Depth Psychology * Genealogy * Genetic Genealogy * Myth * Culture *
Hermeneutics * Geni-Us * Bloodlines * Holy Grail * Archetypes * Healing Narratives * Ancestral Wisdom * Gnostic Vision * Relative Autonomy * Genealogical Memoirs * Famous Kin & History * Honoring Ancestors
Hermeneutics * Geni-Us * Bloodlines * Holy Grail * Archetypes * Healing Narratives * Ancestral Wisdom * Gnostic Vision * Relative Autonomy * Genealogical Memoirs * Famous Kin & History * Honoring Ancestors
Raising of the Spirits, Chuck Connelly
JUNGIAN GENEALOGY
BRIDGE OF THE SPIRITS
THE LIVING PAST; PASSED LIVES
Finding Meaning In Your Lineage
Re-Membered Wholeness
BRIDGE OF THE SPIRITS
THE LIVING PAST; PASSED LIVES
Finding Meaning In Your Lineage
Re-Membered Wholeness
“An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity. I
must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages—within myself. We have only
finished the Middle Ages of—others. I must begin early, in that period when
the hermits died out” --C.G. Jung, (LN p 320 ii; see also, LN 330 n354).
Your name, your signature, is your "sign of nature,"
your patterns of likeness in the language of symbols, dreams, and connections.
Therefore whoever considers the event from outside always sees only that it already was, and that it is always the same. But whoever looks from inside, knows that everything is new. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages—within myself. We have only
finished the Middle Ages of—others. I must begin early, in that period when
the hermits died out” --C.G. Jung, (LN p 320 ii; see also, LN 330 n354).
Your name, your signature, is your "sign of nature,"
your patterns of likeness in the language of symbols, dreams, and connections.
Therefore whoever considers the event from outside always sees only that it already was, and that it is always the same. But whoever looks from inside, knows that everything is new. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
Somewhere there was once a Flower, a Stone, a Crystal, a Queen, a King, a Palace, a Lover and his Beloved, and this was long ago, on an Island somewhere in the ocean 5,000 years ago. . . . Such is Love, the Mystic Flower of the Soul. This is the Center, the Self. -Jung
The realm of the psyche is immeasurably great and filled with living reality.
At its brink lies the secret of matter and of spirit.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 69-71.
The meaning of events is the way of salvation that you create. The meaning of events comes from the possibility of life in this world that you create. It is the mastery of this world and the assertion of your soul in this world.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
You excuse yourself with your disbelief in the immortality of the soul.
Do you think that the dead do not exist because you have' devised the impossibility of immortality? You believe in your idols of words.
The dead produce effects, that is sufficient. In the inner world there is no explaining away, as little as you can explain away the sea in the outer world.
You must finally understand your purpose in explaining away, namely to seek protection. ~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 298.
The meaning of events is the way of salvation that you create. The meaning of events comes from the possibility of life in this world that you create. It is the mastery of this world and the assertion of your soul in this world.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
In the initiation of the living, however, this "Beyond" is not a world beyond death, but a reversal of the mind's intentions and outlook, a psychological "Beyond" or, in Christian terms, a "redemption" from the trammels of the world and of sin. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Paragraph 813.
All the things which are not yet realized in our daylight experience are in a peculiar state, namely in the condition of living and autonomous figures, sometimes as if spirits of the dead, sometimes as if former incarnations. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 341
The image is the key to understanding society and human behavior.
The realm of the psyche is immeasurably great and filled with living reality.
At its brink lies the secret of matter and of spirit.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 69-71.
The meaning of events is the way of salvation that you create. The meaning of events comes from the possibility of life in this world that you create. It is the mastery of this world and the assertion of your soul in this world.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
You excuse yourself with your disbelief in the immortality of the soul.
Do you think that the dead do not exist because you have' devised the impossibility of immortality? You believe in your idols of words.
The dead produce effects, that is sufficient. In the inner world there is no explaining away, as little as you can explain away the sea in the outer world.
You must finally understand your purpose in explaining away, namely to seek protection. ~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 298.
The meaning of events is the way of salvation that you create. The meaning of events comes from the possibility of life in this world that you create. It is the mastery of this world and the assertion of your soul in this world.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
In the initiation of the living, however, this "Beyond" is not a world beyond death, but a reversal of the mind's intentions and outlook, a psychological "Beyond" or, in Christian terms, a "redemption" from the trammels of the world and of sin. ~Carl Jung, CW 11, Paragraph 813.
All the things which are not yet realized in our daylight experience are in a peculiar state, namely in the condition of living and autonomous figures, sometimes as if spirits of the dead, sometimes as if former incarnations. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 341
The image is the key to understanding society and human behavior.
ALSO VISIT - "ANCESTORS & ARCHETYPES"
http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
After the deconstruction of the postmodern era, we need a reconstruction from the ground up -- a post-postmodern coagulatio to match that solutio. The metadata hidden in our genealogy can supply such information hidden in the cognitive and emotional unconscious as structure, embodied memory, and lineage. Few forces are as strong in the psyche as genetics, sex and death.
Obviously, all genealogy is transgenerational. What distinguishes Transgenerational Genealogy from conventional or Jungian approaches is plunging deeper into the Medieval, legendary, and mythic layers of one's pedigree, rather than just the first few generations. But we can not concentrate only on the royal lines, because many other descents far out number them. Genetically, they have no priority.
As someone's descendant we answer the call. The transgenerational group is integrated within the individual. For Jung, fantasy is an integrative function. Imaginative expressions of hidden forces appear spontaneously as the direct expression of psychic life, creative and imaginative activity. Our lineage is our own, personal Mystery Play. We can allow the phenomena to speak - the multitude of personalities to speak, to be personified. Images are also voices -- messages from the dead. We need a sense of the ancestors.
What is the power of the individual against the voice of the whole people in him? ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 365.
http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
After the deconstruction of the postmodern era, we need a reconstruction from the ground up -- a post-postmodern coagulatio to match that solutio. The metadata hidden in our genealogy can supply such information hidden in the cognitive and emotional unconscious as structure, embodied memory, and lineage. Few forces are as strong in the psyche as genetics, sex and death.
Obviously, all genealogy is transgenerational. What distinguishes Transgenerational Genealogy from conventional or Jungian approaches is plunging deeper into the Medieval, legendary, and mythic layers of one's pedigree, rather than just the first few generations. But we can not concentrate only on the royal lines, because many other descents far out number them. Genetically, they have no priority.
As someone's descendant we answer the call. The transgenerational group is integrated within the individual. For Jung, fantasy is an integrative function. Imaginative expressions of hidden forces appear spontaneously as the direct expression of psychic life, creative and imaginative activity. Our lineage is our own, personal Mystery Play. We can allow the phenomena to speak - the multitude of personalities to speak, to be personified. Images are also voices -- messages from the dead. We need a sense of the ancestors.
What is the power of the individual against the voice of the whole people in him? ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 365.
We shall not cease from exploration
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
---- T.S. Eliot
Certainly we do not know where we come from, nor where we are going,
or why we are here at the present time. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 103-104.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Liber Primus; Page 244.
And the end of all our exploring
Will be to arrive where we started
And know the place for the first time.
---- T.S. Eliot
Certainly we do not know where we come from, nor where we are going,
or why we are here at the present time. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 103-104.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Liber Primus; Page 244.
The dead who besiege us are souls who have not fulfilled the principium individuationis, or else they would have become distant stars.
Insofar as we do not fulfill it, the dead have a claim on us and besiege us and we cannot escape them. ~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Appendix C; Page 370
Insofar as we do not fulfill it, the dead have a claim on us and besiege us and we cannot escape them. ~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Appendix C; Page 370
Preface
Facing Your Ancestors
Descent From Antiquity
Families are bound together eternally. The power of genealogy is the power of story. This is the story of the family and the diverse characters that populate the many branches of our family tree. These are stories that matter, that preceded your corporeal existence. This story reveals how things came to be as they are -- as you are.
Genealogy is a story we tell ourselves about ourselves. The stories of our ancestors open us to deeper experience. Our personal story is embedded in our larger inherited story and culture. Genealogy helps us connect more deeply with our unique story and meaning in life beyond a personal story. It is a mythic archaeology that connects us with that which has given us shape, opening a path to transformation.
Genealogy is the narrative of a pre-modern world. It has its roots in the ancient theogeny of gods and goddesses, divine-king lists and The Bible. Ancestral gods and ancestral religions developed over eons and are as old as particular branches of mankind -- gods of the blood. Astrologically determined gods and goddesses can often be found at the roots of dynastic houses. Royal houses claimed power through descent from ancestral gods.
Gods are difficult to destroy or conceal. Fictitious lines of descent blend indistinguishably with medieval forgeries. Some divinities may originally have been historical persons or war-chiefs, now lost to the mists of pre-history. Seedlines codify ancient ethnic identity and empires. Later, royals added them to their lines to bolster their claims to divine rule and the founding of thrones. Genealogy was a geographical and spiritual compass.
When Rome Christianized in the fourth century, it cut off the mythic corpus, and demoted gods to human status and allegories. The medieval period filled the gap with tales of the Holy Grail. The pagan content of mythology was codified in the mid-fourteenth century in Boccassio's Genealogy. Later, the Carolingians used such works to justify their right to rule, also citing the spurious Donation of Constantine, which the Church used to justify the appointment of rulers.
Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact" -- the product of a collision between pagan and Christian societies and their reconciliation. Historical time required a linear descent, even if it masked pagan roots at the theological fringe. Even if medieval genealogies connecting ancient kings to Adam are pure invention, they retain certain psychic values that are part of the archaeology of the collective unconscious.
The Tree of Life
Our personal genealogy is a process of self-discovery and self-knowledge with its own procedures and measures of 'truth.' It seems ironic that technology is allowing us to retrieve such essential aspects of our own humanity. Curiously, genealogy is the second most popular online subject, second only to sex, much like sex precedes procreation.
Your family tree is an encyclopedia of human nature. Genealogy doesn't give our lives context; it is the context and material ground of our existence. The Tree of Life carries the evolution of the world, gives life to the universe, and understanding or consciousness. Life originates from and disappears back into the Tree. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is a symbol of the process of creation and inner wholeness.
Jung said (CW5, para321) that, "The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal other." It was a central symbol of spiritual unity, wisdom, beauty, love, strength, and the power of the Universe rooted in the divine. Nietzsche pointed out that as with both people and trees, "The more one seeks to rise into height and light, the more vigorously do one's roots struggle earthward, downward into the dark, the the deep -- into evil."
The tree is an early symbol of spiritual development and our own immortal character, the living structure of our inner self -- transcendence to lofty heights. Below the surface, the subtext remains, "Who is this person having these experiences?" We are literally and symbolically the "fruit" of the Tree of Life. We need a powerful new story for our relationship with the Earth: we are, indeed, part of nature and not separate from it in any way. Genealogy helps ground us in this paradigm and helps develop our sense of deep time and rootedness in contemporary life with a global perspective.
The World Tree
Within 5-7 generations our family tree meets up and merges with the World Tree. This is especially true for American Colonial descent, where the progenitors and their droplines are well-known. Once you research back to your Gateway Ancestors who immigrated, you can easily find the lines that connect back as far as professional genealogists have determined and merge even further with fictional, legendary and mythological characters.
Outside of genealogy, the World Tree is often related to shamanism. As a link to ancestral spirits, it is an integral part of the shamanic cosmology. The World Tree is a bridge that connects heaven, earth and underworld. When a shaman "climbs the tree," he or she ascends into the Upper World and the creative sources of power -- to the gods, to the zenith of heaven. The philosophical tree represents a sublimation of our spirit. The shaman receives intercessory messages.
In some ways the World Tree is identical with the shaman. Creatures can appear in the Tree, including snakes, birds, goats, and other totems and signs. The World Tree is a tree of initiation, ordeals, astral or mystic flight, vision quest, and fate or destiny. The shaman mediates between humanity and the spirit world, and in a simpler way, the genealogist performs a similar symbolic service, especially when interpreting a pedigree. To be cut off from the sacred tree is to be cut off from the spirit world, a condition which is likened to 'illness' and requires healing for loss of soul.
The serpents in our Tree are the individual lines of descent from various common ancestors. They lead us to question who and what we are, what we know, and what we thought we knew about our roots. They offer us Knowledge. They are part of the larger truth -- that we are born and we die -- and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Yet, Jung said we fear our serpent as we fear the numinosum. He concludes, "All we have to give the world and God is ourselves as we are."
Good and evil unite in the growth of the Tree. It combines masculine phallic representations with feminine nurture and growth. We are the serpent of wisdom, the union of good and evil, in our own Tree. Genealogy is a ritual in which we climb up and down through the branches of our tree in deep remembrance, an exercise in 'time travel' that expands our consciousness.
Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell wrote exhaustively on this Tree as the center of the world, a vertical World Axis or dimension that symbolizes the capacity for non-ordinary experience, including shamanic trance that reinforces community links with cosmic consciousness. The Sacred Tree as such a center is potentially everywhere. The drum, like the heartbeat of the community is a means of climbing the tree and contacting the spirits. Campbell called the cosmic tree a wish-fulfilling, fruitful symbol of fertility, regeneration, and immortality.
Continuity
We need to know that we have a history of continuity that is profound. Our bloodline is our connection to Creation. We follow the steps created by the bodies and minds of the past. Our artform goes back to antiquity and is the measure of man. In this way we penetrate our own unknown origins and the culture of our ancestors. We think, feel, remember, and imagine. Memory is a form of imagination.
As existentially powerful as science or religion, genealogy can expand our worldview and help us weave our own coherent narrative. It helps us unravel our emotional inheritance. Sometimes what the forebearers did somehow becomes our story. We can re-imagine the whole planet as our ancestral lands. It helps us grasp how we are holistically embedded in a vast seamless web of life, a world alive with cosmic spirit, as counterpoint to death, tragedy, destruction, and despair.
Interpretation
Reading our genealogical lines is ultimately a heuristic process -- one requiring deep research and circumspect interpretation. But, connecting with the vitality of our lineage -- the living sap of the Tree -- elevates the mind and sublimes the thought. It is less about a "me generation" story than a grand "story of us" that ranges beyond illusions of time, space, and ego. We can cultivate the Elysian Fields of our ancestors to good effect. Thus, genealogy can be a transformative art. The Grail is a Mystery and the search for it a Quest for self-actualization, a way of initiation.
If we are too literal about it, we see only a string of corpses. But if we truly assimilate our heritage, we alter it creatively and give life to it through our individual understanding. We can bring our genealogy into meaningful dialogue with artistic and cultural disciplines. Genealogy is arguably one of the most "grounding" activities in which we can participate. From this fertile ground springs the acorn of the soul. It's an old Platonic and Jungian idea that the soul picks the father and mother of the child...and thereby the direct ancestors.
Deliteralization
The ancestors are the symbolic and material ground of our being. Psyche is not in us; we are in it which is everywhere. Jung pointed out in Letters Vol. II that without psyche we can neither know nor believe. We learn to center, reflect, and listen to voices within. The Great Work of genealogy is a small price to pay for turning the unconscious lead of uprootedness into the psychological gold of knowing one's true origins.
We live in relative autonomy but remain enmeshed in the epigenetic memories of our particular family. Our rich descent is about NOW, as much or more than it is about what has gone before. Our personal mythology is shaped in our formative years. The ancient myths live on in the stories we tell about our own lives. The old gods are there in spirit in our triumphs and struggles. Myths pertain to the primordial gods and goddesses, while legend is about historical human heroes.
Our life stories are personal myths that emulate the characters and themes found in old myths. We act on mythic archetypes without knowing we are doing it. We choose our identity as well as the shape and direction of our lives through such such scripts. When we resonate with our ancestors, it helps us make sense of our own lives.
We are cast in the natural form and and semblance of those who came before us. We must each answer the call of the Ancestors to the adventure of self-discovery in our own way. Group approaches generally devolve into the lowest common denominator, as Jung describes. We can approach our lineage in the spirit of individuation. In the genealogical matrix of personalities, each ancestor has a potential effect on our consciousness. Naturally, that potential will not be realized in full because many of our ancestral lines will stub out sooner or later in the dead ends of unknown individuals and lost family lines.
The Royal We
Because they were recorded better for historical and other reasons, noble and royal lines are more available. Anyone tracing to royal roots will meet and share the same medieval pool of progenitors -- the "usual suspects." It is only natural to identify with some more than others, depending on how we resonate with their stories, for good or evil. In Letters Vol. II, Jung said, "We think it is enough to discover new things, but we don't realize that knowing more demands a corresponding development of morality."
We may find ourselves in a participation mystique, or project our feelings onto them, or even become 'possessed' or fascinated by certain individuals and their qualities or deeds. For example, The Da Vinci Code fad has produced a group of fantasists riveted to alternative stories of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, while ignoring even their most recent ancestors, who are probably as, or more influential psychologically-speaking. In the worst cases such unconscious identification can lead to dissociation, 'possession,' and dysfunctionality. In an ideal world, genealogy supports maintaining our basic integrity, giving new meaning to "knowing who we are," and how deeply we are tied to self, world, and others.
Some people even develop compensatory personas based solely on such spurious connections. Our interpretations of our genealogy may lead to a lowering (abaissment) of consciousness, while others expand awareness. But we cannot retrieve the worldviews of pre-literate, agrarian or feudal societies to solve today's problems of the information age and global society. The problem compounds when we try to grasp the functional realities of ancient civilizations and cultures. What we do experience is our fantasy images of what those individuals and times might have been like. Images are the basic experience of psyche. These images are our prima materia.
Personal Mythology
In The Interior Dialogue (2009), Stanley Krippner describes personal mythology as "... an approach to personal transformation using the development of participants' personal stories about existential human issues for self healing and personal growth. There are also cultural, institutional, ethnic, and familial myths which influence our personal myths.
We use our stories as personal myths. Often they can be found through our dreams, where we are often informed long before we know intellectually. There are four factors that influence personal myths: biology, culture, interpersonal experiences, and transpersonal experiences and how to work with them. By identifying, evaluating, and transforming dysfunctional myths, beliefs, and worldviews, and working with them you can transform them."
We live in a time of many competing mythologies. Genealogy can help us clarify personal, characterological, and familial issues. Our genealogy becomes a psychologically constructed reality. We have no real experience of ancestral habits of thought and expression nor by-gone eras of strife, order and disorder. Sentimentality, nostalgia, and confabulation are poor substitutes. Others spout idiosyncratic doctrines or cliche prophecies based on their so-called supernatural connections. Such raw mythologizing is a far cry from the aesthetic pursuit of personal mythology, as described by Krippner, and others.
Your Genealogical exploration is an archetypal Journey during which you travel back into the worlds inhabited by your ancestors. Some people are rationally motivated to find and preserve their lineage for the family. Others are emotionally driven by conscious and unconscious needs. Those who take a religious approach will emphasize legendary 'holy blood' aspects. Those who are fascinated with myths and tales may embrace them as 'real.'
We can often not put a face to our ancestors, but we can give them back their names, and thus FACE our ancestors in the most direct way possible, with honor and respect.
We create our own ultimate narrative of our genealogical story based on our self-image, beliefs and worldview. Because the 'spiritual' romantics embrace connections others consider 'false' or non-historical, the rationalist genealogists have moved toward removing or cutting off lines they consider 'fictional'. But they cannot cut off the deep root of the collective unconscious for which these ancient ideas are 'real.' For example, immortality may not be 'real', but our unconscious behaves as if it is so. The unconscious believes in immortality, even if we don't.
There is a simple solution to this polarization. Taking a psychological approach to the family and world tree de-literalizes the legendary and mythic lines. We can simply retain their fructifying and life-giving potential without making them into unsupportable 'facts.' Jung said, "mythological motifs are 'facts;' they never change; only theories change," (Letters II, p. 191). We can't deny their existence by pruning them from the World Tree.
Archetypal psychology has worked with such material to provide a viable model for approaching the integration of these ancient figures into our conscious lives. If we apply the methods, we cannot fail to discover archetypal motifs. It isn't a system as much as a way of "seeing through."
If we apply depth psychology methods conscientiously, we can avoid most of the literalization, projection, and ego inflation that affects many amateur genealogists who fail to comprehend the material in a way that reflects best-practice. Instead our approach to the "as if" real portions of the pedigree is poetic and deliteralized, and doesn't seek to retrieve the past as much as live more fully with it. We can "evoke" and "constellate" such material within the hermetically sealed process of Jungian Genealogy.
In one sense, all these lives are yours, but not in the individual new age sense of past lives. You will meet characters of all psychological types, and perhaps re-member your passed lives: villains and heroes, the famous and infamous, saints and sinners, priests and warriors, fair maidens, bastards and bold knights, kings and queens, genius and psychopaths, and a host of supporting ancestors. And they will all be your gr-grandparents.
We may judge, deny, or reject some ancestors while having an instinctive rapport with others. They help us reveal our shadow traits as well as self-actualizing capacities. In most cases they lived in a far more challenging world in which to survive, much less thrive. Their lives can inform and inspire us. The trail back through history can be followed in our lines of descent. History becomes personal. Your sense of time, depth, and intimacy expands. Our whole being, our whole body is an intergenerational as well as personal memory down to the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic level.
If to 'worship' is to show honor or give devotional attention or adoring regard, then in genealogy we can 'worship' our ancestors, without taking that too literally. We can respect, honor, and attend without being consumed in the labyrinthine matrix of the dead or in their many conflicts, infidelities, and vile deeds. We can view the sketchier, legendary parts of our pedigree with an imaginal eye.
Deities and Demigods
This is not concretized personal genealogy, over burdened by the literalized personal conflicts and traumas of the family system. Neither a lie nor a fantasy, it is our underlying archetypal genealogy, without the suffocating pressures of personal genealogy. This allows psychic movement within the archetypal possibilities and situations behind their images. Are Uranus, Aphrodite, Hercules, Isis, and Odin really our "ancestors"? Such deities and demigods represent our transpersonal potential. Are they really in our blood, or the roots of the psyche?
This is the traditional way of showing forth the ancient shared connection with our common roots -- with the collective unconscious, including the gods and goddesses that appear at the foundation of our genealogies. We learn the family trees of godforms in school, but not their specific relationships to our drop lines. Many of the deities are related in more than one way. Stories of gods and creation are not just about the past. They are about us now.
Ancestral Braiding
Our ancestral lines braid together through marriages and migration. Our histories are woven together in cross-cousin and foreign marriage bridges. Long royal genealogies include nearly every war and clash of cultures throughout history. You will have progenitors on both sides of many battles. There will be persecutors and victims, even genocides. While bordering on factual our historical gleanings may or may not be accurate.
We may find it hard to absorb that whole timeline of human turmoil at such a personal level. It takes time to digest and integrate as the actual stories of your ancestors, especially when they fade into myth and legend. They may not be historical facts, but psyche has its own facts and effects on our beliefs and behaviors. Genealogy reflects the psychic facts of our protracted existence. Psychic realities are expressions of soul cultivated by imagination.
Tracing one's lines becomes a meditational activity. Finding the homes and stories of ancestors helps us flesh them out and imaginally travel back to their times and places. Many of these simple tasks have the ritualistic effect of helping us grow closer to the ancestors -- to those whose names we can now readily recite and place.
One's entire pedigree symbolizes the totality of the Self and its transcendent nature. But no one can integrate the wholeness of the entire self because that would limit it. Jung said, "in reality its experience is unlimited and endless." Biologically, we do not contain or express the genes of all of our ancestors, and our specific combination that does manifest is what makes us unique individuals.
Ritual, Dreams, and Imagination
We can expand our awareness further with 'dream genealogy.' Jung said, "In the deepest sense, we all dream not of ourselves, but out of what lies between us and the other." We can gather information about our ancestors in our reveries, dreams and shamanic journeys. 'Big dreams' can reveal elusive family history. By entering the world of the ancestors, we tap our deep unconscious, collective memories, intuition, vision, and wisdom. Lucid Dreaming and Dream Walking have been used by some to open ancestral connections.
Rituals, such as a simple ancestral altar, to more elaborate enactments or recitals are an option. More than faith, habit or even magic, Jung saw rites as psychologically effective symbolic acts, "giving expression to the archetypal expectation of the unconscious." "Rites give satisfaction to the collective and numinous aspects of the moment, beyond their purely personal significance." (Letters II, p.208-210) Acts of imagination can also be seen as rituals that enrich our perceptions.
We can edit or amend our family story as we gain a more accurate understanding our lines and the past. We are a ripple on the ocean of this past experience. We can move systematically back in time or take quantum leaps into other realities. Other optional methods include hypnosis or even word association. Those with "Second Sight" will draw from those experiences while others try to foster that ability. Perhaps one of the most productive techniques we can use is the dialogical method, such as that outlined by Ira Progoff in his works on intensive journaling.
Some seek answers to questions, while others seek only the Mystery in the darkness. We connect with something greater than ourselves, finding more than we know. Art integrates the material and spiritual. Artistic expression in all forms is another way to let the ancestors in, to give them a voice or presence -- to receive a blessing or healing. Genealogy is an evolving construction of our inner reality.
http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
Facing Your Ancestors
Descent From Antiquity
Families are bound together eternally. The power of genealogy is the power of story. This is the story of the family and the diverse characters that populate the many branches of our family tree. These are stories that matter, that preceded your corporeal existence. This story reveals how things came to be as they are -- as you are.
Genealogy is a story we tell ourselves about ourselves. The stories of our ancestors open us to deeper experience. Our personal story is embedded in our larger inherited story and culture. Genealogy helps us connect more deeply with our unique story and meaning in life beyond a personal story. It is a mythic archaeology that connects us with that which has given us shape, opening a path to transformation.
Genealogy is the narrative of a pre-modern world. It has its roots in the ancient theogeny of gods and goddesses, divine-king lists and The Bible. Ancestral gods and ancestral religions developed over eons and are as old as particular branches of mankind -- gods of the blood. Astrologically determined gods and goddesses can often be found at the roots of dynastic houses. Royal houses claimed power through descent from ancestral gods.
Gods are difficult to destroy or conceal. Fictitious lines of descent blend indistinguishably with medieval forgeries. Some divinities may originally have been historical persons or war-chiefs, now lost to the mists of pre-history. Seedlines codify ancient ethnic identity and empires. Later, royals added them to their lines to bolster their claims to divine rule and the founding of thrones. Genealogy was a geographical and spiritual compass.
When Rome Christianized in the fourth century, it cut off the mythic corpus, and demoted gods to human status and allegories. The medieval period filled the gap with tales of the Holy Grail. The pagan content of mythology was codified in the mid-fourteenth century in Boccassio's Genealogy. Later, the Carolingians used such works to justify their right to rule, also citing the spurious Donation of Constantine, which the Church used to justify the appointment of rulers.
Traditional genealogy considered these mythological inclusions best-practice, yet it may be more of a psychic than historical "fact" -- the product of a collision between pagan and Christian societies and their reconciliation. Historical time required a linear descent, even if it masked pagan roots at the theological fringe. Even if medieval genealogies connecting ancient kings to Adam are pure invention, they retain certain psychic values that are part of the archaeology of the collective unconscious.
The Tree of Life
Our personal genealogy is a process of self-discovery and self-knowledge with its own procedures and measures of 'truth.' It seems ironic that technology is allowing us to retrieve such essential aspects of our own humanity. Curiously, genealogy is the second most popular online subject, second only to sex, much like sex precedes procreation.
Your family tree is an encyclopedia of human nature. Genealogy doesn't give our lives context; it is the context and material ground of our existence. The Tree of Life carries the evolution of the world, gives life to the universe, and understanding or consciousness. Life originates from and disappears back into the Tree. The Kabbalistic Tree of Life is a symbol of the process of creation and inner wholeness.
Jung said (CW5, para321) that, "The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal other." It was a central symbol of spiritual unity, wisdom, beauty, love, strength, and the power of the Universe rooted in the divine. Nietzsche pointed out that as with both people and trees, "The more one seeks to rise into height and light, the more vigorously do one's roots struggle earthward, downward into the dark, the the deep -- into evil."
The tree is an early symbol of spiritual development and our own immortal character, the living structure of our inner self -- transcendence to lofty heights. Below the surface, the subtext remains, "Who is this person having these experiences?" We are literally and symbolically the "fruit" of the Tree of Life. We need a powerful new story for our relationship with the Earth: we are, indeed, part of nature and not separate from it in any way. Genealogy helps ground us in this paradigm and helps develop our sense of deep time and rootedness in contemporary life with a global perspective.
The World Tree
Within 5-7 generations our family tree meets up and merges with the World Tree. This is especially true for American Colonial descent, where the progenitors and their droplines are well-known. Once you research back to your Gateway Ancestors who immigrated, you can easily find the lines that connect back as far as professional genealogists have determined and merge even further with fictional, legendary and mythological characters.
Outside of genealogy, the World Tree is often related to shamanism. As a link to ancestral spirits, it is an integral part of the shamanic cosmology. The World Tree is a bridge that connects heaven, earth and underworld. When a shaman "climbs the tree," he or she ascends into the Upper World and the creative sources of power -- to the gods, to the zenith of heaven. The philosophical tree represents a sublimation of our spirit. The shaman receives intercessory messages.
In some ways the World Tree is identical with the shaman. Creatures can appear in the Tree, including snakes, birds, goats, and other totems and signs. The World Tree is a tree of initiation, ordeals, astral or mystic flight, vision quest, and fate or destiny. The shaman mediates between humanity and the spirit world, and in a simpler way, the genealogist performs a similar symbolic service, especially when interpreting a pedigree. To be cut off from the sacred tree is to be cut off from the spirit world, a condition which is likened to 'illness' and requires healing for loss of soul.
The serpents in our Tree are the individual lines of descent from various common ancestors. They lead us to question who and what we are, what we know, and what we thought we knew about our roots. They offer us Knowledge. They are part of the larger truth -- that we are born and we die -- and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. Yet, Jung said we fear our serpent as we fear the numinosum. He concludes, "All we have to give the world and God is ourselves as we are."
Good and evil unite in the growth of the Tree. It combines masculine phallic representations with feminine nurture and growth. We are the serpent of wisdom, the union of good and evil, in our own Tree. Genealogy is a ritual in which we climb up and down through the branches of our tree in deep remembrance, an exercise in 'time travel' that expands our consciousness.
Mircea Eliade and Joseph Campbell wrote exhaustively on this Tree as the center of the world, a vertical World Axis or dimension that symbolizes the capacity for non-ordinary experience, including shamanic trance that reinforces community links with cosmic consciousness. The Sacred Tree as such a center is potentially everywhere. The drum, like the heartbeat of the community is a means of climbing the tree and contacting the spirits. Campbell called the cosmic tree a wish-fulfilling, fruitful symbol of fertility, regeneration, and immortality.
Continuity
We need to know that we have a history of continuity that is profound. Our bloodline is our connection to Creation. We follow the steps created by the bodies and minds of the past. Our artform goes back to antiquity and is the measure of man. In this way we penetrate our own unknown origins and the culture of our ancestors. We think, feel, remember, and imagine. Memory is a form of imagination.
As existentially powerful as science or religion, genealogy can expand our worldview and help us weave our own coherent narrative. It helps us unravel our emotional inheritance. Sometimes what the forebearers did somehow becomes our story. We can re-imagine the whole planet as our ancestral lands. It helps us grasp how we are holistically embedded in a vast seamless web of life, a world alive with cosmic spirit, as counterpoint to death, tragedy, destruction, and despair.
Interpretation
Reading our genealogical lines is ultimately a heuristic process -- one requiring deep research and circumspect interpretation. But, connecting with the vitality of our lineage -- the living sap of the Tree -- elevates the mind and sublimes the thought. It is less about a "me generation" story than a grand "story of us" that ranges beyond illusions of time, space, and ego. We can cultivate the Elysian Fields of our ancestors to good effect. Thus, genealogy can be a transformative art. The Grail is a Mystery and the search for it a Quest for self-actualization, a way of initiation.
If we are too literal about it, we see only a string of corpses. But if we truly assimilate our heritage, we alter it creatively and give life to it through our individual understanding. We can bring our genealogy into meaningful dialogue with artistic and cultural disciplines. Genealogy is arguably one of the most "grounding" activities in which we can participate. From this fertile ground springs the acorn of the soul. It's an old Platonic and Jungian idea that the soul picks the father and mother of the child...and thereby the direct ancestors.
Deliteralization
The ancestors are the symbolic and material ground of our being. Psyche is not in us; we are in it which is everywhere. Jung pointed out in Letters Vol. II that without psyche we can neither know nor believe. We learn to center, reflect, and listen to voices within. The Great Work of genealogy is a small price to pay for turning the unconscious lead of uprootedness into the psychological gold of knowing one's true origins.
We live in relative autonomy but remain enmeshed in the epigenetic memories of our particular family. Our rich descent is about NOW, as much or more than it is about what has gone before. Our personal mythology is shaped in our formative years. The ancient myths live on in the stories we tell about our own lives. The old gods are there in spirit in our triumphs and struggles. Myths pertain to the primordial gods and goddesses, while legend is about historical human heroes.
Our life stories are personal myths that emulate the characters and themes found in old myths. We act on mythic archetypes without knowing we are doing it. We choose our identity as well as the shape and direction of our lives through such such scripts. When we resonate with our ancestors, it helps us make sense of our own lives.
We are cast in the natural form and and semblance of those who came before us. We must each answer the call of the Ancestors to the adventure of self-discovery in our own way. Group approaches generally devolve into the lowest common denominator, as Jung describes. We can approach our lineage in the spirit of individuation. In the genealogical matrix of personalities, each ancestor has a potential effect on our consciousness. Naturally, that potential will not be realized in full because many of our ancestral lines will stub out sooner or later in the dead ends of unknown individuals and lost family lines.
The Royal We
Because they were recorded better for historical and other reasons, noble and royal lines are more available. Anyone tracing to royal roots will meet and share the same medieval pool of progenitors -- the "usual suspects." It is only natural to identify with some more than others, depending on how we resonate with their stories, for good or evil. In Letters Vol. II, Jung said, "We think it is enough to discover new things, but we don't realize that knowing more demands a corresponding development of morality."
We may find ourselves in a participation mystique, or project our feelings onto them, or even become 'possessed' or fascinated by certain individuals and their qualities or deeds. For example, The Da Vinci Code fad has produced a group of fantasists riveted to alternative stories of Mary Magdalene and Jesus, while ignoring even their most recent ancestors, who are probably as, or more influential psychologically-speaking. In the worst cases such unconscious identification can lead to dissociation, 'possession,' and dysfunctionality. In an ideal world, genealogy supports maintaining our basic integrity, giving new meaning to "knowing who we are," and how deeply we are tied to self, world, and others.
Some people even develop compensatory personas based solely on such spurious connections. Our interpretations of our genealogy may lead to a lowering (abaissment) of consciousness, while others expand awareness. But we cannot retrieve the worldviews of pre-literate, agrarian or feudal societies to solve today's problems of the information age and global society. The problem compounds when we try to grasp the functional realities of ancient civilizations and cultures. What we do experience is our fantasy images of what those individuals and times might have been like. Images are the basic experience of psyche. These images are our prima materia.
Personal Mythology
In The Interior Dialogue (2009), Stanley Krippner describes personal mythology as "... an approach to personal transformation using the development of participants' personal stories about existential human issues for self healing and personal growth. There are also cultural, institutional, ethnic, and familial myths which influence our personal myths.
We use our stories as personal myths. Often they can be found through our dreams, where we are often informed long before we know intellectually. There are four factors that influence personal myths: biology, culture, interpersonal experiences, and transpersonal experiences and how to work with them. By identifying, evaluating, and transforming dysfunctional myths, beliefs, and worldviews, and working with them you can transform them."
We live in a time of many competing mythologies. Genealogy can help us clarify personal, characterological, and familial issues. Our genealogy becomes a psychologically constructed reality. We have no real experience of ancestral habits of thought and expression nor by-gone eras of strife, order and disorder. Sentimentality, nostalgia, and confabulation are poor substitutes. Others spout idiosyncratic doctrines or cliche prophecies based on their so-called supernatural connections. Such raw mythologizing is a far cry from the aesthetic pursuit of personal mythology, as described by Krippner, and others.
Your Genealogical exploration is an archetypal Journey during which you travel back into the worlds inhabited by your ancestors. Some people are rationally motivated to find and preserve their lineage for the family. Others are emotionally driven by conscious and unconscious needs. Those who take a religious approach will emphasize legendary 'holy blood' aspects. Those who are fascinated with myths and tales may embrace them as 'real.'
We can often not put a face to our ancestors, but we can give them back their names, and thus FACE our ancestors in the most direct way possible, with honor and respect.
We create our own ultimate narrative of our genealogical story based on our self-image, beliefs and worldview. Because the 'spiritual' romantics embrace connections others consider 'false' or non-historical, the rationalist genealogists have moved toward removing or cutting off lines they consider 'fictional'. But they cannot cut off the deep root of the collective unconscious for which these ancient ideas are 'real.' For example, immortality may not be 'real', but our unconscious behaves as if it is so. The unconscious believes in immortality, even if we don't.
There is a simple solution to this polarization. Taking a psychological approach to the family and world tree de-literalizes the legendary and mythic lines. We can simply retain their fructifying and life-giving potential without making them into unsupportable 'facts.' Jung said, "mythological motifs are 'facts;' they never change; only theories change," (Letters II, p. 191). We can't deny their existence by pruning them from the World Tree.
Archetypal psychology has worked with such material to provide a viable model for approaching the integration of these ancient figures into our conscious lives. If we apply the methods, we cannot fail to discover archetypal motifs. It isn't a system as much as a way of "seeing through."
If we apply depth psychology methods conscientiously, we can avoid most of the literalization, projection, and ego inflation that affects many amateur genealogists who fail to comprehend the material in a way that reflects best-practice. Instead our approach to the "as if" real portions of the pedigree is poetic and deliteralized, and doesn't seek to retrieve the past as much as live more fully with it. We can "evoke" and "constellate" such material within the hermetically sealed process of Jungian Genealogy.
In one sense, all these lives are yours, but not in the individual new age sense of past lives. You will meet characters of all psychological types, and perhaps re-member your passed lives: villains and heroes, the famous and infamous, saints and sinners, priests and warriors, fair maidens, bastards and bold knights, kings and queens, genius and psychopaths, and a host of supporting ancestors. And they will all be your gr-grandparents.
We may judge, deny, or reject some ancestors while having an instinctive rapport with others. They help us reveal our shadow traits as well as self-actualizing capacities. In most cases they lived in a far more challenging world in which to survive, much less thrive. Their lives can inform and inspire us. The trail back through history can be followed in our lines of descent. History becomes personal. Your sense of time, depth, and intimacy expands. Our whole being, our whole body is an intergenerational as well as personal memory down to the cellular, genetic, and epigenetic level.
If to 'worship' is to show honor or give devotional attention or adoring regard, then in genealogy we can 'worship' our ancestors, without taking that too literally. We can respect, honor, and attend without being consumed in the labyrinthine matrix of the dead or in their many conflicts, infidelities, and vile deeds. We can view the sketchier, legendary parts of our pedigree with an imaginal eye.
Deities and Demigods
This is not concretized personal genealogy, over burdened by the literalized personal conflicts and traumas of the family system. Neither a lie nor a fantasy, it is our underlying archetypal genealogy, without the suffocating pressures of personal genealogy. This allows psychic movement within the archetypal possibilities and situations behind their images. Are Uranus, Aphrodite, Hercules, Isis, and Odin really our "ancestors"? Such deities and demigods represent our transpersonal potential. Are they really in our blood, or the roots of the psyche?
This is the traditional way of showing forth the ancient shared connection with our common roots -- with the collective unconscious, including the gods and goddesses that appear at the foundation of our genealogies. We learn the family trees of godforms in school, but not their specific relationships to our drop lines. Many of the deities are related in more than one way. Stories of gods and creation are not just about the past. They are about us now.
Ancestral Braiding
Our ancestral lines braid together through marriages and migration. Our histories are woven together in cross-cousin and foreign marriage bridges. Long royal genealogies include nearly every war and clash of cultures throughout history. You will have progenitors on both sides of many battles. There will be persecutors and victims, even genocides. While bordering on factual our historical gleanings may or may not be accurate.
We may find it hard to absorb that whole timeline of human turmoil at such a personal level. It takes time to digest and integrate as the actual stories of your ancestors, especially when they fade into myth and legend. They may not be historical facts, but psyche has its own facts and effects on our beliefs and behaviors. Genealogy reflects the psychic facts of our protracted existence. Psychic realities are expressions of soul cultivated by imagination.
Tracing one's lines becomes a meditational activity. Finding the homes and stories of ancestors helps us flesh them out and imaginally travel back to their times and places. Many of these simple tasks have the ritualistic effect of helping us grow closer to the ancestors -- to those whose names we can now readily recite and place.
One's entire pedigree symbolizes the totality of the Self and its transcendent nature. But no one can integrate the wholeness of the entire self because that would limit it. Jung said, "in reality its experience is unlimited and endless." Biologically, we do not contain or express the genes of all of our ancestors, and our specific combination that does manifest is what makes us unique individuals.
Ritual, Dreams, and Imagination
We can expand our awareness further with 'dream genealogy.' Jung said, "In the deepest sense, we all dream not of ourselves, but out of what lies between us and the other." We can gather information about our ancestors in our reveries, dreams and shamanic journeys. 'Big dreams' can reveal elusive family history. By entering the world of the ancestors, we tap our deep unconscious, collective memories, intuition, vision, and wisdom. Lucid Dreaming and Dream Walking have been used by some to open ancestral connections.
Rituals, such as a simple ancestral altar, to more elaborate enactments or recitals are an option. More than faith, habit or even magic, Jung saw rites as psychologically effective symbolic acts, "giving expression to the archetypal expectation of the unconscious." "Rites give satisfaction to the collective and numinous aspects of the moment, beyond their purely personal significance." (Letters II, p.208-210) Acts of imagination can also be seen as rituals that enrich our perceptions.
We can edit or amend our family story as we gain a more accurate understanding our lines and the past. We are a ripple on the ocean of this past experience. We can move systematically back in time or take quantum leaps into other realities. Other optional methods include hypnosis or even word association. Those with "Second Sight" will draw from those experiences while others try to foster that ability. Perhaps one of the most productive techniques we can use is the dialogical method, such as that outlined by Ira Progoff in his works on intensive journaling.
