The old stories about the persecution of the Jews and other minorities in the Nazi Germany have always spooked and freaked me out. And the worse still it became when I realized that I myself am a Pagan and a Witch and reaed about the terrible things done by the Inquisition and the Burning Times. They really make me scared and given nightmares.
And the terrible thing isn´t even over and done with and dead yet. The Christian fundamentalists evidently aren´t satisfied with the history, but are just burning to repeat the old atrocities all over again. I must say, that I am very worried, and not the least scared. In the same time there are ever more and more Pagans and they are getting the more and more positive press coveradge, in the main. More and more Pagans are not afaid to come out from the broom closet. I am afraid that there seems to be coming an open confrontation of a sort or another, and this process seems to me be headeng toward the great culmination.
I hope with all the mighty of my heart that the humankind would learn from it´s own past. But I am afraid it is not going to...
Sorry for the gloominess of this blog. It is just that these things just keep coming into my mind today, and I cannot help it or ignore them. On well, this just is one of those days, it seems...
I read today a really entertaining book by E. T. A. Hoffmann. I do not know the English translated title of it, but the original German name is "Der goldne Topf - Ein Märchen aus der neuen Zeit". Maybe in English it could be something like "The golden bowl - A fairy-tale from a new age".
This story really IS a fairy-tale literally. It tells about probably German male student of about the end of the 18th century. He is drawn by the fairy world, which gradually reveals more and more about it to him. He meets evil spirits and an evil (sic) witch, elementals and fairies. The fairy world is said to be of the ancient Atlantis (of course).
But this fairy-tale is not anything like modern D&D adventures or Sword&Sorcery. It is like those old German fairy-tales collected and told by the brothers Grimm, but in the rational and relatively modern setting and world. It is a kind of surrealistic or fantasy story. It is a lovely tale and very fascinating.
It is also a lover story and about the strength of true love and loyalty and the strength of the spirit of all beings and the value of innocent child-like mind and wonder and sensitivity to the hidden powers of the Nature. It is also a little philosophical. And the motifs of this story are typically archetypal in the Jungian sense. The author is said to have influenced Dr. Jung.
The fairy love of the hero, Anselmus, is a serpent fairy called Serpentina.
And the valued prize, beside the lovely fairy, is the golden bowl. Which reminds me remarkably about the Holy Grail. And THAT has so many references and meanings... It is interesting that in this story there appear both the evil witch with her demonic cauldron and the golden bowl of the fairy world, or of a good wizard. I would say, two opposing aspects manifested of the the same archetype.
Maybe this tale is a little like "The Golden Ass" of Apuleius. Not in the surface, but there seem to appear the same archetypal and mythological themes and motifs. I do not know for sure about this, but I have to think more about this.
Saturday, July 14, 2007, 11:30 AM EET [Psychology]
I just love pictures, the more intereesting, beautiful and fascinating, the better. I am a very visual person, I see things as images and visualize them, for example when reading a book or thinking about mythological tales. I like very much to visualize things when meditating. Probably that is why I am so fascinated by the symbolism, especially the Jungian and Pagan. The pictures and images are so rich with meanings and tell you more things and subtleties than mere words ever could. And so I love to post pictures, be it on a blog, comment or e-mails to you. I wish you like them too.
Is not this picture beautiful? What does it bring into your minds? What does it mean to you? Images are so fascinating because they appeal to our unconsciousness. They remind us of important things, tell stories full of energy and meaning. They awaken our imagination and creativity, the unconscious vital and mystical Forces deep within our human being, the Self, the Spirit.
These are some examples of the Mandala symbolic image:
The Mandala represents the Self, the Inner Divinity, the Unity of the opposites. This is the most important journey, the inner journey, the individuation, the becoming the whole Self, the actualizaton of our inner potentials. Probably that is a reason why all the cultures everywhere and in all the times have made up these powerful images and why these images have become sacred and appeal us so strongly. The Mandala form, the squares which represent the Wholeness, and the circle emcompassing all, are considered to be protective too. The circle is the inner goal, our inner being, the inner sanctuary, the most important thing in all the life. The Mandala image represents all this.
The Mandala just above has some very familiar symbols, has it not? They all have inherent meaning and energy to our unconsciousness. That is why we are still using them, even in our rituals and ceremonies, and why they still work for us. These images and symbols are alive, they represent living arhetypal forces both in our inner collective unconscious and the Nature and the Universe.
This Lotus Mandala is very beautiful, is it not? I love this image the best. It is so whole, so peaceful.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007, 01:43 PM EET [Psychology]
I have currently reading a very interesting book by Doctor Carl Gustav Jung titled "The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious". It explains about the symbols and images found in the dreams, visions, paintings, writings and myths. These mythical and archetypal images are the personifications of our own inner unconscious potentials and forces. This is so interesting because the Jungian psychology can be well applied to the Neopagan philosophy, for example the Wicca. An author named Vivianne Crowley has studied and applied the Jungian psychology to the Wicca. She has written about it for example in her book "Principles of Jungian Spirituality". Unfortunately I have not yet been able to get that book to read.
