Spiritual Emergency

Guidelines for Reading this Blog...

2007-03-31T21:44:00.000-07:00

Most of the blogs I've seen are the equivalent of an online journal that discuss the joys and trials of one's daily existence or interests. You should know, this blog isn't organized on that principle. This blog is primarily a means of bringing together specific articles and viewpoints that I've found helpful in understanding and moving through my own spiritual emergency. It's been structured to present entries in chronological order (as opposed to typical blog layout wherein the most recent entry is on "the top") and is currently complete. I won't be adding any more entries to the blog aside from changing out the featured quote from time to time. Depending on why you're here, it might be helpful for you -- the reader -- to follow some brief guidelines to increase your reading satisfaction.

You're aimlessly surfing for some good reading material...

Just go ahead and read the blog in typical blog fashion wherein you start at the top and work your way through to the bottom or disinterest, whichever comes first. I've looked for well-written articles and personal accounts and I've even added some pretty pictures to help hold your attention. Note that most of the articles are mere excerpts, clicking the link below the article will lead to the complete online original. I hope you'll enjoy my efforts and perhaps learn something new while you're here. Either way, thanks for stopping in.

You're looking for some specific information...

Most likely, according to one of the following topics: Spiritual Emergency; Shamanism; Mysticism; Gnosticism; Alchemy; Transformational or Personal Crisis; Schizophrenia; Psychosis; Trauma; PTSD; The Hero's Journey; Spiritual Awakening; Ego Death; The Dark Night of the Soul; Kundalini; Carl Jung; John Weir Perry; Stanislav Grof; Christina Grof; R.D. Laing; Loren Mosher; Maureen Roberts; David Lukoff; The Black Madonna; Kali; Sophia.

Below my profile on the right is a table of contents that includes all entries. Scroll through it, find the entry that interests you, and click on the link. Alternatively, use the "Search this Blog" feature at the top of the page. Happy reading, I hope you find what you were looking for, and thanks for stopping by.

You've gone through or are currently undergoing a transformative psychospiritual crisis that includes extreme states of consciousness. Alternatively, you may know someone who has been through or is going through the same and you want to better understand the process so you're more capable of providing support...

You're the individual this blog was specifically created for.

I recognize that those going through a spiritual emergency are often isolated and misunderstood. Frequently, they can't afford to enter into a therapeutic relationship or may find the one they're in is not that helpful to them. In addition, their health insurance may limit the type or quantity of care they'll be permitted to seek. They also may be incapable of working during or for many months after their spiritual emergency. As a result, they may not have any medical coverage whatsoever.

For that reason I've sought out free articles on the internet and organized them here, in one central location. Occasionally, I quote directly from a book I own if I've found it to be exceptionally insightful. In particular, I highly recommend The Stormy Search for the Self and Spiritual Emergency, both written/edited by Stanislav and Christina Grof, as well as Trials of the Visionary Mind by John Weir Perry.

Although you are welcome to read in usual blog fashion or to pick and choose your reading entries selectively, I recommend you begin with the very first entry and work your way through to the end; concepts that are presented in one entry are often fleshed-out in later entries and this method can probably best present you with the "big picture".

Bear in mind, this blog is only a starting point and is undeniably flavored by my own experience. Nonetheless, it's my hope that you'll find something here that is helpful to you -- feel free to follow up on that which you find helpful and discard that which you don't. Thanks for stopping by and feel free to come back as many times as you feel is necessary.

Please note: I am not a therapist, guru, shaman, or personal coach. I can't give you advice on medication, channel departed loved ones, predict your future, or help you write a paper for your class. I'm not here to gain your sympathy or your admiration, nor am I seeking a significant other, new friend, or book deal. I am simply an ordinary human being who is sharing a slice of a powerful personal experience and what I have found most insightful or helpful for interpreting, integrating, and moving beyond that experience.

Special thanks to Clancy Cavnar who has graciously allowed me the use of a number of her images to illustrate this blog. Please check out the full range of her stunning artwork at clancycavnar.com

Spiritual Emergency, Shamanism, Mysticism, Gnosticism, Alchemy, Crisis, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, PTSD, The Hero's Journey, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, The Dark Night of the Soul, Kundalini, Carl Jung, John Weir Perry, Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof, R.D. Laing, Loren Mosher, Maureen Roberts, David Lukoff, The Black Madonna, Kali, Sophia

See also, my companion blog: Spiritual Recovery

The Tibetan Book of the Dead

2006-11-12T22:17:00.000-08:00

The Tibetan Book of the Dead is pragmatically and existentially directed toward the "dead" who are still living, and not especially toward those who are clinically dead. To reveal this less obvious meaning, we need to examine more closely some of the key features of the manifest meaning, for these indicate that both the existence of gods and the existence of an after-death bardo realm are questionable. With respect to the reality of the gods and demons that are experienced in the after-death state, we have noted that the text informs the disembodied consciousness that these deities have no substantial reality of their own. Indeed, this is the central illuminating principle of the text. Two memorable excerpts are as follows:

Through the instruction of his guru he will recognize them [the visionary deities] as his own projections, the play of the mind, and he will be liberated. It is just like seeing a stuffed lion, for instance: he feels very frightened if he does not know that it is really only a stuffed lion, but if someone shows him what it is he is astonished and no longer afraid. So here too he feels terrified and bewildered when the blood-drinking deities appear with their huge bodies and thick limbs, filling the whole of space, but as soon as he is shown he recognises them as his own projections or as yidams; the luminosity that arises later, mother and son, merge together, and, like meeting a man he used to know very well, the self-liberating luminosity of his own mind spontaneously arises before him.

[W]hatever you see, however terrifying it is, recognise it as your own projection; recognise it as the luminosity, the natural radiance of your own mind.

These excerpts confirm that the gods and demons experienced in the after-death state, although they appear with a reality equal to the material objects in the world of the living, are indeed believed to be nothing more than manifestations of the dead person's own psychological states.(6) They are merely symbolic forms that express conditions of either psychological liberation or psychological bondage and suffering. This suggests that the path to enlightenment in no way depends upon favors or obstructions issued from the realm of the gods and demons that populate the after-death state; the path depends upon initially recognizing the images of the gods as manifestations of oneself in various possible and actual forms. Self-recognition alone initiates the path to more satisfactory levels of consciousness.

Source: The therapeutic psychology of 'The Tibetan Book of the Dead'

See also:
Alternative Cosmologies and Altered States

The Varieties of Primal Experience

Spiritual Emergency, Tibetan Book of the Dead, Bardo States, Crisis, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, PTSD, The Hero's Journey, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, Kundalini, Carl Jung

Ego Death

2006-09-05T19:42:00.000-07:00

Death, ego death

Beyond this experience, all light disappears, all awareness ceases. There is no perception of anything; there is simply no experience. When the soul is completely concentrated on the absolute there is nothing to perceive, for to perceive total darkness is not to perceive. Light is the awareness that arises out of this total darkness, revealing that the absolute is prior to light, awareness, and consciousness. This experience of cessation is the experience of complete ego death, for it is going beyond the world of manifestation, beyond even awareness of the world of manifestation. There is no awareness of self or soul, for there is no awareness at all, without this being unconsciousness or sleep. When awareness looks out again, which we experience as the return of awareness, the manifest universe reappears. With the return of awareness the logos appears as the displaying of time and space, and all the phenomena of the universe. We are here the absolute, the luminous night, witnessing appearance arising within it, out of it, but we still experience ourselves as the immense stillness and stupendous silence underlying all existence and all appearance. We feel fresh and clear, as if our consciousness has dipped into the cleansing energies of the source, and returned renewed and rejuvenated. This is similar to the rejuvenation we experience after deep sleep, except we are here clear and awake, bright and lucid. (The Inner Journey Home, p 382)

~*~

These issues tend to arise naturally in life, especially during transitions and intense events, but they also are brought forth intensely due to the inner work. They arise especially as the soul learns to penetrate and transcend her ego structure. To follow our example, when the soul begins to see the limitation of structure and experiences herself as presence, the structure begins to reveal its nature as a mental construct characterized by past conditioning, ideas, memories, etc. The soul begins to experience an inner emptiness, a meaninglessness, a dread of falling apart, and terror of death and annihilation. These experiences of falling apart or being annihilated actually come to pass as the structures dissolve. The soul experiences disintegration and dissolution, disorientation, and a loss of identity; she feels lost and despondent. These existential crises are actually elements of some stages of working through ego structures that then lead to deeper realizations of true nature, moving to timelessness and formlessness. (The Inner Journey Home, p 231)

Source: Ego Death

See Also:
Forms of Spiritual Emergency
Psychosis & Ego Collapse

How To Produce An Acute Schizophrenic Break

The Process of Individuation - The Shadow

2006-07-09T00:08:00.000-07:00

Image Source

Within Jungian psychology there is a concept known as The Shadow. Most of us encounter our own shadows in the form of projection. That is to say, we disown the characteristics and behaviors we cannot stand about ourselves and project them onto others. We then insist that they carry our shadow for us and may even punish them for the things we hate about ourselves. One example of this might be a minister who openly despises gays while privately engaging in closeted homosexual activity.

Those who cannot accept their shadow will reject it in favor of embracing their Persona. The persona is the idealized image we present of who we really are. And still ... The Shadow Knows when we are lying to ourselves and those around us. The shadow contains our every fear, our every terror, it knows our every truth -- especially the ones we can't stand to face about ourselves.

Kali was in my shadow. When it became too painful to see the things I did not want to see, she gave me her eyes so I could bear to look. I like to think she still sneaks them into me when I'm not looking.

... The Black Goddess Kali, the terrible one of many names, "difficult of approach," whose stomach is a void and so can never be filled, and whose womb is giving birth forever to all things ...

-- Joseph Campbell

See also:
Kali - The Divine Mother
Shadow Projection
Jung On The Shadow
The Individuation Process: The Shadow
Encountering Darkness
Jungian Motifs in the Lord of the Rings: The Shadow
May It Be

Dancing in the Flames

August, and Everything After

2006-07-09T00:07:00.000-07:00

This was one of those songs that got stuck in my head long before August, and Everything After ever arrived...

The Rain King

When I think of heaven
Deliver me in a black-winged bird
I think of flying ...
Down in your sea of pins and feathers
And all other instruments of
Faith and Sex and God
In the Belly of a Black-Winged Bird.

Don't try to feed me
'Cause I've been here before
And I deserve a little more

I belong, in the service of the Queen
I belong, anywhere but in between
She's been crying, I've been thinking
And I am, the Rain King

And I said mama, mama, mama,
Why am I so alone?
I can't go outside, I'm scared
I might not make it home
But I'm alive, I'm alive
But I'm sinking in
If there's anyone at home at your place, darlin'
Why don't you invite me in?

Don't try to plead me
'Cause I've been there before
And I deserve a little more

I belong, in the service of the Queen
I belong, anywhere but in between
She's been lying, I've been sinking
And I am the Rain King

Hey, I only want the same as anyone
Tender sonnets waiting for the Sun
Oh, it seems Night endlessly
begins and ends
After all the Dreaming
I come
~ Home Again ~

When I think of heaven
Deliver me in a black-winged bird
I think of dying ...
Lay me down in a field of
Flame and Heather
Render up my Body, Into
~ The Burning Heart of God ~
In the Belly of a Black-Winged Bird

Don't try to bleed me
'Cause I've been here before
And I deserve a little more

I belong, in the service of the Queen
I belong, anywhere but in between
She's been dying and I've been drinking
And I Am
The Rain King

The Counting Crows

[* A rain king is a shaman.]

See also:
The Shaman Sickness
Case Example: Traditional Shamanic Initiation

Shamanism & Schizophrenia

The Wasteland

2006-07-09T00:06:00.000-07:00

An excerpt from a poem which got stuck early in this process...

I. THE BURIAL OF THE DEAD

APRIL is the cruellest month, breeding
Lilacs out of the dead land, mixing
Memory and desire, stirring
Dull roots with spring rain.
Winter kept us warm, covering
Earth in forgetful snow, feeding
A little life with dried tubers.
Summer surprised us, coming over the Starnbergersee
With a shower of rain; we stopped in the colonnade,
And went on in sunlight, into the Hofgarten,
And drank coffee, and talked for an hour.
Bin gar keine Russin, stamm' aus Litauen, echt deutsch.
And when we were children, staying at the archduke's,
My cousin's, he took me out on a sled,
And I was frightened. He said, Marie,
Marie, hold on tight. And down we went.
In the mountains, there you feel free.
I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

What are the roots that clutch, what branches grow
Out of this stony rubbish? Son of man,
You cannot say, or guess, for you know only
A heap of broken images, where the sun beats,
And the dead tree gives no shelter, the cricket no relief,
And the dry stone no sound of water. Only
There is shadow under this red rock,
(Come in under the shadow of this red rock),
And I will show you something different from either
Your shadow at morning striding behind you
Or your shadow at evening rising to meet you;
I will show you fear in a handful of dust.

Frisch weht der Wind
Der Heimat zu.
Mein Irisch Kind,
Wo weilest du?

'You gave me hyacinths first a year ago;
'They called me the hyacinth girl.'
—Yet when we came back, late, from the Hyacinth garden,
Your arms full, and your hair wet, I could not
Speak, and my eyes failed, I was neither
Living nor dead, and I knew nothing,
Looking into the heart of light, the silence.
Od' und leer das Meer.

The Wasteland

T.S. Eliot

See also: The Gravity of Love

The Shadow Knows...

2006-07-01T11:11:00.000-07:00

Image Source

Within Jungian psychology there is a concept known as The Shadow. Most of us encounter our own shadows in the form of projection. That is to say, we disown the characteristics and behaviors we cannot stand about ourselves and project them onto others. We then insist that they carry our shadow for us and may even punish them for the things we hate about ourselves. One example of this might be a minister who openly despises gays while privately engaging in closeted homosexual activity.

Those who cannot accept their shadow will reject it in favor of embracing their Persona. The persona is the idealized image we present of who we really are. And still ... The Shadow Knows when we are lying to ourselves and those around us. The shadow contains our every fear, our every terror, it knows our every truth -- especially the ones we can't stand to face about ourselves.

Kali was in my shadow. When it became too painful to see the things I did not want to see, she gave me her eyes so I could bear to look. I like to think she still sneaks them into me when I'm not looking.

... The Black Goddess Kali, the terrible one of many names, "difficult of approach," whose stomach is a void and so can never be filled, and whose womb is giving birth forever to all things ...

-- Joseph Campbell

See also:
Shadow Projection
Jung On The Shadow
The Individuation Process: The Shadow
Jungian Motifs in the Lord of the Rings: The Shadow

Dancing in the Flames

I am saddened to note that a blog I have followed closely over the past few years is closing its doors. Its founder, Eric Blumrich, saw and understood the shadow of our collective psychosis so very well and packaged that insight into a collection of flash videos with a very powerful message I have enjoyed and shared many times over in these past few years. I will miss him.

I've linked a few of my personal favorites from the bushflash.com video archives below. Please note that every single one of them is graphic and disturbing in nature. If you can't bear to look, don't ...

Grand Theft America

Your Tax Dollars at Work

Liberation

Victory

Anniversary 1

Anniversary 2

Prevailing

Let America Be...

See also: “The Jungian analysis by Paul Levy, of Bush and the culture which maintains him, reaches deep into the American psyche. It should be studied and digested by everyone. If the citizenry would recognize that Bush's egomania is acting out a national illness, we would all be saner. If the US could integrate the "shadow" which Bush projects upon "the axis of evil," perhaps we could achieve world peace and start to solve global problem. A MUST READ.”

The Madness of George W. Bush: A Reflection of Our Collective Psychosis - Paul Levy

See also: Tonglen

Featured Excerpts: Kundalini Awakening

2006-05-24T09:35:00.000-07:00

Anyone reading this blog will be aware that there are roughly 50 entries and each entry might have a number of links. To help highlight some of those words I'll be posting featured quotes here as the spirit moves me. The following quote comes from a link to the entry: Kundalini and the Black Queen.

Many people, and even published authors on kundalini, associate kundalini awakening with symptoms such as a mild sense of a trickle of energy up the spine. This does indicate some energetic movement, but not, in my opinion, a true kundalini awakening. Nearly ever person I know with what I call a "true awakening" has responded to phrases like "the freight train" inside or "the volcano erupting" inside. More fundamentally, in a mild energetic movement the ego stays intact (in a healthy individual) and enjoys the pleasant sensations much like any other physical sensation.

In a "true awakening" the force of kundalini eclipses the ego altogether and the individual is almost certain to feel disoriented for some time. There will almost certainly be periods of pronounced psychological discomfort and social alienation. Works from the literature of Tibetan Buddhism indicate two distinct periods of spiritual emergency. The first is at the beginning of true kundalini awakening in which one feels an acute anxiety and sense of alienation from the world. The second is after the process has considerably advanced and one feels an acute fear of one's own internal groundlessness. Even in the most difficult periods these challenging experiences are balanced by periods of deep bliss and profound awareness. Moreover, in time any negative experiences give way to deep realization.

Source: Kundalini: FAQ

See also:
How To Produce An Acute Schizophrenic Break
Forms of Spiritual Emergency

Universally Speaking

Featured Excerpts: Core Concepts in Transpersonal Psychology

2006-05-17T15:52:00.000-07:00

I have been reflecting on the concepts which have been most useful to me in understanding, defining, and communicating about transpersonal psychology. Even after a semester of studying this field, many students have difficulty grasping it. One problem is that one generally needs a basis in personal experience to relate directly to these concepts. Without personal experience, these concepts remain empty and abstract. Perhaps the field of transpersonal psychology is still coming to grips with its definition, even thirty years after its beginnings.

Here is my list of the concepts which have most helped me and my students to "get" transpersonal psychology. I hope this list will stimulate discussion. I would appreciate seeing your additions and clarifications.

1. CONTEXT, CONTENT, AND PROCESS (Vaughan, JTP)
2. SELF-TRANSCENDENCE AND DISIDENTIFICATION (Maslow, others)
3. TRANSPERSONAL ECOPSYCHOLOGY
4. VARIETIES OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE (James)
5. FIRST-HAND AND SECOND-HAND RELIGION (James); SPIRITUALITY AND RELIGION (various writers)
6. COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS AND ARCHETYPES (Jung)
7. PEAK EXPERIENCE (Maslow)
8. PERENNIAL PHILOSOPHY(Huxley and others), HIERARCHY OF NEEDS (Maslow), AND DEVELOPMENTAL SPECTRUM (Wilber)
9. PRE-TRANS FALLACY (Wilber), REDUCTIONISM AND ELEVATIONISM (Walsh and Vaughan).
10. EXTRAPERSONAL AND TRANSPERSONAL (Green, JTP).
11. SPIRITUAL CRISES (Roberto Assagioli), SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY (Grof), POSITIVE DISINTEGRATION (Dembrowski), MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH PSYCHOTIC FEATURES (Lukoff et al.), NADIR EXPERIENCE (Maslow)

[...]

6. COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS AND ARCHETYPES (Jung)
It could be argued that this is the main transpersonal concept. Jung extended Freud's topographical model of consciousness (Conscious, Preconscious, Unconscious) by distinguishing between a personal and a collective (or transpersonal) unconscious. All of humanity, and perhaps sentient beings beyond the human, share the collective unconscious. One of Jung's original references called it the Überpersonliche (literally, overpersonal or transpersonal) unconscious.

Archetypes are primordial patterns in, and expressions of, the collective (transpersonal) unconscious. They are tendencies to perceive the world in certain ways which are shared by all human consciousness, similar to original patterns, prototypes, or Platonic forms. Examples include the persona (the mask we present to the world), the shadow (repressed elements of the self), anima and animus (feminine and masculine archetypes), the hero, God, the Devil, earth mother, sage, fool, divine child, and many others. Archetypes manifest personally in dreams and culturally in symbols and myths, fairy tales, rites, and art. A central archetype is the self, symbolized by the mandala, which unifies opposites and reaches its full development in what Jung called "individuation." While the archetypes themselves are generally beyond consciousness, Jung also said that mystical experience is the direct experience of archetypes.

[...]

11. SPIRITUAL CRISES (Roberto Assagioli), SPIRITUAL EMERGENCY (Grof), POSITIVE DISINTEGRATION (Dembrowski), MYSTICAL EXPERIENCE WITH PSYCHOTIC FEATURES (Lukoff et al.), NADIR EXPERIENCE (Maslow), a similar concept was introduced by Roberto Assagioli.
I have found the concept of spiritual crisis or spiritual emergency to be one of the most useful examples of a concrete contribution of transpersonal psychology, especially when introducing transpersonal psychology to people who are new to it or skeptical about it.

Sometimes, a spiritual awakening, very strong peak experience, or mystical experience can be so disturbing that one is not able to function for a time. The "spiritual emergence" becomes a "spiritual emergency" or a "positive disintegration." This experience shares many characteristics with brief psychotic reactions and other forms of psychopathology and is easily misinterpreted. Thus, it can also be called a "mystical experience with psychotic features." However, handled well, a spiritual emergency has the potential for an extremely positive resolution.

Maslow referred to a similar idea in a footnote to a discussion about peak experiences. He pointed out that sometimes an extremely negative (or "nadir") experience can have an extremely positive outcome.

Source: Core Concepts in Transpersonal Psychology

Featured Quotes: Soul in Exile...

2006-05-02T15:47:00.000-07:00

The psyche knows better than we do what it is up to in its deep turmoils. - John Weir Perry, PhD

The healing of schizophrenia as 'soul in crisis' cannot be bottled into pills, or bestowed by applying information acquired through a university medical degree. As the great physician of the soul C. G. Jung demonstrated in his own psychiatric practice, it is an art requiring empathy, patience, a shrewd yet sympathetic understanding of human nature and, above all, heart.

Add to such desirable qualities gut intuition, healthy instincts, respect for nature, an intimate, working knowledge of the dynamics, rhythms of the psyche, a sense of humour, plus a humble willingness to renounce rigid theories, preconceived ideas, control and authority and you have what I call 'soul-centred psychiatry,' in many ways the antithesis of what Medicare funds in Australia: the biologic, or drug-based psychiatry which, for most of us, is the only brand of psychiatry we have encountered, or are otherwise aware of.

Eighty-odd years ago, Jung voiced his deep concern that the powerful, often vivid, chaotic and disturbing psychology of schizophrenia, which he had so painstakingly chartered and honoured throughout the many years he treated and healed schizophrenia sufferers, had not been given the respect and serious attention it deserved. He likewise lamented the appalling lack of knowledge of the psychology of schizophrenia among those of his own profession, a situation which has changed precious little today.

Sadly, however, Jung's vast body of invaluable work has fallen for the most on hostile ground and deaf ears, ironically in psychiatric circles, largely because Jung's respect for 'the reality of the psyche' and its religious, mythic and spiritual needs, dimensions and instincts poses a threat to the materialist bias that underscores drug-based, or biologic psychiatry, but also because his personally demanding and soul-centred approach to psychiatry is radically at odds with the detached 'illusion of expertise' on which biologic psychiatry's mask of authority, presumed sanity, and stagnant wasteland of 'brain chemistry' dogma are shakily grounded.

In place of dry textbook knowledge learned by rote, Jung gives precedence to living primary experience, hence his assertion that we understand nothing psychologically unless we've experienced it. In this sense, the people who know most about schizophrenia are the sufferers themselves, followed closely by those who have 'been there' and have pulled themselves out of a psychosis and so 'know the road'. Such folk, as invaluable 'wounded healers', can therefore often guide others groping along similar roads, or pull people out of the quagmires and tricky labyrinths of psychosis.

In place of the practitioner's mask of fatherly authority, Jung puts the mutual vulnerability, openness, imaginal richness, honesty and trust of the therapeutic dialogue, in which patient and therapist confront one another on equal terms and through which both stand to learn and grow. In place of forced treatment, hasty consultations and toxic psychiatric drugs, Jung puts a trust in nature, unconscious wisdom and the healing which, residing in the 'patient patient', is catalysed and midwifed by the caring therapist. No wonder he poses a threat to those who esteem power, professional detachment, diplomas, diagnostic manuals and drug company profits over the empowerment, equality, freedom, healing and dignity of the patient.

Needless to say, there are other closely related and equally grave moral issues at stake here. For instance, imagine, if you will, that a reputable medical practitioner had come forward with evidence of a safe, natural cure for cancer, but that the medical establishment had ignored the evidence and, worse still, had kept the findings from cancer sufferers for fear of losing income and power through their monopoly over the provision of existing anti-cancer 'treatments', which do not heal. By the same token, Jung - and others who have followed in his wake - cured his schizophrenic patients with psychotherapy alone. [Read more...]

Source: Soul in Exile - Dr. Maureen Roberts, PhD

See Also:
Carl Jung - Biography
The Far Side of Madness
Mandala
Cultural Factors in Schizophrenia

Schizophrenia, Culture & Subjectivity

See also, my companion blog: Spiritual Recovery

Gone Quieting

What's Wrong With You?

2006-01-10T18:30:00.000-08:00

... He leaned forward and took one of her hands in his. "I'm worried about you, madame. Please tell me what's wrong. Should I be the least bit concerned you might be suicidal?"

"Oh no," she protested. "Of course I'm not. Not at all! Why, you'd have to put a gun to my head to get me to kill myself."

"Ha! Gun to my head... Get it?"

He sighed deeply. "I got it madame, it's just not really all that funny."

He tugged at her hand. "What should I do? I don't know what to do to help you. Are you depressed?"

"No," she said with a shake of her head. "I'm not. I'm not depressed. That's not it. I am dispirited. That's exactly what I am."

