Journey of the Psychic Being
Content
PSYCHIC BEING
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Journey of the Psychic Being
Becoming, mixed media by David Shane Shelton
David Shane Shelton, MA, Indigenous Mind, Wisdom University, June 2012, Chartres, France 1841 Pearce Ct., San Marcos, Tx, [email protected], 512.754.0427
PSYCHIC BEING Abstract
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From the Akashic Field emerges not only our phenomenal realm but also the means to which we emerge psychically. It is a purposeful and meaningful journey by which we will birth a collective soul. The following pages will make an attempt to tell this story of birth, development, growth and re-birth of our collective psyche. From the astrological gleanings of the planetary archetypes we progress; from Pluto/Hades and emptiness to Mercury/Hermes, revealing a gauge by which we can witness our own progress via its reflective qualities, we attempt to find balance in our psyche and mend the distortions within to eventually fly directly into the Sun and its gateway to a higher potentiality.
keywords: Akashic Field, astrology, psychic being, soul, consciousness, shadow, gods,
archetypes, planets, awareness
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Journey of the Psychic Being
Fire Up The Engines We are, at present, on a great adventure. It is a sojourn with a fantastic ending, potentially. It is no less than a quest of our spirit, the inner reflections, through a plane of psychic development into what amounts to a higher resonance field and the birth of a soul and greater articulation. But, first, the beginning…there came to be “evolving wave-patterns with external relations and inner reflections, an unarticulated basic sensation[;] this inner reflection gains in articulation as the self-maintaining waves acquire structure and complexity” (Lazlo, 2007). This is the Akashic Field and the Earth is hurtling through the vastness of space, as an “evolving wave-pattern”. But, this is only part of the story. Let us construct an imaginal astral-glider. In this astral-glider we have been searching for (who knows how long) a gateway to a plane of higher resonance; and, perhaps, we have found it in this Milky Way Galaxy. We do a fly over and, yes, there is a planet there in the habitable zone; nice and green with a large body of water. We bring the astral-glider around and come into line with the ecliptic of the solar system. As spirit enters and passes through the veil from implicate to explicate order, it seems to forget its origins as we become so wrapped up in our egos. A mere side effect of the crossing of the veil, I presume. I am sure our momentum can carry us through and that somewhere along the line we will remember our story and spirit will reemerge.
PSYCHIC BEING It is a story of psychic development with archetypal sign posts in the form of the orbiting planets. We begin from the emptiness of form at the outer planet and follow
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the tornadic vortex inward toward the sun; each embedded within the next as the layers of an onion. The sun is the destination as it represents a gateway of potential superconsciousness. Now we proceed to the countdown and lift-off.
Embarkation “[F]or it is through [our] consciousness, through its transmutation and no longer through a new bodily organism as a first instrumentation that the evolution can and must be effected.” There is, overall, “the observation of the outward phenomena of Nature’s progression, her surface evolution of being and of consciousness in the physical birth and the body. But there is the other, the invisible factor; there is rebirth, the progress of the soul by ascent from grade to grade of the evolving existence….” “The psychic entity is still veiled….” “[A] time can arrive when the soul-entity is close to the point at which it will emerge from behind the veil into the open….” “[T]he Daemon, the Godhead within is on the point of emergence….” (Ghosh, 89). That being said, I want to present this psychic journey. It is noble at the very least. In order to even partially communicate such an expedition, I will shuffle together the perspectives of five voices who have been looking deeply into this story for much longer than I and they will be called upon to assist me. They are Aurobindo Ghosh and “The Mother”, Mirra Alfassa, who are going to help focus on the metaphysical aspect; Richard Tarnas and David Frawley will provide the astrological leanings; and Ken Wilber, finally, will help to bring in the various states of consciousness along the way.
PSYCHIC BEING Pluto/Hades Whether or not we doubt the authenticity of Pluto’s/Hades’ planetary status, its influence upon the archetypal soup we operate within is unparalleled. Dr. Richard
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Tarnas, to jump right into it, clearly states that “Pluto is associated with the principle of elemental power, depth…; intensifies whatever it touches, ...with the primordial instincts…; violent purgatorial discharges of pent-up energies…” (Tarnas, 96). In transit it adds a profound depth to the amplitude of our personal resonance; and depending upon the facet of our nature it transits, can illuminate our complex personality in various ways. Pluto can also create an equally profound distortion in this resonance field of ours if we allow possession over our faculties through resistance or lack of presence. Pluto/Hades is a dark god of the underworld in mythological circumstances. The chi involved with this potent and abstract archetype is an anthropomorphized figure formed to symbolize for our species and to more quickly identify and mentally map out the ripple effect it produces as it disrupts our in-house programming in our brains. “Pluto represents the underworld and underground in all senses: elemental, …demonic” (Tarnas, 96). We quantify it mentally. It is unfortunate we have attached ourselves to the godly symbol and lost the depth of meaning. A glitch we can correct through mindful study. The word “Pluto”, the label, is but an identifier for the culture of Rome. The Greeks before them labeled this archetype Hades; the Nords as Hel (although Fenris the wolf and the chaos he brings to the psyche depicts greater darkness, in my opinion), and Set in Egypt (darkest and most horrifying of the lot, you ask me). I find it interesting the derivative of Pluto to be Plautus, a Greek reference to wealth the Romans adopted. To
PSYCHIC BEING have associated wealth, or gold, even, with be-all-end-all of life rather than shadow
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work and the darkness of the psyche stimulate a curiosity to the erroneous attachment we have placed in the accumulation and use of gold entirely. This brings me to the point I want to make on this outer-most planet. It is a priority, I believe, we begin, if some have not already, to link this archetype with the very contents of our unconsciousness once again, our shadows and repressed demons, the “terrifying reality that lurks beneath the surface of things…” (Tarnas, 96); finding ways to project themselves, these facets of our inner working models, out into the phenomenal world to get our attention. These are very “animal-like…impulses” we find ourselves immersed in without conscious awareness of Pluto’s/Hades’ influence and they can leave us in mental darkness; “yet also representing that healthy instinctuality from which healing…and a higher consciousness can ultimately emerge” (Tarnas, 96). This is quite important and relative, later, to the trickster (found in the archetype of Uranus), for these shadows need to be brought forth to our conscious awareness and integrated into our psychic model to find the true gold (lest the trickster use them to its advantage). These shadows of our psyche add depth of meaning to our experiential lives.
Neptune/Poseidon Neptune/Poseidon , “god” of the Ocean and the Seas, pulls us into the realm of our collective unconscious state; Neptune/Poseidon “governs all non-ordinary states of consciousness as well as the stream of consciousness and the oceanic depths of the unconscious” (Tarnas, 96). This non-ordinary state remains with us just under the
PSYCHIC BEING surface of waves and the turmoil that is the phenomenal realm. Our unconsciousness becomes a bit of a holding tank, a processing facility and a place of deep memory to interact between worlds of subtle and gross realms. “Neptune is associated with the
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transcendent, spiritual, …symbolic…; with the subtle, …intangible; …with the…reflections, …dreams and visions…” (Tarnas, 96). We pontificate and dialogue between realms on a regular basis. Through our saline dreaming, both in delta and theta mental-wavelength states, we “see” across the veil from our gross realm into the subtle as this archetype “dissolve[s] boundaries and structure in favor of…undifferentiated wholes…” (Tarnas, 96). This is the land of faerie, the imaginal realm of dreams. This is where we realize the Akashic Field surrounding us; where we remember from whence we came. This dream state is held in the archetype of the Sea God. It is an ethereal quality which has its light and dark as well. “In the archaic-uroboric state, [there is] not yet [sin] and [separation] from the primal embeddedness of the subconscious” (Wilber, 96). On the one hand it breathes through us as an “…amniotic fetal and infertile state of primary fusion, …[an] influx of inspiration” to imagine potentialities of infinite sorts. A dark twist can leave us stranded out in the ether with no grounding to the gross realm “drowning in the treacherous deep waters of the unconscious psyche, slipping into madness or addiction” and thus we are unable to manifest any karmic notions we might entertain (Tarnas, 96). The “problematic side of the Neptune archetypal principle: [it is] addictive, escapist, narcissistic, [and is] illusory…” (Tarnas, 96). The sons and daughters of this god appear as giants and cyclopes. Can these be metaphors for our fears which lie dormant in this subconscious layer? “[Y]ou have to face innumerable difficulties which come…from the subconscious, but rise to the surface
PSYCHIC BEING and against which you have to struggle” (Ghosh, 89). These mega-humanesque, yet metaphorical beings of considerable might are, on a regular basis, rising from their ocean abodes as our own shadow projections and attempt to enter, overtake and otherwise thwart the goings-on of Mount Olympus or Asgard, our mental faculties, to
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dethrone Jupiter/Zeus (see 2 planets below) and Odin, respectively. Neptune/Poseidon shapes “…the awareness beyond the usual causal mechanisms”. It “merg[es] that which was separate [and] is the archetypal principle of the multidimensional and the metaempirical, the metaphorical and multivalent” (Tarnas, 96).
