Dirty Little Secrets

After many years of being involved in a variety of communities and organizations I have learned a few things.  First on the list is this. Every organized group of humans has its own dirty little secrets

Sometimes those secrets are relatively minor, other times they are downright abusive. Sometimes the secrets involve financial mismanagement, nepotism, poor treatment of employees, failure to follow safety regulations, falsified documents or cover-ups of abuses against people.

I am sure these sorts of things exist in organizations as small as church social groups and as large as our own federal government.

Is it simply human nature to show the public something shiny and conduct dirty business under the table? Are the public's expectations for integrity impossibly high, causing inevitable dealings to have to be conducted in secret? Do individual people in power always become corrupt regardless of their original mission?

These are questions I am not sure how to answer, and are not really my topic today.  At this point I assume a certain level of corruption and poor ethics are a matter of course - simply what happens when humans gather in a group. I am sure at certain times in my life I have been guilty of small infractions as well. It does not serve us to judge every single human error.

But what happens when those human errors become really harmful? What happens when they involve sexual abuse, or taking financial advantage of the most vulnerable people in our population?

When someone brings these offenses to light, they are called a "whistle-blower."  In general, whistle-blowers are not well-liked by anyone. Whistle-blowers mess us the status quo and should mind their own business, according to many. I tend to admire whistle-blowers. To me they are the child who has the courage and wisdom to proclaim the emperor naked.

It is interesting to watch the reactions when dirty little secrets are brought to light.

One common reaction is refusal to believe the truth. My father was guilty of that one. When the police department in our small town was named the most corrupt PD in the state my father refused to believe that the department head, a member of our church, was involved in drugs and prostitution as the allegations insisted. Of course the allegations were correct and my father was wrong, although nobly loyal.

Another common reaction is to know the truth and discredit the whistle-blower. This happens a lot, and has happened to me. If you plan to be a whistle-blower you better be perfect in every way. No matter what heinous acts you are exposing your own history will come under scrutiny rather than the injustices you are trying to expose. And, if they can't find anything damaging about you they will simply make stuff up. It's all about deflecting attention from the problem and shutting the whistle-blower up. The person who exposed injustice becomes the problem, rather than the people who are committing it.

Often organizations will simply cover-up their wrong-doings and hope no one notices. This can work for a while, and during that time many people will be hurt. In the end, it stops working. At least, that's what happened with the Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.

Personally, I would like to see organizations police themselves. It's always worse when officials have to step in.

But the real question is this. Why are so many people fine with standing by and watching or participating in obvious abuse that clearly hurts people?  Let's ask the cards.

The card I pulled in answer to this question is the Eight of Wands reversed. To me that speaks of stagnancy - inability to move forward. It could simply mean that abusers feel there has always been abuse and there is no way to change it. Onlookers may disapprove, but may feel the same way.

Another interpretation for this may have to do with people feeling that no one will ever discover their wrong-doing. The upright Eight of Wands can be about communication. In its reversal the communication doesn't happen. People actually believe they can control the follow of information in the information age.

Will a new generation stand by with the same "that's the way of the world" attitude? I think perhaps some will not. In the words of Pete Seeger, "Your child may be the one to exclaim  'The emperor is naked today'!"

The Power of Words

This year's elections have been very focused on the words candidates say. Obama's "You didn't build that" became the focus of the GOP convention. Romney's "binders full of women" is only one of many gaffes that make us wonder if politicians are simply misspeaking under pressure as we all do, or if their slips are more, shall we say, Freudian.

More and more the focus of political rhetoric seems to be less about policy and intent, and more about the actual words candidates choose.

I have always been fascinated by words, and the power they hold. In a tarot reading, the proper choice of words is critical. I know what I see, but if I couldn't say what I see in a way that shares my vision with my client the reading would have very little value.

As a child I was told to tell bullies that "Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me." Now, social media gives bullies so much power that it seems the words they choose are contributing to the suicides of their victims.

As a young adult, I worked for a very progressive organization. Long before work-place sensitivity training was mandatory in many companies we would attend a workshop called "Words that Hurt People." Back then, it was suggested that calling grown women "girls" was hurtful. Racial slurs were hurtful. I am sure there would have been a whole section on using the word "illegal" as a noun.

As I began to study energy healing and metaphysics, I learned that words have magickal power. Chants, incantations, prayers, invocations and sacred words all carry power. Speaking sacred words with intention can cause healing and transformation.

Flashing back on the concept of words that hurt people, I begin to wonder if hateful words are more than "politically incorrect." I wonder if hateful words do energetic damage in the same way that sacred words create healing.

Where do words get their power? When musicians use the "n" word in their lyrics, do they disempower that word's ability to cause them harm? Do we ourselves imbue words with positivity or negativity?

The Bible has something to say about the spiritual nature of words. The gospel of John begins with these profound words: "In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God." Nowadays evangelists suggest that the "word" was a reference to the Bible as the literal word of God. To me, this makes no sense because the gospel was written long before what is now known as the Holy Bible was assembled. So then, what is this "word" that is in fact "God"? Could this be simply another reference to the sacred power of words?

Leonard Bernstein wrote a song popularized by Pete Seeger called "Words, Words, Words." The lyrics speak about our power to change the world with words.

"Words, words, words
On cracked old pages
How much of truth remains?
If my mind could understand them,
And if my life pronounced them,
Would not this world be changed?"

Some people will say that discussing the power of words is silly. To them, it is all about semantics. Whether you refer to someone as an "Illegal" or an "undocumented worker," or a "woman" or a "girl" doesn't really matter, they say. It all means the same thing.

I disagree. Each word has its own energy. The energy between "girl" and "woman" differs greatly.

So many spiritual cultures across the planet use words, tones and utterances in a holy way. If those utterances matter, perhaps every utterance matters.

So what happens when we speak a word in anger? What happens when we simply misspeak? We are all human. Part of being human is saying things we don't mean, and saying things we regret. But if we strive to be aware of the energy we send into the world, and strive to be responsible for the words we say, we will spread more healing than hurt.

On both a political level and a spiritual level words do have power. What a wonderful gift we all have; the ability to use our words to create our world.