Defining Spiritual Emergency

2006-01-10T18:29:00.000-08:00

"Trust that which gives you meaning and accept it as your guide."

-- Carl Jung

Spiritual emergence has been defined as "the movement of an individual to a more expanded way of being that involves enhanced emotional and psychosomatic health, greater freedom of personal choices, and a sense of deeper connection with other people, nature, and the cosmos. An important part of this development is an increasing awareness of the spiritual dimension in one's life and in the universal scheme of things." When spiritual emergence is very rapid and dramatic this natural process can become a crisis, and spiritual emergence becomes spiritual emergency. This has also been called transpersonal crisis, acute psychosis with a positive outcome, positive disintegration and an extreme state.

There is no sharp division between emergence and emergency. However distinguishing criteria include:

a) an 'emergency' generally has more depth and intensity

b) an 'emergence' is more fluid and less overwhelming and traumatic

c) during an 'emergency' it is very difficult to function in everyday life

A spiritual emergency could also be defined as a critical and experientially difficult stage of a profound psychological transformation that involves one's entire being. This is a crisis point within the transformational process of spiritual emergence. It may take the form of non-ordinary states of consciousness and may involve unusual thoughts, intense emotions, visions and other sensory changes, as well as various physical manifestations. These episodes can often revolve around spiritual themes.

The term spirituality should be reserved for situations that involve personal experiences of certain dimensions of reality that give one's life, and existence in general, a numinous quality. C.G. Jung used the word numinous to describe an experience that feels sacred, holy, or out of the ordinary. The terms spiritual emergence and spiritual emergency were coined by Dr Stanislav Grof (psychiatrist) and his wife Christina Grof who have worked for many years as therapists and researchers in the field of non-ordinary awareness and personal transformation. They have written many books about spiritual emergence containing much more information.

Source: Spiritual Emergence Network

See also:
Interview: Stanislav Grof
Interview: Christina Grof
Spiritual Emergence or Spiritual Emergency?
Spiritual Emergency & The Awakening Process

Core Concepts in Transpersonal Psychology

Spiritual Emergence, Spiritual Emergency, Crisis, Transpersonal Crisis, Positive Disintegration, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Non-ordinary States of Consciousness, PTSD, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, Carl Jung, Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof

Forms of Spiritual Emergency

2006-01-10T18:28:00.000-08:00

A spiritual emergency may include more than one of the following elements. My own contained components of nearly all of the following.

Ego Death / Dark Night of the Soul

Kundalini Awakening

Shamanic Crisis

Episodes of Unitive Consciousness

Crisis of Psychic Opening

Past Life Experiences

Near Death Experiences

Possession States

Psychological Renewal Through the Central Archetype

See also:

What Triggers Spiritual Emergency?

Wikipedia - Schizophrenia

Wikipedia - Psychosis

Schizophrenia - The Soul in Crisis

DSM-IV: Religious & Spiritual Problems

Spiritual Emergency, Shamanism, Crisis, Schizophrenia, Psychosis, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, The Dark Night of the Soul, Kundalini, Past Life Experiences, Near Death Experiences, Possession States, DSM-IV, Psychological Renewal, Carl Jung, John Weir Perry, Stanislav Grof, Christina Grof, Maureen Roberts

Spirituality & Trauma

2006-01-10T18:27:00.000-08:00

Your pain is the breaking of the shell that encloses your understanding.

- Kahlil Gibran

Traumatic experiences force victims to face issues lying outside the boundaries of personal and collective frames of reference. As a result they are forced to confront psychological and spiritual challenges that are unfamiliar to the average person. Therapists need to recognise that organisations of self and God are often thrown into question or destroyed by experiences of trauma. The deconstructive power of trauma exposes the lack of substance and cohesiveness that comprises identity and images of God.

Initially, trauma is grounded in pain, loss, and fear. Often it leads to breakdowns. Ultimately, with proper support and guidance, it has the potential to transform individuals into compassionate and deeply spiritual beings.

Traumatic events expose victims to aspects of life that most would prefer to ignore. Trauma creates confrontations with the lack of security and certitude that underlie all human endeavours. It has the power to throw into question or obliterate any organisation of self, God, and humanity. The implications of traumatic events assault anything considered sacred or foundational. Trauma brutally demonstrates that the ego (the rational aspect of consciousness) cannot contain or make sense of certain aspects of life.

Certain experiences, such as peak, near death, and mystical experiences often project individuals into another realm of consciousness that is often referred to as transpersonal or spiritual. At these times the ego is displaced or cracked open. This enables transpersonal dimensions of consciousness to emerge. Many of these experiences, despite their beauty and sublime character, are unnerving and terrifying.

Trauma, in addition to its ability to deconstruct reality horizontally in terms of belief systems and frames of reference, also initiates a vertical deconstruction. It either displaces or obliterates the ego. Victims are thrust into the realm of the Deeper Self without warning and preparation. This brutal exposure illuminates the fact that the ego is a mosaic held together by personal narration, continual feedback from others, and internalised object relations.

Trauma, in spite of its brutality and destructiveness, has the power to open victims to issues of profound existential and spiritual significance. The displacement of the ego forces confrontations with deeper levels of self and reality. Trauma throws victims onto a path that mystics, shamans, mythic heroes, and spiritual seekers have been walking for thousands of years. The difference is that victims of trauma must work this territory or be overcome by it. Non-traumatised seekers have the luxury of getting off the path at will; for theirs is not a life or death struggle.

In receiving appropriate care, compassion, and direction, victims can overcome the destructive impact of trauma, break through restrictive approaches to life, and become more soulful and compassionate beings in the process. Traumatic injuries, when accompanied by love and understanding, do not become places of deadness, denial, and disease. Rather they become bridges of compassion that connect victims to all sentient beings. Survivors accept that they can be broken, overwhelmed, and rendered powerless. These realisations are not considered shameful (as they were at the beginning of the journey) but are now recognised as the common ground that connects victims to all forms of life. Becoming comfortable with one's inherent capacity to be rendered powerless enables survivors to encounter the brokenness and wounds of others without fear.

Source: Spirituality & Trauma: Robert Grant Ph.D.

See also:
Heeding Pain as a Call to Personal Growth - Michael Nagel
The Places That Scare You - Pema Chödrön
Turning Toward Pain - Pema Chödrön
The Spirit of Tonglen - Pema Chödrön
The Practice of Tonglen - Pema Chödrön
Spirituality & Suicide

Music: Flowers Become Screens

Spiritual Emergency, Shamanism, Mysticism, PTSD, The Hero's Journey, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, Ego Collapse, Ego Integrity, Ego Fragmentation, Identity Crisis,The Dark Night of the Soul, Delerium - Semantic Spaces, Tonglen, Robert Grant, Pema Chodron, Michael Nagel

Guidelines for Making it Through a Spiritual Emergency

2006-01-10T18:25:00.000-08:00

Simplify your life: Make arrangements for childcare and time off work if necessary. Stock up on some basic groceries.

Limit your use of all stimulants: caffeine, alcohol, drugs, etc. If you are on any form of prescription drugs continue taking them as prescribed or ask your doctor/caregiver about going off them for a short period of time. This is especially true if you are on any form of psychiatric medications -- severe withdrawal effects are associated with some medications and they should never be stopped cold turkey. If you regularly meditate or do yoga (especially kundalini yoga) stop doing so for at least a few days. Do not resume the practice until you feel comfortable doing so.

Create a sacred space: The idea is to create a safe container to hold the experience. The container can be a room in your home, a journal, even an imaginary place. You will likely spend the majority of your time in this space so it should offer access to basic necessities (i.e., food, a bathroom) in addition to as much privacy as you feel is required.

Find a means of expressing your experience: Talking, journaling, painting, dancing, etc. Feel free to bring other elements into your sacred space that assist in the expression of that content -- photographs, pieces of music, poetry, symbolic items, etc. Be aware, self-identification with specific symbols and archetypes can be a normal part of the process.

Internal Support: Try to find a means of bringing the expressed content into a trusted relationship. The relationship can be with a spouse, a friend, a therapist, even a group. If you have no one in your life that you can share this with, think back to a time that you did have that kind of relationship and imagine yourself sharing the content with that person. If you've never had a relationship like that, imagine yourself sharing your experience with your ideal friend/caregiver. The important thing is that you feel absolutely safe with the other, whomever that other is. This person (whether real or imaginary) can enter your sacred space with you so as to provide support through the process.

External Support: Try to ensure that at least one person in your face-to-face world is aware that you are undergoing a form of transformational process/crisis. It's not necessary that this person goes through the process/crisis with you, but they can provide assistance in the event you require outside help. You may find it helpful to have them read some basic information related to spiritual emergence/emergencies.

Flow with the process: Intense emotion is common -- love, fear, sadness, bliss, despair, etc. Extreme forms of empathy may also come into play. Physical expressions are also common so feel free to move, dance, sing, etc. as required. Anything that does come up is coming up for a reason. It's not necessary to analyze this content too closely at this time, just to allow the expression of the content. Nor is it necessary to understand the process, just to allow it to unfold -- you can analyze the entire experience in depth later. In the midst of it just let it flow. If you need to eat, eat; if you need to sleep, sleep. During the less intense stages you may find that you're quite capable of turning the experience "off", (or at least, "down"), thereby allowing yourself to attend to vital everyday functions such as preparing a meal or driving.

Know your limits: You are not under any obligation to deal with any content you don't want to deal with. If something arises that feels too painful or frightening for you to cope with, feel free to set it aside. Alternatively, work through the content with your trusted internal or external support person. Bear in mind, this is a psychological/spiritual process and the content that arises is often symbolic. The idea is to experience the entire process in your psychological depths.

When to get outside help:
- If you think you need it.
- If suicide has become an attractive option. [Read this first]
- If you want to hurt yourself.
- If you want to hurt someone else.

If you should determine that a formal therapeutic relationship will be to your benefit you may find that therapists who specialize in transpersonal or Jungian therapy can best identify with your personal experience. Ideally, any caregivers will be able to recognize the experience of spiritual emergency as one of transformation, not pathology.

See also:

Crisis and Spiritual Emergency

Tips for "Dark Night" Journeyers

Thoughts on Spiritual Emergency

How to Treat Difficult Psychedelic Experiences

Getting Through Psychosis

Active Imagination

Death & Rebirth in Psychospiritual Transformation

Holotropic States of Consciousness

Spiritual Emergency, Suicide, Altered States of Consciousness, Psychotic Episodes, Psychospiritual Transformation, Crisis, Acute Schizophrenic Break, Holotropic States of Consciousness

Psychosis & Ego Collapse

2006-01-10T18:24:00.000-08:00

Q: Can you tell me what a psychotic break is? I can't seem to find any information about it.

A: There are, at least to my way of thinking, several states of mind... "normal", meaning consistent over time and situations; "disorganized", meaning a little scattered, unfocused, fragmented; "disturbed", meaning a state of mind leading to behavior that is socially unacceptable and potentially harmful to self and others; "disordered", meaning a display of clinically definable and diagnosable symptoms that are clustered under one primary heading (Depression, Borderline, Kleptomania, etc.); and "dissociated", meaning a collapse of the "ego integrity", a state of mind where the person is unsure of who they are, where they are, what they are doing and how they should be behaving - a pervasive and overall loss of "identity" and "sense-of-self".

The last, "dissociation" is generally considered a "psychotic break". In other words, a person is so overwhelmed by either internal or external turmoil that what we generally think of [as] their "ego" just plain collapses.

Source: Ask the Therapist

See also: Forsaken by God: The Collapse of Spiritual Ego

Psychosis, Schizophrenia, Ego Death, Ego Collapse, Ego Integrity, Ego Fragmentation, Identity Crisis, Dissociation

A Spirituality that Transforms

2006-01-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

In a series of books (e.g., A Sociable God, Up from Eden, and The Eye of Spirit), I have tried to show that religion itself has always performed two very important, but very different, functions.

One, it acts as a way of creating meaning for the separate self: it offers myths and stories and tales and narratives and rituals and revivals that, taken together, help the separate self make sense of, and endure, the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. This function of religion does not usually or necessarily change the level of consciousness in a person; it does not deliver radical transformation. Nor does it deliver a shattering liberation from the separate self altogether. Rather, it consoles the self, fortifies the self, defends the self, promotes the self.

But two, religion has also served — in a usually very, very small minority — the function of radical transformation and liberation. This function of religion does not fortify the separate self, but utterly shatters it — not consolation but devastation, not entrenchment but emptiness, not complacency but explosion, not comfort but revolution — in short, not a conventional bolstering of consciousness but a radical transmutation and transformation at the deepest seat of consciousness itself.

There are several different ways that we can state these two important functions of religion. The first function — that of creating meaning for the self — is a type of horizontal movement; the second function — that of transcending the self — is a type of vertical movement (higher or deeper, depending on your metaphor). The first I have named "translation," the second, "transformation."

With translation, the self is simply given a new way to think or feel about reality. The self is given a new belief — perhaps holistic instead of atomistic, perhaps forgiveness instead of blame, perhaps relational instead of analytic. The self then learns to translate its world and its being in the terms of this new belief or new language or new paradigm, and this new and enchanting translation acts, at least temporarily, to alleviate or diminish the terror inherent in the heart of the separate self.

But with transformation, the very process of translation itself is challenged, witnessed, undermined and eventually dismantled. With typical translation, the self (or subject) is given a new way to think about the world (or objects); but with radical transformation, the self itself is inquired into, looked into, grabbed by its throat and literally throttled to death.

... authentic transformation is not a matter of belief but of the death of the believer; not a matter of translating the world but of transforming the world; not a matter of finding solace but of finding infinity on the other side of death. The self is not made content; the self is made toast.

... transformative religion offers authenticity. For those few individuals who are ready — that is, sick with the suffering of the separate self, and no longer able to embrace the legitimate worldview — a transformative opening to true authenticity, true enlightenment, true liberation, calls more and more insistently. And, depending upon your capacity for suffering, you will sooner or later answer the call of authenticity, of transformation, of liberation on the lost horizon of infinity.

Transformative spirituality, authentic spirituality, is therefore revolutionary. It does not legitimate the world, it breaks the world; it does not console the world, it shatters it. And it does not render the self content, it renders it undone.

Source: Enlightenment Magazine

See also: Markers on the Path to Personal Authenticity

Spiritual Crisis, Spiritual Awakening, Ego Death, Ego Collapse, Ego Integrity, Ego Fragmentation, Identity Crisis, Personal Authenticity, Personal Transformation, Ken Wilber, Michael Nagel

Treatment or Therapy?

2006-01-10T18:22:00.000-08:00

There is one story and one story only
That will prove worth your telling,
Whether as learned bard or gifted child;
To it all lines or lesser gauds belong
That startle with their shining
Such common stories as they stray into...

To Juan at the Winter Solstice - Robert Graves

The medical model of handling the acute "psychotic" episode comes under the classification of what is known as "treatment," which implies doing something to the patients to relieve them of their symptoms, even to cure them. The alternative paradigm I am proposing is based on the concept of a "therapy" that gives respectful heed to the psychic process underlying the symptoms.

The original meaning of the Greek word therapeia was a "waiting upon" or a "service done" to the gods, with implications of tending, nurturing, caring and being an attendant; in time the word was applied to medical care. The original connotation is pertinent to the handling of acute "psychotic" episodes, since the persons going through them are in a state of being overwhelmed by images of gods and other mythic elements. Hence a therapist does well to "be an attendant" (therapeutes) upon these mythic images so as to foster their work. "Treatment" strives to stop what is happening, while "therapy" attempts to move with the underlying process and help achieve the creative aim implicit in it.

Visionary experiences of various kinds, including acute episodes, have a tendency to take six weeks to accomplish their inner aims. It is intriguing to reflect on the connotations of this, for this number is recognizable as forty days, with all this time’s connotations. Pacing is an important phenomenon that invites our scrutiny. Our experience indicates that in the acute episode the more floridly disturbed the persons are, the more rapidly they move through it. Intensity seems to correlate directly with favorable outcome. The persons who are frightened, overwhelmed with imagery, and engrossed in their preoccupations are the ones most likely to have a favorable inner experience, from which they emerge with significant change.

When we admit individuals who are at the very onset of their episode and again, at the height of their disordered state, they may be fragmented, often mute, with scattered bits of ideation passing across the mental stage. At this phase of the process the mental content is a hodgepodge and the ego has quit the field, lost in the deep interiors of the psyche. Listening to an individual at this time gives kaleidoscopic glimpses of mythic themes that often leave the listener bewildered. Yet if we sit quietly and attentively with a person in this state for only two or three times, we may find the fragments coalescing into a story that gradually begins to move forward...

Source: Trials of the Visionary Mind - John Weir Perry

See also:
The Far Side of Madness

Mental Breakdown as Healing

Psychosis, Psychotic Episodes, Madness, Ego Death, Ego Fragmentation, Visionary Experience, Breakdown as Healing, Breakdown as Breakthrough, Mythology, John Weir Perry

Personal Account: Spiritual Emergency

2006-01-10T18:21:00.000-08:00

Contrary to popular misunderstanding the term "schizophrenia" does not refer to multiple personality syndrome. The Greek etymology of the word actually means "broken soul" or "broken heart".

-- Michael O'Callaghan

Psychosis, PTSD and Story as a Vehicle of Healing

My descent into "madness" began when my mother died. Within days of her death I would experience the first eruption of what I now call unconscious content, manifest as intense, unexplainable fear. I didn’t know what to do with that kind of fear. It felt foreign and overwhelming to me so I pushed it away and pretended it wasn’t there.

Over the course of the next several months I would go on to lose my two closest and dearest friends, my community, my sense of purpose, and my most persistent form of self-identity. I would give myself to a cause that couldn’t be won and bear witness to a catastrophic tragedy that involved the deaths of others – people I felt a distorted sense of responsibility for, along with an accompanying sense of distorted guilt for the circumstances of their tragic and premature deaths.

I would become estranged from my husband, children, friends and extended family. I would be unable to follow-up on the career path I had confidently charted for myself only a few months previously. I would rarely sleep through the night. I would be plagued by nightmares and visions of destruction. My sense of trust would be utterly destroyed. I would lose all faith in the goodness of people, the balance of justice, or the possibility of divine order. Expectations that were too high, too many losses, too much fear, too fast, with no time between to assimilate each. I became stuck – frozen in a state of grief, fear, loss and failure - unable even to cry over those events. In the shadowed recesses of my mind I secretly believed that I too was dead, just like those others.

What makes the story of my psychotic experience unique from many others (although probably not unusual in the larger scheme) is that I underwent that experience outside of the psychiatric community. I was not hospitalized. I did not seek treatment, therapy, or medication – during or since. I live in an isolated area of the world; psychiatrists and their ilk are a rarity. Our small hospital does have a psychiatrist on staff, accessible through the emergency room that’s also used as a walk-in clinic for all manner of injuries and illness. A wait of several hours before a doctor is seen is not unusual and locals know they’re usually better off to stay home and wait for symptoms to abate on their own, unless they’re bleeding profusely.

I wasn’t bleeding.

I wasn’t, in fact, doing much of anything. My days and nights were spent relentlessly smoking as I surfed the net, looking for answers I couldn’t find, frequently with a drink nearby to apply liberally to the wound I could not voice. I withdrew more and more from the world around me. Lurking beneath my disheveled and shabby pajama’d exterior was an unspeakable sense of dread and terror.

At some point, during my aimless hours on the computer I began to write. Initially, I thought I was just writing a collection of anecdotes related to my childhood, but very quickly an assertive new voice emerged. Because my only purpose seemed to be self-amusement and distraction, I let that voice have its say. That was exactly what I needed to do, for that was the voice that had been silenced.

Two streams of thought had emerged: one lead to my past, the other was creating an entire imaginary setting upon the page – an altered state of consciousness. Without being aware that I was doing so I was creating a place of psychological safety for myself. Within that altered space, characters came into play: gods, devils, a kindly and compassionate mentor, a fierce warrior goddess – the real life people I had lost, been with, or been up against, transformed into larger-than-life characters by Story.

Frequently, a third thread would erupt to dangle a clue and beckon me to follow. More often than not that clue came in the form of music, poetry, or a written passage of work that had resonated within me for months without my knowing why. Soon, I wasn’t writing The Story at all. The Story was writing me...

Source: Psychosis, PTSD and Story as a Vehicle of Healing

See also:
Broken Heart & Transcendence

Music: Awakening by the Gate of Sorrow

Broken Heart, Broken Soul, Psychosis, Acute Schizophrenic Break, Psychotic Episode, PTSD, Visionary Experience, Breakdown as Healing, Breakdown as Breakthrough, Transcendence,John Weir Perry, The Gate of Sorrow, Creed - Human Clay

Visionary Experience in Myth & Ritual

2006-01-10T18:19:00.000-08:00

... we are beginning to realize that we cannot fix on the outside what is broken deep within the human heart and psyche.

- John O'Dea

John Weir Perry
The initial disordered state that I am describing contains two distinct elements. The first is an experience of dying or of having already died, which symbolizes a dissolution of the accustomed self. The second element, closely related to the first, is a vision of the death of the world. In an acute psychosis individuals undergo a profound reorganization of the self, effected by a thoroughgoing reintegration through utter disintegration. Life cannot be repaired, it can only be re-created by returning to the sources. And the 'source of sources' is the prodigious outpouring of energy, life and the fecundity that occured at the Creation of the World.

Since the acute episode of visionary turmoil can have, along with its tormenting aspect, some ecstatic features, I will enlarge on the basic Dionysian principle that the exuberance of vital aliveness is born out of the realm of death. This is the miraculous revelation at the heart of the famous Dionysian rites, the Eleusinian mysteries.

Now this disturbing information is, in our culture, very unwelcome news. Here ecstasy is desirable as long as it is easy to attain. Yet, in truth, to have access to this state the price of admission is to take full account of the role of death. This is a difficult point, for we seem to find ourselves firmly biased against suffering and death as the ultimate enemy, dark and sinister, to whom we give no quarter and show no tolerance. You might say suffering and death are on an equal footing with madness in this respect.

We have seen that the growth process of the psyche, on the other hand, sees all this quite differently. According to the psyche's purposes, in order to break out of the security of solid consensus and convention, one must encounter the experience of the death process in psychic depth, and also at the same time the dissolution of the familiar, accustomed worldview. Though all this demand might seem at first glance overly drastic, it consists actually of the death of the familiar self-image and the destruction of the world image to make room for the self regeneration of each. These two images move together in the process, each an aspect of the other, and both assume the form of the mandala images.

Source: Trials of the Visionary Mind - John Weir Perry

See also:
The Relevance of Visionary Experience to Culture
Strange Days ~ Beautiful Midnight
The Dark Night and Consciousness

The Gift of the Fellow Traveler

Psychosis, Psychotic Episode, Madness, Ego Death, Visionary Experience, Culture, Breakdown as Healing, Breakdown as Breakthrough, Mandala, John Weir Perry

Skeleton Woman [The Life/Death/Life Nature]

2006-01-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

clancycavnar.com

- A Tale of the Inuit -

She had done something of which her father disapproved, although no one any longer remembered what it was. But her father had dragged her to the cliffs and thrown her over and into the sea. There, the fish ate her flesh away and plucked out her eyes. As she lay under the sea, her skeleton turned over and over in the currents.

One day a fisherman came fishing, well, in truth many came to this bay once. But this fisherman had drifted far from his home place and did not know that the local fisherman stayed away, saying this inlet was haunted.

The fisherman's hook drifted down through the water, and caught of all places, in the bones of Skeleton Woman's rib cage. The fisherman thought, "Oh, now I've really got a big one! Now I really have one!" In his mind he was thinking of how many people this great fish would feed, how long it would last, how long he might be free from the chore of hunting. And as he struggled with this great weight on the end of the hook, the sea was stirred to a thrashing froth, and his kayak bucked and shook, for she who was beneath struggled to disentangle herself. And the more she struggled, the more she tangled in the line. No matter what she did, she was inexorably dragged upward, tugged up by the bones of her own ribs.

The hunter had turned to scoop up his net, so he did not see her bald head rise above the waves, he did not see the little coral creatures glinting in the orbs of her skull, he did not see the crustaceans on her old ivory teeth. When he turned back with his net, her entire body, such as it was, had come to the surface and was hanging from the tip of his kayak by her long front teeth.

"Agh!" cried the man, and his heart fell into his knees, his eyes hid in terror on the back of his head, and his ears blazed bright red. "Agh!" he screamed, and knocked her off the prow with his oar and began paddling like a demon toward shoreline. And not realizing she was tangled in his line, he was frightened all the more for she appeared to stand upon her toes while chasing him all the way to shore. No matter which way he zigged his kayak, she stayed right behind, and her breath rolled over the water in clouds of steam, and her arms flailed out as though to snatch him down into the depths.

"Agh!" he wailed as he ran aground. In one leap he was out of his kayak, clutching his fishing stick and running, and the coral white corpse of skeleton woman, still snagged in the fishing line, bumpety-bumped behind right after him. Over the rocks he ran, and she followed. Over the frozen tundra he ran, and she kept right up. Over the meat laid out to dry he ran, cracking it to pieces as his mukluks bore down.

Throughout it all she kept right up, in fact, she grabbed some of the frozen fish as she was dragged behind. This she began to eat, for she had not gorged in a long, long time. Finally, the man reached his snowhouse and dove right into the tunnel and on hands and knees scrabbled his way into the interior. Panting and sobbing he lay there in the dark, his heart a drum, a mighty drum. Safe at last, oh so safe, yes, safe thank the Gods, Raven, yes, thank Raven, yes, and all bountiful Sedna, safe... at...last.

