Transpersonal Theory and the Astrological Mandala:

From Chapter One:

Ever since the fundamental substance of the world was declared by Thales to be water and by Anaximenes to be air; ever since the fundamental principle of existence was identified by Parmenides as Being and by Heraclitus as Becoming, the urge to understand, to know, has impelled thinkers and philosophers along varied trajectories toward radically different accounts of 'the ultimate nature of things'. No particular philosophical account conceived across millenia by any of countless questing souls has yet settled the matter as to the nature of the ultimate, be it blind mechanism, transcendent spirit or something in between. Or, for that matter no account has yet settled the argument as to whether it even makes sense to assert that there is an ultimate nature which we can meaningfully be seeking. Nevertheless, through dialectical engagements in religious, philosophical and scientific domains such a diversity of ideas has inevitably expressed, but also played a significant role in shaping and determining, the historical unfolding of human life with its increasingly momentous impact on the planet. Over the last couple of centuries an increasingly massive body of scientific data has, like the gravitational field of a large mass bending time-space, drawn into its field of influence the very terms of Western-based philosophical thought. Shaped and constrained by such a dominant paradigm certain philosophical orientations which once shone with their own brilliance have become dark objects lost in space. But the time has come to reclaim these ‘objects’, to re-examine past insights that may have been unfairly dismissed and forgotten. As we seek to discover and explore new perspectives, new ways of being and understanding including nonWestern and indigenous views and practices, all voices are gradually now being invited back where they can again be heard as partners in a larger quest; mind, soul and spirit, no longer uninvited guests, can once again take their place at the philosophical round table.

If we can indeed identify an intellectual, cultural and even spiritual renaissance at this present time—and I believe we can—it is a conversation which is itself an evolutionary emergence taking place in what disconcertingly appears to be an ever darkening world; a world where the philosophical visions of Machiavelli, Hobbes, Schopenhauer and Spengler, and the dystopian fictions of Huxley and Orwell are apparently being fulfilled. A great uncertainty hangs over our age, an age of crisis and even profound social and cultural collapse during which, instead of freely shining to reveal our greater promise as a species, the light of truth is preoccupied with the necessary and more prosaic task of revealing more and more darkness—unfortunately a darkness that is not instantly vanquished by the light as in the more optimistic 'consciousness raising' metaphor.

When even the world’s supposed ‘democratic’ nations are apparently losing their moral compass while failing to understand and commit to the radical changes necessary to avert the impending ecological calamity, what could it possibly mean for us to be optimistic that any such paradigm shift will make a concrete difference? In an age of increasing hopelessness in which we have fairly recently become aware of several past great extinctions in life's long evolutionary history, such a sobering discovery provides a stark choice, turning up the pressure for the possible emergence of new adaptive changes and subjecting the potentialities of the homosapien brain to the ultimate test. The critical questions for us are not the impotent pleas for reassurance: "Will humanity survive? Will we be saved? Will there be a new dawn?" Rather, the fertile and potent questions are: "How do we respond to the evolutionary imperative of our time? How are we to understand the very meaning of 'evolution'? Where have we been blind, and to what deeper truths must we imminently awaken? Where lies the paradigmatic ground for a truly effective action?"

We have no choice but to fully embrace these urgent questions, knowing that we ourselves are the product of an awe inspiring process of evolution, a vast unfolding which, contrary to the scientistic neoDarwinian cultural hegemony of our age, is hardly a blind and meaningless process. It is therefore imperative to see that the process of further evolution has been entirely put into our hands and that we do indeed possess the implicit resources to take the next step. This is no time to drop the ball. All that is happening right now is precisely that which we, still in our darkness, have called forth, that which we have apparently needed to goad us into awakening—the inevitable radical failure which can lead to the birth of the new. As a species we are yet to be toilet trained—no one is going to do that for us. All we can do now is to actively embrace that new dawn and walk, fly, or grope our way through the darkness toward it. To ‘embrace a new dawn’ means to align with and nurture the new shoots which are already here; not only to believe in, but to participate in the birthing process of a global new consciousness that perhaps most of us will never live to see. In the face of the realization of our global ignorance, this requires an expanding depth and breadth of consciousness—intellectually, imaginatively, heartfully, ethically, meditatively and, of course, humbly. Facing the imminent possibility of human extinction our intensifying conversation must reach beyond the experiential concerns of individuals seeking liberation, to shed light upon the genesis of our current seemingly intractable global condition...