This is the time of the year that the starlings speak to us.
Many have experienced its’ exciting spectacle; few have summoned the words close to describing it. The seemingly choreographed movement of hundreds, sometimes thousands of little black birds, in the tightest possible formation, moving-as one. An intricate, shifting, turning, twisting arial dance whose purpose is twofold (my speculation). One is a protection to deter efforts of large predatory birds, another is to provide the Creator a window to experience its creation. The window is you and I who are yanked out of our self enslaved cave of delusion, if only for the short time that it takes to marvel at the spectacle, and to allow the spirit within us to serve as a conduit between the Creator and created. We didn’t have to do anything: we just had to not get in the way.
The starling has no problem with self delusion or collective unconsciousness and, in the movement as one entity comprised of many individual birds, fully demonstrates its embrace of a controlling energy.What is that energy, if not the spirit within each bird.That energy shared by every bird is the same energy that is in all life forms, is-in fact- life itself.
The human being is a whole other issue. On the one hand, like the bird, we are living creations, sharing a time on Earth for a while, then gone. Also, as the starling exemplifies a collective oneness, we also share a collective oneness. The difference is the oneness of the starling is spiritual, the oneness of humanity is a collective unconsciousness. (They do not share our space in the cave of delusion.)
The free form murmuration of starlings that awakens us, if only for a short time, is one of many examples of who we really are, although we have yet to recognize it. That is simply to say, in my view, we share that same spirit.
We don’t recognize it because we are a species with a highly developed brain. Collectively, we devote most of our brain power contending with a overly propagandized society that defines one in terms of consumerism and body identification. In other words we are told that we are bodies, what body types we should aspire to, and what we should consume in order to be better. A much smaller amount of our collective brain power is applied in areas of discovery, providing us with many achievements that we can identify with, in anthropology, social sciences, and a rapidly exploding era of technology. All of these endeavors, although often exciting and mind captivating, are not who we are, but what we do. They tell our story.
We chose to live in our cave; most of us content to take on the challenge of surviving the next day, week, or year in our highly controlled society; for far fewer, the next challenge our ingenuity contrives. All reasons, mundane or exciting, are diversions from who we really are.- the same spirit that inspires us in the murmuration of the starlings.
Maybe it’s my age, perhaps tempered by the freedom I feel, with my ever increasing life- moments living in the present, free of ego, past events, and future expectations- whatever it is, I feel optimistic. I see signs (of course I am always looking for them) that a growing awareness of who we really are is on the upswing. Although we are far from the paradigm change that-at some point in our evolution- will transform the basis of our life stories from ego ( living in the cave) to spiritual oneness with the universe.
I wish you happy holidays.
John 