Uranus The next orbiting sphere on our psychic journey, in our astral-glider, and in the direction of our Earth is Uranus. Uranus, according to Dr. Richard Tarnas, is, as an archetype, a misnomer. While it is named, in the progression of the planets, after the Father of Saturn/Cronos, “[e]very…quality that astrologers associate with the planet Uranus seems to be reflected in the myth of Prometheus with striking poetic exactitude….” (Tarnas, 96). A more apt alias for the archetype contained in the affectation upon our psyches of the ripples created in space via this planet is more closely associated with Prometheus in Greek mythos, Loki from Nordic mythos, and Coyote from various indigenous tribes of Turtle Island mythos. The archetype emotes “…sudden breakthroughs and liberating events, Uranus transits are linked to unpredictable and disruptive changes; hence [it] is often referred to as the ‘cosmic trickster’” (Tarnas, 96).
PSYCHIC BEING It is not to say that those two have a mythological connection, Prometheus and
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Uranus, but rather the archetype resonating from this particular planet’s orbit is closer to that of Prometheus than Uranus as it affects our psychic body in its soul nurturing with “…the enhancement of human autonomy, sudden inspiration from above, …the solar fire and light, …intellectual and spiritual awakening” (Tarnas, 96). This “god” appears, for all intents-and-purposes, to us as a “trickster” as habitual leanings and tools we have become attached to are subsequently altered so as not to serve any usefulness in our lives. I would propose that this “god” merely helps us focus attention on these qualities we have outgrown, as it is “the awakener” in our lives, and is truly making an attempt to guide us to forego these antiquated concepts. “The soul is [the] spark of the Divine which…comes down into the manifestation to support its evolutions in the material world. It is…an undifferentiated power of the Divine Consciousness containing all possibilities which have not yet taken form, but to which it is the function of evolution to give form. The psychic being is formed by the soul in its evolution” and the soul grows within the sheath of the psychic being by our experiences (Ghosh, 89). The affectations of all of the planets become twists and turns on the adventure in the Tao, the Gordian knot-work of our experience. A labyrinth of the subtle wave patterns produced by this planet’s “wandering” about the sun cause a particular impulse to collapse and otherwise neglect existing systems, to allow room for new innovations in their place. It contains the spark for the kindling, the karmic beginnings of the mindbody and the vital-body to form; it is seen in the quantum leap of the electron to outer
PSYCHIC BEING valences. This archetype “…open[s] us up to the possibility of a fundamentally new relationship with the cosmos“ (Tarnas, 96).
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This planet, that we shall continue to describe as Uranus (as it is commonly named, after all), is the mystery which carries our psyche through or across the etheric veil from the subtle realm to the gross, from sub-consciousness to a state of pre-consciousness, what Ken Wilber describes as the archaic to typhonic/magic stages of psychic development. This shift is Uranus’ archetypal manifestation via Prometheus as “…the Promethean principle associated with Uranus comprises those aspects of creativity that involve…sudden unexpected awakenings and quantum leaps, the exciting impulse to bring forth new…shifts in the unfolding of reality…” (Tarnas, 96). It has been mentioned the impulse this signature wave illuminates in us to innovate new and discard the old; the positive spin, with mindfulness, of the task, allows the awakening of the psyche. There must be a sense of non-attachment to systems unable to support this awakening or we end up with “emancipating consequences”, as Dr. Tarnas would say. It is not always an easy task to discern between what will lead to awareness and what will inhibit.
Saturn/Cronos Closer now than ever, we travel through Saturn’s/Cronos’ archetypal wake and, thus, we are initiated into time/space, into a manifest form. The psychic body’s “descent into the physical body is necessarily a descent into darkness…; and for a very long time it must labour simply to bring a little consciousness into the material substance of the body, before it can make use of it for the experience it has come for” (Ghosh, 89). It is
PSYCHIC BEING at this point in our development that we become aware of Saturn’s/Cronos’ power to
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orient each bit of maya, illusion, into “pigeon-holes” to keep us oriented spatially. With this new congealed sense we are “no longer protected by that subconscious ignorance” (Wilber, 96) but also it “…gives the concentration, sense of detail, discipline…necessary to deal with the great challenges of life” (Frawley, 2000). With Saturn/Cronos, most vehemently, we are initiated into form that has but a limited amount of “second-hand ticks” of the clock to properly orient itself before adieu as this archetype is also the “…great God of Death” (Frawley, 2000). “The Saturn archetype can express itself as…tradition but also as oppression, as…mortality, …as gravity in the sense of heaviness and weight but also…in the sense of seriousness and dignity” (Tarnas, 96). Ken Wilber describes this early period of our corporeal nature and psychic body interface as a Typhonic, [also Magic] time, “…the term was chosen to suggest a stage of development wherein self and body are not yet clearly differentiated”; a time of preconscious awareness (Wilber, 96). It is as if we were but newborn babies, spiritually speaking, making vain attempts to lift ourselves out of the Sea. And, I dare say, it has taken us a good while to stretch out our limbs and form some mental cohesion of the nature of existence and, I believe, we have but reached our teen-aged years of awareness currently in this time of the Kali-Yuga. If by some chance we could find ourselves synchronized with Nature, time seems to blend into the background and we work more properly with the seasons. There is a balance within us and between us, in this natural state, and the surrounding Akashic field. However when confronted with schedules, due dates and the pressures of past
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and future tie-ins, we lose ourselves in the ever drowning tick-tock of the mechanism as Saturn/Cronos is “…the principle limit structure, concrete manifestation, time, …the endings of things; gravity and gravitas…” with the “…tendency to confine and constrict, to separate, to divide; …character, karma, wisdom; …factual concreteness, …foundations, boundaries, solidity, stability, …superego…” (Tarnas, 96). We drown in our worries of not being able to live up to the demands of our peers, the demands, now perceived, of time, of Saturn/Cronos as we carry on “unprotected from invasion by unconscious elements…and extra-somatic factors” (Wilber, 96).
Jupiter/Zeus In the orbit of Jupiter/Zeus, we find the eagle, as metaphor of our prophetic journey, emerge. The eagle symbolically represents the development of the mental framework and the mind that is the by-product of our intermingling the psychic body and the physical thus “a basic and profound expansion of consciousness [which] allowed man to picture the future more clearly” (Wilber, 96). The mind is a generated field produced by our use (consciously or not) of our sixth-sense, the tool that is the brain. Jupiter, Zeus, or Odin, however you want to culturally filter this archetype, this “god”, opens up the flight of the mind allowing the serpent of the body to expand outward in spirit to more cohesively participate in the Akashic field. All the while, “there is the psychic which supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness…” (Ghosh, 89). This Mythic consciousness, once we render the form of the god impotent (as Jupiter/Zeus subdued Saturn/Cronos), is one of community consciousness and temporal
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consciousness (Wilber, 2001). And, it was, perhaps again, some Promethean sub-plot of a spark which allowed us to further, more deeply enter the corporeal realm. Terrence McKenna would suggest the use of psychedelics, whether incidental or intentional, to have helped our species to create language which connected us together in order to begin to get our proverbial feet under us. Ken Wilber suggests the “emergence of language” to have allowed this consciousness expansion subsequently compelled by a sense of “heightened death seizure” (Wilber, 96). Self-awareness, as our psyche operates within this corporeal system at this point, is a most powerful responsibility. This expansive awareness is representative of Jupiter’s/Zeus’ archetype. It is “the principle expansion, magnitude, …to incorporate that which is external; to experience success, …abundance, …excess; …enthusiasm, …breadth of experience, philosophical and cultural aspiration, …pride, [and] arrogance…” (Tarnas, 96). Self-awareness, though, creates a dual sense of nature, and a differentiation with nature; at this point in our development, quite a choice of just how to interact with this “other”, “exterior” realm seems to have become one of our great labors. “There was not just a differentiation between ego and nature, but dissociation” and “dissociation between mind and body” (Wilber, 96). We seem to have chosen to allow the ego to take center stage. We expanded fully into the mind and in a superior stance, disconnected from the Akashic field, separated. “Mankind as a whole, is…moving closer to the super-conscious realms…”; it is “a giant step out of the subconscious sphere. But a step…that also brought new terrors…” revealing the deep cruelty potential of humans in the form of an “id orgy, replete with
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destructive, murderous sadistic impulses, libido run riot…” (Wilber, 96). Thus, hubris is exposed as this shadow side of the archetypal influences of Jupiter/Zeus.
Ceres/Demeter Just before we arrive at the heir apparent to Jupiter/Zeus, we pause to acknowledge a lost or forgotten gem of our psyche. There exists a gap between the orbits of Jupiter/Zeus and Mars/Ares. It is a gap wide enough to accommodate an orbiting planet of its own. In fact, there very well may have been such a planet as evidenced by the ring of debris in this very orbit. The two planets Jupiter/Zeus and Mars/Ares have acted in collusion to grind Ceres/Demeter to near dust. Or, due to the gristmill effect, the material was entirely prevented from coalescing into a planet at all. Amassing some one-third of the entirety of this debris is the dwarf planet Ceres/ Demeter. It is quite appropriately named as it represents our shattered and suppressed feminine tucked away in the confines of the heart and the unconscious mind (Pluto/Hades). “And…there is in the heart…a [profound] mystic light which, if not what we call intuition…has yet a direct touch upon Truth and is nearer to the Divine than the human intellect in its pride of knowledge” (Ghosh, 89). The suppression is held in our collective mythologies such as is told in the mythos of Persephone, a daughter stolen to Erebos, to the underworld of our unconscious mind. Neptune/Poseidon, as well, has been mythologized as having, to put it delicately, taken from Ceres/Demeter her grace without honor. All of these mythologies pack away the matriarchy into the unconscious to be re-discovered, re-membered.
