| Color | Nickname | Social construct | Cause worth dying for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Purple | KinSpirits | Tribe | The sacred ground |
Something amazing happened about 40,000 to 50,000 years ago. We see it in the cave paintings of the time. When we stop and really look at this powerful art we can not help but be moved. These people were just like us. This was clearly the next step up in consciousness. From smallish bands we formed bigger tribes and we became bad-asses. Human population numbers started to grow and we spread out across all of the planet. And where ever we spread, populations of bigger animals like Mastodons crashed. Presumably because we hunted them to death.
Spirit became the center of our lives. Spirit of place, animal, and ancestors. Deep magic lives in the sacred places. Animal spirits and our ancestors are here to guide us, if only we can get quiet enough and reverent enough to hear them. We fast and pray for days. Then head off alone into the wilderness to do our sacred initiation rite and face our internal demons. Then we return to the wild celebration of the tribe. You are back! We are so glad you are back! We are one. Tell us of your visions so that we may all learn from the spirits. You are home. You are loved. So deeply loved.
Purple throws the best parties. It was a big part of the draw of the hippies in the 60’s. From all accounts Woodstock was very Purple. We tend to idolize this stage, but movies like Dances With Wolves do catch an important historical point. Colonists “kidnapped” by Native Americans never wanted to return when given the opportunity. The Native Americans living mostly at Purple were living a much richer, more satisfying life.
This is the stage when art and religion really took off. We started to awaken to a higher purpose than just the day to day cycle of survival. We turned to each other and found we share an even bigger mystery than individual consciousness – shared consciousness. We are tribal animals. The cruelest punishment we can devise is to hold someone separate and solitary. We have a physical need to be connected. And as tribe we are strong. As a tribe, life is very, very good.
And yet we know the story does not end here. Why on earth would we leave this stage? At first archeologists thought that everything changed because of agriculture. But it turns out that people practiced sustainable, non-backbreaking agriculture and still lived in egalitarian societies. They also lived in large cities for thousands of years. It looks like people did not leave this stage willingly. It took horrific, massive violence. Conquerors swept through the world and forced people into submission. It is a trauma we are still working through to this day. And it didn’t happen all at once. There were heroic rebellions where people threw off their usurpers and lived in peace and harmony for a time. Sadly it did not last and eventually the warlords ruled the world.