Imagine when he lit his whale oil lamp, there she - it - lay in a tumble upon his snow floor, one heel over her shoulder, one knee inside her rib cage, one foot over her elbow. He could not say later what it was, perhaps the firelight softened her features, or the fact that he was a lonely man... but a feeling of some kindness came into his breathing, and slowly he reached out his grimy hands and using words softly like a mother to child, began to untangle her from the fishing line.

"Oh, na, na, na." First he untangled the toes, then the ankles. "Oh, na, na, na." On and on he worked into the night, until dressing her in furs to keep her warm, Skeleton Woman's bones were all in the order a human's should be.

He felt into his leather cuffs for his flint and used some of his hair to light a little more fire. He gazed at her from time to time as he oiled the precious wood of his fishing stick and rewound the gut line. And she in the furs uttered not a word - she did not dare - lest this hunter take her out and throw her down to the rocks and break her bones to pieces utterly.

The man became drowsy, slid under his sleeping skins, and soon was dreaming. And sometimes as humans sleep, you know, a tear escapes from the dreamer's eye; we never know what sort of dream causes this, but we know it is either a dream of sadness or longing. And this is what happened to the man.

Skeleton Woman saw the tear glisten in the firelight and she became suddenly soooo thirsty. She tinkled and clanked and crawled over to the sleeping man and put her mouth to his tear. The single tear was like a river and she drank and drank and drank until her many-years-long thirst was slaked.

While lying beside him, she reached inside the sleeping man and took out his heart, the mighty drum. She sat up and banged on both sides of it: Bom Bomm!.....Bom Bomm!

As she drummed, she began to sing out "Flesh, flesh, flesh! Flesh, Flesh, Flesh!" And the more she sang, the more her body filled out with flesh. She sang for hair and good eyes and nice fat hands. She sang the divide between her legs, and breasts long enough to wrap for warmth, and all the things a woman needs.

And when she was all done, she also sang the sleeping man's clothes off and crept into his bed with him, skin against skin. She returned the great drum, his heart, to his body, and that is how they awakened, wrapped one around the other, tangled from their night, in another way now, a good and lasting way.

The people who cannot remember how she came to her first ill fortune say she and the fisherman went away and were consistently well fed by the creatures she had known in her life under water. The people say that it is true and that is all they know.

In reading through the following excerpt from the chapter on Skeleton Woman and the Life/Death/Life cycle, it's important to not romanticize the relationship between Skeleton Woman and the fisherman. We each have a masculine and a feminine nature; the man in this story could just as easily be a woman. It is the task of Skeleton Woman to initiate each of us into the deeper mysteries of relationship with the largesse of life but she can only come into the temple of spirit by our explicit invitation...

Giving the Tear

As the fisherman sleeps, a tear is released from the corner of his eye. Skeleton Woman spies it, is filled with thirst, and awkwardly crawls to him to drink from the cup of his eye. What, we ask, could he be dreaming that would cause such a tear to come forth?

When one has ventured this far into relationship with the Life/Death/Life nature, the tear that is cried is the tear of passion and compassion mixed together, for oneself, and for the other. It is the hardest tear to cry and especially for men and certain kinds of "street-tough" women.

This tear of passion and compassion is most often wept after the accidental finding of treasure, after the fearful chase, after the untangling - for it is the combination of these that causes the exhaustion, the disassembling of defenses, the facing of oneself, the stripping down to the bones, the desire for both knowledge and relief. These cause a soul to peer into what the soul truly wants and to weep for loss and love of both.

As surely as Skeleton Woman was brought to the surface, now this tear, this feeling in the man, is also brought to the surface. It is an instruction in loving both self and another. Stripped now of all the bristles and hooks and shivs of the daytime world, the man draws Skeleton Woman to lie beside him, to drink and be nourished by his deepest feeling. In his new form he is able to feed the thirsty other.

This is the man healing, the man growing in understanding. He takes on his own medicine-making, he takes on the task of feeding the "deleted other." Through his tears, he begins to create.

To love another is not enough, to be "not an impediment" in the life of the other is not enough. It is not enough to be "supportive" and "there for them" and all the rest. The goal is to be knowledgeable about the ways of life and death, in one's own life and in panorama. And the only way to be a knowing man is to go to school in the bones of Skeleton Woman. She is waiting for the signal of deep feeling, the one tear that says, "I admit the wound."

Source: Women Who Run With The Wolves - Clarissa Pinkola Estes

See also:
Music: Lay Me Down

Shadow Work

Shamanism, The Unconscious, The Shadow, Skeleton Woman, The Dark Night of the Soul, Kundalini, Carl Jung, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Inuit Myths, The Frames - For the Birds

In the Beginning...

2006-01-10T18:17:00.000-08:00

"In the beginning all was the void and all was black. God saw this and said 'Let there be Light'. And there was."

— The Book of Genesis

clancycavnar.com

Metaphor

In order to understand the Black Madonna it is necessary to think in metaphor. The people of the past thought this way. Long before 'materialist science' arrived on the scene people did not dissect everything, they did not try to break everything up into tiny fragments. When they examined something, when they attempted to understand the world around them they did so through the act of metaphorical thinking. They would approach a subject by finding its simile or attempt to understand it through the act of understanding things that were similar to it. This way of thinking runs contrary to the way that we think today. It also reveals a past that we may not be able to comprehend in a fashion that makes sense to us. When one realizes the power of this way of thinking it sheds an entirely new light on the people of old times. It makes one realize that their legends, stories and myths may be something much different than we have been led to believe. Maybe western mythologists have not been completely correct in their perceptions of what these ancient people were telling us. Maybe they think they understand what the myths and stories were saying but possibly they are wrong. Maybe something else is being said. Maybe something we can't yet understand is being conveyed to us. It is only through this re-understanding that we can begin to comprehend what it is that we are being told.

II. Black

With this new understanding of metaphor let us begin to recomprehend new concepts in light of this awareness.

We will begin with the color black. Black is the color that contains all colors. If you took all of the colors of the rainbow and combined them your resulting mix would be black in color. Metaphorically speaking then - it is possible for black to represent all things in their beginning stage. Black is the color, or the substance, from which all things manifest. Out of the black depths of space - stars, suns and planets form. The universe was once, according to scientists, a place that was dark and void of light. There was a black dust that hung like a mist throughout the universe. Slowly this dust coagulated into larger pieces. Soon the pieces begin to collect and grow, compression and gravity were the result. Over time enough of this material eventually formed into a dense sphere. This sphere began to compress and pressure within its core beginning to manifest. Soon the core began to collapse in on itself. Eventually this collapsing state began a nuclear reaction. This nuclear reaction spread throughout the mass of this compressed sphere and ignited it, turning it into the first star, the first sun. Out of this dark, dense and black material - light was formed.

In alchemy the matter that was there before all other matter is called the 'prima materia'. This was the original substance from which all alchemical transmutation manifested. The prima materia is the cause of all effects that occur after it is formed. It is the base matter. From the prima materia comes the first substances and from these substances comes the first minerals. The alchemist's task is to somehow separate the different aspects of the prima materia into its own material spectrum of substance.

This process is similar to the creation of diamonds. Black coal is the prima materia for the construction of diamonds. Over thousands of years through the alchemy of time, pressure and gravity; the black coal, the prima materia becomes the diamond. Through the prism of this construct the white light of the sun shines through. This light is broken up into the spectrum of colors that make up our world. So, through the process of the alchemy of our planet, the black coal is compressed into the multifaceted crystal that shines the colors of black through its prism. But now these colors are not coagulated and mixed into the color black - they have been separated now and shine with their own radiance. This is a great example of metaphor and how it relates separate items within the same universality.

It can be said that the process of time and compression brought forth the diamond. The alchemical earth created this substance from the basest of matter. Within the confines of this matter was the diamond. It was always there - it just needed time and gravity to transmute.

Another metaphor to be understood is that of the lotus. In order for the lotus to grow strong and to produce a beautiful flower it is necessary that its roots ground themselves in manure. The darker the excrement - the better the lotus will grow, the more astonishing will be its flower. This is why the lotus is considered the most sacred of plants in the east. It is only through the action of the emergence of the flower from the black shit can the importance of this metaphor be understood.

The New Age seeks to denigrate the dark. They speak of only the light. But they misunderstand the true significance of the dark and of the black. They fail to realize that there can be no light without dark. They fail to see that the light can only be perceived through the background of darkness.

Within black is all things. All things manifest from the black.

Source: The Black Madonna

See also:
Islam & The Divine Feminine
Binah & The Shekinah
The Tao

Metaphors of Transformation

The Inner Apocalypse

2006-01-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

The Scream by Edvard Munch, 1893 © 1999 The Munch Museum

When the Dream Becomes Real...

One morning as you look out the window, the city seems more ragged than usual. A nearby building appears to be on fire. There's a sulphurous stench in the air. Broken glass and rubble litter the streets. People lie on the pavement and in doorways, seemingly dead. Your terror turns to panic when you notice a rat gnawing on a corpse. Screaming, you rush to the bathroom to throw up. From your skeletal reflection in the mirror, you realise you too have died: empty eye sockets stare back at you from a hollow skull.

The end of the world? Not exactly. Hallucination? Yes. The vision of death described above is typical of the onset of the psychological condition known as the Acute Schizophrenic Break Syndrome.

According to official statistics of the World Health Organisation, between one and two percent of the population is thus affected (i.e. 66 to 130 million people in 1994), depending on the method of clinical definition. Broadly speaking, this represents from one to two percent of the general population – one in five hospital beds – who have been brought to a mental hospital, diagnosed, and chronically medicated. Most will forfeit their job, their friends and their family. Many lose their home. They constitute thirty-three percent of the homeless in America today.

Whether in the hospital, at home, or discharged onto the street, these are ordinary people whose normal lives were suddenly interrupted by the unexpected, spontaneous, and powerful onset of a dramatic non-ordinary state of consciousness.

The vision typically begins with Apocalyptic scenes of death and world destruction.

Let's go back to that scene for a moment. As you are hysterically rushed through the traffic, away from family and friends in a screaming ambulance, how could you possibly know that it is not yourself who has come to an end, only your precious personality that has died? When you arrive at the hospital, the admitting psychiatrist informs you that you've had a Nervous Breakdown, and that you are in urgent need of immediate medication. From the dead look in his eyes, you get the feeling you may be here forever. While you gulp the goblet of Lethe he proffers, you wonder whether you will ever return to the land of the living. Soon, the Lithium or Thorazine takes over like a dose of deadly nightshade. Then you collapse into a dreamless sleep. When you wake up much later on, the vision is gone. But there is a great emptiness, a hollow feeling, as if the lights went out. For years afterwards, perhaps till the end of your days, your life is reduced to a kind of limbo in which you eke out a meaningless existence, popping pills to keep the vision from coming back to haunt you, a pathetic shadow of your former self.

There is, however, more to this than meets the outer eye. Over half a century ago in Küsnacht, Switzerland, the psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung came to feel that psychological health is a dynamic, on-going process of personal development into greater maturity and spiritual awareness. This process – which he called individuation – is, he said, nourished by a continuous flow of symbolic insights transmitted from the unconscious Self to the conscious Ego, in a variety of ways including dreams, insight, and flashes of intuition. Should this inner communication flow get blocked for any reason, one may find oneself increasingly frustrated, for the simple reason that one has lost touch with the built-in guiding system of one's deeper Self.

In Jung's view, if such a blockage persists in time, one becomes alienated – in the sense that one may no longer be able to use the considerable resources of one's innate common sense to adapt effectively to one's social environment. Alienation, of course, also happens on a collective level within the family, society, and civilisation, in which case the context one may have trouble adapting to includes not only the social, but the ecological environment as well. Whether individual or collective, a chronic blockage of the psyche's inner communications process may lead beyond a mere sense of ennui, and eventually jeopardise the ability to be responsible for one's health and survival.

What really took Jung's colleagues by surprise, however, was his declaration that the so-called acute schizophrenic break phenomenon is actually no disease, but rather a natural (and temporary!) healing process – which automatically activates itself in response to the underlying blockage which I have just described. Jung maintained that the spontaneous onset of the visionary state of consciousness is nature's self-organising way for the alienated psyche to become whole again. In his view, when the Ego has become cut off from the rest of the psyche to a point of real distress, the Self "comes to the rescue" through a temporary, but complete overpowering of the conscious personality by means of a vivid upwelling of hallucinatory voices and visions from the deeper levels of the unconscious. The conscious Ego, that is, falls apart and comes back together again, renewed. If one understands the essentially life-affirming nature of the visions which occurs during this metamorphosis, appreciates their symbolic relevance to the problems at hand, and integrates their deeper meaning, the result is a healing of the alienated condition which prevailed before the onset of the so-called illness itself – and a rebirth of the personality as a more integrated, invigorated whole...

Source: When the Dream Becomes Real

See also:
Mental Breakdown as Healing
The Relevance of Visionary Experience to Culture

Transcendental Experience in Religion & Madness

Mental Breakdown as Healing

2006-01-10T18:15:00.000-08:00

"...85% of our clients (all diagnosed as severely schizophrenic) at the Diabasis center not only improved, with no medications, but most went on growing after leaving us."

- John Weir Perry

The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali, 1931

An Interview With Dr. John Weir Perry - Michael O'Callaghan

MICHAEL O'CALLAGHAN: How does one define so-called schizophrenia?

JOHN WEIR PERRY: Jung defined it most succinctly. He said...

"Schizophrenia is a condition in which the dream takes the place of reality." This means that the unconscious overwhelms the ego-consciousness, overwhelms the field of awareness with contents from the deepest unconscious, which take mythic, symbolic form. And the emotions, unless they're hidden, are quite mythic too. To a careful observer, they're quite appropriate to the situation at hand.

The way "schizophrenia" unfolds is that, in a situation of personal crisis, all the psyche's energy is sucked back out of the personal, conscious area, into what we call the archetypal area. Mythic contents thus emerge from the deepest level of the psyche, in order to re-organise the Self. In so doing, the person feels himself withdrawing from the ordinary surroundings, and becomes quite isolated in this dream state.

O'C: Did Jung really see this as a healing process?

PERRY: He did indeed! He believed that "schizophrenia" is a self-healing process - one in which, specifically, the pathological complexes dissolve themselves. The whole schizophrenic turmoil is really a self-organising, healing experience. It's like a molten state. Everything seems to be made of free energy, an inner free play of imagery through which the alienated psyche spontaneously re-organises itself - in such a way that the conscious ego is brought back into communication with the unconscious again.

O'C: How long does the experience normally last?

PERRY: The acute hallucinatory phase, during which these contents go through the re-ordering process, usually lasts about six weeks. This, by the way, corresponds to the classical description of visionary experiences in various religious texts, such as the proverbial "forty days in the wilderness" often referred to in the Bible. Anyway, six weeks is roughly it.

O'C: So are you saying that the reason we have so-called "chronic schizophrenia" in our society, - where a person is medicated, distressed or hospitalised for decades - is really cultural? A society which refuses to understand the healing nature of the phenomenon?

PERRY: Yes, it seems so. Of course, there are some unusual cases where the individual simply can't handle the impact of all this unconscious content, or doesn't know what to do with it, and freaks out. But from my experience at Diabasis, I've seen so many people go the other way that I really do feel "chronic schizophrenia" is created by society's negative response to what is actually a perfectly natural and healthy process. I hate to think of what happens to people who go into the mental hospital...

O'C: Who experiences a "schizophrenic break"?

PERRY: Well, there's a lot of controversy about this! There is a constitutional element, which is often interpreted as a "genotype of pathology", but this depends on how you see it. I see it as a genotype of sensitivity! Among adolescent siblings in a family, for example, its usually the most sensitive one who's going to catch it.

O'C: How many people are "schizophrenic?"

PERRY: Approximately two percent - that's over one hundred and sixteen million people! It's about one in five of all the hospital beds [in the developed countries - ed.].

O'C: What does it feel like to go through a "schizophrenic break"?

PERRY: The overall experience is described as falling into a kind of abyss of isolation. This comes about because there is such a discrepancy between the subjective inner world that one has been swept into, and the mundane everyday world outside. There seems to be a total gulf between these two. Of course, this is exactly what happens in our society: the individuals around such a person are bewildered and frightened. They have absolutely no trust in what is going on! So everything is set up negatively, and this gives rise to fear - on both sides.

O'C: So it starts with a feeling of isolation...

PERRY: Yes. Now the symbolic expression of this is falling into a death - not only a death state, but also a death space - the "afterlife," the "realm of the ancestors," the "land of the dead," the "spirit world." The common experience here is for the person to look about and think that half the people around him are dead too. While in this condition, it's very hard for one to tell if one is really alive or not.

Right away at the beginning, the death experience is accompanied by the feeling that you've gone back to the beginning of time. This involves a regression, a return to the state of infancy in one's personal life history. But hand in hand with this is the feeling of slipping back into the world of the primordial parents, into a Garden of Eden. For example, it's a very common experience to feel one is the child of Adam and Eve, say, at the beginning of time. This is very symbolic, obviously. It's pretty much a representation of the psyche at the start of one's individual career after birth.

So these are the outstanding features. All kinds of imagery comes tumbling across the field of awareness. It's like the mythological image in a perfect stained-glass window being smashed, and all the bits and pieces being scattered. The effect is very colourful, but it's very hard to discern how the pieces belong to each other. Any attempt to make sense of it is an exercise in abstraction from the actual experience. The important thing is to find the process running through it all...

Source: Mental Breakdown as Healing

See also:
The Far Side of Madness
Psychosis and REM States of Consciousness
Still Crazy After All These Years
R.D. Laing & Kingsley Hall
Loren Mosher & Soteria House
DSM-IV: Religious & Spiritual Problems
The Relevance of Visionary Experience to Culture

Caterpillar to Butterfly

Spiritual Emergence or Psychiatric Disorder?

2006-01-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

The following is excerpted from "The Stormy Search for the Self" by Stanislav and Christina Grof. Please note, characteristics that are suggestive of a psychiatric disorder are shown in regular font type, characteristics that are suggestive of spiritual emergence/emergency are shown in a burgundy font.

Criteria of a Medical Nature

Clinical examination and laboratory tests detect a physical disease that causes psychological changes.

Negative results of clinical examination and laboratory tests for a physical disease.

Clinical examination and laboratory tests detect a disease process of the brain that causes psychological changes (neurological reflexes, cerebrospinal fluid, X ray, etc.).

Negative results of clinical examinations and laboratory tests for pathological process afflicting the brain.

Specific psychological tests indicate organic impairment of the brain.

Negative results of psychological tests for organic impairment.

Impairment of intellect and memory, clouded consciousness, problems with basic orientation (name, time, place), poor coordination.

Intellect and memory qualitatively challenged but intact, consciousness usually clear, good basic orientation, coordination not seriously impaired.

Confusion, disorganization, and defective intellectual functioning interfere with communication and cooperation.

Ability to communicate and cooperate (occasional deep involvement in the inner process might be a problem).

Criteria of a Psychological Nature

Personal history shows serious difficulties in interpersonal relationships since childhood, inability to make friends and have intimate sexual relationships, poor social adjustment, usually long history of psychiatric problems.

Adequate pre-episode functioning as evidenced by interpersonal skills, some success in school and vocation, network of friends, and ability to have sexual relationships; no serious psychiatric history.

Poorly organized and defined content of the process, unqualified changes of emotions and behavior, unspecific organization of psychological functions, lack of meaning of any kind, no indication of direction development, loosening of associations, incoherence.

Sequences of biographical memories, themes of birth and death, transpersonal experiences, possible insight that the process is healing or spiritual in nature, change and development of themes, often definable progression, incidence of true synchronicities (evident to others).

Autistic withdrawal, aggressivity, or controlling and manipulative behavior interferes with a good working relationship and makes cooperation impossible.

Ability to relate and cooperate, often even during episodes of dramatic experiences that occur spontaneously or in the course of psychotherapeutic work.

Inability to see the process as an intrapsychic affair, confusion between the inner experiences and the outer world, excessive use of projection and blaming, "acting out".

Awareness of the intrapsychic nature of the process, satisfactory ability to distinguish between the inner and the outer, "owning" the process, ability to keep it internalized.

Basic mistrust, perception of the world and all people as hostile, delusions of persecution, accoustic hallucinations of enemies ("voices") with a very unpleasant content.

Sufficient trust to accept help and co-operate; persecutory delusions and "voices" absent.

Violations of basic rules of therapy ("not to hurt oneself or anyone else, not to destroy property"), destructive and self-destructive (suicidal or self-mutilating) impulses and a tendency to act on them without warning.

Ability to honor basic rules of therapy, absence of destructive or self-destructive ideas and tendencies, or ability to talk about them and to accept precautionary measures.

Behavior endangering health and causing serious concerns (refusal to eat or drink for prolonged periods of time, neglect of basic hygenic rules).

Good cooperation in things related to physical health, basic maintenance, and hygenic rules.

Source: The Stormy Search for the Self

See also:

Wikipedia: Stanislav Grof

Holotropic Breathwork

Personal Account: Ricky Gee

2006-01-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

As a young man in my twenties I spent 10 years wandering the world in search of "inner knowledge". This was 1965-1975 and it wasn't such a strange thing to do then, although it was still fairly unusual to take it as seriously as I did. It might sound paradoxical to wander abroad in search of something that you believe is to be found inside yourself but it actually makes good sense when you practice it. This is because a solitary wanderer can pass time in solitude and self reflection without raising anger or anxiety in relatives or acquaintances. As a traveler you can always appear to be enroute somewhere, and therefore purposeful.

After about 10 years on the road I thought that it was about time I tested some of the theories I'd developed. So I returned to my hometown, found a cheap room and set to work.

My basic theory was simple. I'd arrived at the insight that fear is what animates humans and that most of the things they do are fear-inspired foolishness. The competitive status seeking, the manic economic activity, the compulsive procreation, war, the desperate clinging to life against the odds, all irrational fear-driven foolishness. If all life ends in the inevitable disaster of personal death, I reasoned with myself, what does it matter what happens to you while you're alive? What can possibly go wrong that in any way compares in severity with the ultimate, inevitable disaster? So, why not take it easy and enjoy life while you can? The answer to this being that everybody, including myself, seemed to be programmed with irrational fear that compels us, whether we like it or not, like a goad up the behind, to rush forward and scramble through life in a most undignified way. If only a person could be free of this implanted fear, I thought, he or she would be able to choose how to live life in a much more relaxed and rational manner. Not only that, but in my naivette I thought that anybody who overcame, who transcended this fear, would be popular company and a sought-after dinner guest.

So, my method was as simple as the theory. I would sit for long periods with my consciousness turned inwards and watch the flow of my thoughts. Looking inward I had a sense of sitting somewhere above the source of my thoughts where I could watch them rise up, as if out of a well. As they came up I would divide them into good thoughts and bad thoughts. Bad thoughts had some identifiable content of fear or compulsion. Good thoughts were all the rest. The good thoughts were embraced, bad thoughts were discarded.

That's all there was to it. I had some vague notion that after sufficient practice at sorting my thoughts in this way I would either develop a technique to instantly recognize and discard fear-inspired thoughts or, alternatively, perhaps I might find that the source of fear in me would just give up and leave me alone. Whatever the outcome I expected that with enough perseverance I would make a smooth transition into a different kind of person who was no longer bothered by fears and anxieties.

Foolish boy!

I was in my thirtieth year by then, I had a very strong sense of myself, I had never sought any counsel from mental health professionals and, after ten years on the road, I was very confident in my own ability to survive and think my way through difficult circumstances. I'd read all the books I could find on yogis of the mind and philosophies of the east and west, I'd talked to all sorts of weird people in out of the way places with strange ideas,... but I was totally unprepared for what happened.

Source: Schizophrenia & My Mystical Journey

See also: Schizophrenia & Mysticism

What is the Soul?

2006-01-10T18:12:00.000-08:00

The soul is not in the body; the body is in the soul.

- Hildegarde of Bingen

These twelve seminars have grown out of my quest for a deeper meaning to life - a meaning deeper than that offered by either religion or science or by philosophy as it stands today. The general thrust of our culture is immensely exciting in some respects but it is also ruthless, brutal and predatory and these characteristics increasingly dominate political life, business concerns and the media, not to mention relationships between individuals. In these seminars I attempt to show how a deeper understanding of the psyche can offer insight into the reasons for our present difficulties and solutions to them, based on a different perspective on life. This perspective has evolved over the course of my own life which has seen immense changes, political and social, over the last fifty years.

It seems to me that we are living in a mythic time of choice and that this possibility of choice is focussed on bringing into being a new kind of understanding of what life is about. It could be said that theology, philosophy, psychology and science are converging at the point where each is seeking to answer the central questions of our existence: what is the purpose of our existence on this planet? What could explain us to ourselves? What is the true nature and potential of our consciousness? How could we develop a new morality related to a different understanding of life? Just as we are now discovering that consciousness is distributed through every cell of the body, soon we may discover that it is distributed in every photon or particle of light throughout the universe. As it dawned on the early Portuguese explorers that the world was not flat but round, so the realisation is dawning on us that the universe may not be dead, insentient matter but may be conscious in every part of itself. Our own human consciousness may be a manifestation, an epiphany of that greater consciousness: like fish in water, like birds in the air, we may be immersed in a sea of energy so inconceivably fine that as yet its existence can only be inferred by science. This sea embraces or perhaps connects all universes; it is beyond what Jung called the collective unconscious yet contains this within itself. It is paradoxically at once "greater than the great" and "smaller than the small," co-inherent with the great galaxies of space and with the tiniest particle of matter. Older traditions named it Spirit or Soul or Cosmic Consciousness - the greater psychic reality to which our own life belongs and of which, for the most part, we are tragically unaware.

