Bringing the Self into Being

Our Conscious perspective experiences the Unconscious as something “other”, alien, and outside of ourselves. Understanding the nature of the Unconscious as it relates to Consciousness alleviates some of the mystery of why this is so. Only thru Conscious awareness of the existence of the Unconscious, and the many ways it can and does reveal itself and influence thought, can one begin to “own” it as a part of the Self.

For many ages past and present the Unconscious was experienced precisely as an alien, “other”, external world of powerful discarnate entities, and as such was referred to as the Spirit World. Tribes of archaic humans experienced this shadow realm, which surround them and infused their perspective at all times, as something that must be bargained with, appeased, and at the very least taken into account in relation to every human action, from childbirth to death to the sacralization of temples, homes, and tribal leaders. Although these earliest humans considered themselves to be as integral to nature as the Spirit World was, they did not understand the Spirit World to be an actual part of their psyche and its Conscious – Unconscious polarity. As such, they properly treated it as an Objective Reality, for to Consciousness in its “usual” state that is precisely what the Unconscious is, which is also why one must strive towards an Objective apprehension of their Self in its totality if one hopes to glimpse the full nature of their Absolute Self.

In all likelihood the intimacy and interdependence of the members of a prehistoric tribe contributed to a synchronized psychic reality amongst them that infused every aspect of their consciousness, both waking and sleeping, with a power of relation that crossed any possible divisions between an “I” and a “they”, which were in any case practically non-existent in the older, darker times at the dawn of human Consciousness. The blending of psychic reality for each member of the tribe had its correlative effect in a quite literal “Collective Unconscious” that served as a psychic substratum for their shared experience of reality, a Collective Unconscious that, according to the theories of Carl Jung, is governed by instinctive mentational patterns called Archetypes which are common to all humans, and are therefore more conducive to a boundary-less group psychic reality than is Consciousness itself, with or without the pressures of survival and conformity which predominated not only in prehistoric times, but continues to dominate our psychic life today. Yet true to the hypothesis I am extrapolating, the psyche of archaic humanity was, due to the emphasis upon group survival, much less divided between the Conscious and Unconscious than is the psyche in our own time, which is dominated by the Ego.

What this all amounts to is the fact that this shared psychic reality in both what could be seen, and in the much vaster realm of what could not be seen, bound the tribe so closely together that the disturbances and turmoil within the individual souls of its members could easily effect all of the others, and would be experienced as a threat to the survival of the entire group.

Since the Unconscious as such was not known, the danger came from the “spirit world”, which had to be appeased, bargained with, and even threatened – using magic against magic, spirit against spirit. This is where the Shaman came into play, for it was his role to personally enter into the spirit realm to extract the necessary knowledge and power to combat evil forces, and to heal the afflicted members of his tribe by driving the invading spirits out. As a medicine man and an interface with the world of the spirits, the shaman should be seen as the Psychonaut that he really was, and is, for it was precisely his ability and courage to enter into a direct encounter with the Unconscious and its contents (using whatever means where necessary, which in most cases involved a traditional ingestation of entheogens) that allowed the shaman to access the collective psychic substratum of the group as a whole, making him (sometimes a her, sometimes a hermaphrodite) the natural diplomat to the dark and invisible forces of the “spirit realm” that ruled life in the endless unknown beyond, and within, the magic circle of tribal consciousness. This theory also helps to explain why, from a modern psychological perspective, the diagnoses and ritualized cures employed by the shaman could achieve their intended effect. Strictly rationalist minds may readily scoff at rituals and chants as so much mumbo-jumbo, acknowledging their potential effects as a type of placebo at best. This attitude is entirely keeping with a consciousness-centric worldview that, by nature and definition, either completely ignores or only grudgingly accepts the polar nature of the psyche that encompasses a transpersonal structuring that predates the rise of individual consciousness itself: this proud youngster that all too readily takes itself for the sole meaning and measure of reality even as it breaks the surface of awareness as the mere tip of an iceberg that contains the prototypical wiring and programming which is the basis for all earthly sentience, including non and pre-human and ancestral forms, and is, according to the Jungian theory of the Collective Unconscious, the source of all of our myths, and mythological thinking itself.

To their credit, the perceptive minds of our time recognize the value of myths and the role they can play in the healing of individual and collective imbalances of the psyche. The fact that myths are often ambiguous and therefore dangerous, with the potential to further exacerbate already existing psychic and cultural imbalances if they are misused (as they where in the creation of Nazi Germany) is a further testament to their power. Medicine is power, and power is ambiguous. The correct diagnosis, followed by the correct usage and dosage, can heal; an incorrect diagnosis, followed by an incorrect usage and dosage, can maim and kill.

