Part of the Druidic journey, whilst a magical one, seems to be about looking behind the illusory curtain of our society, understanding the glamour of our society. The media bombards us daily with tales of woe, the inhumanity of humanity to the world in addition to the chaff of mindless celebrity fluff. First, Second and Third world problems never seem to get better whilst all the time those at the top of society engage in frivolous lives of waste. Nature programmes seem to be either a snuff-fest of predators killing their prey or a lamentation of how the human super predator is destroying each and every ecosystem.
For a person following an earth based spirituality and attempting to live an ecosophical life it can lead to a complete disillusionment with all people and all societies. A depressive view of a futile future where it seems the planet is pre-destined for a man made extinction event.
It's interesting that most of the dictionary references are positive around being freed from illusion, abuse or slavery (as in enthrall) or deception. Becoming disillusioned with the glamour of a marketing and media driven society is almost a necessary step in spiritual evolution. My own process of disillusionment led to further illusions of despair for humanity and fears for the planet. It fuelled a crisis where all I wanted to do was walk away from modern life and live in a self sufficient hermit state.
The wiser influences in my life, i.e. my wife and the high mountains, brought a sense of perspective to the whole process...Mother Erde / Earth / Natura / Gaia / Ardvi Sura I suspect is more than capable of looking after herself and will survive, whether humans will survive or not is part of her grand experiment. In many ways people are just following natural instincts to better their lives and breed the next generation in much the way that other animals have cycles of overpopulation. If we fail, and geologically humanity is still a mere ripple in evolutionary time, then she, Mother Earth, will just go back to the drawing board to evolve another sentient species. On the other hand we may overcome our dystopian pettiness, selfishness and all the other destructive behaviours to build some sort of environmentally friendly utopia in which humanity flourishes in harmony with nature. All of this is some unknown future.
Meanwhile, in the here and now, we need to maintain our positivity and avoid despair. We can be individuals who try to live ecosophically whilst still being part of mainstream society. Leading by example in a creative way to keep the best of this modern world whilst minimising our impact on our environment. If we show the way and influence just a few people to live in greater harmony with the land then a positive impact has been made. We become the stones in the pond whose spiritual ripples can help light the way towards a brighter future.
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