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Still, the feminine offers tales of a more visceral quality in that she rewarded those who remained connected to the land and without the greed of wealth the gift of agriculture. Ceres/Demeter, when one sees beyond her mere form, can have, potentially, the gift of immortality in the form of ambrosia, amrita, or soma (nectar of the gods). This ambrosia, most likely, becomes a metaphor, in-and-of itself, meaning, in modern terms, to have that “unbearable lightness of being” when we commune with the gods; a joi de vie, a natural state of mind, synchronized and in resonance with the cosmos. In this state there is no fear of death, and there is the realization of the eternal, the purity of the psyche and connection with the journey’s epicenter. However, if one were to militarily invade a sacred grove, say, in the case of Erysikhthon, and use vile speech upon her, she would impose upon such men a curse that would leave them forever in hunger and thirst. Such men would never be sated and would continually search for material things to attempt to fill this need. Thich Nhat Hanh describes this as the hungry ghost of Tibetan lore and our “modern” society projects this shadow of our unconscious mind onto our movie screens as zombies. More, or less, I would connect this curse with the disconnect we have with both the Feminine and with Nature. The ambrosia previously mentioned is what truly satiates the psychic being and we produce it while in virtuous existence. Ceres/Demeter bestowed us a gift, however. As it may very well have been a necessary lay-over, our current psychic state that is, to experience the ego and develop it with Her blessings. I believe that Ceres/Demeter, as any Mother would their children, kicked us out of the “nest” to experience life and to grow unencumbered into psychic adults. It is also key we ask Her to return now to walk alongside us. Finally, I find it an
PSYCHIC BEING important note to make that we did not just up and repress the Divine Feminine, we
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were granted independence from a loving Mother; not abandoned as we may very well have believed.
Mars/Ares We arrive at what could conceivably be looked upon as our modern condition with Mars/Ares. It may well be thought of as our present state of mind, state of our psyche, summation of our disconnects applied, et all. Archetypally representing either our passions or our obsessions, depending on how mindfully we engage our lives, “Mars relates to our…emotional and vital capacity for self-projection” (Frawley, 2000). The “psychic being remains…behind the veil in our subliminal part…: it acts on the surface…; [to] form part of the surface aggregate…the visible formation…which we ordinarily experience…as ourselves” (Ghosh, 89). And here stands our modern man which has paid a ticket for the ride and has bought into sensory engagement; fully engaged in the hero’s quest but, what of our dreams, our potential? Have we fully yet embraced the work of Dr. Jung, the work of Dr. Grof? Whether we have become enchanted by Mars/Ares or whether we have become afflicted, “with the [rational] level we reach a stage of evolution where the separate self is so complex…that, in breaking free of its earlier and subconscious ties to cosmos, nature, and body, it could turn on these previous stages” (Wilber, 96). Meanwhile, Mars/Ares is our pony and is the “principle of energetic force, the impulse and capacity to assert,…to have impact,…to defend and offend…; the tendency to experience aggressiveness…; to be combative, competitive, courageous, [and]
PSYCHIC BEING vigorous” (Tarnas, 96). Mars/Ares brings us to the modern era under the guise of Western Civilization and its own “Western ego…[has] demonstrated not just an awakened assertiveness, but a blind arrogance” (Wilber, 96). Turns out the pony is riding us, or else is running free rein. Granted we collectively, if not subconsciously, decided to buy into the development of our egos, our rationale even as it “began to sever its own roots in a fantasy attempt to prove its absolute independence” (Wilber, 96). Because “in order for [the final differentiation] to occur, the self had to struggle
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against its previous embeddedness” and “struggle…against those factors that acted to reduce consciousness to pre-personal impulses” (Wilber, 96). We wrenched ourselves loose of our “Mother” (at least that is what we keep telling ourselves). Unfortunately, this newly concretized ego “creates misunderstandings, arguments, and litigation. In this regard Mars is the selfish will that does not take into account the views and needs of others” (Frawley, 2000). The “psychic influence…does not come up to the surface quite pure…”; the ego “intervenes, mixes with it, tries to use it…to its own profit, dwarfs its divinity, [and] distorts…its self-expression…” (Ghosh, 89). We have become akin to angst riddled teenagers rebelling. Well, now it is time we break open the dam works of the ego and allow the movement of chi, an inner tornado of movement, through mindful acts, and mindful, truly rational use of ego. Together we seek out the missing pieces we temporarily put aside and re-member ourselves and what we wanted to become. Whereas Mars/Ares “tends to regard power as an end in itself [,] it is really only a means” (Frawley, 2000).
PSYCHIC BEING Venus/Aphrodite As we gather together we may find the strength to seek our potential in
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Venus/Aphrodite. “We are now on the brink…of the modern era…a proto-subjectivity of consciousness. All that is needed is the decisive transformation in consciousness to set the modern world…” (Wilber, 96). In our current state, our psychic distortions prevent us from seeing anymore than the outward form of Venus/Aphrodite and its radiant light mesmerizing our senses, stimulating our adrenal glands. Venus/Aphrodite, the archetype rather than the literal planet (utilized as a spatial marker), “shows our affection and sense of harmony” and it “represents our aesthetic sense”. However, “an afflicted Venus…allows us to be taken in by appearances”; we become “inclined to be vain, superficial” and this “can be…the self-indulgence that can destroy us” (Frawley, 2000). Correcting the distortions, re-integrating with nature and the animus (Feminine aspects within), we see the more subtle layers of this truly radiant Venus/Aphrodite archetype, or any of the before mentioned archetypes, emerge. Archetypes “must be formulated not as literal concretely definable entities but rather as dynamic potentialities…that cannot be localized…to a specific dimension” (Tarnas, 96). Each archetype develops cooperatively with the mindful psychic body, each development nested within the next, newer stage. However, without presence of mind, partial developments are repressed (currently by ego) back to the unconscious, back to the Pluto/Hades and Neptune/Poseidon realms of our psyche; these shadows of our Self project outward onto our phenomenal realm, our reality.
PSYCHIC BEING Mindfully turning towards Venus/Aphrodite, “the two narrative tales – egoic and
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shadow – are reunited in a…more accurate interpretation of one’s entire life text” since “the ego has to accept authorship of the text of the shadow and accept ownership of the communications coming from the shadow…thus move toward autonomy and integrity…on the way to Unity” (Wilber, 96). This seemingly enormous effort “cannot be done by force but only by charm and grace” (Frawley, 2000). Becoming harmonious with the rhythms of Nature “one is in contact with the divine Consciousness…, with the Grace, and then everything is…coloured with the Presence…- everything lives and vibrates…. One understands why things are as they are and…participates in the general movement” (Ghosh, 89). We “must first move forward with intellectual curiosity and comprehension while activating actual practice and realization” for “the self has to accept the death of its present level, differentiate from that level, and thus transcend it to the next-higher stage” (Wilber, 96). Meditation, yoga…these are actualized ancient practices which reconnect the mind/body with its natural eco-field and the Akashic Field beyond by synchronizing the frequencies of chi; “meditation is designed to…halt mental-egoic
translations [, as if one were moving room to room in a building,] so that transformations [, moving between floors of a building,] into the super-conscious realms
may begin” (Wilber, 96). All of these incarnations represent an archetype evoked in the kinetic wake produced by Venus/Aphrodite. It is an archetype of beauty, yes, but beauty in the sense of a balanced approach to life. Balance and harmony found in the falcon wings stretched across the horizon. Balance found in the teamwork of men and women
PSYCHIC BEING together with our surrounding eco-field. This directs us to our psychic being’s
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potential – balance in spirit. This is the emptiness behind the form encased in Venus/Aphrodite. And, once this balance is achieved we shall ascend to the Sun and the super-consciousness it represents to our psychic journey. Once arrived on Venus/Aphrodite fully, the next step is a quantum leap in awareness beyond which, I must admit, I have no idea what it entails but seems most fitting and quite intriguing.
