second and even some third world situations in their own borders. They are tied to the Commonwealth, but they are very independent. Their government can be lackeyesque, but they are not. Australians have many heavy stories of abuses, past and current, with aboriginal peoples and with environmental degradation like rabbit proof fences and cane toads. The water is predicted to run out literally for the city of Brisbane in two years. Economically it is difficult to stay up with it all because of the small human population in a vast nation. Imagine if there were only humans in the LA metro area but they all had to work and pay for the maintenance of a first world infrastructure in all the rest of the 48 US states.

Aussies get through it all with wonderful humor, creativity, grit and togetherness. They respect their land and bodies in some wonderful ways and in other ways they have their challenges. What I'm saying is that they are the testbed for the Aquarian Age shift. If they make it, likely the rest of us will. If not,....... the bets might be off. Believe me I'm not trying to dump a bunch of bullshit on them. This is just what I see.

The Irwin family is a long story which I won't go into here, but they too are cutting edge in my opinion. Steve and all are doing some excellent scientific research, preserving important wilderness and fighting for the planet and species in some very real, responsible and direct ways. Steve pointedly instructed his wife Terri and daughter Bindi to carry on fully and they take that charge with great love and courage. As I write this, a couple of weeks ago, Terri and Bindi were just on Larry King Live. At the end of the show, Larry referred to the fact that he has never seen such an integrated family and set of individuals (I paraphrase/surmise). These people are really their selves and they are lined up in their mission as wildlife warriors as they say and as autonomous individuals and close family.

There was a fair amount of controversy with Steve Irwin and his style of being with the animals. In my opinion, it was lined up in him to behave in his over the top crikey way because he touched the most important segment of the population that needs to be touched: young boys. Mind you, of course he touches the girls too (that's where Bindi and Terri but especially Bindi comes in!), but the boys are hard to get to and when they grow up they tend to do a lot of damage. His style captivates them, meets them where they are, and then he delivers his messages which included the obvious wildlife warrioring......... but, in my opinion, much more importantly, he delivers messages of real direct respectful relationships with fellow humans, with moms and dads, with kids, with parenting and....... hear it loud and clear, with fathering. This stuff needs to be resolved on this planet. We've been horrifically losing boys/men, and the real masculine, for a very long time and it ends up looking like mad W and his frat boy gang ways. Steve was a man of true tenderness and any of the showmanship with the critters was his natural style. Ya, he harassed a few of them so that the rest of them on the planet could continue to exist and thrive peacefully on their own terms.

When Terri got the phone call of Steve's demise, she went to Bindi who was eight and just told her what happened directly; she did the same with little Robert. This is being and choosing. Shit happens; be with it; communicate; go through mourning and carry on all the better for it actually. I've seen Terri come out of her shell and shine. Husbands just have to get out of the way and be with their amazing wives. Dangle the baby girls in front of some crocodiles so that they can have the fun too! Let the little boys be sensitive in their own way. To me, the most important story about the Irwins is the family/individual stories of these people and their own integrity.

John Stainton, the director/producer/best mate of the Irwin family/productions, is splendidly himself, upfront and real, on purpose and deeply emotional too. It runs through their zoo and the staff of 500. You can feel it in the people and the animals, and it is a genuinely fun and informative place that opens you deeper than you may recognize. They are being and letting be. This is not some canonization bullshit. They are in the media biz. That's their work. But most of their work you'll never see, but likely you'll be glad that it was done.

At the time of the amazingly dear and helpful memorial, it was estimated that perhaps a hundred million children watched. I saw tv footage of young American men who said that they and their mates had never been touched so deeply as with Steve's death (and they had been through 9/11!). I talked to grown men in Australia that said that they had never cried so much about anything in their life as they did with Steve's death. That's touching people's hearts. That's touching boy's and men's hearts. Crikey, that's important!

Bindi is representative of all the amazing youngin's that are coming on. I sure enough see it in my clientele and you see it in your life. Steve was the booster rocket; Bindi is the pay load. They always knew and in fact planned for all of this. Bindi is out touring with a rah rah Aussie kid/critter stage show in the States right now. Later this year, her new tv series will be out. She's an icon. I've never seen anyone handle it so well. I'm sure Larry King would say so too and he's seen about everybody in the fame realms. (Shirley Temple was/is pretty amazing in her own way.) Bindi is show biz with a conscious purpose. Ya, let's have more of that!..... and we are actually.

I'm deeply appreciative of Terri's mothering. I know there are a lot of you out there. She represents. She approached wifedom and motherhood in a direct, choiceful way and continues. Terri was stunned to have Steve in her life and stunned to lose him, but they continue together, despite his disembodiment, without heavy overlay of projection. She's her own person and she is charged, and readily accepts, the mantle of leading the zoo/family mission while being a full on woman and mother. I know you'all do too in your amazing and courageous ways.

Bindi is iconic for girls and for kids. She's being herself and making choices in ways we have just not seen before in a global public commons. She represents gorgeously and something like what used to get called humble but it ain't anything like that any more. She's being herself and her parents and the people that work with her are doing likewise. I see thriving rather than striving. I see playing on purpose rather than pushing and spinning. I see real beauty with all its bumps and grinds included.

It's time for everybody to be their selves, respectfully and playfully. It's time to let the planet and life be. There's nothing truly fancy about the Aquarian Age. It's simply time to be and to be together.

No rulers and long live the crocs,
Mark