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by
Aletheia Luna
November 03, 2024
from
LonerWolf Website
Spanish version
So this was kind of spooky.
And it rarely happens - but the other day, I woke
up at approximately 4:08 am with the title of this post blazing in
my head:
Domicide...!
The loss of place, space, and face in modern society...
It repeated and repeated and repeated in my mind,
like a haunting shout reverberating in the halls of a cathedral,
until I felt compelled to write it down in a bleary-eyed daze.
Usually it takes me a while to carefully sort through handfuls of
possible titles and topics to write about.
But the message here was clear.
Perhaps it was some kind of Divine prompting
or channeled demand from the Collective Unconscious?
Whatever the case, today I'm going to be talking
about a widespread issue we're all facing to various degrees, and
that is the death of the notion of "home" - and how that relates to
the call of
the lone wolf.
This topic is deeply important - relevant to you and millions of
others - and I encourage you, if you can, to stick with me right
through to the end.
What is Domicide?
Domicide is a word few people are aware of because it's so obscure.
I didn't hear of it until a few weeks ago when
Mateo
mentioned it in a conversation about wolves losing their homelands.
One dictionary defines domicide as,
"the destruction of dwelling places,
rendering an area uninhabitable."
Another source points out that the
word 'domicide' itself is a new term coined in the late '90s by
Professor of
Geography J. Douglas Porteous:
'Domicide' is a new word, coined by Porteous
in 1998, and is defined as "the planned, deliberate destruction
of someone's home, causing suffering to the dweller."
Domicide comes from the Latin word domus
which means 'home,' and cide which derives from the French
'killer.'
Home killer...!
Domicide and the Loss of Place
As we witness the horrific and heart-shattering genocide currently
ravaging Gaza (and the tragic deaths of innocents occurring
on both sides) and the ongoing violence and death tolls mounting
between Russia and Ukraine...
as well as the many millions who have been
displaced from their homeland in the Democratic Republic of
Congo, and many other places in the world…,
...words like domicide, genocide, homicide,
suicide, and ecocide come to mind.
Domicide IS,
the loss of place, home, hearth, and one's
ancestral lands.
This home killing may occur through war,
colonialism, or environmental degradation such as overfarming,
climate change, or abusive government regimes.
The
statistically
confirmed,
deconstruction and crumbling of the
traditional "nuclear family" (whether perceived as good or bad)
due to changing values and belief systems is also another loss
of place.
All of this is domicide at a big-picture
external scale...!
Domicide and the Loss of Space
Domicide at a medium scale, one closer to home that many Westerners
reading this will be experiencing, is the loss of space.
Loss of space is the slow disappearance of what American sociologist
Ray Oldenburg described in the 1980s as,
"third places" areas away from home and work that give us
access to social connection, engagement, and fun.
Just think of,
churches, bookshops, clubs, parks,
and other areas that can provide a sense of home away from home.
With the rise in
capitalism and
internet consumption, many of these
places are starting to disappear, being bought out and replaced with
more commercial spaces like malls or eateries, or altogether fading
into oblivion like many religious churches and spaces.
When you think about being around other people,
what comes to mind first?
For many, the mall or shopping center - even the
grocery store - will appear.
Not the park, or the local club, or the
library, but places where we spend money, aka:
Places that are faces of consumerism.
Places
where spending money is conveniently equated with meeting our
innate needs of social reciprocity and
belonging.
It's a sneaky capitalistic trick, you see.
If you
don't believe me, go to your local park or nature expanse (if it
hasn't been destroyed and paved over) one Friday night. Then go to your local mall.
Compare and contrast the experience...
Domicide and the Loss of Face
The loss of face means the loss of connection with ourselves:
The feeling of being adrift and unrooted in
this world.
Of being aliens on a strange planet,
outsiders looking in, lone wolves wandering in a barren
wasteland.
All of this is connected to domicide:
the destruction of our sense of home, whether
through capitalism, disintegrating social values, lack of
cohesive shared narratives, war, genocide, environmental
destruction, or even - as a result of all this - spiritual and
existential crisis.
With loneliness on the rise and being
declared a
global health risk, the loss of face manifests in many ways, shapes,
and forms.
Excessive social media use and addiction, as well as an increase in
narcissistic self-preoccupation, are two such examples.
But overall, I define the loss of face as a sense of Soul Loss...:
a feeling of being disconnected from our
inner vitality, True Nature, connection to the Divine, and our
interconnectedness and interbeing with life.
Is it any wonder that mental health issues
like anxiety and depression are
on the rise?
Or that getting lost in virtual realities and
distracted by
AI advancements has become so seductive, to escape the
existential horror of not knowing who we are, where we belong, or
how to cope in this world...?
Why It's Normal to Feel Lonely,
Powerless, and Isolated in Present-Day Society
If you're here reading this, you're likely one of the sane ones. One
of the feeling ones.
This quote from Erich Fromm within
The Art of Being says it all.
Read it slowly:
A person,
-
who has not been completely alienated
-
who has remained sensitive and able to
feel, who has not lost the sense of dignity
-
who is not yet "for sale"
-
who can still suffer over the suffering
of others
-
who has not acquired fully the having
mode of existence
-
who has remained a person and not become
a thing,
...cannot help feeling lonely, powerless,
isolated in present-day society.
He cannot help doubting himself and his own
convictions, if not his sanity.
He cannot help suffering, even though he can
experience moments of joy and clarity that are absent in the
life of his "normal" contemporaries.
Not rarely will he suffer from neurosis that
results from the situation of a sane man living in an insane
society, rather than that of the more conventional neurosis of a
sick man trying to adapt himself to a sick society.
