Coyote Trickster Redeemer Caroline Casey Provides A Fresh Language for the Spiritual Politics of the Current Era

"Visionary political astrologer" Caroline Casey has been finding new ways to talk about old things for a long time--people have called her a stand-up philosopher.  She gives us tidbits like, the etymology of "protest" means to grab your balls in affirmation.  "So," she asks whimsically, "can we start protecting and stop protesting?" She tells us about wonderful things her friends observe like "if you watch a horror movie backwards, everyone gets healed by chainsaws and then goes camping."  She suggests that we, like some native American tribes did, make friends with our prey instead of fighting and coax them into what we want, like nuzzling cute little big oil under the chin and saying "whose a polluting industry that's too expensive to succeed?  oh yes you are, yes you are"  And when encountering police at a seemingly conflict-laden moment, chant "give the cops a raise, give the cops a raise."

If you, like me, are thirsty for someone who can awaken in you a hopeful, energizing, fun approach to social change while being grounded in history, reality, and the very real consequences of the time we live in, Casey's radio hour, "The Visionary Activist Show"should be at the top of your podcast list (attention luddites: there is a built-in app for podcasts on your smart phone, type in the name of this show and push a button and you are subscribed automatically and for free and will get every episode and back ones).

I particularly urge you to listen to her Post Cataclysmic Election Town Hall Talk which she played the first (and best) half of on her November 24th show -- Click here and scroll down to access the November 24th show -- this is juicy wonderful stuff, people.

I first encountered Casey when we both inhabited Washington, DC in the 90's--a daughter of a congressman and Brown University graduate might seem an unlikely candidate for a career in astrology--back then Casey would say she was doing "astrology for cynics."  Today we both live in northern California, Caroline in Marin county, I'd guess and me for sure in Sacramento.

She urges us to toss old, violence-laden or tired metaphors into the bubbling cauldron and stir up something new.  So, as Caroline Casey might say, desperate times, call for delightful measures.

What Else Is Possible?

I think this clip represents the best approach that I have for moving forward right now.

Katie Rubin reminds us here that judgment is what blocks us from receiving, growing and creating the planet we want. Judgments are hard and stuck. Questions create. Some great questions that she suggests we all ask, like aloud, like frequently, is "How can this turn out better than we ever imagine?" "What else is possible?" "What can I be and do today to create a sustainable, loving planet and an energy that I’d like to live in?"

I will add that a great spiritual law that relates to what she is saying is "what you resist, persists." In that respect (my husband's predictions not withstanding), I am not at all surprised at the result. Every single time that every single one of us said "Trump" in this campaign, we were in a sense voting for Trump. And we all, myself included, cast billions, not millions, of votes for Trump with our focus and attention on him. We Trumped ourselves into this reality. And this is the result. It is not different from focussing, complaining, etc. on any other condition. 

I am sad today. I am sad that we chose to create this situation in this country. But I am not scared. The reason I am not scared is that I prayed for the candidate to win who would create the most peace and love and joy and lightness in the world. And I let go, and I declined to question the results. Evidently this is that way. I was not in a position to know this. I still don't feel in a position to know this. But I trust and I pay attention and I ask these questions: "How can this turn out better than we ever imagine?" "What else is possible?" "What can I be and do today to create a sustainable, loving planet and an energy that I’d like to live in?"

Trump & Clinton "Live" on Sunday Mornings with me through Nov. 8

So guess who dropped by Sunday service recently, wanting some major love?  That's how it is.  We come into a church broken down by the troubles of the world, wondering if there is anyway to find peace and love in spite of what is happening?

But seriously, we have been having a beautiful time loving up our next President.  Hillary and Donald are appearing "live"* at the Center for Spiritual Living, Davis every Sunday morning through election day.

We kicked this off on Sunday, September 11th because we wanted our next president to be loved and not hated.  We conducted a special ritual where we wrote down everything we hate about Clinton and Trump and then saw where that applied to ourselves.  It was very powerful to see that I am just as human as they and that most things I hate about them, I also hate about myself.

This is how they get you--Dems Rub Aloe Hillary on my Bern

After 4 days of watching some or all of the Democrat's highly choreographed infomercial for Hillary Clinton, I admit my Bern is fading.  And if my Bern is fading, I know yours is.

Like many older Americans, my distrust and dislike of Hillary Clinton goes back to the 90s.  Unlike many, my like and trust of Bernie Sanders also goes back to the 90s.  You see, at the height of Clinton Health Care Reform in the early 90s--I was a staff attorney for (Ralph Nader's) Public Citizen's Congress Watch in Washington, DC working for single payer health care reform (better understood as Medicare for All).  Hillary Clinton was the head the of the Clinton Health Care Task Force in the White House and Bernie Sanders was one of our go to Congress members on the Hill.

I watched the Clinton White House cynically manipulate single payer supporters into campaigning for their plan, which would funnel billions into the hands of private health insurers.   I debated her surrogates, such as Rahm Emanuel in congressional district "town hall meetings" around the country. She and her team were the enemy.  Bernie and his staff were the allies.  It was that simple.

During that era, I also watched as the Clinton White House accomplished right wing goals that no Republican President could ever get past the (then Democratically controlled for decades) Congress, rolling back rights for poor single mothers under the guise of "welfare reform," bailing out corrupt savings and loans, tearing down protections for consumers from the excesses of the financial industry, weakening food safety and of course pushing through the first of the modern "Free Trade" deals, NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) over the objections of labor, the environmental community and consumers. 

To me the Clintons stand for everything that is wrong with the Democratic party.

So it is no stretch to imagine the degree to which I have been Feelin' the Bern this political season.   For the first time in my political life, a candidate with some steam behind him has not only been saying the things I want to hear, but I know him to actually believe these things and I would have trusted him to advocate forcefully for his stated goals.

All of this is to say that even though I am a middle-aged white woman, and a lifelong feminist, there was no part of me that wanted to cry last night when Hillary came out in her white pantsuit.

Yet.  I.  Did.

I have to admit it. After a relentless week of people I like and trust, like Bernie, Elizabeth and Joe telling me it was time for Hillary, followed by people I can't help liking and watching even though I don't trust them much at all, like Barak and Michelle Obama, and even, dammit, Bill Clinton, oozing their ways into my heart, I was open to the possibility of Hillary Clinton.

When she walked out in that pantsuit, grinning and waving to the crowd, tears poured down my cheeks unbidden.  Come on, Sara, I reminded myself.  Don't be a sap.  Don't fall for this.  This is how they get you.  Don't listen to the whispers, the propaganda machine: Historic moment.  First woman.  She a public servant.  She's a hard worker.  She's always been fighting for you, Sara.  Think about the speaking fees, Goldman Sachs, TPP treachery, emails, Clinton Foundation, think about Bill Clinton loose in the West Wing, think about her cronies.

But it's done.  The spell is cast.  And I am under it.  And I always knew it would be.  Yes, I will vote for Hillary Clinton in the fall if that's what it takes.  Fortunately I live in California so if the race is tight here, it's time to move to Canada.