The Santa Cruz Manifesto

The intent of The Santa Cruz Manifesto is to initiate a discourse and to further inspire those who immediately grasp its meaning. This offering is a first round in a needed discussion. I therefore encourage others to speak up. Clarifications of what is expressed here, as determined by this engagement, will be made as future editions.

Places, we must realize, have mythic significance, the potential of mythic significance, that we are called to articulate and bring into form. It is our responsibility then, we who would realize this significance, to do the work required and bring forth a place into its Story. We cannot accept Postmodernist thought that would deny us an existential significance to place, that we might have a Story to tell, that there is indeed a great Story to tell. Opening ourselves, attuning ourselves, to the Mythos of place, we can no longer consider ourselves in this regard Postmodern.

 

 

 

There are those of us who live on the Edge, and we realize that we live on the Edge. We who live in Santa Cruz , we should realize that we are those who live on the Edge.

 

For those who know this place, Santa Cruz is a Vortex, its swirling and swirling currents pulling in persons from all over places; its quirky vibes, its extraordinary diversity of creative energies, all the dreams and pipe dreams, music everywhere in the air, its weirdness and wackiness of characters, swirling ever tighter, the Vortex pours out onto our famous downtown Pacific Avenue. You have experienced the Vortex firsthand. You have been swirled into the Vortex yourself. Perhaps it is exactly who you are that goes into swirling this Vortex. This Vortex is a whirl alright. But Santa Cruz sits on the north end of Monterey Bay , its surf-melodic cliffs looking out over the vast waters of the Pacific. We who have come to this place could not have gone any further. This is the Edge of the West. We live here, stand upon the cliffs, upon the sands of our beaches, and realize that we can go no further. This is it. The great Ocean spreads before us. This is the Edge. We must come to realize what it means to live on the Edge.

 

We who live in Santa Cruz , we are those who live on the Edge. We live on the Edge of our America . We live on the Edge of this whole, big, New World continent. We live on the Western Edge. We live on the Edge of Western Civilization. We live on the Edge of today’s decadent, Postmodern society. This is where it all comes to an end, at the Edge.

 

We live on the Edge of all that has brought us to this point in our evolution. On the Edge, we are called to prepare ourselves for the next step in our evolution.

 

Santa Cruz is a place on the Edge. Many places, it will undoubtedly be claimed, are on this Edge. Let those who live in places of the Edge articulate then what they experience as the Edge in that very place they are. This poet who speaks lives in Santa Cruz , and so I speak from this very place.

 

On the Edge, we are those who understand:

 

The MYTHOS begins somewhere,

and must begin with someone

 

 

How many thousands live in Santa Cruz , how many thousands come and visit Santa Cruz , yet have no real understanding of this place on the Edge. Those who live here conducting lives straight out of the mainstream status quo, utterly enthralled to their contemporary conditioning, who live here only to own property, only to make money, who gleefully indulge themselves in our ubiquitous American techno-materialism, those who live here as if it were just anywhere to live, or who, perhaps, think this is, like, you know, a cool place to live, but then take it no further, are missing the profound significance of this place. They are missing the whole point about living in Santa Cruz . Like the great masses of humanity anywhere, they scratch about on the surface of a more profound Earth.

 

We who live on the Edge should come to understand what this means. We can no longer afford to walk around in a Postmodern, fragmented state of confusion. We can no longer afford to think in a fog, dude. Santa Cruz is an ultra Postmodern, hip, cool town alright, but is also the place of transition out of the Postmodern. On the Edge, it is the potential cutting edge into futurity.

 

To stand and to live on the Edge means that we are no longer enthralled to the conditioning we have known since our birth. We can no longer accept the old, destructive ways of the world. The Edge means we are in that place where we can be spoken to anew. We have the opportunity to stand creatively open to Being. We have prepared ourselves to be spoken to anew by Being. The Edge means we stand in that place between the human world and the non-human. The Edge means we are open to new Vision. The Edge is that place where that which is beyond the human world is allowed to come through. To stand and to live on the Edge means that we in fact have a responsibility to be open to new Vision. To accept the challenge of the Edge means we have taken on that responsibility. Santa Cruz is indeed a place on the Edge.

