Creating The Webbd Wheel: Discernment

In which we learn to sort one thing from another ...

One of Baba Yaga’s lessons in the old stories is sorting one thing from another. Wholesome corn from mildewed corn. Poppy seeds from dirt. The ability to winnow, or separate wheat from chaff, is essential to our power. It’s not about female gender roles or housework. It’s not about magic or the impossibility of the task as Baba Yaga assigns it to Vasilisa. It’s about power. Vasilisa, with the help of her intuition, symbolized by the doll her mother made her, must learn how to manage her power in order to fulfill her destiny as Vasilisa the Wise.

We seem to be rapidly losing the ability to discern.

Image by frank Mckenna on Unsplash

If we cannot discern the wolves from the sheep, lies from truth, fantasy and delusion from objective reality, opinion from information (facts), and nourishment from poison, we won’t survive, let alone thrive.

The art of discernment is the point of Vasilisa’s task of sorting poppy seeds from dirt. Discernment stands in direct opposition to the blurring of objective reality and truth everywhere in postmodern culture. If everyone’s belief is true, if any of us can be whoever we want in any given moment, if everyone’s identity, ideology and demands must be pandered to, we effectively throw critical thinking, of which discernment is a part, out the window. As we are seeing every day, chaos ensues. Systems and institutions break down, not in useful ways, to be rebuilt without internalized racism, for example, but in catastrophic ways calculated to injure as many people as possible for the sake of power and control, symbolized by money. Justice and the law become irrelevant. Education and science no longer matter. Meritocracy withers. Morals, ethics, and integrity are erased. The arts and artists are demonized.

Individuality is eradicated.

Social interaction becomes akin to an overcrowded preschool room, filled with tantrums, bullying, violence, greed, and manipulation. The biggest bullies control; the rest of the kids follow along fearfully. Everyone for themselves. Remember The Lord of the Flies by William Golding? Oh, wait, that book has been banned because it portrays the truth of what we are capable of as human beings. Never mind.

I rest my case.

Dystopia. Authoritarianism. Totalitarianism. Because we cannot or will not separate one thing from another.

Discernment is variously called hate, racial profiling and entitlement. Tolerance and respect are demanded but not demonstrated. Agreement is mandated; heavy social penalties are imposed if we dare think for ourselves, do our own work, ask questions, or disagree.

I began writing The Webbd Wheel ten years ago. Every year it becomes more relevant. Never in my lifetime have we so needed Baba Yaga’s lessons, clear eyes, and wisdom.

(This essay was published with post #43 of The Hanged Man.)