Seek steadiness and maintain it in the flow of everyday life, neither too much nor too little of life’s most important and necessary nourishments of body and spirit, and, likewise, neither too much nor too little of that which is pleasant and pleasurable to body and spirit and often deemed unnecessary. In the flow of life all must be acceptable in some measure and yet beware the trappings of that which curtails the flow, of that which sidelines and takes from the energy of growth and stability. In other words, go with the flow but keep a steady eye always on the goal, to achieve fulfillment of your body and spirit journey this time around. With hand upon your heart, acknowledge that this is the true goal. Accept your place as a human being in the flow of all that is, body and spirit taking the same journey, and with gratitude and love go with the flow of this day too.
Become fully responsible, within and without. Become fully independent so that your needs and wants are not interfering with the greater good. Find your answers to your issues and problems within the self. As you turn inward become your own good mother and your own good father, wise, kind, and helpful so that you may then turn outward into the world a fully integrated being, with your energy honed and useful. With kindness and compassion in your heart, step out into the world an independent and worthy being. As you do your inner work and seek your wholeness remember that you are there for your own reasons, for your own growth and maturity, not in a selfish way, but in an evolutionary way. Discover the real truth about yourself by becoming fully responsible for yourself. Proceed on your journey with integrity, honesty, and love always in your heart. For above all else love matters the most, for self and other. Love, for the greater good.
Modern civilization values highly its rational ability to be in control of its animal self. But what happens if a seventeen-year-old teenager drinks too much and the desire body of his human animal self takes charge of his decision making ego and aggressively tries to rape a girl? Should he be held accountable for his behavior?
Most people would say yes. Some would blame alcohol excess, hormones, or the seductive impact of the girl. Few would simply dismiss the encounter.
Our civilization’s approach to reckoning with its animal self, with its powerful instinctual energies, is to expect its mental body, the ego, to keep its animal self in line. This is particularly emphasized at a level of society that values perfection as a major qualification to become, say, a Supreme Court Judge.
Civilization, as is now clearly being revealed in such highly regarded moral institutions as the United States presidency and the Catholic Church, has quite overinflatedly judged its prowess at containing the impulsive instinctual side of its animal self. Repression or suppression does not transform or raise an instinct to mental obedience, in fact, quite the contrary. The animal, tucked away in the shadows behind a squeaky clean persona, gains in energy and waits for its opportunity to pounce, a frequent occurrence at a college frat party.
As Robert Monroe, in energetic form, recently explained to Jan: “Always the sexual drive is dominant in men, and when present needs to be dealt with.”* Dealing with it in a blackout state is often highly traumatic to the recipient of its fury and can haunt a woman for a lifetime. Is there an alternative way for men to elevate their animal drive to human consideration?
Jung discovered mental programs that attempt to govern our animal impulses and contribute to our humanness, allowing us to rise beyond the nature of our primate relatives. Perhaps the most primary is the incest taboo, which is essentially universal, spanning all peoples on our globe. Though in many cases this innate taboo fails to control men’s sexual drive, it nonetheless has allowed for the stabilization of the family unit as a relatively safe building block for civilization.
Other innate archetypal programs that address the instinctual energies of adolescent males are the initiation/puberty rites of many ancient civilizations that, when properly enacted, result in a real transformation of the irresponsible/dependent child into a respectful mature adult. Modern civilization has either watered down these rituals to the point of meaninglessness or abandoned them altogether, with the result being a preponderance of uninitiated men, inadequate to safely channel their sexual drive.
Effective initiation in our time is largely a solo journey, as our civilization has largely locked the minotaur of its sexual self away in the labyrinth of the repressed unconscious, preferring to project its darkness on the evil other, who should be removed from our borders. This of course allows the real shadow to act out with impunity at the highest levels.
Perhaps the reinstitution of group puberty initiation rites will someday happen in some modern but meaningful form, but for this to happen society will first have to face the true status of men’s beleaguered sexual instinct and be willing to seriously address its need for transformation and integration into humanness. There are signs of this today in the consciousness raising effect generated by the Me Too movement with its takedown of exploitative men. But it cannot solve the transformative/maturity issue at the crux of the problem, to say nothing of the grey area of human sexual exploration that can hardly be deemed abusive.
Nonetheless, the transparency of Me Too is shining a needed light on the sexual shadow that leads to a more honest reckoning with the massive hidden acting out of men’s inadequately matured sexual instinct. Punishment, however appropriate, will not result in transformation.
Real human maturity requires the heart. Maturity below the heart stops at power and control; truthfully, right where we are now. To rise to the heart, we must advance beyond the compulsive entitlement of our narcissistic instinctual desires. In a country that now sets the standard for the world as me first, instinctual drives are unlikely to rise to the level of combining sexual drive with true human love and consideration for another. We just aren’t there yet.
Nonetheless, the rising feminine, be it in the Me Too movement or in political activism, is being mostly promulgated by the ultimate feminine herself, Gaia, Mother Earth, who is absolutely insisting that mankind take respectful care of her body and come together as an interdependent whole to face the real deficits in human maturity by rising to the true heart of the matter.
Don’t get so down on yourself. Acknowledge that your human self may do things that your spirit self has no interest in. It is the paradox of life in human form, the two sides of the self in constant struggle to align, to get in sync, to be one unified whole. Accept your human frailties and yet also fully accept your spirit capabilities and be okay with both. At the same time, address the struggle that is your current life and do get your two selves into alignment, human and spirit. For there is no greater challenge and no greater reward than the bringing together of who you truly are in your present life, the two that are the one great you!
Pay attention to the physical as much as you do the spiritual. Bring the two into alignment in your body, the house of now, where they yearn to reside together in peace and harmony, two halves of the whole you. When one gets too much attention, the other suffers. When one is made more important, the other feels neglected. When one is given too much, the other feels negated and unworthy. Call upon each of them, body and spirit, to acknowledge and help each other. Allow your heart to be their place of meeting and conversation, for from your heart love flows for both in equal measure. It is the connecting elixir that you need, the substance that really matters above all else. Love is the answer. Bring body and spirit together in the waves of your own loving heart, knowing that it really is okay to love yourself in this manner. In fact, what could be better than that!