Some seek answers to questions, while others seek only the Mystery in the darkness. We connect with something greater than ourselves, finding more than we know. Art integrates the material and spiritual. Artistic expression in all forms is another way to let the ancestors in, to give them a voice or presence -- to receive a blessing or healing. Genealogy is an evolving construction of our inner reality.
http://ancestorsandarchetypes.weebly.com/
IN THE NAME OF THE ROSE
Roses represent the Rose bloodline, the Flower of Life, DNA,
Royal Descent, the legendary Grail Bloodline and mythic Sangreal Descent.
The mystical rose, like the lotus in India, grows for the salvation of man.
~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 3 Mar, 1939, Page 101.
"The mystic rose
Of Hermic lore, which issues bright and fair
strange virtues circling with the sap therein
beneath the universal spirit's breath
from the Mercurial Stone"
--A.E. Waite
The rose that drinks the fountain dew
In the pleasant air of noon,
Grows pale and blue with altered hue--
In the gaze of the nightly moon;
For the planet of frost, so cold and bright
Makes it wan with her borrowed light.
II.
Such is my heart—roses are fair,
And that at best a withered blossom;
But thy false care did idly wear
Its withered leaves in a faithless bosom;
And fed with love, like air and dew,
Its growth----
Percy Bysshe Shelley
'The Rosy Cross is a symbol of the human process of reproduction elevated to the spiritual: The fundamental symbols are the female rose and the male cross. As generation is the key to material existence, those symbols exemplify the reproductive processes. As regeneration is the key to spiritual existence, the symbolism of the rose and the cross typifies redemption through the union of our lower temporal nature with our higher eternal nature. It is equivalent to the Philosopher's Stone or Holy Grail.'
Roses represent the Rose bloodline, the Flower of Life, DNA,
Royal Descent, the legendary Grail Bloodline and mythic Sangreal Descent.
The mystical rose, like the lotus in India, grows for the salvation of man.
~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 3 Mar, 1939, Page 101.
"The mystic rose
Of Hermic lore, which issues bright and fair
strange virtues circling with the sap therein
beneath the universal spirit's breath
from the Mercurial Stone"
--A.E. Waite
The rose that drinks the fountain dew
In the pleasant air of noon,
Grows pale and blue with altered hue--
In the gaze of the nightly moon;
For the planet of frost, so cold and bright
Makes it wan with her borrowed light.
II.
Such is my heart—roses are fair,
And that at best a withered blossom;
But thy false care did idly wear
Its withered leaves in a faithless bosom;
And fed with love, like air and dew,
Its growth----
Percy Bysshe Shelley
'The Rosy Cross is a symbol of the human process of reproduction elevated to the spiritual: The fundamental symbols are the female rose and the male cross. As generation is the key to material existence, those symbols exemplify the reproductive processes. As regeneration is the key to spiritual existence, the symbolism of the rose and the cross typifies redemption through the union of our lower temporal nature with our higher eternal nature. It is equivalent to the Philosopher's Stone or Holy Grail.'
Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future, And time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present All time is unredeemable. What might have been is an abstraction Remaining a perpetual possibility Only in a world of speculation. What might have been and what has been Point to one end, which is always present. Footfalls echo in the memory Down the passage which we did not take Towards the door we never opened Into the rose-garden. --T.S. Elliot, Burnt Norton |
I. And when you are gone there will be no memory
Of you and no regret. For you do not share The Pierian roses, but unseen in the house of Hades You will stray, breathed out, among the ghostly dead. II. The Muses have filled my life With delight. And when I die I shall not be forgotten. III. And I say to you someone will remember us In time to come…. --Sappho, Fragments on the Muses |
The Mystery of Rh-Negative Blood
Authenticity and legitimacy are based on factual history and the mythic power of sacred history. Genetic mapping helps to show that a mutation from RH positive to RH negative occurred somewhere in the Basque area of Europe maybe as much as 40,000 years ago. So what happened then? Ice Age Polarity Reversal Was a Global Event: Extremely Brief Reversal of Geomagnetic Field, Climate Variability,
and Super Volcano.
Such a global event greatly increases the possibilities of mutations and turning off of genes -- gene conversion and gene deletion, normal genetic processes -- a change in molecular structure. A repressed gene is turned off. This process is not externally "introduced"; it is a natural molecular process. Pseudo-scientific confabulation about Rh- produce no credible sources, but merely repeat internet memes or Belief Systems (BS).
Most mammals only have one RH gene, whose position corresponds to the human RHCE gene. The RHD gene arose from the duplication of an ancestral RH gene during mammalian evolution. An RHD deletion occurred9 during the evolution of hominids, so that many modern humans completely lack the RHD gene. This haplotype (glossary) is the leading cause of the D negative phenotype worldwide. Gene mutations spread in areas of genetic isolation.
The human genome—our complete set of genetic information—includes thousands of genes. Some of the very first human genes to be identified were those that control blood type.
ABO blood groups and the Rh blood groups.
The Rh blood group is determined by a single gene with two alleles—positive and negative.
The positive (Rh+) allele is dominant, so person with Rh+/Rh+ or Rh+/Rh− are Rh- positive.
Individuals with two Rh− alleles are Rh-negative.
The ABO blood group has three alleles IA, IB, and i. Alleles IA and IB are codominant.
These alleles produce molecules known as antigens on the surface of red blood cells.
The RH alleles can be grouped according to their molecular structure. For the most part, these groups show point mutations (SNP, single nucleotide polymorphisms) which cause missense, nonsense, frame shift or splice site mutations (glossary).
Let’s discuss the Rhesus blood group system first. This system has multiple antigens, but the most important is encoded by the RHD locus, and is called RhD or simply Rh factor. The phenotypes associated with the RHD locus are either the presence of Rh factor (Rh positive) or the absence of the Rh factor (Rh negative).
RHD-CE-D hybrid alleles are often formed by gene conversion. http://www.nature.com/scitable/popular-students-page/68
Active genes can turn other genes on or off, including themselves.
Human traits are not always controlled by a single gene; sometimes the environment [epigenetics] may “create” a trait.
The examples of molecular changes and their effects on the D antigen (Table I) show how the D antigen phenotype correlates with the molecular structure.
NO MONKEYS, NO ALIENS, NO ENKI
People make up fantasies to account for what they don't know. Their ignorance is filled with fantasy.
The genes for bloodtype and Rh factor are not even on the same chromosomes.
Rh factor has NOTHING to do with "monkey genes". but comes from the animals used to test the process.
Humans, chimpanzees and monkeys share DNA but not gene regulatory mechanisms. Up to 40 percent of the differences in the expression or activity patterns of genes between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys can be explained by regulatory mechanisms that determine whether and how a gene's recipe for a protein is transcribed to the RNA molecule that carries the recipe instructions to the sites in cells where proteins are manufactured.
A given gene, in almost all cases, codes for a protein. When that gene is present and unmutated, the protein is present and effective. In the case of Rh factor, the protein is present ("Rh-positive") or not ("Rh-negative"). If you have one copy of the gene, you've got the protein, so it doesn't matter if you have one or two -- that's dominance. Only if you have NO copies of the gene can you be Rh-negative. Recessive traits are those that require the absence of a certain protein (or mutation) to show up; blue eyes, for instance, are recessive because it's only possible to have blue eyes in the (near-total) absence of melanin, so if you have any genes for producing melanin, your eyes won't be blue.
The clinically essential difference between Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative hinges on the presence or absence of the RhD protein in the erythrocyte membrane (D positive resp. D negative).
It is unusual for erythrocyte or other cell proteins to be lacking entirely in many humans. This particular genetic feature contributes to the strong antigenicity of the RhD protein. During duplication of the ancestral RH gene, two DNA segments were formed, known as the Rhesus box (Figure 1)9. The RHD deletion resulted from an unequal crossover (figure 3), which occurs when two DNA segments are highly homologous, such as those of the Rhesus box. The RHD negative haplotype commonest among Europeans is characterized by a hybrid Rhesus box. Subtle molecular differences between the various forms of the Rhesus box are used for genetic testing.
Aside from lack of the RhD protein, the D negative phenotype is caused mainly by a series of changes in the RhD protein, which in turn change the phenotype of the D antigen.
The RhD protein traverses the erythrocyte membrane several times, leaving only part of the protein exposed at the surface (Figure 2). If an amino acid is substituted in a portion of the RhD protein which is located at the outer surface of the erythrocyte membrane, single epitopes of the D antigen can be lost or new antigens can be formed.
The structure of the RH gene site facilitates gene conversions (figure 4)10. In the RHD gene some homologous exons of the RHCE gene will be inserted, forming a hybrid Rhesus allele which expresses a corresponding hybrid protein. This is how the D categories III to VI arose. The changes usually affect a long string of amino acids, which is always located on the erythrocyte surface.
If an amino acid substitution is located within the erythrocyte membrane or the cytoplasm, this will result in a weak D phenotype (figure 2)11. Integration of the RhD protein into the membrane will be hindered, leading to quantitative weakening of the D antigen. There is usually no qualitative change, and hence no anti-D immunization. The weak D type 1 is the commonest in Europe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2535884/
TARGET GENES CAN BE TURNED OFF BY RADIATION AND EPIGENETICS
Lowered Field Strength > Geomagnetic Excursion > Increased Cosmic Ray & Solar Bombardment > Genetic Mutation
ScienceDaily — Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: "The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today's configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today's field," explains Norbert Nowaczyk. "The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast." During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today's field strength. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.
The human RH locus appears to consist of two structural genes, D and CE, which map on the short arm p34-36 of chromosome 1 and specify a most complex system of blood-group genetic polymorphisms. Here we describe a family study of the Evans (also known as "D..") phenotype, a codominant trait associated with both qualitative and quantitative changes in D-antigen expression. A cataract-causing mutation was also inherited in this family and was apparently cotransmitted with Evans, suggesting a chromosomal linkage of these two otherwise unrelated traits. Southern blot analysis and allele-specific PCR showed the linkage of Evans with a SphI RFLP marker and the presence of a hybrid gene in the RH locus. To delineate the pattern of gene expression, the composition and structure of Rh-polypeptide transcripts were characterized by reverse transcriptase-PCR and nucleotide sequencing. This resulted in the identification of a novel Rh transcript expressed only in the Evans-positive erythroid cells. Sequence analysis showed that the transcript maintained a normal open reading frame but occurred as a CE-D-CE composite in which exons 2-6 of the CE gene were replaced by the homologous counterpart of the D gene. This hybrid gene was predicted to encode a CE-D-CE fusion protein whose surface expression correlates with the Evans phenotype. The mode and consequence of such a recombination event suggest the occurrence, in the RH locus, of a segmental DNA transfer via the mechanism of gene conversion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1914783/
Authenticity and legitimacy are based on factual history and the mythic power of sacred history. Genetic mapping helps to show that a mutation from RH positive to RH negative occurred somewhere in the Basque area of Europe maybe as much as 40,000 years ago. So what happened then? Ice Age Polarity Reversal Was a Global Event: Extremely Brief Reversal of Geomagnetic Field, Climate Variability,
and Super Volcano.
Such a global event greatly increases the possibilities of mutations and turning off of genes -- gene conversion and gene deletion, normal genetic processes -- a change in molecular structure. A repressed gene is turned off. This process is not externally "introduced"; it is a natural molecular process. Pseudo-scientific confabulation about Rh- produce no credible sources, but merely repeat internet memes or Belief Systems (BS).
Most mammals only have one RH gene, whose position corresponds to the human RHCE gene. The RHD gene arose from the duplication of an ancestral RH gene during mammalian evolution. An RHD deletion occurred9 during the evolution of hominids, so that many modern humans completely lack the RHD gene. This haplotype (glossary) is the leading cause of the D negative phenotype worldwide. Gene mutations spread in areas of genetic isolation.
The human genome—our complete set of genetic information—includes thousands of genes. Some of the very first human genes to be identified were those that control blood type.
ABO blood groups and the Rh blood groups.
The Rh blood group is determined by a single gene with two alleles—positive and negative.
The positive (Rh+) allele is dominant, so person with Rh+/Rh+ or Rh+/Rh− are Rh- positive.
Individuals with two Rh− alleles are Rh-negative.
The ABO blood group has three alleles IA, IB, and i. Alleles IA and IB are codominant.
These alleles produce molecules known as antigens on the surface of red blood cells.
The RH alleles can be grouped according to their molecular structure. For the most part, these groups show point mutations (SNP, single nucleotide polymorphisms) which cause missense, nonsense, frame shift or splice site mutations (glossary).
Let’s discuss the Rhesus blood group system first. This system has multiple antigens, but the most important is encoded by the RHD locus, and is called RhD or simply Rh factor. The phenotypes associated with the RHD locus are either the presence of Rh factor (Rh positive) or the absence of the Rh factor (Rh negative).
RHD-CE-D hybrid alleles are often formed by gene conversion. http://www.nature.com/scitable/popular-students-page/68
Active genes can turn other genes on or off, including themselves.
Human traits are not always controlled by a single gene; sometimes the environment [epigenetics] may “create” a trait.
The examples of molecular changes and their effects on the D antigen (Table I) show how the D antigen phenotype correlates with the molecular structure.
NO MONKEYS, NO ALIENS, NO ENKI
People make up fantasies to account for what they don't know. Their ignorance is filled with fantasy.
The genes for bloodtype and Rh factor are not even on the same chromosomes.
Rh factor has NOTHING to do with "monkey genes". but comes from the animals used to test the process.
Humans, chimpanzees and monkeys share DNA but not gene regulatory mechanisms. Up to 40 percent of the differences in the expression or activity patterns of genes between humans, chimpanzees and rhesus monkeys can be explained by regulatory mechanisms that determine whether and how a gene's recipe for a protein is transcribed to the RNA molecule that carries the recipe instructions to the sites in cells where proteins are manufactured.
A given gene, in almost all cases, codes for a protein. When that gene is present and unmutated, the protein is present and effective. In the case of Rh factor, the protein is present ("Rh-positive") or not ("Rh-negative"). If you have one copy of the gene, you've got the protein, so it doesn't matter if you have one or two -- that's dominance. Only if you have NO copies of the gene can you be Rh-negative. Recessive traits are those that require the absence of a certain protein (or mutation) to show up; blue eyes, for instance, are recessive because it's only possible to have blue eyes in the (near-total) absence of melanin, so if you have any genes for producing melanin, your eyes won't be blue.
The clinically essential difference between Rhesus positive and Rhesus negative hinges on the presence or absence of the RhD protein in the erythrocyte membrane (D positive resp. D negative).
It is unusual for erythrocyte or other cell proteins to be lacking entirely in many humans. This particular genetic feature contributes to the strong antigenicity of the RhD protein. During duplication of the ancestral RH gene, two DNA segments were formed, known as the Rhesus box (Figure 1)9. The RHD deletion resulted from an unequal crossover (figure 3), which occurs when two DNA segments are highly homologous, such as those of the Rhesus box. The RHD negative haplotype commonest among Europeans is characterized by a hybrid Rhesus box. Subtle molecular differences between the various forms of the Rhesus box are used for genetic testing.
Aside from lack of the RhD protein, the D negative phenotype is caused mainly by a series of changes in the RhD protein, which in turn change the phenotype of the D antigen.
The RhD protein traverses the erythrocyte membrane several times, leaving only part of the protein exposed at the surface (Figure 2). If an amino acid is substituted in a portion of the RhD protein which is located at the outer surface of the erythrocyte membrane, single epitopes of the D antigen can be lost or new antigens can be formed.
The structure of the RH gene site facilitates gene conversions (figure 4)10. In the RHD gene some homologous exons of the RHCE gene will be inserted, forming a hybrid Rhesus allele which expresses a corresponding hybrid protein. This is how the D categories III to VI arose. The changes usually affect a long string of amino acids, which is always located on the erythrocyte surface.
If an amino acid substitution is located within the erythrocyte membrane or the cytoplasm, this will result in a weak D phenotype (figure 2)11. Integration of the RhD protein into the membrane will be hindered, leading to quantitative weakening of the D antigen. There is usually no qualitative change, and hence no anti-D immunization. The weak D type 1 is the commonest in Europe. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2535884/
TARGET GENES CAN BE TURNED OFF BY RADIATION AND EPIGENETICS
Lowered Field Strength > Geomagnetic Excursion > Increased Cosmic Ray & Solar Bombardment > Genetic Mutation
ScienceDaily — Some 41,000 years ago, a complete and rapid reversal of the geomagnetic field occurred. Magnetic studies of the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences on sediment cores from the Black Sea show that during this period, during the last ice age, a compass at the Black Sea would have pointed to the south instead of north. Moreover, data obtained by the research team formed around GFZ researchers Dr. Norbert Nowaczyk and Prof. Helge Arz, together with additional data from other studies in the North Atlantic, the South Pacific and Hawaii, prove that this polarity reversal was a global event. Their results are published in the latest issue of the scientific journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters. What is remarkable is the speed of the reversal: "The field geometry of reversed polarity, with field lines pointing into the opposite direction when compared to today's configuration, lasted for only about 440 years, and it was associated with a field strength that was only one quarter of today's field," explains Norbert Nowaczyk. "The actual polarity changes lasted only 250 years. In terms of geological time scales, that is very fast." During this period, the field was even weaker, with only 5% of today's field strength. As a consequence, Earth nearly completely lost its protection shield against hard cosmic rays, leading to a significantly increased radiation exposure.
The human RH locus appears to consist of two structural genes, D and CE, which map on the short arm p34-36 of chromosome 1 and specify a most complex system of blood-group genetic polymorphisms. Here we describe a family study of the Evans (also known as "D..") phenotype, a codominant trait associated with both qualitative and quantitative changes in D-antigen expression. A cataract-causing mutation was also inherited in this family and was apparently cotransmitted with Evans, suggesting a chromosomal linkage of these two otherwise unrelated traits. Southern blot analysis and allele-specific PCR showed the linkage of Evans with a SphI RFLP marker and the presence of a hybrid gene in the RH locus. To delineate the pattern of gene expression, the composition and structure of Rh-polypeptide transcripts were characterized by reverse transcriptase-PCR and nucleotide sequencing. This resulted in the identification of a novel Rh transcript expressed only in the Evans-positive erythroid cells. Sequence analysis showed that the transcript maintained a normal open reading frame but occurred as a CE-D-CE composite in which exons 2-6 of the CE gene were replaced by the homologous counterpart of the D gene. This hybrid gene was predicted to encode a CE-D-CE fusion protein whose surface expression correlates with the Evans phenotype. The mode and consequence of such a recombination event suggest the occurrence, in the RH locus, of a segmental DNA transfer via the mechanism of gene conversion. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1914783/
SHADES OF OUR PAST
The Meaning of Genealogy
THE ROYAL WE
Families of the Past, Our Ancestors Want Their Stories Told
They Touched You Long Ago Without Knowing Your Name
The Past is Within Us, Informing Us
Our Whole Being is Our Memory
The Meaning of Genealogy
THE ROYAL WE
Families of the Past, Our Ancestors Want Their Stories Told
They Touched You Long Ago Without Knowing Your Name
The Past is Within Us, Informing Us
Our Whole Being is Our Memory
Genealogy of the Soul
Lo there do I see my father; Lo there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers; Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do call me, they bid me take my place among them... --13th Warrior
We live in so many lives and so many lives live in us.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 440.
If you are growing up with no connection from the past, it is like being born without eyes and ears and trying to perceive the external world with accuracy.
~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 36.
We think that we are born today tabula rasa without a history, but man has always lived in the myth. To think that man is born without a history within himself— that is a disease. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 36.
Natural science may say, "You need no connection with the past; you can wipe it out," but that is a mutilation of the human being. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 36.
In my case it must have been a passionate urge to understand that brought about my birth. For that is the strongest element in my nature. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 297.
The life of man is a dubious experiment. It is a tremendous phenomenon only in numerical terms. Individually, it is so fleeting, so insufficient, that it is literally a miracle that anything can exist and develop at all. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 6.
Just as a man still is what he always was, so he already is what he will become.
~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 390.
Jung wrote: “I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages—within myself. We have only finished the Middle Ages of—others. I must begin early, in that period when the hermits died out.” The psychological history of humanity, as Jung saw it, lived on in the soul.
I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the self. There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the self. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 196.
The spiritual climax is reached at the moment when life ends. Human life, therefore, is the vehicle of the highest perfection it is possible to attain; it alone generates the karma that makes it possible for the dead man to abide in the perpetual light of the Voidness without clinging to any object, and thus to rest on the hub of the wheel of rebirth, freed from all illusion of genesis and decay. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 524-525, Para 856.
When I was working on the stone tablets, I became aware of the fateful links between me and my ancestors. I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished. It is difficult to determine whether these questions are more of a personal or more of a general (collective) nature. It seems to me that the latter is the case. A collective problem, if not recognized as such, always appears as a personal problem, and in individual cases may give the impression that something is out of order in the realm of the personal psyche. The personal sphere is indeed disturbed, but such disturbances need not be primary; they may well be secondary, the consequence of an insupportable change in the social atmosphere. The cause of disturbance is, therefore, not to be sought in the personal surroundings, but rather in the collective situation. Psychotherapy has hitherto taken this matter far too little into account. ~Jung; Memories, Dreams, Reflections; Pages 233-234.
Just like the sun, which is also such a star, which is a God and grandfather of souls, the star of the individual is also like the sun, a God and grandfather of the souls. He is visible from time to time, just as I have described him. His light is blue, like that of a distant star. He is far out in space, cold and solitary, since he is beyond death. To attain individuality, we need a large share of death. ~Carl Jung’s Soul, The Red Book, Appendix C, Page 371.
Thanks to my isolation I have been slipping away from the world and holding converse not with the men of today but with voices long past. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 544.
It is like the life of an individual, which suddenly becomes visible somewhere but rests on definite though invisible foundations, so has no proper beginning and no proper end, ceasing just as suddenly and leaving questions behind which should have been answered. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 179-180.
The imminence of death and the vision of the world in conspectu mortis is in truth a curious experience: the sense of the present stretches out beyond today, looking back into centuries gone by, and forward into futures yet unborn. ~Carl Jung, Letters, Vol. II, Page 10.
Those for whom tradition means mere knowledge and book-learning will not be able to interpret the past as the living present. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
You are quite right when you say that the modern world prefers living en masse and thus forgets the bond with the past which is characteristic of every culture.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
It seems to me perfectly possible to teach history in the widest sense not as dry-as-dust, lifeless book-knowledge but to understand it in terms of the fully alive present.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
Those for whom tradition means mere knowledge and book-learning will not be able to interpret the past as the living present. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
Lo there do I see my father; Lo there do I see my mother, my sisters and my brothers; Lo there do I see the line of my people, back to the beginning. Lo, they do call me, they bid me take my place among them... --13th Warrior
We live in so many lives and so many lives live in us.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 440.
If you are growing up with no connection from the past, it is like being born without eyes and ears and trying to perceive the external world with accuracy.
~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 36.
We think that we are born today tabula rasa without a history, but man has always lived in the myth. To think that man is born without a history within himself— that is a disease. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 36.
Natural science may say, "You need no connection with the past; you can wipe it out," but that is a mutilation of the human being. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 36.
In my case it must have been a passionate urge to understand that brought about my birth. For that is the strongest element in my nature. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 297.
The life of man is a dubious experiment. It is a tremendous phenomenon only in numerical terms. Individually, it is so fleeting, so insufficient, that it is literally a miracle that anything can exist and develop at all. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 6.
Just as a man still is what he always was, so he already is what he will become.
~Carl Jung, CW 11, Para 390.
Jung wrote: “I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages—within myself. We have only finished the Middle Ages of—others. I must begin early, in that period when the hermits died out.” The psychological history of humanity, as Jung saw it, lived on in the soul.
I began to understand that the goal of psychic development is the self. There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the self. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 196.
The spiritual climax is reached at the moment when life ends. Human life, therefore, is the vehicle of the highest perfection it is possible to attain; it alone generates the karma that makes it possible for the dead man to abide in the perpetual light of the Voidness without clinging to any object, and thus to rest on the hub of the wheel of rebirth, freed from all illusion of genesis and decay. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 524-525, Para 856.
When I was working on the stone tablets, I became aware of the fateful links between me and my ancestors. I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished. It is difficult to determine whether these questions are more of a personal or more of a general (collective) nature. It seems to me that the latter is the case. A collective problem, if not recognized as such, always appears as a personal problem, and in individual cases may give the impression that something is out of order in the realm of the personal psyche. The personal sphere is indeed disturbed, but such disturbances need not be primary; they may well be secondary, the consequence of an insupportable change in the social atmosphere. The cause of disturbance is, therefore, not to be sought in the personal surroundings, but rather in the collective situation. Psychotherapy has hitherto taken this matter far too little into account. ~Jung; Memories, Dreams, Reflections; Pages 233-234.
Just like the sun, which is also such a star, which is a God and grandfather of souls, the star of the individual is also like the sun, a God and grandfather of the souls. He is visible from time to time, just as I have described him. His light is blue, like that of a distant star. He is far out in space, cold and solitary, since he is beyond death. To attain individuality, we need a large share of death. ~Carl Jung’s Soul, The Red Book, Appendix C, Page 371.
Thanks to my isolation I have been slipping away from the world and holding converse not with the men of today but with voices long past. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 544.
It is like the life of an individual, which suddenly becomes visible somewhere but rests on definite though invisible foundations, so has no proper beginning and no proper end, ceasing just as suddenly and leaving questions behind which should have been answered. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 179-180.
The imminence of death and the vision of the world in conspectu mortis is in truth a curious experience: the sense of the present stretches out beyond today, looking back into centuries gone by, and forward into futures yet unborn. ~Carl Jung, Letters, Vol. II, Page 10.
Those for whom tradition means mere knowledge and book-learning will not be able to interpret the past as the living present. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
You are quite right when you say that the modern world prefers living en masse and thus forgets the bond with the past which is characteristic of every culture.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
It seems to me perfectly possible to teach history in the widest sense not as dry-as-dust, lifeless book-knowledge but to understand it in terms of the fully alive present.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
Those for whom tradition means mere knowledge and book-learning will not be able to interpret the past as the living present. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 36-37.
Branching Out
Today I finished a long essay on the "Philosophical Tree," which kept me company during my illness. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
Writing it [Philosophical Tree] was an enjoyable substitute for the fact that so few of my contemporaries can understand what is meant by the psychology of the unconscious.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, Para 321.
Today I finished a long essay on the "Philosophical Tree," which kept me company during my illness. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
Writing it [Philosophical Tree] was an enjoyable substitute for the fact that so few of my contemporaries can understand what is meant by the psychology of the unconscious.
~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 104
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, Para 321.
ENLIVEN YOUR FAMILY TREE
GETTING INTO YOUR PAST
10,000 Ancestors Will Dream of Me
SHAKE YOUR FAMILY TREE
Digging Up the Dirt on Your Ancestors
The World Tree is said to dwell in three worlds: Its roots reach down to the underworld, its trunk sits on the Earth, and its branches extend up to the heavens. Many cultures share a belief that this tree is the Axis Mundi or World Axis which supports or holds up the cosmos.
We should not want to try to escape upward or downward from the world.
~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 25.
There is no point in delivering yourself over to the last drop. . . . In my view it is absolutely essential always to have our consciousness well enough in hand to pay sufficient attention to our reality, to the Here and Now. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 239.
A "complete" life does not consist in a theoretical completeness, but in the fact that one accepts, without reservation, the particular fatal tissue in which one finds oneself embedded, and that one tries to make sense of it or to create a cosmos from the chaotic mess into which one is born. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 171.
The whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals. In our most private and subjective lives we are not only the passive witnesses of our age, and its sufferers, but also its makers. We make our epoch. ~Carl Jung, CW 10. Page 149.
A change in the attitude of the individual can bring about a renewal in the spirit of the nations. ~Carl Jung, Essays on Contemporary Events
I tried to find the best truth and the clearest light I could attain to, and since I have reached my highest point I can't transcend any more, I am guarding my light and my treasure, convinced that nobody would gain and I myself would be badly, even hopelessly injured, if I should lose it. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 597.
Then turn to the dead listen to their lament and accept them with love. Be not their blind spokesman / there are prophets who in the end have stoned themselves. But we seek salvation and hence we need to revere what has become and to accept the dead, who have fluttered through the air and lived like bats under our roofs since time immemorial. The new will be built on the old and the meaning of what has become will become manifold. our poverty in what has become you will thus deliver into the wealth of the future. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 297.
When mediums cultivate relationships between the living and the dead, argues Diana Espírito Santo, they develop, learn, sense, dream, and connect to multiple spirits (muertos), expanding the borders of the self. This understanding of selfhood is radically different from Enlightenment ideas of an autonomous, bounded self and holds fascinating implications for prophecy, healing, and self-consciousness. ...self-making process permeates all aspects of life...from Developing the Dead
The dead who besiege us are souls who have not fulfilled the principium individuationis, or else they would have become distant stars. Insofar as we do not fulfill it, the dead have a claim on us and besiege us and we cannot escape them. ~Jung; The Red Book; App. C; P.370
But how can I attain the knowledge of the heart? You can attain this knowledge only by living your life to the full. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 233.
"Every place has its particular energy, its particular frequency. Just like a certain scent, certain fragrance, every place—every continent, every city—has its own vibration. Where generations have lived, loved, suffered, fought, raised children, prospered, suffered again and again, experienced happiness—all these are left as sediments in the overall vibration.
- Igor Kufayev.
The findings provide evidence of "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance" - that the environment can affect an individual's genetics, which can in turn be passed on.
One of the researchers Dr Brian Dias told the BBC: "This might be one mechanism that descendants show imprints of their ancestor.
"There is absolutely no doubt that what happens to the sperm and egg will affect subsequent generations."
Prof Marcus Pembrey, from University College London, said the findings were "highly relevant to phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders" and provided "compelling evidence" that a form of memory could be passed between generations.
He commented: "It is high time public health researchers took human transgenerational responses seriously.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25156510
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, para 321.
GETTING INTO YOUR PAST
10,000 Ancestors Will Dream of Me
SHAKE YOUR FAMILY TREE
Digging Up the Dirt on Your Ancestors
The World Tree is said to dwell in three worlds: Its roots reach down to the underworld, its trunk sits on the Earth, and its branches extend up to the heavens. Many cultures share a belief that this tree is the Axis Mundi or World Axis which supports or holds up the cosmos.
We should not want to try to escape upward or downward from the world.
~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 25.
There is no point in delivering yourself over to the last drop. . . . In my view it is absolutely essential always to have our consciousness well enough in hand to pay sufficient attention to our reality, to the Here and Now. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Page 239.
A "complete" life does not consist in a theoretical completeness, but in the fact that one accepts, without reservation, the particular fatal tissue in which one finds oneself embedded, and that one tries to make sense of it or to create a cosmos from the chaotic mess into which one is born. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 171.
The whole future, the whole history of the world, ultimately springs as a gigantic summation from these hidden sources in individuals. In our most private and subjective lives we are not only the passive witnesses of our age, and its sufferers, but also its makers. We make our epoch. ~Carl Jung, CW 10. Page 149.
A change in the attitude of the individual can bring about a renewal in the spirit of the nations. ~Carl Jung, Essays on Contemporary Events
I tried to find the best truth and the clearest light I could attain to, and since I have reached my highest point I can't transcend any more, I am guarding my light and my treasure, convinced that nobody would gain and I myself would be badly, even hopelessly injured, if I should lose it. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Page 597.
Then turn to the dead listen to their lament and accept them with love. Be not their blind spokesman / there are prophets who in the end have stoned themselves. But we seek salvation and hence we need to revere what has become and to accept the dead, who have fluttered through the air and lived like bats under our roofs since time immemorial. The new will be built on the old and the meaning of what has become will become manifold. our poverty in what has become you will thus deliver into the wealth of the future. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 297.
When mediums cultivate relationships between the living and the dead, argues Diana Espírito Santo, they develop, learn, sense, dream, and connect to multiple spirits (muertos), expanding the borders of the self. This understanding of selfhood is radically different from Enlightenment ideas of an autonomous, bounded self and holds fascinating implications for prophecy, healing, and self-consciousness. ...self-making process permeates all aspects of life...from Developing the Dead
The dead who besiege us are souls who have not fulfilled the principium individuationis, or else they would have become distant stars. Insofar as we do not fulfill it, the dead have a claim on us and besiege us and we cannot escape them. ~Jung; The Red Book; App. C; P.370
But how can I attain the knowledge of the heart? You can attain this knowledge only by living your life to the full. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 233.
"Every place has its particular energy, its particular frequency. Just like a certain scent, certain fragrance, every place—every continent, every city—has its own vibration. Where generations have lived, loved, suffered, fought, raised children, prospered, suffered again and again, experienced happiness—all these are left as sediments in the overall vibration.
- Igor Kufayev.
The findings provide evidence of "transgenerational epigenetic inheritance" - that the environment can affect an individual's genetics, which can in turn be passed on.
One of the researchers Dr Brian Dias told the BBC: "This might be one mechanism that descendants show imprints of their ancestor.
"There is absolutely no doubt that what happens to the sperm and egg will affect subsequent generations."
Prof Marcus Pembrey, from University College London, said the findings were "highly relevant to phobias, anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorders" and provided "compelling evidence" that a form of memory could be passed between generations.
He commented: "It is high time public health researchers took human transgenerational responses seriously.
http://www.bbc.com/news/health-25156510
The tree of life may have been, in the first instance, a fruit-bearing genealogical tree, and hence a kind of tribal mother. ~Carl Jung, CW 5, para 321.
THE LIVING PAST IS PRESENT
THOSE WHO LIE BURIED WITHIN
They Were Here Too
Discovering Our Past in the Present
THOSE WHO LIE BURIED WITHIN
They Were Here Too
Discovering Our Past in the Present
"...man is just that which he is born, and he is not born as tabula rasa but as a reality."
...the psyche is by no means tabula rasa here, but a definite mixture and combination of genes, which are there from the very first moment of our life; and they give a definite character, even to the little child. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 22.
...the psyche is by no means tabula rasa here, but a definite mixture and combination of genes, which are there from the very first moment of our life; and they give a definite character, even to the little child. ~Carl Jung, Evans Conversations, Page 22.
GUIDES FROM BEYOND
Timelessness, Trauma & Treasures
This meaning of events is the supreme meaning, that is not in events, and not in the soul, but is the God standing between events and the soul, the mediator of life, the way, the bridge and the going across. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 239.
Our passion usually only sees what is ahead,
but there is plenty to explore in our personal past if we delve deeply enough.
Genealogy is a passionate process of self-discovery. As Jung said,
"Thoughts rise to the surface which reach back into the centuries,
and accordingly anticipate a remote future." - Iona Miller
If I ask the value of my life, I can only measure myself against the centuries and then I must say, Yes, it means something. Measured by the ideas of today, it means nothing.
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams Reflections, Page xii
Death is a drawing together of two worlds, not an end. We are the bridge.
~Carl Jung, J.E.T., Page 95.
Great is the need of the dead. But the God needs no sacrificial prayer. He has neither goodwill nor ill will. He is kind and fearful, though not actually so, but only seems to you thus. But the dead hear your prayers since they are still of human nature and not free of goodwill and ill will. ~Unknown woman to Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 339
In every adult there lurks a child--an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the personality which wants to develop and become whole. -Jung, CW 17: 286
I am dealing with psychic phenomena and I am not at all concerned with the naive and, as a rule, unanswerable question whether a thing is historically, i.e., concretely, true or not. It is enough that it has been said and believed. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 95-98.
Timelessness, Trauma & Treasures
This meaning of events is the supreme meaning, that is not in events, and not in the soul, but is the God standing between events and the soul, the mediator of life, the way, the bridge and the going across. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 239.
Our passion usually only sees what is ahead,
but there is plenty to explore in our personal past if we delve deeply enough.
Genealogy is a passionate process of self-discovery. As Jung said,
"Thoughts rise to the surface which reach back into the centuries,
and accordingly anticipate a remote future." - Iona Miller
If I ask the value of my life, I can only measure myself against the centuries and then I must say, Yes, it means something. Measured by the ideas of today, it means nothing.
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams Reflections, Page xii
Death is a drawing together of two worlds, not an end. We are the bridge.
~Carl Jung, J.E.T., Page 95.
Great is the need of the dead. But the God needs no sacrificial prayer. He has neither goodwill nor ill will. He is kind and fearful, though not actually so, but only seems to you thus. But the dead hear your prayers since they are still of human nature and not free of goodwill and ill will. ~Unknown woman to Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 339
In every adult there lurks a child--an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention, and education. That is the part of the personality which wants to develop and become whole. -Jung, CW 17: 286
I am dealing with psychic phenomena and I am not at all concerned with the naive and, as a rule, unanswerable question whether a thing is historically, i.e., concretely, true or not. It is enough that it has been said and believed. ~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. II, Pages 95-98.
Eve Takes A Bite, Io Miller
COSMIC SERPENT
THE SNAKE IN OUR TREE
Tracing the Serpentine Paths of Descent
through the Ancestral Field
Migrations, Mores, Meaning, & Memory
The Serpents in our Tree are the individual lines of descent from various
common ancestors. They lead us to question who and what we are,
what we know and what we thought we knew about our roots. They offer us Knowledge. Like it or not, they are all still a part of our Truth -- that we are born and we die -- and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
"We fear our serpent," Jung said, ''as we also fear the numinosum - so we run from it. . . . All we have to give the world and God is ourselves as we are.
What does power avail us? We do not want to rule.
We want to live, we want light and warmth, and hence we need yours.
Just as the greening earth and every living body needs the sun, so we as spirits need your light and your warmth. A sunless spirit becomes the parasite of the body. But the God feeds the spirit. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 286.
THE SNAKE IN OUR TREE
Tracing the Serpentine Paths of Descent
through the Ancestral Field
Migrations, Mores, Meaning, & Memory
The Serpents in our Tree are the individual lines of descent from various
common ancestors. They lead us to question who and what we are,
what we know and what we thought we knew about our roots. They offer us Knowledge. Like it or not, they are all still a part of our Truth -- that we are born and we die -- and we stand on the shoulders of those who came before us.
"We fear our serpent," Jung said, ''as we also fear the numinosum - so we run from it. . . . All we have to give the world and God is ourselves as we are.
What does power avail us? We do not want to rule.
We want to live, we want light and warmth, and hence we need yours.
Just as the greening earth and every living body needs the sun, so we as spirits need your light and your warmth. A sunless spirit becomes the parasite of the body. But the God feeds the spirit. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 286.
The Tree of Life [Klimt]
is an important symbol in many theologies, philosophies and mythologies. It signifies the connection between heaven and earth and the underworld. This concept is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's famous mural, The Tree of Life. The mural also has another significance, being the only landscape created by the artist during his golden period. Klimt used oil painting techniques with gold paint, to create luxurious art pieces, during that time.
The concept of the tree of life is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's painting, in a bold and original manner. The swirling branches create mythical symbolism, suggesting the perpetuity of life. The branches twist, twirl, turn, spiral and undulate, creating a tangle of strong branches, long vines and fragile threads, an expression of life's complexity. With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree of life roots into the earth beneath, creating the connection between heaven and earth, a concept often used to explain the concept of the tree of life, in many cultures, religions and ideologies. The tree of life illustrated by Klimt also creates another connection, with the underworld, signifying the final determinism governing over any living thing, that is born, grows, and then returns back into the earth.
Gustav Klimt's The Tree of Life is a symbol of unity and an expression of masculine and feminine. The feminine symbolizes sustenance, care and growth, while the masculine is expressed through the use of phallic representations. Life itself and the tree of life are born from this union of opposites. Others say the union symbolizes the virtues of strength, wisdom and beauty. The tree reaching for the sky is a symbol of our perpetual yearning for becoming more, yet our roots remain bound to the earth.
THE DEEP END OF THE GENE POOL
is an important symbol in many theologies, philosophies and mythologies. It signifies the connection between heaven and earth and the underworld. This concept is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's famous mural, The Tree of Life. The mural also has another significance, being the only landscape created by the artist during his golden period. Klimt used oil painting techniques with gold paint, to create luxurious art pieces, during that time.
The concept of the tree of life is illustrated by Gustav Klimt's painting, in a bold and original manner. The swirling branches create mythical symbolism, suggesting the perpetuity of life. The branches twist, twirl, turn, spiral and undulate, creating a tangle of strong branches, long vines and fragile threads, an expression of life's complexity. With its branches reaching for the sky, the tree of life roots into the earth beneath, creating the connection between heaven and earth, a concept often used to explain the concept of the tree of life, in many cultures, religions and ideologies. The tree of life illustrated by Klimt also creates another connection, with the underworld, signifying the final determinism governing over any living thing, that is born, grows, and then returns back into the earth.
Gustav Klimt's The Tree of Life is a symbol of unity and an expression of masculine and feminine. The feminine symbolizes sustenance, care and growth, while the masculine is expressed through the use of phallic representations. Life itself and the tree of life are born from this union of opposites. Others say the union symbolizes the virtues of strength, wisdom and beauty. The tree reaching for the sky is a symbol of our perpetual yearning for becoming more, yet our roots remain bound to the earth.
THE DEEP END OF THE GENE POOL
Our study of our genealogy and ancestors illuminates the significance and implications of the ecological, economic, psychological, and cultural crises we now face. Deeper forces shape the contemporary zeitgeist connecting us with the major events of our time. We can place our moment in history in the context of great cyclical patterns of change, migration, and worldview.
SURVIVAL OF THE IMAGE
THE WAY OF THE ANCESTORS
AGONY & GRACE; DEATH & REDEMPTION; HOPES & DREAMS; THE ROYAL ART
Our psychological orientation determines how we see and interpret reality.
Our ancestors may have passed, but their images remain embodied within us.
Great is the need of the dead. But the God needs no sacrificial prayer. He has neither goodwill nor ill will. He is kind and fearful, though not actually so, but only seems to you thus. But the dead hear your prayers since they are still of human nature and not free of goodwill and ill will.
~Unknown woman to Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 339.
Then turn to the dead listen to their lament and accept them with love. Be not their blind spokesman / there are prophets who in the end have stoned themselves.
