By Lydia Wylie-Kellermann, editor of Geez Magazine, director of Kirkridge Retreat Center and author of The Sandbox Revolution: Raising Kids for a Just World

I was a bit undone by the story of the three wise astrologers this year.

^“He sent them to Bethlehem and said, “Go and search carefully for the child. As soon as you find him, report to me, so that I too may go and worship him.” (Matthew 2:8)

How easy it is to be tricked. How easy it is to believe fully that we are doing good while the powers are using us in horrible ways. How easy it is to become distracted by something else while the rulers make plans for power grabs and murder.

As the world is witnessing the slaughter of children in Gaza, a slaughter of innocence, I fear for the ways I am unknowingly being tricked. I know, without fully understanding, that I am constantly being manipulated by the empire that is sending the bombs and blessing the genocide.

Yet, it is in a dream that these three find the truth and figure out a different way. They awake with knowledge in their bellies and truth on the tips of their tongues quickly disappearing as dreams tend to do. They share their dreams with one another, trust the deeper knowing, and move together.

As the Gregorian year turns and I look out onto what is to come, one thing seems clear- the strength of the empire will be strong. From a fully funded genocide with no end in sight to an election that is so tangled with white supremacy, the future of democracy, and no worthy candidate. The powers and principalities will be lifting their giant heads ready for battle.

What do we do?

How do we refuse to be tricked? Resist the manipulation? And see what is behind the veil in the whispers of the rulers?

I believe all we can do is what we hear in this story. We listen for a deeper knowing, for the intuition that shows up in dreams and poetry. The kind of truth that is written into the stars. And then we speak what we see into community, discerning what we hear and letting that shift the course of our journey home.

Beloveds, blessings on this year. May we listen for the ancestors who speak to us in the stars and in our dreams. May we trust in community discernment. May we refuse to be tricked or used by the powers. And may this be the year when the empire crumbles, when bombs cease, when justice reigns, when we bury the dead, when we weave stories and songs of our grief, when we plant gardens, and when a wild and wonderful liberation takes root.