15/07/07 Meeting

Greetings Friends,

This is what I had planned for tonight. If you would go ahead and do this, it will still work in this format.

Opening from The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran:

On Reason and Passion

"And the priestess spoke again and said: Speak to us of Reason and Passion.

And he answered saying:

Your soul is oftentimes a battlefield, upon which your reason and your judgment wage war against your passion and your appetite.

Would that I could be the peacemaker in your soul, that I might turn discord and the rivalry of your elements into oneness and melody.

But how shall I, unless you yourselves be also the peacemakers, nay, the lovers of all your elements?

Your reason and your passion are the rudder and the sails of your seafaring soul.

If either your sails or your rudder be broken, you can but toss and drift, or else be held at a standstill in mid-seas.

For reason, ruling alone, is a force confining; and passion, unattended, is aflame that burns to its own destruction.

Therefore let your soul exalt your reason to the heights of passion, that it may sing;

And let it direct your passion with reason, that your passion may live through its own daily resurrection, and like the phoenix rise above its own ashes.

I would have you consider your judgment and your appetite even as you would two loved guests in your house.

Surely you would not honor one guest above the other; for he who is more mindful of one lose the love and faith of both.

Among the hills, when you sit in the cool shade of the white populars, sharing the peace and serenity of distant fields and meadows--then let your heart say in silence, 'God rests in reason.'

And when the storm comes, and the mighty winds shakes the forest, and thunder and lightening proclaim the majesty of the sky,--then let your heart say in awe, 'God moves in passion.' 

And since you are a breath in God's [or Goddess, Universe, energy, nothingness, or etc.] forest, you too should rest in reason and move in passion." (pp. 55-57)

Jesse: Let us rest for a few moments and feel how reason and passion moves within our body, our soul, our being.

Jesse: Now grab the book closest to you. Close your eyes and ask 'In what ways do I drink from the well of passion that provides the sails for my soul?' With your eyes still closed, open the book and place your finger on the page. Now, read the sentence that your finger is on. [Later, type this sentence, including author, title, and page number to send to the group]. See what message might be contained in this sentence to guide your question.

After sitting with your question and answer, go pick out a book where the cover, the spine, or something about its appearance captivates your attention.

Jesse: Close your eyes and ask the question 'As I walk the path of reason, in what ways does it provide the rudder to my soul?' Now, with your eyes still closed, open the book and place your finger upon a page. Read the sentence or look at the image that your finger is on. Contemplate what the message might be for your question. [You will also want to type this sentence up with citation to send to the group.] 

Again, after contemplation we come to the final question. Put your dominate hand on the book you chose for its cover, put you non-dominant hand on the book your chose for its proximity. Now, with your eyes closed ask the question, How might reason and passion, acting as rudder and sails for my soul, come together in my quest to discover prosperity, in the way I most need prosperity in this moment, in order to live a life that is fulfilling?' With each hand open the book it is resting upon and place a finger from each hand on the page. These two sentences provide guidance to your question. [And, number this as question #3 and write each sentence with citation, page number being most important].

Give yourself time to feel the guidance, to see what meaning might be made from the answers.

For our Ending: 

Provide the sentence for each question labeled with question number, providing citation (I am most concerned with page number). I would love these by end of day Saturday as I will do something with them for the co-created ending for our group. And, hopefully, in this way both Bonnie and James can do this exercise and respond also.

I hope that this gives you some insight or at least was fun.

Jesse

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  • Here are our three group revelations.

    #3 "How might reason and passion, acting as rudder and sails for my soul, come together in my quest to discover prosperity, in the way I most need prosperity in this moment, in order to live a life that is fulfilling?" is written to be read a multiple of ways. 1) call and response. 1st column is dominant and 2nd is non-dominant. read 1st item in column 1 the read 1st item in column 2 as response and work your way down. 2) read down column one and then down column two; 3) read up from bottom of column 2, then after reaching top of 2 go to bottom of 1 and read up; 4) read column 2 as call and column 1 as response. 


    Basically, you are reading this in multiple ways until you reach an "ah, ha,' or "oh, shite" moment. That is when you will know that is the way you need to read it for your further clarification. You are the interpreter. 