This Course in twelve seminars is about:

Recovering the lost feminine dimension of the divine.

Healing the split between spirit and nature, including the split between mind and body.

Discovering that we have never been outside an ensouled universe, outside the containing matrix or womb of being.

Discovering that the soul is not only in us. We are in the soul.

What is the Soul?

The soul is the archetypal principle of

Relationship

Connection

Containment

The root of the concept of soul as a feminine, containing entity is the Great Goddess or Great Mother of the Bronze Age (see Seminar 2). The soul in its widest sense is the underlying gossamer-fine invisible web of relationships which connect the life of the universe with the life of this planet. This web connects our human lives in ways which are not yet understood by science to the matrix of planetary life and beyond that, to the immensity of the life of the universe, perhaps to many universes or dimensions as yet undiscovered.

What connects us to this greater web? It is the instinct in all of us to seek relationship, to respond to the attraction of people, ideas, mythic images. It is the capacity to imagine, to feel, to make intuitive associations, bringing things together that are felt to be related. Creativity comes from the deepest recesses of instinct and feeling. It is through our longing to understand, our capacity to feel and to imagine that we are most closely connected to nature and the cosmos. Feeling and intuition make the connection with a reality initially beyond the reach of mind, acting like a plug connecting us to the socket of that deeper reality. Later, we can reflect and attempt to understand what we have been attracted to, what gives deep meaning to our lives. What part of the body do you touch when someone asks "Where is the seat of your feeling?" Most people instinctively touch their heart or the centre of their chest.

To the Greeks, the soul was the breath of life: they called it psyche. The Romans called the soul anima. Both of these nouns are feminine. The Oxford Dictionary defines the soul (old English sawol, sawl) as:

the animating principle in humans and animals

the principle of thought and action in man (distinct from the body).

the seat of the emotions and feelings. (The essence, core or heart of a person or a place).

the spiritual part of our being.

the part of us which survives the death of the body and can experience happiness or misery in a future state.

the disembodied spirit of a deceased person.

The word 'unconscious' was used by Jung in order to move towards a scientific understanding of aspects of consciousness not yet fully recognised or understood. It was not a new concept but had already appeared during the nineteenth century in the work of certain writers and philosophers. Today, however, it is often used in a limited, clinical sense, related to the personal psyche alone. Even in the Jungian sense, the word "unconscious" has lost the wider dimension of the meaning that the word 'soul' as anima-mundi or the soul of the world once had, as it was once used by poets, visionaries and philosophers.

The soul in the wider concept of a universal containing and connecting matrix needs to be placed in the context of the story of galactic and planetary evolution. To understand our relationship to this great matrix we have to go back to the beginning of evolution and follow the whole process of cosmic, planetary and human evolution coming into being over some 12-15 billion years. (this material is not included in this seminar. I would refer those interested to The Universe Story by Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry). But I would say here that it is important to know that we have come from the stars, that we are, in our essence, even in the composition of our physical bodies, starry matter, stardust.

Source: 12 Seminars

Shamanism & Schizophrenia

2006-01-10T18:11:00.000-08:00

clancycavnar.com
The fragmented psyche does not automatically require or seek mending; or at least there may be a kairos space of time during which it may need, indeed can thrive upon fragmentation. In certain crisis situations the psyche, instead of putting all its eggs in one basket, to play safe and ultimately protect its integrity, may choose to invest fragments of libido into splinter personalities for safe-keeping until the crisis has abated. In therapy situations I have seen this anticipated in dreams, then worked out in situations where a person was facing imminent, possibly life-threatening danger and in an attempt to cushion the impending blow, split into several ego stances. I have called this phenomenon "pre-traumatic dissociation" as an anticipatory move which, unlike the more severe and overridingly pathological Multiple Personality Disorder, does not interfere significantly with the individual's ability to function normally in day-to-day reality.

As a second parameter in the assessment of the overriding effect of pathology, placing woundedness in its mythic context, it's worth bearing in mind, for instance, that Osiris and Dionysus were dismembered, that Psyche had to journey to the Underworld, that Prometheus had his liver repeatedly torn out by Zeus's eagle, and that Medusa was beheaded. As well, in terms of the psyche's ultimate goal of attaining wholeness, centredness and integration, fragmentation is a blow to the hubris of the stable ego, which must relinquish its sense of a fixed identity and must eventually step aside in order to allow the paradoxical Self to displace it as the centre of consciousness.

Shamanism & Schizophrenia
What we call schizophrenic is, as Joseph Campbell has discussed, called (positively) visionary or mystical in shamanic cultures, hence is valued, not feared or sedated with chemicals. As he clarifies in the well-known [1988] TV series, "The Power of Myth", 'The shaman is the person, male or female, who ... has an overwhelming psychological experience that turns him totally inward. It's a kind of schizophrenic crack-up. The whole unconscious opens up, and the shaman falls into it. This shaman experience has been described many, many times. It occurs all the way from Siberia right through the Americas down to Tierra del Fuego.'

Hence working with sufferers of schizophrenia from a shamanic angle can be helpful, since the shaman has in all likelihood experienced similar experiences to those of the schizophrenic. Mainstream reductionist psychiatrists, on the other hand, by and large presume that if an experience (such as chronic depression) is unpleasant, it must be stopped or band-aided, but because an experience is painful or difficult, it doesn't necessarily follow that's it's not valuable, or therapeutically worthwhile as a 'wound which heals'.

As Mircea Eliade has recounted in detail, shamanic initiation is often unpleasant, even at times horrific, and can involve being mythically stripped to the skeleton, dismemberment, or being taken to pieces. If the schizophrenic can work through these kinds of processes with an empathetic therapist, s/he may be able to find healing and some ego stability at the other end of the ordeal. I know of other schizophrenics who have courageously gone off of medication and helped each other through such processes, or (more rarely) who have worked through them alone.

Schizophrenia: The Shaman Sickness
The path is always lonely and demanding for those called to shamanism, and doubly so for those who must contend with Western culture's refusal to accept the overwhelming reality of the disturbing realms of vision and torment in which these potential shamans dwell. Along with having to endure the loss of ego stability, hence the frightening blurring of outer and inner realites, sufferers of schizophrenia are often forced to contend with psychiatric notions, ruled by the Apollonian myth of reason, monotheism and normality, which demand that such "deviant" Dionysian states be subdued with medication, or punished with incarceration in mental institutions.

The schizophrenic's reason and senses, like those of the shaman during initiation, are assaulted by concrete revelations of the heights and depths of the vast Otherworlds of the collective unconscious. Simultaneously, the schizophrenic is forced to slot into the sometimes petty humdrum and routine of daily existence. The invasion of the ego by archetypal forces transforms the individual profoundly and irreversibly; no-one who has endured such a crisis can confine the expanded horizons of their consciousness to the tame boundaries of cultural norms. Yet instead of encouraging and bolstering the development of such transcendental levels of awareness, mainstream psychiatry seeks - out of fear of the unknown, the unconscious, the numinous, the irrational and the abnormal - to stifle it under the euphemistic and patronising guise of 'treatment'.

The schizophrenic, being intensely introverted is automatically poorly adapted in a society which narrowly defines personal identity in terms of appearance, behaviour and social status. S/he lives in a discontinuous reality which can become a terrifying bombardment of overlapping realities, voices and chaotic perceptions. Everything takes on mythical overtones. The players in the archetypal dramas are often gods who are potentially both benevolent and destructive. Mainstream psychiatry deals with this overload by numbing the mind and trying to force the individual to readjust to cultural norms. At the same time, the "patient" is robbed of a unique mode of learning that many schizophrenics sense to be immensely valuable and worth pursuing. And unfortunately the law is in the psychiatrists' hands to take away what others treasure as an experience of the awesome power of the sacred.

Self Retrieval vs Soul Retrieval
Jung once remarked that his work would be continued "by those who suffer", and he was undoubtedly including in that phrase all who have the courage to confront - with the peculiar aloneness and risk that's unavoidable in such work - their inner depths, soul pathology, and shadows. From the perspective of effective therapy (bearing in mind that 'therapy' means 'serving the gods'), the bottom line is that sufferers of schizophrenia as individuals have the right to choose what sort of treatment they wish to accept, but at present they're not being presented by mainstream psychiatry with the option of working through their experiences as an alternative to fearfully band-aiding the symptoms. Coming to terms with the illness takes a lot of guts - on the part of both patient and therapist - but the option exists and sufferers of schizophrenia are surely entitled to be informed that it does.

Paraphrasing Hamlet, then, to intervene, or not to intervene, that is the quesion. During solitary Self retrieval, for instance, when a person may be recovering from grief, or from an ended relationship, or from plain old unrequited love, the energy is gradually reclaimed, in the same way as a snail's stalks, or the leaves of some touch-sensitive plants tentatively re-emerge or unfold after they've been touched. Similarly, the soul's energy doesn't need to be yanked back, or forcefully torn away from its attachment. It needs gentleness and slow movement, not sudden jolting or other forms of hasty retrieval.

Through my own experiences of grief, loss and wounding, and though being privileged to share the painful experiences of others, I have learned that the soul lets go when in the kairos of its own time-frame it is ready to. It undergoes a gradual transition from acknowledging the soul-bond, to relinquishing dependency and belongingness, to acknowledging the reality of separation. The soul like a child must in such times be weaned off, because its vulnerability and woundedness so often belong to the Puer, the eternal child archetype of trust and openness that has more often than not drawn it into the situation in the first place. The hopeful and idealistic Puer, earthed and sometimes shocked through the harsh facts of human relatedness into the realm of Soul, thereby becomes, if it accepts its lot with growth in understanding and no bitterness, the willing victim of sometimes painful reality. In some circumstances, then, interventional soul retrieval, perhaps out of a desire for a quicker remedy, or even out of a well-meaning shamanic longing to help the suffering soul escape its pain, could become a hasty substitute for a more gradual, natural process of Self retrieval. For it is through bathing in the gentle alchemical fire in which the agony of passion is gradually transmuted to the gold of 'com-passion', that the Wounded Healer is most thoroughly forged.

Source: Embracing the Fragmented Self: Shamanic Explorations of the Sacred in Schizophrenia & Soul Loss

See also:
The Role of Crisis & Trauma in Shamanic Development
Shamanism
The Shaman - Traditional and Modern
The Evolution of a Jungian Shaman

I and I love I and I: Working With Shaman and Psychiatrist, Valentin Hampejs

Kundalini & The Black Queen

2006-01-10T18:10:00.000-08:00

"The black queen chants
the funeral march,
The cracked brass bells will ring;
To summon back the fire witch
To the court of the crimson king."
The black queen is Kali, the destructive aspect of the Goddess (Persephone in the Eleusinian Mysteries). The court of the crimson king is consciousness (the head). The black queen chants the funeral march (representing the death of the ego). The cracked brass bells (the divided psyche) will ring ... to summon back the fire witch" (Kundalini-Shakti) from dormancy at the base of the spine to consciousness in the head.

Source: The Court of the Crimson King

See also:
Music: Strange Days - Beautiful Midnight
Night Enfolds Her Cloak of Holes

Kundalini: FAQ

Kali, Kundalini, Ego Death, Schizophrenia, The Dark Night of the Soul, The Crimson King, Matthew Good Band - Beautiful Midnight

Personal Account: El Collie

2006-01-10T18:09:00.000-08:00

Kundalini Awakening

Throughout my life, I have followed an eclectic spiritual path, exploring many traditions and practices. Never did I deliberately attempt to rouse my Kundalini, nor was I doing anything known to trigger the release of Kundalini when my mysterious symptoms began. In the beginning, I had no idea what was happening to me. Because my initial Kundalini experiences were severe physical symptoms, I was in and out of the hospital for five months, being tested for nearly every disease under the sun. No pathology could be detected; my doctors were at a loss to explain my strange illness.

Then, through a series of synchronicities, including the increasingly bizarre changes in my symptoms (I was by now experiencing the more classic Kundalini manifestations such as extremely heightened consciousness, seeing brilliant lights, feeling tremendous internal electricity, incandescent heat, etc.), I discovered the true cause of my peculiar ailment. Realizing that I was experiencing the emergence of Kundalini was incredible to me. From the literature I had previously read, I had been under the impression that Kundalini awakening -- especially spontaneous awakening -- was the most rare of human experiences. Apparently, up until recent times, this was true.

Within a year, to my further amazement, I learned that three friends I had not heard from in ages were also involved in lengthy, spontaneous Kundalini processes. I have never been much of an optimist. Judging by the current condition of the world, had my own Kundalini not risen, I would have doubted the New Age proclamations that we are in the midst of a collective developmental leap in human consciousness. But from what has transpired in my own life, on top of the testimony from countless others going through similar experiences, I have a growing spark of hope that as a species, we are truly evolving.

In my mostly isolated first year of trying to cope with rapid personal transformation, it dawned on me that those of us who are in the midst of spiritual awakening need communication and interconnection with others who know about this. Thus the vision for ST was born. Since we began ST newsletter in 1993 -- on a shoestring budget and with marginal publicity -- we have been contacted by over 1000 people in the throes of spontaneous Kundalini arousal. Many of them are finding it is an enormous challenge. For people in whom Kundalini rises involuntarily, the months/years of the process are often both a magnificent odyssey and a painful ordeal.

The risen Kundalini can produce a staggering array of physical, mental, emotional, psychic and spiritual changes which can fast become overwhelming. These difficulties are compounded when we live in a culture which has been, until very recently, ill-equipped to understand and support breakthroughs in consciousness. Whether sublime, excruciating, or anywhere inbetween, our Kundalini experiences are easier to bear when we do not feel alone with them, and when we realize something profound is transpiring within us. We need each other's help to make our way through the sometimes painful labyrinths of this alchemical healing process. Together we can explore the wonder of transcendence and open ourselves to greater awareness, unity, compassion and wholeness.

Source: Shared Transformations

See also:
Process of Kundalini Awakening

Kundalini: Psychosis or Transcendence

Kali - The Divine Mother

2006-01-10T18:08:00.000-08:00

clancycavnar.com

Is Kali, my Divine Mother, of a black complexion?
She appears black because She is viewed from a distance;
but when intimately known She is no longer so.
The sky appears blue at a distance, but look at it close by
and you will find that it has no colour.
The water of the ocean looks blue at a distance,
but when you go near and take it in your hand,
you find that it is colourless."

... Ramakrishna Paramhansa (1836-86)
The worship of a mother goddess as the source of life and fertility has prehistoric roots, but the transformation of that deity into a Great goddess of cosmic powers was achieved with the composition of the Devi Mahatmya (Glory of the goddess), a text of the fifth to sixth century, when worship of the female principle took on dramatic new dimensions. The goddess is not only the mysterious source of life, she is the very soil, all-creating and all consuming.

Kali makes her 'official' debut in the Devi-Mahatmya, where she is said to have emanated from the brow of Goddess Durga (slayer of demons) during one of the battles between the divine and anti-divine forces. Etymologically Durga's name means "Beyond Reach". She is thus an echo of the woman warrior's fierce virginal autonomy. In this context Kali is considered the 'forceful' form of the great goddess Durga.

Kali is represented as a Black woman with four arms; in one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the demon she has slain, with the other two she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies and wears a necklace of skulls ; her only clothing is a girdle made of dead men's hands, and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red, and her face and breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and another on the breast of her husband.

Kali's blackness symbolizes her all-embracing, comprehensive nature, because black is the color in which all other colors merge; black absorbs and dissolves them. 'Just as all colors disappear in black, so all names and forms disappear in her' (Mahanirvana Tantra). Or black is said to represent the total absence of color, again signifying the nature of Kali as ultimate reality. This in Sanskrit is named as nirguna (beyond all quality and form). Either way, Kali's black color symbolizes her transcendence of all form.

Kali's nudity has a similar meaning. In many instances she is described as garbed in space or sky clad. In her absolute, primordial nakedness she is free from all covering of illusion. She is Nature (Prakriti in Sanskrit), stripped of 'clothes'. It symbolizes that she is completely beyond name and form, completely beyond the illusory effects of maya (false consciousness). Her nudity is said to represent totally illumined consciousness, unaffected by maya. Kali is the bright fire of truth, which cannot be hidden by the clothes of ignorance. Such truth simply burns them away.

She is full-breasted; her motherhood is a ceaseless creation. Her disheveled hair forms a curtain of illusion, the fabric of space - time which organizes matter out of the chaotic sea of quantum-foam. Her garland of fifty human heads, each representing one of the fifty letters of the Sanskrit alphabet, symbolizes the repository of knowledge and wisdom. She wears a girdle of severed human hands - hands that are the principal instruments of work and so signify the action of karma. Thus the binding effects of this karma have been overcome, severed, as it were, by devotion to Kali. She has blessed the devotee by cutting him free from the cycle of karma. Her white teeth are symbolic of purity (Sans. Sattva), and her lolling tongue which is red dramatically depicts the fact that she consumes all things and denotes the act of tasting or enjoying what society regards as forbidden, i.e. her indiscriminate enjoyment of all the world's "flavors".

Kali's four arms represent the complete circle of creation and destruction, which is contained within her. She represents the inherent creative and destructive rhythms of the cosmos. Her right hands, making the mudras of "fear not" and conferring boons, represent the creative aspect of Kali, while the left hands, holding a bloodied sword and a severed head represent her destructive aspect. The bloodied sword and severed head symbolize the destruction of ignorance and the dawning of knowledge. The sword is the sword of knowledge, that cuts the knots of ignorance and destroys false consciousness (the severed head). Kali opens the gates of freedom with this sword, having cut the eight bonds that bind human beings. Finally her three eyes represent the sun, moon, and fire, with which she is able to observe the three modes of time: past, present and future. This attribute is also the origin of the name Kali, which is the feminine form of 'Kala', the Sanskrit term for Time.

Kali's dwelling place, the cremation ground denotes a place where the five elements (Sanskrit: pancha mahabhuta) are dissolved. Kali dwells where dissolution takes place. In terms of devotion and worship, this denotes the dissolving of attachments, anger, lust, and other binding emotions, feelings, and ideas. The heart of the devotee is where this burning takes place, and it is in the heart that Kali dwells. The devotee makes her image in his heart and under her influence burns away all limitations and ignorance in the cremation fires. This inner cremation fire in the heart is the fire of knowledge, (Sanskrit: gyanagni), which Kali bestows.

The image of a recumbent Shiva lying under the feet of Kali represents Shiva as the passive potential of creation and Kali as his Shakti. The generic term Shakti denotes the Universal feminine creative principle and the energizing force behind all male divinity including Shiva. Shakti is known by the general name Devi, from the root 'div', meaning to shine. She is the Shining One, who is given different names in different places and in different appearances, as the symbol of the life-giving powers of the Universe. It is she that powers him. This Shakti is expressed as the i in Shiva's name. Without this i, Shiva becomes Shva, which in Sanskrit means a corpse. Thus suggesting that without his Shakti, Shiva is powerless or inert.

Source: Kali - The Divine Mother

See also:
Kali-Ma & Ego Death
The Dark Goddess Returns
Dancing in the Flames

The Black Latifa

Empowering Soul Through the Feminine

2006-01-10T18:06:00.000-08:00

An Interview With Marion Woodman - Michael Bertrand

Your whole work seems to be in a way about soul making.
I would say that's true--or soul mirroring. More and more I tend to see the soul expressing itself in body symptoms--in the way the body moves, in the dreams. I see it almost as a prisoner with the complexes squeezing in to take the life out of it.

There are a lot of books out on the concept of the soul. Do you have a definition?
Well, for me, the soul is the divine part of us that is embodied in this physical form for a few years. Eventually it is released, but I see soul as the embodied part. I see spirit as the energy, the disembodied energy that can come in to union with the soul in the body. For example, a great dancer like Nureyev can prepare his instrument. His muscles can be in perfect shape through his attention and his concentration. So, his consciousness, his light in his body--which for me would be soul--can be a perfect instrument. But, he's a great dancer when spirit is in union with that instrument. The leap is in the union of soul and spirit.

So, a lot of your work is freeing up the soul so that it can be able to get in that union?
Yes, so the soul is strong enough to be able to accept that union. If it is weak, or if the body is not conscious, the spirit could come flashing in and cause a psychotic episode. It's like a Rolls Royce engine in a Volkswagen car. The energy could blast the container to pieces and that does happen to people.

I think of the soul as feminine, because it's the receiver--in both men and women. The artist, for example, has to have a receiver and just hopes to God that the spirit will come and touch into soul so that there will a poem come out of that union or a piece of music or art. It's in that surrender to the transcendent, or however you want to call the spirit energy, that art is created.

That manifests in dreams. A lot of people dream that there's going to be a wedding and the bride is all ready but there is no groom or there's something wrong with the groom. He's too young or he's got no legs or no heart or he's dying. Sometimes there's something wrong with the bridesmaid--the shadow side of the bride. So the union can't take place until they come together as equals and some people are at that stage now.

It seems that's the place at the end of a long quest. Does that have to be done through processes like psychoanalysis? Not everyone is going to be able to find the therapist to get them there.
I don't think it has to come through psychoanalysis. I mean not many people will get there if it did. I think it can come through life, with an experience, through loss--if people care enough about consciousness. You know, what does this loss--of relationship, of my partner in love, the job--mean? Suffering does seem to give us a chance to really come to consciousness.

I think the world we're in so many people would rather go into an addiction or into unconsciousness. The journey I'm talking about is a conscious journey and certainly many people in the past, through their religious faith, have gone on this journey. But, I do see psychotherapy as a speeding up of the psychic process. In the Middle Ages people were terrified of miners and blacksmiths. Miners went into the earth and raped it before the jewels or minerals were ready to come out. They thought this was going against God's timing and that they would be punished.

A lot of people have similar feelings about therapists and analysts, that they are raping the unconscious by putting this kind of heat on the psyche. What this process does is speed up the maturation process and one has to be strong to take that kind of fire. Not everybody that goes into therapy goes into the fire.

No. They step back or...
They fool themselves. They're just not committed and are more interested in being supported than they are in doing the work. That sounds rough, and I certainly support so long as I see a need. Some people come in very, very broken and then one does support, but there is a point I think in our culture where people are addicted to being victims. It's very important to want to walk on your own legs instead of on crutches.

You said something like staying with the process is what matters, through imagery...
Yes, and body symptoms and experiences that just seem to come in from nowhere. It's amazing how synchronistic things become when you're going through the process. You can get to the point where you can hardly tell the difference between inner and outer. When you realize that inner and outer are the same, the kind of person that you love in your dreams will be the kind that you are seeking in your outer life or indeed are married to. As the inner relationship changes the outer relationship changes or you find a different person outside.

Your writing in some way is an antidote to what's been called patriarchal thinking, some way of moving out of the bind that we seem to be in.
I want to make clear that I don't associate patriarchy with men any more. To me men are the victims of patriarchy just as much as women are, in fact more so. I know many women are now coming into their femininity and they're looking for a masculine to balance that in themselves and they dream of poor broken men with no hearts and no legs. They're often little boys who've been smashed over the mouth so that they're very damaged. I think the full horror of what's happened to the masculine is just beginning to come into consciousness and to me patriarchy is a power principle of which Nazism was the epitome.

I think all of us have to really look so carefully at how we collude with patriarchy. We're so used to it that we don't even know how we're being struck by it.

Is the process for doing this sort of work different for men and women?
I think the rituals involved are different. Women's rituals tend to be around body, menstruation, women's biological worlds. Men's rituals, I'm sure, are around men's biological worlds. They'll likely be on a very spiritual level.

Every process is different. No two women's process is the same either. So I think while the imagery is different in men's and women's dreams and certainly while the energy in the body is different--you know, when I worked with men only in body groups I used to get blown against the wall. But, there is an archetypal part that is very similar.

The journey, the quest.
Yes, the fundamental images of the quest seem to me very much the same. In the man's dreams he has to separate out from the mother, then reconnect and find the virgin within himself. I think many men think that once they've found mothering they've found the feminine and they aren't anywhere near the virgin in themselves, with that kind of femininity. But, it's all beginning to flower.

I do have men in my practice. I like to hold that balance. But, I like to take 30 women away into nature alone and let the process take over. Most women can't endure being with men at this point. They're too vulnerable. They don't know what their own femininity is and they can't deal with the confusion of being with men, at least until they get stronger.

Source: Empowering Soul Through the Feminine

The Hero's Journey

2006-01-10T18:05:00.000-08:00

The Pattern of Human Experience
Most of us were introduced to the Heroic Journey through mythology. Mythological heroes take great journeys: to slay Medusa, to kill the minotaur, to find the golden fleece. But The Hero's Journey isn't just a pattern from myth. It's the pattern of life, growth and experience -- for all of us. We see it reflected everywhere, from a television comedy to the great works of literature to the experiences in our own lives.

A Mirror of the Rite of Passage
The Hero's Journey duplicates the stages of the Rite of Passage. First the initiate faces separation from his own, familiar world. Once separated, he undergoes initiation and transformation, where the old ways of thinking and acting are altered or destroyed, opening the way to a new level of awareness, skill and freedom. After successfully meeting the challenges of the initiation, the initiate takes the journey's final step, the return to his world. When he does, he will find that he is more confident, perceptive, and capable, and he will discover that his community now treats him as an adult, with all of the respect, rights and privileges which that status implies.

A Map to Experience
Why study The Hero's Journey? Why learn a pattern that dates from before recorded history? The answer is simple: we should study it because it's the pattern of human experience, of our experience, and we will live it for the rest of our lives.

In a sense, every challenge or change we face in life is a Journey: every love found, every love lost, every birth or death, every move to a new job, school or city: every situation which confronts us with something new or which forces us to re-evaluate our thinking, behavior or perspective.