Mercury/Hermes The archetype of Mercury/Hermes, finally, is one of our own reflection, a gauge by which to test our current state of development, it would seem, for it is one which enables us “to give and receive information; to make sense of, [or] to grasp,…to transport, translate, transmit;…[it is the] messenger of the gods” (Tarnas, 96). Mercury/Hermes shows all and tells all and “is the most mutable of the planets[;] easily takes [on] the nature of the other planets” (Frawley, 2000); it acts in a similar fashion to “Indra’s Net” as this jeweled net has “at each knot…a crystal gem, which is connected to all the other gems and reflects in itself all the others” (Lama, 2005). If in our psychic development we remain in a “weak” state, Mercury/Hermes will reflect our childish “immaturity…and folly” (Frawley, 2000). However, “if the mind orients itself toward the perception of truth,…then it will see the falseness of the external world and the reality of the inner consciousness” as this archetype is one which “reflects whatever [is] consider[ed] to be reality” (Frawley, 2000). In other words, we create our reality, or at least co-create, and Mercury/Hermes reflects this, not only back to us as reinforcement of our karmic actions, but also transmitting this into the solar
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gateway to the next higher plane, informing the next level of our progress (perhaps – I have not a true idea of what lies beyond). As narcissistic as we have been, thus far, and as long as we abide by our sensory input to further our development, the mirror will continue to reflect just that, egotistical narcissism, and we will not be going very far. On the other hand, if we can begin to truly assimilate the depth of meaning behind Venus/Aphrodite and look beyond the senses then “it is this reflection of consciousness that is the transmigrant” of the illusory, “and also the agent in the experience of enlightenment” (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). Basically, our ego reflects an illusion, but our interior discipline produces a reflection from our ray of consciousness (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). All we need is a spark, a beginning. And, Sri Aurobindo believes this will be enough. It may be only “at a certain moment a flash which has passed through [our] whole being and [creates] a response, but that suffices” (Ghosh, 89). We make the change and we will see it, feel it reflected in the Mercury/Hermes archetype as it reflects this energy back to us.
Sun Our astral-glider cannot take us any further than this, as far as I know. So, we “set the controls for the heart of the sun”, as our Pink Floyd colleagues may very well have done it for us decades ago, and enter the gateway to birth the soul of our collective making. The Sun, then, is that which is “to rise above,…integrate;…[a] directed and focused consciousness and self-awareness,…[and] the trajectory of self-manifestation” (Tarnas, 96). This, then, is our trajectory. A trajectory of more expansive, deeper
PSYCHIC BEING discovery and Steve Bhaerman believes “the next phase of human evolution [will be about] how human beings assemble into community” (Bhaerman, 2009).
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“The winged disc of the Sun symbolize[s] the soul and its transcendence of time[;] the cosmic person of gold. The human being is meant to manifest the Divine light on Earth, to bring the light of truth into the material realm[;]…this is inwardly the light of the mind. It represents the soul, the causal body…whose will is behind our fate” (Frawley, 2000). In order to transcend we descend to our interior, abstract spaces. Ibn Arabi once said: “interiorization [is] the path of transcendence, and applying here the reflection principle, it could be said that the attainment of the center of the soul is the attainment of that point of contact between the ‘ray’ of light of the Absolute and the ‘mirror’ of the being of the individual” (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). “When you want to know what your soul knows, you have to make an inner effort, to be very attentive;…you can discern something very subtle…which knows and says what it knows”,…”it does not impose itself, it does not compel you to listen, for it is without violence” (Ghosh, 89). We will only travel as far as we have prepared to travel for “when one sees God, one is seeing an aspect of one’s own eternal receptivity/preparedness” (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). It seems that only through the virtues, such as “servitude” which “…more faithfully reflects the entity in its immutable nonexistence” can we begin to transcend (Shah-Kazemi, 2006).
Moon This is our story, the dénouement more or less, through the ages; this is but one potential. “The Moon indicates the past” (Frawley, 2000). This is the archetype of the
PSYCHIC BEING Moon, not the literal sphere we treasure, although it embodies this chi. “The Moon
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shows who we have been and what we bring with us from the past. It can show positive resources from the past which give us greater consciousness in life, or it can show negative influences…that bind us to regressive patterns of behavior” (Frawley, 2000). The Moon has held open this book of us; held it for us to read at our leisure. It has been available to us to read most every clear night. If we would dare to step outside, stop for a moment to gaze up into the vast blackness of the cosmos and gather in the light of the stars. And, there most every night telling the story upon deaf ears, thus far, has been our long lost and forgotten Mother in the Moon (beneath our feet, as well, in Earth). A Moon which represents “the matrix of being, the psychosomatic foundation of the self…; the body and the soul,…to receive and reflect…, the diffusely conscious and the unconscious, the anima,…of the diffusely visible and invisible” holds this, our story, with such patience until the time arrives, which is swiftly upon us, when we are ready to ponder such things (Tarnas, 96). And, it was that very Moon told me in a song to share as best I could here; was “Her” who told me to look through the form of Venus/Aphrodite to see the more androgynous interior balance, the balanced equation of the psychic being in order to complete our journey into the Sun.
Synopsis So…tat tvam asi, “thou art that”, if this collective unfolding story of the psychic being told by Aurobindo Ghosh and “The Mother”, Mirra Alfassa, interwoven with the presentations of Tarnas, Frawley, and Wilber holds any water. I think it is important to
PSYCHIC BEING remember, ultimately, that, as Joseph Campbell so eloquently put it, the “gods…are
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metaphors…pointing beyond themselves and leading one to an experience of one’s own identity with a mystery that transcends them” (Campbell, 2011). These “gods” we have embodied in the planets which orbit our inhabited space here on Earth merely reflect the chi of each archetype, as does the sun’s light off of the planets themselves, in its rippling wake of movement as if a pebble had plopped into water. Each “god” emerged as we developed and could sense them and seeded the “god” which followed, one remaining nested within the next and the light of each refract through us in various and mysterious ways. Martin Prechtel reveals this unfolding in his book Secrets of the Talking Jaguar. Prechtel says that “[we] began to realize how we humans pass through each stage of creation,…becoming mesmerized by our…abilities and position…until we are unable to remember where we really came from and what being alive on this earth really entails”; he continues to say that “[we] must renew the seeds, feeding the Gods by initiating the people to remind them of who they really are…as a human this moment” (Prechtel, 98). We now have this awareness that there is some secret to be remembered, not due to this tiny bit of a paper, but people are starting to listen. I only just recently began to listen and understand, and I have been seeking a long time. But, I also know, and I think people who stumble across this quickly figure out that “if the psychic entity had been from the beginning unveiled and known to its ministers, not a secluded King in a screened chamber, the human evolution would have been a rapid soul-out-flowering…; but the veil is thick and we know not the secret Light within us…” (Ghosh, 89). As each seed of a “god” yields to the subsequent “god”, so, too, must we birth our hidden
PSYCHIC BEING sacred egg – the soul – into the Light. “The word soul…may mean [that] which we call
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being, though the proper word would be rather a becoming…” and “the psychic being, fully formed and wholly awakened, becomes the conscious sheath of the soul around which it is formed” (Ghosh, 89). So…Namaste and safe journey through our "soular" system.
PSYCHIC BEING References Bhaerman, Steve (2009). Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and a Way to Get There From Here). Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, CA. Kindle location: 4778. Campbell, Joseph (2011). The Mythic Dimension. New World Library and the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Kindle location: 193. Frawley, David (2000). Astrology of the Seers: A Guide to Vedic/Hindu Astrology
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Lotus Press, Twin Lakes Wisconsin. Pages: 58, 59, 62, 65, 66, 67, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 78. Ghosh, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Alfassa, Mirra) (1989). The Psychic Being: Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, WI. Pages: 7, 8, 19, 26, 51, 52, 53, 76, 77, 84, 148, 174, 177, 180, 188. Lama, Dalai (2005). The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. Morgan Road Books of Doubleday Broadway Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc. Kindle location: 1077. Laszlo, Ervin (2007). Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything. Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont. Kindle location: 2137. Prechtel, Martin (1998). Secrets of the Talking Jaguar: Memoirs from the Living Heart of a Mayan Village. Jeremy P. Tarcher - Putnam, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc., NY. Page: 164. Shah-Kazemi, Reza. (2006). Paths to Transcendence According to Shankara, Ibn Arabi, and Meister Eckhart. World Wisdom, Inc., Bloomington, IN. Kindle locations: 894, 898, 1555, 1906, 3675. Tarnas, Richard (1996). Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View.
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Penguin Group, NY, NY. Amazon kindle, locations: 1849, 1850, 1903, 1912, 1919, 1930, 1935, 1991, 2014, 2018, 2060, 2069, 2084, 2128, 2135, 3482, 5447, 7266, 7271, 8873, 9049, 10935. Wilber, Ken (1996). Up From Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House. Pages: 39, 44, 46, 56, 95, 97, 124, 187, 189, 190, 191, 195, 199, 293, 340, 345. Wilber, Ken (2001). Eye To Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc. Page: 224. *Wilber, in this book, updates the 5 stages of development in title: archaic, magic, mythic, rational, and psychic.
Video References Ceres/Demeter in the asteroid belt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet) Terrence McKenna: The Transformations of Language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfsBPy5Fp0 , @4min:50sec, @6min:50sec, @8min:20sec. Terence McKenna: Seeking the Stone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQfC4WRg-g&feature=relmfu , @50min:00sec.
