“But the right way to wholeness is made up, unfortunately, of fateful detours and wrong turnings. It is a “longissima via”, not straight but snakelike, a path that unites the opposites in the manner of the guiding caduceus, a path whose labyrinthine twists and turns are not lacking in terrors…
…It is on this “longissima via” that we meet with those experiences which are said to be “inaccessible”. Their inaccessibility really consists in the fact that they cost us an enormous amount of of effort: they demand the very thing we most fear, namely the “wholeness” which we talk about so glibly and which lends itself to endless theorizing, though in actual life we give it the widest possible birth.”
From…C.G. Jung. Psychology and Alchemy. Part I: Introduction to the Religious and Psychological Problems of Alchemy. Page 6, Paragraph 6.
Thanks for the reminder about this quote to Bonnie.
Replies
Thank you so much for all your responses to the dream. This is the first time I've got involved in an on-line discussion group, and I'm not really keeping up with the amount of material winging in on different aspects of the Tree of Life. Just to touch on some of the things you said: Rex, that's an interesting point about old age letting us off the hook, as if we think by retiring from work we can somehow also retire from life and the responsibility for deepening it. I imagine, if we accept the task, the deepening goes on until death, and who knows, probably beyond. And yes, I understood the young man to be Mercury/Hermes.
Eva, you wonder where the gods might lead - these many years later I am involved in painting a series of nine large panels, "The Feast of the Gods," a magnum opus if ever there was one - it has taken me nine years thus far and I'm still at it; it plunged me straight into the archetypal world, and it has been quite a task keeping on track.
Lyn, I was intrigued by the book you mention and the idea that energies run parallel when the body is exhausted. That sort of fits with the situation I was in at the time. I'll try to follow that lead you gave.
Linda, your stream of images is much like the flow of energies I experienced today in a session with a cranio-sacral practitioner - what a teacher and powerhouse the body can be.
Thanks to you all,
Belinda
Thank you for this, Belinda, Rex and Linda,
Belinda, your "Feast of the Gods" sound like an incredible undertaking as you mention, orchestrated by the gods. The Big dreams take much time to complete.
The subject of aging is also a fascinating topic as it seems for many to be the most creative time as the wisdom of the years gathers together...more on this.
Linda, Thank you for your words...so gratifying and for your rich sharing of material..
Speaking of the information winging in on the Tree of Life, please feel free to respond, ask questions or continue to pose the thoughts, images and music as it arises in you.
Remember; the tree, for us is a tool for meditation and discovery.
With deep gratitude to you all,
Eva
Good afternoon All - Eva your schema of the "Tree of Life" was posted on the community home page + generating some interesting conversations...in particulate, me [outlook email address] and others with [outlaw psych email address...just noticing the difference between looking from the outside in and inside out and anywhere else inbetween "the worlds" we exist in...sharing the last email comment there as I refer to this small group experience...
Alexsandar…June 3, 2015 - Pictorial Treasures Across the Ages of Interest for Studies Into Depth:
Gist of Introduction to readers of Signs, Signets + Symbols:
”Self- expression…one of man’s most persistent attributes…studied in detail by anthropologists,
psychologists and historians…to trace man’s evolution as an artist + designer through the use of signs, seals and symbols he has left in his record…Many were destroyed post-war…the lost heraldic signs + devices in Austria, Hungary, Poland and West Prussia; religious and ecclesiastical symbols of Eastern churches in Bulgaria, Rumania, Bessarabia and the Ukraine; Hebrew cabala; signs + symbols of the Huns, Avars, Tartars, Mameluks, Saracens and other early invaders of Europe who superimposed their own rites, superstitions, rubics and sigils on the people “indigenous” to the lands they conquered…Ernest Lehner [1950, vii].
As this text has 1350 illustrations from across the times, around the globe…is there something you are particularly interested that I could scan for you from this text that might satisfy the hard science[s] of your mind?
I notice you are not registered for the group, however, interested in dialogue about contents discussed within the group…a member of “outlaw psych” on the outside…wanting to be on the inside scope, without belonging to the small group…a kind-of, contemporary 1970’s Johnathon Livingston Seagull, your are to me …Peace + Love Linda
Good morning all - so beautifully shared + received...this morning my eyes are all welled up in what feels like a deep well or river of cleansing tears of joy at how blessed we all are to have Eva + Bonnie lead us in this micro-cosmic, feels like sacred + holding, healing virtual space...I so agree with your comment about "the amount of material winging in on different aspects of the Tree of Life" ...and the song "Pocket full of Sunshine" enters my heart and soul...full throttle into a very deep...still point different but familiar...once agains so grateful and humbled...in the dance between the vortices...this time round with friends....in here...path to wholeness...and...klemens post too this am in the blog "The Devils in the details"...so many of his words...deep, heart-felt and contemplative on his part ...SYNCHRONICITY...I want to go back in there...to connect with him...send my heart-felt good vibrations with him too....we are all bringing our great works together into this melting pot...mystical soup and a song comes back to little me to share with you all......