 

To existentially live on the Edge is no longer to accept the conventional, mainstream, status quo, be it social, political, educational, scientific, or the market. It is no longer to live enthralled before the TV reality of corporate consumer materialism. On the Edge, we are not duped by lying politicians, by big media manipulation and slanting of the news, by the constant games of the unevolved Us vs. Them mindset. On the Edge, we cannot follow politicians who vote for war, who make excuses for war, who rationalize killing, which is all quite status quo; we cannot follow politicians who themselves simply accept their position as players in the System, duped by the machinations of the puppet masters of this planet, global power brokers who assume that Earth is their chessboard. On the Edge, we are not simply and only Americans, we are planetary, Earth-based, Gaia conscious, open to contact with the greater Cosmic Community. On the Edge, we are not naïve about the polarizing ploys of Right or Left. On the Edge, we do not set up others as the Enemy. On the Edge, we cannot and do not condone hate media. On the Edge, we are passionate about dialogue, communication, with all. On the Edge, we are challenged to engage our imaginations to confront all the old, destructive ways of the world. On the Edge, we are called to be agents of global transformation and evolution.

 

On the Edge, we must come to realize for ourselves a tremendous creative potential of profound global significance. There are local persons, at all levels, who would cheat us out of this deeper significance of Santa Cruz . They would prefer Santa Cruz as a bedroom community to Silicon Valley , keeping it as an expensive place to live, oh, perhaps seeing it as a “different kind’a” place to live, but no more than that. Their mainstream views sound as if they could be living in mainstream Anytown , USA . But the fact is, the essence of Santa Cruz is anything but mainstream. It is a Vortex of such creative potential, on the Edge, that we should be celebrating it as this very special place it is.

 

Living out on the Edge, we must come to realize further implications for us. We can no longer open a Bible and take it at face value as Truth. We can no longer open a Koran and take it at face value as Truth. Let us be honest about it: Fundamentalism is not the vibration of the Edge. On the Edge, we can no longer be solely Christian, solely Muslim, solely Jew, Buddhist, Taoist, or Hindu. On the Edge, we are transforming our being Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, Taoist, or Hindu. The vast, all-one Ocean we stand before is Universal and reveals to us a Vision Universal. We are no longer enthralled to old belief systems, to dying Tradition; we are transforming old belief systems, we are transforming the dying Tradition. If we are genuinely attuned to the Edge, we are Transformers. Do we dabble in the various occult arts, spiritual practices, and therapies? Do we play at various dead myths? On the Edge, the Vision is revealed that weaves all eclecticism into an emerging, new, living Mythos.

 

Postmodernist thought would deny us the speech of Mythos, that place could any longer give birth to Mythos. It claims that it is no longer even possible to speak the Word of Mythos. Postmodernism, of course, revels in discontinuity, incoherence, and fragmentation. To Postmodernism, a unifying great Story is no longer possible. Fundamentalists would also deny us the speech of Mythos, that place could have any greater “divine” significance. They would deny, for example, that Monterey Bay has any special significance beyond its literal presence. Oh, but isn’t the Bay lovely. Yes, the Bay is lovely, overwhelmingly beautiful is our Bay, but that must mean something more than backdrop to expensive real estate, more than merely a destination for recreational activities. Fundamentalists deny us the possibility of a new Story, because for them the Story has already been told, and nothing more needs to be said. They deny us, on a most profound level, the visionary potential of creativity. Postmodernists and Fundamentalists alike would deny that the great Ocean before us could speak to us. If we are serious about engaging the profound meaning of the Edge, we cannot deny the voices coming to us from beyond us.

 

On the Edge, we represent a new humanity. A new dispensation of the Ages is coming through, and we who stand on the Edge have opened our Ears and have opened our Eyes. A Vision is given onto us of Psyche—Psyche of all peoples, of the soul complete. The new Song of this Earth is heard, here, at the Edge, from out of the Pacific of the Universal Waters of the vast, all-one-interconnected Ocean.

 

A new Vision is coming through. My Eye has seen this Fountain of new Vision. My Ear has heard its Melody, a Tree of Song for all peoples. I have stood on the cliffs of The Cruz, and I have witnessed this Vision, here, on the Edge.

 

 

 

 

August 2006