We live in extraordinary times. In just a few thousand Earth years, humanity has manipulated natural resources to fashion an unnatural world that simultaneously carries the capacity to nurture and destroy. As a species, in an even shorter period, we have learned how to prevent fatal diseases while developing weapons of mass destruction. We have come to understand the fundamentals of the delicate ecological biosphere that birthed us and upon which we depend, yet continue to disregard its well-being as our behavior plunges the planet headfirst into its sixth mass extinction, currently on course to include us.

To coin an overused analogy, humanity has reached a crossroads at which the signposted directions of travel couldn’t be more polarized. Do we take stock collectively and devise a plan for the benefit of all or divide into factional warring tribes, competitively vying for ideological and material supremacy in a suicidal reading of reality as survival of the fittest?

It is not the most intellectual of the species that survives; it is not the strongest that survives; but the species that survives is the one that is able best to adapt and adjust to the changing environment in which it finds itself.

(Charles Darwin)

The current chaotic circus of transatlantic political maneuvering reflects the diverging evolutionary pathways ahead of us and shows no sign of slowing in momentum. The dramatic scenes and inflammatory language emanating from the White House (amongst other geopolitical hotspots) have taken centre stage while, almost in the wings, the people of Ukraine continue to endure the daily tragedy of death and destruction courtesy of Putin’s war. Three years and counting since the invasion, the war could stop tomorrow if he saw fit to withdraw Russian troops and return occupied territory but, rather predictably, has no intention of doing so.

Unfortunately, the headline-grabbing desperate plight of Ukraine is not in isolation. The less regularly publicised horror of war and its associated blights of disease, famine, ethnic cleansing and sexual violence are also a tragic daily reality in Somalia, Mali, Haiti, Democratic Republic of Congo, Burkina Faso, Sudan and South Sudan, Syria, Myanmar and Gaza. Sadly this list is by no means exhaustive.

Last week, in the midst of the media-borne, man-made misery, I took my accumulating state of denial to the cinema, hoping for a distraction. The movie Conclave proved a stunning visual feast, a very complete film in many ways, justifying its recent successes on this year’s awards circuit.

Early in the piece, the central protagonist, Cardinal Lawrence, makes a controversial statement before fellow senior representatives in the Catholic hierarchy by way of initiating the selection process of a new pope:

...let me tell you that the one sin I have come to fear more than any other is certainty. Certainty is the great enemy of unity. Certainty is the deadly enemy of tolerance. Even Christ was not certain at the end........Our faith is a living thing precisely because it walks hand in hand with doubt. If there was only certainty, and if there was no doubt, there would be no mystery, and therefore no need for faith.

(Cardinal Lawrence from Conclave by Robert Harris)

Even in my cinema seat, engrossed in a land of pure make-believe, I couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to gain respite from the human madness outside the theater. The passage spoke instantly to my outlook as well as the collective patriarchal systems in which the majority of us operate, beautifully illustrated by the film’s rendition of a Catholic Church conclave. In addition to Lawrence’s statement, delivered to what we are led to believe is an entirely male audience, the film portrays certainty as the great enemy of democracy, as the vernacular of would-be dictators. World events in recent days have emphatically shown certainty to be the deadly enemy of respect.

Political leaders are now deemed weak or hypocritical without a line in unassailable soundbites marinated in rectitude and conviction, served with a side of uncontested social media rants. Our post-truth era cares nothing for considered content, only for those who shout the quickest and loudest. Transatlantic politics has become a spaghetti western, the final gunfight at the not O.K. Corral, starring maverick gunslingers shooting indiscriminately from the hip with little concern for their sweeping aim or whether their targets have means of self-defense. Outside the saloon in this insular, one-street town is a self-perpetuating tumbleweed desert of fear and loathing that serves only those who create and enforce its existence. When all that can be plundered has been taken, those with controlling interests move on dispassionately to new territories, extracting what they can for personal gain, leaving a monoculture of ghosted wastelands in their wake.

We, the people, have bought into the sorrier dictates of Hollywood, a cloud cuckoo land of screen fables, a misrepresentative world of chiseled jaws and ‘perfect’ bodies, where monochrome moral narratives of good versus evil and happy ever afters unfavorably undermine the infinitesimally multicolored nature of our own daily lives. The indoctrinating yardsticks with which we have come to gauge happiness and success are woefully inaccurate and need radical recalibration. The last thing we need to add to our distorted planetary narrative are legions of bombastic binary ‘heroes’ dictating over-simplified, often violent solutions to issues that cause more problems than they solve… and I’m fairly certain of that.

