Increasingly, I am encountering individuals who are grappling with their fundamental sense of purpose and their role in this world. There is a yearning and calling being felt where the material success they were taught to pursue is no longer quenching the thirst of their souls.  This struggle manifests in various forms such as depression, restlessness, and illness. Whenever we deviate from our greater cause, discontentment and unhappiness follow, eventually leading to physical and emotional ailments.

Purpose is such a powerful force that drives us each day, shaping our energy and guiding us through life’s challenges and achievements. It gives direction and meaning to our journey, providing momentum to our narrative. When we align our actions with this deeper purpose, something greater flows through us, and we feel fulfilled and focused.  However, distractions and superficial pursuits can lead us astray, draining our life force and leaving us unfulfilled. Without true purpose, we become vulnerable to distraction, manipulation, and even illness; our core suffers, and we drift aimlessly.

From certain spiritual perspectives, purpose is not arbitrary but rather part of a pre-existing contract, a response of our soul to the overarching needs of our species and the world. Each of us is born with innate abilities and potential, contributing uniquely to our collective story. There is a game to be played and a mission to be served where each of us, without exception, has a unique and specific path to follow and a role to play in a magnificent collective story. 

The stakes of this game could not be more significant in this particular age that we find ourselves living in. I believe that the issue that most people are truly wrestling with is that our sense of purpose is not yet a match for the greater contract of our time. This wrestling and inner conflict is the symptom of a calling that is asking us to rise to a much bigger game than the one we have been playing. Some feel lost as to why we are truly here, to the point of even believing that we have mistakenly been born in the wrong age on the wrong planet. But there are no mistakes, nothing is random. For each of us born into this age, more is being asked of us than any preceding generation of our species, more is being asked of us than we even know how to show up for.

As a father, I cherish precious early morning moments with my daughter where she cuddles in my lap and we watch documentaries about wildlife and the natural history of our planet. Two documentaries in particular have stood out as being significantly relevant and thought-provoking. The first one called ‘Life on Our Planet’ narrated by Morgan Freedman and produced by Steven Spielberg gives a visual account of the entire history of the rise and fall of life on this planet spanning across the five events of mass extinction. The second is by David Attenborough, ironically also called ‘Life on Our Planet’ which chronicles his own life journey as a wildlife journalist in which he bears testament to the shocking decline of the natural world along with the markers of climate collapse and the next inevitable mass extinction. 

It is firstly fascinating to have a graphic representation of how evolution has unfolded in the natural world and to see the magic of how various species of plants and animals advanced through their biological adaptations over millions of years. Even more fascinating by contrast is how human beings have become such an exponentially advancing species leaping ahead in a relative blink of an eye in our earth’s history. Through our ideas and innovation, we have quickly conquered and overcome all the natural regulators of our environment, we are now a species that lives entirely outside nature’s ecosystem; we are unrestrained and unregulated in our quest to fulfil our own needs. 

This latest era of human civilisation can only be defined as the age of exploitation characterised by the rampant spread of colonialism, industrialisation and urbanisation.  In terms of the bigger picture of our planetary history, we have gone from being a player in the natural order to being an entirely dominant parasitic phenomenon that indiscriminately feeds off our natural resources, reshaping the atmosphere and the landscapes of our planet. We first really have to see and acknowledge the bigger picture of what we have collectively become before we can even consider trying to transform this.

In my own lifetime, I have gotten to experience the peak and fall of Apartheid in South African history, a short-sighted ideology that saw one race group of humans usurp and exploit another for land domination and cheap labour. The first period of my life was spent being actively part of the liberation struggle that brought an end to this exploitative and unsustainable system of governance only to see it swiftly replaced by another. Much like our greater planet, South Africa continues to be a teetering house of cards in terms of its unsustainable social and economic disposition. 