But we seek salvation and hence we need to revere what has become and to accept the dead, who have fluttered through the air and lived like bats under our roofs since time immemorial.
The new will be built on the old and the meaning of what has become will become manifold.
Your poverty in what has become you will thus deliver into the wealth of the future. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 297.
Therapeutic Initiation
Inner Voices: Reverence Toward the Souls of the Ancestors
"Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil, this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is night and Hell." ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 244.
Psychologically this means that the souls of the ancestors (potential factors, qualities, talents, possibilities, and so on, which we have inherited from all the lines of our ancestry) are waiting in the unconscious, and are ready at any time to begin a new growth.
~Carl Jung, ETH, Alchemy, Page 230.
These are, so to speak, the re-animated souls of the ancestors which have been lying dormant in the unconscious, and the alchemists call these units or souls the sleepers or the dead in Hades who are resurrected by the "holy waters" (that is the miraculous water of alchemy, the fertilizing Mercury). ~Jung, ETH, Alchemy, Page 230.
VITA BREVIS
Life, so-called, is a short episode between two great mysteries, which yet are one. I cannot mourn the dead. They endure, but we pass over. ~Jung, Letters Vol. 1, 483.
"What is stirred in us is that faraway background, those immemorial patterns of the human mind, which we have not acquired but have inherited from the dim ages of the past."
--Jung, "The Structure of the Psyche", CW 8: §315
The various lines of psychic development start from one common stock whose roots reach back into all the strata of the past. This also explains the psychological parallelisms with animals. ~Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 84.
You must be in the middle of life, surrounded by death on all sides.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 370.
To live what is right and to let what is false die, that is the art of life. ~Carl Jung,
Liber Novus, Page 274, Footnote 75.
We think we are better than our forefathers but all these ancient things are not so very dead. ~Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Page 236.
The ancestral part is given to us by our body, we take over the life of our ancestors in that way. It is the terrace of life because it is here that life renews itself. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 12July1935, Pages 240.
There is nothing living except the individual, there is no life except individual life but, since the individual is the bearer of life, it is also universal. ~Carl Jung, Lecture I, 20April1934, Page 94.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Liber Primus; Page 244.
"Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil, this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is night and Hell." ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 244.
It is the mourning of the dead in me, which precedes burial and rebirth. The rain
is the fructifying of the earth, it begets the new wheat, the young, germinating God.
~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 243.
Roughly 108 billion people have ever been alive. If humanity lasts for 50 million years, the total number of humans who will ever live is more like 3 quadrillion.
Life here and hereafter has been considered one of the core concerns of an individual throughout the history of humanity. Quest for the meaning of life, role of death, possibilities of life after death are challenged with a broad scope of perceptions, reflections and expressions among various spiritual and religious traditions, emerging spiritualities, groups and individuals.
“That Person in the heart, no bigger than a thumb, burning like flame without smoke, maker of past and future, the same today and tomorrow, that is Self.” ~Carl Jung citing the Katha Upanishad, CW 5, Para 179.
One of the more somber moments on Yom Kippur, (the day of atonement ) are the prayers recalling and honoring the memory of our dead family members. Those who's parents and children are still alive, will be asked to step outside, until this ceremony, (Yizkor), is concluded.
On the major Jewish holidays (Yom Kippur, Shemini Atzeret, the last day of Passover and Shavuot) there is a memorial service called Yizkor. In Hebrew, Yizkor means “May God Remember.” Traditionally, a yahrzeit light is lit at sunset the night before each of these holidays, to remember a loved one.
Originally, in the 12th century, the Yizkor service was said only on Yom Kippur to remember and honor those who were killed in the progroms and the crusades. Over the years, Yizkor became a service to remember our own loved ones as well as the Jewish martyrs. About 400 years ago the Yizkor service was added to the liturgy of Passover (Yizkor is observed on the last day of Passover), Shemini Atzeret (8th day of Sukkot) and the second day of Shavuot. The Mourner’s Kaddish is part of the Yizkor service.
People who have lost a parent, spouse, child or sibling usually stay for the Yizkor service. In some congregations, those who have not lost anyone for whom to say Yizkor, often leave the sanctuary. In other congregations, everyone stays for the Yizkor service. Sometimes, additional prayers are said for Jewish martyrs and victims of the Holocaust.
In the Yizkor service we remember those who have died, but the word “Yizkor” is actually a request that we make of God to remember the deceased. Remembrance, then, is something that we do in partnership with God. http://www.brightonmemorialchapel.com/TraditionsCustoms/
THE WAY OF THE ANCESTORS
AGONY & GRACE; DEATH & REDEMPTION; HOPES & DREAMS; THE ROYAL ART
Our psychological orientation determines how we see and interpret reality.
Our ancestors may have passed, but their images remain embodied within us.
Great is the need of the dead. But the God needs no sacrificial prayer. He has neither goodwill nor ill will. He is kind and fearful, though not actually so, but only seems to you thus. But the dead hear your prayers since they are still of human nature and not free of goodwill and ill will.
~Unknown woman to Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 339.
Then turn to the dead listen to their lament and accept them with love. Be not their blind spokesman / there are prophets who in the end have stoned themselves.
But we seek salvation and hence we need to revere what has become and to accept the dead, who have fluttered through the air and lived like bats under our roofs since time immemorial.
The new will be built on the old and the meaning of what has become will become manifold.
Your poverty in what has become you will thus deliver into the wealth of the future. ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 297.
Therapeutic Initiation
Inner Voices: Reverence Toward the Souls of the Ancestors
"Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil, this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is night and Hell." ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 244.
Psychologically this means that the souls of the ancestors (potential factors, qualities, talents, possibilities, and so on, which we have inherited from all the lines of our ancestry) are waiting in the unconscious, and are ready at any time to begin a new growth.
~Carl Jung, ETH, Alchemy, Page 230.
These are, so to speak, the re-animated souls of the ancestors which have been lying dormant in the unconscious, and the alchemists call these units or souls the sleepers or the dead in Hades who are resurrected by the "holy waters" (that is the miraculous water of alchemy, the fertilizing Mercury). ~Jung, ETH, Alchemy, Page 230.
VITA BREVIS
Life, so-called, is a short episode between two great mysteries, which yet are one. I cannot mourn the dead. They endure, but we pass over. ~Jung, Letters Vol. 1, 483.
"What is stirred in us is that faraway background, those immemorial patterns of the human mind, which we have not acquired but have inherited from the dim ages of the past."
--Jung, "The Structure of the Psyche", CW 8: §315
The various lines of psychic development start from one common stock whose roots reach back into all the strata of the past. This also explains the psychological parallelisms with animals. ~Jung, The Secret of the Golden Flower, Page 84.
You must be in the middle of life, surrounded by death on all sides.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 370.
To live what is right and to let what is false die, that is the art of life. ~Carl Jung,
Liber Novus, Page 274, Footnote 75.
We think we are better than our forefathers but all these ancient things are not so very dead. ~Carl Jung, Modern Psychology, Page 236.
The ancestral part is given to us by our body, we take over the life of our ancestors in that way. It is the terrace of life because it is here that life renews itself. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture 12July1935, Pages 240.
There is nothing living except the individual, there is no life except individual life but, since the individual is the bearer of life, it is also universal. ~Carl Jung, Lecture I, 20April1934, Page 94.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Liber Primus; Page 244.
"Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil, this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is night and Hell." ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 244.
It is the mourning of the dead in me, which precedes burial and rebirth. The rain
is the fructifying of the earth, it begets the new wheat, the young, germinating God.
~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 243.
Roughly 108 billion people have ever been alive. If humanity lasts for 50 million years, the total number of humans who will ever live is more like 3 quadrillion.
Life here and hereafter has been considered one of the core concerns of an individual throughout the history of humanity. Quest for the meaning of life, role of death, possibilities of life after death are challenged with a broad scope of perceptions, reflections and expressions among various spiritual and religious traditions, emerging spiritualities, groups and individuals.
“That Person in the heart, no bigger than a thumb, burning like flame without smoke, maker of past and future, the same today and tomorrow, that is Self.” ~Carl Jung citing the Katha Upanishad, CW 5, Para 179.
One of the more somber moments on Yom Kippur, (the day of atonement ) are the prayers recalling and honoring the memory of our dead family members. Those who's parents and children are still alive, will be asked to step outside, until this ceremony, (Yizkor), is concluded.
On the major Jewish holidays (Yom Kippur, Shemini Atzeret, the last day of Passover and Shavuot) there is a memorial service called Yizkor. In Hebrew, Yizkor means “May God Remember.” Traditionally, a yahrzeit light is lit at sunset the night before each of these holidays, to remember a loved one.
Originally, in the 12th century, the Yizkor service was said only on Yom Kippur to remember and honor those who were killed in the progroms and the crusades. Over the years, Yizkor became a service to remember our own loved ones as well as the Jewish martyrs. About 400 years ago the Yizkor service was added to the liturgy of Passover (Yizkor is observed on the last day of Passover), Shemini Atzeret (8th day of Sukkot) and the second day of Shavuot. The Mourner’s Kaddish is part of the Yizkor service.
People who have lost a parent, spouse, child or sibling usually stay for the Yizkor service. In some congregations, those who have not lost anyone for whom to say Yizkor, often leave the sanctuary. In other congregations, everyone stays for the Yizkor service. Sometimes, additional prayers are said for Jewish martyrs and victims of the Holocaust.
In the Yizkor service we remember those who have died, but the word “Yizkor” is actually a request that we make of God to remember the deceased. Remembrance, then, is something that we do in partnership with God. http://www.brightonmemorialchapel.com/TraditionsCustoms/
I am an orphan, alone; nevertheless I am found everywhere. I am one, but opposed to myself. I am youth and old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother, because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish, or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for everyone, yet I am not touched by the cycle of eons. ~Carl Jung, Quoting an Alchemical Text, MDR 227.
Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 68.
Trees in particular were mysterious and seemed to me direct embodiments of the incomprehensible meaning of life. For that reason the woods were the place where I felt closest to its deepest meaning and to its awe-inspiring workings. ~Carl Jung, MDR, Page 68.
Fear no more the heat o' the sun;
Nor the furious winter's rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney sweepers come to dust.
Fear no more the frown of the great,
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dread thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!
--William Shakespeare
Nor the furious winter's rages,
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta'en thy wages;
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney sweepers come to dust.
Fear no more the frown of the great,
Thou art past the tyrant's stroke:
Care no more to clothe and eat;
To thee the reed is as the oak:
The sceptre, learning, physic, must
All follow this, and come to dust.
Fear no more the lightning-flash,
Nor the all-dread thunder-stone;
Fear not slander, censure rash;
Thou hast finished joy and moan;
All lovers young, all lovers must
Consign to thee, and come to dust.
No exorciser harm thee!
Nor no witchcraft charm thee!
Ghost unlaid forbear thee!
Nothing ill come near thee!
Quiet consummation have;
And renowned be thy grave!
--William Shakespeare
FAMILY RESEMBLANCE
Meaning & Those Who Have Gone Before
Adam and Eve would indeed have been inadequate people if they had not noticed which tree the right apples grew on. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 48.
"Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil, this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is night and Hell." ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 244.
The meaning of events is the way of salvation that you create. The meaning of events comes from the possibility of life in this world that you create. It is the mastery of this world and the assertion of your soul in this world. ~Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
Therefore whoever considers the event from outside always sees only that
it already was, and that it is always the same. But whoever looks from inside, knows that everything is new. ~Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
Events signify nothing, they signify only in us. We create the meaning of events. The meaning is and always was artificial. We make it. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
"Although we human beings have our own personal life, we are yet in large measure the representatives, the victims and promoters of a collective spirit whose years are counted in centuries. We can well think all our lives long that we are following our own noses, and may never discover that we are, for the most part, supernumeraries on the stage of the World theater. There are factors which, although we do not know them, nevertheless influence our lives, the more so if they are unconscious. Thus at least a part of our being lives in the centuries-" ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections, Page 91.
Meaning & Those Who Have Gone Before
Adam and Eve would indeed have been inadequate people if they had not noticed which tree the right apples grew on. ~Carl Jung, Jung-Ostrowski, Page 48.
"Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil, this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is night and Hell." ~Carl Jung, Liber Novus, Page 244.
The meaning of events is the way of salvation that you create. The meaning of events comes from the possibility of life in this world that you create. It is the mastery of this world and the assertion of your soul in this world. ~Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
Therefore whoever considers the event from outside always sees only that
it already was, and that it is always the same. But whoever looks from inside, knows that everything is new. ~Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
Events signify nothing, they signify only in us. We create the meaning of events. The meaning is and always was artificial. We make it. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 239.
"Although we human beings have our own personal life, we are yet in large measure the representatives, the victims and promoters of a collective spirit whose years are counted in centuries. We can well think all our lives long that we are following our own noses, and may never discover that we are, for the most part, supernumeraries on the stage of the World theater. There are factors which, although we do not know them, nevertheless influence our lives, the more so if they are unconscious. Thus at least a part of our being lives in the centuries-" ~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections, Page 91.
Ignacio de Ries, The Tree of Life, 1653
Segovia Cathedral · Capilla de la Concepción, Spain
“Mira que te mira Dios (See that God watches you), mira que te está mirando (see that He is watching you); mira que te has de morir (see that you will have to die), mira que no sabes cuándo (and you do not know when).”
Segovia Cathedral · Capilla de la Concepción, Spain
“Mira que te mira Dios (See that God watches you), mira que te está mirando (see that He is watching you); mira que te has de morir (see that you will have to die), mira que no sabes cuándo (and you do not know when).”
ORIGINATIONS
ROOTED IN HISTORY & PRE-HISTORY
These Old Stories Live in Us
The Past is not as Far Gone as you may Think
“As I am getting on in age and as I am going to be gathered to my ancestors and avatars…” -~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 481-482.
Where is the wisdom of our old people, where are their precious secrets and their visions? ~Carl Jung, CW 8, ¶788.
"Our lives are on loan to the psyche for a while. During this time we are caretakers who try to do for it what we can." --James Hillman
“Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself....His task was to discover his own destiny - not an arbitrary one - and to live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one's own inwardness.” ―Hermann Hesse
The Boundless Expanse of Ancestry
Jung's collective unconscious is a storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from our maternal and paternal ancestral past. This path includes not only humankind's history as a separate species but our pre-human or animal ancestry as well. C.G. Jung's theory incorporates millions of years of evolution and animal instincts as well as ancient mythology.
Jung believed this collective unconscious is shared by all people and is therefore universal. However, since it is unconscious, not all people are able to tap into it. Jung saw ubiquitous primordial psychic patterns of the collective unconscious as a foundational structure for personality, the personal unconscious and the ego. Jung's study of religions, mythology, rituals, symbols, dreams and visions revealed the universal and ancestral foundations of personality, including the psychological and physiological reactions of primitive and animal ancestry.
For example, the shadow is amoral -- neither good nor bad, just like animals. He included the positive animal instincts as appropriate reactions, insights, and creative impulses.
Jung wrote: ‘"The shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious."
"All esoteric teachings seek to apprehend the unseen happenings in the psyche, and all claim supreme authority for themselves. What is true of primitive lore is true in even higher degree of the ruling world religions. They contain a revealed knowledge that was originally hidden, and they set forth the secrets of the soul in glorious images."
--Jung, Memory, Dreams, Reflections
An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages-within. ~Jung, The Red Book, Page 354.
BACK TO YOUR ROOTS
ROOTED IN HISTORY & PRE-HISTORY
These Old Stories Live in Us
The Past is not as Far Gone as you may Think
“As I am getting on in age and as I am going to be gathered to my ancestors and avatars…” -~Carl Jung, Letters Vol. 1, Pages 481-482.
Where is the wisdom of our old people, where are their precious secrets and their visions? ~Carl Jung, CW 8, ¶788.
"Our lives are on loan to the psyche for a while. During this time we are caretakers who try to do for it what we can." --James Hillman
“Each man had only one genuine vocation - to find the way to himself....His task was to discover his own destiny - not an arbitrary one - and to live it out wholly and resolutely within himself. Everything else was only a would-be existence, an attempt at evasion, a flight back to the ideals of the masses, conformity and fear of one's own inwardness.” ―Hermann Hesse
The Boundless Expanse of Ancestry
Jung's collective unconscious is a storehouse of latent memory traces inherited from our maternal and paternal ancestral past. This path includes not only humankind's history as a separate species but our pre-human or animal ancestry as well. C.G. Jung's theory incorporates millions of years of evolution and animal instincts as well as ancient mythology.
Jung believed this collective unconscious is shared by all people and is therefore universal. However, since it is unconscious, not all people are able to tap into it. Jung saw ubiquitous primordial psychic patterns of the collective unconscious as a foundational structure for personality, the personal unconscious and the ego. Jung's study of religions, mythology, rituals, symbols, dreams and visions revealed the universal and ancestral foundations of personality, including the psychological and physiological reactions of primitive and animal ancestry.
For example, the shadow is amoral -- neither good nor bad, just like animals. He included the positive animal instincts as appropriate reactions, insights, and creative impulses.
Jung wrote: ‘"The shadow is that hidden, repressed, for the most part inferior and guilt-laden personality whose ultimate ramifications reach back into the realm of our animal ancestors and so comprise the whole historical aspect of the unconscious."
"All esoteric teachings seek to apprehend the unseen happenings in the psyche, and all claim supreme authority for themselves. What is true of primitive lore is true in even higher degree of the ruling world religions. They contain a revealed knowledge that was originally hidden, and they set forth the secrets of the soul in glorious images."
--Jung, Memory, Dreams, Reflections
An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages-within. ~Jung, The Red Book, Page 354.
BACK TO YOUR ROOTS
Tree: denotes life of the cosmos; its growth, proliferation, generative and regenerative processes. It stands for inexhaustible life, and is, therefore, equivalent to immortality.
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE. It greens by heaping up growing living matter.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
Below: Mysterium Vitae by Martin-Georg Oscity
The growing one is the TREE OF LIFE. It greens by heaping up growing living matter.
Good and evil unite in the growth of the tree. In their divinity life and love stand opposed. ~Diahmon, Liber Novus, Page 351.
Below: Mysterium Vitae by Martin-Georg Oscity
Working In the Past & Future
GENEALOGY, DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY, MYTH, CULTURE
But if we can reconcile ourselves with the mysterious truth that spirit is the living body seen from within, and the body the outer manifestation of the living spirit --
the two being really one -- then we can understand why it is that the attempt
to transcend the present level of consciousness must give its due to the body.
--Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 220
We inherit our DNA and primordial images from our ancestors.
When Jung left the "Spirit of the Times" to enter the "Spirit of the Depths," he met Ancestors and Spirits of the Dead and resumed a dialogue with his soul. I suggest that here and now we can find an "intersection of the Spirit" (perhaps where feeling tips into Valuing) which we can experience in our "times" wherein collective consciousness is transformed by a necessary enlargement of Being that includes our Ancestors, Spirits of the Dead, ourselves, and the world we now have. Jung speaks of becoming "refined;" I speak of finding holy ground and feeling "changed," as "another world" (other than the one we have) becomes no longer necessary. --Robin van Löben Sels, "Ancestors and Spirits of the Dead"
GENEALOGY, DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY, MYTH, CULTURE
But if we can reconcile ourselves with the mysterious truth that spirit is the living body seen from within, and the body the outer manifestation of the living spirit --
the two being really one -- then we can understand why it is that the attempt
to transcend the present level of consciousness must give its due to the body.
--Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul, 220
We inherit our DNA and primordial images from our ancestors.
When Jung left the "Spirit of the Times" to enter the "Spirit of the Depths," he met Ancestors and Spirits of the Dead and resumed a dialogue with his soul. I suggest that here and now we can find an "intersection of the Spirit" (perhaps where feeling tips into Valuing) which we can experience in our "times" wherein collective consciousness is transformed by a necessary enlargement of Being that includes our Ancestors, Spirits of the Dead, ourselves, and the world we now have. Jung speaks of becoming "refined;" I speak of finding holy ground and feeling "changed," as "another world" (other than the one we have) becomes no longer necessary. --Robin van Löben Sels, "Ancestors and Spirits of the Dead"
Art, Lorraine Summers
THE PAST REMAINS PRESENT
We are the Living Library of Humanity
Reigniting Ancestral Knowledge
This [psyche] disproves the theory that a child's mind is a tabula rasa, for it shows us that the unconscious is no empty surface, but a prepared ground; the brain is complete with the history of the world and every child is born with an unconscious assumption of the world. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture V, Pages 27.
MAN, MYTH, METAPHOR
To find our family tree we must travel through
the roughly wooded realm of Mystery on our ancestral paths
We are the Living Library of Humanity
Reigniting Ancestral Knowledge
This [psyche] disproves the theory that a child's mind is a tabula rasa, for it shows us that the unconscious is no empty surface, but a prepared ground; the brain is complete with the history of the world and every child is born with an unconscious assumption of the world. ~Carl Jung, ETH Lecture V, Pages 27.
MAN, MYTH, METAPHOR
To find our family tree we must travel through
the roughly wooded realm of Mystery on our ancestral paths
Maybe you are searching among the branches
for what only appears in the roots. --Rumi
To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation. . . .
The task is to give birth to the old in a new time.”
– C.G. Jung, The Red Book
Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books
but lives in our very blood? ~Carl Jung; CW 10; para. 26.
Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors. --Jonas Salk
"One of the consequences of existence of quantum entanglement between chromosomes of brain neurons in different people may be the fact that consciousness is not ‘localized’ in brain of an individual but, in the essence, ‘simultaneously’ ‘belongs’ to a group of people."
--C.G. Jung’s Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement, Igor V. Limar
for what only appears in the roots. --Rumi
To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation. . . .
The task is to give birth to the old in a new time.”
– C.G. Jung, The Red Book
Who has fully realized that history is not contained in thick books
but lives in our very blood? ~Carl Jung; CW 10; para. 26.
Our greatest responsibility is to be good ancestors. --Jonas Salk
"One of the consequences of existence of quantum entanglement between chromosomes of brain neurons in different people may be the fact that consciousness is not ‘localized’ in brain of an individual but, in the essence, ‘simultaneously’ ‘belongs’ to a group of people."
--C.G. Jung’s Synchronicity and Quantum Entanglement, Igor V. Limar
Moreover, my ancestors' souls are sustained by the atmosphere of the house, since I answer for them the questions that their lives once left behind. I carve out rough answers as best I can. I have even drawn them on the walls. It is as if a silent, greater family, stretching down the centuries, were peopling the house. --Jung , The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung
CLIMBING FOR ROOTS
The Call of Our Ancestors
The Call of Our Ancestors
The only son of two people who were both the 13th child in their respective families, Jung seems to have been born with a sense of ominous uniqueness. His mother, in Bair's vivid account, was an extremely unhappy, lonely and haunted woman. His adored father was a more or less failed Swiss pastor, a melancholic man of esoteric interests. Like everyone else Jung sounds like an uncanny combination of his parents: growing up with so much disappointment and superstition - two things that often go together - he found at first philosophy (Kant, Schopenhauer and Nietzsche) and then the newish science of psychiatry as at once a refuge from, and a bulwark against, his family. As a man very much of his time, with a fin-de-siècle appetite for the new that was also a cover-up for an obsession with the past, Jung both found and invented the then not so well-known Freud.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jan/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview4
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/jan/17/featuresreviews.guardianreview4
FACING YOUR SOUL
The Ancestors Speak
Your Kin Await
MetaGenesis
...who are the dead and what does it mean to answer them?
What matters is not what you say, but what they say back.
Ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us in the present and implicate us in lives of subsequent generations. The known and unknown stories of our ancestors are present in our personal symptoms, disposition, aspirations, and the questions which inform our lives. Our ancestral and cultural legacies continue living in our bodies, through our relationships, in both matter and the timelessness of psyche. These legacies root us in the past and implicate us in the lives of the generations that will follow.
--Sandra Easter, Jung & the Ancestors
Moreover, my ancestors' souls are sustained by the atmosphere of the house, since I answer for them the questions that their lives once left behind. I carve out rough answers as best I can. I have even drawn them on the walls. It is as if a silent, greater family, stretching down the centuries, were peopling the house.
-- Jung, The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung
The Ancestors Speak
Your Kin Await
MetaGenesis
...who are the dead and what does it mean to answer them?
What matters is not what you say, but what they say back.
Ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us in the present and implicate us in lives of subsequent generations. The known and unknown stories of our ancestors are present in our personal symptoms, disposition, aspirations, and the questions which inform our lives. Our ancestral and cultural legacies continue living in our bodies, through our relationships, in both matter and the timelessness of psyche. These legacies root us in the past and implicate us in the lives of the generations that will follow.
--Sandra Easter, Jung & the Ancestors
Moreover, my ancestors' souls are sustained by the atmosphere of the house, since I answer for them the questions that their lives once left behind. I carve out rough answers as best I can. I have even drawn them on the walls. It is as if a silent, greater family, stretching down the centuries, were peopling the house.
-- Jung, The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung
Take pains to waken the dead. Dig deep mines and throw in sacrificial
gifts, so that they reach the dead. Reflect in good heart upon evil,
this is the way to the ascent. But before the ascent, everything is
night and Hell. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 244.
[The incorporeal spirits lie] beyond our empirical present. [He continues] There is a spiritual world from which the soul receives knowledge of spiritual things whose origins cannot be discovered in this visible world. ~Carl Jung; CW 8.
From that time on, the dead have become ever more distinct for me as the voices of the Unanswered, Unresolved, and Unredeemed. . . . These conversations with the dead formed a kind of prelude to what I had to communicate to the world about the unconscious. . . .
It was then that I ceased to belong to myself alone, ceased to have the right to do so.
From then on, my life belonged to the generality. ~Jung, MDR, Page 191f.
In the Red Book, Jung writes: “When something long since passed . . . comes back again in a changed world, it is new. To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation.” The ancient ancestors are now coming back into the world through dreams, bringing a new energy – a revitalization of the psyche both individually and collectively. Jung deeply valued the archaic levels of human consciousness and often encouraged his patients to make contact with the “the two-million-year-old” man or woman within. He believed that “most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts, with the age-old unforgotten wisdom stored up in us”. --Marea Claassen
When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this. --Philip Carr-Gomm
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. --Thich Nhat Hanh
In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin, - seven or eight ancestors at least, and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time-to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind? History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all. --Laurence Overmire
I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished. --Carl Jung
The Collective Unconscious (Friedman& Shustask, 2006), is the last element in the psyche and is made up of archetypes emotional symbols which are common to all individuals “transpersonal than personal” from the beginning of time, in (Pervin & Cervone, 2010) “this psychic life is the mind of our ancient ancestors, the way in which they thought and felt, the way in which they conceived of life and the world, of gods and humans beings. The existence of these historical layers is presumably the source of belief in reincarnation and in memories of past lives” (Jung, 1939, p.24). knowledge we are all born with, Psychic inheritance which influences all our experiences and behaviors as in symbols and the meanings of certain myths we recognize instantly on first visual record, furthermore artists and musicians all have shared experiences i.e. religions, corresponding dreams, fairy tales literature from all over world a universal meaning and understanding like near death experiences from several cultural backgrounds had parallel accounts (Personality theories, 2006). http://carlgustavjung.wikispaces.com/The+ego,+the+Personal+and+the+Collective+Unconscious
According to Jung, the collective unconscious consists of implicit beliefs and thoughts had by our ancestors. While we are not aware of the collective unconscious, it can influence how we act. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201302/remembering-things-you-were-born
[The incorporeal spirits lie] beyond our empirical present. [He continues] There is a spiritual world from which the soul receives knowledge of spiritual things whose origins cannot be discovered in this visible world. ~Carl Jung; CW 8.
From that time on, the dead have become ever more distinct for me as the voices of the Unanswered, Unresolved, and Unredeemed. . . . These conversations with the dead formed a kind of prelude to what I had to communicate to the world about the unconscious. . . .
It was then that I ceased to belong to myself alone, ceased to have the right to do so.
From then on, my life belonged to the generality. ~Jung, MDR, Page 191f.
In the Red Book, Jung writes: “When something long since passed . . . comes back again in a changed world, it is new. To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation.” The ancient ancestors are now coming back into the world through dreams, bringing a new energy – a revitalization of the psyche both individually and collectively. Jung deeply valued the archaic levels of human consciousness and often encouraged his patients to make contact with the “the two-million-year-old” man or woman within. He believed that “most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts, with the age-old unforgotten wisdom stored up in us”. --Marea Claassen
When we know about our ancestors, when we sense them as living and as supporting us, then we feel connected to the genetic life-stream, and we draw strength and nourishment from this. --Philip Carr-Gomm
If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people. --Thich Nhat Hanh
In different hours, a man represents each of several of his ancestors, as if there were seven or eight of us rolled up in each man's skin, - seven or eight ancestors at least, and they constitute the variety of notes for that new piece of music which his life is.
--Ralph Waldo Emerson
Over the course of the millennia, all these ancestors in your tree, generation upon generation, have come down to this moment in time-to give birth to you. There has never been, nor will ever be, another like you. You have been given a tremendous responsibility. You carry the hopes and dreams of all those who have gone before. Hopes and dreams for a better world. What will you do with your time on this Earth? How will you contribute to the ongoing story of humankind? History remembers only the celebrated, genealogy remembers them all. --Laurence Overmire
I feel very strongly that I am under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by my parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family which is passed on from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished. --Carl Jung
The Collective Unconscious (Friedman& Shustask, 2006), is the last element in the psyche and is made up of archetypes emotional symbols which are common to all individuals “transpersonal than personal” from the beginning of time, in (Pervin & Cervone, 2010) “this psychic life is the mind of our ancient ancestors, the way in which they thought and felt, the way in which they conceived of life and the world, of gods and humans beings. The existence of these historical layers is presumably the source of belief in reincarnation and in memories of past lives” (Jung, 1939, p.24). knowledge we are all born with, Psychic inheritance which influences all our experiences and behaviors as in symbols and the meanings of certain myths we recognize instantly on first visual record, furthermore artists and musicians all have shared experiences i.e. religions, corresponding dreams, fairy tales literature from all over world a universal meaning and understanding like near death experiences from several cultural backgrounds had parallel accounts (Personality theories, 2006). http://carlgustavjung.wikispaces.com/The+ego,+the+Personal+and+the+Collective+Unconscious
According to Jung, the collective unconscious consists of implicit beliefs and thoughts had by our ancestors. While we are not aware of the collective unconscious, it can influence how we act. http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-superhuman-mind/201302/remembering-things-you-were-born
WHAT WILL YOU PRESERVE?
Remembering Our Ancestors
Are we in danger of losing our heritage? It is essential that we ensure information about our past is preserved in digital and conventional formats as a record and resource for future generations. Creating more accessible records enhances engagement with and appreciation of materials and artifacts associated with museums, galleries and other institutions; widening their reach, impact and relevance. Remember, as media storage changes, it becomes tougher to access, so pick a mode with promise. With this Challenge, you’ll have the chance to work with real materials and develop practical archiving skills.
I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along.
I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties,
I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.
~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 358.
“We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.”
― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas
We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors' wisdom.
--Maya Angelou
“The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children.” ― Philip Carr-Gomm
“I am the now of the then. My body is the embodiment of all my ancestors who came before me. They live on in me.” ― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not FOR SALE
“We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing mobius strip, until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.” ― Colum McCann, TransAtlantic
“When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way
of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
"We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies."
~Shirley Abbott
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around." --Gilbert Keith Chesterton
"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." --Edmund Burke
Remembering Our Ancestors
Are we in danger of losing our heritage? It is essential that we ensure information about our past is preserved in digital and conventional formats as a record and resource for future generations. Creating more accessible records enhances engagement with and appreciation of materials and artifacts associated with museums, galleries and other institutions; widening their reach, impact and relevance. Remember, as media storage changes, it becomes tougher to access, so pick a mode with promise. With this Challenge, you’ll have the chance to work with real materials and develop practical archiving skills.
I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along.
I exist on the foundation of something I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties,
I feel a solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.
~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 358.
“We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.”
― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas
We need to haunt the house of history and listen anew to the ancestors' wisdom.
--Maya Angelou
“The songs of our ancestors are also the songs of our children.” ― Philip Carr-Gomm
“I am the now of the then. My body is the embodiment of all my ancestors who came before me. They live on in me.” ― Jarod Kintz, This Book is Not FOR SALE
“We return to the lives of those who have gone before us, a perplexing mobius strip, until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.” ― Colum McCann, TransAtlantic
“When we illuminate the road back to our ancestors, they have a way
of reaching out, of manifesting themselves...sometimes even physically.”
― Raquel Cepeda, Bird of Paradise: How I Became Latina
"We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies."
~Shirley Abbott
"Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes—our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking around." --Gilbert Keith Chesterton
"People will not look forward to posterity, who never look backward to their ancestors." --Edmund Burke
ROOTS OF BEING
The biological family, the physical manifestations of family, the family of sweat
and egg and sperm and tears, is a ghostlike specter in our tradition.
Why is there a puzzling absence of recognition of, or even reference to, family in our inner work and spiritual life? Why the troubling lack of family involvement and resource? The psyche is inherently tribal. The vast body of cross-cultural investigations such as, Campbell (1988) or Eliade (1978) makes this clear. The family first receives the archetypal projections of the emergent Self. The family is the necessary catalyst for the developmental appearance, sequencing, and empowering of these archetypal media both biologically and psychospiritually.
Of course, the family presence is pervasive in the healing process. We often dream of family and ancestral interactions, reactions, and abreactions; these dreams often relate to our inner process. The family -- the whole family, including all of the ancestors -- is always within us. We cannot escape family and its influence. Family broods over us from conception to death; family midwives the soul; family makes or breaks our quest for meaning.
We have no choice in involving or excluding the family in our self-exploration. Working on three or four generations sends us back to the unconscious. Epigenetics has revealed the intergenerational effects of trauma. We can go beyond what is transmitted consciously from generation to generation, bringing to light what is transmitted intergenerationally. Because it is never verbalized, it remains hidden and unassimilated, including family secrets. It can manifest in the form of pain, illness, silence, body language, failures, slips, bad fortune, and other existential difficulties. But the "knowing self" carries that truth.
"The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure--be it a daemon, a human being, or a process--that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed. Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. . . . In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history. . . ."
("On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" (CW 15: §127)
The biological family, the physical manifestations of family, the family of sweat
and egg and sperm and tears, is a ghostlike specter in our tradition.
Why is there a puzzling absence of recognition of, or even reference to, family in our inner work and spiritual life? Why the troubling lack of family involvement and resource? The psyche is inherently tribal. The vast body of cross-cultural investigations such as, Campbell (1988) or Eliade (1978) makes this clear. The family first receives the archetypal projections of the emergent Self. The family is the necessary catalyst for the developmental appearance, sequencing, and empowering of these archetypal media both biologically and psychospiritually.
Of course, the family presence is pervasive in the healing process. We often dream of family and ancestral interactions, reactions, and abreactions; these dreams often relate to our inner process. The family -- the whole family, including all of the ancestors -- is always within us. We cannot escape family and its influence. Family broods over us from conception to death; family midwives the soul; family makes or breaks our quest for meaning.
We have no choice in involving or excluding the family in our self-exploration. Working on three or four generations sends us back to the unconscious. Epigenetics has revealed the intergenerational effects of trauma. We can go beyond what is transmitted consciously from generation to generation, bringing to light what is transmitted intergenerationally. Because it is never verbalized, it remains hidden and unassimilated, including family secrets. It can manifest in the form of pain, illness, silence, body language, failures, slips, bad fortune, and other existential difficulties. But the "knowing self" carries that truth.
"The primordial image, or archetype, is a figure--be it a daemon, a human being, or a process--that constantly recurs in the course of history and appears wherever creative fantasy is freely expressed. Essentially, therefore, it is a mythological figure. . . . In each of these images there is a little piece of human psychology and human fate, a remnant of the joys and sorrows that have been repeated countless times in our ancestral history. . . ."
("On the Relation of Analytical Psychology to Poetry" (CW 15: §127)
The Ancestor Syndrome: Transgenerational Psychotherapy and the Hidden Links ... By Anne Ancelin Schützenberger
The Family Is the Essential Psychospiritual Initiatory Vessel
When we tell stories about the family without judgment and without instant analysis. . . family history is transformed into myth. Whether we know it or not, our ideas about the family are rooted in the ways we imagine the family. That personal family, which seems so concrete, is always an imaginal entity. Part of our alchemical work with soul is to extract myth from the hard details of family history and memory on the principle that increase of imagination is always increase in soul. -Moore 1992, 32
The family is where the imagination seeds. The term "Family Constellations" was first used by Alfred Adler in a somewhat different context to refer to the phenomenon that each individual belongs to and is bonded in relationship to other members of his or her family system.
It is the environmental release mechanism for the activation and unfolding of the imaginal soul within us at birth. The hovering, brooding, incessant nurturing of the bio-archetypal Mother and Father validates not only the body and its awakening sensorium but also, much more profoundly, the psyche and its awakening spirit-eros. The mediation of the family helps us see not just the phenomenal outer world, but the noumenal inner world as well.
The family is the purest vessel of our destiny. More than the temenos of analysis, the sacraments of religion, the most transcendent of experiences, it is family that births us, develops us, procreates us, and buries us. We can never be more or less to life than what has been bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Regardless of the pain and travail it may create for us, family is the grail within which the sacred nectar of our physical and psychic DNA is carried from one generation to the next.
We can deepen our exploration of the ancient ancestors as a moving force of experience at work in our contemporary psyches. The ancestral field appears to function non-locally in that their influence is not space-time dependent, nor from what we can tell, are they subject to any causal limitations in the outer, natural world. Each manifestation of form appears in the world through a consolidation of the informational content of a DNA or archetypal blueprint, then congeals into a recognizable pattern. Through these patterns we learn about the various archetypal configurations. Our lines are incredibly rich in information. The pattern, which can change, is a manifestation of the information contained within a field and is not in and of itself autonomous. The understanding of field phenomena, including resonant patterns, depth, numinosity, coherence, and synchronicities, may help us to translate and convert unconscious behaviors into opportunities for greater understanding.
In the Red Book, Jung writes: “When something long since passed . . . comes back again in a changed world, it is new. To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation.” The ancient ancestors are now coming back into the world through dreams, bringing a new energy – a revitalization of the psyche both individually and collectively. Jung deeply valued the archaic levels of human consciousness and often encouraged his patients to make contact with the “the two-million-year-old” man or woman within. He claimed “most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts, with the age-old unforgotten wisdom stored up in us”.
From the point of view of contemporary individuals divorced from the ancestral psyche, Jung is an important guiding light, especially for Westerners and modern and postmodern people everywhere. He elucidates a path which can be seen as leading through a potentially far-reaching psychological and spiritual transformation process. Jung’s path of individuation is new for reasons similar to some of the comments articulated above; that is, there is an ascent and descent of consciousness and the goal of life is the Self, or divine fulfillment. Moreover there is a strong emphasis on archetypal or cosmic realization, which relates individual transformation to the collective.
Jung had a visionary experience just prior to his death, where he saw the following words engraved on a great round stone: “And this shall be a sign unto you of Wholeness and Oneness.”9 He then saw “a quadrangle of trees whose roots reached around the earth and enveloped him and among the roots golden threads were glittering.”. spiritual realization involves the spiritual mutation of the roots of being, and a transformed relationship of the fully surrendered individual to the cosmic Self and the attainment of Wholeness and Oneness, a highly individuated reflection of the Transcendent One.
When we tell stories about the family without judgment and without instant analysis. . . family history is transformed into myth. Whether we know it or not, our ideas about the family are rooted in the ways we imagine the family. That personal family, which seems so concrete, is always an imaginal entity. Part of our alchemical work with soul is to extract myth from the hard details of family history and memory on the principle that increase of imagination is always increase in soul. -Moore 1992, 32
The family is where the imagination seeds. The term "Family Constellations" was first used by Alfred Adler in a somewhat different context to refer to the phenomenon that each individual belongs to and is bonded in relationship to other members of his or her family system.
It is the environmental release mechanism for the activation and unfolding of the imaginal soul within us at birth. The hovering, brooding, incessant nurturing of the bio-archetypal Mother and Father validates not only the body and its awakening sensorium but also, much more profoundly, the psyche and its awakening spirit-eros. The mediation of the family helps us see not just the phenomenal outer world, but the noumenal inner world as well.
The family is the purest vessel of our destiny. More than the temenos of analysis, the sacraments of religion, the most transcendent of experiences, it is family that births us, develops us, procreates us, and buries us. We can never be more or less to life than what has been bequeathed to us by our ancestors. Regardless of the pain and travail it may create for us, family is the grail within which the sacred nectar of our physical and psychic DNA is carried from one generation to the next.
We can deepen our exploration of the ancient ancestors as a moving force of experience at work in our contemporary psyches. The ancestral field appears to function non-locally in that their influence is not space-time dependent, nor from what we can tell, are they subject to any causal limitations in the outer, natural world. Each manifestation of form appears in the world through a consolidation of the informational content of a DNA or archetypal blueprint, then congeals into a recognizable pattern. Through these patterns we learn about the various archetypal configurations. Our lines are incredibly rich in information. The pattern, which can change, is a manifestation of the information contained within a field and is not in and of itself autonomous. The understanding of field phenomena, including resonant patterns, depth, numinosity, coherence, and synchronicities, may help us to translate and convert unconscious behaviors into opportunities for greater understanding.
In the Red Book, Jung writes: “When something long since passed . . . comes back again in a changed world, it is new. To give birth to the ancient in a new time is creation.” The ancient ancestors are now coming back into the world through dreams, bringing a new energy – a revitalization of the psyche both individually and collectively. Jung deeply valued the archaic levels of human consciousness and often encouraged his patients to make contact with the “the two-million-year-old” man or woman within. He claimed “most of our difficulties come from losing contact with our instincts, with the age-old unforgotten wisdom stored up in us”.
From the point of view of contemporary individuals divorced from the ancestral psyche, Jung is an important guiding light, especially for Westerners and modern and postmodern people everywhere. He elucidates a path which can be seen as leading through a potentially far-reaching psychological and spiritual transformation process. Jung’s path of individuation is new for reasons similar to some of the comments articulated above; that is, there is an ascent and descent of consciousness and the goal of life is the Self, or divine fulfillment. Moreover there is a strong emphasis on archetypal or cosmic realization, which relates individual transformation to the collective.
