The Midlife Crisis is a magical, mystical dilemma we enter usually around 45 to age 47, and without good mentoring, it takes us about 10 years to work out of–often around age 55. When you’re in Midlife Crisis and know it–you often are searching for a “Magic Person.” Be careful. There’s a lot of phonies and con men/ women out waiting to get paid from your confusion.
It takes a whole lot of blessings for a man to bring his gifts to the table. Those Blessings traditionally come from the love and nurturing of the Father and Elders of the tribe.
But since the selfish rich set this country up in a Feudalistic slave system that has corrupted everything in they’re sight, most American men don’t get enough “Blessings” and are unable to bring their gifts to “the table” of culture–leaving this a dying, rotting cultural version of corrupted Capitalism.
- Men don’t have a “Rites of Passage” to go through and learn what their jobs and “Purpose” is to themselves, the family, and the larger “Tribe.”
- Without a Purpose… we burnout.
- Midlife is a cosmic time that’s like a wrecking ball coming through our lives– informing us that we don’t have long here on the planet, and therefore we must be about doing that which we came to do.
- It is by pursuing our PRODUCTIVE inner passions…that we Revitalize ourselves and the culture.
The Military
The military is an incomplete rites of passage. We go through it in our adolescence. Every military culture is an adolescent, teenage culture. We have to go BEYOND culture to Individuate… and become our own person. Even if we had a Complete Rites of Passage, there’s no cohesive culture to dump those young men into.
It seems that we’re surrounded by people (especially immigrants form older Traditional cultures) that refer to themselves as, “We.” If you’re a “We”… then you don’t know who you are. Who’s name is going to be on your tombstone? Your mother’s? Your gang members? (No being in a gang in Midlife is truly a sign of being stuck in teenage adolescence… an emotionally torturous place for a grown man or woman to be in.)
“Thug for Life”? Opps– no, telling your psyche that means you’re Stuck for Life. Some people who’ve been caught up in the prison system feel… they have no choice but to turn, “Professional.” Then after they get older and get tired of prison, they have to find some ways of earning money, right? This screwed up Justice System has trapped them on a cliff that has little resolution– UNLESS they become serious about change. And that’s what Midlife Crisis is about: You have to CHANGE.
“FOUR STAGES OF HUMAN DEVELOPMENT”
American philosopher/psychologist Ken Wilbur has his … “Quadrants”.
When looking at human development, he uses a scale of,
1. FIRST STAGE
Everything is about “Me.” Think of an infant.
(Kinda like Trump and his willfully ignorant supporters?)
2. SECOND STAGE
“Everything is about my tribe … my Gang… my ETHNIC group.” This is the Adolescent Stage of Development.
(It’s one of the reasons teenagers are recruited into militaries.)
Partly due to trauma, partly due to “Traditional” or Fundamentalist cultural values… many people never grow beyond this stage of development… oh… and Ego. Ego is a HUGE culprit in keeping one stuck in Second Stage Development.
3. THIRD STAGE
Typically people are beyond age 33 and have children or at least a wife or primary partner. This stage equates with the Heart Chakra.
“I care about the ENTIRE school district because my child has to go there and it’s important that if his experience is a good one, that the quality be as high as possible for every other child.”
4. FOURTH STAGE
At this stage, we have ascended to the Crown Chakra… the UNIVERSAL stage of seeing and viewing. Most of us don’t get there until they are grandparents … but sadly, many never arrive. By this stage we care about the entire planet… if for no reason then we realize that it’s our only home and if we are to survive, we must COOPERATE with it.
We waste a lifetime looking backwards. A part of getting out of Spiritual Emergency is about growing … moving our identity and our authentic personal psyche UP … through being centered on one of the lower stages. None of us are at one stage 24/7… but where is the bulk of our energy residing at?
Resolution: “Follow Your Passion!”
- The answers are to be that which you ARE … not to be who others– or the culture told you that you should be. You have to now dump your fears of what others think of you, and become your own full Individual. (“Individuation“)
- And, to do what you always dreamed of doing. (In an adult way that gives back to the culture–and not an egotistical, “Look At MEEE!” way that feeds your ego and not your soul.) So if you dreamed of becoming a baseball player when you were young, it’s too late to become a baseball player now– but you must now have it in your life in some form because it’s your passion– and it revitalizes you. So become a little league coach or sell baseball cards. Might even become a “Professional” collector and trader.
CHANGE??
Change is difficult for those who grasp too firmly onto limited information– and/or the past. Why is addiction so difficult to overcome? Energy naturally flows where it’s been before. Change means we have to force our energy (thoughts, actions) to flow in different directions. Below is a block that has had millions of volts of electricity into it… simulating a lighting strike. The meaning is, any new energy inserted into that block will likely flow in the same paths. This does NOT mean, “impossible.” It means working towards your new life which you will love.
You’re only a Loser if you quit. Life is full of ups and downs… they’re there to teach us… or as they say, “To make us–not break us.” Midlife phenomena can frighten us … because if we resist or are lazy, there are parts of our psyche that become split off and we think we’re hearing ghost or entities. No– most often they’re splintered parts of our own mind.
Remember–“Everything in the Unconscious–often Repressed material–seeks outward manifestation.
Unlike today’s “Reality TV” or Hip Hop/ Rap … grandiose adolescent, Narcissistic world that has values and believes anyone who is honest and sincere has to be humiliated and laughed of the “Celebrity Reality” conscious show, YOU must become very honest. Honest with yourself and others about who and what you are.
If any part of who you think you are (remember, EVERYTHING changes…) is in conflict with the morals or beliefs of the culture you’re stuck in, then you WILL experience strong push-back. But the more you stand up for your sexuality, non-racism, non-Traditional aspects of yourself, the stronger and happier you will become. “Whatever makes you whole–makes you Holy.”
Black Traveler 