Awakening the Soul: A Path Through Troubled Times

It is the time of a struggle for the presence of the human soul and a battle for the soul of the world. ~Michael Meade

We are living during unsettling times, aren’t we? We can choose to close our eyes and ears, doing our best to block out what’s happening in the world—but current events have a funny way of sneaking into our consciousness. An overheard conversation at the grocery store. A breaking news alert while channel surfing. A disturbing story on our Facebook feed. There’s no escaping the fact that the world, our world, seems to be in big trouble.

In 2018, the late philosopher and author Michael Meade seemed to sense the coming storm and wrote a book to help guide us through challenging times. It’s titled Awakening the Soul: A Deep Response to a Troubled World and it talks to our societal move away from love and compassion, toward something less hospitable, even ugly. In his words, “We live in a time between times, amidst a past fast disappearing and a future that often appears darker than anything we have known before.”

But rather than just complain about our chaotic situation, or point fingers at the culprits, Meade offer us a solution: The cure to what ails us is found within each of us. To quote Meade, “the true path for changing and healing the world lies in the awakening of the individual soul.” The awakening of my soul and your soul.

What follows is Meade’s thinking which I have spun out into five key themes. I’ve used much of Meade’s exact language, though I have done some light editing and reordered his ideas.

Theme 1: The world is at a crossroads.

• The greatest moments in life, whether in the life of an individual or an entire culture, are existential crises—moments that challenge all aspects of society and all levels of human awareness.

• We have entered such an extended moment of radical change and alteration, one that is life-defining as well as life-changing.

• There is a “collective trauma” as the hollowing of institutions and flood of rapid changes causes everyone to become more disoriented by the disruptive conditions of daily life.

• Traumatizing agents include the rise of mass culture and the subsequent diminishing of the individual soul, plus:

  • The spread of rampant materialism
  • The abandonment of core human values
  • The rise of “connective” technologies that contribute to deep disconnections as people retreat into their own worlds

• The world finds itself at a crossroads that many cultures have entered before. It is time to face up to what has been building a long time. Because all things are ultimately interconnected, the challenges we face and the changes underway signal a genuine transformation of the world.

Theme 2. We are left fearful and feeling overwhelmed.

• When violence, misogyny, and hatred are allowed to fester, there is an increase of fear and misery in everyone. The individual heart cannot help but feel heavy and increasingly burdened with the collective weight of suffering and the turbulence of cultural upheaval.

• As fear spreads most try to cling to something familiar and try to control things to reduce the terror of being overwhelmed. Yet, the overwhelming lesson of history is that closing down and holding tight to familiar things does not work.

• The return of cosmic order and cosmic sense always happens at the edge of the abyss, on the brink of disaster where life and beauty and meaning are snatched once again from the teeth of chaos.

• There can be no “work-around” when the issues are too big and too complex to ignore or slip past. When the trouble becomes widespread, in both nature and culture, it is time to face up to what has been building up for a long time.

• When the world goes upside down, when essential things become lost, we must look for them in the depths of the soul.

Theme 3. Inner change must precede outer change.

• We are most lost and feel most abandoned when we have lost touch with soul. It is the connecting force of life. Since the soul serves as the underlying connection of all things, it has the power to move all things.

• With the loss of soul, we lose the understanding that we are all in this together. We lose the sense that each person is wounded by life and therefore naturally deserving of sympathy and respect.

• Each soul is naturally gifted, but most aspects of modern culture serve to take us away from ourselves and help us avoid the very paths our souls would have us take.

• Something meaningful and enduring about the world is trying to be remembered and be rediscovered, and it seems to take big trouble to awaken to it. In hard times, inner changes must precede changes to outer circumstances.

Theme 4: To find order, we need to awaken our souls.

• One of the few ways to find sense and meaning is to find the inner order, the shape and style of your own soul.

• The soul has been called “the light hidden in darkness.” The light that burns within us is also the light that dwells within everything. It is the hidden light at the center of all things.

• The counterbalance to the chaos in daily life must be found in the depths of individual souls awakening to the inborn sense of meaning and purpose in life. This change of awareness can only happen within.

• When enough people awake to the inherent purpose and meaning in their own lives, a collective initiation can also occur and shift the level of meaning and the course of history.

Theme 5: Our souls are calling on us to respond.

• You, by nature, are a unique being. You are capable of awakening to a sense of meaning and purpose in your life.

• You are not only able to survive the troubles of the world, but you can also contribute to its healing and renewal.

• Each person comes to life at a time when they have something to give to the world. When you awaken your soul, you liberate the divine spark that was there at the beginning of your life.

• A greater sense of awakening is not only possible but is calling to you. You must be both open-minded and open-hearted…and throw yourself wholeheartedly into the things that truly call you.

• The wake-up call is for everyone. What awakens and answers the call is the inner spirit and unique presence of the individual soul. What changes the soul can change the world.

 Ask yourself: What does my soul want from me?

Meade offers minimal guidance on how to access the soul, but it’s safe to say you won’t uncover your soul’s yearnings while binge-watching shows on Netflix. Or doom-scrolling your social media feed. Or by letting your monkey-mind run wild with hopelessness and despair.

But you might get in touch with your soul through centering prayer. Or meditation. Or by walking in the woods or strolling through a museum. Or by staring at a roaring fireplace or the flickering of a candle in a dark room. Those are just a few of the ways to spiritually center yourself and connect with the person you are at your core.

You may find your soul is calling you to social activism. Or to help those in your community who need it most. Or to soothe the frayed nerves of family and friends. At minimum, we all should heed the advice of columnist David French and do our part to “lessen the darkness.” It’s the least we can do during these troubled and troubling times.