    Group Revelation #1.pdf

    Group Revelation #2.pdf

    Group Revelation #3.pdf

    https://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/9142837253?profile=original
    • Jesse, I have just now opened your Group Revelation compilations of our incredible synergy and guidance from your beautiful exercise. Especially the PDF # 2 "As I walk the path of reason, in what ways does it provide the rudder to my soul? " reading of our psyche's responses has given me some guidance and put a smile on my face.

      Thank you for putting this offering out to our group. It is an elegant and dynamic deep psyche experience.
      I wonder if we may want to all read them again at some point, and speak to current a-ha 's and our furtherings of Soul and depth work in the world?

      I also wonder if you would give me permission to provide this exercise, or a part of it, to the small depth psychology book group here in Sonoma County that has been meeting almost 4 years now?

      We are stuck in the Red Book and really need some experiental work with psyche and integrating some of our depth gnosis with praxis - we are not reading at the moment and want to launch a new mode for inquiry.

      Thank you again, Julie

      I

  • #1 - Nevertheless, he insisted on the need to distinguish between “transcendent” questions, which are better left to religion and metaphysics, and questions about organization and structure of the universe” McGrath - Science and Religion, p. 148

    #2 - Jung’s explanation was that ‘the inferior function’ is always associated with an archaic personality within ourselves. Frank McLyn, -  C.G. Jung (bio) p. 264

     

    #3 – Non-Dominant Hand - It is generally considered that Buddhism offers a particularly constructive relationship with the natural sciences – McGrath p. 140

    Dominant Hand - Freudian psychology was always under heavy suspicion from the 3rd Reich, both  because it was a Jewish science and because, unintelligently read, it seemed to postulate a theory of the unconscious at odds with Nietzschean morality of strenuousness. McLyn - 367

  • Thanks for this, Jesse. What a beautiful intermission in my day to attend to language, image and ritual.

    1. “Before their travels, they would sleep and dream the adventures and episodes of the following day.” —Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime, by Robert Lawlor, pp. 14-15

     

    2. Image of Egyptian god Ani

    Caption: Fig. 11.1 Ani carries a sail, the hieroglyph for air, which he hopes to breathe in the Underworld. Papyrus of Ani.  Eighteenth Dynasty.

    Refers to how Egyptians believed that breathing the divine air is to be reborn into the spirit world. Many chapters in the Book of the Dead are concerned with ensuring that the traveller has air to breathe. —Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred by Jeremy Naydler, p. 238

     

    3-Dominant hand: Image of the Nile god kneeling

    Caption: Fig. 7.11. The Nile god kneels in his netherworld shrine. Temple of Isis, Philae.

    Refers to how ancient Egyptians coaxed the annual flooding of the Nile with sacrifices and royal edicts so fertility of the land could continue. Yet in modern times, the Western mind has bulldozed the nature sprits away, thinking we can control the river with technological means

    —Temple of the Cosmos: The Ancient Egyptian Experience of the Sacred by Jeremy Naydler, p. 168

    NON-dominant hand:  “It is not my intention to use Aboriginal myths to support yet another unconventional theory of prehistory; rather, I wish to stimulate new thought about history in general.” —Voices of the First Day: Awakening in the Aboriginal Dreamtime, by Robert Lawlor, pp. 127

     

     

  • Hi Jesse,

    The response to your questions are as follows:

    1.  You have absolutely nothing to give up. (Adams, Silence of the Heart, 119)

    2.  Nothing is so strange in this world as the sun. (Barks, Rumi-the book of love, 114)

    3. L (non-dominant)- When you have a dream, where does the dream come from? (Adams, 199, ps I typed 119 and went back to change   it to the right page number.)

        R - I throw it all away, except this love for Shams. (Rumi, 50)

    I look forward to your insights:) Thanks for sharing this. Pam

  • 1) In what ways do I drink from the well of passion that provides the sails for my soul? 

    So she prepares a Macbeth-like charm to bring back her lover:

    Juice from a cactus, eye of baifo

    tail of a lizard, a splash of rum

    three prayers spoken to Santa Marta

    so she will grace it as well and done.

    from: Robert Ferris Thompson TANGO: The Art History of Love   Page 120

    2) As I walk the path of reason, in what ways does it provide the rudder to my soul?