Jung had a visionary experience just prior to his death, where he saw the following words engraved on a great round stone: “And this shall be a sign unto you of Wholeness and Oneness.”9 He then saw “a quadrangle of trees whose roots reached around the earth and enveloped him and among the roots golden threads were glittering.”. spiritual realization involves the spiritual mutation of the roots of being, and a transformed relationship of the fully surrendered individual to the cosmic Self and the attainment of Wholeness and Oneness, a highly individuated reflection of the Transcendent One.
On the Trail of the Grail
GRAIL BLOODLINE; GENETIC ROOTS
Follow your underground stream to the ocean of shared
medieval ancestry, the ocean of the depth unconscious.
The Underground Stream from King David to King Arthur
http://www.matskjellstrom.se/genealogi/sangreal/
GRAIL BLOODLINE; GENETIC ROOTS
Follow your underground stream to the ocean of shared
medieval ancestry, the ocean of the depth unconscious.
The Underground Stream from King David to King Arthur
http://www.matskjellstrom.se/genealogi/sangreal/
Iona Miller, The Grail
INHERITORS OF THE GRAIL
“The key to the Grail is compassion, 'suffering with,' feeling another’s sorrow as if it were your own. The one who finds the dynamo of compassion is the one who’s found the Grail.” --Joseph Campbell
In Wagner's version, when Parsifal arrives at the lake in the Grail domain, he asks, "Who is the Grail? Gurnemanz laughs. "That cannot be spoken," he says, "but if you are called to its service, the knowledge will not be hidden for very long."
"We are ... a museum of living bodies, i.e. the history and the stories of our shared lives. This museum is called SOUL (Anima) and is hosted by the largest and archetypal museum all over the world, the Anima Mundi ..." --Eldo Stelluci
Your heights are your own mountain, which belongs to you and you alone. There you are individual and live your very own life. If you live your own life, you do not live the common life, which is always continuing and never-ending, the life of history and the inalienable and ever-present burdens and products of the human race. There you live the endlessness of being, but not the becoming. Becoming belongs to the heights and is full of torment.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 267.
Few people know anything about the ancestral soul and even fewer believe in it. Aren't we all the carriers of the entire history of mankind? Why is it so difficult to believe that each of us has two souls? ....if this can come only from the unconscious, the impersonal soul, the finished brain of the new born in Contemporary man is but the latest ripe fruit on the tree of the human race. None of us knows what we know. ~Jung [Interview, 1932, C.G. Jung Speaking; P. 57-58.
INHERITORS OF THE GRAIL
“The key to the Grail is compassion, 'suffering with,' feeling another’s sorrow as if it were your own. The one who finds the dynamo of compassion is the one who’s found the Grail.” --Joseph Campbell
In Wagner's version, when Parsifal arrives at the lake in the Grail domain, he asks, "Who is the Grail? Gurnemanz laughs. "That cannot be spoken," he says, "but if you are called to its service, the knowledge will not be hidden for very long."
"We are ... a museum of living bodies, i.e. the history and the stories of our shared lives. This museum is called SOUL (Anima) and is hosted by the largest and archetypal museum all over the world, the Anima Mundi ..." --Eldo Stelluci
Your heights are your own mountain, which belongs to you and you alone. There you are individual and live your very own life. If you live your own life, you do not live the common life, which is always continuing and never-ending, the life of history and the inalienable and ever-present burdens and products of the human race. There you live the endlessness of being, but not the becoming. Becoming belongs to the heights and is full of torment.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 267.
Few people know anything about the ancestral soul and even fewer believe in it. Aren't we all the carriers of the entire history of mankind? Why is it so difficult to believe that each of us has two souls? ....if this can come only from the unconscious, the impersonal soul, the finished brain of the new born in Contemporary man is but the latest ripe fruit on the tree of the human race. None of us knows what we know. ~Jung [Interview, 1932, C.G. Jung Speaking; P. 57-58.
The Search for Roots & Gnosis
Finding Deeper Meaning in Genealogy
& the Ground of Being
Ancestors, Legends, & Myths
Iona Miller, 2014
The ancestors are, of course, the archetypes — they are the psychological ancestors. In a really dangerous situation they may be quite real. --Jung
Hypothesis: in a sharp crisis, that bears in some way on species survival,
an individual may spontaneously merge with his ancestors AND descendents
and become, for a time, a single amplified entity. --KT
Today we have great difficulty with ancestors. We do not know what they are or how to enable them. Yet establishing a harmonious relation with these ancestors is crucial to our symbolic life. These figures came long before us and will outlive us. Giving the ancestors that people our psyche the recognition they need is the only way their blessings can flow.
Genealogy is an ancestor honoring ceremony. As a throw-away culture, it becomes increasingly important to preserve our Ancestors' traditions for all ethnic origins. If we lose them we also mark ourselves for disposal in the near future. By sharing and preserving the traditions of our Ancestors, we regain a sense of continuity with our deep history. Honoring our own family gives us the solid foundation from which to extend that love to clan, nation, community, world, and across barriers of species.
We can participate with the same living unconscious that was revered by our ancestors. Genealogy offers a way to connect with the deep, imaginal spirituality of our ancestors without appropriating from other cultures or crafting a new spirituality. We can reconnect to ancestors that trace their roots through our bloodlines.
The co-creative process of soul-making takes us out of our “only personal” ancestry and empowers the Ancestors. We break through the boundaries that separate our inner and outer lives. They create synchronistic fields around us that continually generate and store symbolic awareness. The seed of life conceals the geometry of creation. Imagination has its own way of knowing.
Two deficits of the imagination inhibit our understanding. We are oriented toward the world which appears to be ahistorical. We remain mostly unconscious of the biasing effect of our cultural ancestry. This lack of historical sense reinforces many of our biases, including our internal conflicts -- a sensitivity to our habits of thought and dispositions of mind. The effects of our history and constitution bias or blind our view about ourselves. No single philosophical theory bridges the gap between self-transcendence and our roots as "children of nature."
Experience of Ancestors as opposed to ancestry is central to the symbolic life and the transformation of cultural images, ideals and institutions. Genealogy helps us free ourselves from our primitive ancestors' psychological enmeshment by giving form to their countless typical experiences. Our world is 'haunted' by the absence-presence of the ancestors. Rituals of our ancestors paid homage to the afterlife. Our ancestors also rest in the sacred landscapes of the psyche, not only in specific geographies. Psyche is not of today, but extends back many millions of years.
My Generation
In psychology, an archetype is the innate knowledge, images, or ways of thinking that are inherited from ancestors. During significant events (birth, death, disaster) human behavior takes on a typical form. In the archetype concept we mirror the emotions of our remote ancestors in how we act and react in these significant situations. These architects of dreams and symptom speak through divination, myth and ritual enactment, offering a hidden language suffused with a sort of pre-rational verbal therapy that produces real and effective changes within us.
Finding Deeper Meaning in Genealogy
& the Ground of Being
Ancestors, Legends, & Myths
Iona Miller, 2014
The ancestors are, of course, the archetypes — they are the psychological ancestors. In a really dangerous situation they may be quite real. --Jung
Hypothesis: in a sharp crisis, that bears in some way on species survival,
an individual may spontaneously merge with his ancestors AND descendents
and become, for a time, a single amplified entity. --KT
Today we have great difficulty with ancestors. We do not know what they are or how to enable them. Yet establishing a harmonious relation with these ancestors is crucial to our symbolic life. These figures came long before us and will outlive us. Giving the ancestors that people our psyche the recognition they need is the only way their blessings can flow.
Genealogy is an ancestor honoring ceremony. As a throw-away culture, it becomes increasingly important to preserve our Ancestors' traditions for all ethnic origins. If we lose them we also mark ourselves for disposal in the near future. By sharing and preserving the traditions of our Ancestors, we regain a sense of continuity with our deep history. Honoring our own family gives us the solid foundation from which to extend that love to clan, nation, community, world, and across barriers of species.
We can participate with the same living unconscious that was revered by our ancestors. Genealogy offers a way to connect with the deep, imaginal spirituality of our ancestors without appropriating from other cultures or crafting a new spirituality. We can reconnect to ancestors that trace their roots through our bloodlines.
The co-creative process of soul-making takes us out of our “only personal” ancestry and empowers the Ancestors. We break through the boundaries that separate our inner and outer lives. They create synchronistic fields around us that continually generate and store symbolic awareness. The seed of life conceals the geometry of creation. Imagination has its own way of knowing.
Two deficits of the imagination inhibit our understanding. We are oriented toward the world which appears to be ahistorical. We remain mostly unconscious of the biasing effect of our cultural ancestry. This lack of historical sense reinforces many of our biases, including our internal conflicts -- a sensitivity to our habits of thought and dispositions of mind. The effects of our history and constitution bias or blind our view about ourselves. No single philosophical theory bridges the gap between self-transcendence and our roots as "children of nature."
Experience of Ancestors as opposed to ancestry is central to the symbolic life and the transformation of cultural images, ideals and institutions. Genealogy helps us free ourselves from our primitive ancestors' psychological enmeshment by giving form to their countless typical experiences. Our world is 'haunted' by the absence-presence of the ancestors. Rituals of our ancestors paid homage to the afterlife. Our ancestors also rest in the sacred landscapes of the psyche, not only in specific geographies. Psyche is not of today, but extends back many millions of years.
My Generation
In psychology, an archetype is the innate knowledge, images, or ways of thinking that are inherited from ancestors. During significant events (birth, death, disaster) human behavior takes on a typical form. In the archetype concept we mirror the emotions of our remote ancestors in how we act and react in these significant situations. These architects of dreams and symptom speak through divination, myth and ritual enactment, offering a hidden language suffused with a sort of pre-rational verbal therapy that produces real and effective changes within us.
THE NAKED TREE
From Whom We Descend
From Whom We Descend
Descent From Antiquity
Our ancient Pagan ancestors had their pantheons of Gods & Goddesses. The gods are transpersonal or spiritual ancestors, as our traditional lines of descent show. Many claimed ancestries are considered by modern scholars to be fabrications, especially the claims of kings and emperors who trace their ancestry to gods or the founders of their civilization. Some genealogists now cut off what are labeled as fictious or legendary roots. Genealogy, legend and political prophecies played a crucial role in constructing the past in the service of royal power. Many royals traced their lineage not only to the pagan gods but also to the priest-kings of the Old Testament.
Genealogy has an evolutionary history of its own. What scholars term a "defect" in such lines may not be so psychologically. There is no harm and maybe psychological benefit to maintaining such ties, so long as they are not taken literally. They are part of our personal origin myth. Royal descents from mythical heroes include, Odin, Titans, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hercules, Isis, Adam and Eve, Mary Magdalene and Jesus, Muhammad, Tamar Tephi, Scota, Beli Mawr. King Arthur, and more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_from_antiquity
Archetypes, ancestors and allies form our mythic self. The knowledge, but also the sins and wounds of our ancestors live within us. There is a deep longing inside each of us for something our ancestors received, but that is missing now -- the information that connects us to the whole -- a creative relation to the figures of the deep psyche that people our imagination. Genealogy helps us enter that symbolic life.
We forget that the soul has its own ancestors. Archetypes are directly knowable as a product of the shared experiences of our ancestors. We relive the soul of the ancestors as primordial psyche, inherited from common ancestors in the distant human past. We can receive guidance in the dreamtime from archetypal ancestors. We do not only carry the genes of our ancestors; we also carry their memories. Jung said, underneath the modern surface of the mind lurks the original primitive mentality of our ancestors, complete with vivid stories and symbols that have a natural appeal to us and seem to appear unbidden in our dreams and fantasies.
To conduct our own personal research and to find out for ourselves, maybe all we need to do is listen to our inner DNA. The unconscious comprises in itself the psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings. We can listen to the voices, feelings, sights and experiences of our ancestors. The land of the dead is the country of our ancestors and the images who walk in on us are our ancestors. They can be associated with the elements of nature. They exert their claim on us, and power over us -- a sense of our internal fate -- as psychic representations of our geographical, historical and cultural contexts.
We are under the influence of ancestors, archetypes, family and collective consequences. The achievement of consciousness by our distant ancestors is reflected in the hero or heroine's journey. Active imagination isn't new; our ancestors staring into the fire were exercising just this. The hero's journey represents the primitive struggle of our ancestors in entering an unknown world of danger, but overcoming the danger and bringing back to the tribe or group some discovery or treasure that will benefit everyone.
“Here it is necessary briefly to consider the question of the cult of ancestors before venturing farther. The spirits of the departed are believed to be possessed of supernatural powers which they did not enjoy in the flesh. They may also be dissatisfied or malignant in consequence of being suddenly deprived of life, and if they are neglected by the living, are apt to be revengeful. Therefore they must be cajoled and propitiated. Fear of beings belonging to a mysterious state or sphere of which he knew nothing continually haunted and terrified primitive man and induced in him what is known as" the dread of the sacred." It was every man's personal duty to attend to the demands or requirements of his deceased ancestors. At first he would succour his own immediate forebears with food and gifts; but it must have been borne in upon him that when his parents joined the great majority, the care of the spirits of their parents likewise devolved upon him... and, by degrees, he might even come to regard himself as responsible for the well-being of a line of spirit ancestors of quite formidable genealogy. These, through his neglect, might starve in their tombs; or, alternatively, they might crave his company. Because of vengeance or loneliness they might send disease upon him, for the savage almost invariably believes illness to be brought about by the action of jealous or neglected ancestors. The loneliness of the spirit-world is the dead man's greatest excuse for desiring the company of his descendants.”
― Lewis Spence, British Fairy Origins
Our ancient Pagan ancestors had their pantheons of Gods & Goddesses. The gods are transpersonal or spiritual ancestors, as our traditional lines of descent show. Many claimed ancestries are considered by modern scholars to be fabrications, especially the claims of kings and emperors who trace their ancestry to gods or the founders of their civilization. Some genealogists now cut off what are labeled as fictious or legendary roots. Genealogy, legend and political prophecies played a crucial role in constructing the past in the service of royal power. Many royals traced their lineage not only to the pagan gods but also to the priest-kings of the Old Testament.
Genealogy has an evolutionary history of its own. What scholars term a "defect" in such lines may not be so psychologically. There is no harm and maybe psychological benefit to maintaining such ties, so long as they are not taken literally. They are part of our personal origin myth. Royal descents from mythical heroes include, Odin, Titans, Aphrodite, Zeus, Hercules, Isis, Adam and Eve, Mary Magdalene and Jesus, Muhammad, Tamar Tephi, Scota, Beli Mawr. King Arthur, and more.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Descent_from_antiquity
Archetypes, ancestors and allies form our mythic self. The knowledge, but also the sins and wounds of our ancestors live within us. There is a deep longing inside each of us for something our ancestors received, but that is missing now -- the information that connects us to the whole -- a creative relation to the figures of the deep psyche that people our imagination. Genealogy helps us enter that symbolic life.
We forget that the soul has its own ancestors. Archetypes are directly knowable as a product of the shared experiences of our ancestors. We relive the soul of the ancestors as primordial psyche, inherited from common ancestors in the distant human past. We can receive guidance in the dreamtime from archetypal ancestors. We do not only carry the genes of our ancestors; we also carry their memories. Jung said, underneath the modern surface of the mind lurks the original primitive mentality of our ancestors, complete with vivid stories and symbols that have a natural appeal to us and seem to appear unbidden in our dreams and fantasies.
To conduct our own personal research and to find out for ourselves, maybe all we need to do is listen to our inner DNA. The unconscious comprises in itself the psychic life of our ancestors right back to the earliest beginnings. We can listen to the voices, feelings, sights and experiences of our ancestors. The land of the dead is the country of our ancestors and the images who walk in on us are our ancestors. They can be associated with the elements of nature. They exert their claim on us, and power over us -- a sense of our internal fate -- as psychic representations of our geographical, historical and cultural contexts.
We are under the influence of ancestors, archetypes, family and collective consequences. The achievement of consciousness by our distant ancestors is reflected in the hero or heroine's journey. Active imagination isn't new; our ancestors staring into the fire were exercising just this. The hero's journey represents the primitive struggle of our ancestors in entering an unknown world of danger, but overcoming the danger and bringing back to the tribe or group some discovery or treasure that will benefit everyone.
“Here it is necessary briefly to consider the question of the cult of ancestors before venturing farther. The spirits of the departed are believed to be possessed of supernatural powers which they did not enjoy in the flesh. They may also be dissatisfied or malignant in consequence of being suddenly deprived of life, and if they are neglected by the living, are apt to be revengeful. Therefore they must be cajoled and propitiated. Fear of beings belonging to a mysterious state or sphere of which he knew nothing continually haunted and terrified primitive man and induced in him what is known as" the dread of the sacred." It was every man's personal duty to attend to the demands or requirements of his deceased ancestors. At first he would succour his own immediate forebears with food and gifts; but it must have been borne in upon him that when his parents joined the great majority, the care of the spirits of their parents likewise devolved upon him... and, by degrees, he might even come to regard himself as responsible for the well-being of a line of spirit ancestors of quite formidable genealogy. These, through his neglect, might starve in their tombs; or, alternatively, they might crave his company. Because of vengeance or loneliness they might send disease upon him, for the savage almost invariably believes illness to be brought about by the action of jealous or neglected ancestors. The loneliness of the spirit-world is the dead man's greatest excuse for desiring the company of his descendants.”
― Lewis Spence, British Fairy Origins
HISTORY IS LIVING IN YOU
Legacy of the Ancestors
Ancestors brings together genealogy, common mythological roots and psychology.
Our ancestors often use metaphors in order to make the issue clear. The "living serpents" of our descent lines can be used to invoke the ancestors. Genealogy is a form of veneration. The study of our ancestors is the study of the Tree of Life. An altar, for example, can honor your biological ancestors, the universal archetypal ancestors, or both.
The purpose of the totem meal, grail, or eucharist is to reunite the participants with the life of their ancestors. Their lives, joys and fears are within us. In this way, they are with us always. Our ancestors revered nature, but were also irrational and superstitious about it. We can still turn to nature for insight as our ancestors did for millennia. Most of us have lost touch with religious traditions of our ancestors; we no longer connect with their sacred myths and metaphors. Genealogy is more direct, more personal.
Healing shifts occur through the conscious Feminine, Sophia, Wisdom, the divine feminine embodied in the world. The exploits and mode of being of the great ancestors resonate, to a lesser degree, with our experience of dreaming. The concealed and mysterious are as important as the revealed and understood. The ancestors are jealous; they want to be remembered. Remembering them is not just an empty custom, but imbued with meaning. The deeper meaning of much traditional healing centers on ancestor reverence.
Working your lines can be meditative, in and of itself. Concentration is an art. When performing an ancestor meditation, people experience different things. You may find yourself meeting a specific person that you are aware of in your family history. Some people, however, meet their ancestors as archetypes. In other words, it may not be a specific individual you meet, but rather a symbol. Either way, understand that meeting these individuals is a gift. Pay attention to what they say and do -- it may be that they're trying to give you a message.
When properly respected, they are benevolent guardians. Our search is answered by initiation: the blessing of the elders. We need our specific stories heard, in the context of the universal, by someone who speaks both linear and symbolic languages. Great assistance comes from the lineage of elders who have passed it on, and from the “hard wiring” of archetypal patterns inside us all. The ancestors are eagerly waiting to help us, if we ask.
Many old stories talk about how the teachings are lost, again and again, and must be rediscovered by each generation, and reshaped into the words that can be heard in the world that generation inhabits. In honoring them, we honor the principles and values they represent. Thus we find the heavenly city inhabited by the mythic forefathers, the ancestors who constitute a genealogy of current names. These "genealogies" are not strictly historical, but mythic and symbolic. There is no reason, however, why they should be seen as standing in opposition to history. These "genealogical" names are steeped in a numerical, linguistic, astronomical, rhythmical, cyclic, and magical meaning.
The tomb is a symbol of the unconscious as well as an alchemical vessel in which transformation occurs. Jung related it to the womb, suggesting the tomb is a place of the past that connects us with our deceased ancestors, a place from which the psyche is born, a connector to our psychic background. The tomb also represents the completion of circle as a place where we will ultimately rejoin the ancestors once more.
An exploration of the ways in which the ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us in the present and implicate us in lives of subsequent generations.
Legacy of the Ancestors
Ancestors brings together genealogy, common mythological roots and psychology.
Our ancestors often use metaphors in order to make the issue clear. The "living serpents" of our descent lines can be used to invoke the ancestors. Genealogy is a form of veneration. The study of our ancestors is the study of the Tree of Life. An altar, for example, can honor your biological ancestors, the universal archetypal ancestors, or both.
The purpose of the totem meal, grail, or eucharist is to reunite the participants with the life of their ancestors. Their lives, joys and fears are within us. In this way, they are with us always. Our ancestors revered nature, but were also irrational and superstitious about it. We can still turn to nature for insight as our ancestors did for millennia. Most of us have lost touch with religious traditions of our ancestors; we no longer connect with their sacred myths and metaphors. Genealogy is more direct, more personal.
Healing shifts occur through the conscious Feminine, Sophia, Wisdom, the divine feminine embodied in the world. The exploits and mode of being of the great ancestors resonate, to a lesser degree, with our experience of dreaming. The concealed and mysterious are as important as the revealed and understood. The ancestors are jealous; they want to be remembered. Remembering them is not just an empty custom, but imbued with meaning. The deeper meaning of much traditional healing centers on ancestor reverence.
Working your lines can be meditative, in and of itself. Concentration is an art. When performing an ancestor meditation, people experience different things. You may find yourself meeting a specific person that you are aware of in your family history. Some people, however, meet their ancestors as archetypes. In other words, it may not be a specific individual you meet, but rather a symbol. Either way, understand that meeting these individuals is a gift. Pay attention to what they say and do -- it may be that they're trying to give you a message.
When properly respected, they are benevolent guardians. Our search is answered by initiation: the blessing of the elders. We need our specific stories heard, in the context of the universal, by someone who speaks both linear and symbolic languages. Great assistance comes from the lineage of elders who have passed it on, and from the “hard wiring” of archetypal patterns inside us all. The ancestors are eagerly waiting to help us, if we ask.
Many old stories talk about how the teachings are lost, again and again, and must be rediscovered by each generation, and reshaped into the words that can be heard in the world that generation inhabits. In honoring them, we honor the principles and values they represent. Thus we find the heavenly city inhabited by the mythic forefathers, the ancestors who constitute a genealogy of current names. These "genealogies" are not strictly historical, but mythic and symbolic. There is no reason, however, why they should be seen as standing in opposition to history. These "genealogical" names are steeped in a numerical, linguistic, astronomical, rhythmical, cyclic, and magical meaning.
The tomb is a symbol of the unconscious as well as an alchemical vessel in which transformation occurs. Jung related it to the womb, suggesting the tomb is a place of the past that connects us with our deceased ancestors, a place from which the psyche is born, a connector to our psychic background. The tomb also represents the completion of circle as a place where we will ultimately rejoin the ancestors once more.
An exploration of the ways in which the ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us in the present and implicate us in lives of subsequent generations.
All your rebirths could ultimately make you sick. The Buddha therefore finally gave up on rebirth, for he had had enough of crawling through all human and animal forms. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 277
SHADES OF OUR PAST
What Haunts You?
Mending the Ancestral Web
The known and unknown stories of our ancestors are present in our personal symptoms, disposition, split loyalties, aspirations, and the questions which inform our lives. Our ancestral and cultural legacies continue living in our bodies, through our relationships, in both matter and the timelessness of psyche. These legacies root us in the past and implicate us in the lives of the generations that will follow.
The ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us today. If our ancestors managed to overcome a multitude of problems, such as severe illnesses, wars, loss of loved ones or severe economic declines, we who are genetically similar can successfully are reminded we can overcome a multitude of problems.
Many spiritual practices and religions – particularly in native cultures and Asia – revolve around both the acceptance and, in many cases, the worship of ancestors. Even in western cultures there is an increased tendency to include ancestor and archetypal relationship methods into various therapies and self-help programs.
The exploration and eventual acceptance of your family and ancestors is important for emotional and spiritual grounding. Depending on your memories and/or your family history, your ancestors can be a gateway to bliss . . . or a reminder of failure and limitation. Either way, and whether you like it or not, however, these folks are still your family.
On a biological level we are our ancestors. We have their DNA, RNA, their predispositions for certain illnesses, and so on. The ancestors companion us and bequeath to us their unfinished business. Likewise on a spiritual level, we have their “stuff” – their stories, memories, emotions, energy, and even behavioral tendencies. We are their continuation . . . and also their current expression in the physical world.
You and your ancestors are one and the same. We are psychologically pre-conditioned by our ancestors in history, who shaped our complexes, fears and obsessions. You possess the wisdom and intelligence to become a full human being because you inherited an eternity of wisdom, not only from your blood ancestors but also from the wholeness of life itself.
Even if you do not believe in the spiritual aspect of ancestry, you have probably witnessed the handing down of traditions, upbringing, and temperament from parent to child within your family tree. Some of these things are wonderfully empowering, wise, and nourishing. Some of these things are also painful, ignorant, and destructive.
Simply by accepting the power of family and ancestors, you can break the harmful cycles that have been handed down. You can begin to heal old wounds and free yourself from behaviors and emotions that no longer serve you. You can even discover the most liberating emotion of all – forgiveness. Developing a strong relationship with your ancestors is profoundly important, second only to your relationship with yourself.
Jung felt very strongly that he was "under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by [his] parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors." His differentiation of the collective unconscious into its various levels and his description of the nature of psyche provide a working model which allows us to see how our biography is part of a continuing story, part of a dynamic web of relations, which has its roots and telos in the stories of our ancestors and descendants.
"Everything psychic is pregnant with the future." ~Carl Jung
For, in the last resort, we are conditioned not only by the past, but by the future, which is sketched out in us long beforehand and gradually evolves out of us. ~Jung, Analytical Psychology and Education, Page 110.
You are light and life, like God the Father of whom Man was born. If therefore you learn to know yourself... you will return to life. ~Corpus Hermeticum I, Poimandres, 21.
My soul -- are you there? I have returned, I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again. Should I tell you everything I have seen, experienced, and drunk in? Or do you not want to hear about all the noise of life and the world? But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life. This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call divine.
~Carl Jung; Red Book
SHADES OF OUR PAST
What Haunts You?
Mending the Ancestral Web
The known and unknown stories of our ancestors are present in our personal symptoms, disposition, split loyalties, aspirations, and the questions which inform our lives. Our ancestral and cultural legacies continue living in our bodies, through our relationships, in both matter and the timelessness of psyche. These legacies root us in the past and implicate us in the lives of the generations that will follow.
The ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us today. If our ancestors managed to overcome a multitude of problems, such as severe illnesses, wars, loss of loved ones or severe economic declines, we who are genetically similar can successfully are reminded we can overcome a multitude of problems.
Many spiritual practices and religions – particularly in native cultures and Asia – revolve around both the acceptance and, in many cases, the worship of ancestors. Even in western cultures there is an increased tendency to include ancestor and archetypal relationship methods into various therapies and self-help programs.
The exploration and eventual acceptance of your family and ancestors is important for emotional and spiritual grounding. Depending on your memories and/or your family history, your ancestors can be a gateway to bliss . . . or a reminder of failure and limitation. Either way, and whether you like it or not, however, these folks are still your family.
On a biological level we are our ancestors. We have their DNA, RNA, their predispositions for certain illnesses, and so on. The ancestors companion us and bequeath to us their unfinished business. Likewise on a spiritual level, we have their “stuff” – their stories, memories, emotions, energy, and even behavioral tendencies. We are their continuation . . . and also their current expression in the physical world.
You and your ancestors are one and the same. We are psychologically pre-conditioned by our ancestors in history, who shaped our complexes, fears and obsessions. You possess the wisdom and intelligence to become a full human being because you inherited an eternity of wisdom, not only from your blood ancestors but also from the wholeness of life itself.
Even if you do not believe in the spiritual aspect of ancestry, you have probably witnessed the handing down of traditions, upbringing, and temperament from parent to child within your family tree. Some of these things are wonderfully empowering, wise, and nourishing. Some of these things are also painful, ignorant, and destructive.
Simply by accepting the power of family and ancestors, you can break the harmful cycles that have been handed down. You can begin to heal old wounds and free yourself from behaviors and emotions that no longer serve you. You can even discover the most liberating emotion of all – forgiveness. Developing a strong relationship with your ancestors is profoundly important, second only to your relationship with yourself.
Jung felt very strongly that he was "under the influence of things or questions which were left incomplete and unanswered by [his] parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors." His differentiation of the collective unconscious into its various levels and his description of the nature of psyche provide a working model which allows us to see how our biography is part of a continuing story, part of a dynamic web of relations, which has its roots and telos in the stories of our ancestors and descendants.
"Everything psychic is pregnant with the future." ~Carl Jung
For, in the last resort, we are conditioned not only by the past, but by the future, which is sketched out in us long beforehand and gradually evolves out of us. ~Jung, Analytical Psychology and Education, Page 110.
You are light and life, like God the Father of whom Man was born. If therefore you learn to know yourself... you will return to life. ~Corpus Hermeticum I, Poimandres, 21.
My soul -- are you there? I have returned, I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again. Should I tell you everything I have seen, experienced, and drunk in? Or do you not want to hear about all the noise of life and the world? But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life. This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call divine.
~Carl Jung; Red Book
Nicholas Roerich - The Dragon's Daughter (1906)
Genealogy and Genetic Genealogy are now the second most popular subject online. The trail back through history is contained in the lineage of our own descent. Large numbers of people are discovering their Colonial histories and following their ancestors back to the homelands. Around the globe, some were never transplanted; others never forgot who they are or where they are from. Whatever the Grail is, we embody that. Some deny the Sangreal, yet here we are in the flesh, following the Red Thread.
HOLY BLOOD, HOLY TRAIL
A Mystery Wrapped in a Love Story
For those who can trace their ancestral lines back through centuries, the Grail Trail is a golden path back to medieval times, ancient times, & into the mists of myth and pre-history. Follow your Grail-Trail and see where it leads.
Underground Streams Converge in the Vast Ocean of the Medieval Ancestral Pool
Ancestral Life Continues Within Us
“Then turn to the dead, listen to their lament
and accept them with love.” --C.G. Jung, The Red Book, Chapter XV
One of the key themes in ‘The Lament for the Dead’ is the denial of death by contemporary, secular Western culture. Our ancestors are not properly recognized and given their due weight – there is no real place for the dead in our culture. Shamdasani says on p.176:
“The first task that Jung finds himself confronted with [as I think anyone engaged in this descent is] is reanimating the dead, acknowledging that the dead are, and they have presences, they have effects. We turn our eyes away from future-oriented living and to what has gone before, in the shape of animated history, history that is not simply a record but history that is active.”
Therefore, by denying the dead we are denying ourselves.
Jung believed that the foundations of personality are ancestral and universal. Because much of genealogical best-practice includes mythic and fictional characters, the process is best approached with a Jungian orientation, rather than as hard historical fact, except where lines are clearly curated. In terms of collective unconscious, genealogy has "as if" psychic reality.
Jungian and post-Jungian practices allow us to interact with such material in a deeply meaningful way that helps us integrate such knowledge and self-knowledge, that enhances integration and individuation. Post-Jungians are committed to an approach that does not focus exclusively on psychic reality but also takes into account the realities of the outer world. Genealogy helps us adapt to both external or internal realities. This practice raises into conscious awareness what was formerly subconscious or unconscious -- the lives of our direct ancestors.
Outside in the courtyard, adjacent to the Tower, stand three stone tablets upon which, as Jung tells it in MDR, "I chiseled the names of my paternal ancestors." [3] The imaginal world of the ancestors, Jung's inner fatherland, was a living presence in Jung's everyday experience. Ahnenerbe, "ancestral inheritance," is the ground of all subjective experience within every individual, according to Jung. We find this idea at the epicenter of his worldview from a very early age, in an alien part of his child-self that he called his "number two personality" -- an elderly gentleman of the eighteenth century-allowing him to imagine he was "living in two ages simultaneously, and being two different persons." [4] He is an individual, yet a second heart beats in his breast, a sacred heart that squeezes the lifeblood of the ancestors through his veins.
"When I was working on the stone tablets," Jung confided, "I became aware of the fateful links between me and my ancestors .... It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished." [5]
What questions did Jung's paternal ancestors leave unanswered? What did Jung feel compelled to complete or to continue? What was the family karma that bound Jung to a specific fate? These questions already contain the seeds of their answers. What we must listen for here are the assumptions behind the queries, the brand of reality that would allow the possibility of such statements or questions in the first place. It is an arcane reality that Jung was destined to keep alive for millions in the twentieth century.
In a seminar he gave in Zurich in 1925, Carl Jung expressed his belief in the idea of "ancestor possession" -- that is, that certain hereditary units would become activated under certain circumstances in one's life, allowing the spirit of one's ancestor to then "take over" one's actions. Jung gave the example of an "imaginary normal man" who, on the surface, never indicated a capacity for leadership but in whom, when put in a position of power, the "ancestral unit" of a leader somewhere in the family past was awakened.
"I know no answer to the question of whether the karma which I live is the outcome of my past lives, or whether it is not rather the achievement of my ancestors, whose heritage comes together in me," Jung confessed in MDR. "Am I a combination of the lives of these ancestors and do I embody these lives again? Have I lived before in the past as a specific personality, and did I progress so far in that life that I am now able to seek a solution? I do not know."--Aryan Christ, Chapter 1
A Mystery Wrapped in a Love Story
For those who can trace their ancestral lines back through centuries, the Grail Trail is a golden path back to medieval times, ancient times, & into the mists of myth and pre-history. Follow your Grail-Trail and see where it leads.
Underground Streams Converge in the Vast Ocean of the Medieval Ancestral Pool
Ancestral Life Continues Within Us
“Then turn to the dead, listen to their lament
and accept them with love.” --C.G. Jung, The Red Book, Chapter XV
One of the key themes in ‘The Lament for the Dead’ is the denial of death by contemporary, secular Western culture. Our ancestors are not properly recognized and given their due weight – there is no real place for the dead in our culture. Shamdasani says on p.176:
“The first task that Jung finds himself confronted with [as I think anyone engaged in this descent is] is reanimating the dead, acknowledging that the dead are, and they have presences, they have effects. We turn our eyes away from future-oriented living and to what has gone before, in the shape of animated history, history that is not simply a record but history that is active.”
Therefore, by denying the dead we are denying ourselves.
Jung believed that the foundations of personality are ancestral and universal. Because much of genealogical best-practice includes mythic and fictional characters, the process is best approached with a Jungian orientation, rather than as hard historical fact, except where lines are clearly curated. In terms of collective unconscious, genealogy has "as if" psychic reality.
Jungian and post-Jungian practices allow us to interact with such material in a deeply meaningful way that helps us integrate such knowledge and self-knowledge, that enhances integration and individuation. Post-Jungians are committed to an approach that does not focus exclusively on psychic reality but also takes into account the realities of the outer world. Genealogy helps us adapt to both external or internal realities. This practice raises into conscious awareness what was formerly subconscious or unconscious -- the lives of our direct ancestors.
Outside in the courtyard, adjacent to the Tower, stand three stone tablets upon which, as Jung tells it in MDR, "I chiseled the names of my paternal ancestors." [3] The imaginal world of the ancestors, Jung's inner fatherland, was a living presence in Jung's everyday experience. Ahnenerbe, "ancestral inheritance," is the ground of all subjective experience within every individual, according to Jung. We find this idea at the epicenter of his worldview from a very early age, in an alien part of his child-self that he called his "number two personality" -- an elderly gentleman of the eighteenth century-allowing him to imagine he was "living in two ages simultaneously, and being two different persons." [4] He is an individual, yet a second heart beats in his breast, a sacred heart that squeezes the lifeblood of the ancestors through his veins.
"When I was working on the stone tablets," Jung confided, "I became aware of the fateful links between me and my ancestors .... It often seems as if there were an impersonal karma within a family, which is passed from parents to children. It has always seemed to me that I had to answer questions which fate had posed to my forefathers, and which had not yet been answered, or as if I had to complete, or perhaps continue, things which previous ages had left unfinished." [5]
What questions did Jung's paternal ancestors leave unanswered? What did Jung feel compelled to complete or to continue? What was the family karma that bound Jung to a specific fate? These questions already contain the seeds of their answers. What we must listen for here are the assumptions behind the queries, the brand of reality that would allow the possibility of such statements or questions in the first place. It is an arcane reality that Jung was destined to keep alive for millions in the twentieth century.
In a seminar he gave in Zurich in 1925, Carl Jung expressed his belief in the idea of "ancestor possession" -- that is, that certain hereditary units would become activated under certain circumstances in one's life, allowing the spirit of one's ancestor to then "take over" one's actions. Jung gave the example of an "imaginary normal man" who, on the surface, never indicated a capacity for leadership but in whom, when put in a position of power, the "ancestral unit" of a leader somewhere in the family past was awakened.
"I know no answer to the question of whether the karma which I live is the outcome of my past lives, or whether it is not rather the achievement of my ancestors, whose heritage comes together in me," Jung confessed in MDR. "Am I a combination of the lives of these ancestors and do I embody these lives again? Have I lived before in the past as a specific personality, and did I progress so far in that life that I am now able to seek a solution? I do not know."--Aryan Christ, Chapter 1
Re-examining Psychology: Critical Perspectives and African Insights By Len T. Holdstock
Walter Bruneel
LIFESPAN
Since we are psychic beings and not entirely dependent upon space and time, we can easily understand the central importance of the resurrection idea: we are not completely subjected to the powers of annihilation because our psychic totality reaches beyond the barrier of space and time. ~Carl Jung, The Symbolic Self, Page 695.
Although he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and declared by man.
-Jung, Psychology & Religion
Life that just happens in and for itself is not real life;
it is real only when it is known.
~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 81.
Hence one could say —cum grano salis —that history could be constructed
just as easily from one's own unconscious as from the actual texts.
~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 86.
Trace your History back through Time into Myth
Collective Remembrance - Soul Searching - Wisdom Bridge
Celebrating Historic & Mythic Heritage
Place, Sense, Purpose & Death; Ancestral Magic
Deep Impulses, Untold Secrets, Spirit Walking
Since we are psychic beings and not entirely dependent upon space and time, we can easily understand the central importance of the resurrection idea: we are not completely subjected to the powers of annihilation because our psychic totality reaches beyond the barrier of space and time. ~Carl Jung, The Symbolic Self, Page 695.
Although he is already born in the pleroma, his birth in time can only be accomplished when it is perceived, recognized, and declared by man.
-Jung, Psychology & Religion
Life that just happens in and for itself is not real life;
it is real only when it is known.
~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 81.
Hence one could say —cum grano salis —that history could be constructed
just as easily from one's own unconscious as from the actual texts.
~Carl Jung, Psychology and Alchemy, Page 86.
Trace your History back through Time into Myth
Collective Remembrance - Soul Searching - Wisdom Bridge
Celebrating Historic & Mythic Heritage
Place, Sense, Purpose & Death; Ancestral Magic
Deep Impulses, Untold Secrets, Spirit Walking
The "Invisibles" further assert that our world of consciousness and the "Beyond" together form a single cosmos, with the result that the dead are not in a different place from the living. ~Carl Jung, The Symbolic Life, Page 315.
The tree is the world tree.
Odin was hanged on a tree.
Also, the wood for the Christian cross comes from the tree of paradise.
Christ is crucified on the tree of life.
Strangely enough, the cross has a feminine meaning.
It symbolizes the woman, the cruel woman, in whose arms Christ died.
There is a legend that Mary talks to the cross, which she addresses as “mother cross,” how cruelly she would treat her son.
Here, too, the tree as a cross takes the place of the mother who, however, was completely depersonalized.
She is the mother of death.
The mother gives birth, and at the end of life, as earth, she again receives the dead in herself.
Dionysus is the dismembered one. ~Carl Jung, Children’s Dreams Seminar, Pages 83-84.
Odin was hanged on a tree.
Also, the wood for the Christian cross comes from the tree of paradise.
Christ is crucified on the tree of life.
Strangely enough, the cross has a feminine meaning.
It symbolizes the woman, the cruel woman, in whose arms Christ died.
There is a legend that Mary talks to the cross, which she addresses as “mother cross,” how cruelly she would treat her son.
Here, too, the tree as a cross takes the place of the mother who, however, was completely depersonalized.
She is the mother of death.
The mother gives birth, and at the end of life, as earth, she again receives the dead in herself.
Dionysus is the dismembered one. ~Carl Jung, Children’s Dreams Seminar, Pages 83-84.
Tangled Roots of the Tree of Life
The Medieval Menagerie of Usual Suspects Shared with Millions
If your ancestors are European it's almost certain that Charlemagne is one of your ancestors. No matter where your ancestors are from they probably share a common ancestor with everyone else from that region. What's surprising is that many of those common ancestors lived only 1200 years ago. In Medieval Europe there was a significant amount of intermarriage among royal families. Remote inbreeding occurs when a husband and wife share many ancestors but are not superficially closely related.
It's almost trivial to find connections to the US Presidents if you have ancestors who settled in the British colonies in the 1600s. The amazing thing about genealogy is how closely related everyone is once you start looking. This isn't so amazing to population geneticists. The history of European nobility is well known. Chances are, you have at least one ancestor who connects to the various Dukes, barons, Counts, and Knights and their spouses in medieval times. A large part of the European nobility claims descent from Charlemagne's 20 children.
Given that the average generation is 30 years, that's about 40 generations back to 800. Potentially you have 240 ancestors. That's more than 1 trillion ancestors alive in 800. There weren't even close to one trillion people living then. Maybe only about 25 million. It's not surprising that you are related to many of them.
Equally rare were relationships more distant than 5th -8th cousins. One would have to travel over a thousand miles to find a noble mate, totally unrelated in the families' records. The higher the caste level and wealth, the wider the area available to search for a mate. So perhaps peasants were even more inbred than nobility.
