Towards Climate Balance
One of the notions associated with the ideal of balance in living organisms is that of homeostasis. It suggests that there is a fixed optimum internal state in living systems, which permits their optimal functioning, and that the organism should seek to return to this state when it is somehow removed from it[1].
Homeostasis is a 19th century concept although the term was coined mid-20th century. It is still widely used but its meaning has been shifting to what is more accurately described as allostasis or adaptive homeostasis[2][3], recognising that change is natural to living organisms. Thus, a continuing disturbance and re-balancing of internal equilibrium is a more realistic way to perceive systemic health. From this perspective, balance is a dynamic rather than a stationary concept.
Therefore, the exact points of balance and equilibrium shift constantly and depend on many factors such as environmental circumstances, an organism’s purpose within that environment, its subsequent intentional action, and others.
One of the words that often comes up in the discussion on how climate change should be engaged globally, is “holistic”[4]. However correct this may be, such a vague directive cannot be effectively applied without identifying several “wholes” within the greater “whole”-- whether individual, communal, global, planetary, or the solar system itself. Determining the whole within which a “holistic” approach is seeking to offset imbalances, enables the identification of the different agents causing imbalance. Once identified, their symptoms can be neutralised, and in time, the root cause eradicated.
Another word that often comes up in the discussion on climate is “biodiversity” and the urge to preserve it as a means of facilitating sustainability. Cultural diversity is another means of achieving the same goal. With the call for a “holistic” approach and for a “global” response to facilitate the preservation of “diversity” on the biological or cultural level, two poles emerge in the discussion on climate: the pole of singularity in the aspiration to holistic and global, and the pole of plurality in the effort to preserve and safeguard bio- or cultural diversity.
At this point in time, humanity is called upon to play the role of the synthesising third factor[5][6] and create a response that is flexible enough to apply to very different circumstances around the planet, and specific enough in its overall purpose to allow priorities to emerge with clarity and facilitate decision-making in these varying conditions.
It is worth noting that the competing forces – and from the occult perspective any conflict or imbalance that emerges on the mental, emotional or physical level is expressing such forces – involved in climate balance could be harmonised in a number of ways, some more energy-consuming or more painful than others. However, the presence of a single goal for humanity, creates an opportunity for the utilisation of the energy of goodwill with its intrinsic unifying and harmonising potential. This becomes increasingly possible as a multiplying number of minds acknowledge climate balance as the global issue of our time. The single purpose of creating sustainability through rebalancing humanity’s activity on the planet, namely its relationship to the animal, vegetable and mineral life, can serve as a beacon directing activity and fostering goodwill. The presence of goodwill is especially relevant when method needs to be decided on both global and local scales.
Perhaps the most difficult aspect in discerning which action to take then is to ascertain that the point of balance one wishes to pursue, and the method chosen to achieve it, are indeed the right ones for the occasion. The answer moves beyond data and procedure to the degree humanity itself – the synthesizing agent – is morally and mentally sound, and therefore able to make sound decisions[7]. As members of the human race, the responsibility lies with each one of us to pursue, cultivate, check and re-check our moral and mental condition by the means – esoteric and exoteric – available to us. Then, we know that we are lending the weight of our conviction to a method of approach which serves the greater good rather than a version of the “good” safeguarding a personal sense of comfort and satisfaction or promising to end a personal sense of discomfort and dissatisfaction. This is practicing goodwill, or expressing goodwill in the worlds of everyday living, and this is the sacrifice it requires. There is no life for the lesser if the greater of which it forms a part, perishes. §
- A. Burke, M.C. Peros, C.D. Wren et all, The archaeology of climate change: The case for cultural diversity, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, (2021) 118 (30)
- K. J. A. Davies, Adaptive Homeostasis, Molecular Aspects of Medicine (2016) 49:1-7
- P. Mason, Homeostasis v Allostasis, University of Chicago online
See also: Homeostasis, Cognito - See e.g.: Closing panel of 2022 Stockholm Forum on Peace and Development on ‘Climate security and development beyond the Stockholm Forum'
- Alice Bailey, A Treatise on Cosmic Fire 1212-1216
- Alice Bailey, Esoteric Psychology I 262
- As above, 343, 70, 205
