Good News About the World Falling Apart

The crises we face on Earth right now are the birth pangs of a species. Good news? Humans have been here before. We were at an inflection point of this magnitude when we first developed fire and language 200,000 years ago and, again, ten thousand years ago when we learned how to germinate seeds. Although these Turnings could have led to our extinction, each time we used our superpowers—imagination and intuition—to transform our consciousness and persevere. The crises we face today announce a Third Turning. The good news lies in our name, homo sapiens, from the Latin for “one who knows,” the same meaning as the word “shaman.” In times like these, we have always turned to the shamans among us and it is no different today. Just as such wise ones pioneered fire and language and the germination of seeds, they offer similar guidance today, but this time both the fire and the seed lie in our hearts.