Spirituality in Politics — a Revolution in the Education System
I was recently invited to give a talk on the theme of spirituality in politics. This was in the form of a conversation with Tim Wyatt of the Leeds branch (in England) of the Theosophical Society. It has now been uploaded to youtube (click here).
What I am doing in this series is to provide a transcript of my parts of the conversation for those who prefer to read rather than watch, or if anyone would like to have a copy of the content. I previously published the introduction. It would be helpful, but not necessary, to have read that before reading this. For those who are unfamiliar with it, let me just summarise and say that I am trying to create a political system based on the spirituality of Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell, rather than follow eastern traditions, for example Buddhism. This is what I believe to be most appropriate for the West at this stage of the evolution of planetary consciousness.
In the following sections, I move onto a manifesto for a spiritual society, beginning here in part 2 with a revolution in the education system.
=============================================================
MANIFESTO, Specific Policies
Tony Blair said that his top priority was “education, education, education”. The slogan had a good ring to it. While not disagreeing with the sentiment, my own choice would be “the psychological health of the nation”, which is a bit too long to say three times.
Amongst teenagers, we have problems of self-harm, suicide, anorexia, poor self-image, and amongst the population in general we have many cases of depression, and claims to be unable to work because of sickness which is most commonly claimed to be a mental rather than a physical problem.
Teenage angst, alienation, and insecurity are probably nothing new, but things do seem to be getting worse. It is reported that there has been an increase in mental health issues over the past decade, and we are experiencing an increase in hospitalisations over mental health issues. According to current figures in Britain, there are 35,000 children complaining about mental health, who have been on the NHS waiting list for more than two years.
We would therefore need to put psychology and psychotherapy at the heart of society, since we need healthy, fully functioning individuals in order to achieve our spiritual goals. But this would be from a perspective of troubled souls. We would see at least some cases of depression as existential issues, an identity crisis, a lack of meaning and purpose, disconnection from the soul, rather than a chemical imbalance in the brain, as some physicalist-minded psychiatrists claim.
I would like to think that a properly developed spiritual education system would have as its primary goal the psychological health of the nation, so Tony Blair’s and my own slogan are interconnected. The major policy in a spiritual society would therefore be a revolution in the education system.
As a general trend, there would be a promotion of psychological understanding, a deep understanding of what it means to be human. We need to recognise that, in order to understand the universe, the best way is through an exploration of the psyche, an inner journey.
We therefore need an education system that addresses the realities of the psyche. The goal is that all people should know themselves deeply, as instructed by the oracle at Delphi. Here are some possible headlines:
We would develop an education system based on spiritual teachings and Jungian psychology. The overall focus would be on the journey of the soul, a connection to the Higher Self. It is a question of awakening to our forgotten purpose for this incarnation, reconnecting to a higher source, the work in the world for which one was sent. Words like fate, destiny, vocation — which means a calling — are meaningful in this context.
Just to show that this is not a new idea, along these lines the 13th century Sufi poet Rumi said: “Human beings come to this world to do particular work. That work is the purpose, and each is specific to the person”.
Also Tim, in an article entitled ‘Connecting With Soul Consciousness’, wrote: “We’re continually reborn with… an agreed soul purpose for a particular life along with the circumstances and personality created for that specific mission. Many people go through life unaware of what their mission is — or even that there’s a mission at all. This life purpose is not dictated by the usually self-centred aspirations and ambitions of the lower personality we adopt for one life but the higher evolutionary aims of the soul. With relatively few people connected to their souls, forging that link — and understanding our true identity — is humanity’s key priority”.
What we have at the moment is a situation where everyone is born unique but on the whole is trained not to be. Instead of that we should be trying to create unique individuals, creative high-level thinkers and artists.
In practice this would mean a focus on psychology and personality development, which are the embryos for later spiritual development, rather than absorbing knowledge, although this would obviously play a part. Students would be encouraged to develop an interest in their inner life. As the astrologer Stephen Arroyo wrote: “No amount of technical knowledge can outweigh the need for individual psychological and emotional growth”. “This very distinctness of individual persons is a factor relevant to education that is almost entirely neglected in teacher-training programs” (in Astrology, Psychology, and the Four Elements, CRCS, 1975, p58, p61).