Peace + Love Linda
Thanks for sharing your dream. As I read your dream what came to mind is a book called Energy Medicine Yoga. The author says that every part of our body contains crossover patterns, like DNA and left-right brain controlling opposite sides of body. When body gets tired, depressed, rundown, crossover patterns shift and energies run parallel to each other rather than natural cross over. She says it is a message to the body to rest but that bodies can get stuck in this pattern. Many of the practices in the book help energies cross over from one side of body to the other. In contrast, meridians run parallel and meridian strengthening and sedating practices involve holding points on the same side of the body rather than points on opposites side of body.
Good afternoon Rex - thank you for sharing yours too and engaging in wonderful conversations. One of our DPA members >80 years old - announced his recent marriage. Aging is changing...different now...seniors are sustaining their sensuousness and sexually engaging in intercourse/flow on many levels these days....Things have changed since Freud, Jung and Masters + Johnson...
Ho lovely it is that we can share so with each other. Peace + Love Linda
Hello everyone,
Thank you for the first ‘Tree of Life’ video, Bonnie and Eva, this is wonderful material. I do appreciate all the contributions, and was thrilled to be taken back to the extraordinary Anselm Kiefer, whose exhibition in London I saw last year. To stand in the presence of some of those gigantic canvases was to be caught up in another place altogether, a place of hypnotising power and presence.
The quotation from Jung hits the nail on the head for me, and inspires me to send you a dream, of many years ago. I have been thinking of it a lot since the first webinar, in connection with Hermes’ caduceus. The dream:
“I am in our actual house in Winchester, England (I rarely dream of actual settings). The doorbell rings and I open the door. There is a young-ish man coming down the path and he asks for me. I pretend to be someone else, an old hag of a woman, so that he won’t recognise me. He heads back up the path, but turns suddenly, saying: “You shouldn’t have done that, Mrs. Hunt.” He then flings down two twisted staffs on the grass slope to the left of the door, and leaves. I feel deeply guilty.”
On waking, the sense of guilt and missed opportunity is with me still, and I associate the two staffs with the two parts of the caduceus. I feel I must make amends. In imagination I replay the scene, this time inviting the figure into the hallway. He strides in, ignoring me, clearly angry. He is dressed in a cloak and leggings. He marches straight through the house into the garden, and I follow. He takes up position it the southern section of the garden, on the lawn, and I stand facing him. I offer my hands, palms up. He plunges the two staffs into the ground, with the snake-like heads resting flat on my palms. Energy from the earth is channelled up through the earth via the staffs, through my hands, through my body, back into earth again. An energetic circuit had been established.”
In connection with the Tree of Life, and the zig-zag path – I notice in the dream the two streams do not cross, but become one in the torso, and two again as they enter the earth through legs and feet.
If anyone is interested to comment, I would appreciate it.
Regards to you all,
Belinda
Thank you for sharing this exquisite dream and the subsequent active imagination..It sounds as though you were visited my Hermes and invited to engage and you did respond to the call. What an amazing dream! It has the ring of a "Big Dream as it is archetypal and carries the numinous, a beckoning from the gods which so perfectly describes this dream and the vision. I wonder where it will lead you now that the circuits have been opened!
I appreciate your description of you experience with Anselm Kiefer's incredible canvses. I love your description as I felt that sense of standing in the presence of the sacred; "indeed of hypnotizing power and presence". It was mesmerizing indeed and hard to walk away from.
More later...the 2 streams and the zigzag patterns we spoke of are working on you...What a blessing!
Good afternoon Belinda - thanks for sharing the revisiting of your dream and these are your words that resonate with me...into the ground...heads resting on palms...energy from earth is channelled up through the earth...through my hands...through my body, back into...an energetic circuit has been established...notice the two streams do not cross but become one in the torso, and two again as they enter the earth through legs and feet...
I reflect upon learnings...meridians, chakras, lymphatic drainage points...receiving/giving..."wholistic" minded body therapists + grounded body workers... hands holding heads [cranium [10 pounds pressure supported off spinal atlas] - assessing the crania-sacral rhythm [< 10 beats per minute]. Collaborative clearing/working, meditating, helping with grounding, energy blocks...towards the mending, blending, creating balms...use of colour, shapes + forms - all towards improvement of energetic healing, balance + flow. Skilled body workers performing cranio-sacral therapy [CST]...moves...[Upledger/Milne, plus many others varied techniques.
Some body workers use spiritual connections in their laying of hands [non-locality prayers [gods/God/Christ] other utilize spirit guides [Silvan, Reiki].
Cool observation "in the dream the two streams do not cross [right + left sides[, but become one in the torso [bottom, sacrum] grounding using earth energy... moving feet > upward and out with use of much creative imagination envisioning interiorly while clearing, mending + healing splits, spaces - techniques used in many therapies, practices.
CST, SRT, Yoga for Trauma - professional more acceptable now - helpful with injuries, trauma impact release + integration works.
typing this feels like a treatment!
Peace + Love Linda
-
1
-
2
of 2 Next