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Journey of the Psychic Being
Becoming, mixed media by David Shane Shelton
David Shane Shelton, MA, Indigenous Mind, Wisdom University, June 2012, Chartres, France 1841 Pearce Ct., San Marcos, Tx, [email protected], 512.754.0427
PSYCHIC BEING Abstract
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From the Akashic Field emerges not only our phenomenal realm but also the means to which we emerge psychically. It is a purposeful and meaningful journey by which we will birth a collective soul. The following pages will make an attempt to tell this story of birth, development, growth and re-birth of our collective psyche. From the astrological gleanings of the planetary archetypes we progress; from Pluto/Hades and emptiness to Mercury/Hermes, revealing a gauge by which we can witness our own progress via its reflective qualities, we attempt to find balance in our psyche and mend the distortions within to eventually fly directly into the Sun and its gateway to a higher potentiality.
keywords: Akashic Field, astrology, psychic being, soul, consciousness, shadow, gods,
archetypes, planets, awareness
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Journey of the Psychic Being
Fire Up The Engines We are, at present, on a great adventure. It is a sojourn with a fantastic ending, potentially. It is no less than a quest of our spirit, the inner reflections, through a plane of psychic development into what amounts to a higher resonance field and the birth of a soul and greater articulation. But, first, the beginning…there came to be “evolving wave-patterns with external relations and inner reflections, an unarticulated basic sensation[;] this inner reflection gains in articulation as the self-maintaining waves acquire structure and complexity” (Lazlo, 2007). This is the Akashic Field and the Earth is hurtling through the vastness of space, as an “evolving wave-pattern”. But, this is only part of the story. Let us construct an imaginal astral-glider. In this astral-glider we have been searching for (who knows how long) a gateway to a plane of higher resonance; and, perhaps, we have found it in this Milky Way Galaxy. We do a fly over and, yes, there is a planet there in the habitable zone; nice and green with a large body of water. We bring the astral-glider around and come into line with the ecliptic of the solar system. As spirit enters and passes through the veil from implicate to explicate order, it seems to forget its origins as we become so wrapped up in our egos. A mere side effect of the crossing of the veil, I presume. I am sure our momentum can carry us through and that somewhere along the line we will remember our story and spirit will reemerge.
PSYCHIC BEING It is a story of psychic development with archetypal sign posts in the form of the orbiting planets. We begin from the emptiness of form at the outer planet and follow
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the tornadic vortex inward toward the sun; each embedded within the next as the layers of an onion. The sun is the destination as it represents a gateway of potential superconsciousness. Now we proceed to the countdown and lift-off.
Embarkation “[F]or it is through [our] consciousness, through its transmutation and no longer through a new bodily organism as a first instrumentation that the evolution can and must be effected.” There is, overall, “the observation of the outward phenomena of Nature’s progression, her surface evolution of being and of consciousness in the physical birth and the body. But there is the other, the invisible factor; there is rebirth, the progress of the soul by ascent from grade to grade of the evolving existence….” “The psychic entity is still veiled….” “[A] time can arrive when the soul-entity is close to the point at which it will emerge from behind the veil into the open….” “[T]he Daemon, the Godhead within is on the point of emergence….” (Ghosh, 89). That being said, I want to present this psychic journey. It is noble at the very least. In order to even partially communicate such an expedition, I will shuffle together the perspectives of five voices who have been looking deeply into this story for much longer than I and they will be called upon to assist me. They are Aurobindo Ghosh and “The Mother”, Mirra Alfassa, who are going to help focus on the metaphysical aspect; Richard Tarnas and David Frawley will provide the astrological leanings; and Ken Wilber, finally, will help to bring in the various states of consciousness along the way.
PSYCHIC BEING Pluto/Hades Whether or not we doubt the authenticity of Pluto’s/Hades’ planetary status, its influence upon the archetypal soup we operate within is unparalleled. Dr. Richard
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Tarnas, to jump right into it, clearly states that “Pluto is associated with the principle of elemental power, depth…; intensifies whatever it touches, ...with the primordial instincts…; violent purgatorial discharges of pent-up energies…” (Tarnas, 96). In transit it adds a profound depth to the amplitude of our personal resonance; and depending upon the facet of our nature it transits, can illuminate our complex personality in various ways. Pluto can also create an equally profound distortion in this resonance field of ours if we allow possession over our faculties through resistance or lack of presence. Pluto/Hades is a dark god of the underworld in mythological circumstances. The chi involved with this potent and abstract archetype is an anthropomorphized figure formed to symbolize for our species and to more quickly identify and mentally map out the ripple effect it produces as it disrupts our in-house programming in our brains. “Pluto represents the underworld and underground in all senses: elemental, …demonic” (Tarnas, 96). We quantify it mentally. It is unfortunate we have attached ourselves to the godly symbol and lost the depth of meaning. A glitch we can correct through mindful study. The word “Pluto”, the label, is but an identifier for the culture of Rome. The Greeks before them labeled this archetype Hades; the Nords as Hel (although Fenris the wolf and the chaos he brings to the psyche depicts greater darkness, in my opinion), and Set in Egypt (darkest and most horrifying of the lot, you ask me). I find it interesting the derivative of Pluto to be Plautus, a Greek reference to wealth the Romans adopted. To
PSYCHIC BEING have associated wealth, or gold, even, with be-all-end-all of life rather than shadow
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work and the darkness of the psyche stimulate a curiosity to the erroneous attachment we have placed in the accumulation and use of gold entirely. This brings me to the point I want to make on this outer-most planet. It is a priority, I believe, we begin, if some have not already, to link this archetype with the very contents of our unconsciousness once again, our shadows and repressed demons, the “terrifying reality that lurks beneath the surface of things…” (Tarnas, 96); finding ways to project themselves, these facets of our inner working models, out into the phenomenal world to get our attention. These are very “animal-like…impulses” we find ourselves immersed in without conscious awareness of Pluto’s/Hades’ influence and they can leave us in mental darkness; “yet also representing that healthy instinctuality from which healing…and a higher consciousness can ultimately emerge” (Tarnas, 96). This is quite important and relative, later, to the trickster (found in the archetype of Uranus), for these shadows need to be brought forth to our conscious awareness and integrated into our psychic model to find the true gold (lest the trickster use them to its advantage). These shadows of our psyche add depth of meaning to our experiential lives.
Neptune/Poseidon Neptune/Poseidon , “god” of the Ocean and the Seas, pulls us into the realm of our collective unconscious state; Neptune/Poseidon “governs all non-ordinary states of consciousness as well as the stream of consciousness and the oceanic depths of the unconscious” (Tarnas, 96). This non-ordinary state remains with us just under the
PSYCHIC BEING surface of waves and the turmoil that is the phenomenal realm. Our unconsciousness becomes a bit of a holding tank, a processing facility and a place of deep memory to interact between worlds of subtle and gross realms. “Neptune is associated with the
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transcendent, spiritual, …symbolic…; with the subtle, …intangible; …with the…reflections, …dreams and visions…” (Tarnas, 96). We pontificate and dialogue between realms on a regular basis. Through our saline dreaming, both in delta and theta mental-wavelength states, we “see” across the veil from our gross realm into the subtle as this archetype “dissolve[s] boundaries and structure in favor of…undifferentiated wholes…” (Tarnas, 96). This is the land of faerie, the imaginal realm of dreams. This is where we realize the Akashic Field surrounding us; where we remember from whence we came. This dream state is held in the archetype of the Sea God. It is an ethereal quality which has its light and dark as well. “In the archaic-uroboric state, [there is] not yet [sin] and [separation] from the primal embeddedness of the subconscious” (Wilber, 96). On the one hand it breathes through us as an “…amniotic fetal and infertile state of primary fusion, …[an] influx of inspiration” to imagine potentialities of infinite sorts. A dark twist can leave us stranded out in the ether with no grounding to the gross realm “drowning in the treacherous deep waters of the unconscious psyche, slipping into madness or addiction” and thus we are unable to manifest any karmic notions we might entertain (Tarnas, 96). The “problematic side of the Neptune archetypal principle: [it is] addictive, escapist, narcissistic, [and is] illusory…” (Tarnas, 96). The sons and daughters of this god appear as giants and cyclopes. Can these be metaphors for our fears which lie dormant in this subconscious layer? “[Y]ou have to face innumerable difficulties which come…from the subconscious, but rise to the surface
PSYCHIC BEING and against which you have to struggle” (Ghosh, 89). These mega-humanesque, yet metaphorical beings of considerable might are, on a regular basis, rising from their ocean abodes as our own shadow projections and attempt to enter, overtake and otherwise thwart the goings-on of Mount Olympus or Asgard, our mental faculties, to
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dethrone Jupiter/Zeus (see 2 planets below) and Odin, respectively. Neptune/Poseidon shapes “…the awareness beyond the usual causal mechanisms”. It “merg[es] that which was separate [and] is the archetypal principle of the multidimensional and the metaempirical, the metaphorical and multivalent” (Tarnas, 96).
Uranus The next orbiting sphere on our psychic journey, in our astral-glider, and in the direction of our Earth is Uranus. Uranus, according to Dr. Richard Tarnas, is, as an archetype, a misnomer. While it is named, in the progression of the planets, after the Father of Saturn/Cronos, “[e]very…quality that astrologers associate with the planet Uranus seems to be reflected in the myth of Prometheus with striking poetic exactitude….” (Tarnas, 96). A more apt alias for the archetype contained in the affectation upon our psyches of the ripples created in space via this planet is more closely associated with Prometheus in Greek mythos, Loki from Nordic mythos, and Coyote from various indigenous tribes of Turtle Island mythos. The archetype emotes “…sudden breakthroughs and liberating events, Uranus transits are linked to unpredictable and disruptive changes; hence [it] is often referred to as the ‘cosmic trickster’” (Tarnas, 96).