The journey is a process of self-discovery and self-integration, of maintaining balance and harmony in our lives. As with any process of growth and change, a journey can be confusing and painful, but it brings opportunities to develop confidence, perspective and understanding.

Understanding the Journey pattern can help us understand the literature us read, the movies us see, and the experiences which shape your life. By recognizing the Journey's stages and how they function, we will develop a sense of the flow of our own experience and be better able to make decisions and solve problems. More importantly, we will begin to recognize our own points of passage and respect the significance they have for us.

Eight-step transformation
We usually divide the Journey into eight steps, but you must remember that the journey is a single process and an individual adventure towards growth and transformation. As such, the sequence of elements and the duration of the experiences will vary from one person to another.

Separation (from the known)

The Call

The Threshold (with guardians, helpers, and mentor)

Initiation and Transformation

The Challenges

The Abyss

The Transformation

The Revelation

The Atonement

The Return (to the known world)

The Return (with a Gift)

Source: The Hero's Journey [8 Stages]

See also:

The Hero's Journey [12 Stages]

The Hero is Us

The Major Archetypes

2006-01-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

The Hero
The word hero is Greek, from a root that means "to protect and to serve". A Hero is someone who is willing to sacrifice his own needs on behalf of others, like a shepherd who will sacrifice to protect and serve his flock. The root of the idea of Hero is connected with self-sacrifice.

The Mentor: A Wise Old Man or Woman
An archetype found frequently in dreams, myths, and stories is the Mentor, usually a positive figure who aids or trains the hero. Campbell's name for this force is the Wise Old Man or Wise Old Woman. This archetype is expressed in all those characters who teach and protect heroes and give them gifts. Whether it's God walking with Adam in the Garden of Eden, Merlin guiding King Arthur, the Fairy Godmother helping Cinderella, or a veteran sergeant giving advice to rookie cop, the relationship between hero and Mentor is one of the richest sources of entertainment in literature and film.

The word "Mentor" comes to us from The Odyssey. A character named Mentor guides the young hero, Telemachus, on his Hero's journey. In fact it's the goddess Athena who helps Telemachus, by assuming the form of Mentor. Mentor's often speak in the voice of a god, or are inspired by divine wisdom. Good teachers and Mentors are enthused, in the original sense of the word. "Enthusiasm" is from the Greek en theos, meaning god-inspired, having a god in you, or being in the presence of a god.

The Threshold Guardian
All heroes encounter obstacles on the road to adventure. At each gateway to a new world there are powerful guardians at the threshold, placed to keep the unworthy from entering. They present a menacing face to the hero, but if properly understood, they can be overcome, bypassed, or even turned into allies. Many heroes (and many writers) encounter Threshold Guardians, and understanding their nature can help determine how to handle them.

Threshold Guardians are usually not the main villains or antagonists in stories. Often they will be lieutenants of the villain, lesser thugs or mercenaries hired to guard access to the chief's headquarters. They may also be neutral figures who are simply part of the landscape of the special world. In rare cases they may be secret helpers placed in the hero's path to test her willingness and skill.

The Herald
Often a new force will appear in Act One to bring a challenge to the hero. This is the energy of the Herald archetype. Like the heralds of medieval chivalry, Herald characters issue challenges and announce the coming of significant change.

Typically, in the opening phase of a story, heroes have "gotten by" somehow. They have handled an imbalanced life through a series of defenses or coping mechanisms. Then all at once some new energy enters the story that makes it impossible for the hero to simply get by any longer. A new person, condition, or information shifts the hero's balance, and nothing will ever be the same. A decision must be made, action taken, the conflict faced. A Call to Adventure has been delivered, often by a character who manifests the archetype of the Herald.

The Shapeshifter
People often have trouble grasping the elusive archetype of the Shapeshifter, perhaps because its very nature is to be shifting and unstable. Its appearance and characteristics change as soon as you examine it closely. Nonetheless, the Shapeshifter is a powerful archetype and understanding its way can be helpful in storytelling and life.

Heroes frequently encounter figures, often of the opposite sex, whose primary characteristic is that they appear to change constantly from the hero's point of view. Often the hero's love interest or romantic partner will manifest the qualities of a Shapeshifter. We have all experienced relationships in which our partner is fickle, two-faced or bewilderingly changeable.

Shapeshifters change appearance or mood, and are difficult for the hero and the audience to pin down. They may mislead the hero or keep her guessing, and their loyalty or sincerity is often in question. An Ally or friend of the same sex as the hero may also act as a Shapeshifter in a buddy comedy or adventure. Wizards, witches, and ogres are traditional Shapeshifters in the world of fairy tales.

The Shadow
The archetype known as the Shadow represents the energy of the dark side, the unexpressed, unrealized, or rejected aspects of something. Often it's the home of the suppressed monsters of our inner world. Shadows can be all the things we don't like about ourselves, all the dark secrets we can't admit, even to ourselves. The qualities we have renounced and tried to root out still lurk within, operating in the Shadow world of the unconscious. The Shadow can also shelter positive qualities that are in hiding or that we have rejected for some reason.

The negative face of the Shadow in stories is projected onto characters called villains, antagonists, or enemies. Villains and enemies are usually dedicated to the death, destruction or defeat of the hero. Antagonists may not be quite so hostile---they may be Allies who are after the same goal but who disagree with hero's tactics. Antagonists and heroes in conflict are like horses in a team pulling in different directions, while villains and heroes in conflict are like trains on a head-on collision course.

The Trickster
The Trickster archetype embodies the energies of mischief and desire for change. All the characters in stories who are primarily clowns or comical sidekicks express this archetype. The specialized form called the Trickster Hero is the leading figure in many myths and is very popular in folklore and fairy tales.

Source: The Major Archetypes

Schizophrenia & The Hero's Journey

2006-01-10T18:03:00.000-08:00

Anyone reading this blog, whether it be at the time of it's creation or in some distant future might be wondering, What does the Hero's Journey have to do with schizophrenia? The connect is, those who go through the experience in a benign environment -- that is to say, without stigmatizing labels, drugs, or forced care that seeks to stifle the emerging content -- in those individuals, the emerging content itself begins to coalesce into a pattern that looks remarkably like the Hero's Journey. Here's an excerpt from Joseph Campbell's Power of Myth where he addresses that aspect...

BROWN: As a psychiatrist I'm particularly curious about your work with John Perry. How did you first meet him?

CAMPBELL: That was a marvelous meeting. Mike wrote to me one time and said he'd like me to come out and talk with John Perry, a psychiatrist in San Francisco, about schizophrenia. I said, I don't know anything about schizophrenia. He said, Well, he'd like to have me give a lecture anyhow. I said, Well, how would James Joyce be? And he said, That would be just fine.

So I agreed to come out and talk with John Perry. And Perry sent me some of his monographs, his articles, on the symbolism of schizophrenia. The sequence with which these images emerge in a patient's mind, who's in a deep schizoid crack-up. And it matched The Hero with a Thousand Faces, just like that, step by step.

And so there again I came to understand the relationship with something that had been simply a scholarly interest of mine in mythology to actual life problems.

And it's been pretty exciting ever since.

Source: The Hero's Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work

Perry relates his own discovery of this pattern in his earlier book, The Far Side of Madness...

The terror of psychosis – and the terrifying treatments to which the “mental patient” is subjected – remains a source of bafflement to the outsider and a source of frustration to many practitioners in the mental health field. Although the literature is fraught with descriptions of symptoms, diagnoses, theories, and methods of treatment, few researchers address the patient as an equal. Rare, indeed, is the practitioner who has come to view psychosis as a strange sign of health: as an attempt to heal or as a stage in a developmental process that transports the subject beyond sickness or health and into a positive transformation of the self.

Such an exception is John Weir Perry. His Far Side of Madness remains a classic in the field for all these reasons. Working in the lonely tradition of Carl Jung and R.D. Laing, who each viewed psychosis as potentially purposive and telic in nature, Perry describes the goals – and the terrible dangers – that are typically portrayed in the psychotic journey.

Perry’s work in traditional psychiatric settings led him to conclude that those in the thrall of an acute psychotic episode are rarely listened to or met on the level of their visionary state of consciousness. Instead, every imaginable way to silence the patients – to ignore and to disapprove of their nonrational language and experience – was called into play, thereby increasing their sense of isolation, alienation, and so-called madness. (Although the book was first published in 1974, things have not substantially changed in state mental hospitals or in community residence settings. To explore the strange imagery of psychosis with a client in a counseling session is viewed as “feeding into their delusional system,” and it is sternly discouraged by psychiatrists and social workers.) Perry’s work with those in acute stages of psychosis revealed that their pre-psychotic personalities were the true source of the “sickness.” Forced to live an emotionally impoverished life, the psyche had reacted by forcing a transformation in the form of a “compensating” psychosis, during which a drama in depth was enacted, forcing the initiate to undergo certain developmental processes.

Such psychic processes, which are accompanied by rich, emotional imagery, yield amazing parallels to classical myths and to obscure rituals of antiquity:

The individual finds himself living in a psychic modality quite different from his surroundings. He is immersed in a myth world ... His emotions no longer connect with ordinary things, but drop into concerns and titanic involvements with an entire inner world of myth and image.

Although the imagery is of a general, archetypal nature (“imagery that pertains to all men and all times”), it also portrays the key issues of the individual undergoing the crisis. Therefore, once lived through on this mythic plane, and once the process of withdrawal nears its end, the images must be linked to specific problems of daily life. Thus, the archetypal affect images await a reconnection to their natural context: to the personal psychological complexes (which are externally projected).

Perry searched for and finally discovered a regular pattern of imagery and ideation in the psychotic process. The “negative self-image” is typically compensated by an “overblown” archetypal one, the latter manifesting in imagery such as that of the hero, clown, saint, ghost, or sovereign leader. In addition, there is a sense of “participating in some form of drama or ritual performance.” Most significantly, ten sets of motifs emerged:

symbols of the center

death

return to beginnings

cosmic conflict

the threat of the opposite sex

apotheosis

sacred marriage

new birth

new society, and

the quadrated world

Following the Jungian school of thought (from which Perry emerged), comparative symbolism and cross-cultural studies were used to uncover a holistic context in which to view such motifs in a larger context. Research led to the discovery of the same sequence of imagery in archaic religions and in other cultural structures. Most significant to the author is that “the myth and ritual form that resembles it is the principle and central rite of the civilizations of remote antiquity, and parallels the image sequence step for step.” That is, the “ceremonial pattern of sacral kingship,” found in the ancient Near East, the Mediterranean, Europe, and the Far East, which involves an annual renewal of the cosmos during the New Year.

The author devotes an entire chapter to the psychic significance of kingship, and he refers to its importance throughout The Far Side of Madness. Indeed, the correspondence is striking: in the New Year festivals, we find “a creation rite also emphasizing the center, the beginnings, death and renewal, the sacred combat and sacred marriage, and the other elements of the process.” The sacred functions of kingship represents a projection of “man’s spiritual potential as an individual.” Only with the integration of such functions in the psyche of the common man was the era of the sacred king to give way to a new era: one ushered in by “great prophets and founders of the great religions,” and characterized by a revaluation of the individual and the Eros principle. Thus, kingship reflects an archetypal pattern of growth: one progressing through dismemberment, reconstitution, and the rebirth of psyche, paralleling the “outer” historical processes (which themselves were probably based on inner archetypal correlates) and ending in the Eros principle described above (the return to love).

Source: Psychosis as Purposive

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

2006-01-10T18:02:00.000-08:00

In the long run, the most influential book of the 20th Century may turn out to be Joseph Campbell's THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES.

The ideas in the book are an excellent set of analytical tools.

With them you can compose a story to meet any situation, a story that will be dramatic, entertaining, and psychologically true.

There's nothing new in the book. The ideas in it are older than the Pyramids, older than Stonehenge, older than the earliest cave painting.

Campbell's contribution was to gather the ideas together, recognize them, articulate them, name them. He exposed the pattern for the first time, the pattern that lies behind every story ever told.

Campbell is a mythographer -- he writes about myths. What he discovered in his study of world myths is that THEY ARE ALL BASICALLY THE SAME STORY -- retold endlessly in infinite variation.

He discovered that all story-telling, consciously or not, follows the ancient patterns of myth, and that all stories, from the crudest jokes to the highest flights of literature, can be understood in terms of the "HERO MYTH"; the "MONOMYTH" whose principles he lays out in the book.

Campbell was a student of the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung, and the ideas in THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES are often described as Jungian.

The book is based on Jung's idea of the "Archetypes" constantly repeating characters who occur in the dreams of all people and the myths of all cultures.

Jung believed that these archetypes are reflections of the human mind -- that our minds divide themselves into these characters to play out the drama of our lives.

The repeating characters of the hero myth, such as the young hero, the wise old man, the shape-shifting woman, and the shadowy nemesis, are identical with the archetypes of the human mind, as shown in dreams. That's why myths, and stories constructed on the mythological model, are always psychologically true.

Such stories are true models of the workings of the human mind, true maps of the psyche. They are psychologically valid and realistic even when they portray fantastic, impossible, unreal events.

This accounts for the universal power of such stories. Stories built on the model of THE HERO OF A THOUSAND FACES have an appeal that can be felt by everyone, because they spring from a universal source in the collective unconscious, and because they reflect universal concerns. They deal with universal questions like "Why was
I born?" "What happens when I die?" "How can I overcome my life problems and be happy?"

The ideas in the book can be applied to understanding any human problem. They are a great key to life as well as being a major tool for dealing more effectively with a mass audience.

Christ, Hitler, Mohammed, and Buddha all understood the principles in the book and applied them to influence millions.

If you want to understand the ideas behind the HERO MYTH, there's no substitute for actually reading the book. It's an experience that has a way of changing people. It's also a good idea to read a lot of myths, but it amounts to the same thing since Campbell spends most of the book illustrating his point by re-telling old myths.

Campbell gives a condensed version of the hero myth on p. 245. However, since he uses some specialized technical terms that require going back to his examples in earlier chapters to find out what he's talking about, I've taken the liberty of amending his outline slightly, re-telling the hero myth in my own way. Feel free to do the same. Every story-teller bends the myth to his own purpose. That's why THE HERO HAS A THOUSAND FACES.

Source: A Practical Guide to the Monomyth

See also: Sample Chapter: The Hero With a Thousand Faces

Personal Account: Dr. David Lukoff

2006-01-10T18:01:00.000-08:00

My Spiritual Crisis

The future shaman sometimes takes the risk of being mistaken for a "madman"...but his "madness" fulfils a mystic function; it reveals certain aspects of reality to him that are inaccessible to other mortals, and it is only after having experienced and entered into these hidden dimensions of reality that the "madman" becomes a shaman." Mircea Eliade found that a psychotic episode has served as the initiatory crisis marking, for some shamans, a call to the healing profession. For example, the Siberian shaman Kyzalov entered a state of "madness" lasting for seven years which resulted in his initiation as a shaman. He reported that during those years he had been beaten up several times, taken to many strange places including the top of a sacred mountain, chopped into pieces and boiled in a kettle, met the spirits of sickness, and acquired the drum and garment of a dead shaman.

Being "tormented" by spirits, babbling confused words, displaying curious eating habits, singing continuously, and dancing wildly are other common elements in initiatory crises; in our society today these experiences would be considered evidence of a psychotic disorder and could possibly result in hospitalization. Yet when Kyzalov recuperated, he reported that, "the shamans declared, 'You are the sort of man who may become a shaman; you should become a shaman. You must begin to shamanize.'

All mental and physical illnesses, accidents, and other ordeals, by creating psychospiritual crises, open the door to the shamanic world of spirits and nonordinary reality. In contemporary society, psychotic states of consciousness retain their power to awaken shamanic tendencies and talents. It proved to be so in my case, and for others whom I have met, worked with as a therapist, and written about. My psychotic episode took place in a non-shamanic cultural and psychological context, but it bears a distinct relationship to a shaman's initiation: 1) it contained thematic and imagistic parallels to the initiatory crises of professional shaman; 2) it served as my calling to the mental health profession just as the shaman's crisis calls him/her to the role of healer; 3) it was integrated with the aid of traditional shamans and their practices.

Since I live in a contemporary Western society which does not recognize the social role of an ecstatic healer who cavorts with spirits, my psychotic episode did not initiate me as a shaman. I have devised the term "shamanistic initiatory crisis" to describe my experience. As anthropologist Ruth-Inge Heinz noted, "The term 'shamanistic' is used for shaman-like activities, e.g., activities which may be carried out by somebody other than a shaman, while the term 'shamanic' indicates that these activities are carried out by somebody who actually is a shaman." Therefore, shamanistic is the appropriate term.

My psychotic crisis occurred 18 years ago. After coming to the conclusion that, at 23 years of age, I was spending all of my time learning about other people, and did not know my own self, I dropped out of the doctoral program in social anthropology at Harvard University. I gave away all of my possessions, from bed to books, that would not fit into my backpack. I started travelling — hitchhiking across the country, up into Canada and down into Mexico, even to Hawaii. In Palo Alto, six months later, I awoke just after midnight. Although I had slept for only two hours, I felt rested — in fact, I was full of energy and eager to get back to writing in my journal. But first a quick trip to the bathroom.

While there, I stopped in front of the mirror and gazed at my reflection. Suddenly I noticed that my right hand was glowing, giving off a white light. My thumb was touching my forefinger in the ancient mudra position of the meditating Buddha. Immediately the meaning of this sign was clear to me: I had been Buddha in a previous life. Then another thought came: Buddha had been reincarnated as Jesus Christ. Therefore, I had also been Jesus Christ. Now, in this moment, the luminous image in the mirror was awakening me to my true purpose: to once again bring the human race out of its decline. My journal writing was actually the creation of a "new Bible", a Holy Book which would unite all people around the common tenants of a single belief system. Instead of unifying just one social group, as Buddha and Christ had, my mission was to write a book that would create a new worldwide society free of conflict and full of loving relationships...

Source: My Spiritual Crisis - David Lukoff [PDF File]

Archetypes & The Individuation Process

2006-01-10T18:00:00.000-08:00

Following the lead of the master I'll take a somewhat circuitous route to the concept of individuation. First we'll need some background concepts. The critical ones as I see them are the unconscious and archetypes.

Image Source
The Unconscious
There are two types of unconscious, the personal unconscious and the collective. The personal unconscious is pretty much self defining and doesn't need to be perceived as mysterious or supernatural (though it is occult in the truest sense of the word - 'hidden'). The personal unconscious contains all the stuff that simply isn't conscious. It contains stuff that can be made conscious by simple act of will, stuff that requires some digging, as well as stuff that may never be recalled to consciousness ever again. It is made up of the things you've experienced every day of your life. I'm not sure if it is strictly true that nothing is ever really and truly lost, totally forgotten, but it seems that the psyche is very reluctant to let much go in the event that it might come in handy someday. The psyche is a pack rat, the unconscious full of its stuff.

The personal unconscious is also a dumping ground for things we aren't comfortable with and which we'd really rather not have in consciousness very often. Repressed memories are a hot issue at the moment, but even without total all out suppression of memory, we are adept at not thinking about things we'd rather not think about.

Another interesting aspect of the personal unconscious is that recall can be influenced by context. For example, being slow to recognise a person on the street who you know very well from school or work or wherever. There is no sharp dividing line between conscious and unconscious mind.

The collective unconscious likewise is pretty much self defining. While you participate in it, it isn't your exclusive property, we all share in it. It belongs to the species. When Jung had his official doctor hat on and was defining things ex cathedra, the collective unconscious was something passed on genetically. It was like an edition of a book of which we each had our own copy. However, in more off the record materials such as letters, Jung seemed to possess a more spiritual understanding of something which we are all tapped into somehow, an understanding which would not have sold in medical circles then and doesn't sell in any academically oriented circles now, though Jung has become very popular with the general reading public who seem to enjoy very much those ideas of Jung's which are farthest out on a limb.

In any event, it was a theory which took courage to advance, but Jung felt it necessary to do so, since he was noticing a strong degree of correspondence between dreams of patients, both private and institutionalised, and mythological motifs. In alchemy he found not only parallels in terms of content, but process as well. What he was seeing he felt to be a psychic fact, and the only acceptable explanation for the persistence of these patterns down through millenniums was biological inheritance.

Archetypes
Archetypes are essentially quasi autonomous functions which give rise to specific motifs, as common in all mythology as in any individual's life. They are often discussed in terms of personifications which appear in dreams, but they can also be seen in themes of stories, mythological or lived. They are very potent as patterns of action. Another reason I prefer to consider them functionally is that they perform discrete functions as will be seen below. They are more than just different flavours of the same thing.

Another advantage of starting with a rather broader definition to avoid a common confusion of archetype with personified image. While the Self may give rise to an image of Jesus Christ for example, it is also the archetype behind the most abstract of mandalas. I also wished to start this way because it's especially difficult in the case of the Anima/Animus who seem to be especially prone to personification, given the emphasis on gender.

The Big Five
The Big Five are the Persona, the Ego, the Shadow, the Anima/Animus, and the Self. Each has a specific role or quality which is why I prefer to think of them as functions.

The Persona
The Persona is that which we present to the outside world. It isn't really our selves, though there is a danger we can identify too much with it and believe it to be so. It is a mask. It's not a bad thing to have, in fact it's necessary for getting along with others. Jung seems to talk about it in the singular, but I suspect that a well adjusted person has several masks and is adept at juggling them and knowing which one is appropriate when and just how opaque it needs to be. In any event, singular or plural, it's a fact of life. Ask a doctor what he does and he won't say, "I do medicine", he's unlikely even to say, "I practice medicine". What you'll likely hear is "I'm a doctor". Occupation isn't the only shelf where masks are pulled from. Religion, sexual orientation, politics, the social sciences....

The Ego
The ego is the centre of consciousness. It is identity. It is 'I'. But it is not the totality of the psyche. Being the king of consciousness amounts to dominion over a small but important land surrounded by a wide world of terra incognita. The more aware the King is of lands beyond his domain the more secure he will be on his throne, but he must not be tempted to open the borders to it all. In Jungian theory the unconscious is far too vast to ever be made fully conscious, poking about in it is not without danger, yet ignoring it is also a mistake since it leads to a brittle fixedness which at best impedes growth, at worst can break when under the pressure of the 'threat' of change.

The Shadow
I was a couple of sentences in on Anima/Animus, before I noticed that I had forgotten the Shadow. That is the nature of this archetype, it is the receptacle for all of that which we have for one reason or another disowned. There seems to be a movement on to 'redeem' the Shadow, as evidenced by such books as Your Golden Shadow, but in truth there's a great deal that's very, very unpleasant here, since we have good reason for wanting to disown our darker natures. The avenue for an attempted redemption of the Shadow lies in the belief that everything disowned winds up here. A person who grew up in a family where level headedness prevailed and such things as art making were not given much value may discover some artistic aptitude hiding out in their shadow. There are treasures here, but they are buried in stinking muck.

The Anima/Animus
The Anima is the female soul image of a man, the Animus the male soul image of a woman. That is the most simple definition, and one which many struggle with, since Jung seems quite absolute in defining a person's soul image as gender opposite.

"Soul image" sounds very pretty, but the Anima/Animus is not without a negative pole as well. Jung's anima whispered to him that what he was doing was "art". He rejected this and pushed ahead as a 'scientist' which was much better in a society which regards science as 'serious' and art as less so.

If one is on good terms with one's Anima/Animus he/she can prove a valuable messenger between the unconscious and the conscious, a connecting link - a veritable Hermes.

The Self
The Self is simply the centre and the totality of the entire psyche. It is the archetype which contains all the other archetypes and around which they orbit. It's something of a paradox, and extremely difficult for the conscious ego to accept.

Archetypes and the Individuation Process
According to Jung, one must get in touch with the Shadow and Anima/Animus before one can truly get in touch with the Self. The order is sequential, and as tempting as it may be to try and skip the Shadow or deal only superficially with it, it is here that we begin.

Jung referred to this initial step as "the First Act of Courage". And the first thing that is necessary in coming to terms with one's own shadow is simply to acknowledge that it exists. It sounds obvious, but there are those for whom the thought of actually having a darker side to their nature is extremely uncomfortable. Yet this is one of the primary reasons for undertaking the 'Shadow work' in the first place, since that which we have yet disavow in ourselves will be projected outwards.

One of the clues to projection of shadow content is the degree of negative emotion aroused in us by something in the outside world - often other people. It can be something they do, or even just the way they look. Projection is accompanied by emotion. Jung distinguished between 'feeling' (a function which evaluates) and 'emotion' (a physiological affect). If there is no projection of something which is at the root personal, it is possible to evaluate something (or someone) external as being 'bad', without being greatly upset, experiencing, at most, a sense of regret or pity. If the emotion is stronger than that, then we may want to ask ourselves what of ourselves we see in what is making us feel that way. That said, it is important to note that not all projection is negative, that at some level it may all be projection given our subjective perspectives, and that there is a place in the world for righteous anger which motivates social action for change.

One of the advantages of withdrawing one's shadow projections and owning our own 'stuff' is that the external world may brighten up a little for ourselves and those around us, since we won't be projecting so much of a negative nature outwards and saying, 'That's just how the world is, life's a bitch and then you die.'

There is also truth in the 'Golden Shadow' observation that there are things of value which we have disowned, both aptitudes and qualities, in the Shadow. The person who blushes, and qualifies, and resists, and is generally tremendously uncomfortable when asked to sing may have a part of them which wants nothing more than to belt out a round or two of something raucous, commanding the admiration of those around. Thus the popularity of having a few in a Karoke bar. Also, without going into great detail, life energy (libido) is locked up in the Shadow, energy we could all probably use more of.

