33 newborns

A few years ago, I watched, on television, a miraculous rescue. Thirty-three miners, trapped in a coal mine. By the time I started watching,  two miners had already emerged and a third was on his way to the surface. I was mesmerized, unable to turn off the television.My dream mind drank in the spectacle, whispering: It's like a birth, or a re-birth, with family and doctors and all kinds of equipment, pulling each miraculous newly born being out of the belly of the earth.Chile's President Pinera echoed this symbolism in his televised address after the last man had reached the surface and all were safe. "They were experiencing a kind of rebirth," he said.The miners truly had been reborn. They descended as laborers, hard-working men mining a living out of a risky and difficult job. They emerged as national heroes - and international celebrities - into the glare of the bright lights and the tell-all culture of the 24-hour world news media.Their lives would never be the same. But I would leave that discussion to other bloggers, other pundits.What fascinated  me was the symbolic meaning of this world stage event. When viewing these big events, it can help to have a symbolic perspective - and to learn to think and read such news stories as if they were also myths.Because they are...In our interconnected world, these are the big stories - the Zeus/Athena, Odin/Thor, Isis/Osiris level events - the kinds of stories that touch the hearts (and the souls) of every human being who encounters them.They're archetypal, meaning that they speak to us at a universal, subconscious level. They speak to us symbolically, reaching around the globe, impacting and touching us at the level of the collective. As such, they have the potential to inspire, influence and change us.Learning to read these stories symbolically, archetypally can teach us about ourselves.This kind of thinking draws on the imagination and the pattern-making/pattern-reading faculty of the psyche. It's the same puzzle-solving skill we all use to understand stories, interpret the metaphors and symbols in poems and literature and interpret dreams. It's a creative, poetic activity, a listening for meaning and scanning for connections.We need these connections - this meaning - to make sense of our own lives. It's why we love a great story. It's why we go to the movies. We are searching for these connections all the time, making meaning out of our own stories every single day.When something like this happens, a big world event like this multiple rebirth in Chile, it can be instructive to let it speak to us symbolically- to take it apart like a myth, a piece of literature, a dream. To let the symbols penetrate to a deeper level of our consciousness. There we can make meaning that can be helpful to us personally, and craft an understanding of  the world - where it is now, and where it's headed.That said...I find it particularly telling that just 6 months after the Gulf Oil Spill which left us collectively exasperated, exhausted and concerned, we had this beautiful story.it was like a balancing. First, the world watched in collective horror as millions of gallons of oil spilled into the waters. Then, six months later, we collected around our television sets to cheer the surfacing of the miners. We exhaled, and released a little of our sorrow for this world. It felt to me like a gesture of forgiveness from Mother Earth herself.Both stories contained parallel images:

• Drilling:Drilling
• Cave in: Explosion
• Big rigs and super-technology
• 33 rescued: 11 dead (Two 'master path" numbers)
• 69 days: 84 days (Anyone have a comment about what these numbers might mean?)
• Chile's media-savvy president: The charisma-challenged BP Chairman.

At the time, a friend offered an archetypal reading of the Gulf Oil Spill.Where are you leaking energy? she asked.Looking at the miners' story, what questions might we ask ourselves?What's in your mine?

• What precious ore are you mining? What is the nature of the fuel (energy) or precious gemstones (treasure) that you seek? Are you a painter, mining light and imagination, a poet, mining words and metaphor? Are you a business owner, mining a market for potential clients? Are you a parent, mining your heart for patience, inspiration and love? A physician mining the human body for the secrets of good health and longevity?

What is the condition of your mine?

• The Chilean miners were trapped because the owners of their mine neglected to uphold some basic safety conditions. What is the condition of the mine where you work? Is your home office cluttered with stacks of unfiled paperwork? Are your household bills paid on time and in good order? Is there light, clean air, non-toxic relationships in the spaces where you mine your treasure?

Do you have a safe haven to retreat to? Is it well-stocked?

• Is there a safe haven in your home or workplace? A place where you can retreat from a critical situation, a place to which you can withdraw to pull yourself together. What corners of your world are your sacred safe spaces?
• The Chilean miners survived because they made their way to an emergency safety area inside the mine. Theirs was equipped with basic survival and medical supplies. What would your safety area contain? A phone to call a friend for a long chat? A few hours a day of quiet solitude? Perhaps you need, as I do, a box of really good tea and a bar of dark chocolate.

What about your rescue team?

• This rescue operation surged into high gear when a note was received at the surface that said, "We are okay. All 33 of us." What would your note to your rescuers say? Who would you contact?

What is trapped beneath the surface of your life, waiting to be rescued or reborn?

• What projects, inner truths, personal breakthroughs are ready now, after a period of gestation in the belly of your life, to burst through to the surface? What techology, what help do you need to get through the delivery?

I'd love to hear your take on the symbolic meaning of this or other world events?