Peasants were confined to an area of a few square kilometers. Most had to pick their mates from just such a small gene pool. If one was a peasant in Anjou, one could not hope for a mate from Tourraine or LaMarche, let alone one from Savoie, Pays Bas, Germany, Russia or England. Chances are most peasants mated with a, say, third cousin or closer. They had no choice other than celibacy. An added problem for peasants is that most did not know who their great-grandparents were, let alone who might be a 3rd cousin.
The Medieval Menagerie of Usual Suspects Shared with Millions
If your ancestors are European it's almost certain that Charlemagne is one of your ancestors. No matter where your ancestors are from they probably share a common ancestor with everyone else from that region. What's surprising is that many of those common ancestors lived only 1200 years ago. In Medieval Europe there was a significant amount of intermarriage among royal families. Remote inbreeding occurs when a husband and wife share many ancestors but are not superficially closely related.
It's almost trivial to find connections to the US Presidents if you have ancestors who settled in the British colonies in the 1600s. The amazing thing about genealogy is how closely related everyone is once you start looking. This isn't so amazing to population geneticists. The history of European nobility is well known. Chances are, you have at least one ancestor who connects to the various Dukes, barons, Counts, and Knights and their spouses in medieval times. A large part of the European nobility claims descent from Charlemagne's 20 children.
Given that the average generation is 30 years, that's about 40 generations back to 800. Potentially you have 240 ancestors. That's more than 1 trillion ancestors alive in 800. There weren't even close to one trillion people living then. Maybe only about 25 million. It's not surprising that you are related to many of them.
Equally rare were relationships more distant than 5th -8th cousins. One would have to travel over a thousand miles to find a noble mate, totally unrelated in the families' records. The higher the caste level and wealth, the wider the area available to search for a mate. So perhaps peasants were even more inbred than nobility.
Peasants were confined to an area of a few square kilometers. Most had to pick their mates from just such a small gene pool. If one was a peasant in Anjou, one could not hope for a mate from Tourraine or LaMarche, let alone one from Savoie, Pays Bas, Germany, Russia or England. Chances are most peasants mated with a, say, third cousin or closer. They had no choice other than celibacy. An added problem for peasants is that most did not know who their great-grandparents were, let alone who might be a 3rd cousin.
ANCESTRAL SOUL
Primordial Psyche is the Soul of the Ancestors
"We forget that the Soul has its own Ancestors."
--James Hillman
You live inasmuch as these Mendelian units are living. They have souls, are endowed with psychic life, the psychic life of that ancestor; or you can call it part of an ancestral soul. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 1401.
Near the end of his life, Jung spoke to Aniela Jaffe about the Septem Sermones and explained "that the discussions with the dead [in the Seven Sermons] formed the prelude to what he would subsequently communicate to the world, and that their content anticipated his later books. 'From that time on, the dead have become ever more distinct for me as the voices of the unanswered. unresolved and unredeemed.' " [The Red Book, p346 n78]
Somewhere In Time
BACK FROM THE DEAD
Ancestral Continuum: Surviving the Afterlife
United by Blood, We Are Connected In a Sacred Procession
A Quest for Wholeness through Remembrance & Interaction
The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape,
In forms imaginary, th’ unguided days
And rotten times that you shall look upon
When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
William Shakespeare
THE HOUSE OF LIFE
Your Soul & Ancestral Destiny
Genealogy is a wormhole into our ancestry and family history. We each dig a tunnel into our past. If we don't remember our ancestors, we probably cannot recall the distant past. Identifying ancestors can take us places we would not otherwise have gone. They can illuminate us or even manifest themselves. Our ancestors are totally essential to our every waking moment. They wrestled with the same issues we face daily. We should strive to be good ancestors. Each living cell carries the experience of a billion years of ancestral experimentation, written in our hearts.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back. __Jung Red Book, p.244
The past is not dead. It isn’t even past. -William Faulkner
“We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.”
― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas
But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life.
This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call divine.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 232.
"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...
not going all the way, and not starting." --Buddha
Consciousness is the cradle of the birth of God in man.
~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 39.
"I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books;
I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me." - Hermann Hesse
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around. --Gilbert K. Chesterton
“We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies.”
- Shirley Abbott
Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Primordial Psyche is the Soul of the Ancestors
"We forget that the Soul has its own Ancestors."
--James Hillman
You live inasmuch as these Mendelian units are living. They have souls, are endowed with psychic life, the psychic life of that ancestor; or you can call it part of an ancestral soul. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 1401.
Near the end of his life, Jung spoke to Aniela Jaffe about the Septem Sermones and explained "that the discussions with the dead [in the Seven Sermons] formed the prelude to what he would subsequently communicate to the world, and that their content anticipated his later books. 'From that time on, the dead have become ever more distinct for me as the voices of the unanswered. unresolved and unredeemed.' " [The Red Book, p346 n78]
Somewhere In Time
BACK FROM THE DEAD
Ancestral Continuum: Surviving the Afterlife
United by Blood, We Are Connected In a Sacred Procession
A Quest for Wholeness through Remembrance & Interaction
The blood weeps from my heart when I do shape,
In forms imaginary, th’ unguided days
And rotten times that you shall look upon
When I am sleeping with my ancestors.
William Shakespeare
THE HOUSE OF LIFE
Your Soul & Ancestral Destiny
Genealogy is a wormhole into our ancestry and family history. We each dig a tunnel into our past. If we don't remember our ancestors, we probably cannot recall the distant past. Identifying ancestors can take us places we would not otherwise have gone. They can illuminate us or even manifest themselves. Our ancestors are totally essential to our every waking moment. They wrestled with the same issues we face daily. We should strive to be good ancestors. Each living cell carries the experience of a billion years of ancestral experimentation, written in our hearts.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back. __Jung Red Book, p.244
The past is not dead. It isn’t even past. -William Faulkner
“We're all ghosts. We all carry, inside us, people who came before us.”
― Liam Callanan, The Cloud Atlas
But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life.
This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call divine.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 232.
"There are two mistakes one can make along the road to truth...
not going all the way, and not starting." --Buddha
Consciousness is the cradle of the birth of God in man.
~Carl Jung, Conversations with C.G. Jung, Page 39.
"I have been and still am a seeker, but I have ceased to question stars and books;
I have begun to listen to the teaching my blood whispers to me." - Hermann Hesse
Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to that arrogant oligarchy who merely happen to be walking around. --Gilbert K. Chesterton
“We all grow up with the weight of history on us. Our ancestors dwell in the attics of our brains as they do in the spiraling chains of knowledge hidden in every cell of our bodies.”
- Shirley Abbott
Every man is a quotation from all his ancestors. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Jung on transformation of consciousness and reincarnation.
"Verily, through a hundred souls went I my way, and through a
hundred cradles and birth-throes. Many a farewell have I taken; I
know the heart-breaking last hours." --Nietzsche, Zarathustra
Here he is simply describing a series of transformations of consciousness.
You see, from the beginning, our individual consciousness only lives by a continuous series of pregnancies and births, a continuous series of transformations; and one can say that the belief in reincarnation of other races is merely a projection of the fact of the transformation of consciousness.
You know, inasmuch as our consciousness is not only our own accomplishment, since we are born with the faculty of having a certain intensity or a certain width of consciousness, we owe gratitude to our ancestors.
We repeat the life of our ancestors as we grow up; the child begins with an animal-like condition and repeats all the animal stages in the development of consciousness until it
reaches what is called the modern level of consciousness.
And naturally we can feel all those transformations as former lives just as well, because they were former lives; in former times people have repeated that development untold millions of times and naturally we have the deposit, the engrammata of all that.
Our mind was not made today. It was not a tabula rasa when we were born; we have even in its physical structure a brain in which all the former developments have been described or molded.
Therefore we have quite legitimately that feeling of having gone through many lives and endured their experiences, even the heart-breaking last hours, innumerable times.
~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 941-942.
"Verily, through a hundred souls went I my way, and through a
hundred cradles and birth-throes. Many a farewell have I taken; I
know the heart-breaking last hours." --Nietzsche, Zarathustra
Here he is simply describing a series of transformations of consciousness.
You see, from the beginning, our individual consciousness only lives by a continuous series of pregnancies and births, a continuous series of transformations; and one can say that the belief in reincarnation of other races is merely a projection of the fact of the transformation of consciousness.
You know, inasmuch as our consciousness is not only our own accomplishment, since we are born with the faculty of having a certain intensity or a certain width of consciousness, we owe gratitude to our ancestors.
We repeat the life of our ancestors as we grow up; the child begins with an animal-like condition and repeats all the animal stages in the development of consciousness until it
reaches what is called the modern level of consciousness.
And naturally we can feel all those transformations as former lives just as well, because they were former lives; in former times people have repeated that development untold millions of times and naturally we have the deposit, the engrammata of all that.
Our mind was not made today. It was not a tabula rasa when we were born; we have even in its physical structure a brain in which all the former developments have been described or molded.
Therefore we have quite legitimately that feeling of having gone through many lives and endured their experiences, even the heart-breaking last hours, innumerable times.
~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Pages 941-942.
RECITING YOUR KIN
Unlocking the Doors to the Past We Start Anew
DIGITAL ANCESTRY
Genealogy Without Proof is Mythology
I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something that I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
Because we cannot discover God's throne in the sky with a radio-telescope or establish (for certain) that a beloved father or mother is still about in a more or less corporeal form, people assume that such ideas are "not true." I would rather say that they are not "true" enough, for these are conceptions of a kind that have accompanied human life from prehistoric times, and that still break through into consciousness at any provocation.
~Carl Jung; Man and His Symbols
We cannot do away with the living man by making him spirit -- he must live here -- and we must really assume that inasmuch as there is life it makes sense, and that life in not properly lived when we deny half of life. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 539
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book.
Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name. --Etheridge Knight
"Genealogy is like a magic mirror. Look into it, and pretty soon, interesting faces appear."
“Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.” – Gail Lumet Buckley
Unlocking the Doors to the Past We Start Anew
DIGITAL ANCESTRY
Genealogy Without Proof is Mythology
I know only that I was born and exist, and it seems to me that I have been carried along. I exist on the foundation of something that I do not know. In spite of all uncertainties, I feel solidity underlying all existence and a continuity in my mode of being.
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
Because we cannot discover God's throne in the sky with a radio-telescope or establish (for certain) that a beloved father or mother is still about in a more or less corporeal form, people assume that such ideas are "not true." I would rather say that they are not "true" enough, for these are conceptions of a kind that have accompanied human life from prehistoric times, and that still break through into consciousness at any provocation.
~Carl Jung; Man and His Symbols
We cannot do away with the living man by making him spirit -- he must live here -- and we must really assume that inasmuch as there is life it makes sense, and that life in not properly lived when we deny half of life. ~Carl Jung, Zarathustra Seminar, Page 539
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. Therefore on your journey be sure to take golden cups full of the sweet drink of life, red wine, and give it to dead matter, so that it can win life back.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book.
Some men by ancestry are only the shadow of a mighty name. --Etheridge Knight
"Genealogy is like a magic mirror. Look into it, and pretty soon, interesting faces appear."
“Family faces are magic mirrors. Looking at people who belong to us, we see the past, present, and future.” – Gail Lumet Buckley
In the Future Someone Will Remember Us
SOUL'S GOLD
Your soul is your own self in the spiritual world.
In Their Footsteps
Paths Out of Time to Your Ancient Past
...who are the dead and what does it mean to answer them?
What matters is not what you say, but what they say back.
Your soul is your own self in the spiritual world.
In Their Footsteps
Paths Out of Time to Your Ancient Past
...who are the dead and what does it mean to answer them?
What matters is not what you say, but what they say back.
The Victim is Queen - Leonor Fini
http://mysticmedusa.com/2013/05/surreal-virgo-neptunian/
"There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would not be possible." ~Buddha
In knowing ourselves to be unique in our personal combination that is, ultimately limited we possess also the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then! --Jung, MDR
Did you not see that when your creative force turned to the world, how the dead things moved under it and through it, how they grew and prospered, and how your thoughts flowed in rich rivers? If your creative force now turns to the place of the soul, you will see how your soul becomes green and how its field bears wonderful fruit. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 236
http://mysticmedusa.com/2013/05/surreal-virgo-neptunian/
"There is an Unborn, Unoriginated, Uncreated, Unformed. If there were not this Unborn, this Unoriginated, this Uncreated, this Unformed, escape from the world of the born, the originated, the created, the formed would not be possible." ~Buddha
In knowing ourselves to be unique in our personal combination that is, ultimately limited we possess also the capacity for becoming conscious of the infinite. But only then! --Jung, MDR
Did you not see that when your creative force turned to the world, how the dead things moved under it and through it, how they grew and prospered, and how your thoughts flowed in rich rivers? If your creative force now turns to the place of the soul, you will see how your soul becomes green and how its field bears wonderful fruit. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 236
~Collecting the Dust of Those Who Died Long Ago~
SOUL OF OUR ANCESTORS
Hearth of the Heart
Reliving Ancestral Soul
as Primordial Psyche, as Ancestral Continuum;
Collecting the Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
“We return to the lives of those who have gone before us,
a perplexing mobius strip, until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.”
― Colum McCann, TransAtlantic
"Behold the body, born of dust, how perfect it has become.
Why should you fear its end?
When were you made less by dying?
When you pass beyond this human form,
No doubt you will become an angel and soar through the heavens,
But don't stop there, even heavenly bodies grow old.
Pass again from the heavenly realm and
Plunge, plunge into the vast ocean of consciousness,
Let the drop that is you become a hundred mighty seas.
But do not think that the drop alone becomes the ocean.
The ocean, too, becomes the drop." --Rumi
My friends, it is wise to nourish the soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 232.
It was only quite late that we realized (or rather, are beginning to realize) that God is Reality itself and therefore last but not least man. --Jung
The beginning of all things is love, but the being of things is life.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Page 327.
Although we human beings have our own personal life, we are in large measure the representatives, the victims and promoters of a collective spirit whose years are counted in centuries. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 91.
SOUL OF OUR ANCESTORS
Hearth of the Heart
Reliving Ancestral Soul
as Primordial Psyche, as Ancestral Continuum;
Collecting the Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors
“We return to the lives of those who have gone before us,
a perplexing mobius strip, until we come home, eventually, to ourselves.”
― Colum McCann, TransAtlantic
"Behold the body, born of dust, how perfect it has become.
Why should you fear its end?
When were you made less by dying?
When you pass beyond this human form,
No doubt you will become an angel and soar through the heavens,
But don't stop there, even heavenly bodies grow old.
Pass again from the heavenly realm and
Plunge, plunge into the vast ocean of consciousness,
Let the drop that is you become a hundred mighty seas.
But do not think that the drop alone becomes the ocean.
The ocean, too, becomes the drop." --Rumi
My friends, it is wise to nourish the soul, otherwise you will breed dragons and devils in your heart. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 232.
It was only quite late that we realized (or rather, are beginning to realize) that God is Reality itself and therefore last but not least man. --Jung
The beginning of all things is love, but the being of things is life.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Page 327.
Although we human beings have our own personal life, we are in large measure the representatives, the victims and promoters of a collective spirit whose years are counted in centuries. ~Carl Jung; Memories Dreams and Reflections; Page 91.
Through comprehending the dark, the nocturnal, the abyssal in you, you become utterly simple. And you prepare to sleep through the millennia like everyone else, and you sleep down into the womb of the millennia, and your walls resound with ancient temple chants. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 267
Apart, however, from the Masses said for the soul in the Catholic Church, the provisions we make for the dead are rudimentary and on the lowest level, not because we cannot convince ourselves of the soul's immortality, but because we have rationalized the above-mentioned psychological need out of existence.
We behave as if we did not have this need, and because we cannot believe in a life after death we prefer to do nothing about it. Simpler-minded people follow their own feelings, and, as in Italy, build themselves funeral monuments of gruesome beauty. The Catholic Masses for the soul are on a level considerably above this, because they are expressly intended for the psychic welfare of the deceased and are not a mere gratification of lachrymose sentiments.
The spiritual climax is reached at the moment when life ends.
Human life, therefore, is the vehicle of the highest perfection it is possible to attain; it alone generates the karma that makes it possible for the dead man to abide in the perpetual light of the Voidness without clinging to any object, and thus to rest on the hub of the wheel of rebirth, freed from all illusion of genesis and decay. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 524-525, Para 856.
But the highest application of spiritual effort on behalf of the departed is surely to be found in the instructions of the Bardo Thodol. They are so detailed and thoroughly adapted to the apparent changes in the dead man's condition that every serious-minded reader must ask himself whether these wise old lamas might not, after all, have caught a glimpse of the fourth dimension and twitched the veil from the greatest of life's secrets. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 524, Para 855.
It is a primordial, universal idea that the dead simply continue their earthly existence and do not know that they are disembodied spirits an archetypal idea which enters into immediate, visible manifestation whenever anyone sees a ghost.
~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 518.
Apart, however, from the Masses said for the soul in the Catholic Church, the provisions we make for the dead are rudimentary and on the lowest level, not because we cannot convince ourselves of the soul's immortality, but because we have rationalized the above-mentioned psychological need out of existence.
We behave as if we did not have this need, and because we cannot believe in a life after death we prefer to do nothing about it. Simpler-minded people follow their own feelings, and, as in Italy, build themselves funeral monuments of gruesome beauty. The Catholic Masses for the soul are on a level considerably above this, because they are expressly intended for the psychic welfare of the deceased and are not a mere gratification of lachrymose sentiments.
The spiritual climax is reached at the moment when life ends.
Human life, therefore, is the vehicle of the highest perfection it is possible to attain; it alone generates the karma that makes it possible for the dead man to abide in the perpetual light of the Voidness without clinging to any object, and thus to rest on the hub of the wheel of rebirth, freed from all illusion of genesis and decay. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 524-525, Para 856.
But the highest application of spiritual effort on behalf of the departed is surely to be found in the instructions of the Bardo Thodol. They are so detailed and thoroughly adapted to the apparent changes in the dead man's condition that every serious-minded reader must ask himself whether these wise old lamas might not, after all, have caught a glimpse of the fourth dimension and twitched the veil from the greatest of life's secrets. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 524, Para 855.
It is a primordial, universal idea that the dead simply continue their earthly existence and do not know that they are disembodied spirits an archetypal idea which enters into immediate, visible manifestation whenever anyone sees a ghost.
~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 518.
ORIGIN-ALITY
Descent From Antiquity
GRAVE DIGGING
Looking Backward: Those Who Came Before
“The first step to the knowledge of the highest divine symbol of the wonder and mystery of life is in the recognition of the monstrous nature of life and its glory in that character: the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think—and their name is legion—that they know how the universe could have been better than it is, how it would have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without life, are unfit for illumination. Or those who think—as do many—“Let me first correct society, then get around to myself” are barred from even the outer gate of the mansion of God’s peace. All societies are evil, sorrowful, inequitable; and so they will always be. So if you really want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it. And that no one can do who has not himself learned how to live in it in the joyful sorrow and sorrowful joy of the knowledge of life as it is.”
--Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By: "The Confrontation of East and West in Religion"
Dr Hillman you once commented that "The first community are the dead, the ancestors, the community of souls.' And this I felt very strongly in Egypt, with its more than 5000 year old necropolises.
I think the whole question of commemorating the dead may actually have something to do with our trying not to lose the love of the departed...Why is it, for instance that the beginning of culture is the making of things to put the dead in- clay vessels, sarcophagi, canopic jars, coffins? Maybe we need to understand that the reason why culture is built on the dead -- who may be the ground of love, an underworld ground -- has something to do with feeling. In Ancient Egypt relatives of the dead used to bring offerings of food and drink for the Ka.
Our dead are dead, but I don't think that the Ancient Egyptian dead were dead - and that's why they still ate and had to have their cosmetic boxes and servant statues and so on. Their souls weren't dead. Moreover you don't find that idea of 'I live alone, I die alone'- that whole ego view. In ancient Egypt you get the sense of you joining the community of the dead who are already there, like presences waiting for you.
http://www.mentalhealthforum.net/forum/thread11786.html
Council of Ancestors
The "Dead" Come Back as Ancestors
Knowing who our ancestors are, we live an unbroken continuity with the past. Our ancestors also symbolize the emotional contents of the unconscious. They help us perceive the greater whole.
What the ancients did for their dead! You seem to believe that you can absolve yourself from the care of the dead, and from the work that they so greatly demand, since what is dead is past. You excuse yourself with your disbelief in the immortality of the soul. Do you think that the dead do not exist because you have' devised the impossibility of immortality? You believe in your idols of words. The dead produce effects, that is sufficient. In the inner world there is no explaining away, as little as you can explain away the sea in the outer world. You must finally understand your purpose in explaining away, namely to seek protection.
~Carl Jung; Red Book.
Descent From Antiquity
GRAVE DIGGING
Looking Backward: Those Who Came Before
“The first step to the knowledge of the highest divine symbol of the wonder and mystery of life is in the recognition of the monstrous nature of life and its glory in that character: the realization that this is just how it is and that it cannot and will not be changed. Those who think—and their name is legion—that they know how the universe could have been better than it is, how it would have been had they created it, without pain, without sorrow, without time, without life, are unfit for illumination. Or those who think—as do many—“Let me first correct society, then get around to myself” are barred from even the outer gate of the mansion of God’s peace. All societies are evil, sorrowful, inequitable; and so they will always be. So if you really want to help this world, what you will have to teach is how to live in it. And that no one can do who has not himself learned how to live in it in the joyful sorrow and sorrowful joy of the knowledge of life as it is.”
--Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By: "The Confrontation of East and West in Religion"
Dr Hillman you once commented that "The first community are the dead, the ancestors, the community of souls.' And this I felt very strongly in Egypt, with its more than 5000 year old necropolises.
I think the whole question of commemorating the dead may actually have something to do with our trying not to lose the love of the departed...Why is it, for instance that the beginning of culture is the making of things to put the dead in- clay vessels, sarcophagi, canopic jars, coffins? Maybe we need to understand that the reason why culture is built on the dead -- who may be the ground of love, an underworld ground -- has something to do with feeling. In Ancient Egypt relatives of the dead used to bring offerings of food and drink for the Ka.
Our dead are dead, but I don't think that the Ancient Egyptian dead were dead - and that's why they still ate and had to have their cosmetic boxes and servant statues and so on. Their souls weren't dead. Moreover you don't find that idea of 'I live alone, I die alone'- that whole ego view. In ancient Egypt you get the sense of you joining the community of the dead who are already there, like presences waiting for you.
http://www.mentalhealthforum.net/forum/thread11786.html
Council of Ancestors
The "Dead" Come Back as Ancestors
Knowing who our ancestors are, we live an unbroken continuity with the past. Our ancestors also symbolize the emotional contents of the unconscious. They help us perceive the greater whole.
What the ancients did for their dead! You seem to believe that you can absolve yourself from the care of the dead, and from the work that they so greatly demand, since what is dead is past. You excuse yourself with your disbelief in the immortality of the soul. Do you think that the dead do not exist because you have' devised the impossibility of immortality? You believe in your idols of words. The dead produce effects, that is sufficient. In the inner world there is no explaining away, as little as you can explain away the sea in the outer world. You must finally understand your purpose in explaining away, namely to seek protection.
~Carl Jung; Red Book.
The Female Ancestors of Christ By Ann Belford Ulanov
FOR OUR NAMELESS ANCESTORS
A Bridge Across Time
Our Roots Are Like a Hidden Rhizome of Connective Tissue
Interconnective Corridors in the Labyrinth of Time
YOU ARE THE CROWN OF CREATION
DNA Temples of Living Light
Regardless of the reasons, each person seeking to learn about their family history is embarking on a quest. Just like the journeys of pioneer ancestors, such quests may seem almost impossible or never-ending. However, a quest is just an “over-all” goal and like every other journey, proceeds one step at a time.
As with every journey, you will have to set and reach several intermediate goals in succession during this quest. In family history, goals often focus on learning about an ancestor or family. Later in the research process, you will learn how to further break these goals into specific achievable research objectives that will keep you on the path, goal by goal toward achieving your quest.
“Genealogy becomes a mania, an obsessive struggle to penetrate the past and snatch meaning from an infinity of names. At some point the search becomes futile – there is nothing left to find, no meaning to be dredged out of old receipts, newspaper articles, letters, accounts of events that seemed so important fifty or seventy years ago. All that remains is the insane urge to keep looking, insane because the searcher has no idea what he seeks. What will it be? A photograph? A will? A fragment of a letter? The only way to find out is to look at everything, because it is often when the searcher has gone far beyond the border of futility that he finds the object he never knew he was looking for.”
―Henry Wiencek, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White
WISE BLOOD
A Bridge Across Time
Our Roots Are Like a Hidden Rhizome of Connective Tissue
Interconnective Corridors in the Labyrinth of Time
YOU ARE THE CROWN OF CREATION
DNA Temples of Living Light
Regardless of the reasons, each person seeking to learn about their family history is embarking on a quest. Just like the journeys of pioneer ancestors, such quests may seem almost impossible or never-ending. However, a quest is just an “over-all” goal and like every other journey, proceeds one step at a time.
As with every journey, you will have to set and reach several intermediate goals in succession during this quest. In family history, goals often focus on learning about an ancestor or family. Later in the research process, you will learn how to further break these goals into specific achievable research objectives that will keep you on the path, goal by goal toward achieving your quest.
“Genealogy becomes a mania, an obsessive struggle to penetrate the past and snatch meaning from an infinity of names. At some point the search becomes futile – there is nothing left to find, no meaning to be dredged out of old receipts, newspaper articles, letters, accounts of events that seemed so important fifty or seventy years ago. All that remains is the insane urge to keep looking, insane because the searcher has no idea what he seeks. What will it be? A photograph? A will? A fragment of a letter? The only way to find out is to look at everything, because it is often when the searcher has gone far beyond the border of futility that he finds the object he never knew he was looking for.”
―Henry Wiencek, The Hairstons: An American Family in Black and White
WISE BLOOD
STRAIN OF BLOOD
For him who looks backwards the whole world, even the starry sky, becomes the mother who bends over him and enfolds him on all sides, and from the renunciation of this image, and of the longing for it arises the picture of the world as we know it today. ~Carl Jung; The Sacrifice; CW 5; Par 643.
But the supreme meaning is the path the way and the bridge to what is to come. That is the God yet to come. It is not the coming God himself but his image which appears in the supreme meaning. God is an image, and those who worship him must worship him in the images of the supreme meaning. The supreme meaning is not a meaning and not an absurdity, it is image and force in one, magnificence and force together. The supreme meaning is the beginning and the end. It is the bridge of going across and fulfillment. --Jung, Red Book
(How many of your 2046 direct ancestors have you identified? You had better get busy!)
If we go back just 10 generations, we have 1024 direct ancestors just in the 10th generation; for 20 generations, we have about a million direct ancestors; for 30 generations, about a billion; and for 40 generations about a trillion potential direct ancestors. Put another way, this calculation indicates that every person alive today would have over two billion possible ancestors about 750 years ago, based on 30 generations ago at 25 years per generation. However, the estimated world population for the year 1250 A.D. is only 400 million. If you go back 40 generations, you have over two trillion ancestors! Of course, this number doesn't mean you have that many unique ancestors in 40 generations. What is happening is repetition of ancestors, that is, the same ancestors appearing over and over again in a pedigree ("pedigree collapse"). Repetition (inbreeding) seldom appears within the first ten generations, but the further back you go, the more repetition you are likely to find.
But the supreme meaning is the path the way and the bridge to what is to come. That is the God yet to come. It is not the coming God himself but his image which appears in the supreme meaning. God is an image, and those who worship him must worship him in the images of the supreme meaning. The supreme meaning is not a meaning and not an absurdity, it is image and force in one, magnificence and force together. The supreme meaning is the beginning and the end. It is the bridge of going across and fulfillment. --Jung, Red Book
(How many of your 2046 direct ancestors have you identified? You had better get busy!)
If we go back just 10 generations, we have 1024 direct ancestors just in the 10th generation; for 20 generations, we have about a million direct ancestors; for 30 generations, about a billion; and for 40 generations about a trillion potential direct ancestors. Put another way, this calculation indicates that every person alive today would have over two billion possible ancestors about 750 years ago, based on 30 generations ago at 25 years per generation. However, the estimated world population for the year 1250 A.D. is only 400 million. If you go back 40 generations, you have over two trillion ancestors! Of course, this number doesn't mean you have that many unique ancestors in 40 generations. What is happening is repetition of ancestors, that is, the same ancestors appearing over and over again in a pedigree ("pedigree collapse"). Repetition (inbreeding) seldom appears within the first ten generations, but the further back you go, the more repetition you are likely to find.
The difference between a good life and a bad life is how well you walk through the fire.
~Carl Gustav Jung
~Carl Gustav Jung
“Our psyche is set up in accord with the structure of the universe, and what happens in a Macrocosm likewise happens in the infinitesimal and most subjective reaches of the psyche.” “The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.” ~Carl Jung
GENERATIVITY
A few conjecture that it is the psyche that makes the cortical cells function. Some identify "life" with psyche. But only an insignificant minority regards the psychic phenomenon as a category of existence per se and draws the necessary conclusions. Psychic existence is the only category of existence of which we have immediate knowledge, since nothing can be known unless it first appears as a psychic image. Only psychic existence is immediately verifiable. To the extent that the world does not assume the form of a psychic image, it is virtually non-existent. Jung regarded the psyche, with its capacity to create images, as a mediating agency between the conscious world of the ego and the world of the collective unconscious.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book.
"My blood is alive with many voices telling me I am made of longing."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
The spirit of this time has condemned us to haste. You have no more futurity and no more past if you serve the spirit of this time. We need the life of eternity. We bear the future and the past in the depths. The future is old and the past is young. You serve the spirit of this time, and believe that you are able to escape the spirit of the depths. But the depths do not hesitate any longer and will force you into the mysteries of Christ. It belongs to this mystery that man is not redeemed through the hero, but becomes a Christ himself. The antecedent example of the saints symbolically teaches us this. ~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Page 253.
GENERATIVITY
A few conjecture that it is the psyche that makes the cortical cells function. Some identify "life" with psyche. But only an insignificant minority regards the psychic phenomenon as a category of existence per se and draws the necessary conclusions. Psychic existence is the only category of existence of which we have immediate knowledge, since nothing can be known unless it first appears as a psychic image. Only psychic existence is immediately verifiable. To the extent that the world does not assume the form of a psychic image, it is virtually non-existent. Jung regarded the psyche, with its capacity to create images, as a mediating agency between the conscious world of the ego and the world of the collective unconscious.
We cannot slay death, as we have already taken all life from it. If we still want to overcome death, then we must enliven it. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book.
"My blood is alive with many voices telling me I am made of longing."
- Rainer Maria Rilke
The spirit of this time has condemned us to haste. You have no more futurity and no more past if you serve the spirit of this time. We need the life of eternity. We bear the future and the past in the depths. The future is old and the past is young. You serve the spirit of this time, and believe that you are able to escape the spirit of the depths. But the depths do not hesitate any longer and will force you into the mysteries of Christ. It belongs to this mystery that man is not redeemed through the hero, but becomes a Christ himself. The antecedent example of the saints symbolically teaches us this. ~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Page 253.
Autumn Skye Morrison.
"Do you think that somewhere we are not Nature,
that we are different from Nature?
No, we are Nature and think exactly like Nature." --Jung
"Do you think that somewhere we are not Nature,
that we are different from Nature?
No, we are Nature and think exactly like Nature." --Jung
The dead who besiege us are souls who have not fulfilled the principium individuationis, or else they would have become distant stars. Insofar as we do not fulfill it, the dead have a claim on us and besiege us and we cannot escape them. ~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Appendix C; Page 370
Gobinde Mukande by Noisecraft
“Whatever my ancestors did to you, none of them consulted me.”
― Tad Williams, Shadowrise
― Tad Williams, Shadowrise
ORIGINS
The House of Life
Here is the Book of the Sangreal
Here is the Book of the Blood Royal
Here is the Book of Descent.
The House of Life
Here is the Book of the Sangreal
Here is the Book of the Blood Royal
Here is the Book of Descent.
The Holy Grail is the Soul of the World.
Its fertility is the superabundant generation of all imaginative life.
The unconscious is the matrix of all metaphysical statements, of all mythology, of all philosophy, and of all expressions of life that are based on psychological premises. --Jung, CW 11
"All things are in the universe, and the universe is in all things: we in it, and it in us; in this way everything concurs in a perfect unity." (Giordano Bruno, Mystic, Philosopher, Astronomer)
“Do you think that somewhere we are not Nature, that we are different
from Nature? No, we are in Nature and think exactly like Nature.”
- C.G. Jung, The Earth Has a Soul
Its fertility is the superabundant generation of all imaginative life.
The unconscious is the matrix of all metaphysical statements, of all mythology, of all philosophy, and of all expressions of life that are based on psychological premises. --Jung, CW 11
"All things are in the universe, and the universe is in all things: we in it, and it in us; in this way everything concurs in a perfect unity." (Giordano Bruno, Mystic, Philosopher, Astronomer)
“Do you think that somewhere we are not Nature, that we are different
from Nature? No, we are in Nature and think exactly like Nature.”
- C.G. Jung, The Earth Has a Soul
Songs for Our Ancestors
HEALING THE TREE OF LIFE
Through reflection, "life" and its "soul" are abstracted from Nature and endowed with a separate existence. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 158.
“Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures underneath the eternal flux. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.”
― C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
“Here it is necessary briefly to consider the question of the cult of ancestors before venturing farther. The spirits of the departed are believed to be possessed of supernatural powers which they did not enjoy in the flesh. They may also be dissatisfied or malignant in consequence of being suddenly deprived of life, and if they are neglected by the living, are apt to be revengeful. Therefore they must be cajoled and propitiated. Fear of beings belonging to a mysterious state or sphere of which he knew nothing continually haunted and terrified primitive man and induced in him what is known as" the dread of the sacred." It was every man's personal duty to attend to the demands or requirements of his deceased ancestors. At first he would succour his own immediate forebears with food and gifts; but it must have been borne in upon him that when his parents joined the great majority, the care of the spirits of their parents likewise devolved upon him... and, by degrees, he might even come to regard himself as responsible for the well-being of a line of spirit ancestors of quite formidable genealogy. These, through his neglect, might starve in their tombs; or, alternatively, they might crave his company. Because of vengeance or loneliness they might send disease upon him, for the savage almost invariably believes illness to be brought about by the action of jealous or neglected ancestors. The loneliness of the spirit-world is the dead man's greatest excuse for desiring the company of his descendants.”
―Lewis Spence, British Fairy Origins
We begin to change our lower vibrational patterns just by becoming Aware of them. Now, we can also throw some Spiritual Law into the mix to drive it Home. The Universal Law of Correspondence tells us “As above, so below; as below, so above”. This means that there is “harmony, agreement and correspondence” between the physical, mental and spiritual realms. There is no separation since everything in the Universe, including you, originates from the One Source. The same pattern is expressed on all planes of existence from the smallest electron to the largest star and vice versa. All is One. The Ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi was referring to this great Law of Correspondence in the inscription “Know thyself and thou shalt know all the mysteries of the gods and the Universe”.
When we Heal our own Root we also Heal our relationships. Simply put, if we have resentment toward a family member who has passed away we are still tied to them through said resentment. More importantly, they are still tied to us through the same resentment so by holding on to the resentment we see our Loved ones ALSO not “ascending” completely even though they’ve passed. This is how we begin to see how we keep ourselves locked in the lower vibrational patterns while also holding onto unhealthy attachments for both parties.
If we’re not sure what to do when it comes to being of service to the planet and humanity we can start withIN and heal our Root in order to heal the Tree of Life. When we heal the root we heal Self and the astral plane while also raising the vibration of Mother Earth and the rest of Humanity by extension. As we amplify our own “State of Grace” we raise our vibration to one of Love setting in motion the Butterfly Effect of Healing across the entire interconnected Universe. We find ourselves in a higher and more objective emotional place where we are in a more Universal flow of energy. We gradually become more energetically efficient, emotionally intelligent, and spiritually enlightened just by caring for and nurturing Self and the root of our very own Tree. At the same time, we are being of service to the planet and all of humanity just by Healing Self and our relationships – on both sides of the veil! It’s a Spiritual Mission should we chose to Accept it and an important part of our shift into a *New* era of Spiritual Enlightenment. We can Heal the Root by acknowledging the Quantum Field of Consciousness and our own Soul “mechanics”. Heal the Root and the rest will follow…
HEALING THE TREE OF LIFE
Through reflection, "life" and its "soul" are abstracted from Nature and endowed with a separate existence. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, Page 158.
“Life has always seemed to me like a plant that lives on its rhizome. Its true life is invisible, hidden in the rhizome. The part that appears above ground lasts only a single summer. Then it withers away—an ephemeral apparition. When we think of the unending growth and decay of life and civilizations, we cannot escape the impression of absolute nullity. Yet I have never lost a sense of something that lives and endures underneath the eternal flux. What we see is the blossom, which passes. The rhizome remains.”
― C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections
“Here it is necessary briefly to consider the question of the cult of ancestors before venturing farther. The spirits of the departed are believed to be possessed of supernatural powers which they did not enjoy in the flesh. They may also be dissatisfied or malignant in consequence of being suddenly deprived of life, and if they are neglected by the living, are apt to be revengeful. Therefore they must be cajoled and propitiated. Fear of beings belonging to a mysterious state or sphere of which he knew nothing continually haunted and terrified primitive man and induced in him what is known as" the dread of the sacred." It was every man's personal duty to attend to the demands or requirements of his deceased ancestors. At first he would succour his own immediate forebears with food and gifts; but it must have been borne in upon him that when his parents joined the great majority, the care of the spirits of their parents likewise devolved upon him... and, by degrees, he might even come to regard himself as responsible for the well-being of a line of spirit ancestors of quite formidable genealogy. These, through his neglect, might starve in their tombs; or, alternatively, they might crave his company. Because of vengeance or loneliness they might send disease upon him, for the savage almost invariably believes illness to be brought about by the action of jealous or neglected ancestors. The loneliness of the spirit-world is the dead man's greatest excuse for desiring the company of his descendants.”
―Lewis Spence, British Fairy Origins
We begin to change our lower vibrational patterns just by becoming Aware of them. Now, we can also throw some Spiritual Law into the mix to drive it Home. The Universal Law of Correspondence tells us “As above, so below; as below, so above”. This means that there is “harmony, agreement and correspondence” between the physical, mental and spiritual realms. There is no separation since everything in the Universe, including you, originates from the One Source. The same pattern is expressed on all planes of existence from the smallest electron to the largest star and vice versa. All is One. The Ancient Greek Temple of Apollo at Delphi was referring to this great Law of Correspondence in the inscription “Know thyself and thou shalt know all the mysteries of the gods and the Universe”.
When we Heal our own Root we also Heal our relationships. Simply put, if we have resentment toward a family member who has passed away we are still tied to them through said resentment. More importantly, they are still tied to us through the same resentment so by holding on to the resentment we see our Loved ones ALSO not “ascending” completely even though they’ve passed. This is how we begin to see how we keep ourselves locked in the lower vibrational patterns while also holding onto unhealthy attachments for both parties.
If we’re not sure what to do when it comes to being of service to the planet and humanity we can start withIN and heal our Root in order to heal the Tree of Life. When we heal the root we heal Self and the astral plane while also raising the vibration of Mother Earth and the rest of Humanity by extension. As we amplify our own “State of Grace” we raise our vibration to one of Love setting in motion the Butterfly Effect of Healing across the entire interconnected Universe. We find ourselves in a higher and more objective emotional place where we are in a more Universal flow of energy. We gradually become more energetically efficient, emotionally intelligent, and spiritually enlightened just by caring for and nurturing Self and the root of our very own Tree. At the same time, we are being of service to the planet and all of humanity just by Healing Self and our relationships – on both sides of the veil! It’s a Spiritual Mission should we chose to Accept it and an important part of our shift into a *New* era of Spiritual Enlightenment. We can Heal the Root by acknowledging the Quantum Field of Consciousness and our own Soul “mechanics”. Heal the Root and the rest will follow…
First Family
Ingrid Silva
Climbing Your Family Tree One Branch At a Time
TANGLED ROOTS
TANGLED ROOTS
The individualized soul is not seeking an easy way to get out of the world or to pass it to a redemption or a mystical and compensatory transcendence, because as W.Stevens says to Papini, quoted by Hillman, "It Is more difficult to find the way through the world than the way beyond it". (Stevens, “Reply to Papini,” in The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens)
William Savage Cooper (1896) Phantasy
BARE BONES
How Do You Conceive Yourself?
Genealogy helps us amplify our self-awareness and provide a partial answer to who we are, where we come from, and where we might be going.
What the ancients did for their dead! You seem to believe that you can absolve yourself from the care of the dead, and from the work that they so greatly demand, since what is dead is past. You excuse yourself with your disbelief in the immortality of the soul. Do you think that the dead do not exist because you have' devised the impossibility of immortality? You believe in your idols of words. The dead produce effects, that is sufficient.
In the inner world there is no explaining away, as little as you can explain away the sea in the outer world. You must finally understand your purpose in explaining away, namely to seek protection. ~Carl Jung; Red Book.
"Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full."-Carl Jung.
"A mind that seeks to understand and grasp this is therefore best. Both
bad and good and much of both must be bourne in a lifetime spent on this
earth in these anxious days." --Beowulf
Mankind wishes to love in God only their ideas, that is to say, the ideas which they project into God.
By that they wish to love their unconscious, that Is, that remnant of ancient humanity and the centuries-old past in all people, namely, the common property left behind from all development which is given to all men, like the sunshine and the air.
But in loving this inheritance they love that which is common to all.
Thus they turn back to the mother of humanity, that is to say, to the spirit of the race, and regain in this way something of that connection and of that mysterious and irresistible power which is imparted by the feeling of belonging to the herd.
It is the problem of Antaeus, who preserves his gigantic strength only through contact with mother earth. ~Carl Jung; Psychology of the Unconscious; Pages 200 – 201.
How Do You Conceive Yourself?
Genealogy helps us amplify our self-awareness and provide a partial answer to who we are, where we come from, and where we might be going.
What the ancients did for their dead! You seem to believe that you can absolve yourself from the care of the dead, and from the work that they so greatly demand, since what is dead is past. You excuse yourself with your disbelief in the immortality of the soul. Do you think that the dead do not exist because you have' devised the impossibility of immortality? You believe in your idols of words. The dead produce effects, that is sufficient.