===========================================================
How do we discover or re-discover this connection to our soul purpose? The general term I use is The Spirit of Guidance, which I think is a term used in Sufism. In my own experience this can be dreams, divinatory practices like Tarot and the I Ching, synchronistic events and strong intuitions. I also assume that astrology can have a role to play, although I’m not a practitioner. I have, however, written at some length about the possible connection between astrology and politics.
Rather than be taught material, students would be exposed to various ideas, and invited to think independently in assessing them, thus developing the ability to think critically, to be able to challenge.
A further important goal would be to retain a connection to the magical, the mysterious, and the world of the imagination. Dreams, fairy-tales, mythology, ESP experiments and knowledge would be important ingredients of the education process.
The new system could therefore be partly an experiment to see whether it is possible to avoid what Wordsworth called the shades of the prison-house that close in upon the growing boy (in his poem Ode: Intimations of Immortality from Recollections of Early Childhood). He was perhaps referring to the loss of connection with the soul, or the growth of the rational, critical mind, which Madame Blavatsky, as you know, called the slayer of the real.
Another headline is that there would be a greater emphasis on music, art, creative writing and physical activity; these would become a priority, rather than a luxury which can be dispensed with when funds become limited, which seems to be the case currently.
============================================================
PRIMARY SCHOOL
At primary school it would be assumed that the child is too young to be told that he or she is an incarnating soul with a particular purpose. At this stage we are trying to get the child to feel safe and secure in the material world, developing his or her personal identity. However, while accepting that the soul forgets its origin, the younger a child is, the more likely he or she will retain a sense of identity with the Self, the soul. Steps can be taken to try to retain any sense of connection.
The most obvious path to achieving this is through parapsychological ability. There can be experiments in ESP, and metal bending etc., something which children find exciting.
We should identify those with psychic talents. Also encourage children to tell any weird paranormal stories from their lives, and not dismiss them, encourage a belief in the supernatural.
There would obviously be some overlap with the traditional system, learning to read, write and do basic arithmetic. As well as parapsychology, another area which would be significantly different from traditional education would be a focus on dreams and their interpretation. At this age children would not be expected to understand their dreams, but they should be encouraged to tell them, and believe that they are important. They, or their teachers and parents, can write them down, so that there is a record for later reference. Also they could perhaps be recreated and acted out by the children.
We would also want to establish a connection with the world of the imagination. For example, encourage experiences like the imaginary friend which some children report. This might well be an evocation of the what the ancient Greeks called the daemon, or the Higher Self, or spirit guide.
Along similar lines, we would want to encourage a sense of magic and mystery. Down the years this function has been served by fairy-tales, the stories from ancient mythology, and in modern times by the Harry Potter series and comic heroes. With regard to mythology and fairy-tales, at this stage the children could just read the stories. There would be no need to understand the deeper meanings, but the children would probably be fascinated by the archetypal contents, and could act out the stories in dramatic form.
At primary school, the greater focus on creativity can be started — writing, art, music, singing in choirs.
Also physical activity, sports. This is character building, requires constant effort and concentration, and encourages teamwork and cooperation, and of course keeps the children fit and healthy.
Contact with nature. Each school should have a garden, where possible, where the children can work. Visits to National Trust sites, and to farms where they can do simple work or merely observe.
=============================================================
Moving on to Secondary school, adolescence:
At this stage the educational process would focus more intensively on a connection with the spiritual, discovering the purpose of one’s life, one’s vocation in the deepest sense of the word.
Currently the best one can hope for is a hit and miss procedure. Children are exposed to various possibilities, and then we have to wait and see what happens. Politicians are very keen on saying that they want the education system to provide children with opportunities to ‘fulfil their full potential’. Without a spiritual perspective, however, it’s unlikely that they understand the full implications of what they are saying.
Therefore the most important concepts in a spiritual education system would be initiation — thus rites of passage — and the Vision Quest, as understood in Native American traditions.
With regard to initiation, there has been much focus recently on problems with boys. Gareth Southgate, (for those who don’t know a former England football manager), in his Richard Dimbleby lecture in March, noted that they spend much time gaming, gambling and watching pornography. They tend to live in isolation, and turn to unsuitable role models.
Proper initiation, as practised by traditional cultures, might be a solution to such problems. As Thomas Moore wrote (in The Planets Within): “In this area (of caring for the psychological needs of children) people we call primitive are far advanced, providing their children with important and efficacious rites of passage”.
