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
