The election's over. Finally! Barack Obama has broken through, and it is a grand day indeed.

But I celebrate not for Obama and all the karmic and historic baggage that's been placed on his shoulders.

I celebrate for the expansion of consciousness that has finally poked its head through the fog into the public awareness.

Understand that this election was not about Obama or McCain. It was about consciousness awakening to the possibility it is more than we allow it to be.

Obama just happened to be the convenient receptacle through which that consciousness could be expressed and carried to the surface.

But understand that if it were not Obama, it would have been someone else who would have answered the call of consciousness. For consciousness once awakened from its slumber cannot be denied.

Both Obama and McCain played their role, but not in the sense everyone thinks. For this was not an election about the issues of which they spoke. It was an election to expand that consciousness even more so we can see the game of conflict in which we have allowed ourselves to become embroiled.

In a sense, this world is built on conflict. Three dimensional reality is always in some state of struggle between pairs of opposite views or characteristics. We call this state duality.

It's the reason we humans love to fight, and are so ready to jump into that game of conflict at a moment's notice. Witness how quickly most took sides in the battle between Obama and McCain. They fell prey to old-time politics that pits one side against the other, manipulated into treating their opponent as some sort of pariah.

Yet, that rising tide of consciousness made the electorate more acutely aware than ever of their discomfort with the game. Witness the candidates themselves who reflected it.

When they aligned themselves with that consciousness, talking about hope, opportunity, and freeing ourselves from the tyranny of the system in Washington that has grown up around such contests for power, they were strong. The public responded with their favor, and they felt it.

When they didn't and fell back into the system of conflict, they threw out policy after program designed to appeal to one constituent base or another. The result took them out of the flow of consciousness. So they fell back on their political machinery (and put themselves deeper under the influence of those who push the buttons behind the scenes), and voter frustration grew.

And when the economic upheaval took center stage, both hemmed and hawed over what to do about it. For there was no bandage that could be applied to stop consciousness from eroding the money machinery that has pitted people against each other for so long.

An Inner Tug-o-War
Once upon a time it was easy to play the game of politics. We chose sides, hated the other guy and all they stood for, and rooted them on as they beat each other into the ground with whatever tactic they could find.

Now, though, that game grew ever-more uncomfortable for all, even the candidates. Sure, most still took sides and played their roles, but it was with a growing unease. For both candidates reflected aspects of that expanding consciousness while simultaneously embodying the politics as usual so many hate, just like we did.

Even now with election over, Obamaists are crowing about their great victory and supposed mandate for the policies they want to implement.

Yet it isn't those policies that have the mandate; it is the expression of consciousness that has the mandate, calling for a new birth in how we conduct our affairs and relate to each other.

Obama supporters who pound each other on the backs with pride, as well as those for McCain who hang their heads in misery, are simply demonstrating they are not yet ready to leave the game behind. They like the game and the feeling it gives them, like a gambling rush that pays off (or doesn't).

Going In A New Direction
This expansion of consciousness is at work within each of us, causing us to reflect upon our role in the affairs of our governance and how we allow ourselves to be manipulated in the games of power.

And alas, it is also setting off inner conflicts over what is awakening within us and our willingness to take sides in their battles.

For consciousness doesn't choose sides. It doesn't even fight. It simply causes us to see that the battle lines for what they are -- illusions presented to induce us into conflict where none is necessary to get where we want to go.

Don't get the idea that this awakening is reserved only for those who voted for Obama, and that those who supported McCain are Neanderthals chained to the status quo. It's not that way at all; it is no more advanced on one side or the other.

We are all feeling it to one degree or another. However, we all struggle to reflect it, having to justify our stirring inner processes with the patterns, beliefs and perspectives that have kept us participating in the game.

It is simply that consciousness has chosen to be expressed, and Obama was the benefactor because he represents the opportunity for the greatest deviation from the status quo in a world where consciousness has long been suppressed.

So whether you supported him or not, don't think he'll be able to govern as did his predecessors. For consciousness won't stand idly by and let him and his Democratically-run Congress engage in business as usual.

If they remain aligned with its ongoing expansion, their efforts to set a new course will meet easier going. But if they fall back into their games of power politics and try ramming programs down our throats that do not serve the people -- all the people -- they will meet with struggles even greater than before, and their hold on power will be short-lived indeed.

Our system of governance and the parties that contest to run it are in for a rude awakening. The people are stirring, and there's nothing Washington can do to put them back to sleep.

Obama professes he doesn't want to, and I hope he really means it. He'll have the chance to prove it, especially if he can get his Congressional cohorts to follow suit.

Either they get in line and go along with the flow, or they'll have to get out of the way. For if not, they'll be seen as simply obstructions to be cast aside and a new group will be brought in to do the job.

Because a New World is coming whether they like it or not, and consciousness is leading the way.