A great enactment of karmic sexual confusions has been played out in the story of Jian Ghomeshi and the women who came forward to speak of their wounded dynamic. So much suffering, and so very much shame.

Our justice system, in its currently unconscious state, cannot solve a trauma profoundly embedded within our species. The answer lies in the mutual awareness and profound inner knowing that together, women and men can create a different world.

The indigenous justice model is a holistic one, where everyone involved in the conflict is considered to be interconnected, not thrust into radical opposition, as happens with “modern” judicial systems. Indigenous justice needs no lawyers or judges, because everyone involved is focused upon the same centre of the circle, seeking to reveal the underlying cause of the situation. This model travels from the first presentation of a conflict, to discussion, to resolution and implementation of healing strategies. Every aspect of the journey is rooted in the understanding that we are here to live as one with all sentient beings and our natural world.

In this model, human failings, weakness and woundings are witnessed and acknowledged. There are opportunities for the injured to be supported, and for the offender to return to mental, physical and spiritual health. It is understood that our pain is our teacher, and that we all here to heal and transform together. Above all, with this approach it is possible to cleanse the shame of wrong-doing, and change the course of a life for the better. Those who have stepped beyond the boundaries of the community remain a part of the community, the conflict itself becoming a part of the fabric of growth and clarity, and so every soul has value.

Our modern justice system truly is nothing more than vengeance made legitimate and enforceable. And so our prisons fill up with broken beings, and those outside the walls feel less and less safe as the hate goes on and on, back and forth, the energy of blame rebounding into a toxic spiral. Man and woman, black and white, Muslim and Jew. It’s much easier to hate someone else, than to face the truth of our own fear.

So, to the good-hearted men who are feeling somehow responsible, please know that no man is meant to take on the karma of a whole gender. Not all men are Jian, and Jian himself is a child of pain. I do not ask loving men to apologize for men who have been hurtful; nor do I believe women are without wounds of their own.

As a woman who has been on the receiving end of such experiences (and I know very few women who have not) I am weary of women’s wrath. Wrath has never solved anything. It needs to be expressed, released, absolutely, but the genderless, human cycle of blame must stop somewhere. I”m tired of blame of any kind; we do not need it to make us strong.

A simple answer would return us to indigenous wisdom. If only we could open our minds and hearts. If only we could dare to be vulnerable ourselves.

Please. Let us rethink our defensive habits of judgement, our desire to revile, and instead choose to act from the truth that is right before us. Let us let go the need to pull others down to join us in old suffering, and choose to step up as an inter-connected continuum instead. Oneness is the new judge, jury and accused.