Consciousness and Unconsciousness exist to compliment and empower each other. The psyche cannot balance itself or evolve without the cooperation of both. Consciousness becomes easily deluded and lost when it arrogantly takes itself as the sole psychic reality. Denying and ignoring the Unconscious, which predates Consciousness and supports it, can cause the Conscious mind to become prey to the hidden impulses that influence it, and which it cannot control because it is not even aware of their existence. Control requires awareness. If one does not acknowledge, one does not see. If one does not see, one is controlled by what one does not see.

On the other side of the equation, the Unconscious perpetually attempts to make its contents conscious, yet due to the tendency of the Conscious mind to be unaware of the Unconscious activity that churns away in the darkness underneath and beyond the edges of its perimeter of light, it can often only become aware of them by the most oblique, indirect methods, such as the projection of them onto sense impressions of external objects. If the Consciousness notices these threshold contents that are winking at it from behind masks and props, it will often see them inherent to the object they are projected upon, a tendency that reinforces the perception that they come from outside, and are therefore alien qualities not of oneself. In such a way the people of archaic times and cultures viewed certain geological formations, locations, and objects as inhabited by spirits, or “numens”, which are defined by Websters Collegiate Dictionary as a “spiritual force of influence often identified with a natural object, phenomenon, or place”. Accordingly, I theorize that it is the power of the Unconscious psychic substratum that is experienced as a very real yet alien “spirit” realm external to oneself.

Within the context of this theory of the Unconscious and its Archetypes, it is permissible to postulate the Spirit World as a threshold realm where unconscious energies attempt to enter the domain of consciousness, something that can benefit both psychic polarities as a form of psychic evolution, but only if one’s Consciousness can apprehend them in this way! Modern humanity lacks the cultural-mythological context by which archaic humanity integrated such experiences, and without our own frame of reference, such as a unique personal mythology and / or a “scientific” theory of the Unconscious, such experiences may inspire doubt and fear, and lead to deliberate repression and self-denial. Direct encounters with the Unconscious and its contents are usually bizarre at the least and severely traumatic at the worst, and may be experienced as an invasion of one’s mind by an alien force, spirit, or “demon” (as archaic humanity understood it) or as the threat of psychosis and other forms of mental illness as modern humanity understands it. This possibility, based on a lack of information, presents us with the paradoxical scenario of the psyche’s “natural” and legitimate methods for balancing and evolving itself going horribly awry due to the lack of a conscious orientation that can apprehend the process from either a mythological or scientific basis, or both. From this it can be seen that it is my contention that humanity requires both a mythological-cultural and scientific basis for apprehending the functions and interplay of the polar nature of the psyche.

(As an extra note, it is worth contemplating to what extent the contents of the Unconscious may personify themselves into “entities” as they directly or indirectly approach the threshold of Consciousness. Is this impulse towards personification led by the Unconscious as a way of relating to Consciousness, or is it is led by Consciousness as a way of relating to the Unconscious, or is it a partnership between both? This question obviously proceeds from the premise that the spirit world is a threshold realm where Consciousness and the Unconscious interface)

When humanity abolished the realms of spirits and myth and magic in the name of “scientism” and “rationalism” (which I denote as an irrational use of science and rationality by use of the appendage “ism”) it delivered itself into the dark powers of the Unconscious like never before. In our own time we see science and technology advance to god-like heights, while the species that creates it edges ever closer to the abyss of crudity, somnambulism, barbarity, politico-religious fanaticism, totalitarianism, and self-destruction. People do not see in what way the strident assertion of rational”ism” fuels its seeming opposite that is not so opposite – the strident assertion of irrational”ism”. This process mirrors on a broader level what occurs within the individual psyche when one over-emphasizes ego-consciousness at the expense of the psyche in its totality as a polarized Conscious-Subconscious-Unconscious structure. As Carl Jung wrote:

“The more Christian your consciousness, the more ‘heathenish’ your unconsciousness.”

The modern theory of the Unconscious is one of many ways for modern humanity to reclaim the other, older, Unconscious portion of its psyche without surrendering the Consciousness and rationality it has worked so hard to achieve.

