It seems like there has been a lot of weirdness going on this fall.

In the celestial sphere, we’ve had the spectacular lunar eclipse, which I was so fortunate to watch out on a hillside under a huge old elm tree winking with stars. In Europe there have been unprecedentedly beautiful Northern light shows going on, which are the visible record of strong solar winds hitting our atmosphere.

Full moon before eclipse, September 2015

There have been reports, which I have not been able to confirm, that the electromagnetic pulse of the planet, the Schumann Resonance, has spiked precipitously in the past few months. If this were true, it could be a sign that the feeling of acceleration so many of us have been feeling could be related to the speeding up of the background beat to which every living cell on Earth is attuned. Or it could be going the other way: perhaps the pell-mell acceleration of human activity is actually affecting the steady state of the planet itself.

On the human side, we had a marvelous visit from Pope Francis, aptly self-named after the patron saint of animals, who begged world leaders at the United Nations to become responsible stewards of the environment. I wrote about the blind spot in his analysis here: it’s population control, of course. If he’s serious about stepping up to the challenges of climate stabilization and human poverty, he MUST come forward in favor of women’s reproductive rights. There are signs that he may actually be the one to finally move the Catholic church in this direction—a weirdness that would be most welcome!

On the less positive side, we have had unrelenting violence this fall. More atrocities against innocent people by the American police; the “mistaken” targeting of a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan; the entry of both Russia and the U.S. into the war theater of Syria, from which millions of civilians are now fleeing; more massacres of innocents by armed maniacs.

In a recent column, I called for the formation of a new movement to be led by mothers, along the lines of MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving), which has had remarkable success in getting state legislatures to crack down on young people driving under the influence. I thought we could call the organization MAGI, for Mothers Against Gun Impunity, and also harkening back to those wise men of another age, who recognized the baby in the manger as the future preacher of love and mutual respect. We need more of that Magi spirit today!

The Star of Bethlehem, watercolor painting by Sir Edward Burne-Jones, 1890

In addition to all the violence, we have the on-going weirdness of the American political scene, which is more and more coming to resemble a comic reality TV show. I have little patience for any of the major players, though I continue to respect Barack and Michelle Obama, and to cheer underdog Bernie Sanders on in his Presidential campaign, which is picking up more and more steam despite all the skeptics and hecklers in the pundit bleachers.

For the past few years, I have learned to trust my sixth sense when it comes to spikes of global weirdness. For several days before the Oregon massacre, I found myself checking the national news frequently, certain something unpleasant was about to happen soon. The fires out West and the floods in the Carolinas, though of unprecedented intensity, have become almost routine these days. It takes something really unusually weird and bad to break through our habitual numbness and make us pay attention.

OK, world, you’ve got my attention. Now what do you want me to do? It seems that I can only continue to chug along in my own sphere, focusing on tuning in to the natural world around me, trying to stay calm and centered, taking care of my family, and going about the work I’ve taken on, nourishing and strengthening the voices and visions of women.

I continue to believe that women’s creative leadership is going to be essential to the transition times we are living through. Everything points to the exhaustion of the masculinist paradigm that took us through the so-called Enlightenment, savage colonialism and the rise of industrial science and extraction capitalism. Now is the time of the feminist qualities of collaboration, community-building and compassion—accessible to all human beings, no matter our physical characteristics.

We adult women and men must take on the roles of the Magi, following the star that points to the potential of millions of girl-children now sleeping in their mangers. It is our duty, and our privilege, to bring to the next generation whatever gifts we most value, whatever wisdom we feel is worthy of being passed on.

Together we can survive this time of global weirdness, and bring humanity into a more positive resonance with our beautiful planet. I know it is possible. I want to believe we can make it happen.