Undreaming Wetiko

The profound and radical Native American idea of “wetiko,” a virus of the mind, underlies the collective insanity and evil that is destructively playing out around the world. Yet, as Paul Levy reveals in depth, encoded within wetiko itself lies the very medicine needed to combat the mind-virus and heal both ourselves and our world. Levy begins by investigating how the process of becoming triggered, wounded, or falling into suffering can help us better understand the workings of wetiko in a way that transforms our struggles into opportunities for awakening. He reveals the source of wetiko: unhealed multi-generational ancestral trauma, which gets acted out, passed down, and propagated through the family lineage via our relationships. He highlights one of the primary archetypes currently activated in the collective unconscious of humanity--the wounded healer/shaman--and shows how recognizing this archetype can help us as we navigate a collective descent into the underworld of the unconscious, a true bardo realm between our past and future worlds. Drawing on the work of C. G. Jung, Rudolf Steiner, Henry Corbin, Wilhelm Reich, and Nicolas Berdyaev, the author introduces the inner guide--a daemon/angel that lives within us as an ally in our encounters with the daemonic energy of wetiko. He explores how to cultivate “symbolic awareness” (interpreting events in our lives symbolically--like a dream) as a path to creating meaning, which alchemically transmutes the poison of wetiko into medicine for healing the psyche. Examining the nature of synchronicity, Levy reveals how wetiko can only be seen when we recognize that--like a dream--our inner and outer worlds reflect each other. He also explores the quantum nature of wetiko, showing how this helps us comprehend the elusive trickster nature of this mind-virus and sheds light on the quantum nature of both the world and ourselves. Ultimately, the author reveals that the best protection and medicine for wetiko is to connect with the light of our true nature by becoming who we truly are.