Leaving aside the more dramatic, direct, and rare encounters with the Unconscious, the indirect encounters with its contents can provide us with a more frequent, and therefore more common experience that we can, if we choose to, become more aware of. Proceeding from the idea that the Unconscious tries to make its contents conscious by projecting them onto sense impressions of external objects (and people) we can theoretically take a fresh look at age-old divination systems such as the Tarot, which is ideally suited to the task of capturing and framing these contents. It is possible to view Tarot cards as “mirrors” for reflecting your own Subconscious and Unconscious knowledge back at you in ways that allow the Conscious mind to grasp it in an indirect way that may not have been possible to it in any other form. Understanding the cards in this context, your perception of “divination systems” in general may be revolutionized into a rational perspective. Accordingly, the cards cannot tell you something you do not already know. To the contrary, they can only tell you what you already Do Know; yet a knowledge that is either being avoided or repressed by your conscious mind, or is altogether unexamined and Unconscious. A meaningful Tarot reading actively engages the Querent to interpret his or her own Self into the card spread, and thus ideally helps them to “see” precisely what they need to know, and already Know, but have not incorporated into Consciousness yet.

It is possible that divination systems such as the Tarot and the I-Ching, which were conceived to capture and reveal cosmic forces at work upon an individual in his or her life, were also conceived unconsciously as the perfect material means to capture and reveal the contents of the Unconscious that have throughout our lives so forcefully yet mysteriously and indirectly pressed themselves upon our consciousness in an attempt to evolve into Consciousness. If we do not consciously apprehend these attempts and integrate them into Conscious awareness, the purpose behind them will remain unfulfilled, and our progress along the path of psychic evolution will become arrested and stunted.

The “spirit world” of old is full of communications from our Unconscious self to our Conscious self. The strange, alien, “other” forces that work upon us are indeed aspects of our selves. To utilize and gain a form of control over such forces, we must recognize them as aspects of our selves, and integrate them into our Consciousness. Only when the self can be viewed from an Objective perspective that incorporates the different poles of the psyche into a Conscious partnership – does the True Self begin to come into Being.

-Werbinox

"Clerks"

What I sometimes refer to as an "eternity sandwich" is anything but eternal in the strict sense of the word (hence its being "sandwiched") but is rather a perception of the quality of eternity within what is fleeting; the perception of a manifested law of nature or "destiny" within an action, occurrence, or pattern that creates a powerful sensation that "all is exactly as it should be" and the universe is running precisely as it must…you are at the height of a routine that is no longer a curse or an accident of circumstance, but a consciously chosen course of action ("what I have is what I want") and the clerks that previously worked at the store now own and run the store that once was a burden yet now is a manifest destiny; Jay and Silent Bob take up their post outside goofing along the wall, and all is in its place and as it should be. Norm sits on his favorite stool at the corner of the bar, my best friend is just a phone call or email away, my wife opens her Sam Adams and goes out for a smoke, and my mom stays up until midnight and goes to bed after tanning herself and playing a video game with the weather channel on in the background. All of this will end sooner rather than later, but for now - the cosmic machinery is well greased and runs as it should, and that which is happening is happening for reasons of its own, and whatever we are here to do - we are doing it now. Destiny is achieved even if it is not fully perceived in that way, and eternity peeks its face out from behind the masks of impermanence, sandwiched between a mortal beginning and a mortal end.

Speaking of "Clerks", I got something kind of heavy out of both of those movies. All four of the main characters end up at the finish where they were at the beginning, but what used to be "nowhere" and "nothing" is now the Where and What that they want (granted, three of them wanted it all along, but the fourth character, who is the anchor of the movies, did not, so he becomes the focus of this analysis) The transformation that occurs is as simple as a change of perception, and as complex as a revolution of perception. It is essentially the same message as that which is contained in the speech by Peter Boyle's character "Wizard" in Taxi Driver: "why am I still driving a taxi after all these years? It must be what I want!"
The clerk in question who experiences his life as confusion and helplessness and misery throughout both movies does so only because he has not awakened (Xeper) to the realization that his life is the result of his unconscious "will" to make it that way; in effect, he has worked hard to make his life exactly what it is, but still thinks via his ego-consciousness that he wants the "good life" of conventional success that he has been taught he should want, and thus wars against the strength of his own nature as it is expressed in his life with the much weaker idea of what he thinks it "should" be. At the end of the second movie, he becomes conscious of his true will for himself, and from this moment forward goes on to consciously choose the very life that he previously struggled futilely against, only because he did not understand it to be a sum-effect of who he really was.

If a person cannot see the way in which the life he lives is a manifestation of what he has "willed", he cannot take full advantage of the power that comes from a conscious choice, and will struggle against his Self, thereby dividing and blocking the free flow of his "magical" power, which follows the laws of nature and the human psyche, and is therefore empirically real. When you understand magic by this definition, you realize that it can actually be tested for results, for it is what has made your life what it Is and Is Not - according to your level of consciousness concerning its activity.