PSYCHIC BEING It is not to say that those two have a mythological connection, Prometheus and
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Uranus, but rather the archetype resonating from this particular planet’s orbit is closer to that of Prometheus than Uranus as it affects our psychic body in its soul nurturing with “…the enhancement of human autonomy, sudden inspiration from above, …the solar fire and light, …intellectual and spiritual awakening” (Tarnas, 96). This “god” appears, for all intents-and-purposes, to us as a “trickster” as habitual leanings and tools we have become attached to are subsequently altered so as not to serve any usefulness in our lives. I would propose that this “god” merely helps us focus attention on these qualities we have outgrown, as it is “the awakener” in our lives, and is truly making an attempt to guide us to forego these antiquated concepts. “The soul is [the] spark of the Divine which…comes down into the manifestation to support its evolutions in the material world. It is…an undifferentiated power of the Divine Consciousness containing all possibilities which have not yet taken form, but to which it is the function of evolution to give form. The psychic being is formed by the soul in its evolution” and the soul grows within the sheath of the psychic being by our experiences (Ghosh, 89). The affectations of all of the planets become twists and turns on the adventure in the Tao, the Gordian knot-work of our experience. A labyrinth of the subtle wave patterns produced by this planet’s “wandering” about the sun cause a particular impulse to collapse and otherwise neglect existing systems, to allow room for new innovations in their place. It contains the spark for the kindling, the karmic beginnings of the mindbody and the vital-body to form; it is seen in the quantum leap of the electron to outer
PSYCHIC BEING valences. This archetype “…open[s] us up to the possibility of a fundamentally new relationship with the cosmos“ (Tarnas, 96).
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This planet, that we shall continue to describe as Uranus (as it is commonly named, after all), is the mystery which carries our psyche through or across the etheric veil from the subtle realm to the gross, from sub-consciousness to a state of pre-consciousness, what Ken Wilber describes as the archaic to typhonic/magic stages of psychic development. This shift is Uranus’ archetypal manifestation via Prometheus as “…the Promethean principle associated with Uranus comprises those aspects of creativity that involve…sudden unexpected awakenings and quantum leaps, the exciting impulse to bring forth new…shifts in the unfolding of reality…” (Tarnas, 96). It has been mentioned the impulse this signature wave illuminates in us to innovate new and discard the old; the positive spin, with mindfulness, of the task, allows the awakening of the psyche. There must be a sense of non-attachment to systems unable to support this awakening or we end up with “emancipating consequences”, as Dr. Tarnas would say. It is not always an easy task to discern between what will lead to awareness and what will inhibit.
Saturn/Cronos Closer now than ever, we travel through Saturn’s/Cronos’ archetypal wake and, thus, we are initiated into time/space, into a manifest form. The psychic body’s “descent into the physical body is necessarily a descent into darkness…; and for a very long time it must labour simply to bring a little consciousness into the material substance of the body, before it can make use of it for the experience it has come for” (Ghosh, 89). It is
PSYCHIC BEING at this point in our development that we become aware of Saturn’s/Cronos’ power to
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orient each bit of maya, illusion, into “pigeon-holes” to keep us oriented spatially. With this new congealed sense we are “no longer protected by that subconscious ignorance” (Wilber, 96) but also it “…gives the concentration, sense of detail, discipline…necessary to deal with the great challenges of life” (Frawley, 2000). With Saturn/Cronos, most vehemently, we are initiated into form that has but a limited amount of “second-hand ticks” of the clock to properly orient itself before adieu as this archetype is also the “…great God of Death” (Frawley, 2000). “The Saturn archetype can express itself as…tradition but also as oppression, as…mortality, …as gravity in the sense of heaviness and weight but also…in the sense of seriousness and dignity” (Tarnas, 96). Ken Wilber describes this early period of our corporeal nature and psychic body interface as a Typhonic, [also Magic] time, “…the term was chosen to suggest a stage of development wherein self and body are not yet clearly differentiated”; a time of preconscious awareness (Wilber, 96). It is as if we were but newborn babies, spiritually speaking, making vain attempts to lift ourselves out of the Sea. And, I dare say, it has taken us a good while to stretch out our limbs and form some mental cohesion of the nature of existence and, I believe, we have but reached our teen-aged years of awareness currently in this time of the Kali-Yuga. If by some chance we could find ourselves synchronized with Nature, time seems to blend into the background and we work more properly with the seasons. There is a balance within us and between us, in this natural state, and the surrounding Akashic field. However when confronted with schedules, due dates and the pressures of past
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and future tie-ins, we lose ourselves in the ever drowning tick-tock of the mechanism as Saturn/Cronos is “…the principle limit structure, concrete manifestation, time, …the endings of things; gravity and gravitas…” with the “…tendency to confine and constrict, to separate, to divide; …character, karma, wisdom; …factual concreteness, …foundations, boundaries, solidity, stability, …superego…” (Tarnas, 96). We drown in our worries of not being able to live up to the demands of our peers, the demands, now perceived, of time, of Saturn/Cronos as we carry on “unprotected from invasion by unconscious elements…and extra-somatic factors” (Wilber, 96).
Jupiter/Zeus In the orbit of Jupiter/Zeus, we find the eagle, as metaphor of our prophetic journey, emerge. The eagle symbolically represents the development of the mental framework and the mind that is the by-product of our intermingling the psychic body and the physical thus “a basic and profound expansion of consciousness [which] allowed man to picture the future more clearly” (Wilber, 96). The mind is a generated field produced by our use (consciously or not) of our sixth-sense, the tool that is the brain. Jupiter, Zeus, or Odin, however you want to culturally filter this archetype, this “god”, opens up the flight of the mind allowing the serpent of the body to expand outward in spirit to more cohesively participate in the Akashic field. All the while, “there is the psychic which supports the development, the growth of the being and gives this continuity of consciousness…” (Ghosh, 89). This Mythic consciousness, once we render the form of the god impotent (as Jupiter/Zeus subdued Saturn/Cronos), is one of community consciousness and temporal
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consciousness (Wilber, 2001). And, it was, perhaps again, some Promethean sub-plot of a spark which allowed us to further, more deeply enter the corporeal realm. Terrence McKenna would suggest the use of psychedelics, whether incidental or intentional, to have helped our species to create language which connected us together in order to begin to get our proverbial feet under us. Ken Wilber suggests the “emergence of language” to have allowed this consciousness expansion subsequently compelled by a sense of “heightened death seizure” (Wilber, 96). Self-awareness, as our psyche operates within this corporeal system at this point, is a most powerful responsibility. This expansive awareness is representative of Jupiter’s/Zeus’ archetype. It is “the principle expansion, magnitude, …to incorporate that which is external; to experience success, …abundance, …excess; …enthusiasm, …breadth of experience, philosophical and cultural aspiration, …pride, [and] arrogance…” (Tarnas, 96). Self-awareness, though, creates a dual sense of nature, and a differentiation with nature; at this point in our development, quite a choice of just how to interact with this “other”, “exterior” realm seems to have become one of our great labors. “There was not just a differentiation between ego and nature, but dissociation” and “dissociation between mind and body” (Wilber, 96). We seem to have chosen to allow the ego to take center stage. We expanded fully into the mind and in a superior stance, disconnected from the Akashic field, separated. “Mankind as a whole, is…moving closer to the super-conscious realms…”; it is “a giant step out of the subconscious sphere. But a step…that also brought new terrors…” revealing the deep cruelty potential of humans in the form of an “id orgy, replete with
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destructive, murderous sadistic impulses, libido run riot…” (Wilber, 96). Thus, hubris is exposed as this shadow side of the archetypal influences of Jupiter/Zeus.
Ceres/Demeter Just before we arrive at the heir apparent to Jupiter/Zeus, we pause to acknowledge a lost or forgotten gem of our psyche. There exists a gap between the orbits of Jupiter/Zeus and Mars/Ares. It is a gap wide enough to accommodate an orbiting planet of its own. In fact, there very well may have been such a planet as evidenced by the ring of debris in this very orbit. The two planets Jupiter/Zeus and Mars/Ares have acted in collusion to grind Ceres/Demeter to near dust. Or, due to the gristmill effect, the material was entirely prevented from coalescing into a planet at all. Amassing some one-third of the entirety of this debris is the dwarf planet Ceres/ Demeter. It is quite appropriately named as it represents our shattered and suppressed feminine tucked away in the confines of the heart and the unconscious mind (Pluto/Hades). “And…there is in the heart…a [profound] mystic light which, if not what we call intuition…has yet a direct touch upon Truth and is nearer to the Divine than the human intellect in its pride of knowledge” (Ghosh, 89). The suppression is held in our collective mythologies such as is told in the mythos of Persephone, a daughter stolen to Erebos, to the underworld of our unconscious mind. Neptune/Poseidon, as well, has been mythologized as having, to put it delicately, taken from Ceres/Demeter her grace without honor. All of these mythologies pack away the matriarchy into the unconscious to be re-discovered, re-membered.
