Your
Inner Wolf Pack
Howling an
ululating poem to the moon, a lone wolf is silhouetted against the night sky.
He turns, notices you watching and haughtily leaves to return to his pack. How
majestic! How powerful! Chills run down your spine as you observe the primal
drama. Oh, to be a wolf and to share in that majesty and power yourself.
Over eons wolves
have developed an unerring dynamic for survival called the pack. With the pack the wolf lives, and without it he
or she dies. That same instinct for successfully living in society is tied in a
strangle hold to our instinct to keep our bodies going. Within wolf or human, ego strives to perfect
living in a pack. So, many of the same survival tools for wolves have been
honed by human society as well. And those very same tactics that are richly
alluring in their romance and strength in the wolf are often addictive,
destructive and sinister in humans. Let’s take a look at why something that
works so perfectly in the animal kingdom falls flat on its face in for people.
Now, I am no
expert on wolves, I’ve simply watched those same nature shows you have on
TV. But, one thing stands out – to keep
the pack in working order misconduct is reprimanded quickly and fiercely. If
you don’t keep the rules you endanger the survival of the pack. Just watch your
pet dog. Once you establish yourself as alpha in his pack, your word is law. As
your pet scoffs up that left over piece of pizza on the coffee table, you raise
your voice slightly, and he stops, the ears go down and he droops off with a
distinctly guilty slouch.
Guilt is a
tool: Make the pack member feel guilty
and the miscreant usually stops. If that’s not enough, fierceness can turn to
viciousness and even a ripping out of the throat, a sure way of ending wrong
actions, permanently, and keeping the pack safe.
Guilt is a tool
to keep others in line. Now, this is really great in a wolf pack when long
logical discussions are severely limited by a lack of human speech. But, humans have hopefully evolved to,
rarely, if ever ripping out a youngster’s throat for taking the car keys when
he shouldn’t. Though sometimes a few
family gatherings I have observed in the past, thankfully not mine, and seen
from afar, can emotionally feel just like that.
However, guilt is still used as an extremely
potent tool for keeping people around you in line. You use it on them and they
on you. Some examples: Your mother calls, starts asking about your job, your
friends, why you don’t call more often, and suddenly you feel like you are five
years old again and you start to droop and want to creep away in a distinctly
guilty slouch. Or, your spouse comes in later than usual for dinner and you ask
with arched eyebrow, “So where have you been?” The atmosphere immediately turns
grim.
So, what does ‘A
Course in Miracles’ say about guilt and its sidekicks anger and fear? Well,
these emotions may occur, but holding onto them for longer than a moment to
recognize them is ‘unjustified’. What does this mean? We are human, part of the
animal branch on the tree of life and all emotions will flow through us at one
time or another. However, when we hold onto guilt, anger and the resultant
fear, replaying it again and again in our minds, we are changing the original
law of the pack into a human dysfunction. Our ego has gained reinforcement that
this is good, when in fact it is slowly killing us.
There are deeper
and darker areas of guilt within us the ego keeps carefully locked away. When
unworthiness is reinforced by the world around us from childhood damage begins
to erode our subconscious leaving it tragically
leprous. Ego began a massive campaign to hide these feelings of guilt, fear and
unexpressed anger in a stupendously misguided campaign of coping mechanisms
. For now, though, we need not label the
myriad array of neuroses and psychoses .
All we actually need
to do is recognize is that guilt is neither good nor bad, after all. Guilt is
simply a red flag suggesting we may have done something incorrectly. All we need do next is assess if our actions actually
need to change. If they do, then suck it up and change. If we assess our
actions as O.K. then we can go about our business as usual. Not to worry. How
to assess correctly the one or the other will be reviewed in later sections.
Since
relationships are so often at the center of our survival needs, for now let’s
start here: The Course has reminded us
that people are either trying to help or calling desperately for help. Whether
you are in a present predicament or remembering the painful past, and someone is
or has dumped guilt, just maybe changing something is a good thing. They were
really trying to help and you can say thank you. But, if change is not
warranted, then maybe the other person is in emotional pain and doesn’t know what
else to do but find fault with others. They are crying out desperately for your
help; then compassion and forgiveness must be your response. When the past is
seen this way it is miraculously healed in the present.
The glory and
majesty of the pack seen on a distant snow encrusted hill is working just
perfectly. They know what they are doing. Guilt, fear and a short burst of
anger keeps the pack vibrant and functioning. Just remember, however, when we
feel ourselves wallowing in unworthiness and wanting to dump that extra dollop
of guilt and anger onto another, assess what we are doing very carefully by
asking for the insight and direction of your inner power. And when that
glob of guilt smacks you in the face, shake it off, change if you need to and move
right along. That’s the sign of being human and humanity becomes just as
glorious and majestic as the primal wolf pack.
Now, if you
listen carefully, you will hear the echo of human laughter combined with the ululating
song of the wolf echoing through the valleys and across the distant mountains.
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