The archetypes live their life in the many myths and mythological personifications, for example the Triple Deities and the life-cycle of the Sun God. In my opinion that is the reason why I am so much interested in the many myths, their appeal to my unsconscious arhetypes. The archetypes are the personifications of the Universal and Elemental Forces both in the Nature and inside us.
The most important thing in the many Neopagan philosophies is to get to know oneself as well as possible, the self-actualization. The same is in the Jungian psychology, the most important thing for a person is to become a whole Self through an individuation process. This means that a person gets in his/her disposal all his/her inner potentials. The Jungian Self may well be equated with the Inner Divinity, the gnostic True Will. The Self is a unity of all opposites, for example the Feminenity and the Masculinity. A very dramatic and fascinating metaphore for this is the union of the Goddess and God in the Great Rite. And the "Drawing down the Moon" and the "Drawing down the Sun" calls for the Goddess and God to become us, in the Jungian language it calls for our Self, the Inner Divinity, to manifest Itself. The Self is the Spirit, the Soul. "As above, so below" is an old and wise gnostic phrase.
The very important archetypes are the "anima" and "animus". The anima is the feminine side of a man and the animus a masculine side of a woman. They act as a bridge between the unconscious Self and the ordinary conscious ego. They are a messenger, an angel, "angelus", from the Divine Self to the consciousness. It is very important to assimilate the anima or animus to the ego-consciousness, to become whole. But these personifications are tricky, they are very apt to be projected into appropriate real persons. It means that a man very often sees his own femininety in certain women, and a woman her animus in men. This causes often problems in the relationships with the opposite sex. But as always is the case with the archetypes, they have both the good and bad side. And as always, there much to be gained by recognizing and assimilating the arhetype to the ego, may it at first seem as unfamiliar and strange and opposite as ever.
But to gain the advantage of the help of tha anima or animus, a person must first confront his or her Shadow, the dark and repressed side of the personality. The shadow corresponds to the Freud´s subconscious, the negative and unpleasant repressed traits of the personality. Usually the Shadow manifests itself as a human being of the same sex as the person. But I think that the many folk-tale monsters such as vampires and werewolves and such horrific beasts may very well represent the Shadow aspect in the human beings. In my opinion the Sith Lords of the Star Wars represent very well the Shadow. "Join the Dark Side." As there is the Light and the Dark Side of the Force, so there is also a light and a dark side of the personality. The Jedi may be said to represent the ego-consciousness or sometimes the Hero-archetype. But in order to become whole, one just has to recognize and accept and assimilate the Shadow into the ego-consciousness. This means to be psychologically healthy. Because the repressed things may often cause neuroses. Or more often and usually, the Shadow is projected into our neighbours as all the negative and bad things in humans in our mind. Jung argued that the Shadow-projection causes all kinds of prejudices and fights and strifes and even wars with whomever we deem our enemies, because it´s oh so very much easier to see in others the traits which really are inside and part of us.
I am quite fascinated by the animus-archetype, the masculine side of myself. But Jung being quite a sovinist he did not write much about this, he only refers to a book by Emma Jung titled "On the Nature of the Animus". Unfortunately I haven´t been able to get this book either, at least not yet. Not unexpectedly the anima fascinates many romantic poets, and I may say that the animus appears as a very popular dream lover and lover in the romantic women novels.
There are still many more interesting archetypal symbols and aspects to study and much to learn about and apply in the Jungian psychology. For example the symbols and images of the Tarot cards and the old alchemists and the Qabala, and of course the astrology.
And what about the homo- and bisexual? How are these archetypes to be interpreted and apply to their psychology? Jung being so old-fashioned did not say hardly anything about this.
Oh, well, here I am again for the long last. Well, I am not quite sure how this blog posting really works in this "Publish To" thing, so I am sorry if I mess this up, I hope you don´t mind this.
Well, finally the summer has really come here in Finland, too, I have noticed. The rowan trees has already blossomed but not so much as in the last couple of years, I fear there won´t be so many rowan berries this year. But I have always connected the really lovely and beautiful rowan blossoms to the June and Litha. There is a really lovely Russian song about the Uralian Rowan which says something like that the rowan blossoming is like a summer bride in her lovely white veil.
It has been really warm and sunny for the couple of weeks, but now it is raining and cloudy and not quite so warm. But the the nature is still into it´s full bloom and very verdant and green and all the birds and animals are ever so busy. I just love the bird song, very often I shut my radio down and just listen to the busy bird chirping.