If you're still sensitive, if you still have creeping feelings of
existential dread, anxiety, fear, doubt, loneliness, and
powerlessness, then you are healthy, you are sane.
These disturbing feelings are not solely due to some personal
"deficit" or "brokenness" (which the fragmented system of society
would love you to believe because it makes you easier to sell to or
control) but are more likely due to the fact that you're living in
disturbed times.
You're living in the era of domicide...!
In other words, you're a lone wolf trying to navigate the loss of
place, space, and face in modern society.
The Need to Find Meaning and
Direction Within Existential Horrors
Within all this chaos and horror that we observe in the world - all
of which causes us to feel powerless, lost, and overwhelmed,
how can we find meaning and direction?
Meaning and direction, after all, were
highlighted by Nazi death camp survivor and psychiatris, Viktor
Frankl, as essential to one's sanity and well-being.
He writes in Man's Search for Meaning,
Those who have a 'why' to live, can bear with
almost any 'how'...
We can, of course, take action to decrease harm
wherever possible:
-
protest against human rights violations
-
sign ceasefire petitions
-
donate to humanitarian causes
-
make environmentally conscious choices
But when we reach the end of the day, or wake up
in the middle of the night, or sit with ourselves in the silence of
a moment of aloneness...,
how can we internally find meaning and
direction?
This is the dilemma that much of Mateo's and my
work here on lonerwolf is about.
Existential crisis.
Dark Night of the Soul.
Soul Loss.
Spiritual awakening.
Walking the path of the lone wolf.
Finding true connection.
Really, what we focus on is the inner domicide so
many people are experiencing right now on this planet, that feeling,
The Lone Wolf as a Spiritual
Wanderer
The purest religion of
any age
lies in the hands of its
spiritual rebels...
Colin
Wilson
When we zoom out and look at the essence and spirit of having a
lone
wolf personality, we see that they play a vital role in society:
that of
the Spiritual Wanderer.
The hermit, the mystic,
the shaman, the sage,
are all aspects of this archetypal essence of the Spiritual
Wanderer...
When we take a big-picture perspective, we see
that the Spiritual Wanderer is,
the empath, the old soul, the walker between
worlds who stands on the outskirts of society looking in...
Gaining this unique vantage point, the Spiritual
Wanderer can become a source of insight, wisdom, and healing in
service to the whole.
Essentially what I'm saying here is that:
-
The lone wolf carries the essence of the
Spiritual Wanderer
-
The Spiritual Wanderer is the place,
space, and face that the lone wolf is destined to evolve
into and occupy within their own lives and within society.
Using a Lord of the Rings analogy, just as
Gandalf the Grey was destined to turn into Gandalf the White - both
incidentally carrying the essence of the Spiritual Wanderer
archetype - so too is the lone wolf destined to evolve into the
Spiritual Wanderer.
In fact,
the Spiritual Wanderer is a direct product of
and response to the domicide that is ravaging all levels and
layers of society...
When we look at the lone wolf, we see that there
is a disconnection from one's original pack and one's homeland.
Whether through rejection, chance, or choice,
the lone wolf finds themselves adrift in
life, wandering alone in the world without a sense of direction,
and perhaps even a sense of self...
But in this lostness and this death of one's
home, there is a great opportunity.
There is the chance to find one's inner home again, one's
spiritual connection to the Divine, and one's deeper calling in
life.
The Deeper Calling of the
Spiritual Wanderer
When there is war, deconstruction of social structures, and chaos,
there is also the need to find new vantage points, new solutions,
and new healing paths.
This is where the Spiritual Wanderer comes into the picture.
Just as past (and some present) cultures had wise men and women and
peoples, as well as medicine keepers, oracles and seers, and other
fringe-dwellers living on the outskirts of society, so too
does our world need the presence of these wizened figures.
Where in society are our wise elders, in all
their shapes and forms?
Where have they gone?
Sure, there are odd wisdom figures here and there
in the guise of scientists, thinkers, and religious
figures - but by and large, we have lost touch with the value of the
wizened guide in society.
We need to make a space for these people again - we need to carve a
home for this archetypal presence that has been lost in the
gluttonous consumerism and spiritually-devoid superficiality of
modern existence.
We need,
-
the hermit
-
the mystic
-
the shaman
-
the wise man and woman,
...to reclaim a space in the broken spaces of our
world.
And this is where I see a powerful opportunity arise in our global
loneliness and domicide pandemics:
The path of the Spiritual Wanderer is opening
before us...!
The Pain and Potential in the
Heartbreak
I will write more about the topic of the Spiritual Wanderer
in future posts.
But for now, I want to repeat again that, yes,
we are experiencing the crumbling of
collective structures.
We have so much heartbreak to process.
So many lost lives to grieve.
So much pain to digest.
Seeing the orphaning, maiming, and terror of the children caught
in the conflict within this world is too much to bear... it is
shattering beyond comprehension.
However, with this loss of place, space, and face
in modern society, with this home killing, those of us who become
lone wolves have the chance to find
a greater role and purpose.
Those of us who have the privilege of transmuting whatever form of
domicide we've experienced,
whether familial, cultural, religious,
geographic, internal, or external,
...can find meaning and a new role in
transforming pain into a deeper inner power and perspective that we
can gradually share in whatever way life is asking us to share.
To do so is to reclaim a vital place, space, and face in the world -
one that our societies are desperately calling for:
the presence of the hermit, the mystic, the
shaman, and the sage,
...the voice of the Spiritual Wanderer crying in
the wilderness,
"will you listen, will you sense, will you
feel, will you
wake up...?"
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