Tagged with Archetypes

If you want to know what a dream shaman of the West would be like, consider Carl Jung, as he is now revealed in his Red Book, compiled from the journals he kept during the years of his "confrontation with the unconscious," when the "spirit of the depths" dragged him, night after night, through the terrifying stages of Underworld initiation. (more)

I've altered my state of consciousness many times, and listened to a lot of talk about "ego death" and reaching the higher self. But many of us who take psychedelics regularly are altered-state addicts, and the ego is actually a beautiful thing. (more)

At various times in our history, oracular, archetypal systems such as the Tarot, Astrology, the I Ching, and Norse Runes have emerged out of various cultures. Within the last forty years, the discovery of a different group of archetypes has emerged -- the nine archetypal character styles of the Enneagram.  (more)

We are all in the grip of a myth. We are all inhabiting an imaginative structure determined by the perspective and set of ideas we used to call a god. Proclus thought that myths are composed by the daimons and that the daimons shape our lives. (more)

Over the course of five days, eight astrologers gave over 150 readings. Having honed the "archetypal eye," we began to experience and process Burning Man in terms of the ten planetary archetypes. (more)

As we enter the Age of Aquarius it's tempting to declare the tyrant King dead, the age of the Guru finished, and the dawn of the people upon us. It's at this critical moment that we must understand that every cosmic age is engaged in a healthy conversation with its archetypal opposite. (more)

Consciousness is a continuous process of unfolding, punctuated by dislocations and reunions; the Osiris myth marks many of the key points in this evolution. Indeed, it is a priceless alchemical myth of existence given to us by nature and sculpted by humankind. (more)

As we shed light on wetiko, and become sensitive to its movements within ourselves, there is no place for the spirit to hide. The spirit of wetiko needs to be 'contained'; this is the archetypal point behind the sacred alchemical idea of a mystical vessel which transforms the entire universe. Part Three in a series. (more)

As we accelerate our transformation of collective consciousness, we attract more intense and significant relationships. How can we fulfill our soul agreements through appropriate relating rather than social conditioning? (more)

The psyche has a pre-eminent place in the natural order of things. The life of the psyche arises out of organic life, while at the same time transcending it through its own self-creation.  A product of cosmic evolution, the conscious psyche is a relatively recent emergence out of the womb of nature. (more)

The earth-shaking events of nine years ago can best be understood, I believe, by thinking of the US in terms of its unique psychological profile, and by distilling the tri-colored essence of the American mindset. (more)

There was a method to Jung's madness: active imagination. It, along with the transcendent function, are the two most important discoveries Jung made in the years leading up to World War One. They describe a method of consciously entering into a dialogue with the unconscious to trigger a vital shift in consciousness, brought about through the union of the conscious and unconscious minds.  (more)

Sleep paralysis visions are a normal, healthy part of life for thousands of psychics, shamans, and explorers of the deep mind. Like lucid dreams and psychedelic encounters, these visions present gifts and opportunities, once you get used to all the existential horror, spontaneous kundalini blasts and first chakra freak-fests. (more)

To deny or distrust our own perceptions is to reject our authority as author of our own experience. It takes courage to stand for our experience when our perceptions are not validated by others. In not disassociating from our experience, we are on our way to becoming autonomous individuals.

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Far from a thing of the past or an ignorant superstition, demonic possession and evil spells, in our technologically developed society, are an increasing danger. C. G. Jung has given us modern terms for these very real states, uriging us to make exorcizing ourselves "the most vital task of civilization." (more)

When the alchemists had a living experience of God through their relationship with the imaginatively created philosophers' stone, they realized that the whole experience was nothing other than an experience of the divine imagination, which is to say that they were realizing that they themselves were living inspirations of the divine, creative imagination itself. (more)

Since the 1990s there's been much interest in a "masculine spirituality" that offers little more than a thinly veiled patriarchal spirituality. The mythopoetic, evangelical, and Catholic men's movements all promote it, in various forms. Can we envision a masculine spirituality that resists old, patriarchal tendencies? (more)

At the gateway to the Major Arcana stands the Magician. He is the bright, enduring presence on this journey of awakening that we, by virtue of our birth, have chosen to undertake. The Magician pulls the chain on the cosmic lamp switch, beaming the light of pure awareness onto life. (more)

To the alchemists, creating the philosophers' stone was analogous to waking up to the dreamlike nature of the universe. Becoming lucid in the waking dream is seen as a reflection of God's ongoing creation of and incarnation into the world. (more)

Synchronicities are expressions of the dreamlike nature of reality – moments in time when the timeless, dreamlike nature of the universe shines forth its radiance and openly reveals itself to us, offering an open doorway to lucidity. (more)

How was all of the "stuff" that went along with the study of magic first derived? I wanted to understand the nature of the gods and goddesses from books and esoteric lore that I had come to love and find a pantheon within my own life and experience. (more)

Prior to embracing the Mayan calendar, the author and art historian José Argüelles once espoused that a collective shift in consciousness would come in the form of a new archetypal language. The author and botanist Terence McKenna made similar connections. Is that language now in formation? (more)