When one awakens to Who they are, and how What they are can be observed in the patterns of their life, they can embrace this identity that expresses itself in these supra-personal patterns with the clarity of a conscious will that now chooses what it used to rebel against out of ignorance. One is no longer divided against their Self, and their magic (application of will) can flow with them instead of against them, because it is no longer obstructed by a lack of self-knowledge.

When this self-knowledge is achieved, the opposites of Consciousness and Unconsciousness form a new partnership; a new Center of cooperation from which a more authentic Being can arise and create its life out of wholeness, rather than division.

-Werbinox

Thought-in-Opposition

Within the genre of Progressive-Rock there is a term called Rock-in-Opposition (RIO) which utlizes, amongst other things, lots of dissonance and atonality. Appropriating the term, with a slight variation, for the purposes of expressing the following idea and experience, I will write about Thought-in-Opposition.

As soon as I become aware of strong feelings of affection or “love” for someone, I frequently get counter-images that amount to a violation, desecration, and destruction of those feelings (i.e. deliberately insulting the one I love, hurting their feelings, sabotaging our rapport, or punching them, etc.) These thoughts and feelings have no motivational energy behind them: I never struggle to keep from acting them out. I observe their existence in my mind as a curiosity, yet feel no compunction to bring them into manifestation. Considering what I have learned about the oppositional and compensatory nature of the subconscious and its role in the polarity-flow of psychic energy, I see these thoughts for what they are – a “becoming conscious” of mental energy (as it coalesces around counter-ideas and images) that would “normally” be completely sub-conscious, if only because its content so completely opposes the predominant orientation of my conscious attitude.
At these moments the threshold between my consciousness and sub-consciousness is so transparent that I can “see” right down into the activity that is usually (and willfully) veiled off from the light of my conscious attitude and ego-persona. Perhaps this is one of many results that can be achieved by striving for a state of mind that is communicated by Buddhism with the analogy of a lake so clear you can see all the way to its bottom.

This interpretation draws upon the idea that the energy of the psyche is driven by dualities such as “acceptable” and “unacceptable”, right and wrong, clean and dirty, good and evil, and so forth. As an interpretation it makes sense relative to the theory that what constitutes the contents of sub-conscious activity, mainly - mental energy manifest as ideas and attitudes that do not fit with the dominant and preferred perspective (preferred according to moral upbringing, social adaptation, and possibly even a self-aware, self-forged standard of personal conduct) is antipodal to what one desires to think and feel. In what we can call a Balanced Personality, these counter-thoughts and feelings are usually too weak to cross the threshold of consciousness (remaining raw material for dream imagery) and lack any real power to motivate physical action when they do cross it. In what we can call an Unbalanced Personality, such counter-thoughts from the shadow realm come to predominate, causing the individual to suffer from feelings of inundation, invasion, and helplessness in the face of what is to him or her a hostile, alien force.

As concerns my own experiences with this polarized mental energy, I am somehow seeing its activity in association with powerful thoughts and feelings of love and respect for another person. Perhaps my conscious apprehension of these counter-thoughts is fuelled by the sheer energy of my conscious perspective? Perhaps I am conscious of them as a result of being persistently geared towards a clarity of honesty within my own mind? For whatever the reason, I can often quite plainly see these weak and naturally destructive thoughts and images of the “inferior” shadow personality, and frequently perceive them at what are my potentially greatest moments. I even sometimes “hear” the voice of this counter position. Yet like a scientist (ideally) I observe this phenomenon from a detached and solid position, and duly note its expressions for later analysis. These Thoughts-in-Opposition almost never have the power to move me, but they are indeed curious as signposts to a greater understanding of my conscious and chosen attitude!

In my book “Challenge the Yumocha”, the character of Jetka Rothgar is an embodiment of someone who becomes increasingly motivated to act upon these counter-impulses, to his own horrific detriment. Following the lead of what becomes to him a congealed “entity” that embodies this counter-energy in the psyche, he goes on to acquire the position of Leader of the Land, yet surrenders his actual power in the process, and ends up a puppet, a hollow shell of a human being. Using this magical-literary device, I create a repository for this possible course of action, and make “him” give in to these Thoughts-in-Opposition so that I never have to. Thus the Christ-idea that some “one” or some “thing” must commit an action so that I will not have to, or be the recipient of a reaction so that I will not be, has more applications than is commonly realized.

As a note of caution, it must be plainly pointed out that these antipodal energies of the psyche can, even in the most well-balanced personality, acquire the strength to motivate actual physical behavior if they are fed fuel in the form of powerful and primal emotions and intoxicants such as anger, fear, hatred, and lust. If these are stimulated to a fever pitch, there is no limit to the physical, mental, and spiritual havoc that these Thoughts-in-Opposition can wreak.

-Werbinox