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Still, the feminine offers tales of a more visceral quality in that she rewarded those who remained connected to the land and without the greed of wealth the gift of agriculture. Ceres/Demeter, when one sees beyond her mere form, can have, potentially, the gift of immortality in the form of ambrosia, amrita, or soma (nectar of the gods). This ambrosia, most likely, becomes a metaphor, in-and-of itself, meaning, in modern terms, to have that “unbearable lightness of being” when we commune with the gods; a joi de vie, a natural state of mind, synchronized and in resonance with the cosmos. In this state there is no fear of death, and there is the realization of the eternal, the purity of the psyche and connection with the journey’s epicenter. However, if one were to militarily invade a sacred grove, say, in the case of Erysikhthon, and use vile speech upon her, she would impose upon such men a curse that would leave them forever in hunger and thirst. Such men would never be sated and would continually search for material things to attempt to fill this need. Thich Nhat Hanh describes this as the hungry ghost of Tibetan lore and our “modern” society projects this shadow of our unconscious mind onto our movie screens as zombies. More, or less, I would connect this curse with the disconnect we have with both the Feminine and with Nature. The ambrosia previously mentioned is what truly satiates the psychic being and we produce it while in virtuous existence. Ceres/Demeter bestowed us a gift, however. As it may very well have been a necessary lay-over, our current psychic state that is, to experience the ego and develop it with Her blessings. I believe that Ceres/Demeter, as any Mother would their children, kicked us out of the “nest” to experience life and to grow unencumbered into psychic adults. It is also key we ask Her to return now to walk alongside us. Finally, I find it an
PSYCHIC BEING important note to make that we did not just up and repress the Divine Feminine, we
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were granted independence from a loving Mother; not abandoned as we may very well have believed.
Mars/Ares We arrive at what could conceivably be looked upon as our modern condition with Mars/Ares. It may well be thought of as our present state of mind, state of our psyche, summation of our disconnects applied, et all. Archetypally representing either our passions or our obsessions, depending on how mindfully we engage our lives, “Mars relates to our…emotional and vital capacity for self-projection” (Frawley, 2000). The “psychic being remains…behind the veil in our subliminal part…: it acts on the surface…; [to] form part of the surface aggregate…the visible formation…which we ordinarily experience…as ourselves” (Ghosh, 89). And here stands our modern man which has paid a ticket for the ride and has bought into sensory engagement; fully engaged in the hero’s quest but, what of our dreams, our potential? Have we fully yet embraced the work of Dr. Jung, the work of Dr. Grof? Whether we have become enchanted by Mars/Ares or whether we have become afflicted, “with the [rational] level we reach a stage of evolution where the separate self is so complex…that, in breaking free of its earlier and subconscious ties to cosmos, nature, and body, it could turn on these previous stages” (Wilber, 96). Meanwhile, Mars/Ares is our pony and is the “principle of energetic force, the impulse and capacity to assert,…to have impact,…to defend and offend…; the tendency to experience aggressiveness…; to be combative, competitive, courageous, [and]
PSYCHIC BEING vigorous” (Tarnas, 96). Mars/Ares brings us to the modern era under the guise of Western Civilization and its own “Western ego…[has] demonstrated not just an awakened assertiveness, but a blind arrogance” (Wilber, 96). Turns out the pony is riding us, or else is running free rein. Granted we collectively, if not subconsciously, decided to buy into the development of our egos, our rationale even as it “began to sever its own roots in a fantasy attempt to prove its absolute independence” (Wilber, 96). Because “in order for [the final differentiation] to occur, the self had to struggle
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against its previous embeddedness” and “struggle…against those factors that acted to reduce consciousness to pre-personal impulses” (Wilber, 96). We wrenched ourselves loose of our “Mother” (at least that is what we keep telling ourselves). Unfortunately, this newly concretized ego “creates misunderstandings, arguments, and litigation. In this regard Mars is the selfish will that does not take into account the views and needs of others” (Frawley, 2000). The “psychic influence…does not come up to the surface quite pure…”; the ego “intervenes, mixes with it, tries to use it…to its own profit, dwarfs its divinity, [and] distorts…its self-expression…” (Ghosh, 89). We have become akin to angst riddled teenagers rebelling. Well, now it is time we break open the dam works of the ego and allow the movement of chi, an inner tornado of movement, through mindful acts, and mindful, truly rational use of ego. Together we seek out the missing pieces we temporarily put aside and re-member ourselves and what we wanted to become. Whereas Mars/Ares “tends to regard power as an end in itself [,] it is really only a means” (Frawley, 2000).
PSYCHIC BEING Venus/Aphrodite As we gather together we may find the strength to seek our potential in
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Venus/Aphrodite. “We are now on the brink…of the modern era…a proto-subjectivity of consciousness. All that is needed is the decisive transformation in consciousness to set the modern world…” (Wilber, 96). In our current state, our psychic distortions prevent us from seeing anymore than the outward form of Venus/Aphrodite and its radiant light mesmerizing our senses, stimulating our adrenal glands. Venus/Aphrodite, the archetype rather than the literal planet (utilized as a spatial marker), “shows our affection and sense of harmony” and it “represents our aesthetic sense”. However, “an afflicted Venus…allows us to be taken in by appearances”; we become “inclined to be vain, superficial” and this “can be…the self-indulgence that can destroy us” (Frawley, 2000). Correcting the distortions, re-integrating with nature and the animus (Feminine aspects within), we see the more subtle layers of this truly radiant Venus/Aphrodite archetype, or any of the before mentioned archetypes, emerge. Archetypes “must be formulated not as literal concretely definable entities but rather as dynamic potentialities…that cannot be localized…to a specific dimension” (Tarnas, 96). Each archetype develops cooperatively with the mindful psychic body, each development nested within the next, newer stage. However, without presence of mind, partial developments are repressed (currently by ego) back to the unconscious, back to the Pluto/Hades and Neptune/Poseidon realms of our psyche; these shadows of our Self project outward onto our phenomenal realm, our reality.
PSYCHIC BEING Mindfully turning towards Venus/Aphrodite, “the two narrative tales – egoic and
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shadow – are reunited in a…more accurate interpretation of one’s entire life text” since “the ego has to accept authorship of the text of the shadow and accept ownership of the communications coming from the shadow…thus move toward autonomy and integrity…on the way to Unity” (Wilber, 96). This seemingly enormous effort “cannot be done by force but only by charm and grace” (Frawley, 2000). Becoming harmonious with the rhythms of Nature “one is in contact with the divine Consciousness…, with the Grace, and then everything is…coloured with the Presence…- everything lives and vibrates…. One understands why things are as they are and…participates in the general movement” (Ghosh, 89). We “must first move forward with intellectual curiosity and comprehension while activating actual practice and realization” for “the self has to accept the death of its present level, differentiate from that level, and thus transcend it to the next-higher stage” (Wilber, 96). Meditation, yoga…these are actualized ancient practices which reconnect the mind/body with its natural eco-field and the Akashic Field beyond by synchronizing the frequencies of chi; “meditation is designed to…halt mental-egoic
translations [, as if one were moving room to room in a building,] so that transformations [, moving between floors of a building,] into the super-conscious realms
may begin” (Wilber, 96). All of these incarnations represent an archetype evoked in the kinetic wake produced by Venus/Aphrodite. It is an archetype of beauty, yes, but beauty in the sense of a balanced approach to life. Balance and harmony found in the falcon wings stretched across the horizon. Balance found in the teamwork of men and women
PSYCHIC BEING together with our surrounding eco-field. This directs us to our psychic being’s
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potential – balance in spirit. This is the emptiness behind the form encased in Venus/Aphrodite. And, once this balance is achieved we shall ascend to the Sun and the super-consciousness it represents to our psychic journey. Once arrived on Venus/Aphrodite fully, the next step is a quantum leap in awareness beyond which, I must admit, I have no idea what it entails but seems most fitting and quite intriguing.
Mercury/Hermes The archetype of Mercury/Hermes, finally, is one of our own reflection, a gauge by which to test our current state of development, it would seem, for it is one which enables us “to give and receive information; to make sense of, [or] to grasp,…to transport, translate, transmit;…[it is the] messenger of the gods” (Tarnas, 96). Mercury/Hermes shows all and tells all and “is the most mutable of the planets[;] easily takes [on] the nature of the other planets” (Frawley, 2000); it acts in a similar fashion to “Indra’s Net” as this jeweled net has “at each knot…a crystal gem, which is connected to all the other gems and reflects in itself all the others” (Lama, 2005). If in our psychic development we remain in a “weak” state, Mercury/Hermes will reflect our childish “immaturity…and folly” (Frawley, 2000). However, “if the mind orients itself toward the perception of truth,…then it will see the falseness of the external world and the reality of the inner consciousness” as this archetype is one which “reflects whatever [is] consider[ed] to be reality” (Frawley, 2000). In other words, we create our reality, or at least co-create, and Mercury/Hermes reflects this, not only back to us as reinforcement of our karmic actions, but also transmitting this into the solar
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gateway to the next higher plane, informing the next level of our progress (perhaps – I have not a true idea of what lies beyond). As narcissistic as we have been, thus far, and as long as we abide by our sensory input to further our development, the mirror will continue to reflect just that, egotistical narcissism, and we will not be going very far. On the other hand, if we can begin to truly assimilate the depth of meaning behind Venus/Aphrodite and look beyond the senses then “it is this reflection of consciousness that is the transmigrant” of the illusory, “and also the agent in the experience of enlightenment” (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). Basically, our ego reflects an illusion, but our interior discipline produces a reflection from our ray of consciousness (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). All we need is a spark, a beginning. And, Sri Aurobindo believes this will be enough. It may be only “at a certain moment a flash which has passed through [our] whole being and [creates] a response, but that suffices” (Ghosh, 89). We make the change and we will see it, feel it reflected in the Mercury/Hermes archetype as it reflects this energy back to us.