The downside to the shadow work is that it involves confronting parts of ourselves which are located in the Shadow precisely because they are frightening or shameful. Jungian analysts advise that this work be done only under the supervision of a Jungian analyst, ignoring the fact that this eliminates a large class of people who cannot afford the services of such a professional. Another book (ref?) suggests that at very least one should do the work with the help of a very close friend whom one trusts in order to have a reference in the external world, an anchor and safe haven and source of reinforcement when dark realizations seem to be all out global truths of complete personal unworthiness. It isn't a journey to be undertaken lightly.

At some vaguely defined point evolving naturally out of the process (?!) it becomes possible to begin the work of getting in touch with the Anima/Animus. There is less written on this stage than that of the Shadow, which is as one would expect, given that fewer have made it this far.

Source: The Individuation Process

See also:
The Process of Individuation
The Sequence of Archetypes in Individuation

The Never Ending Quest

The Anima & The Animus

2006-01-10T17:59:00.001-08:00

Anima: The inner feminine side of a man. (See also animus, Eros, Logos and soul-image.)

The anima is both a personal complex and an archetypal image of woman in the male psyche. It is an unconscious factor incarnated anew in every male child, and is responsible for the mechanism of projection. Initially identified with the personal mother, the anima is later experienced not only in other women but as a pervasive influence in a man's life.

Jung distinguished four broad stages of the anima, analogous to levels of the Eros cult described in the late classical period. He personified them as Eve, Helen, Mary and Sophia.

In the first stage, Eve, the anima is indistinguishable from the personal mother. The man cannot function well without a close tie to a woman. In the second stage, personified in the historical figure of Helen of Troy, the anima is a collective and ideal sexual image ("All is dross that is not Helen"-Marlowe). The third stage, Mary, manifests in religious feelings and a capacity for lasting relationships. In the fourth stage, as Sophia (called Wisdom in the Bible), a man's anima functions as a guide to the inner life, mediating to consciousness the contents of the unconscious. She cooperates in the search for meaning and is the creative muse in an artist's life.

Ideally, a man's anima proceeds naturally through these stages as he grows older. In fact, as an archetypal life force, the anima manifests in whatever shape or form is necessary to compensate the dominant conscious attitude.

So long as the anima is unconscious, everything she stands for is projected. Most commonly, because of the initially close tie between the anima and the protective mother-imago, this projection falls on the partner, with predictable results.

Animus: The inner masculine side of a woman. (See also anima, Eros, Logos and soul-image.)

Like the anima in a man, the animus is both a personal complex and an archetypal image.

Jung described four stages of animus development in a woman. He first appears in dreams and fantasy as the embodiment of physical power, an athlete, muscle man or thug. In the second stage, the animus provides her with initiative and the capacity for planned action. He is behind a woman's desire for independence and a career of her own. In the next [third] stage, the animus is the "word," often personified in dreams as a professor or clergyman. In the fourth stage, the animus is the incarnation of spiritual meaning. On this highest level, like the anima as Sophia, the animus mediates between a woman's conscious mind and the unconscious. In mythology this aspect of the animus appears as Hermes, messenger of the gods; in dreams he is a helpful guide.

Any of these aspects of the animus can be projected onto a man. As with the projected anima, this can lead to unrealistic expectations and acrimony in relationships.

Source: The Jung Lexicon

See also: Music: Gallagher's Song

The Anima, Animus & Alchemy

2006-01-10T17:59:00.000-08:00

"When you make the two into one, and when you make the inner like the outer and the outer like the inner, and the upper like the lower, and when you make male and female into a single one, so that the male will not be male nor the female be female, when you make eyes in place of an eye, a hand in place of a hand, a foot in place of a foot, an image in place of an image, then you will enter [the kingdom]."

Adam McLean's Gallery

The opening three illustrations to this process, indicate the realm within which this transformation occurs and introduces the Prima Materia. We interpret this series as a process for the integration of the three facets of man - the Body, Soul and Spirit. In our present state of evolution these facets do not work together in harmony. There are polarities and vast gulfs between the different realms within our being. It is the task of alchemical transmutation to unite these facets in a new harmony, into a perfected state of being where Body, Soul and Spirit mutually interpenetrate and work together. Man's soul is thus the bridging element between the outer realm of the physical body and the spiritual world. This bridge must be built out of integrating the primal polarities of the soul, so that it becomes both a vehicle or vessel for the spirit and the master and moulder of the physical realm.

In illustration 1, we have a picture of man's inner soul world. In the lower part of the soul we see a triple fountain which pours forth the threefold soul-substance - the Virgin's Milk ( the feminine receptive lunar forces in the soul), the Spring of Vinegar (the masculine sharp, penetrating solar forces in the soul) and the Aqua Vitae, the water of life (the inner source of soul energies). These three streams pour forth from the head of the fountain, at the central point of the soul, and stream down merging together in the basin at the lowest part of the soul. This vessel contains the primal substance of the soul forces, the Inner Mercury, the Mercury of the Philosophers, that is one and yet is composed of these three streams.

Thus we have here a picture of the unintegrated soul realm of man. The three streams pour down from the heart centre into the lower soul world, but are cut off from a balanced direct connection with the upper soul, the realm of the soul that can touch upon the spiritual. The only connection with this upper soul initially is through the unintegrated polarity of the lunar and solar streams within the soul.

Adam McLean's Gallery

The task of the alchemist working through this Rosarium process, is firstly to recognize the elements of the primal material, the lunar and solar streams, and the inner Mercury of the soul forces, then begin to work with these through meditations, bringing them into a new synthesis and making these inner forces a vehicle both for the experience of the Spirit and the mastery of the Physical world. Thus in illustration 2, there is pictured a personification as King and Queen of these solar and lunar forces. The Sun King and Moon Queen, have to be recognized by the alchemist as archetypal polarities within his soul and they must be brought into a new relationship. These polarities meet and touch, though at this initial stage, their encounter is very restrained and distant. As Jung points out in his commentary to these illustrations, they give each other their left hands in union. The left (sinister) being the dark or unconscious side of their being. Thus they are united in the unconscious aspect, in the depths of the lower soul. Their right hands, the more conscious side of their being, proffer two-blossomed flowers to each other, and this meeting in consciousness is thus more restrained and distant. However, from above, from the higher spiritual realm indicated by the Star, a bird descends bearing a further two-blossomed flower and brings a stronger unity into the picture.

Thus even at the beginning of the work, the alchemist will have help from the spiritual world. As he tentatively begins the task of uniting the inner polarities, spiritual help will descend to him as a gift, a spiritual grace. For the individual alchemist this will possibly take the form of perceptions, perhaps inspirational dreams, and positive realizations that give him an inner security, a sureness that he is on the right path.

Adam McLean's Gallery

In illustration 3, the process moves one stage further. The court clothes of the King and the Queen, the veils of consciousness, have been taken off, and the two participating forces or archetypes in the soul (Jung called these the Animus and Anima) can for the first time see each other clearly. At this stage their gesture changes and they grasp each other's proffered branch (which now is single blossomed). The solar King holds out his branch in his right hand and this is grasped by the right hand of the Queen, while her branch proffered by her left hand is received by the left hand of the King, and from above the dove still bears its unifying branch. The scroll above the Sun King states, "O Luna, let me be thy husband", while Luna says, "O Sol, I must submit to thee", and the dove bears the inscription, "It is the Spirit which vivifies". The two archetypal facets of the soul are here proffering to each other, in the form of flowers, an aspect of their forces.

We have now reached the stage where the primal archetypal energies within the soul of the alchemist (the Animus - Anima) have been polarized then brought through his inner work into a kind of relationship necessary for the real task of the integration process to commence. We now see the beginning of the meeting and transmutation of these forces one into another. This takes place through two cycles of transformation involving seven stages (compare with 'The Crowning of Nature' and the 'Splendor Solis'). The first, pictured through illustrations 4 - 10 gives rise to the White Stone, the inner mastery of the lunar forces, while the second seen in illustrations 11 - 17, produces the inner mastery of the solar forces in the soul, in the preparation of the Red Stone.

Each of these processes has the same archetypal form, as is paralleled in the illustrations. These seven stages can be analyzed as follows : -

1 An entry into the vessel of transformation,
2 A conjunction of the two primal archetypal forces,
3 Their merging into an hermaphrodite in a death or nigredo stage,
4 The extraction or ascent of one facet of the soul into the Spiritual realm,
5 The descent of a spiritual dew or essence from above,
6 The return of the extracted soul forces,
7 The final formation of the Stone pictured as the resurrection of the hermaphrodite.

Source: A Commentary on the Rosarium Philosophorum

See also:
The Gospels of Thomas
The Two Trees
The Mystic Heart
The Hieros Gamos
The Songs of Solomon
The Dark Night of the Soul
Entering the Bridal Chamber

Cooking for the Collective Unconsciousness

The Coded Messages of the "Schizophrenic"

2006-01-10T17:57:00.000-08:00

Individuals who undergo extreme altered states or other forms of psychosis frequently report hearing voices or recieving coded messages in music, through the television, etc. Hearing voices wasn't part of my experience but hearing music in a new way certainly was. For example, you may be familiar with the following song...

Johnny take a walk
With your sister, the moon
Let her pale light in
To light up your room
You've been living underground
Eating from a can
You've been running away
From what you don't understand
Love

She's slipping
You're sliding down
She'll be there
When you hit the ground

And it's alright, it's alright, it's alright
She moves in mysterious ways
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright
She moves in mysterious ways.

Mysterious Ways

Most people probably hear a popular love song. But for me, I hear the archetypes behind the words. Others speak and hear English, the "poet, schizophrenic, mystic, shaman" hears and speaks metaphor.

Johnny = animus
sister, the moon = anima
pale light = lunar consciousness
room = self
underground = the unconscious
running away = fear of the unknown
Love = God/Goddess
Hit the ground = ego collapse
She = The Dark Mater

The Dark Mater of the Universe

2006-01-10T17:56:00.000-08:00

clancycavnar.com

Why the Dark Mother?

I am not a scientist – far from it – but when I began to read about new physics and cosmology in the 80s, I found many of the concepts immediately recognizable because of my background in pagan mythology. What specifically sparked my interest in writing this article, was the persistence mystery of Dark Matter, which is claimed to account for more than 90% of the matter required to hold the Universe together. This mystery echoes yet another – one that has existed within the spiritual mind of humyns since our earliest beginnings – that of the Great Mother, especially in Her aspect as the Dark Mother.

Our focus in Creation-centred spirituality is not the new science itself, but rather how these alternative ways of perceiving the cosmos can be ‘brought into the light’, in such a way that they can ‘in-form’ our spiritual and practical responses to our world and the deep issues that faces us about Its survival and our own. Brian Swimme and Thomas Berry point out (rightly, I believe) that in order for the new cosmology to be able to serve this role, it needs a ‘story’, or rather, to become one. To become a true ‘myth’ - to speak symbolically to the need of the culture to place themselves within the cosmos - there needs to be some sense that the story is a pathway from an old point of view to a new one.

First and foremost, a story needs identifiable characters – living images that embody the story’s progression. Deep within the world’s mythologies, one image - a primary ‘character’ – already exists, that ‘echoes’ these new theories about the Universe. The concept of the Dark Mother embodies the deepest of mysteries, especially those that Matthew Fox would consider ‘via negativa’ and ‘via transformativa’, but equally importantly, She offers a medium for all four ‘vias’ (creativa, postiva, negativa and transformativa) to flow from one to into the other, in an endless cycle of creation.

Unfortunately, the concept of the Dark Mother, in Her true form, is not very available to the common person, because millennia of patriarchy have demonized or distorted Her image. The ‘God’ of patriarchy is predominately one of ‘light’, and clearly echoes our own struggles (being a ‘light/sight’ biased species) to ‘en-light-en’ our world (know-ledge) and in so doing, gain control over our environment. In order for ‘light’ to win over the all-embracing and pervading Darkness (the essential ‘mystery’ quality of the world), the concept of the Dark Mother had to be dis-empowered.

First of all, She was demonized – becoming the elusive and shadowed scapegoat for the rising dominance of male/light. However, interestingly enough, the most effective form of this process, was to demonize all of the male gods who remained loyal to Her (which mixed, became the imagery of the Devil). This, I suggest, was the result of patriarchy’s insistence that only ‘male gods’ had any real power: this is a strange progression, however, because the actual dis-empowerment of the Goddess Herself came later on.

Secondly, She was dis-empowered directly – progressively reduced to a mere ‘vessel’ of the God’s sperm, or seminal power. As such, She was demoted from being the mysterious power within matter, to matter itself – considered the lifeless ‘stuff’ that true power (read ‘male’) acts upon. However, mystery is not vanquished so easily, and the patriarchy could not entirely rid itself of Her. Thus, thirdly, She was given elusive disguises (for example, in the Judeo-Christian tradition, the Black Madonna, veiled Sophia, or Holy Grail), that effectively hid Her true power, while admitting that Darkness and Mystery still had a place in ‘God’s world’.

Who then is this Dark Mother, and how does She relate to the new cosmology? How can She ‘speak’ to/for this unfathomable mystery we are finding in the depths of our Universe?

PRIMAL/DARK – MATRIX/MOTHER

The concepts of the Primal Mother/Matrix (usually referred to as ‘fecund chaos’) and the Dark Mother overlap significantly, in almost every culture. Both are too all-inclusive and yet elusive to have any distinct form ‘potentiality’. The Primal Mother/Matrix is usually identified amongst the earliest of the cosmological Godde - as the primal chaos itself, and/or its first distinctive feature, ‘birthing-ness’: in later myths, when a shift in focus begins to perceive ‘power’ as not in matter but acting upon it, She is the substance that is carved up to create the Universe. Although most of these initiating Godde then fade into the background as those of manifest order become predominant, the Primal Matrix/Mother survives as the Dark Mother – the on-going source of the cycles of life/death and creativity.

The most all-inclusive aspect of the Dark Mother is the power to transform things. She is the ‘ground of being’ that allows life to pass through the stages of the Maiden, Mother, and Crone ‘faces’ – in a sense, She is the 4th face of the Goddess, but the one that underlies all the others. As such, She is known as the Midwife – She who is the ‘unseen’ hands, guiding all births and deaths, and therefore, all transformations from one to the other in the cycles of life. She is, therefore, also all ‘doorways’ (between Upperworld/Underworld, Bright/Dark knowing, etc.) and is often represented by womb-like objects, such as cauldrons, oceans/wells/springs, and variants of the Holy Grail: as the underlying source to all of life’s tapestries, She is also symbolized by webs, weaving, and particularly the impetus of the tying-Maiden and cutting/Crone aspects of all life’s threads.

She is not only the ‘agent’ of the Underworld – which in pagan symbology represents all that is, but not in manifested form – but IS it. She is not only the transformer between death and life, the doorway of passage between (both directions), and the lantern that guides that passage, but the very matrix in which the transformation take place – both the Dark Tomb (of all that ‘passes away’) and Womb (of all that ‘comes into being’), which in pagan conceptuality (and now, scientific ones as well), are one and the same, the Dark T/Womb. She is also the Dark Moon, and as such, the source of all prophecy/oracles, intuition, and ‘Dark Knowing’ (the Unconscious).

Furthermore, She can not be understood as being passive. The primary quality of the feminine principle is ‘gatheredness’, and thereby, the power of ‘drawing in’ (essentially, magnetism in its volumest meaning). It is the polaric opposite to the masculine principle, which is separation (absolutely necessary to any kind of ‘ex-press-in’, and only evil in its extreme states), and thereby, the power of ‘thrusting out’. Both principle are active (and passive), but in different ways – especially now that we understand that matter and energy are not separate ‘things’, but different ‘act-ivations’ and ‘act-ivities’ of one potentiality. In fact, I would suggest that while Her role an on-going matrix is hidden from focus (as context), it should be granted the status of being considered the most powerfully and diversely ‘active’.

DARK MATRIX/MOTHER/MATTER IN THE NEW COSMOLOGY
Matter, Matrix and Mother all derive from the Indo-European word ‘mater’. It is common now, for scientists or ‘quantum theologians’ (a term O’Murchu’s uses) to refer to the Earth as a ‘living Mother’, yet few have considered the connotations of this image for the Universe. They rarely, if ever, directly co-relate the ancient concepts of the Dark Mother, and the new cosmological theories concerning Dark Matter, Black Holes, and the ‘living’ matrix that both provide to the Universe. Yet, both the concepts and the language of the new physics/cosmology persistently echo that of the Dark Mother.

Creative chaos (now understood to be deeper order) is the distinctive quality of the Primal Mother, and Her ‘daughter’ (that is, She who inherited Her on-going role), the Dark Mother. Brian Swimme conjures the images of the Dark Mother when referring to this creative chaos as "the all-nourishing abyss". He also points out that this "ocean of potentiality", this "quantum vacuum", is "the nonvisible…that which can never been seen…[or] pictured. It is both nonvisible and nonvisualizable…" – in other words, non-lighted-abled in any way, physical or psychic: the Dark Mother is She who is eternally veiled, whose ‘face no man (sic) can ever see, except in death’.

Some theorists have suggested that the birth of the Universe is better described as ‘a cosmic egg’ in a ‘orgasmic flood of birthing’, ‘foaming into existence’ – rather than the more typical pyro-technical ‘big bang’. All of the words used here are related to the Great Mother image - even foaming, which is not only a sea/ocean image, but a variant of the ‘yeast’ image. O’Murchu points out, re: this primordial state, "When matter and anti-matter meet, physicists talk of "annihilation." Actually, it is not …but a process of "transformation": the Dark Mother is the ultimate transformer.

Creation is being constantly created – cycles of (in terms of electrons/etc., instantaneous) creation and destruction: the Dark Mother’s archetypal role is to be the ‘T/Womb’ of all such ‘comings and goings’, and the very Doorway of them. As ultimate matrix/transformer, She is consistent with the concept of implicate order (Bohm): as matrix to all ‘light-abled’ ex-press-ions, She is the Mother to all explicate order. Furthermore, as Dark Matter, She is the deep space T/Womb that embraces all movements between implicate and explicate orders. In fact, She might be the best deific symbol we have for Rupert Sheldrake’s ‘morphogenetic fields’.

Her primary quality of ‘drawing in’ is responsible for not only the gravity that holds the Universe together, but curvature of its structure, its pattern of predominately spiral galaxies, and its ‘return’ to Black Holes. Black Holes are theorized to be the matrix for all ‘birthed’ universes – the silent ‘winter’ between a universe’s death and rebirth. The Dark Mother, as the T/Womb transformer, embraces all possible universes, in their ‘ovum-like’ Black Hole state. O’Murchu notes that "It now appears that the "once-and-for-all process" [birth/death of a universe] is only one of a number of evolutionary cycles,… trillions…of years old…Maybe we live in an infinite universe…[in which] cycles may re-created infinitely…" - an idea held by many ancient cultures, as the cycle of ‘ages’. Black Holes are also thought to be ‘worm holes’, possibly to other universes: this conjures the image of a vagina, linking the world of ‘inner womb space’ and the outer world, and also specifically, of the Dark Mother as ‘doorway between the worlds’.

Before the concept of male Gods developed, the Mother was understood as the ‘all-pervading Presence’. This indicates that our ancestors understood Her as deeply and ultimately immanent - Berry states (in reference to modern humyns) that the Universe is "…such an intimate presence, that it escapes our notice…spontaneities that come from an abyss of energy and a capacity for intelligible order of which we have only the faintest glimmer in our conscious awareness." While Black Holes and ‘dark halos’ may be a particular form/function of Dark Matter, there is evidence that Dark Matter exists throughout the Universe – in all spaces, within and between. If so, it would be not only the originating matrix of all creation (primal T/Womb), but also the ‘deepest in’ and ‘farthest out’ of existence’s moment-to-moment explicating – the most immanent/intimate, yet all-encompassing, Presence conceivable. I suggest that symbolically, only the Dark Mother is capable of embracing this imagery.

Yet, in many cultures, She is also the ‘phosphorescent angel’ – a womb not filled with silent, still empty space, but seething energy that has not become ‘light-abled’ as yet – the Shimmering. The Primal Mother is often understood as ‘churning primordial waters’ – or as O’Murchu describes it "a boiling, chaotic conundrum of raw potential". In Hinduism, Shakti (name means ‘pure energy’) conceives the Universe after creating a vibration between Herself and Her partner, Shiva: is this vibration (or more accurately, primordial resonance), ‘the Shimmering’?. Swimme states "Even the word "vibrate" is not exact, for it connotes a solid object that moves rapidly back and forth in space…[when actually] particles exist in one location and then …another… without traversing the space in between" – might the word he is looking for be the Shimmering?

Her primary ‘drawing in’ quality – which in terms of Dark Matter, has been dubbed, the Great Attractor – is one of attraction and seduction; both are necessary to ensure relationship. Swimme insists (as do others) that the Universe is not primarily made up of "…"material things" [that are] "really real"…", but rather, webs of relationships, and that the Whole is what is ‘really real’. Berry further suggests that "Without the gravitational attraction experienced throughout the physical world, there would be no emotional attraction of humans to one another." Dark Matter/Energy comprises more than 90% of the gravitation of the Universe, and that the basis for humyn relationships (choices, development, etc.) are quite possibly more than 90% unconscious: the archetype of the Dark Mother embodies all ‘relatedness’, and webs thereof, and therefore, the very concepts of community and communion.

Finally, the new cosmology challenges the old concepts of absolute ‘beginnings’ and ‘endings’ – the deeper we are able to see into our Universe, the more insistently ‘transformation’ becomes the foundation of all ‘ex-IS-tense’. Creation, affirmation (positiva) and release (negativa) are stages within the process of infinite transformation. ‘Transformativa’ then becomes the ground from which all the others become possible, just as the Dark Mother is the ground from which the Maiden, Mother, and Crone faces of the Goddess, and all the ‘light-abled’ faces of existence which we call ‘the God’(and who is Her son), become possible. Furthermore, the fact that we can’t ‘see’ this ‘more than 90% Dark Matter/Energy’, affirms that Mystery/Darkness be once again honoured as the quintessential ‘face’ of the Divine – the wholism which is not only ‘more than the sum of its parts’, but whose overwhelming ‘more’ will always remain profoundly dark and mysterious, yet Mother to all that is not.

Source: Echoes of the Dark Mother

See also:
Shedding Light on Dark Matter
The Self-Aware Universe

Black Hole

Sophia: Greatest of Exiles

2006-01-10T17:55:00.000-08:00

Long before there was a cosmos as we know it, a great drama of exile and return was played out in the story of the divine feminine being named Sophia. Having resided in the lofty height of eternal Fullness (Pleroma) in the embrace of her aeonial spouse, she leaves her original habitat and descends into realms of chaos and desperate alienation. From the Gnostic scriptures, we learn that Sophia is the youngest of the great beings who populate the Fullness. As such, she is far removed from the primal light of the Father, who is the central and essential source of all. Sophia had seen a light in the distance that she thought might be the Father, but it was only that Light reflected in the depths of the Abyss. Seeking the Light, she journeys farther and farther into the deceptive depths, until she is at last stopped by a power known as the Limit (Horos).

At this point, a strange division occurs within Sophia's nature. Her higher self, her essential core, becomes enlightened and mystically ascends back to the Fullness, while her lower self remains in alienation. In virtually all Gnostic myths, an intimate relationship exists between the nature and condition of the human soul, or spirit, on the one hand, and the transcosmic archetype on the other. Thus we understand that our own consciousness has emerged from a primordial wholeness and proceeded into alienation and chaos. Yet even in our confused state we still sense a connection, no matter how tenuous, with a higher transcended self. Thus, like Sophia we are split in two: our human personality abides in confusion and alienation, while our eternal self partakes of wholeness and wisdom.

Return of the Exile
The fall and exile of Sophia do not remain unnoticed. The divine inhabitants of the Fullness, as well as the Fullness itself, are distraught in her exile. Together they appeal to the ultimate Godhead, and he gives them a warrant for her redemption. A number of the High Aeons of the Fullness, including the Holy Spirit, the Christos, and Jesus (destined to become the outer manisfestation of the Christos), join forces in a mission of rescue. The powers of the Fullness also pool their strengths and fill the rescuers with invincible light and perspicacity.

The Christos appears to Sophia in the shape of a form stretched out on the transcosmic tau cross. The vision of this cross blazing and radiating through the aeonial regions revitalizes Sophia and infuses into her a tremendous longing for her celestial home and her divine bridegroom. Metaphysical and intrapsychic elements conjoin powerfully in this portion of the myth. The disturbance of the Fullness and the unhappiness of the divine beings over Sophia's plight reveal the Gnostic awareness of a mystery -- not only does the exiled soul long for the Fullness, but the divine beings also long for the return of the soul. Heaven is not complete until the exile has returned from the far country; until then, the Fullness is not truly full, the Wholeness is not truly whole.

It is no doubt psychologically significant that Sophia's first awakening from unconsciousness occurs through the archetypal symbol of the cross. In the process of individuation, the psyche is often prepared for the coming interior liberation by experiences of numinous symbols, mandala designs, and the like. Perhaps the conjunction of the horizontal and vertical bars of the cross even reminds the psyche/Sophia of the needed conjunction of the opposites.

All archetypal myths possess a timeless quality that makes them applicable to the concerns of any place and time. The story of Sophia, in particular, fixes in comprehensible forms the universal elements that join psychic and transcendental experiences. Insights into the development (individuation) of the individual psyche, into sociological issues (including the elevation and emancipation of women in society), and into theological and metaphysical ideas can all be derived from the Sophianic myth.