Meaningful conversation, on an individual and collective level, would be far more helpful to our predicament, but we have long since ditched convo for tweets and texts, preferring the controlling mechanisms that digitally distanced responses provide. When we lose interest in digital dialogue because we’ve found something of more immediate interest in our ongoing life scroll, no one bats an eyelid. At any other time in history, it might have been considered rude. No longer. The rules of human engagement have changed.

Nonetheless, in the skies above our fractious state of human affairs, this week’s rising full moon might help lift us from the worst of our foreboding. In Native American tradition, it’s dubbed the Worm Moon in direct observation of wormy activity in the warming topsoil of northern climes during early spring.

Astrologically speaking, this Virgo Moon (usually the last full moon before the Spring Equinox) is traditionally cast as a harbinger of fertility and well-being. The time-honored suggestion is that it provides opportunities to follow nature's lead: to cleanse and regenerate in preparation for the glorious season of growth just around the corner. Both Islamic and Christian traditions weave this wisdom into their own religious observance, this week’s full moon reaching its peak during Ramadan and Lent, both ritual festivals of self-reflection, fasting, and prayer.

This might therefore be a lunar month in which to bring extra awareness to everything our minds and bodies are ingesting. From food and drink to thoughts, emotions, words, and behavior. In alignment with its DNA, the body designs and constructs a vehicle based on the quality of the ingredients it absorbs. The more conscious we can be about the input, the more intentional the outcome.

If you want a body coursing with fear, read and watch the current news bulletins on the hour, every hour. If you want to lower your body's natural resistance to disease and infection, start smoking and eat loads of sugary shit. If you want your body to operate in a physically aggressive manner, take up boxing (or watch it on telly), play violent video games, swear like a trooper in traffic jams, and listen to the latest pronouncements of J.D. Vance.

However, if you want your body to feel calm and peaceful, make time to sit around doing very little other than mindfully observing your breath until any unsettling thoughts slow down and eventually dissolve. If you want your body to reflect health and vitality, eat and drink clean, fresh produce, then go for a walk and tune into what's actually happening around you in the natural world. It sounds simple in principle, but turning a nice idea into a practical reality often presents a major challenge. Perhaps the focused, willful energy available to the lunar sensitive under this Virgo Full Moon might provide a little assistance.

With repetition, the influences to which we expose ourselves become the filters through which we experience our lives. Unless consciously challenged, those filters become our habitualized, intransigent 'realities' with no apparent alternative. Under this Virgo Full Moon, we should perhaps encourage ourselves to exercise choice in our daily decision-making as never before. Whether at the supermarket, in conversation, surfing online, reading a book, watching a film, or going for a run, we can aspire to an awareness of the thoughts in our minds and the sensations in our bodies. In bringing informed decision-making based on these observations to bear on our experience, we intentionally create circumstances in which both mind and body can prosper. As we prosper, so do others around us—even if it's only because they don't hear us moaning so often.

It takes patience and determined concentration to become consciously responsive rather than compulsively reactive to life circumstances. It takes courage to embrace life without certainty, to find compassionate understanding for differing perspectives before electing to live, undeterred, with faith in the mysterious healing qualities of peace.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

(Philippians 4:7 (ESV))

And where better to explore that mysterious world of peace than in our own mindful introspection? I’ve been commending the value of meditation/mindfulness for over thirty years, most recently sharing mindfulness techniques alongside my art teaching in UK schools and colleges. This year, in support of the international initiative Mindful March, Cranleigh School has dedicated a Spotify page to hosting a series of my mindfulness podcasts. Simply search Spotify for Cranleigh Mindfulness, and you’ll find a growing list of simple guided meditations that can be listened to whenever you like. The first episode, Mindful Breathing, is a great place to start, introducing basic mindfulness techniques while stressing how easy it is to practice. I hope those that listen find the sessions informative and helpful.

Mindfulness empowers practitioners to focus their awareness wherever and whenever they want. It can allow us to explore the great mystery of consciousness without the burden of expectation, to embrace doubt as a prerequisite of learning and growth. Importantly, it counters the dictator’s certainty that life’s circumstances can and should be controlled, instead providing evidence that our best bet for happiness comes through an alignment with natural occurrence rather than waging a war against it.

One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.

(Shakespeare Troilus and Cressida)