Monday, March 11, 2024

elders are bridges

 



In the old wisdom traditions, elders act as a living bridge between the visible, 
measurable world and the mostly unseen realms of spirit and soul. 
Although more in touch with timeless things, elders would not be out of touch
 with the conflicts and troubles of daily life. In times of great trouble,
 the elders could be seen to have one foot firmly on the ground of survival,
 and the other in the realm of great imagination.

As the modern world grows increasingly divided, the archetype 
of the elder becomes important as a source for imagining ways to bridge
 between unlike energies as well as opposing forces. No matter a person’s
 literal age, each soul is truly ancient; thus each person has the potential
 of awakening to the presence of the “inner elder” 
or the sage within the heart.

In a time when it has become common for the callings of youth
 to go unheard, the idea of trying to awaken the inner elder might seem,
 not just odd, but truly weird. Then again, the calling that comes to elders 
has always involved the strange adventure of finding a greater sense of life 
while facing the nearness of death. The word weird was originally spelled
 “wyrd” and had a primary sense of having a foot in each world
 and having a greater capacity to hold the tension
 of all the opposites together.

As used to be well known, old age alone cannot make the elder. 
For growing older can lead to a return to infantile attitudes 
and exaggerated feelings of neediness and fear. 
When it comes to waking the elder the qualities most needed involve 
more than physical change. There is something metaphysical involved, 
something transcendent and spiritual that is required. Collectively,
 we fail to perceive aging's meaning as well as its hidden beauty 
if we look only through the lens of physiology.

Sadly, modern societies seem to produce people who grow older
 and older, but do not become wiser with age. There seems to be
 a collective vacating of the later stages of life when it comes to living
 with meaning and purpose and serving something beyond oneself.
 Due to improved diets, medical and technological advances, many people
 live to a ripe old age. Yet, few seem to ripen into elders, or blossom into wisdom
 and most seem unable to harvest knowledge from life experience
 in order to pass it on to those coming along.

Typically, we put more effort into helping people reach old age 
than helping them learn what to do with it. As an old saying warns, 
“we grow gray in our spirit long before we grow gray in our hair.”
 The problem is not simply aging, but more the abandonment 
of a person's unique character and core calling that dooms the later years
 to a growing sense of loss, a fall into pools of nostalgia
 or a narrow attempt to hold onto material things.

Playing the role of elder and seer, William Blake advised that: 
"Wisdom combines insight with experience, and vision with maturity.
 If maturity expands vision, it will lead to wisdom. If not, maturity 
becomes degeneration." Either a person wises up to who they are 
at the core of their life or else they tend to slip into increasingly narrow
 ways of thinking and evermore egocentric patterns as they age.

Those who do not become as elders simply become the “olders” 
who tend to contribute to the divisions in society, whereas the elders
 would foster unity above self-interest and harmony over conflicts. 
As long as aging is considered a disease waiting for a cure, as many
 people also consider adolescence, the true value and purpose 
of growing older will become more lost.

The elders are those who have found ways to accept the hand
 that fate has dealt to them. By virtue of that, they also find the paths
 of genuine meaning and purpose that make life truly rich 
and make death the middle of a long life. It is the elder within us
 that understands that we must 
“die before we die” in order to truly live.

It is our mutual fate to live in a time of great uncertainty 
and worldwide upheaval. Increasingly, it seems that we are
 in the exact danger of not having enough wisdom to find our way
 through all the great crises that trouble both nature and human cultures.
 Yet, during times of chaos and change there can be
 an acceleration of calling and 
an awakening of the human spirit.

On one hand, young people are called to seek paths of meaning 
and purpose over more common career paths. On the other hand,
 the advent of people living longer and longer can be seen 
as nature itself trying to create an awakening of elders that can help
 us all respond more meaningfully to the many crises
 that now plague the entire planet.

Being connected to the sage in the heart, elders become instinctive
 humanitarians who can embody wisdom and 
serve the highest ideals of humanity.

“In mythic tales, the elders act as bridges 
that help young people find their way in the world. 
They also serve to bridge meaningful traditions of the past 
with viable visions of the future
 trying to become conscious.”

Because of their willingness to face death and be truly wyrd, 
the elders become the advocates of life and thus the natural allies 
of the young as well as the supporters of meaningful changes 
that can help realign culture with nature. Whether we are talking 
about older people becoming elders, or referring to the inner sage
 in each person’s heart, it is important to know that
 genuine elders are not easily daunted.

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 can find roots of renewal. 
In the darkest times, the archetypal energy of the elders tries to awaken
 and help us find both ways to survive and ways to truly transform our lives.



~ Michael Meade
with thanks to Mystic Meandering






2 comments:

Mystic Meandering said...

Wow- I had no idea there was so much more to the essay! :) Guess I should have checked it out myself.... Changes the whole meaning. Thanks...

Hadd said...

Thank you. This is very helpful.