Why Do Senseless Shootings Occur?

In a previous post, we learned about grace, which is a field of energy available to all of us. It is a higher frequency state of being described by many wisdom teachings, including the ancient Chinese Book of Changes (“I Ching”). The I Ching system has 64 different gates or aspects of beingness that we are here to learn about. What about acts of violence? Why do senseless shootings occur?

Life lessons come to us mostly in negative situations, as observed by Peter Watson Jenkins and Toni Ann Winninger (“How I Died and What I Did Next”). It’s only been a month since we were shocked by a racially motivated mass shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

A 21-year old white male shot and killed nine people, including the senior pastor during an evening prayer service at one of the oldest black churches in the country.
The suspect later confessed that he was hoping to ignite a race war.

This tragic event happened before the summer solstice that ushered in a period of focusing on our first chakra issues, such as survival, safety, security, trust, and roots. When we take a step back, we can see how this event encapsulated several life lessons pertinent to all of us.

What is the core wound of the first chakra?

The first chakra is about our basic right to be here and to have our physical needs met. It’s about self-preservation, as explained by Anodea Judith (“Eastern Body, Western Mind”):

When we’re well grounded and comfortable in our body, we have good health, vitality, stability, and prosperity with a sense of trust in the world, a feeling of safety and security.
When our survival is threatened, we become anxious, restless, hypervigilant, angry and frustrated. We have poor focus, poor discipline and poor boundaries. We may become spacey or numb ourselves with addictions (e.g. food, drugs) or compulsive activities.
When challenged, we are easily irritated or become violent, striking out like a cornered or wounded animal. We become disconnected from the body, disconnected from life, which produces disconnected actions, such as senseless killings and drive-by shootings.

The core wound is fear. When the threat cannot be overcome, we adapt to the sense of fear by becoming hypervigilant, which paradoxically makes us feel “safe.” The constant state of stress becomes “normal” to us, but takes a toll on our physical body, according to Anodea.

What are some other lessons?

The shooting event in Charleston highlighted several I Ching gates, but Gate 4 (“Youthful folly”) in particular. Richard Rudd (“Gene Keys”) described this gate according to its shadow, gift and divine gift levels in this way:

At the shadow level of Intolerance, the person acts or over-reacts using distorted logic to see the one-sided patterns they want to see, rather than both sides. Racism and prejudice are examples of genetic or ancestral fears, that are projected onto others in this way.
At the gift level of Understanding, the person begins to see that nothing can be proved through logic. True understanding is based on knowing. There is an urge to be of service, to create new systems to solve the problems of intolerance and division in the world.
At the divine gift level of Forgiveness, our new awareness is based on understanding how connected we all are to each other. Forgiveness is a divine quality that descends and melts the borders and boundaries within the world of form (e.g. light/dark, yin/yang, etc.).

We witnessed all these levels being acted out by the players in this event, which produced a huge ripple effect beyond the local community. The most amazing forgiving and peaceful response came from the victims’ families, who became role models for the rest of us.

Final Thoughts

When events like mass shootings occur, it may be hard to see beyond the initial human responses of shock, grief, anger, revenge or retaliation. But these situations carry a seed of great change which, when acted upon by a sufficient number of people, can bring about evolution that goes beyond the individual to affect the local and global communities.

According to Rudd, the ultimate role of Forgiveness is to bring humanity into a collective union, which leads to resolution of karmic debts, both individually and racially as well as collectively (e.g. nations forgiving each other their financial debts). What a concept!

“Forgiveness is a universal panacea that radiates in every direction throughout time and space…When all is forgiven, then forgiveness itself no longer exists, only Truth.” – Richard Rudd