It is easy to look at this and think in big, dramatic terms about collapse, decline, or the end of things. But what does that kind of looking actually do to us? It pulls our attention away from where we have influence. It keeps our nervous systems braced for a future we cannot control. Over time, that drains the energy we would need to stay steady, connected, and effective right here, where our actions actually matter.

When violence erupts, it reveals something larger than the act itself. We see the event, but beneath it are currents shaping the whole of our shared life: people swept into binary outrage, voices using divisive language or failing to stand for love, cruelty disguised as righteousness, and a collapse of discernment so complete that even those dedicated to truth are caught in its undertow.

Purification is the beginning of initiation. It is not about scrubbing away sin, not about measuring up to some moral standard of purity, not about good and evil at war inside us. That is the distortion modern culture has overlaid on a word that once signified something far more profound. Purification, in its initiatory sense, is the beginning alchemy of the soul.