As you might have guessed from the last posts I find myself in a phase of confronting different collective archetypes. Whereas I once started this journey for personal liberation, that desire has long past. For what we are part of is quite a bit bigger than our personal lives and struggles, even though personal struggles are utterly real and meaningful if seen as a gateway towards inclusion.
To be completely honest, I’d rather not share this with you. They say that the difference between a fool and a wise man is that the wise man knows when to keep silent. I guess that makes me a fool. But so be it, because I don’t appear to have a choice in the matter.
What I am referring to is talking about Archetypes as if they are real beings, Gods, guiding forces that influence us all on both an individual and collective basis. The egoic perspective looks at the psyche as being in us, but it might just be that we are in Psyche.
This would mean that the belief in ourselves as self-controlling and separate entities, consciously deciding our next action in any waking moment, is inherently flawed. It neglects the bigger forces at play; the Archetypes, or rather Gods, that all have an important role to play in the bigger arc of humanity’s universal story. Maybe they’re not real, maybe they are just figments of psyche, but as we can only perceive the Universe through psyche, it’s probably best to take them seriously.
Richard Tarnas’ book The Passion of the Western Mind does a great job at explaining the collective human storyline and the consequences that each revolutionary shift had on our way of perceiving the Universe. But for this particular story, it is mainly the age of enlightenment that matters most. For it was that period, ironically, given the name, that put humanity on a pedestal, realizing itself to be the Summum Bonum, the highest order of intelligence in the Universe.
It was the Age of Reason, Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” among others, that drove us to see ourselves as the prime meaning makers in a now meaningless world. For it was then that the human mind truly took dominance and the age of the individual Ego began. With the scientific revolution and the rigid beliefs in notions like linearity and causality, soulmaking practices that made us realize to be part of a living and intelligent whole such as astrology and other divine rituals where quickly discarded. For their effectiveness could not be proven by newly invented rules.
Effectiveness. A theme that could well be the God of our time, for humanity’s future purpose seems clear: Endless progress as perceived from the Egoic view. An never-ending quest towards more of everything, Soul excluded. And for that, effectiveness is needed. For the Egoic view never has enough, seeing itself as the sole giver of meaning, it must continuously do more in this world. Gather more riches, become more successful, get more attention, become smarter, more effective. A tool that needs to be sharpened continuously, but only because identified with the ego as self.
And that while we believe humanity to be more advanced than ever. Especially in comparison to indigenous people who still live from the lands and pray to the Gods for guidance, or ancient cultures that lived in small communities helping each other through trust with no form of money in return. How happy these people would be with our lifestyle of constantly working to keep a roof above our heads. Or our addictive technological devices that keep us hooked through psychological methods such as fear-mongering news articles or envy-producing perfect life pictures of your ideal neighbours.
We appear to be at a crossroads. Slowly but surely, the effects of the old story of the egoic becomes clear. And the effects are not gentle. Through seeing ourselves as the highest intelligence in the Universe, we have neglected the Gods and suppressed the gateway to them: The unconsciousness. The Gods are dead in our waking reality, but more alive than ever in our unconscious one. We all know what happens when we suppress our unconscious pain, it becomes worse. Same with the collective shadow. We have killed the Gods by giving absolute and only priority to the conscious mind and its worldview, setting ourselves up for a dangerous future ahead. For by neglecting the Gods, we neglect our own essence as being particles of the Universe. We are not above. Not above nature, not above animals, not above anything. And yet, we act as if we are. Constantly manipulating everything natural so it becomes better. Maybe we are made as structurers of chaos, meant to find order where there is none, but even then, we are overstepping our purpose.
‘Ours is an age between worldviews, creative yet disoriented, a transitional era when the old cultural vision no longer holds and the new has not yet constellated. Yet we are not without signs of what the new might look like.’
- Richard Tarnas -
Every moment that we do not recognize the higher intelligent forces leading us, they unconsciously act through us. And because we’re unaware, it are their shadows that we manifest in the external world. The inner world is a mirror for the outer. By suppressing our inner female as men, and our inner man as female, we set ourselves up for unconscious desires leading to cheating, obtrusive behaviour and what not. By not accepting the limiting role of the archetypal principle of Saturn, the Senex, our governments rather put us in a box than accepting each human’s fate: To age and die.
Although simple examples, their effects are clear: And ever-increasing trend towards controlling what can not be controlled. For the Gods are real. And the more we fight them, the more wrathful their vengeance will be.
It is only through restoring humanity’s real place in the Universe, not as the Summum Bonum, but as part of a living and supremely intelligent whole, that we give birth to a new age of inclusion. There are different ways to get there. One is an obliterating crisis that quickly blows away everything we value in our current worldview. The other is to start doing the work. To realize that the Universe manifests itself through how you see it and becoming aware of your own binding shadows. First the personal ones, then the collective ones. And this is where the Gods are found, ever whispering in our ears that the time now truly has come to be remembered.
For if we do not, they will make us remember.
Anyway, what I am going to do next is to share some of the different principles of our Universal workings. Not as theoretical concepts, but as living beings as they come through me. With their own voices, characteristics, world views, and even emotions.
From the egoic perspective, this will be utterly ridiculous. Insanely stupid. Some form of mental illness, at least. For the Ego likes to ridicule what it doesn’t know to keep it at bay. To safely stay in the current worldview that is bound to end one day. Please go ahead, for polarizing is the learned route.
My question to you is, how does the current worldview make you feel? Do you also experience that our global worldview is in a pressure pan, waiting to explode? And if you do, what do you do with it? I’m genuinely curious!
With Love,
Pim
Pim, as usual a very intriguing piece of text. Yes, of course something needs to be done. If I look at primary education, the sector where I work in, the fruits of the Ego are widely spread. Higher grades, comparing with other kids, be better than other, a heavy focus on languages and mathematics. The language of our body, of our intuition, of our dreams is hardly shown or taught. Ultimately going the university is the dream or even goal for many children, despite our efforts in the classroom to show otherwise. The forces of the society, of formal structures are embedded deeply within every child. It hurts me that only a few can be guided.
I am sure that within years some of my pupils will understand what I meant for them now and hopefully they can open up to other views than the ones that are ruling in society nowadays.
For myself, in dreams, while falling asleep or at the dawn of waking up in the morning I see hints of other worlds. But they are deeply hidden and or not easily observed. It is therefore difficult to know what is needed to be seen.
I invite them to show themselves to me and I hope I have the courage and strength to listen and face them. 🙏