The predicament of the loss of wholeness, symbolized by Sophia's departure from the Fullness, is the ever-present predicament of all beings, most particularly humans. All of us are in desperate need of our restoration of wholeness through union with our inmost self, the glory dwelling, though hidden, within us. Like Sophia we wander over the face of the earth, our glory degraded and prostituted, while through the aeonic regions descends to meet us the "ever-coming One" our divine bridgegroom, the Logos of the most high God. Thus the theophania, the divine resolution of the great drama is ever here.

The Gnostics did not confine their vision to images of intrapsychic principles, as many contemporary depth psychologists do. For them, the inner drama always mirrored the cosmic and indeed the transcosmic drama; as the story unfolded on high, so it is reflected and duplicated in the human soul. They regarded the Christ in us and the Sophia in us as our twin hopes of glory, seeking each other in holy longing and divine desire. The celestial pair, bearing these same names, were the supernal prototypes whose actions are repeated within the souls and spirits of men and women.

Source: Gnosticism: A New Light on the Ancient Tradition of Inner Knowing

See also:
Music: Flatlands

The Soul in Exile

Personal Account: Odette Nightsky

2006-01-10T17:54:00.000-08:00

Walking the Shaman's Path: Not Schizophrenia, But Acute Sensitive

1991 was the beginning of my research and investigation into the area of what I refer to as the world of the Acute Sensitive. I was living in a little coastal town south of Sydney, Australia, in what was rumored to be a haunted house. Soon after having moved in my moods and thought processes started to change, I had feeling of being haunted, possessed and at times would find myself waking up in the middle of the night hearing voices--other voices--not my own, at least they didn't seem to be.

I knew that there was a cousin in my family that was diagnosed with schizophrenia and I assumed I was heading down that avenue too. A local healer invited me to come and have a healing session. He mentioned that there was some writings that I might be interested in. The healing itself made little impact, but the essence of the writings still live in my memory to this day. A channeler from Sweden received that the mental health system was going to move through great changes in understanding the world of the mentally ill to a far more holistic and spiritual perspective.

From that moment on, many things in my life started to change. I began to sit in meditation and confront these energies that were tormenting me. It wasn't so much like a ghost visiting, and tearing up the place, It was more like an invasion of the mind, emotions and spirit. I spent much time sitting in negotiation with whatever dark energy I came across, and what I learnt was that fear and fighting were the two most useless tools. Neither of them worked to help me in dealing with these visiting energies. Each week I would teach drama and movement classes, and then get on the train to Sydney to spend as much time as I could in the National Library looking up books and documentary films on the subject of schizophrenia. There was agreat deal of information from the psychiatric perspective, but very little from any other point of view. I traveled to England and America. Again, I scoured the book shops to see if there was anything that would tell me more than the traditional left brain view of mental illness.

There was nothing revolutionary apart from the writings of C.G. Jung and Stanislav Grof. There was little that didn't lace itself with medical jargon and terms that I needed a psychiatry dictionary to understand. I thought maybe I was looking in the wrong area for my answers. I went back in history to see how the "mentally ill" were treated before the advent oforthodox medicine.

Religion played a big part in what they believed was the source of the suffering--the devil and his fallen angels. To hear voices you were either a chosen prophet or under the hand of Lucifer. This I found hard to stomach. I would not say that what was happening to me was the work of the devil, and believe me I'm no prophet!

Further back, I discovered that the indigenous people of the earth dealt with their Acutely Sensitive members with much more respect than modern mandoes. The most positive information was from transpersonal psychology, parapsychology, and shamanic sources. I realized that the way I was working with my inner world was very similar to how the Shamans worked (without the ethnobotanical approach).

In many indigenous tribes the Acute Sensitive would be under the instruction of the Medicine wo/man or shaman/ess. The Shaman's role is to assist the sensitive in working within the spirit world. In some cases the Shaman may perform a type of exorcism to discharge the discarnate entities surrounding the person in crisis. It is understood that the key problem is the fragmentation of the core self (the central seat of the soul). The villagers would take care of their needs, as they were not able to perform their normal tasks. Food, clothing, and shelter would be provided by the community and slowly, slowly, the sensitive would be given guidance by the shaman to walk in the world of spirit without coming to any harm. They recognized that there is more than one dimension where both light and dark beings reside. The lesson is to not stop the voices so much as work with them in a way that you are in the control seat rather than being controlled by the energies tormenting you.

In third world countries the acutely sensitive souls are rarely ignored or shunned from society. They are seen as specially blessed because these people live in the world of the spirit more than in the world of the mundane. They are learning to find balance and are allowed to find it naturally. It is not something to be fixed, it is something to be mastered and used.

It is a natural talent that enables them to cross the bridge between two worlds. The learning is to find balance with this gift-balance of mind, balance of body, and balance of spirit. As John Watkins mentions in his book Hearing Voices, there is a growing interest in a more holistic approach to working with acutely sensitive souls. A range of Shamanic techniques have been successfully used in treating people in some mental health centers.

At one center, two thirds of the clients with a long history of hallucinations have reported experiencing much relief from these techniques. The individual needs to be listened to. What would suit the individual? Some respond better to medication solely, and others to creative visualization, homeopathy, shamanic healing. Each person's needs are different.

We are in the age of Aquarius. The Pisces era of good verses evil is passé.We are all things, dark and light, and it is time we found balance in both. Shamanism is one option in the holistic approach to schizophrenia. There are many people that I have talked to, both Acute Sensitives and caregivers, who feel this approach is more helpful at times than standard, orthodox treatment. It would be more progressive if the mental health departments opened their doors to a more holistic proposition and would realize that the need for a more informed and open-minded staff will benefit not only the patient, but the entire community at large.

Source: Walking the Shaman's Path

Assistance in Spiritual Emergency

2006-01-10T17:53:00.000-08:00

The following is a brief excerpt from the book Spiritual Emergency, edited by Stanislav and Christina Grof.

There are many forms of spiritual emergency involving various degrees of intensity. The extent of assistance required thus depends upon the situation. In some instances, treatment can be limited to specific support for the person in crisis; at other times it can be extended to involve relatives and friends, and supportive groups. However, if the process is especially dramatic, professional therapeutic help might be necessary around the clock.

The most important task is to give the people in crisis a positive context for their experiences and sufficient information about the process they are going through. It is essential that they move away from the concept of disease and recognize the healing nature of their crisis. Good literature and the opportunity to talk to people who understand, particularly those who have successfully overcome a similar crisis can be invaluable.

Being surrounded by people who have at least a general understanding of the basic dynamics of spiritual emergency is of great help to a person in a psychospiritual crisis. Whether the attitudes or interactions in the narrow circle of close relatives and friends are nourishing and supportive or fearful, judgemental and manipulative makes a considerable difference in terms of the course and outcome of the episode.

Ideally, family, partners, and important friends should be included in the support network from the beginning and offered as much information about the situation as possible. Exactly who should be included, at what time, and how depends on individual circumstances. The quality of the relationship with the person in crisis, the general compatability of the personality characteristics of the potential helpers, and their attitude toward the process are among the most important criteria to base the decision. Besides books and discussions of the subject of spiritual emergency, experiential therapy groups can be an important source of understanding.

In many instances, a good spiritual teacher who knows the inner territories from his or her experiences or a local spiritual group can be very helpful. Such individuals might be able to provide an opportunity to discuss some unusual experiences and offer understanding and support for someone in spiritual emergency. Guided individual or group spiritual practice can provide a good context for work with the emerging experiences, if the process is not too overwhelming.

For spiritual crisis that are not too extreme, the above resources might be sufficient. Many people who have unusual experiences are puzzled and bewildered by them, but they can manage to function adequately in everyday life. Access to the right information, occasionally supportive discussion, and a good context for spiritual practice are all they need.

Under favorable circumstances it is possible to handle even more challenging experiences that the person in crisis would not be able to confront without assistance. However, if the process becomes overwhelming and seriously interferes with everyday functioning, more therapeutic measures may have to be taken.

Source: Spiritual Emergency

Guidelines for Family & Friends

2006-01-10T17:52:00.001-08:00

The following is a brief excerpt from The Stormy Search for the Self by Christina and Stanislav Grof.

Living with someone who is going through a spiritual emergency is often very demanding for everyone involved. Those close to that person, as well as the person him/herself, spend much time and energy on the changes that are being brought into their lives, and friends and family are frequently confronted with their own emotions and limitations. Seemingly normal and stable relationships become threatened by abrupt shifts in one person's interests and behavior that often requires an unwelcome adjustment on the part of others.

Behaviors and Attitudes that Affect Family and Friends

Those involved in a transformation process often change his/her daily habits or outward appearance.

An individual who may have been extremely outgoing and social may abruptly become introspective, avoiding social activities or acting in an asocial way.

Sometimes people become so intrigued with their new experiences and insights that they reject the ordinary world as trivial and mundane.

Interests often change and the person may want to discuss their new insights and ideas with anyone within range, sometimes becoming judgmental or impatient with others who do not share their concerns.

Individuals in a transformative process may project or blame their difficulties on others or the circumstances around them.

Sometimes, people use their family or friendships as symbols of the restrictions they are shedding.

The individual may become preoccupied with the issue of death.

Those undergoing a transformative experience may find that their sexual responses change.

They may become extremely intuitive or psychic when relating to those around them.

They may feel guided by meaningful coincidences (synchronicities) that involve those close to them.

How Family and Friends Respond

You may deny that anything is wrong.

You may feel confused.

You may feel helpless.

You may feel afraid.

You may feel threatened.

You may react with guilt.

You may feel shame.

You may become judgmental.

You may find someone or something to blame.

You may reject both the individual and the process itself.

What Family and Friends Can Do to Help

Become aware of your own motivations for providing support.

Allow the transformation process to unfold, and be willing to support it with trust and patience.

Be honest with the other person and yourself.

Suspend your judgment.

Offer frequent reassurance.

Use your intuition.

Avoid giving inappropriate messages.

Become open, receptive, and willing to listen.

Be willing to offer physical comfort.

Allow yourself to be playful and flexible.

Have both male and female helpers on hand, if possible.

What Family and Friends Can Do for Themselves

Educate yourself.

Get support from others.

Determine the degree to which you are willing and able to participate in your loved one's transformation.

Abandon the idea that you can fix or control the situation.

Use the situation as an opportunity to work on yourself.

Pursue activities that provide strength, inspiration, and relief.

Be kind to yourself.

Source: The Stormy Search for the Self

Trauma & Recovery

2006-01-10T17:52:00.000-08:00

The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma. When the truth is fully recognized, survivors can begin their recovery. But far too often, secrecy prevails and the story of the traumatic event surfaces not as a verbal narrative but as a symptom.

We need to understand the past in order to reclaim the present and the future. An understanding of psychological trauma begins with rediscovery of the past.

The fundamental stages of recovery are:
1. Establishing safety
2. Reconstructing the traumatic story
3. Restoring the connection between the survivor and his/her community.

Psychological trauma is an affliction of the powerless. At the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force. Traumatic events overwhelm the ordinary symptoms of care that give people a sense of control, connection, and meaning.

Certain experiences increase the likelihood of harm.
1. Being taken by surprise
2. Being trapped
3. Being at the point of exhaustion
4. Being physically violated or injured
5. Being exposed to physical violence
6. Witnessing grotesque deaths

Trauma occurs when action is of no avail--when neither resistance nor escape is possible. The traumatized individual may experience intense emotion but without clear memory of the event--or may remember everything in detail but without emotion. Traumatic symptoms have a tendency to become disconnected from their source and to take on a life of their own. (Dissociation)

Source: Trauma and Recovery

See also:
Spirituality & Trauma
National Center for PTSD
Recovering Body & Soul from PTSD

Telling Your Survivor Story

Read the next entry

Trauma & Spiritual Emergencies

2006-01-10T17:51:00.000-08:00

Will all spiritual emergencies contain a traumatic element? Inasmuch as the loss of ego barriers can be a traumatic experience even for those who have long been following a spiritual path -- yes. Inasmuch as the spiritual emergency was caused by some buried wound in your past -- not necessarily. I think it's more accurate to say that when one's ego barriers are displaced, shattered or dissolved and unconscious content wells forth, that process is going to bring up whatever is buried.

Not everyone who goes through a spiritual emergency has some form of personal trauma in their background. However, it is true that individuals suffering with PTSD have been misdiagnosed as psychotic or schizophrenic.

Misdiagnosis and incorrect or inadequate treatment is not unusual for adults and children with PTSD. For example, refractory depression, substance abuse, and eating disorders, among others, often mask underlying but undiagnosed PTSD. Flashbacks and other dissociative episodes can frequently be mistaken for psychosis (especially schizophrenia), and unnecessary anti-psychotic medication can undermine treatment progress.

Source: Sidran Foundation

See also:
The Individuation Process: The Shadow

New Research Links Trauma & Schizophrenia

The Sun at Midnight

2006-01-10T17:50:00.000-08:00

clancycavnar.com
An Interview With Andrew Harvey - Colleen O'Connor

COLLEEN O'CONNOR: St. John of the Cross said we must go through two deaths -- first the night of the senses, then the night of the soul. What is the difference between them?

ANDREW HARVEY: This first dark night purifies all of the senses so that they can become the vehicle of the inner divine self. This first dark night is extreme, but it's not as extreme as the second dark night. It's a purification that enables the ordinary senses to start registering the divine world. Through devotion, through meditation, through intense mystical practice, you start to see the divine light. At first it just flashes, and then when the process is complete, you have an overwhelming experience in which you see the entire creation as a manifestation of the light, and your consciousness is one with that. This is not enlightenment. This begins what is called the state of illumination. Although the senses are purified, and although they're able now to register the divinity of the world, the ego is still subtly present. So there has to be a second death on the path, which is the death of the personal identity.

One example I use in the book is a rose bush. If you imagine the growth of divine consciousness as being like the growth of a rose, then a cutting from the original rose would have to be placed in the earth. It has to be watered by prayer and by devotion and by meditation. It comes up out of the ground, it has to be protected. Then it grows thorns -- the thorns of discrimination and wisdom. Then it flings out branches and all the created powers come through -- mystical listening. Then, on those branches, buds appear, and those buds contain the potential of the rose because they're juicy with all kinds of recognition. But something else has to happen for the open rose to be created. The bud has to be broken. Jesus said if the grain does not die, then the corn will not spring up. If the bud isn't broken, the full rose will not open. That breaking of the bud is annihilation and crucifixion of the false self.

CO: Given the current economy and state of world affairs, many people feel they're undergoing some sort of dark night.

ANDREW HARVEY: The entire world is now going through a massive crucifixion on all levels. It's going through an environmental crucifixion -- hundreds of species are vanishing every month. It's going through a personal crucifixion. There are two billion people living on less than a dollar a day. It's going through a crucifixion of all the patriarchal systems -- look at Enron and what it has shown us about Corporate America. Look at the Catholic Churches' scandals of pedophilia and what it shows us about authority. Look at the growing disillusionment of politicians of all kinds. All of the systems are being exposed as illusory and as fantasy ridden -- as deeply corrupt and exploitative. There's another kind of crucifixion going on -- crucifixion of purpose and hope. Everybody is totally bewildered. They know that the world is potentially on the brink of total apocalypse. There's a tremendous danger that as people wake up to the horror of what is going on, they will run into political extremism or into fundamentalism of one kind or another. So it's extremely important that the wisdom of the dark night gets across because if people understand the necessity for this crucifixion, and understand that it's preparing the resurrection and the birth and an empowerment, then they will be prepared to go through it without fear -- or without too much fear -- trusting in the logic of the divine transformation.

CO: How does the dark night of the soul birth the full Christ-consciousness?

ANDREW HARVEY: It became clear through my personal crisis that the only real way to birth the living Christ is to love intensely another human being, to stand up fearlessly for the truth in the face of overwhelming violence and cruelty, to dedicate my whole life to the empowerment of others and to absolutely risk everything in the pursuit of a justice that transforms the divine. And if you can combine all of those things, then you are birthed into a holy, new way of being and acting. I'm certain that's how it happens for many, many people.

That's why I wrote this book. One of the key elements is the acceptance of the holiness of human love. One of the disastrous affects of the addiction to transcendence is that the body and its desires have been characterized as illusory and as dangerous. Bede gave me the great clue when he said to me, "Those who oppress sexuality get lost. Those who indulge sexuality get lost. The only way through is to consecrate sexuality, to offer it up as an expression of the divine to the divine." This is what I discovered in my sacred marriage to Eryk, and this is what the book is partly about -- the discovery of the tremendous, all-healing power of tantric love that fuses one's sexual, emotional and spiritual levels. Then slowly the two beings who experience that are born into the one fire presence of the living Christ. This is very crucial information.

CO: We've talked before about this topic, and you said that to commit to sacred marriage you're basically committing to an ordeal.

ANDREW HARVEY: Well, the true sacred marriage involves not only ecstasy and rapture but it also involves the embrace of the other person's shadow -- and the healing of each person's shadow through unconditional compassion and unconditional love. The eruption of the shadow in any relationship is frightening and requires infinite intelligence when dealing with it. That is very much a part of the sacred marriage. When you read the different books about tantric love it becomes sickening, because all they stress is the joy without any of the real, hard, harsh work. And that hard, harsh work is what transforms frivolity into total commitment.

CO: You believe that mainstream culture, particularly its New Age aspects, is in denial of the trials of the world -- the environmental, cultural and spiritual holocaust that's sort of a global dark night of the soul. But what happens to those of us who do wake up?

ANDREW HARVEY: I think there are three different stages. The first stage is that you wake up to real, deep, desperate horror. You wake up to the fact that none of the institutions that are supposed to be protecting us or leading us forward are, in fact, doing so. You wake up to the horrible bankruptcy of politics; the horrible bankruptcy of the churches and the mystical transmission systems; the horrible corruption of the media; the inertia and vanity and emptiness and folly of most of the so-called alternatives to all of those. And that first response is totally devastating.

CO: It seems to breed hopelessness. How do you avoid getting stuck there?

ANDREW HARVEY: That's why I wrote this book. Because if you dare to have that first experience, it makes you extremely lucid and extremely clear, and very, very determined to find a new path. That new path is what the divine will reveal to you, if you hang on to the skirt of the Beloved in total faith and total trust. What that new path reveals is a path of massive, direct connection to God. Everybody can have that connection within their own lives if they combine prayer and meditation and real service.

The second stage of the dark night of the soul will be an overwhelming awakening that will lead to the third stage -- a really radical, passionate and wild, intense, all-absorbing and all-devouring and all-consecrating commitment to do absolutely everything in your power to try and turn the situation around before it becomes terminal. Even after it becomes terminal, which it might, you stay committed to being someone who can really be a nurse at the world-wide hospital, really do some good even if the situation becomes so hopeless that there will be no hope to the saving of the world. You will, nevertheless, be able to be someone who watches over others as they go through this transition.

CO: Let's talk more about the second stage, which seems the most spiritually precarious. I've interviewed many people on the spiritual path, and some have reached a point where they feel abandoned by God. What should people do when they feel they've lost everything, including their connection to God? They can't really pray, much less go to church.

ANDREW HARVEY: Even when you can't meditate, you can still say the name of God in your heart. You can still say a mantra out loud. Even if you can't pray, you can actually say, "Jesus, Jesus, Jesus in my heart," or "Mary, Mary, Mary," or whatever divine figure you turn to. You can still serve others, which is a form of meditation and prayer. I think it's absolutely essential to do as much as you possibly can to stay connected to the divine.

CO: You never lost the connection, even in your darkest moment? You never really seemed to feel abandoned by God.

ANDREW HARVEY: Well, it's more complex than that. I think the human side of me did feel totally abandoned by God, by everybody -- except for Eryk and a very few close friends. But the divine part never, ever lost contact -- because I had already done a huge amount of spiritual work. So I felt that at some level the human part wanted to die, but the divine part kept on hoping against hope.

CO: To me, the real blessing of your personal story is the realization that everyone who experiences the dark night of the soul is offered enormous divine guidance and protection at every stage.

ANDREW HARVEY: Well, it's a very, very dangerous transition. You can lose hope. But if you know the wisdom of the dark night, then you are looking out for protection. You're aware that through this terror, protection will be given. This is the universal testimony. The mystics have gone through this process. It's the testimony of Rumi. It's the testimony of the great shamans. It's the testimony of St. John of the Cross, and it's the testimony that I gave in this book. And it's, of course, the testimony of Bede Griffiths. You are given tremendous divine protection, because as the human is being destroyed, the divine consciousness comes up. So one side of you is being annihilated, but the other side is stronger than ever in the ashes. So great dreams will come and light will become more and more vibrant. The divinity of life will become more and more naked to you. Miracles will take place to protect you. To anybody who comes to this path, the divine is both extremely ferocious and extremely tender. Ferocious to destroy the illusions, but tender to give the human being the courage to hang in there and do the work.

Source: Interview with Andrew Harvey

See also:
The Black Madonna
The Templars & The Black Madonna
Matthew Fox: The Black Madonna
Black Tara
The Sun at Midnight
The False Self

The Daemon

Personal Account: Sally Clay

2006-01-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

Spiritual Journey

Sally Clay is an advocate and consultant for the Portland Coalition for the Psychiatrically labeled, a group run by and for ex-psychiatric patients. She has written: For me, becoming "mentally ill" was always a spiritual crisis, and finding a spiritual model of recovery was a question of life or death.

She describes the role that religion played in her recovery following two years of hospitalization while diagnosed with schizophrenia at the Hartford Institute of Living (IOL): My recovery had nothing to do with the talk therapy, the drugs, or the electroshock treatments I had received; more likely, it happened in spite of these things. My recovery did have something to do with the devotional services I had been attending. At the IOL I attended both Protestant and Catholic services, and if Jewish or Buddhist services had been available, I would have gone to them, too. I was cured instantly-healed if you will-as a direct result of a spiritual experience.

While hospitalized, she had a powerful religious experience which led her to attend religious services. Many years later she went back to the IOL to review her case records and found herself described as having "decompensated with grandiose delusions with spiritual preoccupations." She complains that, "Not a single aspect of my spiritual experience at the IOL was recognized as legitimate; neither the spiritual difficulties nor the healing that occurred at the end".

Even once back in the community, Sally Clay found that the spiritual dimensions of her experience were discounted by members of the religious community: After I was hospitalized and drugged, I tried at times to talk to friends, priests, or other religious persons about the spiritual aspects of my experience. And with very few exceptions, I was told that my spiritual experiences were only symptoms, merely a part of my 'sickness.' As a result of this rational advice from people who were supposed to know, I tried for 20 years to convince myself that these experiences were, indeed, sick and that I should just forget about them. But the fact that my extreme mental states were based on spirituality was so evident to me that no amount of therapy or drugs could eradicate my unspoken conviction.

Clay is not denying that she had a psychotic disorder at the time, but makes the case that, in addition to the disabling effects she experienced as part of her illness, there was also a profound spiritual component that was ignored. She highlights how the lack of sensitivity to the spiritual dimensions of her experience on the part of mental health and religious professionals was detrimental to her recovery. Nevertheless she has integrated her experiences into her personal mythology as a spiritual journey.

Source: Spiritual Journey

Spiritual Interventions in Psychotherapy

2006-01-10T17:48:00.000-08:00

Spiritual interventions can be essential to facilitating recovery and change. At times these could include:

Educating the patient about the spiritual emergence process that is part of a spiritual journey with a potentially positive outcome

Encouraging the patient's involvement with a spiritual path or religious community that is consistent with their experiences and values

Encouraging the patient to seek support and guidance from a credible and appropriate religious or spiritual leaders

Encouraging the patient to engage in religious and spiritual practices consistent with their beliefs (e.g., prayer, meditation, reading spiritual books, acts of worship, ritual, forgiveness and service)

Modeling his/her own spirituality (when appropriate), including a sense of spiritual purpose and meaning, hope, and faith in something transcendent

Role of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy can help patients with religious and spiritual problems to shape their experience into a coherent narrative, to see the "message" contained in their experiences, and to create a life-affirming personal mythology that integrates their spiritual problem. These three phases of psychotherapy directed toward that integration are described below. In addition, spirituality plays a special role in psychotherapy with such patients.

Phase 1: Telling the Story of the Experience
Psychotherapy can be seen as a process of helping clients construct a new narrative, a fresh story of their lives. Psychotherapy does not consist in the cathartic healing effect of releasing traumatic repressed events and their emotions, but in reconstructing a person's authentic story.

People who have had spiritual emergencies often do not receive validation for their experiences, or even the opportunity to talk about them. In the three case studies I have researched and published (Case Library), the hospital records did not mention any of the spiritual content present in these patients' episodes. The inpatient chart notes simply described them as delusional, having religious hallucinations, being preoccupied with space aliens, and making claims of having special powers. That information alone was sufficient to make the diagnosis of a psychotic disorder. In the medical model, further exploration of person's experiences would be unnecessary and could even exacerbate symptoms by reinforcing his/her "delusional system." Yet all three reported that working with me to put their story into writing was very helpful to them.

The conventional practice of discounting the meaning of spiriutal emergencies is not therapeutically productive. The spiritual emergency itself isolates the individual from others. Then the subsequent devaluation and condemnation of the experience as "only the product of a diseased mind" results in further isolation, just when the person needs to reconnect to the social world. Thus, speaking one's story, putting the experience into words, is usually the first step in developing a life-affirming personal mythology that integrates the spiritual dimensions of the crisis.

