All human beings must live out their assignments. Whether it is to be happy and contented or disturbed and restless, all aspects of life must be lived again and again until they are done. Themes repeat, issues arise repeatedly, and this is so they may be squarely faced and addressed, and so that one can overcome them and move on. Pay attention to that which appears to show you what must be dealt with if you are to achieve your highest goals, desires, and potential. Let yourself in on the secret that you planned this life with purpose in mind, with the intention of challenging yourself to grow and evolve. Live your life knowing this to be true. Remain aware of life as a profound journey to inner insight, wisdom of all that you are, and amazement at all that surrounds, supports, and protects you as you travel through life. And remember, you are loved. Journey on!
Let love guide you through thick and thin, through your experiences now and as you relive and remember your past. Let love guide you so that your decisions and your remembrances may carry you forward always to new visions, new perspectives, and new life. With love comes the ability to perceive anew and evolve beyond the areas that have captivated you. With love comes greater awareness. With love comes the ability to evolve beyond that which is normal and enticing to that which is greater and all-encompassing. With love comes the natural ability to perceive and be all-that-is. And all-that-is is what you seek, wholeness and beingness with the love that surrounds you.
Stay grounded in knowing that you are well prepared for this journey, that you have been expecting this moment for a long time, and that this is just the unfolding of your life already lived. As you relive it now check on what you missed the first time. Notice the intensities and the disappointments, the highs and the lows, the joys and the pains, and remember it all well, for this is the last time you will relive it. Now, as you move on into the next phase of your unfolding already-lived life, know that you are ready for that too. It’s all about getting what you didn’t get the first time and calmly accepting all that once was and all that currently is, including yourself in the great scheme of it all, living your life. And remember the most important thing of all, that you survived everything, that you actually made it through to a successful outcome, in whatever form that took. Now that is something to look forward to!
Everything is pushing toward change now. What are you doing in your own life to change yourself? What are you resisting? What are you still making a big deal about that doesn’t really matter? What are you holding onto as if you could not live without it? Is it time to finally move on, to change? Like the phases of the moon things naturally wax and wane. When the moon is full it releases its fullness immediately to begin a new cycle. Nothing in nature stays the same for very long. Everything changes constantly, except the human, with its proclivity to be stubbornly unyielding. Such behavior proves nothing. And in the end the human is left behind wondering what happened. Embrace change. Make it a natural part of your life and then be like the moon and do it again and again. You won’t be disappointed. Begin a new phase in your own life today and mark it with thanks to the great Moon Goddess who shines upon you, lighting the way.
In contemplative silence we build our well… – Photo by Jan Ketchel
What does it mean when you simply can’t get it out of your head? It might be a thought, a desire, a hunger, a person, an object, or an incident.
The energetic charge of our fixations is experienced as strong emotion and mental perseveration. This is the fire of an activated archetype outwardly projected and inwardly fixated. Some deep need is stirring and we are drawn involuntarily to its projection, the flame of our fixation.
Projection is automatic, that is, unconscious. We don’t choose to project, it happens to us. We are not at fault, for instance, if we are attracted to the wrong person. Attraction happens. Nature is ruthless in pursuit of its aims, in this case, blindly bringing a couple together for union.
Caught in the flame of desire the ego is overwhelmed. The intensity of the energetic charge may at once be both threatening and exciting. After all, archetypes transcend our civilized exterior; they reach down to the primordial core of our being and flood us with bursts of living energy. How do we keep ourselves afloat in such a precarious state?
In the hexagram of The Well, the I Ching makes clear that we all need to partake of the living water that lies beneath the surface of the Earth. The well is the human connection to that living energy below. Humans must build the well. Psychically, the ego is the well. As humans we are charged with building and managing our relationship with our archetypal core, what Jung called the collective unconscious.
In the case of fixation, the ego builds its well through its response to archetypal activation. A hasty reaction may be equivalent to jumping in the well and drowning! An overly suppressive reaction may refuse the bucket that brings up the living water from below.
Often the ego lends its mental manipulative powers, such as through rationalization, to further the aim of the archetype while naively assuming it is doing ‘the right thing’. Only deeply contemplative innertruth will reveal the right action called for.
Often the ego protects itself from rejection and defeat through rationalization turned against the self in some cognitive permutation of unworthiness. Perhaps this is a necessary defense, as the ego hones its ability to regulate the impact of archetypal energy.
We too easily forget that the ego, with its consciousness, is a very recent acquisition for humankind. Before its arrival we shared, with all other animals, life completely directed by archetypes, with no conscious choice available. No wonder we are so flustered when an archetype is activated. How fragile our conscious footing amidst such intensively charged directives!
The ego can choose to bear the tension of the archetype. In recovery programs guidance is given to examine people, places, and things. In early recovery, particularly, the archetypal energetic power of the desired object is respected by avoiding known associations to it. Further, one turns to a trusted sponsor, the program, or a higher power to strengthen one’s resolve to bear the tension vs succumb to habitual addiction.
Spiritual traditions all stress restraint, sacrifice, and detachment as the technology to manage archetypal fixation. Unfortunately, this technology, valuable as it is, does not address the need to fully partake in our humanness while in human form. Yes, we are spirit beings, but we are spirit beings in human bodies with deep archetypal roots in this Earth. We must build our wells to draw our nurturance from that underground river of living energy.
If we can’t bear the tension and either jump into the well or refuse the call we needn’t judge ourselves negatively. All experience accrues, adding to eventual ego enlightenment. When we are ready, when the ego has been sufficiently moulded to be in the truth, we can align our intent with that of the heart, our personal conduit to our higher spirit.
From this place of heart centeredness we know the truth and allow ourselves to be in the Tao. Being in the Tao means knowing that our lives are unfolding to express and fulfill all that we are and that projections are stirrings to find outlets for that fulfillment. However, often projections are simply reflections, not what is actually needed. The heart, in its quiet calm, will tell us the truth.
Aligning with this truth we have the certainty that life will bring to us the real deal. And with that we will be led to draw the water from our living well, our fixations realized in their highest form.