    "I decided henceforth to enchant her myself and subject her to my power. Serpents are wise, and I wanted my serpent soul to communicate her wisdom to me.  Never before had life been so doubtful, a night of aimless tension, being one in being directed against one another. So I approached the serpent that lay in the sun, as if she were unthinking.  Her eyes were not visible, since they blinked in the shimmering sunshine, and I spoke to her.  "How will it be, now that God and the devil have become one?"  CG Jung, The Red Book  A Reader's Edition.  Page 418

     

    3) How might reason and passion, acting as rudder and sails for my soul, come together in my quest to discover prosperity, in the way I most need prosperity in this moment, in order to live a life that is fulfilling?

    Left Hand, Non-dominant:

    The Stoics cautioned us to keep our philosophical precepts few and simple, as we might have to refer to them at a moment's notice.  --David Mamet, "Hearing the Notes That Aren't Played"  (The New York July 15th, 2002)  Tango: The Art History of Love  Page 194

    Right hand, Dominant:

    I found sometimes, that it is of great help in handling such a case, to encourage them, to express their peculiar contents either in the form of writing or of drawing and painting.  Jung, in Red Book Reader's Edition. Page 77

    My cat ate the tail of a lizard the morning of the exercise.  I have never seen him capture a lizard.  The day before, I had a Leon Russell song in my head "I put a spell on you"...  Hadn't thought of this song in decades!

  • 1) In what ways do I drink from the well of passion that provides the sails for my soul?

    "Someone can intentionally send emotional poison, and if you don't take it personally, you will not eat it." (Ruiz, D. M., 1997, The Four Agreements p. 59)

    2) As I walk the path of reason, in what ways does it provide the rudder to my soul?

    "No two of us have identical difficulties, nor should we be expected to work out identical solutions." (William James as quoted in Casement, A. & Tacey, D., 2006, The Idea of the Numinous: Contemporary Jungian and Psychoanalytic Perspectives., p. 16). 

    3) How might reason and passion, acting as rudder and sails for my soul, come together in my quest to discover prosperity, in the way I most need prosperity in this moment, in order to live a life that is fulfilling?

    "You will find that you suffered all of those years of drama for nothing" (p. 99 Ruiz)

    "As a child, Jung had a dream of an underground temple containing a giant ritual phallus, which he called 'a subterranean god not to be named', through which he believed himself to have been initiated into 'the secrets of the earth' " (p. 120 Casement & Tacey). 

    This will take some pondering! 

  • Hullo everyone

    I have been feeling uncomfortable about withdrawing and not sharing anything on this board yet.  (My 8 hour a day  contract has ended for now and I have a bit more time  - until another gig comes up) 

    I was also struck by the fact that the out-there action oriented energy that seemingly prompted my withdrawal, itself withdrew at the same time.  So coming up this exercise from Jesse today, I just had to do it.  (I'd love to know what you all did with it.) My experience had me laughing - that wry amazed laugh at the sheer wonder of it all. And probably well illustrates why my ambivalent actions demonstrate exactly where I am. 

    Q1: The well of passion that provides the sails for my soul -  “We learn to surrender the ego desires that isolate us so that we can dwell in the common rhythm of all that is and sing its praises without expectation.”  Spring Journal 71 – Orpheus page 122

    Q2: The path of reason – rudder to my soul - “then follows the chant celebrating how Horus rests in the arms of Osiris and the lunar god Thoth brings him his Eye, a sign that Seth’s ascendancy has come to an end, that the enemy who threatens this frontier region has been overcome.”    My Heart, my Mother: Death and Rebirth in Ancient Egypt. Alison Roberts. Pg 120

    Q 3
    (Dominant) My Heart, my Mother page 121 - "Life wakes green: reaching the heart"
    (non-dominant) Spring Journal pg 132 - "Orpheus is along for the ride, but as the contradictions mount up, he is losing track of where the journey is heading."

    What lovely stuff. Thank you Jesse.

    Are you still all meeting? 

    With thanks and warmest regards and wishes to still be in connection. 

    In soul, as always  Adele

    • Adele--so glad you took the time to do this exercise and share it here. Come back anytime. We're still meeting weekly. 

    • Adele,

      I am pleased to see you participating in this exercise! We are meeting Tuesday for training on Go To Meeting. Hopefully we might have a few minutes at check in to talk about any revelations that came from the exercise.

      See you soon!

      jess

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