Hope Beneath Our Feet_ Restoring Our Place in the Natural World - Martin Keogh [117]
Then, however, something truly amazing happens. Within that cellular goo, some of the old caterpillar cells begin to mutate into what biology calls imaginal cells—imaginal, because they carry within them the image of the butterfly-to-be. Nobody can predict which cells are going to transform, nor do we know what triggers the process.
Yet no sooner do the imaginal cells begin to appear than they come under attack from the old caterpillar cells. It’s not hard to sympathize with the old cells—presumably, they feel they’ve been invaded by aliens. And so, they go on the offensive.
Interestingly, the imaginal cells don’t even bother fighting back—they’re far too busy working on their crazy butterfly project. Nonetheless, in the end, they emerge victorious. Some die, but most survive, and continue on their way, driven by their overwhelming desire to experience life in a butterfly body.
Do they know how to go about accomplishing this? Absolutely not. They don’t have a clue. But they do know how to attune themselves to nature’s intelligence, and let themselves be guided by her. And fortunately, nature knows exactly how to make butterflies. She’s been doing it for a long, long time, and she’s got it down to a T. However, the great work cannot begin until the imaginal cells connect. Isolated and alone as they initially are, they can achieve nothing. And so, they begin to reach out tendrils.
“I’m feeling lonely,” we might imagine them saying. “Is there anyone else out there?”
And to their immense relief, there is. In fact, by the time they reach out, there are millions of other imaginal cells out there. And so, they connect, and together, they begin to weave the matrix out of which one day a butterfly will emerge—a gossamer speck of beauty dancing on the breeze.
We too are imaginal cells, weavers of a new world. Listening to the news, the idea of creating a peaceful, sustainable human civilization might seem like a mad fantasy. There are far too many challenges, all of them serious and potentially devastating. Like the World Trade Center, old structures are crumbling all around us. Yet like the imaginal cells, we too are many—far more than most of us realize. And in recent years, we too have been connecting, and have begun to weave the matrix of a new world.
Indeed, the creation of this book, this interweaving of our collective wisdom, is a perfect example of how imaginal cells operate. No one person could have created it. Nobody could have predicted what insights, ideas, images and stories it would contain. Yet here we are, holding it in our hands.
Imaginal cells aren’t given an instruction manual. Nobody tells them what to do. Rather, they are guided from within. We too, can only attune ourselves to the vast consciousness that created our cosmos by quieting ourselves, turning inwards, and listening.
I am not referring to meditation, although meditation certainly is a powerful tool for detaching from the mind. Rather, I am speaking, quite simply, of listening. Let us turn to the source of guidance within, ask our questions, from the most mundane to the cosmic, and listen to the responses that rise up. I have witnessed thousands of people as they did this and discovered, sometimes to their great surprise, that insofar as they were truly willing to listen, they were gifted with insights and guidance that their conscious mind had no access to.
Can we, like the imaginal cells, make ourselves available to serve as agents of nature’s infinite wisdom? If so, we may yet enable a planetary transformation no less miraculous than that of a caterpillar into a butterfly.
Jalaja Bonheim, PhD, is a public speaker, circle leader, and leadership trainer who has spent the last decades