Misrule and Unruliness in the Time of Pandemic

“We are seeing necessity unfolding. More is happening than the invasion of a deadly virus; the virus is the messenger. PAN-demic. The Greek god Pan is an image of the dark side of Nature, the wild, uncontrollable aspect of Nature. The virus is like an emissary of Pan, and shows us that we cannot control Nature.

“All the structures, the forms, the science, the technology, the politics, the economy, the technology, the corporations, our greed, the wars, the terrorism, the attacks on the Sanctuaries of Nature – the National Parks, the invasions by oil and mining of the Sacred Lands of indigenous people --- ALL the structures that uphold and further the view that we are in control of Nature, the PAN-demic is saying:

‘No, you are not.’”

~ Robert Sardello, Spiritual Psychologist and Author

Pan is the Greek god of nature and all that is wild. He is unruly and often called the Lord of Misrule. He turns things on their head because we need to be reminded we don’t have control of nature. We’re learning this through this pandemic and we learn it every time a natural disaster hits.

Being governed by someone who misrules at every turn is another hard lesson. It’s like 45 has embodied some aspects of Pan. He seems to revel in the mischief of misrule. By taking our government apart, there is the opportunity to rebuild it better if we don’t lose complete control.

And maybe we need to lose control in another way. Maybe we need to be as unruly as Pan, to break the rules or throw them out all together in order to change things. Playing by the rules keeps things the same.

This doesn’t mean we should throw out every human convention, but it does mean we need to take a look at the rules we have created and ask if they serve us.

And big scale change may take throwing out a whole lot of rules. We’ve already been doing it. We don’t follow conventions that were once deemed necessary. We’ve thrown out old ways of doing things.

This pandemic has allowed us to see more rules that need changing or throwing out. Pan has infiltrated our world and our psyche. What will we make of this unruly time?