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There is a world of fear, division and anger emerging, fuelled by various parties using well known psychological tactics including 'carrot dangles'. This is neither a personal opinion nor a political statement, this is a fact. I spoke about this in my March post The Art Of Emergence, where I outlined common torture techniques and their similarity to our own experiences over the past 15 months, which are still ongoing. No matter your opinion on what is happening, we do ourselves a great disservice if we take these at face value and do not explore these in greater detail.
We are facing lots of challenges in navigating our future. Many people are sharing with me how fearful they are in interacting with the world, in whatever form we may find it and ourselves. This is a normal response to what we have been subjected to. However, we must be continually moving and, despite our fears, we need to find our feet in this new landscape, and quickly. This is where we look to Donkey, but firstly let's explore his nemesis, the Carrot Dangle.
Carrot dangles are a common tool in psychological torture techniques. The important thing about carrot dangles is that the donkey never gets the carrot; he is never intended to get the carrot, that's how it works. No matter what he does; no matter how far he reaches or how far he runs. No matter how much he twists, contorts and changes himself, he never gets the 'reward'. He may be given a closer sniff of it now and again to keep the torture going, but as this is the method to keep reinforcing the desired behaviour in the donkey, he will never receive the carrot.
But what happens if the donkey decides he's going to find his own carrot? Well, this torturous tactic loses its power, and this is when the carrot dangle reveals itself to be exactly what it is, a cheap trick. While we might think the carrot controller has all the influence, it's actually the donkey who has the true power. The donkey's journey to find its own carrot may be hard; walking tough terrain, overcoming obstacles, receiving ridicule, sustaining beatings and wounds in the process. He may sometimes walk barren lands alone where there is nothing to be found, neither carrots nor company. He may never find a carrot or he may find a field of them, but in his journey he has found something even better.
The donkey is a relation to the horse. We humans often have a rather unflattering idea of Donkey but it is a deeply sensitive animal and, just like Horse, has been incredibly instrumental in the development of our civilisations. Donkey as a spirit guide is about intelligence, not something we've been taught to associate with donkeys. Donkey has incredible strength of will, intuitive and emotional intelligence and faith in the worlds beyond. Donkey is a guide of self preservation because it knows its own boundaries and it has a deep faith in its own intuition. The phrase 'stubborn as a mule' completely misrepresents its nature. Donkey is not stubborn, he just refuses to do something that is against his own feeling. Donkey answers to a greater calling than the whims of man.
If we give our power to the controller of the carrot, we will never be able to truly connect with ourselves and each other. We have relinquished a part of ourselves for a promised reward that never comes. The carrot becomes influential in all decision making, it takes priority over everything. It is at the forefront of all of the choices we make; it essentially makes the decisions. We need every part of ourselves - every bit of our own power - to connect to our hearts and souls and those of others.
Eschew that carrot and let Donkey take you on his journey of discovery, of strength of will, resilience, of carrying burdens with ease and of the importance of choice based on emotional and intuitive intelligence. A journey that will show you just how powerful you can be.
Copyright Andrea Doran, Flourish and Contributors 2021. See terms and conditions.
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