What I realised through my journey as an activist is that it was never the system of governance that needed to be transformed but rather the very nature and programming of being human. As long as an unhealed ego and an unfettered appetite characterise our intrinsic human condition, there is no external system of governance however fair, no constitutional creed however progressive, no religious doctrine however moral, that will ever be able to truly regulate or contain our greed or our destructive impact on the world around us. All shall be corrupted and distorted to feed the unquenchable appetite of the hungry ghost. Simply look at how the compassionate teachings of Christ have been grossly distorted to justify the conquests and atrocities of the last two thousand years. 

Our malaise is simply that we want more than we essentially need and this is not a political or social problem, it’s a spiritual and evolutionary one. We are collectively an egocentric species that blindly celebrates, and applauds excess simply because we have not yet reached the next level of our maturation where we are present and able to be empathetic and cognisant of our impact. We are as yet unable to understand that everything and everyone around us is actually an extension of ourselves. 

This is no different to the world of my little toddler daughter whose needs and wants are the center of her universe rendering her unable to perceive and empathise with the needs and experiences of anyone else. If my daughter was left to own her devices she would surely enslave us her parents,  then decimate and burn down our house. This is not because she is a problem child, an arsonist or a monster, she is just a toddler who is at a natural point in her development. She will grow up soon enough, maturing into a young girl who we will teach to anticipate and appreciate the consequences of her actions and thus cultivate the capacity to empathise and care for her family, her home and her world. Her evolution into maturation is inevitable as is the evolution of humanity. Evil isn’t our problem, it is the persistent psychosis of immaturity and narcissism.

The challenge for us in this particular earthly story is that we have run out of time. The urgency of our global situation is that we have become so intoxicated by our malignant culture of progress and our remarkable ability to exploit that we are rapidly depleting essential resources and destroying the natural harmony of our ecosystem that we are running out of time to unfold our natural evolution. 

The result is that we are now living in the age of the most unusual and significant purpose as we stand at the precipice of the sixth mass extinction of our planet; one that is entirely man-made. The following few decades, even the next few years will decide whether we can evolve and begin a new era of planetary co-existence or whether we will pass the tipping point that sends our natural ecosystem into a spiral of destruction that will swiftly end our greater civilisation. We will effectively be burning our own home down while we are still in it. 

This is surely the most significant, terrifying, and exciting time to be alive at a time when the stakes of our species could not be higher. This might seem overwhelming for anyone who believes we are meant to be trying to stop this steam train and save the planet and humanity. 

The reality is that climate collapse itself or all the many problems created by our civilisation does not essentially need to be solved in itself, we do not need a more over-riding system of governance, we do not need more scientific innovations to fix our climate, the only thing we need is for us to collectively grow up and become the mature conscious beings we collectively have the potential to be. All of our problems will solve themselves; nature does not need to be fixed, we need to relearn how to get out of her way and live in collaboration with her. 

The mass consumer matrix we find ourselves living in is merely a delusion of this immaturity and the sinister multi-billionaires who seem to control our world are mere teenagers of blind lust lost in the frenzy of their cleverness and power. If we were in their shoes, we would certainly be like them and if they were in our shoes they would certainly be like us. We are one fabric of one consciousness in eight billion parts. As we individually awaken and one by one learn to truly raise our frequency,  the chain reaction expands and it catches on into the collective. 

Every one of us has come into this age and time to individually contribute in whatever way we can to the evolutionary maturation of our collective consciousness. We are living in the age of manifestation where every single thought that each of us has in every day and every hour, every idea shared and every action taken, shifts our consciousness as a species and so directly impacts the future of our planet. While some of us may have the best intentions when taking on ideological stances such as veganism, radical environmentalism, feminism, wokeism, anarchism etc, these are just more external ego-based systems that create further animosity, division and resistance. In themselves, there will be no lasting solution until there is a fundamental transformation of our collective inner psyche.