Sun Our astral-glider cannot take us any further than this, as far as I know. So, we “set the controls for the heart of the sun”, as our Pink Floyd colleagues may very well have done it for us decades ago, and enter the gateway to birth the soul of our collective making. The Sun, then, is that which is “to rise above,…integrate;…[a] directed and focused consciousness and self-awareness,…[and] the trajectory of self-manifestation” (Tarnas, 96). This, then, is our trajectory. A trajectory of more expansive, deeper
PSYCHIC BEING discovery and Steve Bhaerman believes “the next phase of human evolution [will be about] how human beings assemble into community” (Bhaerman, 2009).
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“The winged disc of the Sun symbolize[s] the soul and its transcendence of time[;] the cosmic person of gold. The human being is meant to manifest the Divine light on Earth, to bring the light of truth into the material realm[;]…this is inwardly the light of the mind. It represents the soul, the causal body…whose will is behind our fate” (Frawley, 2000). In order to transcend we descend to our interior, abstract spaces. Ibn Arabi once said: “interiorization [is] the path of transcendence, and applying here the reflection principle, it could be said that the attainment of the center of the soul is the attainment of that point of contact between the ‘ray’ of light of the Absolute and the ‘mirror’ of the being of the individual” (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). “When you want to know what your soul knows, you have to make an inner effort, to be very attentive;…you can discern something very subtle…which knows and says what it knows”,…”it does not impose itself, it does not compel you to listen, for it is without violence” (Ghosh, 89). We will only travel as far as we have prepared to travel for “when one sees God, one is seeing an aspect of one’s own eternal receptivity/preparedness” (Shah-Kazemi, 2006). It seems that only through the virtues, such as “servitude” which “…more faithfully reflects the entity in its immutable nonexistence” can we begin to transcend (Shah-Kazemi, 2006).
Moon This is our story, the dénouement more or less, through the ages; this is but one potential. “The Moon indicates the past” (Frawley, 2000). This is the archetype of the
PSYCHIC BEING Moon, not the literal sphere we treasure, although it embodies this chi. “The Moon
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shows who we have been and what we bring with us from the past. It can show positive resources from the past which give us greater consciousness in life, or it can show negative influences…that bind us to regressive patterns of behavior” (Frawley, 2000). The Moon has held open this book of us; held it for us to read at our leisure. It has been available to us to read most every clear night. If we would dare to step outside, stop for a moment to gaze up into the vast blackness of the cosmos and gather in the light of the stars. And, there most every night telling the story upon deaf ears, thus far, has been our long lost and forgotten Mother in the Moon (beneath our feet, as well, in Earth). A Moon which represents “the matrix of being, the psychosomatic foundation of the self…; the body and the soul,…to receive and reflect…, the diffusely conscious and the unconscious, the anima,…of the diffusely visible and invisible” holds this, our story, with such patience until the time arrives, which is swiftly upon us, when we are ready to ponder such things (Tarnas, 96). And, it was that very Moon told me in a song to share as best I could here; was “Her” who told me to look through the form of Venus/Aphrodite to see the more androgynous interior balance, the balanced equation of the psychic being in order to complete our journey into the Sun.
Synopsis So…tat tvam asi, “thou art that”, if this collective unfolding story of the psychic being told by Aurobindo Ghosh and “The Mother”, Mirra Alfassa, interwoven with the presentations of Tarnas, Frawley, and Wilber holds any water. I think it is important to
PSYCHIC BEING remember, ultimately, that, as Joseph Campbell so eloquently put it, the “gods…are
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metaphors…pointing beyond themselves and leading one to an experience of one’s own identity with a mystery that transcends them” (Campbell, 2011). These “gods” we have embodied in the planets which orbit our inhabited space here on Earth merely reflect the chi of each archetype, as does the sun’s light off of the planets themselves, in its rippling wake of movement as if a pebble had plopped into water. Each “god” emerged as we developed and could sense them and seeded the “god” which followed, one remaining nested within the next and the light of each refract through us in various and mysterious ways. Martin Prechtel reveals this unfolding in his book Secrets of the Talking Jaguar. Prechtel says that “[we] began to realize how we humans pass through each stage of creation,…becoming mesmerized by our…abilities and position…until we are unable to remember where we really came from and what being alive on this earth really entails”; he continues to say that “[we] must renew the seeds, feeding the Gods by initiating the people to remind them of who they really are…as a human this moment” (Prechtel, 98). We now have this awareness that there is some secret to be remembered, not due to this tiny bit of a paper, but people are starting to listen. I only just recently began to listen and understand, and I have been seeking a long time. But, I also know, and I think people who stumble across this quickly figure out that “if the psychic entity had been from the beginning unveiled and known to its ministers, not a secluded King in a screened chamber, the human evolution would have been a rapid soul-out-flowering…; but the veil is thick and we know not the secret Light within us…” (Ghosh, 89). As each seed of a “god” yields to the subsequent “god”, so, too, must we birth our hidden
PSYCHIC BEING sacred egg – the soul – into the Light. “The word soul…may mean [that] which we call
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being, though the proper word would be rather a becoming…” and “the psychic being, fully formed and wholly awakened, becomes the conscious sheath of the soul around which it is formed” (Ghosh, 89). So…Namaste and safe journey through our "soular" system.
PSYCHIC BEING References Bhaerman, Steve (2009). Spontaneous Evolution: Our Positive Future (and a Way to Get There From Here). Hay House, Inc., Carlsbad, CA. Kindle location: 4778. Campbell, Joseph (2011). The Mythic Dimension. New World Library and the Joseph Campbell Foundation. Kindle location: 193. Frawley, David (2000). Astrology of the Seers: A Guide to Vedic/Hindu Astrology
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Lotus Press, Twin Lakes Wisconsin. Pages: 58, 59, 62, 65, 66, 67, 70, 72, 74, 76, 77, 78. Ghosh, Sri Aurobindo and The Mother (Alfassa, Mirra) (1989). The Psychic Being: Soul: Its Nature, Mission and Evolution. Lotus Press, Twin Lakes, WI. Pages: 7, 8, 19, 26, 51, 52, 53, 76, 77, 84, 148, 174, 177, 180, 188. Lama, Dalai (2005). The Universe in a Single Atom: The Convergence of Science and Spirituality. Morgan Road Books of Doubleday Broadway Publishing, a division of Random House, Inc. Kindle location: 1077. Laszlo, Ervin (2007). Science and the Akashic Field: An Integral Theory of Everything. Inner Traditions, Rochester, Vermont. Kindle location: 2137. Prechtel, Martin (1998). Secrets of the Talking Jaguar: Memoirs from the Living Heart of a Mayan Village. Jeremy P. Tarcher - Putnam, a member of Penguin Putnam Inc., NY. Page: 164. Shah-Kazemi, Reza. (2006). Paths to Transcendence According to Shankara, Ibn Arabi, and Meister Eckhart. World Wisdom, Inc., Bloomington, IN. Kindle locations: 894, 898, 1555, 1906, 3675. Tarnas, Richard (1996). Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View.
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Penguin Group, NY, NY. Amazon kindle, locations: 1849, 1850, 1903, 1912, 1919, 1930, 1935, 1991, 2014, 2018, 2060, 2069, 2084, 2128, 2135, 3482, 5447, 7266, 7271, 8873, 9049, 10935. Wilber, Ken (1996). Up From Eden: A Transpersonal View of Human Evolution. Wheaton, Ill.: Theosophical Publishing House. Pages: 39, 44, 46, 56, 95, 97, 124, 187, 189, 190, 191, 195, 199, 293, 340, 345. Wilber, Ken (2001). Eye To Eye: The Quest for the New Paradigm. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications, Inc. Page: 224. *Wilber, in this book, updates the 5 stages of development in title: archaic, magic, mythic, rational, and psychic.
Video References Ceres/Demeter in the asteroid belt: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceres_(dwarf_planet) Terrence McKenna: The Transformations of Language: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xfsBPy5Fp0 , @4min:50sec, @6min:50sec, @8min:20sec. Terence McKenna: Seeking the Stone: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MgQfC4WRg-g&feature=relmfu , @50min:00sec.