In the inner world there is no explaining away, as little as you can explain away the sea in the outer world. You must finally understand your purpose in explaining away, namely to seek protection. ~Carl Jung; Red Book.
"Real liberation comes not from glossing over or repressing painful states of feeling, but only from experiencing them to the full."-Carl Jung.
"A mind that seeks to understand and grasp this is therefore best. Both
bad and good and much of both must be bourne in a lifetime spent on this
earth in these anxious days." --Beowulf
Mankind wishes to love in God only their ideas, that is to say, the ideas which they project into God.
By that they wish to love their unconscious, that Is, that remnant of ancient humanity and the centuries-old past in all people, namely, the common property left behind from all development which is given to all men, like the sunshine and the air.
But in loving this inheritance they love that which is common to all.
Thus they turn back to the mother of humanity, that is to say, to the spirit of the race, and regain in this way something of that connection and of that mysterious and irresistible power which is imparted by the feeling of belonging to the herd.
It is the problem of Antaeus, who preserves his gigantic strength only through contact with mother earth. ~Carl Jung; Psychology of the Unconscious; Pages 200 – 201.
InHeritAbility
TechGnosis - Now Is Eternal
Blood Connects the World We Live In with the World of the Dead
"In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature and which we believe to be the only empirical psyche (even if we tack on the personal unconscious as an appendix), there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. It consists of pre-existent forms, the archetypes, which can only become conscious secondarily and which give definite form to certain psychic contents.” ~Carl Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious.
"How does the ordinary person come to an experience of the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. There are many ways, however, of coming to the transcendent experience. "A significant approach is the way of ritual. A ritual allows us to participate in the enactment of a myth. One prepares internally to move with the image and the transcendent comes through."
--Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, p.92-93
"A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow.
Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life."
--Joseph Campbell, "The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell," New Dimensions Radio
with Michael Toms, Tape I, Side 2
Genealogy is a Ritual in which we climb up and down,
through our family tree in deep remembrance,
an exercise in time travel that expands consciousness.
NEWSFLASH
Mature red blood cells do not contain a nucleus and therefore contain no DNA.
Because of the lack of nuclei and organelles, mature red blood cells do not contain DNA and cannot synthesize any RNA, and consequently cannot divide, have limited repair capabilities,
and so cannot make any proteins.
"How does the ordinary person come to an experience of the transcendent? For a start, I would say, study poetry. Learn how to read a poem. You need not have the experience to get the message, or at least some indication of the message. It may come gradually. There are many ways, however, of coming to the transcendent experience. "A significant approach is the way of ritual. A ritual allows us to participate in the enactment of a myth. One prepares internally to move with the image and the transcendent comes through."
--Joseph Campbell, Thou Art That, p.92-93
"A ritual is the enactment of a myth. And, by participating in the ritual, you are participating in the myth. And since myth is a projection of the depth wisdom of the psyche, by participating in a ritual, participating in the myth, you are being, as it were, put in accord with that wisdom, which is the wisdom that is inherent within you anyhow.
Your consciousness is being re-minded of the wisdom of your own life."
--Joseph Campbell, "The Wisdom of Joseph Campbell," New Dimensions Radio
with Michael Toms, Tape I, Side 2
Genealogy is a Ritual in which we climb up and down,
through our family tree in deep remembrance,
an exercise in time travel that expands consciousness.
NEWSFLASH
Mature red blood cells do not contain a nucleus and therefore contain no DNA.
Because of the lack of nuclei and organelles, mature red blood cells do not contain DNA and cannot synthesize any RNA, and consequently cannot divide, have limited repair capabilities,
and so cannot make any proteins.
Gatekeepers, Walter Bruneel - http://www.walterbruneel.com/
Ancient Philosophers regarded the soul of man to have its origins in Heaven. The soul was believed to incarnate into the flesh after having descended from Heaven passing through the Gate of Man. Having lived another live on Earth the soul eventually left the body after death and returned to Heaven again this time passing through the Gate of God. The Gate of Man corresponds with the crossing of the Milky Way and ecliptic at 5° Gemini (sidereal zodiac) while the Gate of God corresponds with the crossing of the Milky Way and ecliptic in 5° Sagittarius. The Greek writer Macrobius called these gates on the ecliptic, through which the souls ascended and descended to Heaven, the Gates of the Sun. This is because not only mortal man but also the Sun dies and is reborn in the precession cycle at the very same gates.
http://www.keyofsolomon.org/gatesOfTheSun.php
Ancient Philosophers regarded the soul of man to have its origins in Heaven. The soul was believed to incarnate into the flesh after having descended from Heaven passing through the Gate of Man. Having lived another live on Earth the soul eventually left the body after death and returned to Heaven again this time passing through the Gate of God. The Gate of Man corresponds with the crossing of the Milky Way and ecliptic at 5° Gemini (sidereal zodiac) while the Gate of God corresponds with the crossing of the Milky Way and ecliptic in 5° Sagittarius. The Greek writer Macrobius called these gates on the ecliptic, through which the souls ascended and descended to Heaven, the Gates of the Sun. This is because not only mortal man but also the Sun dies and is reborn in the precession cycle at the very same gates.
http://www.keyofsolomon.org/gatesOfTheSun.php
Cultural Forging of the Unconscious
In psychology, genetic memory is a memory present at birth that exists in the absence of sensory experience, and is incorporated into the genome over long spans of time. It is based on the idea that common experiences of a species become incorporated into its genetic code, not by a Lamarckian process that encodes specific memories but by a much vaguer tendency to encode a readiness to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli. Shares much with the modern concept of epigenetics.
Genetic memory is invoked to explain ethnic group memory postulated by Carl Jung. Jungian psychology suggests memories, feelings and ideas inherited from our ancestors as part of a "collective unconscious". The term "epigenetic" refers to heritable traits that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence. This can occur over rounds of cell division, while some epigenetic features can effect transgenerational inheritance and are inherited from one generation to the next.
Multigenerational epigenetics is today regarded as another aspect to evolution and adaptation. Culture is the most fundamental force that has shaped man's life through the aeons. Its effect is, in all likelihood, established in the genome in a few generations.The concept implies that genes have a 'memory'; what you do in your lifetime, and what you are exposed to, could in turn affect your grandchildren. Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA, the so called "epigenome". Among other things, it proposes a control system of 'switches' that turn genes on or off. The things that people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans. The switches themselves can also be inherited. This means that a 'memory' of an event could be passed through generations. A simple environmental effect could switch genes on or off - and this change could be inherited.
In psychology, genetic memory is a memory present at birth that exists in the absence of sensory experience, and is incorporated into the genome over long spans of time. It is based on the idea that common experiences of a species become incorporated into its genetic code, not by a Lamarckian process that encodes specific memories but by a much vaguer tendency to encode a readiness to respond in certain ways to certain stimuli. Shares much with the modern concept of epigenetics.
Genetic memory is invoked to explain ethnic group memory postulated by Carl Jung. Jungian psychology suggests memories, feelings and ideas inherited from our ancestors as part of a "collective unconscious". The term "epigenetic" refers to heritable traits that do not involve changes to the underlying DNA sequence. This can occur over rounds of cell division, while some epigenetic features can effect transgenerational inheritance and are inherited from one generation to the next.
Multigenerational epigenetics is today regarded as another aspect to evolution and adaptation. Culture is the most fundamental force that has shaped man's life through the aeons. Its effect is, in all likelihood, established in the genome in a few generations.The concept implies that genes have a 'memory'; what you do in your lifetime, and what you are exposed to, could in turn affect your grandchildren. Epigenetics adds a whole new layer to genes beyond the DNA, the so called "epigenome". Among other things, it proposes a control system of 'switches' that turn genes on or off. The things that people experience, like nutrition and stress, can control these switches and cause heritable effects in humans. The switches themselves can also be inherited. This means that a 'memory' of an event could be passed through generations. A simple environmental effect could switch genes on or off - and this change could be inherited.
Aging people should know that their lives are not mounting and unfolding but that an inexorable inner process forces the contraction of life. For a young person it is almost a sin—and certainly a danger—to be too much occupied with himself; but for the aging person it is a duty and a necessity to give serious attention to himself. ~Carl Jung
Self Realization of the Unconscious
Through Ancient Eyes
Through Ancient Eyes
JH- I was reading about this practice that the ancient Egyptians had of opening the mouth of the dead. It was a ritual and I think we don't do that with our hands. But opening the Red Book seems to be opening the mouth of the dead.
SS- It takes blood. That's what it takes. The work is Jung's "book of the dead". His descent into the underworld, in which there's attempt to find the way of relating to the dead. He came to the realization that unless we come to terms with the dead simply cannot live, and that our life is dependent on finding answers to their unanswered questions.
JH- Their unanswered questions.
(Hillman J., Shamdasani S., The Lament of the Dead. Psychology After Jung's Red Book, 2013)
SS- It takes blood. That's what it takes. The work is Jung's "book of the dead". His descent into the underworld, in which there's attempt to find the way of relating to the dead. He came to the realization that unless we come to terms with the dead simply cannot live, and that our life is dependent on finding answers to their unanswered questions.
JH- Their unanswered questions.
(Hillman J., Shamdasani S., The Lament of the Dead. Psychology After Jung's Red Book, 2013)
“Be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves.” (Matthew 10:16)
"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." -Henry Miller
"The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand, and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other." ~Carl Jung, The Function of the Unconscious, Collected Works 7, Paragraph 269
"Self-reflection, or – what comes to the same thing – the urge to individuation, gathers together what is scattered and multifarious and exalts it to the original of the One, the Primordial Man. In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious, the sources of conflict are dried up."
~Carl Jung, Collected Works 11, Transformation Symbolism in the Mass , Paragraph 401
According to Sardello, our task in facing the threat of total annihilation is to find a way to regenerate our world, both inner and outer, psychic and physical, through the power of love born not of existential security but of the inescapable presence of annihilation. [T]he presence of a lethal, traumatizing condition prompts and demands the emergence of an even greater vivifying force. A traumatic condition begs a bio-psychic genesis, an instinctive and spiritual arising of new life.
Finding new life through the profound acceptance of death is the paradoxical solution. In paradox, we stand at the threshold of life’s resurgence. Holding fast the divergent reins of painful dissonance, we enter realms of deeper healing.
http://www.cgjungpage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=574&Itemid=40
"The aim of life is to live, and to live means to be aware, joyously, drunkenly, serenely, divinely aware." -Henry Miller
"The aim of individuation is nothing less than to divest the self of the false wrappings of the persona on the one hand, and of the suggestive power of primordial images on the other." ~Carl Jung, The Function of the Unconscious, Collected Works 7, Paragraph 269
"Self-reflection, or – what comes to the same thing – the urge to individuation, gathers together what is scattered and multifarious and exalts it to the original of the One, the Primordial Man. In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious, the sources of conflict are dried up."
~Carl Jung, Collected Works 11, Transformation Symbolism in the Mass , Paragraph 401
According to Sardello, our task in facing the threat of total annihilation is to find a way to regenerate our world, both inner and outer, psychic and physical, through the power of love born not of existential security but of the inescapable presence of annihilation. [T]he presence of a lethal, traumatizing condition prompts and demands the emergence of an even greater vivifying force. A traumatic condition begs a bio-psychic genesis, an instinctive and spiritual arising of new life.
Finding new life through the profound acceptance of death is the paradoxical solution. In paradox, we stand at the threshold of life’s resurgence. Holding fast the divergent reins of painful dissonance, we enter realms of deeper healing.
http://www.cgjungpage.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=574&Itemid=40
http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/File:At_the_tree_of_voices2.jpg
"To our distant ancestors who worked in the silence of the caves some two hundred centuries ago in elated honor of genius never surpassed." It is significant, I think, that we begin to speak of centuries, as if welcoming these women and men at the boundary of the recent past. The fact that some of them could execute such paintings, engravings, and carvings is impressive enough in itself; but more impressive is the fact that the undoubted majority who could not, evidently could appreciate, even support, those who could. I can think of no more significant single advance in the whole course of human evolution; and I can think of no more convincing demonstration of the final, decisive emergence of the utterly distinctive human brain." --Melvin Konner, The Tangled Wing
METAGENETICS
This is not your grandmother's genealogy
This is not your grandmother's genealogy
Diamond Body, Iona Miller, c 1981, 24x36, acrylic
And everywhere there, the Tree of Life,
and the resurrection of flesh from the Tree … --Origen
These are our roots. A tree can only renew itself
through its roots. --von Franz
And everywhere there, the Tree of Life,
and the resurrection of flesh from the Tree … --Origen
These are our roots. A tree can only renew itself
through its roots. --von Franz
UPROOTED
TREE OF VOICES
Imaginal, Mythical & Metaphysical Knowing
When you are up against a wall, put down roots like a tree,
until clarity comes from deeper sources to see over that wall and grow.
~Carl Jung.
Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits. --Gaius Sallustius Crispus
Man is physically as well as metaphysically a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. --Ralph Ellison
TREE OF VOICES
Imaginal, Mythical & Metaphysical Knowing
When you are up against a wall, put down roots like a tree,
until clarity comes from deeper sources to see over that wall and grow.
~Carl Jung.
Distinguished ancestors shed a powerful light on their descendants, and forbid the concealment either of their merits or of their demerits. --Gaius Sallustius Crispus
Man is physically as well as metaphysically a thing of shreds and patches, borrowed unequally from good and bad ancestors, and a misfit from the start. --Ralph Waldo Emerson
Some people are your relatives but others are your ancestors, and you choose the ones you want to have as ancestors. You create yourself out of those values. --Ralph Ellison
TREE OF THE GOLDEN LIGHT
Trees Symbolize the Living Structure of Our Inner Selves
To forget ones ancestors, is like a river without a source. Or a tree without roots.
“The alchemist saw the union of opposites under the symbol of the tree… the symbol of the cosmic tree rooted in this world and growing up to heaven -- the tree that is also man. In the history of symbols this tree is described as the way of life itself, a growing into that which eternally is and does not change; which springs from the union of opposites and, by its eternal presence, also makes that union possible.” (Carl Jung, CW 9i, para. 198)
Why was Eve created from Adam's rib in the Bible? Because the term TI(L) in Sumerian had a double meaning. It can mean "life" or it can mean "rib". So that the Biblical version became misunderstood by later scribes who were not familiar enough with Sumerian. The "tree of life" or "world tree" is also a very common motif in Sumerian and in many other traditions, but especially in the northern Mesopotamian Hurrian religion. It is also common in many early Shamanistic religions of the far north, as the connection between heaven and earth and the axle of the world. Similar "world trees", without lions or date flowers, are found painted on the sacred drums of shamans in Asia. In Hungarian folktales the tree is climbed by some hero to enter the other realms of heaven or the underworld, in a quest for some important knowledge. Shamans also used the birch tree and the mushrooms that grew near it to enhance their ecstatic experience. The Sumerian notion kept key elements of it like the connection to sacred knowledge.
http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumer-origins.htm
Like an acorn sprouting to become a tree, transcendence is the instinctual impulse of humans to grow and individuate. This impulse towards growth takes the spirit up to lofty heights, but it is only the initial movement of the spirit.
“Trees depict the living structure of our inner self. It’s roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its spring leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us into being and growing. It depicts the forces or processes behind all other life forms– expressed through interpersonal existence.” http://thejungian.com/2013/03/01/trees-depict-the-living-structure-of-our-inner-self/
“The tree is an image of spiritual development… You see the tree is a plant and it symbols a strange development entirely different from animal life, like the development we call spiritual… As a tree extracts mineral substances from the earth, the spirit transforms the course body, or the coarseness of matter, into the subtly of organic matter. The tree represents, then, a sort of sublimation. It grows from below up into the air above, has roots in the earth as if it were part of the earth, and extends roots again into the kingdom of air; and so the spirit of development rises out of the material, animal man and grows into different regions above. Therefore the tree has forever been a symbol of spiritual value or philosophical development, like the tree of knowledge in Paradise for instance or the philosophical tree, the Arbor Philosophorum, the tree with the immortal fruits –a Hermetic symbol– also the world tree in the Edda.” (Jung, Notes of the Seminars, from 1934-39, p. 1071)
Trees Symbolize the Living Structure of Our Inner Selves
To forget ones ancestors, is like a river without a source. Or a tree without roots.
“The alchemist saw the union of opposites under the symbol of the tree… the symbol of the cosmic tree rooted in this world and growing up to heaven -- the tree that is also man. In the history of symbols this tree is described as the way of life itself, a growing into that which eternally is and does not change; which springs from the union of opposites and, by its eternal presence, also makes that union possible.” (Carl Jung, CW 9i, para. 198)
Why was Eve created from Adam's rib in the Bible? Because the term TI(L) in Sumerian had a double meaning. It can mean "life" or it can mean "rib". So that the Biblical version became misunderstood by later scribes who were not familiar enough with Sumerian. The "tree of life" or "world tree" is also a very common motif in Sumerian and in many other traditions, but especially in the northern Mesopotamian Hurrian religion. It is also common in many early Shamanistic religions of the far north, as the connection between heaven and earth and the axle of the world. Similar "world trees", without lions or date flowers, are found painted on the sacred drums of shamans in Asia. In Hungarian folktales the tree is climbed by some hero to enter the other realms of heaven or the underworld, in a quest for some important knowledge. Shamans also used the birch tree and the mushrooms that grew near it to enhance their ecstatic experience. The Sumerian notion kept key elements of it like the connection to sacred knowledge.
http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/Sumer-origins.htm
Like an acorn sprouting to become a tree, transcendence is the instinctual impulse of humans to grow and individuate. This impulse towards growth takes the spirit up to lofty heights, but it is only the initial movement of the spirit.
“Trees depict the living structure of our inner self. It’s roots show our connection with our physical body and the earth; its trunk the way we would direct the energies of our being–varied and yet all connected in the common life process of our being. The tree can also symbolize new growth, stages of life and death, with its spring leaves and blossoms, then the falling leaves. The top of the tree, by the end of the branches, are our aspirations, the growing bendable tip of our personal growth and spiritual realization. The leaves may represent our personal life which may fall off the tree of life (die) but what gave it life continues to exist. The tree is our whole life, the evolutionary urge which pushes us into being and growing. It depicts the forces or processes behind all other life forms– expressed through interpersonal existence.” http://thejungian.com/2013/03/01/trees-depict-the-living-structure-of-our-inner-self/
“The tree is an image of spiritual development… You see the tree is a plant and it symbols a strange development entirely different from animal life, like the development we call spiritual… As a tree extracts mineral substances from the earth, the spirit transforms the course body, or the coarseness of matter, into the subtly of organic matter. The tree represents, then, a sort of sublimation. It grows from below up into the air above, has roots in the earth as if it were part of the earth, and extends roots again into the kingdom of air; and so the spirit of development rises out of the material, animal man and grows into different regions above. Therefore the tree has forever been a symbol of spiritual value or philosophical development, like the tree of knowledge in Paradise for instance or the philosophical tree, the Arbor Philosophorum, the tree with the immortal fruits –a Hermetic symbol– also the world tree in the Edda.” (Jung, Notes of the Seminars, from 1934-39, p. 1071)
"He sees the tree of life, whose roots reach into Hell and whose top touches Heaven. He also no longer knows differences: Who is right? What is holy? What is genuine? What is good? What is correct? He knows only one difference: the difference between below and above.
For he sees that the tree of life grows from below to above, and that it has its crown at the top, clearly differentiated from the roots. To him this is unquestionable. Hence he knows the way to salvation. To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil.
Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark. But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above.
You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil. You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is' a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: "I have you," then he is the strongest. But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing.
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
For he sees that the tree of life grows from below to above, and that it has its crown at the top, clearly differentiated from the roots. To him this is unquestionable. Hence he knows the way to salvation. To unlearn all distinctions save that concerning direction is part of your salvation. Hence you free yourself from the old curse of the knowledge of good and evil.
Because you separated good from evil according to your best appraisal and aspired only to the good and denied the evil that you committed nevertheless and ailed to accept, your roots no longer suckled the dark nourishment of the depths and your tree became sick and withered.
Therefore the ancients said that after Adam had eaten the apple, the tree of paradise withered. Your life needs the dark. But if you know that it is evil, you can no longer accept it and you suffer anguish and you do not know why: Nor can you accept it as evil, else your good will reject you. Nor can you deny it since you know good and evil. Because of this the knowledge of good and evil was an insurmountable curse.
But if you return to primal chaos and if you feel and recognize that which hangs stretched between the two unbearable poles of fire, you will notice that you can no longer separate good and evil conclusively, neither through feeling nor through knowledge, but that you can discern the direction of growth only from below to above.
You thus forget the distinction between good and evil, and you no longer know it as long as your tree grows from below to above. But as soon as growth stops, what was united in growth falls apart and once more you recognize good and evil. You can never deny your knowledge of good and evil to yourself so that you could betray your good in order to live evil. For as soon as you separate good and evil, you recognize them. They are united only in growth. But you grow if you stand still in the greatest doubt, and therefore steadfastness in great doubt is' a veritable flower of life.
He who cannot bear doubt does not bear himself. Such a one is doubtful; he does not grow and hence he does not live. Doubt is the sign of the strongest and the weakest. The strong have doubt, but doubt has the weak. Therefore the weakest is close to the strongest, and if he can say to his doubt: "I have you," then he is the strongest. But no one can say yes to his doubt, unless he endures wide-open chaos. Because there are so many among us who can talk about anything, pay heed to what they live. What someone says can be very much or very little. Thus examine his life.
My speech is neither light nor dark, since it is the speech of someone who is growing.
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Page 301
Not only does democracy make every man forget his ancestors, but also clouds their view of their descendants and isolates them from their contemporaries. Each man is for ever thrown back on himself alone, and there is danger that he may be shut up in the solitude of his own heart. --Alexis de Tocqueville
ROSE NOBLES
The Presence of the Past
All Families are Old; Some just keep better records
The soul demands your folly; not your wisdom. ~Carl Jung
The Presence of the Past
All Families are Old; Some just keep better records
The soul demands your folly; not your wisdom. ~Carl Jung
Piero di Cosimo - St. Mary Magdalene, 1500-10
Family Trees, World Tree
JUNGIAN GENEALOGY
The Holy Grail of Individuation
by Iona Miller, (c)2013-2014, GenIsis Trust
Also See, http://sangreality.weebly.com
SANGREAL
If you can trace your lines back to Medieval Times, eventually you run into
the God-Kings and Royal Lines of Descent from Scythia to Camelot,
Desposyni, Grail lines, Merovingians, Gnostics, Templars, Visigoths,
and more, that connect you to ancient times and mythic lore
If you can trace your lines back to Medieval Times, eventually you run into
the God-Kings and Royal Lines of Descent from Scythia to Camelot,
Desposyni, Grail lines, Merovingians, Gnostics, Templars, Visigoths,
and more, that connect you to ancient times and mythic lore
Magnum Chaos represented at the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome.
It is important to have a secret, a premonition of things unknown.
A man must sense that he lives in a world, which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything that happens can be anticipated.
The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole. For me the world has from the beginning been infinite and ungraspable.
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
It is important to have a secret, a premonition of things unknown.
A man must sense that he lives in a world, which in some respects is mysterious; that things happen and can be experienced which remain inexplicable; that not everything that happens can be anticipated.
The unexpected and the incredible belong in this world. Only then is life whole. For me the world has from the beginning been infinite and ungraspable.
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
Respice adspice prospice,
look behind, look here, look ahead,
i.e., "examine the past, the present and future".
look behind, look here, look ahead,
i.e., "examine the past, the present and future".
Otto Geiss - The Allegory of Genesis, 1995
GenIsis
THE HOUSE OF OUR FLESH
Genealogy of the Self & Pattern Recognition
Genealogy is a panacea --
both a poison and a cure for the venom of destiny.
“My advice to you, whoever you may be, Oh you who desire to explore the Mysteries of Nature; if you do not discover within yourself that which you seek, neither will you find it without. If you ignore the excellence of your own house, how can you aspire to find excellence elsewhere? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Oh Man! Know thyself, and you will know the universe and the Gods." --Temple of Delphi
"In a sharp crisis, that bears in some way on species survival, an individual may spontaneously merge with his ancestors AND descendents and become, for a time,
a single amplified entity." --NSA Remote Viewer
That is not substantially different from the Jungian theory which would include past and future fractals of consciousness in the Higher Self, or the esoteric Holy Guardian Angel. In psychotherapy, we frequently use past and future selves to lend a hand and fund the soul and transformational process of an individual. We would be remiss to overlook such a resource.
Jerry R. Wright’s “Thin Places and Thin Times”, discusses the Irish notion that our everyday world and the “other world”, that is, the invisible, fairy, or unconscious, are right next to each other. In many places the barrier between the two is quite thin, and it is at these thin places and times that we can experience the other world -- a non-dual fabric of matter/spirit.
THE HOUSE OF OUR FLESH
Genealogy of the Self & Pattern Recognition
Genealogy is a panacea --
both a poison and a cure for the venom of destiny.
“My advice to you, whoever you may be, Oh you who desire to explore the Mysteries of Nature; if you do not discover within yourself that which you seek, neither will you find it without. If you ignore the excellence of your own house, how can you aspire to find excellence elsewhere? Within you is hidden the treasure of treasures. Oh Man! Know thyself, and you will know the universe and the Gods." --Temple of Delphi
"In a sharp crisis, that bears in some way on species survival, an individual may spontaneously merge with his ancestors AND descendents and become, for a time,
a single amplified entity." --NSA Remote Viewer
That is not substantially different from the Jungian theory which would include past and future fractals of consciousness in the Higher Self, or the esoteric Holy Guardian Angel. In psychotherapy, we frequently use past and future selves to lend a hand and fund the soul and transformational process of an individual. We would be remiss to overlook such a resource.
Jerry R. Wright’s “Thin Places and Thin Times”, discusses the Irish notion that our everyday world and the “other world”, that is, the invisible, fairy, or unconscious, are right next to each other. In many places the barrier between the two is quite thin, and it is at these thin places and times that we can experience the other world -- a non-dual fabric of matter/spirit.
THE ROYAL WE
To See the Face of the King
To See the Face of the King
The loss of story has depleted our culture of time-honored heroes and wisdom, robbing us of our deep connection to our ancestors and ancient guiding myths. We meet mythic beings such as tribal ancestors or deities and are shown the secrets of creation. You eat your unconscious or ancestors and so add strength to yourself.
Royal Genealogy Folio; British Library Add MS 12531, fol. 10r
Vierling - ”Nightbringer – Hierophany of the Open Grave”
SECRETS OF OLD BONES OF CONTENTION
"Compassion is the deepest form of memory." --Eve Ensler
"Compassion is the deepest form of memory." --Eve Ensler
“Like a rose, I smile with all my body, not only with my mouth
For I am — without myself — alone with the King of the World.” (ref. #4)
http://www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk/rosamundi.html
St. Augustine (354-430) distinguishes between the God image which is Christ and the image which is implanted in man as a means or possibility of becoming like God. The God image is not in the corporeal man, but in the anima rationalis, the possession of which distinguishes man from animals. “The God-image is within, not in the body … Where the understanding is, where the mind is, where the power of investigating truth is, there God has his image.”
Therefore we should remind ourselves, says Augustine, that we are fashioned after the image of God nowhere save in the understanding: “ … but where man knows himself to be made after the image of God, there he knows there is something more in him than is given to the beasts.” From this it is clear that the God-image is, so to speak, identical with the anima rationalis. ~Carl Jung, Aion, 39.
For I am — without myself — alone with the King of the World.” (ref. #4)
http://www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk/rosamundi.html
St. Augustine (354-430) distinguishes between the God image which is Christ and the image which is implanted in man as a means or possibility of becoming like God. The God image is not in the corporeal man, but in the anima rationalis, the possession of which distinguishes man from animals. “The God-image is within, not in the body … Where the understanding is, where the mind is, where the power of investigating truth is, there God has his image.”
Therefore we should remind ourselves, says Augustine, that we are fashioned after the image of God nowhere save in the understanding: “ … but where man knows himself to be made after the image of God, there he knows there is something more in him than is given to the beasts.” From this it is clear that the God-image is, so to speak, identical with the anima rationalis. ~Carl Jung, Aion, 39.
Jung, Red Book, Tree of Life
The Quest for Buried Secrets: Jung on the Esoteric
In the course of our discussion we heard the word “esoteric.” It is said, for instance, that the psychology of the unconscious leads to an esoteric form of ethics. Be we have to be careful in using such a word. Esotericism means mystification. Yet we never know the real secrets, even the so-called esotericists do not know them. Esotericists -- at least earlier -- were supposed not to reveal their secrets. But the real secrets cannot be revealed. Nor is it possible to make an ‘esoteric” science out of them, for the simple reason that they are not known.
What are called esoteric secrets are mostly artificial secrets, not real ones. Man needs to have secrets, and since he has no notion of the real ones he fakes them. But the real ones come to him out of the depths of the unconscious, and then he may reveal things which he ought really to have kept secret. Here again we see the numinous character of the reality in the background. It is not we who have secrets, it is the real secrets that have us. ~Carl Jung; Civilization in Transition; Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology; Page 468; p. 886
Dr. Carl Jung argues that the future depends on our ability to resist society's mass movements. Only by understanding our unconscious inner nature -- "the undiscovered self" -- can we gain the self-knowledge that is antithetical to ideological fanaticism. But this requires facing the duality of the human psyche -- the existence of good and evil in us all. In this seminal book, Jung compellingly argues that only then can we cope and resist the dangers posed by those in power.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Undiscovered-Self-Carl-Jung/dp/0451217322
In the course of our discussion we heard the word “esoteric.” It is said, for instance, that the psychology of the unconscious leads to an esoteric form of ethics. Be we have to be careful in using such a word. Esotericism means mystification. Yet we never know the real secrets, even the so-called esotericists do not know them. Esotericists -- at least earlier -- were supposed not to reveal their secrets. But the real secrets cannot be revealed. Nor is it possible to make an ‘esoteric” science out of them, for the simple reason that they are not known.
What are called esoteric secrets are mostly artificial secrets, not real ones. Man needs to have secrets, and since he has no notion of the real ones he fakes them. But the real ones come to him out of the depths of the unconscious, and then he may reveal things which he ought really to have kept secret. Here again we see the numinous character of the reality in the background. It is not we who have secrets, it is the real secrets that have us. ~Carl Jung; Civilization in Transition; Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology; Page 468; p. 886
Dr. Carl Jung argues that the future depends on our ability to resist society's mass movements. Only by understanding our unconscious inner nature -- "the undiscovered self" -- can we gain the self-knowledge that is antithetical to ideological fanaticism. But this requires facing the duality of the human psyche -- the existence of good and evil in us all. In this seminal book, Jung compellingly argues that only then can we cope and resist the dangers posed by those in power.
http://www.amazon.com/The-Undiscovered-Self-Carl-Jung/dp/0451217322
SOULFUL GENEALOGY
Jungians relate the concept of soul to the concept of the collective unconscious. Carl Jung himself described the collective unconscious as a “psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited.”
The Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith goes further and suggests that not only is our collective unconscious inherited, but it is in fact a genuinely altruistic instinctive orientation. This, he says, is the source of our moral guidance, the voice of which is our conscience, and which we have learnt to call our ‘soul’.
Jungians relate the concept of soul to the concept of the collective unconscious. Carl Jung himself described the collective unconscious as a “psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited.”
The Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith goes further and suggests that not only is our collective unconscious inherited, but it is in fact a genuinely altruistic instinctive orientation. This, he says, is the source of our moral guidance, the voice of which is our conscience, and which we have learnt to call our ‘soul’.
Here is the Book of thy Descent,
Here begins the Book of the Sangreal,
Here begin the terrors,
Here begin the miracles.
Here begins the Book of the Sangreal,
Here begin the terrors,
Here begin the miracles.
Vierling
“The key to the Grail is compassion, 'suffering with,' feeling another’s sorrow as if it were your own. The one who finds the dynamo of compassion is the one who’s found the Grail.” --Excerpt From: Campbell, Joseph. “A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living.” Joseph Campbell Foundation, 2011-08-01.
Shades of the God-Kings
The goal of psychological, as of biological, development is self-realization, or individuation. But since man knows himself only as an ego, and the self, as a totality, is indescribable and indistinguishable from a God-image, self-realization -- to put it in religious or metaphysical terms -- amounts to God’s incarnation.
As a result of the integration of conscious and unconscious, his ego enters the “divine” realm, where it participates in “God’s suffering.” The cause of the suffering is in both cases the same, namely “incarnation,” which on the human level appears as “individuation.” ... The self is no mere concept or logical postulate; it is a psychic reality, only part of it is conscious, while for the rest it embraces the life of the unconscious and is therefore inconceivable except in the form of symbols. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, A Psychological Approach to the Trinity, Paragraph 233.
The goal of psychological, as of biological, development is self-realization, or individuation. But since man knows himself only as an ego, and the self, as a totality, is indescribable and indistinguishable from a God-image, self-realization -- to put it in religious or metaphysical terms -- amounts to God’s incarnation.
As a result of the integration of conscious and unconscious, his ego enters the “divine” realm, where it participates in “God’s suffering.” The cause of the suffering is in both cases the same, namely “incarnation,” which on the human level appears as “individuation.” ... The self is no mere concept or logical postulate; it is a psychic reality, only part of it is conscious, while for the rest it embraces the life of the unconscious and is therefore inconceivable except in the form of symbols. ~Carl Jung, Psychology and Religion, A Psychological Approach to the Trinity, Paragraph 233.
From my observations I learned that the modern unconscious has a tendency to produce a psychological condition which we find, for instance, in medieval mysticism. You find certain things in Meister Eckhart; you find many things in Gnosticism; that is a sort of esoteric Christianity. You find the idea of the Adam Kadmon in every man - the Christ within. Christ is the second Adam, which is also, in exotic religions, the idea of the Atman or the complete man, the original man, the "all-round" man of Plato, symbolized by a circle or a drawing with circular motifs. You find all these things in medieval mysticism; you find them all through alchemical literature, beginning with the first century after Christ. You find them in Gnosticism, you find many of them in the New Testament... --Jung, Symbolic Life
HOLY GRAIL - VESSEL OF LIGHT
Your Place In History
Kindred Experience
Tree of Life, Red Book, Jung
The Dragon Descent
For Jung the Dragon Descent was a psychophysical journey to hell, a descent into the bowels of the unconscious to confront complexes, roles, and neurosis. In genealogy, it begins in drawing the lines of descent, which becomes a metaphor for the psychophysical process.
At one time most genealogists were historians. Historians now pursue less fact research; they track now down narratives. Traditional historians believe, that primary sources should be used to research history, whereas postmodern historians claim because of a different age in a different culture, the historian of today has no way of interpreting these sources accurately. Therefore, they are not to be trusted and rely more on secondary sources and individual perception of historical events. Postmodernism has brought history dangerously close to the fairy tales.
Postmodern historian remains a discipline hard to define for its relativism. While the history of humanity itself may not have a purpose, the writing of historical accounts does. Resonating with Foucault’s approach to history is the view that the writing of history should promote an ideology.
At one time most genealogists were historians. Historians now pursue less fact research; they track now down narratives. Traditional historians believe, that primary sources should be used to research history, whereas postmodern historians claim because of a different age in a different culture, the historian of today has no way of interpreting these sources accurately. Therefore, they are not to be trusted and rely more on secondary sources and individual perception of historical events. Postmodernism has brought history dangerously close to the fairy tales.
Postmodern historian remains a discipline hard to define for its relativism. While the history of humanity itself may not have a purpose, the writing of historical accounts does. Resonating with Foucault’s approach to history is the view that the writing of history should promote an ideology.
Do the Math
“Ignoring the possibility of other inter-relationships (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same assumption, any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this theoretical number increases past the estimated total population of the world in around AD 1000. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one’s autosomal DNA: this excludes Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.” (Ancestors – Wikipedia) And before you brag about the talent or courage you share with some illustrious kinsman, remember that the exponential mathematics of relatedness successively halves the number of genes shared by relatives with every link separating them. You share only 3 percent of your genes with your second cousin, and the same proportion with your great-great-greatgrandmother. http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007.06.08_thenewrepublic.pdf
Moreover, with dozens of generations separating all those princes and counts, a long-hidden adulterous liaison could have severed the Y-chromosome-and-surname links. The father’s name may be missing from a birth or marriage certificate. The youngest child recorded in a family may in fact be a grandchild. Illegitimacy in itself does not create any particular records. Illegitimate birth was concealed just a generation or two ago. Another type of illegitimacy that is very difficult to prove is when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband.
There are descendants via noble but illegitimate lines. Illegitimate ancestors can be found in the personal and World Tree. One famous scion is Sir Richard de Cornwall, of indisputable but illegitimate descent of of Richard of England, 1st Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans. Numerous lines from the many illegitimate children of Charles II exist to this day.
http://www.europeanheraldry.org/united-kingdom/families/families-s-z/families-illegitimate-royal-descent-various/
Members of untitled families today may be descended from illegitimate children of royalty. Since illegitimate children of royalty were seldom permitted to marry into other royal families (because their status made them unacceptable), these children tended to marry upper-class or middle-class families from their own country.
Another reason for the greater number of descendants from chronologically distant monarchs is that likelihood of descent from a monarch increases as a function of the length of time between the monarch's death and the birth of the particular descendant. Thus, it is theoretically true that "statistically, most of the inhabitants of Western Europe are probably descended from William the Conqueror; they are equally likely to be descended from the man who groomed his charger.
“Ignoring the possibility of other inter-relationships (even distant ones) among ancestors, an individual has a total of 2046 ancestors up to the 10th generation, 1024 of which are 10th generation ancestors. With the same assumption, any given person has over a billion 30th generation ancestors (who lived roughly 1000 years ago) and this theoretical number increases past the estimated total population of the world in around AD 1000. (All of these ancestors will have contributed to one’s autosomal DNA: this excludes Y-chromosomal DNA and mitochondrial DNA.” (Ancestors – Wikipedia) And before you brag about the talent or courage you share with some illustrious kinsman, remember that the exponential mathematics of relatedness successively halves the number of genes shared by relatives with every link separating them. You share only 3 percent of your genes with your second cousin, and the same proportion with your great-great-greatgrandmother. http://pinker.wjh.harvard.edu/articles/media/2007.06.08_thenewrepublic.pdf
Moreover, with dozens of generations separating all those princes and counts, a long-hidden adulterous liaison could have severed the Y-chromosome-and-surname links. The father’s name may be missing from a birth or marriage certificate. The youngest child recorded in a family may in fact be a grandchild. Illegitimacy in itself does not create any particular records. Illegitimate birth was concealed just a generation or two ago. Another type of illegitimacy that is very difficult to prove is when a married woman has a child by a man other than her husband.
There are descendants via noble but illegitimate lines. Illegitimate ancestors can be found in the personal and World Tree. One famous scion is Sir Richard de Cornwall, of indisputable but illegitimate descent of of Richard of England, 1st Earl of Cornwall and King of the Romans. Numerous lines from the many illegitimate children of Charles II exist to this day.
http://www.europeanheraldry.org/united-kingdom/families/families-s-z/families-illegitimate-royal-descent-various/
Members of untitled families today may be descended from illegitimate children of royalty. Since illegitimate children of royalty were seldom permitted to marry into other royal families (because their status made them unacceptable), these children tended to marry upper-class or middle-class families from their own country.
Another reason for the greater number of descendants from chronologically distant monarchs is that likelihood of descent from a monarch increases as a function of the length of time between the monarch's death and the birth of the particular descendant. Thus, it is theoretically true that "statistically, most of the inhabitants of Western Europe are probably descended from William the Conqueror; they are equally likely to be descended from the man who groomed his charger.
My soul is my supreme meaning, my image of God, neither God himself nor the supreme meaning. God becomes apparent in the supreme meaning of the human community"
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Footnote 92.
~Carl Jung, Red Book, Footnote 92.
Jung Anticipates Epigenetics
"When I worked in my family tree, I understood the strange communion of the destiny that unites me to my ancestors. I had the strong feeling that I was under the influence of events and problems that were incomplete and unresolved by my parents, my grandparents, and my other ancestors. I had the impression that there is often in the family an impersonal Karma transmitted from parents to children. I always knew that I had to answer questions already asked by my ancestors or I had to conclude, or continue on the previously unresolved issues". ~Carl Jung
"When I worked in my family tree, I understood the strange communion of the destiny that unites me to my ancestors. I had the strong feeling that I was under the influence of events and problems that were incomplete and unresolved by my parents, my grandparents, and my other ancestors. I had the impression that there is often in the family an impersonal Karma transmitted from parents to children. I always knew that I had to answer questions already asked by my ancestors or I had to conclude, or continue on the previously unresolved issues". ~Carl Jung
Alchemy sets itself the task of acquiring this 'treasure hard to attain' and of producing it in visible form. —Carl Jung
The treasure which the hero fetches from the dark cavern is LIFE; it his himself, new-born from the dark maternal cave of the unconscious where he was stranded by the introversion or regression of libido.
Hence the Hindu fire-bringer is called Matarisvan, he who swells in the mother. The hero who clings to the mother is the DRAGON, and when he is reborn from the mother he becomes the conqueror of the dragon. He shares this paradoxical nature with the snake.
According to Philo the snake is the most spiritual of all creatures; it is of a fiery nature, and its swiftness is terrible. It has a long life and sloughs off old age with its skin. In actual fact the snake is a cold-blooded creature, unconscious and unrelated. It is both toxic and prophylactic, equally a symbol of the good and bad daemon (the Agathodaemon), of Christ and the Devil.
Among Gnostics it was regarded as an emblem of the brainstem and spinal cord, as is consistent with its predominantly reflex psyche. It is an excellent symbol for the unconscious, perfectly expressing the latter’s sudden and unexpected manifestations, its painful and dangerous intervention in our affairs, and its frightening effects.
Taken purely as a psychologem the hero represents the positive, favorable action of the unconscious, while the dragon is its negative and unfavorable action-not birth, but a devouring; not a beneficial and constructive deed, but greedy retention and destructive.
~Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation; Paragraph 560.