 Our primary task is to learn to curb and manage our egocentric proclivities, healing the schism between heart and mind, and raising our vibration while addressing the shadow that lies beneath the insatiable appetite that characterises our species. When we do this our addictions, our excessive need for consumption and our desperate fear of lack will naturally fall away. When we become fully present, vibrating at a higher frequency, living in the now, not chasing future notions or trying to escape our shadows, we desire less, we see and appreciate what we have around us, we can self-regulate, we do not need to numb ourselves, we do not need to control and interfere with our environment, instead, we instinctively start to walk lightly on this earth. As we become less of a demand on our resources and learn to be a symbiotic benefit to the world around us, harmony and environmental homeostasis will naturally arise.  

Only when we can become this kind of human being will we be able to transmit effective change into the world. This is an entirely different kind of activism, the less obvious kind, mitigating the need for righteous ideologies or forceful regulations yet being exponential in its power. Just like the phenomena of climate collapse, there is also a tipping point to collective awakening where it will find its own momentum and become an unstoppable chain reaction rippling through humanity like a pandemic. 

At this moment it may still feel like we are trying to drag a boulder up a hill, the resistance we are having to deal with might seem untenable. We are being met by triggering misinformation and misdirection from all angles of the matrix that seeks to divide and pit us against each other. Remember that the matrix is not some external evil force trying to dominate us but rather the manifested spectre of our own collective ego. Everything we are facing, every temptation, every distraction, every trigger is an essential part of our spiritual evolution. 

For those of us who have arrived in this time of human history, in terms of the classic film plot, this section of the movie is often called the ‘all is lost’ beat, where the force of the antagonist is at its most overpowering. This situation of seemingly impossible odds is where the protagonist or hero is finally forced to awaken their hidden power and evolve to the next level of their becoming… or die. The prospect of inevitable death is the most effective motivator for our evolution. It is important to remember that the law and nature of the universe is such that we will never be faced with a challenge that we do not have the innate potential to meet. This calling of our age is real and deep and it has brought us to the edge of our existence.

It makes sense to me why there has been a worldwide proliferation of sacred plant medicine work and the re-awakening of ancient spiritual practices spreading like wildfire across the globe. The wisdom of these ancient plant teachers or allies is rising and spreading worldwide to assist and help guide our collective awakening and evolution. From this work, I am seeing a whole new era of uniquely conscious and heart-centred human beings emerge. They are entrepreneurs, activists, healers, artists, decision-makers, parents, and coaches all with great missions,  stepping powerfully into a whole new world of purpose. On this journey, we are relearning and interpreting into our modern context the ancient wisdom kept by Indigenous earth-centered tribes who for thousands of years have lived humbly and sustainably with nature. 

In Native American culture a belief is held that every person in the tribe has a unique medicine that brings healing to the tribe and our relationship with nature. Our task is to discover what our distinct ‘medicine’ is, to walk the path of practising and sharing it with those around us. It is said that when you are walking the “red road” it means you are living life with purpose while on a path to positive change. 

So for every person out there feeling directionless and sensing that there must be something more to your existence-  the “red road” is beckoning you. You are being called to find and practice your medicine. To do this you need to embark on your own inner journey of healing and transformation, you need to find your teachers, your allies, and your tribe. There are no rules to this journey, it is never too late to begin or to start all over again.  It is time to stop sleeping in your misery. This is not a journey about finding significance or leaving behind a legacy that celebrates your name, it is first and foremost about transforming your humanity, becoming a vibrational beacon that activates others. It has to start here, within, before it manifests into any action or creation that will impact the world.

Whether you are a mother or global decision-maker, an activist on the frontline of change or a gardener of the soil, you are being called in equal measure to play your part in these extraordinary times. The message is crystal clear about what it is we are called to do: we simply need to do the work to emerge from our narcissism and grow up into the great earthly guardians that we were always meant to be. 

” If you knew what you were for, and how we become so informed. Bodies of info, performing such miracles, I am a miracle made up of particles. And in this existence, I’ll make a difference, I will have lived it?”  Aloha Kakua: Nahko