Tending our Collective Fire in these Fascist Streets
Summer uprisings & civil unrest demonstrate that there’s more than one way to burn it down
Fire, as we all know, has a tendency to rise up.
In the summer of 1919, fueled by post World War I racial tensions and competition for opportunities in a radically changing social landscape, white supremacist terrorism flared in the United States, resulting in the lynching deaths of hundreds of black people across dozens of cities in what came to be known as the Red Summer. Racial injustice, economic inequality, and police brutality sparked a series of riots that left many dead and entire neighborhoods turned to ash in Detroit and Newark and countless demonstrations and riots in many other cities across the nation during the Long Hot Summers of the 60s. In the summer of 1970, the infamous occupation of Lincoln Hospital, “the butcher shop of the South Bronx”, would change the face of opioid treatment forever. The Los Angeles Riots in 1992 ushered in the summer season, as did the George Floyd Uprising in 2020 as well as this years demonstrations in opposition to mass deportation and fascist lawlessness of federal law enforcement.
It’s like that Spike Lee movie, Do the Right Thing.
But it’s more than that, isn’t it? It’s not just agitation from the heat and being pushed too far. It’s about a pressure building as the cultural and political temperature rises until a red line is crossed that can’t be walked back. A spark created by an offense so egregious there is a moral and spiritual obligation to respond; a raging fury ignited that is not just appropriate, but necessary. It is being faced with something that stands in such horrendous opposition to our shared vision that the collective consciousness recognizes it is time to clock in and get to work.
Never have I seen a more perfect and literal expression of the scorch and burn fury of Fire than what happened in Minneapolis in 2020.
Being from Minneapolis, I recognized the match before it hit the gasoline soaked ground; decades of racist and abusive policing practices climaxing in an excruciating public display of cruelty and hubris. Watching from across world, it felt like the entire city had stared at their phones in disbelief and horror for those nine minutes and twenty nine seconds and then all at once looked up, and in an instant the energy of their collective rage generated a bolt of lightning that struck the ground where George Floyd lay dead and sparked a wildfire that burnt the entire path from the murder scene to the third precinct to the ground. It’s practically poetic, really.
In contrast, the scale and breadth of the injustice taking place in LA and across the country this summer has called for a far more decentralized response - people are walking out their front doors into the streets of their own communities to defend their neighbors, holding their rage and despair in one hand and their hope and humanity in the other. Angelinos have leaned into each other and the connection of a collective vision for their community. They’ve showed up, showed love and firmly held the line with the creativity and grit that makes Los Angeles Los Angeles. The aggression of law enforcement has been transmuted and relatively neutralized by non engagement. How interesting is that? A ground fire smoldering so deeply and evenly that even kerosene can’t ignite it beyond its decided upon expression. Again, poetic in its own right, and a clear maturation by any measure.
In the Tarot, the suit of Wands corresponds with the element of Fire. It tells a story of soulful journey highlighting the relationship between passion and compassion - the individual and the collective. This journey is full of choice, challenges, triumphs, setbacks, and conflict on the way to 10, where we arrive battle worn and weary and are faced with a decision. We can no longer continue to struggle under the weight of 10 Wands, so we either go back to 1 and try again on our own, or we lay them down and turn to our community for help. The 10 represents a fork in the road. One direction takes us back where we started to relearn the lessons of the cycle thus far, and the other takes us not necessarily away from our individual struggles, but back to the Kingdom; to the Court cards, where the mature, controlled movement of level heads prevail and the good of all is held in the highest regard. The characters on the Court cards are resolute and final in their position. They are able to connect people in meaningful ways and importantly, to lead. They are organized.considerate, and comprehensive in their approach, and they are making decisions not based on their own desires or interests, but on behalf of the Kingdom.
Los Angeles, I should say, has graduated to the court cards.
May their smolder spread.