The treasure which the hero fetches from the dark cavern is LIFE; it his himself, new-born from the dark maternal cave of the unconscious where he was stranded by the introversion or regression of libido.
Hence the Hindu fire-bringer is called Matarisvan, he who swells in the mother. The hero who clings to the mother is the DRAGON, and when he is reborn from the mother he becomes the conqueror of the dragon. He shares this paradoxical nature with the snake.
According to Philo the snake is the most spiritual of all creatures; it is of a fiery nature, and its swiftness is terrible. It has a long life and sloughs off old age with its skin. In actual fact the snake is a cold-blooded creature, unconscious and unrelated. It is both toxic and prophylactic, equally a symbol of the good and bad daemon (the Agathodaemon), of Christ and the Devil.
Among Gnostics it was regarded as an emblem of the brainstem and spinal cord, as is consistent with its predominantly reflex psyche. It is an excellent symbol for the unconscious, perfectly expressing the latter’s sudden and unexpected manifestations, its painful and dangerous intervention in our affairs, and its frightening effects.
Taken purely as a psychologem the hero represents the positive, favorable action of the unconscious, while the dragon is its negative and unfavorable action-not birth, but a devouring; not a beneficial and constructive deed, but greedy retention and destructive.
~Carl Jung, Symbols of Transformation; Paragraph 560.
Trails of Life
"Moreover, my ancestors' souls are sustained by the atmosphere of the house, since I answer for them the questions that their lives once left behind. I carve out rough answers as best I can. I have even drawn them on the walls. It is as if a silent, greater family, stretching down the centuries, were peopling the house." --Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
COLLECTIVE MEMORY
THE SEARCH FOR ROOTS
& Experiential Realization of Kinship
Mythological History & Identity Formation
The term mythology can refer either to a collection of myths (a mythos) or to the study of myths (e.g., comparative mythology). A myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind assumed their present form, although, in a very broad sense, a mythic character can refer to any traditional story.
Myth is an "ideology in narrative form". Myths may arise as either truthful depictions or overelaborated accounts of historical events, as allegory for or personification of natural phenomena, or as an explanation of ritual. They are transmitted to convey religious or idealized experience, to establish behavioral models, and to teach.
In genealogy, mythology connects with history and identity formation. Group identity can be active and conscious, or gradual and organic. It is a phenomenon closely linked to power, and is a key connection between perceptions of the past and understandings of the present.
Identity is fundamentally linked to other people: Historical representation is built in to the formation and constant re-negotiation of identity. This never-ending process requires the location and embedding of the self or group within a matrix of other fluid identities. All are likewise partially framed by and constituted through temporally extended representations of themselves in relation to others. In genealogy, the frame is intergenerational.
One manner in which to accomplish distinction from the “other” is through the construction and interpretation of historical narratives. Distinct perceptions of the past denote distinct societies, cultures, nations, or other groups.
No historical narrative can ever relate the absolute truth of events as they actually happened.
“History’s epistemological claim is devalued in favor of memory’s meaningfulness.” Memories about most historical events do seem to have some continuous narrative core to them. Culture and memory are key characteristics of group identity. Stories a community tells about its past construct and shape its identity. Its collectivity is experiences of successive generations, the concepts of worldview, paradigm, and ideology.
Myth has a function in history as a mediating function, as a channel that allows communities to reinterpret their identity and perceptions of history. Myth mediates between past and present, between reality and the ideal. We don't need to uncover the ‘historical truth’ behind the myths. Stories reflect the historical setting in which the myth was created and the historical need that the myth fulfilled.
The connection between myth and identity remains strong. Memory is only experiential, while myth is always happening, but never "occurs". Memory is mythologized in the "mythscape", including our drawn genealogies. We cannot physically remember events we didn't participate in but we envision them through narratives that inspire imagination. Memory and myth meet in the mythscape.
Myths subsume all of the various events, personalities, traditions, artifacts, and social practices that (self) define our relation to the past, present, and future. There are orthodox governing myths and heterodox myths that generate their own traditions and stories. Particular types of story are about the community and its importance, a story that resonates with the people emotionally, that glorifies the community, and that is easily transmitted and absorbed.
Recurring themes or motifs in myth can be: 1) diffusion (someone borrowed the story) or 2) psychology (unconscious ideas or situations often recur among humans). For Joseph Campbell, hero myths are "a magnification" of an initiation scheme of separation, transition, and incorporation.
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day [separation] into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are then encountered and a decisive victory is won [initiation]: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man [return]" (Hero 30).
Campbell says that in his encounter with this region of wonder, the hero learns about his true inner nature and identity, and about the ultimate reality beyond the physical, i.e., "God." For Campbell, the hero's inner and outer journey symbolizes psychic and religious discoveries that all humans ought to make, and hero myths can function even today as guides for humans through various stages of life.
It's perfectly possible that repetitions of structure or motif point to some deep-seated human need or conflict. For example, imagine the psychological reality behind so many myths that tell of fathers trying to do away with their sons (Ouranos, Kronos) or sons who "accidentally" do away with their fathers or grandfathers (Oedipus, Theseus, Perseus)? In rejecting or ignoring our lines of descent, have we done the same?
Theories of myth interpretation are literal and symbolic. If we think of myths as true, if we believe in them , we are thinking in religious terms. But belief is also psychological. Some say we need to believe in some power greater than themselves. Joseph Campbell, see the origins of myth and religion in the psychological response of early man to the trauma of death. Thus, belief in a greater power arises when humans are faced with the mystery of what happens after death.
Literalists tend to seek factual or historical bases for a given mythological narrative while advocates of symbolic approaches prefer to regard the narrative as a code requiring some mode of decipherment. The literal and symbolic exegeses [interpretations] of myths are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Myths can also tell us truths about our own psychology.
Events fall somewhere onto the linear, mythical timeline of an imagined historical progression. Spatially, events are imagined to occur in an “idealized” and “bounded” territory. Genealogy helps us better understand the relationship between myth and history, and identity and history.
Myths constructed by all three groups simplify complex relationships and history by altering their depictions of time and space. The resulting creations turn complicated representations of the past into easily digestible and transmittable narratives and place the community in a valorized and privileged position in history.
Genealogy is one way of transforming experience and cultural identity. In periods of crisis, people tend to look to the past for reassurance and hope for the future. Especially in times of momentous and often catastrophic change, people reassess their identities and often reinterpret their history in order to define themselves. They seek stability in the past, though the manner in which the past is portrayed is not absolute.
The importance of “great individuals” or heroes for communal identity construction is a well-explored phenomenon. These figures and the stories told about them frame a community’s consciousness, worldview, and perception of the past. They are seen as exemplars of the community ideal and they attain (semi-) divine status in the worldviews of those who are imagined as their descendants.
Constructing myths around the stories of heroic figures is a straightforward means to streamline a complex history into a simple and instructive narrative. Heroic figures carry preconceived associations that can be easily attached to new narratives, and the form of the epic or other heroic narrative is an entertaining and easily memorable structure to transmit and perpetuate understandings of the community’s past. Every community has heroes that hold positions of special significance in their communal consciousness. These figures are often archetypal founder figures, ideal rulers, lawgivers, explorers, conquerors, kings, and/or warriors.
Continuous with irrational beliefs, delusions are belief states. Delusions can lead to action and they can be reported with conviction, and thus they behave as typical beliefs. The phenomenon of delusions involves the formation of normal or abnormal beliefs. Fixed ideas have an obsessional nature, that is persistently maintained. Overvalued ideas are false or exaggerated beliefs sustained beyond reason or logic but with less rigidity than a delusion, also often being less patently unbelievable. Unreasonable ideas or feelings persist despite evidence to the contrary.
The experiential and phenomenological character of delusions are not as mere representations of a person's experienced reality, but as attitudes towards representations. Delusional realities are modes of experience which involve shifts in familiarity and sense of reality and encompass cognition, bodily changes, affect, social and environmental factors.
Intergenerational Metaphor Therapy
"Let there be no doubt that I am the assemblage of our ancestors, the arena in which they exercise my moments. They are my cells and I am their body. This is the favrashi of which I speak, the soul, the collective unconscious, the source of archetypes, the repository of all trauma and joy. I am the choice of their awakening. My Samadhi is their Samadhi. Their experiences are mine! Their knowledge distilled is my inheritance. Those billions are my one." --Frank Herbert, The God-Emperor of Dune, p. 260.
Epigenetics and depth psychology accept that ancestors can tangibly affect our behavior. Genealogy expands and extends our sense of depth experience. We go beyond childhood memories and the observer self. We go back generations to find the healing, to find the metaphor that is just right for the healing of primary and repeated traumas. The quality of the metaphor will be redemptive -- it redeems the experience. Every detail is worked in order to find a resolution.
Questions pull the client back - how do you know what you know?. The redemptive metaphor is like a magic arrow; it does all the healing work once discovered. It is invited to move through the traumatic history back through each of the generation's rendering of the original trauma. Remember, if a trauma has extensive roots the whole thing must be identified for a true healing to take place.
The quadrants are the four realms of the problem domain. They have distinct features. The four realms are useful for the processes of: identifying the true etiology of current symptomology; organizing the sometimes very complex and voluminous information; defining the linkage of true cause and effect; and, discovering a redemptive metaphor that will effectively be sweep through the generations for a healing.
In David Grove's metaphor therapy, Quadrant IV is genealogically based. Quadrant IV asks the question 'Are there ancestral, or pre-morbid expressions of the symptoms you carry?'. From whom does the symptomology originate? Often the symptomology is not biographical to the client's lifetime but rather originates from out of their lineage. A traumatic experience that took place generations and/or cultures before the life of the client can be passed on through the generations to manifest in the client's life, and then it continues to be passed on in one way or another by them.
We go back generations to find the healing, to find the emergent metaphor, how you know what you know and what it's like. The quality of the metaphor will be redemptive -- it redeems the experience. In Quadrants I, II, III, every detail is worked in order to find a resolution. Remember, if a trauma has extensive roots the whole thing must be identified for a true healing to take place.
When you are working in Quadrant IV you have grab the client and pull them back in time because it's not natural to go backwards, we want to go forwards. So feel that pull in your words: 'So what happens just before?' and 'Where did that come from?'. When you get stuck revert to developing. Pulling back considerably expands the information; like a concertina that is all jammed up. As you pull back you get more and more history as it unfolds.
In Quadrant IV we are looking for the healing down the ancestral line to heal the T-1 situation. In Quadrant II, childhood memory, in working with trauma, we are working with just the one experience. If it is only one event then it is possible to heal the one memory. But some memories have extensive roots and we have to get at the whole thing before it can heal.
So we need to look at what might be constellated around the one experience. If we don't, then quite often what we have is what seems to be a great piece of work but there won't be much change in the client's behavior. In Quadrant II we get one childhood memory and one event whereas in genealogical Quadrant IV we may get 10 or 20 events that lead to the current problematic experience. We need to clean up the whole lot.
The redemptive metaphor is discovered by pulling time back from Trauma-1 through T-6. This powerful healing metaphor exists prior to the history of the trauma that began in a particular problem domain.
With mapping, if you ask the question, which directs the client into the spaces, then you expect the spaces to do the work. The spaces will gradually unfold the information. In mapping you as the therapist are no longer alone, but you are responsible for creating the core conditions. This involves the use of clean language.
Let's take the phrase "I feel sad" for example. Now a Rogerian Therapist will be working mostly in Quadrant I where words are important, where the language keeps changing all the time, where self-absorption trance state is impossible. So, a Rogerian Therapist might respond 'let's explore your sadness'. This is not clean language. It introduces the notion of exploration, which is a construct that has to do with the therapist's view of the world, and it also changes the dance. Also, although it might be grammatically correct to talk abut sadness, it moves the locus and changes the sound and resonance of that word. Jungian amplification also derails the process.
Once discovered and developed the redemptive metaphor is invited to bring about a healing. The product of this interaction is a new metaphor which will then be 'washed through' all the T- experiences in the lineage to heal each one of them. This will cause the 'expression of the history' to change. In other words, the client will no longer 'carry the baggage' of that experience. An emergent healing has taken place.
http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/problemdomains.html
THE SEARCH FOR ROOTS
& Experiential Realization of Kinship
Mythological History & Identity Formation
The term mythology can refer either to a collection of myths (a mythos) or to the study of myths (e.g., comparative mythology). A myth is a sacred narrative explaining how the world and humankind assumed their present form, although, in a very broad sense, a mythic character can refer to any traditional story.
Myth is an "ideology in narrative form". Myths may arise as either truthful depictions or overelaborated accounts of historical events, as allegory for or personification of natural phenomena, or as an explanation of ritual. They are transmitted to convey religious or idealized experience, to establish behavioral models, and to teach.
In genealogy, mythology connects with history and identity formation. Group identity can be active and conscious, or gradual and organic. It is a phenomenon closely linked to power, and is a key connection between perceptions of the past and understandings of the present.
Identity is fundamentally linked to other people: Historical representation is built in to the formation and constant re-negotiation of identity. This never-ending process requires the location and embedding of the self or group within a matrix of other fluid identities. All are likewise partially framed by and constituted through temporally extended representations of themselves in relation to others. In genealogy, the frame is intergenerational.
One manner in which to accomplish distinction from the “other” is through the construction and interpretation of historical narratives. Distinct perceptions of the past denote distinct societies, cultures, nations, or other groups.
No historical narrative can ever relate the absolute truth of events as they actually happened.
“History’s epistemological claim is devalued in favor of memory’s meaningfulness.” Memories about most historical events do seem to have some continuous narrative core to them. Culture and memory are key characteristics of group identity. Stories a community tells about its past construct and shape its identity. Its collectivity is experiences of successive generations, the concepts of worldview, paradigm, and ideology.
Myth has a function in history as a mediating function, as a channel that allows communities to reinterpret their identity and perceptions of history. Myth mediates between past and present, between reality and the ideal. We don't need to uncover the ‘historical truth’ behind the myths. Stories reflect the historical setting in which the myth was created and the historical need that the myth fulfilled.
The connection between myth and identity remains strong. Memory is only experiential, while myth is always happening, but never "occurs". Memory is mythologized in the "mythscape", including our drawn genealogies. We cannot physically remember events we didn't participate in but we envision them through narratives that inspire imagination. Memory and myth meet in the mythscape.
Myths subsume all of the various events, personalities, traditions, artifacts, and social practices that (self) define our relation to the past, present, and future. There are orthodox governing myths and heterodox myths that generate their own traditions and stories. Particular types of story are about the community and its importance, a story that resonates with the people emotionally, that glorifies the community, and that is easily transmitted and absorbed.
Recurring themes or motifs in myth can be: 1) diffusion (someone borrowed the story) or 2) psychology (unconscious ideas or situations often recur among humans). For Joseph Campbell, hero myths are "a magnification" of an initiation scheme of separation, transition, and incorporation.
"A hero ventures forth from the world of common day [separation] into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are then encountered and a decisive victory is won [initiation]: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man [return]" (Hero 30).
Campbell says that in his encounter with this region of wonder, the hero learns about his true inner nature and identity, and about the ultimate reality beyond the physical, i.e., "God." For Campbell, the hero's inner and outer journey symbolizes psychic and religious discoveries that all humans ought to make, and hero myths can function even today as guides for humans through various stages of life.
It's perfectly possible that repetitions of structure or motif point to some deep-seated human need or conflict. For example, imagine the psychological reality behind so many myths that tell of fathers trying to do away with their sons (Ouranos, Kronos) or sons who "accidentally" do away with their fathers or grandfathers (Oedipus, Theseus, Perseus)? In rejecting or ignoring our lines of descent, have we done the same?
Theories of myth interpretation are literal and symbolic. If we think of myths as true, if we believe in them , we are thinking in religious terms. But belief is also psychological. Some say we need to believe in some power greater than themselves. Joseph Campbell, see the origins of myth and religion in the psychological response of early man to the trauma of death. Thus, belief in a greater power arises when humans are faced with the mystery of what happens after death.
Literalists tend to seek factual or historical bases for a given mythological narrative while advocates of symbolic approaches prefer to regard the narrative as a code requiring some mode of decipherment. The literal and symbolic exegeses [interpretations] of myths are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Myths can also tell us truths about our own psychology.
Events fall somewhere onto the linear, mythical timeline of an imagined historical progression. Spatially, events are imagined to occur in an “idealized” and “bounded” territory. Genealogy helps us better understand the relationship between myth and history, and identity and history.
Myths constructed by all three groups simplify complex relationships and history by altering their depictions of time and space. The resulting creations turn complicated representations of the past into easily digestible and transmittable narratives and place the community in a valorized and privileged position in history.
Genealogy is one way of transforming experience and cultural identity. In periods of crisis, people tend to look to the past for reassurance and hope for the future. Especially in times of momentous and often catastrophic change, people reassess their identities and often reinterpret their history in order to define themselves. They seek stability in the past, though the manner in which the past is portrayed is not absolute.
The importance of “great individuals” or heroes for communal identity construction is a well-explored phenomenon. These figures and the stories told about them frame a community’s consciousness, worldview, and perception of the past. They are seen as exemplars of the community ideal and they attain (semi-) divine status in the worldviews of those who are imagined as their descendants.
Constructing myths around the stories of heroic figures is a straightforward means to streamline a complex history into a simple and instructive narrative. Heroic figures carry preconceived associations that can be easily attached to new narratives, and the form of the epic or other heroic narrative is an entertaining and easily memorable structure to transmit and perpetuate understandings of the community’s past. Every community has heroes that hold positions of special significance in their communal consciousness. These figures are often archetypal founder figures, ideal rulers, lawgivers, explorers, conquerors, kings, and/or warriors.
Continuous with irrational beliefs, delusions are belief states. Delusions can lead to action and they can be reported with conviction, and thus they behave as typical beliefs. The phenomenon of delusions involves the formation of normal or abnormal beliefs. Fixed ideas have an obsessional nature, that is persistently maintained. Overvalued ideas are false or exaggerated beliefs sustained beyond reason or logic but with less rigidity than a delusion, also often being less patently unbelievable. Unreasonable ideas or feelings persist despite evidence to the contrary.
The experiential and phenomenological character of delusions are not as mere representations of a person's experienced reality, but as attitudes towards representations. Delusional realities are modes of experience which involve shifts in familiarity and sense of reality and encompass cognition, bodily changes, affect, social and environmental factors.
Intergenerational Metaphor Therapy
"Let there be no doubt that I am the assemblage of our ancestors, the arena in which they exercise my moments. They are my cells and I am their body. This is the favrashi of which I speak, the soul, the collective unconscious, the source of archetypes, the repository of all trauma and joy. I am the choice of their awakening. My Samadhi is their Samadhi. Their experiences are mine! Their knowledge distilled is my inheritance. Those billions are my one." --Frank Herbert, The God-Emperor of Dune, p. 260.
Epigenetics and depth psychology accept that ancestors can tangibly affect our behavior. Genealogy expands and extends our sense of depth experience. We go beyond childhood memories and the observer self. We go back generations to find the healing, to find the metaphor that is just right for the healing of primary and repeated traumas. The quality of the metaphor will be redemptive -- it redeems the experience. Every detail is worked in order to find a resolution.
Questions pull the client back - how do you know what you know?. The redemptive metaphor is like a magic arrow; it does all the healing work once discovered. It is invited to move through the traumatic history back through each of the generation's rendering of the original trauma. Remember, if a trauma has extensive roots the whole thing must be identified for a true healing to take place.
The quadrants are the four realms of the problem domain. They have distinct features. The four realms are useful for the processes of: identifying the true etiology of current symptomology; organizing the sometimes very complex and voluminous information; defining the linkage of true cause and effect; and, discovering a redemptive metaphor that will effectively be sweep through the generations for a healing.
In David Grove's metaphor therapy, Quadrant IV is genealogically based. Quadrant IV asks the question 'Are there ancestral, or pre-morbid expressions of the symptoms you carry?'. From whom does the symptomology originate? Often the symptomology is not biographical to the client's lifetime but rather originates from out of their lineage. A traumatic experience that took place generations and/or cultures before the life of the client can be passed on through the generations to manifest in the client's life, and then it continues to be passed on in one way or another by them.
We go back generations to find the healing, to find the emergent metaphor, how you know what you know and what it's like. The quality of the metaphor will be redemptive -- it redeems the experience. In Quadrants I, II, III, every detail is worked in order to find a resolution. Remember, if a trauma has extensive roots the whole thing must be identified for a true healing to take place.
When you are working in Quadrant IV you have grab the client and pull them back in time because it's not natural to go backwards, we want to go forwards. So feel that pull in your words: 'So what happens just before?' and 'Where did that come from?'. When you get stuck revert to developing. Pulling back considerably expands the information; like a concertina that is all jammed up. As you pull back you get more and more history as it unfolds.
In Quadrant IV we are looking for the healing down the ancestral line to heal the T-1 situation. In Quadrant II, childhood memory, in working with trauma, we are working with just the one experience. If it is only one event then it is possible to heal the one memory. But some memories have extensive roots and we have to get at the whole thing before it can heal.
So we need to look at what might be constellated around the one experience. If we don't, then quite often what we have is what seems to be a great piece of work but there won't be much change in the client's behavior. In Quadrant II we get one childhood memory and one event whereas in genealogical Quadrant IV we may get 10 or 20 events that lead to the current problematic experience. We need to clean up the whole lot.
The redemptive metaphor is discovered by pulling time back from Trauma-1 through T-6. This powerful healing metaphor exists prior to the history of the trauma that began in a particular problem domain.
With mapping, if you ask the question, which directs the client into the spaces, then you expect the spaces to do the work. The spaces will gradually unfold the information. In mapping you as the therapist are no longer alone, but you are responsible for creating the core conditions. This involves the use of clean language.
Let's take the phrase "I feel sad" for example. Now a Rogerian Therapist will be working mostly in Quadrant I where words are important, where the language keeps changing all the time, where self-absorption trance state is impossible. So, a Rogerian Therapist might respond 'let's explore your sadness'. This is not clean language. It introduces the notion of exploration, which is a construct that has to do with the therapist's view of the world, and it also changes the dance. Also, although it might be grammatically correct to talk abut sadness, it moves the locus and changes the sound and resonance of that word. Jungian amplification also derails the process.
Once discovered and developed the redemptive metaphor is invited to bring about a healing. The product of this interaction is a new metaphor which will then be 'washed through' all the T- experiences in the lineage to heal each one of them. This will cause the 'expression of the history' to change. In other words, the client will no longer 'carry the baggage' of that experience. An emergent healing has taken place.
http://www.cleanlanguage.co.uk/problemdomains.html
Droplines, Dreams & Divinities
The Sun, 1909, Edvard Munch
SOUL DUST
Celebrating Historic & Mythic Heritage
Persistence of Vision in the Eternity of Now
Celebrating Historic & Mythic Heritage
Persistence of Vision in the Eternity of Now
"I am not, however, addressing myself to the happy possessors of faith, but to those many people for whom the light has gone out, the mystery has faded, and God is dead. For most of them there is no going back, and one does not know either whether going back is always the better way. To gain an understanding of religious matters, probably all that is left us today is the psychological approach.
That is why I take these thought-forms that have become historically fixed, try to melt them down again and pour them into molds of immediate experience. It is certainly a difficult undertaking to discover connecting links between dogma and immediate experience of psychological archetypes, but a study of the natural symbols of the unconscious gives us the necessary raw material. " --Carl Jung; CW 11:par 148
Have you yet considered what it means that you yourself are a symbol of your soul?
I had to recognize that I am only the expression and symbol of the soul. In the sense of the spirit of the depths, I am as I am in this visible world a symbol of my soul, and I am thoroughly a serf completely subjugated, utterly obedient. The spirit of the depths taught me to say: "I am the servant of a child." Through this dictum I learn above all the most extreme humility, as what I most need. --Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 234
“The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body and they express its materiality every bit as much as the structure of the perceiving consciousness. The symbol is thus a living body, corpus et anima.” --Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 9i, para 291
That is why I take these thought-forms that have become historically fixed, try to melt them down again and pour them into molds of immediate experience. It is certainly a difficult undertaking to discover connecting links between dogma and immediate experience of psychological archetypes, but a study of the natural symbols of the unconscious gives us the necessary raw material. " --Carl Jung; CW 11:par 148
Have you yet considered what it means that you yourself are a symbol of your soul?
I had to recognize that I am only the expression and symbol of the soul. In the sense of the spirit of the depths, I am as I am in this visible world a symbol of my soul, and I am thoroughly a serf completely subjugated, utterly obedient. The spirit of the depths taught me to say: "I am the servant of a child." Through this dictum I learn above all the most extreme humility, as what I most need. --Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 234
“The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body and they express its materiality every bit as much as the structure of the perceiving consciousness. The symbol is thus a living body, corpus et anima.” --Carl Jung, Collected Works Volume 9i, para 291
Ernst Fuchs - Metamorphoses of Lucretia, c.1958
Jung's Seven Sermons to the Dead
http://gnosis.org/library/7Sermons.htm
http://gnosis.org/library/7Sermons.htm
Jung's Septem Sermones ad Mortuos describe the "summary revelation of the Red Book."
THE SEVEN SERMONS TO THE DEAD
WRITTEN BY BASILIDES IN ALEXANDRIA,
THE CITY WHERE THE EAST TOUCHETH THE WEST.
Sermo I
The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they found not what they sought. They prayed me let them in and besought my word, and thus I began my teaching.
Harken: I begin with nothingness. Nothingness is the same as fullness. In infinity full is no better than empty. Nothingness is both empty and full. As well might ye say anything else of nothingness, as for instance, white is it, or black, or again, it is not, or it is. A thing that is infinite and eternal hath no qualities, since it hath all qualities.
This nothingness or fullness we name the PLEROMA. Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite possess no qualities. In it no being is, for he then would be distinct from the pleroma, and would possess qualities which would distinguish him as something distinct from the pleroma.
In the pleroma there is nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless to think about the pleroma, for this would mean self-dissolution.
WRITTEN BY BASILIDES IN ALEXANDRIA,
THE CITY WHERE THE EAST TOUCHETH THE WEST.
Sermo I
The dead came back from Jerusalem, where they found not what they sought. They prayed me let them in and besought my word, and thus I began my teaching.
Harken: I begin with nothingness. Nothingness is the same as fullness. In infinity full is no better than empty. Nothingness is both empty and full. As well might ye say anything else of nothingness, as for instance, white is it, or black, or again, it is not, or it is. A thing that is infinite and eternal hath no qualities, since it hath all qualities.
This nothingness or fullness we name the PLEROMA. Therein both thinking and being cease, since the eternal and infinite possess no qualities. In it no being is, for he then would be distinct from the pleroma, and would possess qualities which would distinguish him as something distinct from the pleroma.
In the pleroma there is nothing and everything. It is quite fruitless to think about the pleroma, for this would mean self-dissolution.
Genealogy is an Art & Science
A Deep Minded Exploration of Our Psychophysical Roots
Non-Existent but Consequential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy
What makes us free is the Gnosis
of who we were
of what we have become
of where we were
of wherein we have been thrown
of whereto we are hastening
of what we are being freed
of what birth really is
of what rebirth really is
—Valentinus (Gnostic)
A Deep Minded Exploration of Our Psychophysical Roots
Non-Existent but Consequential
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genealogy
What makes us free is the Gnosis
of who we were
of what we have become
of where we were
of wherein we have been thrown
of whereto we are hastening
of what we are being freed
of what birth really is
of what rebirth really is
—Valentinus (Gnostic)
You Speak for the Dead
TO BRING THE DEAD TO LIFE
To bring the dead to life
Is no great magic.
Few are wholly dead:
Blow on a dead man's embers
And a live flame will start.
Let his forgotten griefs be now,
And now his withered hopes;
Subdue your pen to his handwriting
Until it prove as natural
To sign his name as yours.
Limp as he limped,
Swear by the oaths he swore;
If he wore black, affect the same;
If he had gouty fingers,
Be yours gouty too.
Assemble tokens intimate of him --
A ring, a hood, a desk:
Around these elements then build
A home familiar to
The greedy revenant.
So grant him life, but reckon
That the grave which housed him
May not be empty now:
You in his spotted garments
Shall yourself lie wrapped.
--Robert Graves
TO BRING THE DEAD TO LIFE
To bring the dead to life
Is no great magic.
Few are wholly dead:
Blow on a dead man's embers
And a live flame will start.
Let his forgotten griefs be now,
And now his withered hopes;
Subdue your pen to his handwriting
Until it prove as natural
To sign his name as yours.
Limp as he limped,
Swear by the oaths he swore;
If he wore black, affect the same;
If he had gouty fingers,
Be yours gouty too.
Assemble tokens intimate of him --
A ring, a hood, a desk:
Around these elements then build
A home familiar to
The greedy revenant.
So grant him life, but reckon
That the grave which housed him
May not be empty now:
You in his spotted garments
Shall yourself lie wrapped.
--Robert Graves
"I know no answer to the question of whether the karma which I live is the outcome of my past lives, or whether it is not rather the achievement of my ancestors, whose heritage comes together in me.". . ."Am I a combination of the lives of these ancestors and do I embody these lives again?"
"What I feel to be the resultant of my ancestors' lives, or a karma acquired in a previous personal life, might perhaps equally well be an impersonal archetype which today presses hard on everyone and has taken a particular hold upon me an archetype such as, for
example, the development over the centuries of the divine triad and its confrontation with the feminine principle; or the still pending answer to the Gnostic question as to the origin of evil, or, to put it another way, the incompleteness of the Christian God-image." -Jung, MDR
"What I feel to be the resultant of my ancestors' lives, or a karma acquired in a previous personal life, might perhaps equally well be an impersonal archetype which today presses hard on everyone and has taken a particular hold upon me an archetype such as, for
example, the development over the centuries of the divine triad and its confrontation with the feminine principle; or the still pending answer to the Gnostic question as to the origin of evil, or, to put it another way, the incompleteness of the Christian God-image." -Jung, MDR
The tree of life as a symbol of eternal life, typified in varying forms by the culture's perception of the universe.
Many early Christians saw the tree of life as a personification of Jesus Christ.
Many early Christians saw the tree of life as a personification of Jesus Christ.
In ancient Egypt and in India (as in Christianity, etc.) the fleur-de-lis was used as a symbol meaning life and resurrection. In Egypt it was also the attribute of the god Horus, and a symbol for circumcision. The fleur-de-lis was later adopted by the ruling class of the Roman Empire, probably due to religious influences. After the fall of Empire it was inherited to symbolize the sacred origin of the Merovingian dynasty; it became a symbol of the Christian French Kingdom. A modern theory about the Holy Grail is found in the fleur-de-lys as a symbol of the mythical holy origin of the French nation in the union of legendary King Meroveus with Mary Magdalene / Desposyni descendency -- the Merovingians.
He who sleeps in the grave of the millennia dreams a wonderful dream. He dreams a primordially ancient dream. He dreams of the rising sun. ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 272.
I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 284.
You become the maker of the now day; you are your own sun-rise.
Until we do this, we are merely the result of the past.
But, by achieving this connection with the soul figure, you become the ruler of your own fate. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar, Pages 26-27
We asked earth.
We asked Heaven.
We asked the sea.
We asked the wind.
We asked the fire.
We looked for you with all the peoples.
We looked for you with all the kings.
We looked for you with all the wise.
We looked for you in our own heads and hearts.
And we found you in the egg.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Paragraphs 59-60.
Oh light of the middle way,
enclosed in the egg,
embryonic,
full of ardor, oppressed.
Fully expectant,
dreamlike, awaiting lost memories.
As heavy as stone, hardened.
Molten, transparent.
Streaming bright, coiled on itself.
~Carl Jung; Red Book, Illumination 53
I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.
~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 284.
You become the maker of the now day; you are your own sun-rise.
Until we do this, we are merely the result of the past.
But, by achieving this connection with the soul figure, you become the ruler of your own fate. ~Carl Jung; Cornwall Seminar, Pages 26-27
We asked earth.
We asked Heaven.
We asked the sea.
We asked the wind.
We asked the fire.
We looked for you with all the peoples.
We looked for you with all the kings.
We looked for you with all the wise.
We looked for you in our own heads and hearts.
And we found you in the egg.
~Carl Jung; The Red Book; Paragraphs 59-60.
Oh light of the middle way,
enclosed in the egg,
embryonic,
full of ardor, oppressed.
Fully expectant,
dreamlike, awaiting lost memories.
As heavy as stone, hardened.
Molten, transparent.
Streaming bright, coiled on itself.
~Carl Jung; Red Book, Illumination 53
The World Egg - "consider the shell of the egg as heaven."
In alchemy the egg stands for the chaos apprehended by the artifex, the prima materia containing the captive world-soul. Out of the egg — symbolized by the round cooking vessel — will rise the eagle or phoenix, the liberated soul, which is ultimately identical with the Anthropos who was imprisoned in the embrace of Physis. ~Carl Jung; Psychology and Alchemy; Page 202.
Set the egg before you, the God in his beginning.
And behold it.
And incubate it with the magical warmth of your gaze.
Christmas has come. The God is in the egg.
I have prepared a rug for my God, an expensive red rug from the land of morning.
He shall be surrounded by the shimmer of magnificence of his Eastern land.
I am the mother, the simple maiden, who gave birth and did not know how.
I am the careful father, who protected the maiden.
I am the shepherd, who received the message as he guarded his herd
at night on the dark fields.
I am the holy animal that stood astonished and cannot grasp the
becoming of the God …
I am the wise man who came from the East, suspecting the miracle from afar.
And I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.
--C.G. Jung
“The shell of the cosmic egg is the world frame of space, while the fertile seed-power within typifies the inexhaustible life-dynamism of nature.” -- Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
In alchemy the egg stands for the chaos apprehended by the artifex, the prima materia containing the captive world-soul. Out of the egg — symbolized by the round cooking vessel — will rise the eagle or phoenix, the liberated soul, which is ultimately identical with the Anthropos who was imprisoned in the embrace of Physis. ~Carl Jung; Psychology and Alchemy; Page 202.
Set the egg before you, the God in his beginning.
And behold it.
And incubate it with the magical warmth of your gaze.
Christmas has come. The God is in the egg.
I have prepared a rug for my God, an expensive red rug from the land of morning.
He shall be surrounded by the shimmer of magnificence of his Eastern land.
I am the mother, the simple maiden, who gave birth and did not know how.
I am the careful father, who protected the maiden.
I am the shepherd, who received the message as he guarded his herd
at night on the dark fields.
I am the holy animal that stood astonished and cannot grasp the
becoming of the God …
I am the wise man who came from the East, suspecting the miracle from afar.
And I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.
--C.G. Jung
“The shell of the cosmic egg is the world frame of space, while the fertile seed-power within typifies the inexhaustible life-dynamism of nature.” -- Joseph Campbell, A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living
Womb / World Egg / Tree of Life
http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/flm/SH/MDL/GAL/GalDisChapts/galdis.ENTIRE.html
Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The tree represents a map of Creation, unfolding from the primordial Unity to the infinite diversity of manifested reality, expressed according to a certain mathematical progression based upon the square root of three, the holy Trinity http://sacredgeometryinternational.com/the-meaning-of-sacred-geometry-part-3-the-womb-of-sacred-geometry
The egg is a germ of life with a lofty symbolical significance. It is not just a cosmogonic symbol — it is also a “philosophical one”. As the former it is the Orphic Egg, the world’s beginning; as the latter, the philosophical egg of the medieval natural philosophers, the vessel from which, at the end of the opus alchymicum, the homunculus emerges… the spiritual, inner, and complete man. --Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
http://sulcus.berkeley.edu/flm/SH/MDL/GAL/GalDisChapts/galdis.ENTIRE.html
Kabbalistic Tree of Life. The tree represents a map of Creation, unfolding from the primordial Unity to the infinite diversity of manifested reality, expressed according to a certain mathematical progression based upon the square root of three, the holy Trinity http://sacredgeometryinternational.com/the-meaning-of-sacred-geometry-part-3-the-womb-of-sacred-geometry
The egg is a germ of life with a lofty symbolical significance. It is not just a cosmogonic symbol — it is also a “philosophical one”. As the former it is the Orphic Egg, the world’s beginning; as the latter, the philosophical egg of the medieval natural philosophers, the vessel from which, at the end of the opus alchymicum, the homunculus emerges… the spiritual, inner, and complete man. --Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
Set the egg before you, the God in his beginning.
And behold it.
And incubate it with the magical warmth of your gaze.
Christmas has come. The God is in the egg.
I have prepared a rug for my God, an expensive red rug from the land of morning.
He shall be surrounded by the shimmer of magnificence of his Eastern land.
I am the mother, the simple maiden, who gave birth and did not know how.
I am the careful father, who protected the maiden.
I am the shepherd, who received the message as he guarded his herd
at night on the dark fields.
I am the holy animal that stood astonished and cannot grasp the
becoming of the God ..
I am the wise man who came from the East, suspecting the miracle from afar.
And I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.
C.G. Jung, The Red Book, http://jungcurrents.com/jung-god-egg-red-book/
And behold it.
And incubate it with the magical warmth of your gaze.
Christmas has come. The God is in the egg.
I have prepared a rug for my God, an expensive red rug from the land of morning.
He shall be surrounded by the shimmer of magnificence of his Eastern land.
I am the mother, the simple maiden, who gave birth and did not know how.
I am the careful father, who protected the maiden.
I am the shepherd, who received the message as he guarded his herd
at night on the dark fields.
I am the holy animal that stood astonished and cannot grasp the
becoming of the God ..
I am the wise man who came from the East, suspecting the miracle from afar.
And I am the egg that surrounds and nurtures the seed of the God in me.
C.G. Jung, The Red Book, http://jungcurrents.com/jung-god-egg-red-book/
Heritage Quest for Buried Secrets
& The Holy Grail of the Unconscious
"Where Your Loyalty Lies"
& The Holy Grail of the Unconscious
"Where Your Loyalty Lies"
CHAIN OF GENERATIONS
Infinite Regress
Only a Jungian approach to traditional genealogy keeps the historic/mythic gestalt of The World Tree alive as a symbol of wholeness -- a holistic resonant field pattern. According to Jung, trees are a symbolic reference to the self, so family tree is self-defining. As well as our lineage, our ancestors also form a vast symbol chain.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
The major branch points on our shared paternal lineage trace back through genealogy, history, antiquity, and ancient anthropology through myth to reach our early hominid ancestors. The branches on the paternal tree are haplogroups. SNP markers on the Y-Chromosome define them. Deep ancestry research depends on recognizing and analyzing patterns in Y-STR marker values for discovering Y-SNPs.
The serpents of our family lines are entwined like Celtic knots in and around the World Tree. Celtic snakes symbolize the notion of rebirth. They still promise us primordial Knowledge -- unverified personal gnosis. Jung said, "the serpent is the earthly essence of man of which he is not conscious. Its character changes according to peoples and lands, since it is the mystery that flows to him from the nourishing earth-mother."
The healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world is a common shamanic concept. Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. The Tree is the means of communication with spiritual realms. It is our Tree of Voices -- Tree of Souls. Remembering is a noble and necessary act. The call of memory, the call to memory, reaches us from the very dawn of history.
On the global-level, spiritual experiences have been shown to buffer against the negative effects of stress on well-being for older adults. Spiritual experience potentially moderates the deleterious impact of a given day’s perceived stress on that day’s positive and negative affect. Thus, it relates to self-care, well being, and healing. Sometimes physical pain is a substitute for psychic pain. Healing is not always physical: it can occur in the emotional, mental and spiritual life, moderating immunity and neurochemistry.
Genealogy contains a spiritual healing potential, the living sap of the Tree, a manifestation of the sacred. It is a Grail banquet of cultures, customs and symbolism. We see in many manuscripts that wings are used to mark progress or advancement of an alchemical solution toward perfection. Crowns mark the final stage of a spirit or solution: perfection, completion, ascension. The spirit, by death or enlightenment, will produce the pure, perfected, incorruptible spirit. In alchemical terms, the incorruptible body is the potential of the philosopher's stone
Some branches of the World Tree are pruned (extinct). Others still thrive. Data entry is not fun, but it makes information analysis and pattern recognition much easier. By engaging in genealogy we create a sacred space, a sacred center. There is a deep ecology to the flow of relationships. Our return to the womb of the Mothers is a creative regression. Experientially it manifests within us as a spiritualizing instinct, a recursive "bending back" toward the primordial and divine.
We link backward to the bond that transcends the limitations of the physical form. Consciousness turns back on itself, reiterating each level of organization, de-structuring each strata as it dives deeper toward the unconditioned, formless beginning, or "unborn" state -- the Void of the Cosmic Womb. In essence, we re-enter the womb as we are initiated in the mysteries of the psyche. We re-conceive our primal self image, healed by communion with the creative Source - - our own Royal Wedding.
Religious myths give us the security and inner strength not to be crushed by the monstrousness of the universe. "Belief is no adequate substitute for inner experience, and where this is absent even a strong faith which came miraculously as a gift of grace may depart equally miraculously. People call faith the true religious experience, but they do not stop to consider that actually it is a secondary phenomenon arising form the fact that something happened to us in the first place which instilled pistis into us — that is, trust and loyalty." --Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self," CW vol. 10, par. 521
In the Red Book, Jung said this is the way:
“An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity. I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages-within myself. We have only finished the Middle Ages of-others. I must begin early, in that period when the hermits died out. Asceticism, inquisition, torture are close at hand and impose themselves. The barbarian requires barbaric means of education. My I, you are a barbarian. I want to live with you, therefore I will carry you through an utterly medieval Hell, until you are capable of making living with you bearable. You should be the vessel and womb of life, therefore I shall purify you.
The touchstone is being alone with oneself."
Genealogy can be seen as a way of honoring the ancestors with a ritual from ancient times when lists of god-kings described the natural order of things. The only way to revision and interact with it as a gestalt matrix includes the fictional, legendary, and mythological lines of this traditional World Tree. It is but one way to acknowledge our divinity, nobility, and humanity. Genealogy is a sure path to the heart. We can "gather our ancestors" before we are gathered unto them.
