The concept of Karma that we hold in the west, that universal cause and effect ‘pay-back’ system where the actions of a person (cause) affect the future (effect), has never made sense to me. Karma is no cosmic justice. It’s mean. Harsh, cruel even dangerous.

There’s plenty of contradictions in the eastern concept of Karma as well.

The principle of cause and effect certainly holds water.  Eat a cheesecake a day, you will eventually expand your waistline. No doubt about that.

I see no evidence for Karma, rather I see plenty of evidence every day for the absence of Karma. The sociopathic CEO, white collar criminal or institutionally entrenched paedophile are usually rewarded if not protected.

If Karma is your conviction, then it makes sense that the intense suffering of this child in 2003 and then again after a second almost fatal accident in 2006, was her cosmic justice. She was reaping her own Karmic actions.

Likewise, for the woman (or man) experiencing domestic violence or abuse, under the idea of Karma, they must have done something to deserve it. The notion “Karma’s only a Bitch if you are”, means children who are abused are reaping their just rewards, right?

Wrong.

This victim-blaming mentality of Karma is spiteful even dangerous.

Karma cloaks itself in passivity. If everything I experience is the result of my behaviour in previous lifetimes, then the best I can do is to accept my fate because I bought it on myself earlier.

With Karma in the frame, I must cast my sovereignty to the winds of chance. Karma sings the song of the gambler, que sera sera, and is deeply passive and intensely judgemental.

Karma says people deserve their wealth and power due to their past actions. Therefore, the economic oppression of others, even entire nations, must have come about due to previous action. This paradigm of Karma is cruel and nasty, even malevolent.

There’s a certain fatalism with Karma. Under Karma, why would you challenge injustice? Challenge injustice, or right wrongs interferes with the cause and effect of someone’s previous action, right? “Spare the rod, spoil the child.”

Karma depends on playing the strings of morality or immorality.  We live in an amoral universe. Life isn’t fair. It’s not necessarily unfair, it just doesn’t hinge on the fairness principle. A shark will just as easily chomp down on your surfboard as it will your thigh. It’s what they do.

I understand the Karma-enthusiasts will argue arc and time-frame. They talk of balance, and future lives or aeons in time, Karma rights wrongs. No it doesn’t. I see no evidence for this so-called cosmic justice.

I can see balance in nature, in science, in the material world, or what I call the ‘tyre-pressure’ spaces. When people choose to bless, charm, violate or harm another, I don’t see any evidence for any kind of god-spirit, super-being, other-than-human, or natural order automatically intervening to ‘balance’ things out. Instead, I see this short time of flesh and breath a great opportunity to seize the wheel.

In these moments, I have evidence of a universe that whispers, ‘Ready to play, or not?‘

I see evidence of other-than-human entities who warm to the one who dares to step up and embrace the responsibility of active engagement to facilitate change.

I have evidence of spirits-without-flesh who seek out relationship with spirits-with-flesh who engage consciously and care-fully in the “art of total responsibility, careful attention, and reciprocity.”  For those of us engaging as magicians, witches, even sorcerers, we place ourselves at centre and take control in this great dance of life!

Step up, take the wheel, and sure, you’re in for a bumpy ride.  Raise the bar, and you signal your eligibility to play. Your readiness for the dance.

Like the shark, the universe chomps. I want to be the deep-diver who navigates the sharks skillfully.

12 Sept 2018