The
Manifesto
Ron Lampi
2nd edition
2006/2009
The intent of The Santa Cruz Manifesto has been to initiate a discourse and to
further inspire those who immediately grasp its meaning. I felt it
was time to touch up the first edition that I had circulated on a
small scale three years ago. I hoped that others might respond and
begin an open dialogue but that is still to happen. Clarifications
of what is expressed here, as determined by such a potential engagement,
will be made as future editions.
Places, we must realize, have mythic
significance, that is to say, 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 might indeed be 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 center of the Vortex is our famous downtown Pacific Avenue.
If you live here, you have experienced the Vortex firsthand. You have
undoubtedly 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 of West Cliff Drive 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, where it all comes to an end. 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
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. At the Edge
is where we can take that next step.
The MYTHOS begins somewhere,
and must begin
with someone
How many thousands live in
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.
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 at that place where we can be
spoken to anew. We have the exhilarating opportunity to stand creatively
open to Being. We have prepared ourselves
to be spoken to anew by Being. The Edge
therefore 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 our human world is allowed
to come through as new Vision. 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 that we have taken on that
responsibility. Santa Cruz is indeed a place of such creative potential—that
promised by new Vision.
To existentially live on the Edge is
no longer then 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 and 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, about communication, with all people. 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 that has profound global
significance. There are unfortunately persons, at all levels, who
would either purposely or unwittingly cheat us out of this deeper
significance of Santa Cruz. They probably prefer to see 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 again no more than
as a marketing plug. Their mainstream views sound as if they could
be living in mainstream
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 Traditions; we are
called to transform the old belief systems, we are called to transform
the Traditions that are dying around us. If we are genuinely attuned
to the Edge, we are Transformers. Do we perhaps 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
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/May 2009