In the third stage of @birth, struggle, the enormous pressures on the fetus are revealed to have a purpose, a direction as the cervix opens and a light shines through, promising a new world. The physical distress of the fetus is even greater now than it was in Stage Two. She is subject to titanic pressures that slowly propel her through the birth canal, a life and death struggle occupying the whole of her being. At this point there is no going back to the womb of the familiar, for that womb is a hell now, and besides, the pressures of birth are too great to resist. On the mythological level, Stage Three corresponds to religious archetypes of Armageddon, the final battle between Good and Evil, or Ragnarok, the battle between the gods and the giants in Norse mythology. At Ragnarok, all the worthy warriors who died in battle fight on the side of the gods. This myth refers to the common struggle that we all experience. It means that our personal battles have universal significance. The collective transformation of our species can only be the sum of billions of individual transformations, each driven by the intersection of generalized crises with our individual lives. No longer will we be able to hide from them, no longer will they be something that happens somewhere else, to someone else. In one form or another, they will affect us all personally. Because we are not discrete individuals but exist in relationship to the rest of humanity and the rest of nature, it is impossible to enjoy lasting health amidst an ailing society and a poisoned planet. It is impossible; it is a contradiction in terms. ~ @After@Charles Eisenstein, @The Perinatal Matrix, @The Ascent of Humanity
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