Lost in the desert…

…no direction is safe.

The desert – metaphorically, symbolically, or literally – is not a nice place to be stranded in. Cinema, literature, art…they’ve all used the desert to depict the unpleasant and harsh conditions as a place of isolation, a lack of direction or faith, a testing ground, for purification and transformation, amongst other things. A desolate and empty place where “you can remember your name” because there’s not a lot else to focus on. To be “deserted” is to be abandoned, left behind, discarded. What becomes our guiding force or spirit when we’re lost in the desert?

It doesn’t surprise me that a significant proportion of society feel like they’re lost in a desert. I’m not immune from the feeling myself. The burning questions of “what do I do?”, “where do I go?”, “where am I?”, eventually subside as “who am I?” and “how did I get here/was it worth it/am I still convinced of my chosen path?”, becomes more prominent – along with finding water, the source of life.

"You can't go back and change the beginning, but you can start where you are and change the ending." – C.S. Lewis

I can’t help but feel that a lot of this comes down, “do you really want to know yourself?”, warts and all. What is your animating spirit? Consciousness is one of the greatest gifts we possess as a species, it’s what gives us the advantage over all other life on earth. However, like with some gifts, there are dreadful curses attached or hidden to them. To know yourself, you have to be self-conscious, but in doing so this will induce misery, suffering, the awareness of our impending death, other limitations and vulnerabilities, to name a few. Small wonder some people prefer to stay lost and unconscious to themselves.

The desert is about adversity and challenge, along with finding the oasis. All directions look the same and even if we had a compass, no direction looks favourable. Regularly, we see right at the moment when all hope is lost or that we’ve surrendered to the elements, that a kind shepherd, wise traveller, or old sage, will stumble upon us at our weakest to begin the process of restoring and rebuilding.    

Photo by Dan Grinwis (Finding Dan) on Unsplash.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho is a really good starting point to begin exploring some of these themes I’ve been discussing over the past weeks, including the call to adventure. A key idea of what we’re doing here reminds me of the T.S. Eliot quote, "we shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

As I discussed in my article, “You can lead a camel to water, but you can’t make it drink” – camel to emphasise the desert – one must undertake the journey and go through the transformation, as opposed to just having the wisdom/knowledge recited to them. It is as much a physical voyage as a spiritual process, but modern people are shifting towards only wanting or doing the latter for a variety of reasons (e.g. cost, time/effort, fear).

This could be another article in its own right, but it’s too important not to mention here: Why (how) have our rites of passage/initiations changed or disappeared completely? Modern conditions have taken a bit of a sledgehammer to our ways of life. That, and some people just like to flip the table. I feel we’re being pulled apart in all directions nearly on every level - socially, economically, politically. The environments and situations people find themselves in combined with the future outlook, individually and collectively, has had a huge impact on how we approach life. Spinning 360, looking for the best direction to travel in, it’s no wonder so many bury their heads in the sand.

“Pick your mentors well. Who, in 2026, is a good one? Probably easier to point out those who aren’t at this stage.”

We’ve even gone to the trouble of creating digital deserts. I’m not necessarily referring to corners of the net which haven’t been visited in 20 years, but the amount of isolation we experience and emptiness we feel from being perpetually online and using so much technology. Communities, forums, and groups which become desolate wastelands and/or devoid of any real meaning or substance – or perhaps turned into the searing heat of hostility. Now, we have the problem of data centres drinking up all the water from the well. Where’s the oasis? It’s a mirage.

We have to go through the desert. Overcome temptation. Receive a revelation. Transform into who we are meant to become. Let others benefit from this. It is through attention, action, commitment, and sacrifice, that we can achieve this. The desert will humble our pride and presumption.

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Which direction is your compass pointing in? - Photo by Denise Jans on Unsplash.