Emerging from Darkness

“As a myth, the death-instinct is a counterpart to the Devil, the Devil, like the death-instinct, is the Spirit that continually negates. Both constructs point to something devoted to spoiling the quality of life. ” “…the human soul is divided against itself, as much, perhaps, in love with death as with life. Against all claims of reason, self-interest and morality stands the insidious lure of the death-instinct. Above and beyond politics and ideology, steeped in the hidden byways of our civilized way of life, is something else with which we have to reckon: the thanatos conspiracy. ” – — Michael Grosso, Philosopher, from his book The Final Choice This card is inspired by a dream I had earlier this morning. In the dream a person I know in the waking life, a person known to have many dark, neurotic qualities, is berating someone and attacking their sense of self-worth. I am in an upper story of the house where this is happening and I am filled with a desire to tell certain people about the sadistic behavior of this neurotic person. The urgency awakens me, but as my waking personality and awareness kick in I realize, in a figure-ground reversal [...]

“As a myth, the death-instinct is a counterpart to the Devil, the Devil, like the death-instinct, is the Spirit that continually negates. Both constructs point to something devoted to spoiling the quality of life. ” “…the human soul is divided against itself, as much, perhaps, in love with death as with life. Against all claims of reason, self-interest and morality stands the insidious lure of the death-instinct. Above and beyond politics and ideology, steeped in the hidden byways of our civilized way of life, is something else with which we have to reckon: the thanatos conspiracy. ” – — Michael Grosso, Philosopher, from his book The Final Choice This card is inspired by a dream I had earlier this morning. In the dream a person I know in the waking life, a person known to have many dark, neurotic qualities, is berating someone and attacking their sense of self-worth. I am in an upper story of the house where this is happening and I am filled with a desire to tell certain people about the sadistic behavior of this neurotic person. The urgency awakens me, but as my waking personality and awareness kick in I realize, in a figure-ground reversal [...]

“As a myth, the death-instinct is a counterpart to the Devil, the Devil, like the death-instinct, is the Spirit that continually negates. Both constructs point to something devoted to spoiling the quality of life. ” “…the human soul is divided against itself, as much, perhaps, in love with death as with life. Against all claims of reason, self-interest and morality stands the insidious lure of the death-instinct. Above and beyond politics and ideology, steeped in the hidden byways of our civilized way of life, is something else with which we have to reckon: the thanatos conspiracy. ” – — Michael Grosso, Philosopher, from his book The Final Choice This card is inspired by a dream I had earlier this morning. In the dream a person I know in the waking life, a person known to have many dark, neurotic qualities, is berating someone and attacking their sense of self-worth. I am in an upper story of the house where this is happening and I am filled with a desire to tell certain people about the sadistic behavior of this neurotic person. The urgency awakens me, but as my waking personality and awareness kick in I realize, in a figure-ground reversal [...]

There are times when the anguish and disorder of life seems to predominate in our awareness.  Life seems messy and unpleasant, there is the chill of a nameless dread, and we feel ourselves an inadequate, neglectful part of the messy unpleasantness, a flimsy plastic shopping bag overstuffed with worry and unlived life, ready to come apart at the seams.How can we live with such feelings? Begin by being aware of them from a place of neutral, mindful observation. Anxiety ebbs and flows, rises and falls, it has a lifecycle, and one practice is to observe the lifecycle, see when it is intensifying, when it is peaking, when it is withdrawing or becoming quiescent. Don’t fuse and confuse the anxiety with any particular trigger events that seem to bring it forward. Have you felt such a feeling before the present circumstance existed? Almost certainly you have and should, therefore, disentangle the question of anxiety with the worry de jour.The deepest source of the anxiety may be a sense of unlived life. Rollo May defined anxiety as, “Being asserting itself against non being.” Anxiety can be the spiritual version of pain and pain can be life-preserving. There are some people who suffer [...]

“Happiness does not depend on outward things, but on the way we see them.” – Tolstoy Turn that frown upside down! You may feel alone in a toxic wasteland, but don’t give in to despair. Studies show that pessimists out perform optimists in reality testing, but in every other way — health, wealth, life satisfaction, fulfilling relationships, etc. — optimists are better off. Choose optimism as a perceptual stance, despite what this troubled world seems like.