Initiation in the true and traditional sense serves the purpose of inducting the person into a new order, a new way of life, thereby providing continuity in a society.
Such initiation provides a connection with the ancestors, the individual becoming a proper member of a tradition, experiencing a sense of belonging and meaning. As the astrologer A. T. Mann wrote: “One object of initiation was to force the initiate to realize that it is essential to accept a higher purpose (i.e., the survival of the whole tribe) which transcends personal value in life. Strength lies in the whole life or whole tribe or whole culture, and not just in one part, an idea which would be helpful today… Initiation provided a direction and purpose to life which was lacking in the unconsciousness of childhood” (in Arroyo’s book mentioned above).
Such an approach would meaningfully address the problems associated with identity crisis in adolescence. As astrologer Dennis Elwell wrote (in The Cosmic Loom): “The (cosmic viewpoint) gives us a backdrop against which everything assumes a new and far more momentous significance. It places our individual development as human beings into the context of the evolution of the race as a whole, which in turn may belong to the evolution of the universe itself, or at any rate our corner of it”.
If society has no proper initiations, then bastardised forms of them emerge. For example, in criminal gangs the initiatory test may be to stab someone, or rape a woman. In other contexts humiliating sexual experiences may be the condition of entry to a group or society.
We need adults who have truly separated from their parents in a psychological, not just a physical sense. This is one of the major purposes of initiation. As Joseph Campbell said: “In these rites the whole psychology of the youth is transformed. He is himself brought into the position of the father, by a ritual death of the infantile personality, and resurrection then of the adult”.
When such rites are not a regular procedure in society, psychoanalysts and Jungian analysts have to spend much time in therapy sessions with the various forms of what are called the mother and father complexes. There is the need to overcome this, avoiding what in its most extreme form is known as the Puer or Puella Aeternus syndrome, the eternal child. Currently, however, the education system seems to have no understanding of such issues.
An underlying inspiration and model for human development would be Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey. At secondary schools we are trying to develop people who will go on to become heroes, and heroines of course, in Campbell’s sense.
Even if we successfully discover the person’s life purpose, the ego may be afraid of the challenge. The most famous example of this in mythology is the story of Jonah, who ran away from what he was called to do. The end consequence of this was that he was swallowed by a ‘large fish’, often interpreted as a whale, which I interpret as a symbol of the devouring and overprotective mother. That is why we need to develop heroes with a warrior mentality. Courage may be the most important quality as we seek a spiritual society.
We would therefore need less preoccupation with Health and Safety. While taking all reasonable precautions, we should be encouraging dangerous activities, trials of strength and courage. Examples might be endurance sports, rock climbing and so on. Something along these lines was suggested by various figures in local communities in response to Gareth Southgate’s comments I mentioned above. They were keen to promote sport and adventure activities as more suitable activities.
Especially important might be martial arts. These can be character building as well as initiatory. The underlying inspiration for this would be what might be called the archetype of the warrior.
At a simple level, this can help to control and sublimate tendencies to violence. There are various stories from clubs about how amateur boxing gets many trouble-makers off the streets, and gives the individuals a challenge and sense of purpose. Some of these former trouble-makers have even gone on to compete in the Olympics.
At a deeper level, the purpose of true martial arts, not the stuff you see on TV, is to develop socially mature individuals who have the possibility of preventing violence. It’s about personal development, a warrior spirit, and about serving humanity.
Traditionally military service may have gone some way to achieving these goals. The training involves gruelling mental and physical challenges, and attempts to create heroes. Of course, this is all intended to be in the service of the state, not primarily for the benefit of the individual.
In relation to mythology and fairy-tales, at this stage teenagers can try to understand the symbolism better, the meaning of the stories, how they might be relevant to their lives. The same would apply to dreams, trying harder to understand their meaning. There could therefore be lessons in the understanding of symbolism.
There could also be an introduction to divinatory practices, e.g. Tarot, astrology, the I Ching.
==
As far as adults are concerned, the basic idea should be that education never stops. Facilities should be put in place to make sure that the spiritual education process can continue into adulthood.
==============================================================
I hope you have enjoyed this article. I have written in the past about other topics, including spirituality, metaphysics, psychology, science, Christianity, and politics. All of those articles are on Medium, but the simplest way to see a guide to them is to visit my website (click here and here). My most recent articles, however, are only on Medium; for those please check out my lists.
===============================================================