Phase 2: Tracing its Symbolic/Spiritual Heritage
People in such crises do want their spiritual backgrounds and values to be taken into account. In my own spiritual emergency, I spent 2 months firmly convinced that I was a reincarnation of Buddha and Christ and was on a mission to write a new "Holy Book" that would unite all the peoples of the world. And I had been raised as a Jew! So, once I was back with both feet on my ground, this gave me great cause to explore these forms of spirituality with which I'd had minimal contact. In retrospect, I consider this period to be my spiritual awakening. But I could integrate it only after several years of therapy and work with traditional healers.

The treatment literature documents that there is much therapeutic value in addressing a person's religious delusions. In cases where the person developed the grandiose delusion that they were God or the messiah, these stereotypical delusions of grandeur, inflation, and possibly inappropriate or demanding behavior could be embarrassing to the person. But the valid religious/spiritual dimensions of the experience can be salvaged through psychotherapy: What remains . . . is an ideal model and a sense of direction which one can use to complete the transformation through his own purposeful methods. -- John Weir Perry.

I now view my own experience of having been Buddha and Christ as the ideal models for my spiritual life, and this has given me a sense of direction. My career as a psychologist researching spiritual crises, and my spiritual path derive from that event.

James Hillman, Ph.D., maintains that: Recovery means recovering the divine from within the disorder, seeing that its contents are authentically religious. This recovery often involves helping patients reconcile their idiosyncratic personal symbols with parallels in symbolism and religious imagery. Eliade pointed out that the personal unconscious and "private mythologies" (which are part of spiritual emergencies) cannot awaken an individual. It requires: The general and the universal symbols [to] awaken individual experience and transmute it into a spiritual act, into metaphysical comprehension of the world.

Much of my work in Jungian analysis consisted of learning how to explore the meaning of my personal symbols as they appeared in dreams and in my own spiritual emergency. This search for meaning by exploring parallels in traditional myths and religious texts has also played a role in the integration of many of the spiritual emergency patients with whom I have worked.

Phase 3: Creating a New Personal Mythology
People want more from therapy than a clear account and chronology (phase 1) and symbolic analysis (phase 2). They want an expanded and deepened sense of the meaning of their lives. Weaving the spiritual emergency into a life affirming personal mythology is essential for positive transformation and integration of the experience.

Personal Mythology (Definition)
Each of us has a personal mythology — beliefs about life that make up our view of the world. Stanley Krippner, Ph.D., co-author of The Mythic Path: Discovering the Guiding Stories of Your Past — Creating A Vision for Your Future, defines a personal mythology as an individual's system of complementary and contradictory personal myths. A personal myth is a cognitive-affective structure consisting of strongly ingrained beliefs with potent emotional components. Personal myths shape our expectations, and guide our decisions. They influence the way we behave with other people. They address life's most important concerns and questions, including...

Identity--Who am I? Why am I here?

Direction--Where am I going? How do I get there?

Purpose--What am I doing here? Why am I going there? What does it all mean?

Personal Mythology in Psychotherapy
When people encounter religious and spiritual problems, they are usually dealing with the existential issues delineated as part of personal mythology. So they need to develop a more sustaining personal mythology for who they are at that moment. Unfortunately, with spiritual emergencies, many of the personal myths that people develop are "dysfunctional." They emphasize pathological qualities and are not attuned to the person's actual needs, capacities, or circumstances.

The therapist's task is to help such patients develop a new personal mythology. This is a narrative approach to psychotherapy focusing on the shared retelling of the patient's story, reconstructing it for the patient's benefit.

Personal myths are developed using...

biological sources--physical limitations, genetic endowments

cultural sources--economic and political systems, books, movies, folklore

personal history--family, romantic relationships, friendships, work

Spiritual sources often play a significant role in shaping personal mythologies. They can include nonconsensual reality experiences such as visions, past-life experiences, parapsychological experiences, and also spiritual emergencies. Such spiritual sources involve transcendence of ordinary life concerns and an experienced contact with a "higher" or "deeper" reality.

Spiritual emergencies often involve experiences of this type which can become the foundation for a new personal mythology. The therapist can help post spiritual emergency patients build a new personal mythology with spiritual sources drawn from their crisis.

Source: Spiritual Interventions in Psychotherapy

See also:

Spirituality and Psychiatry

Therapeutic Interventions: Spiritual Crisis

Mental Health and the Torah

Healing Through Books: Bibliotherapy

Soul Retrieval as Remembered Wholeness

2006-01-10T17:47:00.000-08:00

Individuation, or becoming a whole individual through self-realization, as an ongoing journey involves a natural "re-collection", re-gathering, or Platonic anamnesis (remembrance) of an innate wholeness and centre, the Self. The aim of personal individuation is the reproduction of this unity, the Original Being, who in Platonic thought was a sphere. This concept of the androgynous Original Being, then, represents both the origin and goal of psychic wholeness, a wholeness which is lost, or forgotten when through the emergence of the ego we fall from an original state of innocence into a state of conflict. This division, or "dis-ease" is in turn resolved through the restoration of psychic harmony in a reclaimed "higher innocence" of conscious centredness in the Self.

Individuation as Re-Collected Unity
At the heart of Neoplatonism, a forerunner of Jungian 'gnosis', is the assumption of an a priori knowledge grounded in archetypal forms and aimed toward a unification of the ultimate principle of "the One", or "The Simple" with the diverse phenomena of "the Many". In the same way as in Neoplatonic thought the Many are resolved through self-reflective synthesis into the One, so psychic opposites become individuated into and through the Self. Since the Platonic Ideas are also the basis of an innate self-knowledge, through anamnesis acquired knowledge is the recovery of what was once possessed in a precarnate existence in the realm of transcendent Forms, an assumption which underlies the Romantic poet Wordsworth's claim that:

clancycavnar.com

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's Star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar ...
As a natural centering and unfolding of the personality, individuation is an alchemical cycle of separation and synthesis which involves the dethroning, or relative abolition of the ego. This mythic process takes place through the gradual distillation of the Self - the ambivalent archetypal core of the personality - out from a latent condition of unconsciousness into its rightful place at the centre of consciousness. Individuation is a lengthy process, indeed one which once begun, never ends, for becoming centred in the Self is merely the starting point of a new journey which, like the Medicine Wheel, moves outward in an ever-widening spiral to embrace the fate and soul of World and Cosmos.

Re-Connecting to World Soul
What, then, is the nature of this 'soul' that needs to be retrieved, not only for the individual but ultimately for the world as the anima mundi whose children we all are? Is the 're-connection' with soul the same as the 're-collection' of Self that underscores the individuation process?

If, as Jung made clear, individuation does not shut one out from the world but gathers the world to oneself, so soul-making gathers the individual to all-pervasive soul, anima mundi expanding into the even more inclusive sphere of unus mundus. In this interweaving waltz, through the Dionysian explosion of the isolated ego, soul's diffusive movement outward meets soul's infusive movement from outer to inner, and the two merge in an imaginal Cosmos, whose Centre, as all shamans know (through imaginal 'gnosis'), is everywhere.

If "soul" refers also to an anima mundi, a world soul, then as alchemists such as Paracelsus stated, the soul in one sense lies beyond the individual and belongs to a mode of reality beyond our control. In the Neoplatonic Fourth Ennead, Plotinus discusses whether all individuals are one soul, while the merging of individual and universal Tao is, as the alchemist Gerhard Dorn noted, the third degree of the alchemical coniunctio, the most mature phase of individuation as the realization of one's communion with an original unitary reality, what Jung describes as 'the eternal Ground of all empirical being'. As a mode of consciousness, such re-collection is grounded in the intuition of a centred sphere of soul, a microcosm which through the alchemical dictum "As Above, so Below", mirrors the outer macrocosm of Cosmos.

Therapy as Soul Mythos & Pathos
An appreciation of the complementarity of individuation as 're-collection', and Soul-making as 're-connection' to World Soul, has vital repercussions in the arena of psychopathology. James Hillman has undoubtedly contributed more than anyone in the post-Jungian camp to stressing our need to honour the Dionysian, or 'dis-integrating' dimension of therapy. Conversely, positive thinking - as a psychological theory - assumes that anything that's broken, or off-centre (eccentric!), or suffering, or in darkness, depression, neurosis, or symbolic death needs to be immediately fixed up, centred, unified, or brought into the light of health.

Just as shamans, through initiation death-rebirth must heal themselves, so the effective depth therapist is one who through individuation as the ongoing "re-collection" of wholeness, has transcended the "dis-ease" of imbalance and conflict by becoming consciously centered in the Self rather than in the one-sided ego. This re-centering does not obliterate conflict, multiplicity of soul, or pathology, but rather allows for the coexistence of a more central and detached vantage point from where an untouchable core of the personality serenely views the conflict, while the pathologizing soul is unavoidably immersed in it. Our wounds, after all, parent our destinies and keep us in the body - and in the world. They stop us from the temptation to escape upward along the vertical axis of "spirit" and keep us anchored instead in the World, hence along the horizontal human axis of Keatsian "Soul-making", with all its attendant yet necessary limitation and suffering. (The Puer complex, for example, as the limping wound through which Otherworldly vision is earthed and can flow, is accordingly common among artists and shamans alike).

Therapy & Mythic Contextualization
Soul has an insatiable hunger to imbibe the full spectrum of life in all its tragedy and glory. Ideally, as Jung stressed, the therapist in this sense needs an in-depth knowledge of comparative religion and mythology to do justice not only to the mythic potential of soul's wounded condition, but also to soul's infinite complexity. Similarly, by recognizing and respecting the mythic context of the patient's suffering, the therapist, instead of intervening prematurely or unnecessarily, honours the necessity of the patient's presence in a wounded, dismembered, or deathlike phase of the myth.

The goal of therapy is in this light to guide the person through the myth, that they may thereby achieve a sense of empathy with the wider sphere of the collective soul, with life's unending cycle of death and rebirth, hence with the overall purpose of the Cosmos as it mirrors that sphere and cycle in a synchronicity of soul and embodiment. In this sense, the therapist as the servant of soul is not primarily a saviour from suffering, but rather a soul-guide through it. The 'patient' is reconciled with life and participates in the mythic drama of the gods. This realization that one is not alone and that one's struggles, darkness and suffering, when embraced in a mythic context have an innate purpose and direction - the forging of soul amidst the vales of suffering - in itself constitutes a healing restoration of the individual to his/her place in the overall mythic scheme and boundless mysterium of the Cosmos.

The shamanic retrieval of lost soul, however, is not always the same as a reunification of the personality. Indeed, there are kairos times when, in the context of mythic 'dis-integration', soul as inherently multiple and pathological thrives on fragmentation, which in chronic cases of schizophrenia, for example, is indistinguishable from shamanic initiation. The key question here is whether the wounded condition or dissociated state, or loss of soul is overridingly, or ultimately debilitating. Given the close correlation between schizophrenic breakdown and shamanic initiation, the shaman in dealing with schizophrenia is faced with a possible dilemma. As she knows from her own experience, it is the schizophrenic who can self-heal and reintegrate who has the makings of an authoritive shaman. If she intervenes prematurely, or unnecessarily, she may be robbing the schizophrenic of an authentic initiation experience. Here her ability as psychotherapist comes into play when she is called upon to discern the significance of key developments in the schizophrenic's dreams, visions, voices, and degrees of adaptation to outer reality.

At-one-ment as Remembered Singularity
Whatever the therapeutic situation, though, I am constantly aware of the need to distinguish healing through integration, or through reconciliation to anima mundi, from healing as the elimination of pathology and plurality of soul. In the broader context, whether we are dealing with soul pathology, soul loss, or with the natural spontaneity of individuation, the reawakening of our sense of the sacred and of the transcendental, unitary Ground of all phenomena (Tao), goes hand-in-hand with our re-connection to anima mundi as World Soul. In this quest for transpersonal 'at-one-ment' as the religare which links us back - through re-connection and re-collection - to the all-pervasive Centre of the boundless Sphere of soul, our challenge, finally, is to marry fragmentation with synthesis, imaginal unity with incarnate pathology, Saturn's hobbling peg-leg with Puer's Icarean wing, the dizzy peaks of spirit with the clammy depths of the vale of Soul-making. For only by cross-connecting the vertical axis of unifying spirit with the horizontal axis of pathologizing soul can we consciously embrace the core singularity of remembered Self, the central Point, which as the God archetype both transcends and unites them both.

Source: Soul Retrieval as Remembered Wholeness

See also:
One Flight Down
Self-Realization
Self-Actualization [Maslow]
Unus Mundus
Revisioning Soul Retrieval

Center for The Story of the Universe

Archetype of Wholeness

2006-01-10T17:45:00.000-08:00

According to the psyche's purposes, in order to break out of the security of solid consensus and convention, one must encounter the experience of the death process in psychic depth, and also at the same time the dissolution of the familiar, accustomed worldview. Though all this demand might seem at first glance overly drastic, it consists actually of the death of the familiar self-image and the destruction of the world image to make room for the self regeneration of each. These two images move together in the process, each an aspect of the other, and both assume the form of the mandala images.

-- John Weir Perry

Circles of Life
In his writings on mandala symbolism, Carl Jung refers to the mandala as "the psychological expression of the totality of the self." (Mandala Symbolism, p.20) Within everyone's psyche, to one degree or another, can be found the seed-center of the self surrounded by a chaotic maelstrom of issues, fears, passions and countless other psychological elements. It is the very disordered state of these elements that creates the discord and emotional imbalances from which too many of us suffer on a regular basis. The mandala is a template for the mind, a state of peace and order, a resolution to the chaos within. In Jung's words, "The severe pattern imposed by a circular image of this kind compensates the disorder and confusion of the psychic state-- namely, through the construction of a central point to which everything is related."

This central point is the absolute seat of the self, the anchor for all the extraneous elements of your environment and psyche. I refer to your environment and your psyche as if they were separate entities, but in reality the two are inextricably linked. The world within and the world without are indistinguishable as far as your self is concerned. Internal elements (ideas, emotions, obsessions) interact freely with external elements (news, relationships, taxes) in the interface that is your mind. In this way we can understand more clearly how certain patterns and symbolic elements from our most ancient origins have been internalized and carried through the ages, only to be unconsciously externalized in the beauty of the mandala.

Ritualistic mandalas from specific cultures display a style and variety of elements with specific significance to that culture. There are nearly as many types of mandalas as there have been societies in the history of Humankind. But the essence of the pattern of the mandala, the "squaring of the circle," is a basic motif in the architecture of so many dreams and fantasies whose unifying similarities stretch across the ages. The quaternary pattern imposed upon the circle symbolizes the application of a specific architecture upon the infinity of the cosmos. It gives the psyche a safe place upon which to stand, a solid foundation upon which it can gather itself to achieve completeness and harmony. Furthermore, the central point, or bindu, is the reference point for the self to identify with. Jung refers to this pattern as the "archetype of wholeness."

This ordering effect on the human psyche is not, Jung stresses, the result of conscious reflection or cultural effort. It is a pre-existing condition of consciousness that such patterns help bring it into focus or return to an earlier, more peaceful state. This is why Jung found the mandala to be present in so many cultures and mythologies spanning the globe as well as the history of Humankind itself. It is an integral part of the collective unconscious that is shared by every person that has ever lived. The mandala is an unconscious state in which all opposites come together and are united, where the polar aspects of both cosmos and personality can become one. This union of opposites is the very process by which we become whole, through which we find peace.

Source: The Archetype of Wholeness

See also: Psychosis, PTSD & Story as a Vehicle of Healing

The Gift of the Fellow Traveler

2006-01-10T17:44:00.000-08:00

Artist Unknown
The Fellow Traveler was someone I met in the process of my breakdown. I was a stranger in a strange land there and although many were kind, he was -- above all others -- the kindest. For at least a few days, when I was at the absolute peak of my terror and psychosis, his was the only "human" voice I had in my life. This man was a stranger who went out of his way to create a space of safety for me. He took time away from his work, his life, his wife and his children, to spend it with me. He allowed me to be an utterly broken human being in his presence without having to apologize for it.

There were a few occasions where we chatted -- about what, I have absolutely no recollection now. With the exception of a few phrases, I can't remember. I couldn't even remember the next day. I just remember that I was terrified and he made me feel safe. At a time when I was more wounded than I'd ever been in my life, I knew I could trust him.

People like that, they do not do what they do for the praise of friends or strangers. They don't do it so they can pat themselves on the back and tell themselves what a good person they are. They do it because they are intimately engaged with the dance of their own humanity. They do it out of compassion, mercy, and kindness. There is no way to repay that kind of debt, except to pass the kindness on.

See also: Music: Big Calm

The Homecoming

2006-01-10T17:43:00.000-08:00

The following is excerpted from The Stormy Search for the Self.

The preceding chapters have addressed what to do during a transformation process, offering suggestions to those who are going through the experience as well as to the people around them. Now comes the period when one returns to daily life, whether after a relatively subtle awakening or an all-consuming crisis. What can one expect to feel during this time of transition?

This period is the homecoming. People at this stage frequently experience a new home within themselves, an inner source of comfort and nourishment. They also often discover or rediscover meaningful and comforting elements in the world around them, such as sustaining relationships with those who are close, or familiar environments and activities.

Some of the general changes include the elimination of many difficult personal problems, the addition of positive elements in one's life, a shift in values, and an increased significance of spiritual dimension. These are the rewards toward which people have been traveling during the transformational process. They may have a sense of being reborn and rejuventated; they feel different than they did at the start of the journey, born into a healthier relationship with themselves and the world.

A sense of renewal may or may not happen all at once. Some people experience a sudden resolution of their emergency and a rapid and easy transition to a new way of being. Most people however, go through a time of re-entry during which they are somewhat unsure of themselves and their place in the world.

In general, none of the diverse and sometimes dramatic experiences we have described are of any value unless they are brought back into ordinary reality and applied in the behaviors and activities of daily life. Many spiritual traditions warn that the transcendental realms can be seductive and that we can be tempted to abandon the world in their favor.

Coming back into everyday life does not imply giving anything up. Instead, it means bringing back what we have gained during our adventure in the unconscious realms back into the domain in which we live twenty-four hours a day. By doing this, we can merge the two worlds and discover that the divine impulse is everywhere. We learn to seek and to see it all around us, in every action we take, in every person we encounter.

Joseph Campbell, in The Hero With a Thousand Faces, masterfully describes the re-entry problems. As we discussed in chapter 6, the elements of the hero's journey reflect the inner experiences of a person traveling through transformation. The hero has left home, a place of safety and known reality, and set out on an expedition that takes him or her into lands of mystery and adventure. Here, he or she is met by many challenges and initiations. When the final ordeal is completed, the hero returns to the place from which he or she began. The setting and the cast of characters there may be the same; however, the hero is very different now. He or she now has the gifts of wisdom and understanding developed by the many experiences along the way. But the hero, filled with new insights, finds difficulty in adjusting to the old world. Because of the magnitude of their transformative experiences, many people find it difficult to accept and embrace the seemingly trivial aspects of ordinary reality. They may also face the very real problem that the everyday world around them is often not very receptive to their newfound discoveries.

Many of us are very good at looking after and helping other people, often at our own expense. During the transition period, as well as afterward, meeting your own health-promoting needs should be your first priority. You need to nurture yourself before you turn your attention outward. Following are some of the challenges you will likely face and general suggestions as to what to do about them. Because your experiences and needs are unique, you will probably find variations or additions that are ideally suited to you.

You may find it difficult to know where you end and the external world begins.

You may feel fragile, vulnerable, or tenative and may need to protect yourself from too much outside input for a while.

You may continue to have short-lived and temporary waves of emotions, visions, insights, or other experiences left over from your spiritual emergency.

You may be unsure about what to say to people and how to act.

You may feel embarrased, judgmental, or guilty about your behavior during your spiritual emergency.

You may have difficulty digesting your experience intellectually or philosophically, or reconciling it with your old worldview.

You may alternately feel strong waves of relief, humility, awe, peace, gratitude, and wonder.

You may have difficulty accepting the unfamiliar positive experiences that are coming into your life and may not know how to deal with a new source of strength.

You may catch yourself expecting the bottom to drop out of your newfound state.

You may have a sense that there is more work to do, you need to concentrate on nourishing activities for a while.

Source: The Stormy Search for the Self.

See also:

Summary of Steps in the Hero's Journey

How to Rebuild Your Life After a Breakdown

Spirituality & Recovery

Universally Speaking

2006-01-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

Image Source

I ... saw your face
Elegant and tired
Cut up from the chase
Still, I so admired

Bloodshot, your smile
Delicate and wild
Well, give me she-wolf style
Rip right through me

Silverette are the jets of a lifetime
Go and get her, I’ve got her on my mind
Nothing better, the feeling is so fine
Simply put, I saw your love stream flow

Come on baby, ’cause there’s no name for
Give it up, and I got what I came for
Universally speaking, I
Take you back, and you make me nervous
Nothing better than love and service
Universally speaking, I
Win in the long run

I ... saw your crime
Dying to get high
Two of a kind
Beats all hands tonight

Silverette are the jets of a lifetime
Go and get her, I’ve got her on my mind
Nothing better, the making is so fine
Simply put ~ I saw your love stream flow
Simply put ~ I saw your love stream flow
Simply put ~ I saw your love stream flow

Let's go!

Red Hot Chili Peppers

See also:
What's Wrong With You?
Skeleton Woman
In the Beginning
What is the Soul?
Kali - The Divine Mother
Empowering Soul Through the Feminine
Kundalini & The Black Queen
The Coded Messages of the "Schizophrenic"
The Dark Mater
Sophia - Greatest of Exiles
The Sun at Midnight
Matthew Fox: The Black Madonna
Soul Retrieval as Remembered Wholeness
Music: Awakening by the Gate of Sorrow
Hagia Sophia

The Thunder, Perfect Mind

The Gateless Gate

2006-01-06T17:04:00.000-08:00

When asked about the path of practice, Buddha explained that there are four ways for spiritual life to unfold. The first way is quickly and with pleasure. In this, opening and letting go come naturally, like an easy birth, accompanied by joy and rapture. The second way is quickly but painfully. On this path we might face a near-death experience, an accident, or the unbearable loss of someone we hold dear. This path passes through a flaming gate to teach us about letting go. The third form of spiritual progress is gradual and accompanied with pleasure. In this way, opening and letting go happen over a period of years, predominantly with ease and delight. The fourth and most common path is also slow and gradual, but takes place predominantly through suffering. Difficulty and struggle are a recurrent theme, and through them we gradually learn to awaken.

In this matter we do not get to choose. Our unfolding is a reflection of the pattern of our lives, which are sometimes described as "our fate" or "our karma". No matter the apparent speed, we are simply asked to give ourselves to the process. It is like being in a small rowboat on the ocean. We row, but there is also a larger current; we may continually head east, but cannot know how far we have gone. The question of distance and time however, is one that arises only at the beginning. It does not matter how far we think we have gone. It is our willingness to open radically and repeatedly, just now that characterizes this journey.

It is easy to get caught in the notion that there is a goal, a state, a special place to reach in spiritual life. Accounts of extraordinary experiences can create ideas of how our own lives should be, and lead us to compare ourselves with others. In Tibet one famous yogi had lived for years practicing ardently in a mountain hut supported by the villagers below. Then one festival day he heard that all his supporters were going to visit him. The yogi carefully swept his hut, polished the offering bowls on the alter, made a special offering, and cleaned his robes. Then he sat back and waited but an unease came over him. Who was he trying to be? Finally he got up, scooped up several handfuls of dirt, and threw them back onto the alter. Those handfuls of dirt were said to be his highest spiritual offering.

The ultimate end of the koans might be seen in the following story, a bit of modern Zen humor regarding a disciple who sent his master faithful accounts of his spiritual progress. In the first month, the student wrote, "I feel an expansion of consciousness and experience oneness with the universe." The master glanced at the note and threw it away.

The following month, this is what the student had to say: "I finally discovered that the Divine is present in all things." The master seemed disappointed.

In his third letter the disciple enthusiastically explained, "The mystery of the One and the many has been revealed to my wondering gaze." The master yawned.

The next letter said, "No one is born, no one lives, no one dies, for the self is not." The master threw up his hands in despair.

After that a month passed by, then two, then five, then a whole year. The master thought it was time to remind his disciple of his duty to keep him informed of his spiritual progress. The disciple wrote back, "I am simply living my life."

When the master read that he cried, "Thank God. He's got it at last."

Source: After the Ecstacy, the Laundry - Jack Kornfield

See also:
Signs of Spiritual Progress

Terms for the Goal

[Note: I consider my own experience to have been an "awakening" experience. Others are welcome to decide what their own experiences are.]

A Peaceful Respite

2006-01-04T21:57:00.000-08:00

Anyone who actually reads this blog from start to finish is likely an individual whose life has been impacted in some manner by the experience called "psychosis" or "schizophrenia" (in this culture). Consider this a quiet space to rest your cyber head, if only for a while. Here, in no particular order, are some pockets of peace that I've enjoyed along the way...

May it Be - Enya
Seven Wonders
Spirituality & Practice
Loving a Human Being
Changed Minds
The Invitation
God as Friend
The Practice of Tonglen - Pema Chodron

The Spirit of Tonglen - Pema Chodron [Audio]

A brief commentary about Tonglen: I have praised tonglen practice in a few places in this blog, noting among other things that it was helpful in "taking me out of my alone-ness". Tonglen has been the only real meditation practice I've engaged in, and only since my experience. During the times I was feeling overwhelmed and alone with my pain, I found that just a few minutes of tonglen could help center me and bring relief. For that reason, I recommend tonglen to others as a form of pain relief.

Of the two links above related to tonglen, one leads to a written article, the other to an audio option [Requires Real Player]. In those moments when I was feeling particularly alone, I always preferred the audio option because I found it comforting to hear another human voice. But the lead-in article also serves as a very thorough introduction to tonglen practice.