What is blocking your connection to the light? Usually there is some sort of negative inner script that frames life and/or yourself negatively. Negative frames are often just below the surface of consciousness and act as filters through which perceptions pass and are distorted. For example, “Life sucks and then you die. I never get my fair share. I can’t do anything right.” etc. These negative frames constrict life energy and operate as self-fulfilling prophecies. We can easily perpetuate the eclipse by regret, and feeling bad about feeling bad. Consider for a moment how many other human beings must be in similar straits right now. Pray for compassion and healing for yourself and others who are similarly afflicted. Remember that real change usually comes out of the dark night of the soul. Alchemically, one needs the descent into chaos to create new forms. As the Dylan lyric puts it, “He not busy being born is busy dying.” The eclipse comes when your soul feels like it is busy dying. Receiving this card means it is a propitious time to get busy being born. Resources for dealing with inner eclipse follow, but it is also possible that the eclipse is more [...]

Be wary of absorbing toxins of any kind. The positive aspect is that this is a propitious time to work on detoxification. “I can resist anything except temptation.” — Oscar Wilde Temptations are very, very tempting and that is probably why they are called temptations. It is foolish to underestimate their power. Before you reach for a temptation, ask yourself if you will remember this indulgence well on your deathbed. If you will, then you’d be a fool to pass it up. If you won’t, and you keep on reaching for it again and again and again, then you are on the path of a Ring Wraith, withering into a hungry ghost. There are many forces within us: appetites, compulsions, complexes, and sub-personalities, and all of them are reaching for the steering wheel. We each need to develop a strong central witness personality, one capable of observing and overseeing the process without becoming possessed by a compulsion, appetite, or inferior sub-personality. You are surrounded by black magicians — advertisers, acquaintances, and possibly unseen entities, who tempt you from within and without toward a toxic fate. But you are not just a passive recipient of temptations, you may also be a [...]

“Murmur at nothing: if our ills are reparable, it is ungrateful; if remediless, it is vain.” Shakespeare “Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood or appreciated.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson “What poison is to food, self-pity is to life.” — Oliver C. Wilson “Self-pity is a death that has no resurrection, a sinkhole from which no rescuing hand can drag you because you have chosen to sink.” — Elizabeth Elliot “A man’s as miserable as he thinks he is.” — Marcus Annaeus Seneca,ca. 54 BC‚Äì ca. 39 AD, a Roman rhetorician and writer “Do not weep; do not wax indignant. Understand.” — Baruch Spinoza “To understand the world one must not be worrying about one’s self.” — Albert Einstein “Sometimes I go about in pity for myself, and all the while a great wind is bearing me across the sky.” — Ojibwa Saying Self-pity is one of the cheapest, most addictive and debilitating drugs available in the neuropharmacopeia of negative emotions. You don’t even have to walk down to the corner store; you can start free-basing self-pity while you are still under the covers. Self-pity is like a self-replenishing box of glazed donuts that is always placed conveniently [...]

Be wary of absorbing toxins of any kind. The positive aspect is that this is a propitious time to work on detoxification. “I can resist anything except temptation.” — Oscar Wilde Temptations are very, very tempting and that is probably why they are called temptations. It is foolish to underestimate their power. Before you reach for a temptation, ask yourself if you will remember this indulgence well on your deathbed. If you will, then you’d be a fool to pass it up. If you won’t, and you keep on reaching for it again and again and again, then you are on the path of a Ring Wraith, withering into a hungry ghost. There are many forces within us: appetites, compulsions, complexes, and sub-personalities, and all of them are reaching for the steering wheel. We each need to develop a strong central witness personality, one capable of observing and overseeing the process without becoming possessed by a compulsion, appetite, or inferior sub-personality. You are surrounded by black magicians — advertisers, acquaintances, and possibly unseen entities, who tempt you from within and without toward a toxic fate. But you are not just a passive recipient of temptations, you may also be a [...]

Don’t let the mundane get you down. The magical is always present as well.