Wednesday, September 10, 2014

This Time for Durga


When Mahishasura, the demon water buffalo, threatened to destroy the world, the gods combined their individuals powers in order to effect the creation of a Goddess who could defeat him, as they could not.
Thus was Durga born. She rides a lion. In her ten hands she holds the weapons contributed to her power, her Shakti, by the gods who brought her into being. She is the restorer of cosmic order. Supremely beautiful, she is also powerful in battle beyond all withstanding, destroying the forces that threaten to overwhelm Creation.
Now, if ever, the Earth needs her.
The ice caps melt. Lake Erie chokes on toxic algae nourished by the runoff of chemical fertilizers from factory farms. Countless millions of animals live lives of uninterrupted misery to maximize the profits of corporations and to satsify our desire for cheap meat, eggs, and dairy. The rain forests of the Amazon are clearcut. The boreal forests of northern Alberta are destroyed and the groundwater contaminated to produce the dirtiest oil in the world. Cancer rates rise as our bodies absorb more and more poisons. We choke on the fumes of the cars we insist on driving, the planes we keep on boarding.
These are the forces of chaos over which no one of us can triumph. In dwelling on our sense of individual powerlessness lies despair.
On Sunday, September 21, thousands will gather in New York City, at the beginning of  a climate summit at the UN, to stand for the Earth against the forces of shortsightedness, greed, and indifference, and to demand action in the face of the mounting effects of global warming. Demonstrators will gather along Central Park West and the march will begin at 11.30 from Columbus Circle.
Patriarchy, in its delusional attempt to subdue and control Nature, has fucked over the Earth. The desire to dominate the planet, the desire to dominate women, the desire to eradicate queer desire among men--these are the poisonous fruits of a lust for domination, of the denial that men, in our mortal bodies, are the sons of Nature, not Her masters.
It is time for Durga to appear. It is time for us to contribute our powers to her manifestation. It is time for us to become the lion on which she rides into battle. It is time for us to become the weapons of cosmic righteousness that she holds in her hands.

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