Although there have been a number of recent destructive environmental events, the duration and devastation of the fires in Australia have made a powerful impact on the collective psyche. Volcanic eruptions and earthquakes, although disastrous to humans, seem acausal aspects of Nature. Other environmental damage, such as Amazon fires, is caused by human behavior. Australia’s plight, however, calls into blazing question mankind’s relationship with the Great Mother herself. Like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah or The Flood, we may wonder about archetypal retribution for man’s environmental sins. Just as ego may be called through crisis into right relationship with soul, perhaps the heartbreak of this current psychic scorching will open new consciousness and caring.

Dream

"It's a sunny afternoon and I'm walking, in a loose crowd, with my entire extended family up a hill on a large field of green grass. Forest surrounds us at the far edges. We are on our way to a funeral, the atmosphere is serene. Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, I notice a lumberjack-like man walking past everyone through the crowd carrying a huge leather/mesh bag on his back. I can see the bag consists of three grown grizzly bears. Once the man arrives on top of the hill (quite far ahead of me and my nuclear family) he sets down the massive bag and zips it open. I'm thinking, "STOP"! The three bears scramble out the bag and wreak havoc on the crowd. It quickly goes dark and the dream turns into a hide-and-seek sort of horror show. I'm hiding with my father in a small, half built old wooden cottage by which a river flows and I see one of the bears swimming, searching."