Mythology lost its role of explaining the forces of nature. But its role of delivering insights into the hidden, deep endeavors and fears of any human seems more alive than ever. It is a Mystery how our ancestors pass memories to us across the generations. They relate us to our ontological questions about space, time, and eternity, the deep structure of the human mind and perception, life and death -- what exists and what doesn't. Time concerns the existential nature of things -- temporal relationships.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dream shamanism, as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
"You could study the ancestors, but without a deep feeling of communication with them it would be surface learning and surface talking. Once you have gone into yourself and have learned very deeply, appreciate it, and relate to it very well, everything will come very easily." (Ellen White, Nanaimo)
Psyche creates reality every day. We have a mystical connection with our primitive ancestors. The primordial ancestors are still alive within the depths of our psyches and reach out to us with their ancient wisdom. We instinctively behave and feel the same ways as generations of our ancestors have in their lives.
This is also a relationship to the collectivity of the dead; for the unconscious corresponds to the mythic land of the dead, the land of the ancestors. Jung was the first to link the concept of ancestors to unconscious thinking. We learn to remember what our soul already knows. Our personality is literally expressed through our ancestors.
The gods and goddesses have 'gone to seed', and we are that -- their seed, their progeny. As James Hillman says, their minds and powers are living us in poetic moments of fantasy, insight and intuition. Nature, psyche and life are unfolding divinity. We are only cut off from the dead by what we have buried and forgotten. Working with our ancestral connection means connecting to everything around us and how we are placed in the world.
Jung said transpersonal psychic life "is the mind of our ancient ancestors, the way in which they thought and felt, the way in which they conceived of life and the world, of gods and humans beings. The existence of these historical layers is presumably the source of belief in reincarnation and in memories of past lives” (Jung, 1939, p.24).
In 'Extending the Family' (1985), Hillman says, "With the passing of time a sense of its power grows within one's psyche, like the movements of its skeleton inside one's flesh, which keeps one in servitude to patterns entombed in our closest attitudes and habits. From this interior family we are never free. This service keeps us bonded to the ancestors." Some report a sort of
"calling illness" until they respond to the ancestors calling them to do the work.
Genealogy is the science and art of what is emerging into the collective consciousness in one of the biggest hobbies of our era. It is a vast reclamation and reconstruction of our holographic connections, and certain emotionally toned experiences and images inherited from our ancestors, our spiritual guides. We translate meaning into life.
The entire gestalt of the World Tree is an iconic image -- a multidimensional symbol requiring hermeneutics as much as history for best practice. Genealogy has the problem of only focusing on the ancestors with surviving records, not all your ancestors. Of course, all the expansive aspects of the ancestors leave their shadow traces. With the light comes darkness. Ancestral blessings are not unaccompanied by ancestral curses.
The shadow is transmitted in a million subtle gestures and intonations. As you become aware of them in yourself, you can look back over your shoulder at your ancestors and see where these patterns came from. The family shadow is not the sole answer, but it's a place to do some work. It's a realm that is within our means to influence. When we stop passing the shadow on to the next generation, we spare them and break the chain. They don't pass it on either.
We can cut through the Fog of Lore to the mythic core. Clan ancestors are more than euphemisms. They may well be more than legends, being actual progenitors or composites of the ancient lineage. Some myths may have developed after the destruction of powerful lineages, displays of majesty, culture heroes, and ancestral temples. Royal family ancestor cults probably drew on a number of ancestral lineages.
The symbolic function is beyond innate impulse and ideological bias. Through introversion, we are fertilized, inspired, regenerated, and reborn. Self-incubation, self-castigation, and introversion are closely related ideas. Immersion in oneself (introversion) is a penetration into the unconscious, the imaginal world of psyche.
The World Tree is the Axis Mundi of genealogy, a worldwide database of genealogical connectivity. At this point travel and correspondence is made between higher and lower realms. Communication from lower realms may ascend to higher ones and blessings from higher realms may descend to lower ones and be disseminated to all. The spot functions as the omphalos (navel), the world's point of beginning.
The earliest mythologies are of the World-Tree, or Tree of Life. Aspects of the same image, sacred trees are the most common motif from the ancient world. The Tree connects our psychophysical aspects from sub-nuclear to macrocosmic scales. The trunk is the axis of psychic growth that unites Heaven and Earth, spirit and matter.
The major branch points on our shared paternal lineage trace back through genealogy, history, antiquity, and ancient anthropology through myth to reach our early hominid ancestors. The branches on the paternal tree are haplogroups. SNP markers on the Y-Chromosome define them. Deep ancestry research depends on recognizing and analyzing patterns in Y-STR marker values for discovering Y-SNPs.
The serpents of our family lines are entwined like Celtic knots in and around the World Tree. Celtic snakes symbolize the notion of rebirth. They still promise us primordial Knowledge -- unverified personal gnosis. Jung said, "the serpent is the earthly essence of man of which he is not conscious. Its character changes according to peoples and lands, since it is the mystery that flows to him from the nourishing earth-mother."
The healer traversing the axis mundi to bring back knowledge from the other world is a common shamanic concept. Anyone or anything suspended on the axis between heaven and earth becomes a repository of potential knowledge. The Tree is the means of communication with spiritual realms. It is our Tree of Voices -- Tree of Souls. Remembering is a noble and necessary act. The call of memory, the call to memory, reaches us from the very dawn of history.
On the global-level, spiritual experiences have been shown to buffer against the negative effects of stress on well-being for older adults. Spiritual experience potentially moderates the deleterious impact of a given day’s perceived stress on that day’s positive and negative affect. Thus, it relates to self-care, well being, and healing. Sometimes physical pain is a substitute for psychic pain. Healing is not always physical: it can occur in the emotional, mental and spiritual life, moderating immunity and neurochemistry.
Genealogy contains a spiritual healing potential, the living sap of the Tree, a manifestation of the sacred. It is a Grail banquet of cultures, customs and symbolism. We see in many manuscripts that wings are used to mark progress or advancement of an alchemical solution toward perfection. Crowns mark the final stage of a spirit or solution: perfection, completion, ascension. The spirit, by death or enlightenment, will produce the pure, perfected, incorruptible spirit. In alchemical terms, the incorruptible body is the potential of the philosopher's stone
Some branches of the World Tree are pruned (extinct). Others still thrive. Data entry is not fun, but it makes information analysis and pattern recognition much easier. By engaging in genealogy we create a sacred space, a sacred center. There is a deep ecology to the flow of relationships. Our return to the womb of the Mothers is a creative regression. Experientially it manifests within us as a spiritualizing instinct, a recursive "bending back" toward the primordial and divine.
We link backward to the bond that transcends the limitations of the physical form. Consciousness turns back on itself, reiterating each level of organization, de-structuring each strata as it dives deeper toward the unconditioned, formless beginning, or "unborn" state -- the Void of the Cosmic Womb. In essence, we re-enter the womb as we are initiated in the mysteries of the psyche. We re-conceive our primal self image, healed by communion with the creative Source - - our own Royal Wedding.
Religious myths give us the security and inner strength not to be crushed by the monstrousness of the universe. "Belief is no adequate substitute for inner experience, and where this is absent even a strong faith which came miraculously as a gift of grace may depart equally miraculously. People call faith the true religious experience, but they do not stop to consider that actually it is a secondary phenomenon arising form the fact that something happened to us in the first place which instilled pistis into us — that is, trust and loyalty." --Carl Jung, The Undiscovered Self," CW vol. 10, par. 521
In the Red Book, Jung said this is the way:
“An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity. I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages-within myself. We have only finished the Middle Ages of-others. I must begin early, in that period when the hermits died out. Asceticism, inquisition, torture are close at hand and impose themselves. The barbarian requires barbaric means of education. My I, you are a barbarian. I want to live with you, therefore I will carry you through an utterly medieval Hell, until you are capable of making living with you bearable. You should be the vessel and womb of life, therefore I shall purify you.
The touchstone is being alone with oneself."
Genealogy can be seen as a way of honoring the ancestors with a ritual from ancient times when lists of god-kings described the natural order of things. The only way to revision and interact with it as a gestalt matrix includes the fictional, legendary, and mythological lines of this traditional World Tree. It is but one way to acknowledge our divinity, nobility, and humanity. Genealogy is a sure path to the heart. We can "gather our ancestors" before we are gathered unto them.
Mythology lost its role of explaining the forces of nature. But its role of delivering insights into the hidden, deep endeavors and fears of any human seems more alive than ever. It is a Mystery how our ancestors pass memories to us across the generations. They relate us to our ontological questions about space, time, and eternity, the deep structure of the human mind and perception, life and death -- what exists and what doesn't. Time concerns the existential nature of things -- temporal relationships.
The mythology of our ancestors is as important as their cosmology. We can explore the mystic in ourselves and in our ancestors. Our worldview is the root of our identity and relationship to Nature and our own deep nature. Researching the cosmologies of our direct ancestors in the historical era provides a quick path into dream shamanism, as these ways are still half-remembered. Our common destiny lies beyond any worldview.
"You could study the ancestors, but without a deep feeling of communication with them it would be surface learning and surface talking. Once you have gone into yourself and have learned very deeply, appreciate it, and relate to it very well, everything will come very easily." (Ellen White, Nanaimo)
Psyche creates reality every day. We have a mystical connection with our primitive ancestors. The primordial ancestors are still alive within the depths of our psyches and reach out to us with their ancient wisdom. We instinctively behave and feel the same ways as generations of our ancestors have in their lives.
This is also a relationship to the collectivity of the dead; for the unconscious corresponds to the mythic land of the dead, the land of the ancestors. Jung was the first to link the concept of ancestors to unconscious thinking. We learn to remember what our soul already knows. Our personality is literally expressed through our ancestors.
The gods and goddesses have 'gone to seed', and we are that -- their seed, their progeny. As James Hillman says, their minds and powers are living us in poetic moments of fantasy, insight and intuition. Nature, psyche and life are unfolding divinity. We are only cut off from the dead by what we have buried and forgotten. Working with our ancestral connection means connecting to everything around us and how we are placed in the world.
Jung said transpersonal psychic life "is the mind of our ancient ancestors, the way in which they thought and felt, the way in which they conceived of life and the world, of gods and humans beings. The existence of these historical layers is presumably the source of belief in reincarnation and in memories of past lives” (Jung, 1939, p.24).
In 'Extending the Family' (1985), Hillman says, "With the passing of time a sense of its power grows within one's psyche, like the movements of its skeleton inside one's flesh, which keeps one in servitude to patterns entombed in our closest attitudes and habits. From this interior family we are never free. This service keeps us bonded to the ancestors." Some report a sort of
"calling illness" until they respond to the ancestors calling them to do the work.
Genealogy is the science and art of what is emerging into the collective consciousness in one of the biggest hobbies of our era. It is a vast reclamation and reconstruction of our holographic connections, and certain emotionally toned experiences and images inherited from our ancestors, our spiritual guides. We translate meaning into life.
The entire gestalt of the World Tree is an iconic image -- a multidimensional symbol requiring hermeneutics as much as history for best practice. Genealogy has the problem of only focusing on the ancestors with surviving records, not all your ancestors. Of course, all the expansive aspects of the ancestors leave their shadow traces. With the light comes darkness. Ancestral blessings are not unaccompanied by ancestral curses.
The shadow is transmitted in a million subtle gestures and intonations. As you become aware of them in yourself, you can look back over your shoulder at your ancestors and see where these patterns came from. The family shadow is not the sole answer, but it's a place to do some work. It's a realm that is within our means to influence. When we stop passing the shadow on to the next generation, we spare them and break the chain. They don't pass it on either.
We can cut through the Fog of Lore to the mythic core. Clan ancestors are more than euphemisms. They may well be more than legends, being actual progenitors or composites of the ancient lineage. Some myths may have developed after the destruction of powerful lineages, displays of majesty, culture heroes, and ancestral temples. Royal family ancestor cults probably drew on a number of ancestral lineages.
“If I accept the lowest in me, I lower a seed into the ground of Hell. The seed is invisibly small, but the tree of my life grows from it and conjoins the Below with the Above. At both ends there is fire and blazing embers. The Above is fiery and the Below is fiery. Between the unbearable fires grows your life. You hang between these two poles. In an immeasurably frightening movement the stretched hanging welters up and down." ~Carl Jung, The Red Book, Page 300.
Lament of the Dead
Differences in ancestral worldviews highlight the problem of synthesis. Conceptual and symbolic frameworks arise in different periods of history. The classical vision is not absent from the modern world; we can argue both transcendence and immanence. Much depends on which century your soul inhabits, metaphorically. The dead are given greater reality by the memory that the living keep alive of them. But they are invoked to participate on important occasions such as births, naming, and marriages.
Our deep polytheistic background has been buried with the ancestors, along with their voices which we can talk to and imagine in posthumous reality. When thinking stops, words slip in. Within our subconscious mind is a history of our ancestors which includes their experiences and emotions. Do the dead cry that they are misunderstood? They are The Watchers. We are always being watched by the ancestral spirits. To be cut off from relationships with one's ancestors is to cease being a whole person. Unconsciously we still think like our distant ancestors.
The symbol is the word that goes out of the mouth, that one does not simply speak, but that rises out of the depths of the self as a word of power and great need and places itself unexpectedly on the tongue. It is an astonishing and perhaps seemingly irrational word, but one recognizes it as a symbol since it is alien to the conscious mind.
If one accepts the symbol, it is as if a door opens leading into a new room whose existence one previously did not know. But if one does not accept the symbol, it is as if one carelessly went past this door; and since this was the only door leading to the inner chambers, one must pass outside into the streets again, exposed to everything external. But the soul suffers great need, since outer freedom is of no use to it. Salvation is a long road that leads through many gates. These gates are symbols. Each new gate is at first invisible; indeed, it seems at first that / it must be created, for it exists only if one has dug up the spring's root, the symbol.
Differences in ancestral worldviews highlight the problem of synthesis. Conceptual and symbolic frameworks arise in different periods of history. The classical vision is not absent from the modern world; we can argue both transcendence and immanence. Much depends on which century your soul inhabits, metaphorically. The dead are given greater reality by the memory that the living keep alive of them. But they are invoked to participate on important occasions such as births, naming, and marriages.
Our deep polytheistic background has been buried with the ancestors, along with their voices which we can talk to and imagine in posthumous reality. When thinking stops, words slip in. Within our subconscious mind is a history of our ancestors which includes their experiences and emotions. Do the dead cry that they are misunderstood? They are The Watchers. We are always being watched by the ancestral spirits. To be cut off from relationships with one's ancestors is to cease being a whole person. Unconsciously we still think like our distant ancestors.
The symbol is the word that goes out of the mouth, that one does not simply speak, but that rises out of the depths of the self as a word of power and great need and places itself unexpectedly on the tongue. It is an astonishing and perhaps seemingly irrational word, but one recognizes it as a symbol since it is alien to the conscious mind.
If one accepts the symbol, it is as if a door opens leading into a new room whose existence one previously did not know. But if one does not accept the symbol, it is as if one carelessly went past this door; and since this was the only door leading to the inner chambers, one must pass outside into the streets again, exposed to everything external. But the soul suffers great need, since outer freedom is of no use to it. Salvation is a long road that leads through many gates. These gates are symbols. Each new gate is at first invisible; indeed, it seems at first that / it must be created, for it exists only if one has dug up the spring's root, the symbol.
Multigenerational Matrix
Genealogy is a place to pay homage and commune with our ancestors. But if you think you 'know' what a symbol represents because you read it online, think again. Such knowledge must be won through individual work, not collective gleaning. We are called to these encounters by our complexes, that when 'faced' lead to our vocation and bliss. The Ennead were the nine great Osirian gods: Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Our genealogies represent a great psycho-physical Mystery, represented by the gods from the beginning. The realm of the ancestors is the realm of the gods.
Hillman suggests we aspire to be an Ancestor instead of fantasizing about eternal youth. But don't confuse Ancestors with genetic connections or biological offspring, he warns. They might be spiritual ancestors. Ancestors sit at the edge of the tribe and protect us from evil spirits: injustice, sham, hypocrisy, exploitation, destruction of the planet. Ancestors come in many forms, including individuals and ideas that help the tribe continue for seven generations.
"Become an Ancestor", Hillman urges, reminding us that does NOT require biological offsprings or genetic connections. He gives examples of a wide variety of Ancestors, from books to dream figures. He speaks to the dilemma of our society which doesn't know how to handle the misfits in a monoculture dedicated to competitive capitalism. Spirits of the ancestors help us bring individual character out from within ourselves. Soul has its own ancestors, which may not be your own actual, physical ancestors. They are the honorable ancestors in other cultures that we may not recognize in our own society.
Our experiences are added to all the collected experiences of our ancient ancestors. What is eternal is essentially unchanging -- a transcendent kingdom. In Jung's view, our pagan ancestors had a more direct access to this kingdom, which we now reach through dreams, vision, and hermeneutics. Our lines radiate from our center like a primordial sun, reconditioning our perception of time and eternity -- a place from which the psyche is born. Experience ceases as all is One. That Nature of Existence reflects our NOWstalgia.
Regress, Reclaim, Rejuvenate
Your own genealogy contains both personal and collective elements. Infinite Regress is a causal relationship transmitted through an indefinite number of terms in a series, with no term that begins the causal chain. Our ancestral lines fade off into the mists of pre-history. Integration through regression, in the service of transcendence, is a well-tested technique that opens us to the deep unconscious. It hopefully addresses some of the incomplete and unanswered questions left by parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. Dreams were messages for our ancestors, and can be messages from them for us.
Ancestral revelations often come at synchronous times forming the connective tissue of meaning. We only notice ancestral memories and ideas when they are expressed as instincts, ideas, images and memories, in dreams and imagination. The ancient ancestors are still alive within the deepest ranges of our psyches and reach out to us with their ancient wisdom.
We inherit a sort of knowledge acquired from from our ancestors. We still keep our 'eyes to the skies' as the ancestors did for perhaps more than 50,000 years of pre-history. We experience the circle of life, just like our ancestors did. Like our ancestors we try to understand the world, our position in it, the process of life and death, ad the meaning of relationships. We still acknowledge the great cycles of time and the seasons as our ancestors did. But, that doesn't mean we have to believe everything they did. Many stories are cautionary tales.
We are a collage—a remix—of our ancestors. Jung suggested the idea of "ancestor possession". Certain hereditary fractals become activated under certain current circumstances, allowing the spirit of an ancestor to then "take over" one's actions. We can also project and re-own projections not only to other humans in the present but also to our ancestors from the past. The hero's journey represents the primitive struggle of our ancestors in entering an unknown world of danger, but overcoming the danger and bringing back to the tribe or group some discovery or treasure that benefits everyone.
We go back to move forward. We work backward in time, in order to preserve the Red Thread bloodline. As we do each ancestor becomes younger until they join with their parental lines, and so forth. Like fractals, we are self-similar to a given larger or smaller part of our heritage, even if some lines are broken or uneven. Fractal genealogy can be unravelled and rebuilt, producing an artistic view of the process. You can easily lose hours on 'walkabout' in a by-gone era within your labyrinthine lines. The lines of a labyrinth guide us, as do the experiences of our lives.
Genealogy is a place to pay homage and commune with our ancestors. But if you think you 'know' what a symbol represents because you read it online, think again. Such knowledge must be won through individual work, not collective gleaning. We are called to these encounters by our complexes, that when 'faced' lead to our vocation and bliss. The Ennead were the nine great Osirian gods: Atum, Shu, Tefnut, Geb, Nut, Osiris, Isis, Set, and Nephthys. Our genealogies represent a great psycho-physical Mystery, represented by the gods from the beginning. The realm of the ancestors is the realm of the gods.
Hillman suggests we aspire to be an Ancestor instead of fantasizing about eternal youth. But don't confuse Ancestors with genetic connections or biological offspring, he warns. They might be spiritual ancestors. Ancestors sit at the edge of the tribe and protect us from evil spirits: injustice, sham, hypocrisy, exploitation, destruction of the planet. Ancestors come in many forms, including individuals and ideas that help the tribe continue for seven generations.
"Become an Ancestor", Hillman urges, reminding us that does NOT require biological offsprings or genetic connections. He gives examples of a wide variety of Ancestors, from books to dream figures. He speaks to the dilemma of our society which doesn't know how to handle the misfits in a monoculture dedicated to competitive capitalism. Spirits of the ancestors help us bring individual character out from within ourselves. Soul has its own ancestors, which may not be your own actual, physical ancestors. They are the honorable ancestors in other cultures that we may not recognize in our own society.
Our experiences are added to all the collected experiences of our ancient ancestors. What is eternal is essentially unchanging -- a transcendent kingdom. In Jung's view, our pagan ancestors had a more direct access to this kingdom, which we now reach through dreams, vision, and hermeneutics. Our lines radiate from our center like a primordial sun, reconditioning our perception of time and eternity -- a place from which the psyche is born. Experience ceases as all is One. That Nature of Existence reflects our NOWstalgia.
Regress, Reclaim, Rejuvenate
Your own genealogy contains both personal and collective elements. Infinite Regress is a causal relationship transmitted through an indefinite number of terms in a series, with no term that begins the causal chain. Our ancestral lines fade off into the mists of pre-history. Integration through regression, in the service of transcendence, is a well-tested technique that opens us to the deep unconscious. It hopefully addresses some of the incomplete and unanswered questions left by parents and grandparents and more distant ancestors. Dreams were messages for our ancestors, and can be messages from them for us.
Ancestral revelations often come at synchronous times forming the connective tissue of meaning. We only notice ancestral memories and ideas when they are expressed as instincts, ideas, images and memories, in dreams and imagination. The ancient ancestors are still alive within the deepest ranges of our psyches and reach out to us with their ancient wisdom.
We inherit a sort of knowledge acquired from from our ancestors. We still keep our 'eyes to the skies' as the ancestors did for perhaps more than 50,000 years of pre-history. We experience the circle of life, just like our ancestors did. Like our ancestors we try to understand the world, our position in it, the process of life and death, ad the meaning of relationships. We still acknowledge the great cycles of time and the seasons as our ancestors did. But, that doesn't mean we have to believe everything they did. Many stories are cautionary tales.
We are a collage—a remix—of our ancestors. Jung suggested the idea of "ancestor possession". Certain hereditary fractals become activated under certain current circumstances, allowing the spirit of an ancestor to then "take over" one's actions. We can also project and re-own projections not only to other humans in the present but also to our ancestors from the past. The hero's journey represents the primitive struggle of our ancestors in entering an unknown world of danger, but overcoming the danger and bringing back to the tribe or group some discovery or treasure that benefits everyone.
We go back to move forward. We work backward in time, in order to preserve the Red Thread bloodline. As we do each ancestor becomes younger until they join with their parental lines, and so forth. Like fractals, we are self-similar to a given larger or smaller part of our heritage, even if some lines are broken or uneven. Fractal genealogy can be unravelled and rebuilt, producing an artistic view of the process. You can easily lose hours on 'walkabout' in a by-gone era within your labyrinthine lines. The lines of a labyrinth guide us, as do the experiences of our lives.
"The only dead end of a labyrinth is its center." --Hermann Kern
Full-Blooded Genealogy
The Red Thread
Genealogy is our map of the unconscious -- the Land of the Dead. The Red Thread, the thread of destiny, connects to the Source. It shows us the way, igniting imagination with the alchemy of 'seeing', awakening the soul. The red threads of your blood link you and your Tree to the World Tree, your history to world history and mythology. The bloodline is also called the "underground stream". The Red Thread is a transmission of cultural influences of ancestors.
Walking the Labyrinth of our lines is a deeply meditative process that arouses spirit, intuition and gnosis from a deep sleep. It is a way of soul retrieval, uniting personal and collective unconscious. It is a process of digging through the past, overturning old notions. Even history looks different from inside your bloodlines. You can easily observe your great-grandparents intermarrying over vast distances. They may move in a single generation from eastern to western Europe, for example, or across Europe from the Near East, or change their religion and ethnic identity. Nothing lives as long as deep memory.
Entangled Roots
Genealogy writes you into the story of history and genetically links you to the Cosmos. It is a legitimate form of self-therapy. The genealogy of the soul begins in the longing for the lost other. Feeling that 'genealogy without proofs is meaningless', some professional genealogists want to throw out the mythic babies with the bathwater. They want to prune the mythic and folkloric elements that link the Medieval to the Classical period from the World Tree. It is not the Truth they seek but to control the narrative.
Stories create the world we live in. They would remove the legendary and divine from the story of humanity. But you cannot remove Isis, Enki, Adam, Woden, Arthur, or Venus from the Psyche. They abide forever with their eternal influence, no matter how deeply buried. What the soul needs is precisely the opposite of expunging them from the ancestral record. We need to clarify and build on the relationships just as we find them, keeping the webwork intact. We are entangled with all the ancestral figures of our heritage. They reside at the nexus of their ancestors and descendents.
Archetypes are the incorporeal blueprints of Being, self-organizing forms. The "collective unconscious" is a vast information store containing the entire religious, spiritual and mythological experiences of humanity. According to Jung, these inherited ancient archetypes exist deep with the human psyche and heavily influence our psychophysical being. Our genealogy shows how we are rooted in them, from the Anunnaki to Zeus, and Horus to Solomon to Merlin.
You cannot expunge the Fisher Kings, Grail Maidens, Lady of the Lake, the Serpent Scion, and Dragons. They are not 'red herrings' in our lines, but the roots of Mystery that bind us to Cosmos. Their appearance means we've transcended history. They are spiritually tangible, though not literal. It is up to us to discern their nature. The soul yearns for such deeper relationships. The archetypes embody the foundational beliefs we carry through life. Jung called Soul the archetype of Life.
Holographic Gods - http://holographicarchetypes.weebly.com/pantheon.html
Grail Quest & Sangreal
Genealogy helps us reexamine our truth, our existence. The Jungian approach includes the whole range of emotions, but spares us from literalisms and engulfment by balancing objective and subjective. Many archetypal themes are native to genealogical practice:
The Hero Journey, God-Kings, Holy Grail, Royal Wedding, Sangreal Bloodline, Merovingians, and more. The "Grail Bloodline" led to the Scottish House of Stewart from the Merovingians and Desposyni. The bloodline is arcane; it is occult -- that is, 'hidden' within the corridors of royal descent. Thus genealogy builds a bridge between human and the divine. There are ghosts in your genes. Your BOOK OF THE DEAD is written in your DNA.
http://drakenberg.weebly.com/
Hieros Gamos
Deciphering its inherent meaning is a Quest for the Grail and the journey of psychological transformation. The hierosgamos is the holy grail of sexual rites, a psychobiological and symbolic act. Alchemy refers to the reconciliation of Sol and Luna as The Chymical Wedding. Jung's theory of the psychic conjunction of polarities was inspired by this teaching. Over centuries, the alchemists generated a wide range of symbolic images as homologues for the anatomy of the unconscious, relating form and dynamic function.
In biology, two things are homologous if they bear the same relationship to one another. Homology is a relationship between structures or DNA derived from a common ancestor. Homologous traits of organisms are therefore explained by descent from a common ancestor. Homology can also be described at the level of the gene. In genetics homology can refer to both the gene (DNA) and the corresponding protein product.
What we seek is spiritual union, sacred marriage of the gods -- found by joining the male and female within, returning Eros to our process. They guide us into a new holistic era. We now turn to the Feminine, which gives birth to new forms, including the non-physical field of epigenetic and wave-genetic inheritance patterns.
The balance of opposites is called the ‘alchemical wedding’ or mysterium coniunctionis. It was celebrated in Morganatic marriages between human representatives of the God and Goddess that have less to do with inheritance and succession than with renewal of community. Art that contains the archetype, including the genealogical art, is the art that best serves the global community. Like the Caduceus, the two intertwined snakes, it serves as a symbol for perpetually incarnating life, healing and wholeness.
The unification of archetypes embodies the Self. Jung said, “The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body and they express its materiality every bit as much as the structure of the perceiving consciousness. The symbol is thus a living body, corpus et anima.” (Cw 9i) Any distinction between mind and body is an artificial dichotomy.
The Great Rite, also called the Hieros Gamos, dates to Inanna of ancient Sumeria, around 2600 BCE, if not before -- gods and goddesses, kings of the land and queens of sovereignty incarnate on the earth. The hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, is one of the earliest recorded public ceremonies in written history. The Sumerian rites were deemed essential for the fertility of the land. Symbols arising from the changeable coniunctio reflect the natural process of life/death/rebirth arising from the fixed constellations.of the patriarchal archetypes. The feminine gives birth to the Self before she can birth the new man. Hierosgamos is the symbol of the absolute that reigns over the ego.
The myth of the Holy Grail had to do with the Fisher King whose impotence reflected the drought, the wasteland. Sexual union is a microcosm of the god and goddess, the two fundamental aspects of the cosmos whose union completes the whole. Mystically, the sexual union of male and female is the source of both immortality and personal individuation and redemption.
No one who sets forth on the grail quest remains unchanged. The incarnatio is a spontaneous act of creation in the matter of the universe as the result of the today constellated act of the conuinctio. Synchronicity is the conjunction of individual and cosmos in a way that accelerates and deepens life in an unforeseen way that celebrates Life. The only place of power and change is the Present.
Jung's Model
By the time he was nineteen, Jung was convinced that his existence was somehow deeply entwined with his ancestors and the spiritual mysteries. Jung challenges us to unite our cultured side with the primeval ancestors, what he called “the two million-year-old man within” at the clan and tribal level of human relationships. Such a person would have a relationship with the animal ancestor foundation of the psyche like an indigenous person speaks of spirit animals. We would not exist without the strength and hard work of our ancestors. We have an overall cellular memory of past ancestors that is local and nonlocal, personal and universal.
Jung does not mean to imply by this that experience as such is inherited, but rather that the brain itself has been shaped and influenced by the remote experiences of mankind. But,
'Although our inheritance consists in physiological paths, it was nevertheless mental processes in our ancestors that traced these paths. If they came to consciousness again in the individual, they can do so only in the form of other mental processes; and although these processes can become conscious only through individual experience and consequently appear as individual acquisitions, they are nevertheless pre-existent traces which are merely "filled out" by the individual experience. Probably every "impressive" experience is just such a break-through into an old, previously unconscious riverbed.’
Our genealogical ancestors link us to Source and to our Opus, the Great Work of reconnection with spirit and soul, through nearly infinite alchemical marriages and their offspring. Whatever we lack in our personal experience can surely be found there in the collective root.
"Am I a combination of the lives of these ancestors and do I embody these lives again? Have I lived before in the past as a specific personality, and did I progress so far in that life that I am now able to seek a solution? I do not know." (Jung, MDR).
Dr. Jung concludes the “Liber Secundus” portion of The Red Book with the following words:
“An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages-within myself. We have only finished the Middle Ages of others. I must begin early, in that period when the hermits died out. Asceticism, inquisition, torture are close at hand and impose themselves. The barbarian requires barbaric means of education. My I, you are a barbarian. I want to live with you, therefore I will carry you through an utterly medieval Hell, until you are capable of making living with you bearable. You should be the vessel and womb of life, therefore I shall purify you. The touchstone is being alone with oneself. This is the way” (The Red Book, Page 330).
Jung believed that vestigial remnants, "archetypal" experiences of evolutionary ancestors were embedded in the unconscious that affected how we behave and think in the present. Our royal ancestors are our inner Court of last resort. We have spiritual DNA, as well as physical, and our lot in life is to answer the questions posed by the people who came before us.
Balancing inner and outer realities serves to regulate both collective unconscious and collective conscious forces (and implicitly, moral opposites of good and evil residing in the psyche and expressed in the sentiments and acts of external reality).
"At Bollingen I am in the midst of my true life, I am most deeply myself.
Here I am, as it were, the "age-old son of the mother." That is how alchemy puts it, very wisely, for the "old man" the "ancient," whom I had already experienced as a child, is personality No. 2, who has always been and always will be. He exists outside time and is the son of the maternal unconscious. In my fantasies he took the form of Philemon, and he comes to life again at Bollingen. At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the plashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons."
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
Full-Blooded Genealogy
The Red Thread
Genealogy is our map of the unconscious -- the Land of the Dead. The Red Thread, the thread of destiny, connects to the Source. It shows us the way, igniting imagination with the alchemy of 'seeing', awakening the soul. The red threads of your blood link you and your Tree to the World Tree, your history to world history and mythology. The bloodline is also called the "underground stream". The Red Thread is a transmission of cultural influences of ancestors.
Walking the Labyrinth of our lines is a deeply meditative process that arouses spirit, intuition and gnosis from a deep sleep. It is a way of soul retrieval, uniting personal and collective unconscious. It is a process of digging through the past, overturning old notions. Even history looks different from inside your bloodlines. You can easily observe your great-grandparents intermarrying over vast distances. They may move in a single generation from eastern to western Europe, for example, or across Europe from the Near East, or change their religion and ethnic identity. Nothing lives as long as deep memory.
Entangled Roots
Genealogy writes you into the story of history and genetically links you to the Cosmos. It is a legitimate form of self-therapy. The genealogy of the soul begins in the longing for the lost other. Feeling that 'genealogy without proofs is meaningless', some professional genealogists want to throw out the mythic babies with the bathwater. They want to prune the mythic and folkloric elements that link the Medieval to the Classical period from the World Tree. It is not the Truth they seek but to control the narrative.
Stories create the world we live in. They would remove the legendary and divine from the story of humanity. But you cannot remove Isis, Enki, Adam, Woden, Arthur, or Venus from the Psyche. They abide forever with their eternal influence, no matter how deeply buried. What the soul needs is precisely the opposite of expunging them from the ancestral record. We need to clarify and build on the relationships just as we find them, keeping the webwork intact. We are entangled with all the ancestral figures of our heritage. They reside at the nexus of their ancestors and descendents.
Archetypes are the incorporeal blueprints of Being, self-organizing forms. The "collective unconscious" is a vast information store containing the entire religious, spiritual and mythological experiences of humanity. According to Jung, these inherited ancient archetypes exist deep with the human psyche and heavily influence our psychophysical being. Our genealogy shows how we are rooted in them, from the Anunnaki to Zeus, and Horus to Solomon to Merlin.
You cannot expunge the Fisher Kings, Grail Maidens, Lady of the Lake, the Serpent Scion, and Dragons. They are not 'red herrings' in our lines, but the roots of Mystery that bind us to Cosmos. Their appearance means we've transcended history. They are spiritually tangible, though not literal. It is up to us to discern their nature. The soul yearns for such deeper relationships. The archetypes embody the foundational beliefs we carry through life. Jung called Soul the archetype of Life.
Holographic Gods - http://holographicarchetypes.weebly.com/pantheon.html
Grail Quest & Sangreal
Genealogy helps us reexamine our truth, our existence. The Jungian approach includes the whole range of emotions, but spares us from literalisms and engulfment by balancing objective and subjective. Many archetypal themes are native to genealogical practice:
The Hero Journey, God-Kings, Holy Grail, Royal Wedding, Sangreal Bloodline, Merovingians, and more. The "Grail Bloodline" led to the Scottish House of Stewart from the Merovingians and Desposyni. The bloodline is arcane; it is occult -- that is, 'hidden' within the corridors of royal descent. Thus genealogy builds a bridge between human and the divine. There are ghosts in your genes. Your BOOK OF THE DEAD is written in your DNA.
http://drakenberg.weebly.com/
Hieros Gamos
Deciphering its inherent meaning is a Quest for the Grail and the journey of psychological transformation. The hierosgamos is the holy grail of sexual rites, a psychobiological and symbolic act. Alchemy refers to the reconciliation of Sol and Luna as The Chymical Wedding. Jung's theory of the psychic conjunction of polarities was inspired by this teaching. Over centuries, the alchemists generated a wide range of symbolic images as homologues for the anatomy of the unconscious, relating form and dynamic function.
In biology, two things are homologous if they bear the same relationship to one another. Homology is a relationship between structures or DNA derived from a common ancestor. Homologous traits of organisms are therefore explained by descent from a common ancestor. Homology can also be described at the level of the gene. In genetics homology can refer to both the gene (DNA) and the corresponding protein product.
What we seek is spiritual union, sacred marriage of the gods -- found by joining the male and female within, returning Eros to our process. They guide us into a new holistic era. We now turn to the Feminine, which gives birth to new forms, including the non-physical field of epigenetic and wave-genetic inheritance patterns.
The balance of opposites is called the ‘alchemical wedding’ or mysterium coniunctionis. It was celebrated in Morganatic marriages between human representatives of the God and Goddess that have less to do with inheritance and succession than with renewal of community. Art that contains the archetype, including the genealogical art, is the art that best serves the global community. Like the Caduceus, the two intertwined snakes, it serves as a symbol for perpetually incarnating life, healing and wholeness.
The unification of archetypes embodies the Self. Jung said, “The symbols of the self arise in the depths of the body and they express its materiality every bit as much as the structure of the perceiving consciousness. The symbol is thus a living body, corpus et anima.” (Cw 9i) Any distinction between mind and body is an artificial dichotomy.
The Great Rite, also called the Hieros Gamos, dates to Inanna of ancient Sumeria, around 2600 BCE, if not before -- gods and goddesses, kings of the land and queens of sovereignty incarnate on the earth. The hieros gamos, or sacred marriage, is one of the earliest recorded public ceremonies in written history. The Sumerian rites were deemed essential for the fertility of the land. Symbols arising from the changeable coniunctio reflect the natural process of life/death/rebirth arising from the fixed constellations.of the patriarchal archetypes. The feminine gives birth to the Self before she can birth the new man. Hierosgamos is the symbol of the absolute that reigns over the ego.
The myth of the Holy Grail had to do with the Fisher King whose impotence reflected the drought, the wasteland. Sexual union is a microcosm of the god and goddess, the two fundamental aspects of the cosmos whose union completes the whole. Mystically, the sexual union of male and female is the source of both immortality and personal individuation and redemption.
No one who sets forth on the grail quest remains unchanged. The incarnatio is a spontaneous act of creation in the matter of the universe as the result of the today constellated act of the conuinctio. Synchronicity is the conjunction of individual and cosmos in a way that accelerates and deepens life in an unforeseen way that celebrates Life. The only place of power and change is the Present.
Jung's Model
By the time he was nineteen, Jung was convinced that his existence was somehow deeply entwined with his ancestors and the spiritual mysteries. Jung challenges us to unite our cultured side with the primeval ancestors, what he called “the two million-year-old man within” at the clan and tribal level of human relationships. Such a person would have a relationship with the animal ancestor foundation of the psyche like an indigenous person speaks of spirit animals. We would not exist without the strength and hard work of our ancestors. We have an overall cellular memory of past ancestors that is local and nonlocal, personal and universal.
Jung does not mean to imply by this that experience as such is inherited, but rather that the brain itself has been shaped and influenced by the remote experiences of mankind. But,
'Although our inheritance consists in physiological paths, it was nevertheless mental processes in our ancestors that traced these paths. If they came to consciousness again in the individual, they can do so only in the form of other mental processes; and although these processes can become conscious only through individual experience and consequently appear as individual acquisitions, they are nevertheless pre-existent traces which are merely "filled out" by the individual experience. Probably every "impressive" experience is just such a break-through into an old, previously unconscious riverbed.’
Our genealogical ancestors link us to Source and to our Opus, the Great Work of reconnection with spirit and soul, through nearly infinite alchemical marriages and their offspring. Whatever we lack in our personal experience can surely be found there in the collective root.
"Am I a combination of the lives of these ancestors and do I embody these lives again? Have I lived before in the past as a specific personality, and did I progress so far in that life that I am now able to seek a solution? I do not know." (Jung, MDR).
Dr. Jung concludes the “Liber Secundus” portion of The Red Book with the following words:
“An opus is needed, that one can squander decades on, and do it out of necessity I must catch up with a piece of the Middle Ages-within myself. We have only finished the Middle Ages of others. I must begin early, in that period when the hermits died out. Asceticism, inquisition, torture are close at hand and impose themselves. The barbarian requires barbaric means of education. My I, you are a barbarian. I want to live with you, therefore I will carry you through an utterly medieval Hell, until you are capable of making living with you bearable. You should be the vessel and womb of life, therefore I shall purify you. The touchstone is being alone with oneself. This is the way” (The Red Book, Page 330).
Jung believed that vestigial remnants, "archetypal" experiences of evolutionary ancestors were embedded in the unconscious that affected how we behave and think in the present. Our royal ancestors are our inner Court of last resort. We have spiritual DNA, as well as physical, and our lot in life is to answer the questions posed by the people who came before us.
Balancing inner and outer realities serves to regulate both collective unconscious and collective conscious forces (and implicitly, moral opposites of good and evil residing in the psyche and expressed in the sentiments and acts of external reality).
"At Bollingen I am in the midst of my true life, I am most deeply myself.
Here I am, as it were, the "age-old son of the mother." That is how alchemy puts it, very wisely, for the "old man" the "ancient," whom I had already experienced as a child, is personality No. 2, who has always been and always will be. He exists outside time and is the son of the maternal unconscious. In my fantasies he took the form of Philemon, and he comes to life again at Bollingen. At times I feel as if I am spread out over the landscape and inside things, and am myself living in every tree, in the plashing of the waves, in the clouds and the animals that come and go, in the procession of the seasons."
~Carl Jung, Memories Dreams and Reflections.
Stained glass window depicting the Holy Grail in the Church of the Holy Grail at Tréhorenteuc, in Brittany, France
Shortly before this experience I had written down a fantasy of my soul having flown away from me. This was a significant event: the soul, the anima, establishes the relationship to the unconscious. In a certain sense this is also a relationship to the collectivity of the certain sense this is also a relationship to the collectivity of the dead; for the unconscious corresponds to the mythic land of the dead, the land of the ancestors. If, therefore, one has a fantasy of the soul vanishing, this means that it has withdrawn into the unconscious or into the land of the dead. There it produces a mysterious animation and gives visible form to the ancestral traces, the collective contents. Like a medium, it gives the dead a chance to manifest themselves. Therefore, soon after the disappearance of my soul the "dead" appeared to me, and the result was the Septem Sermones. This is an example of what is called "loss of soul"--a phenomenon encountered quite frequently among primitives. From that time on, the dead have become ever more distinct for me as the voices of the Unanswered, Unresolved, and Unredeemed; for since the questions and demands which my destiny required me to answer did not come to me from outside. --Jung, MDR
The interesting thing, as Jung indicated is that the more we probe our individual spiritual depths, the wider and deeper becomes our circle of connection and identification. We find our common humanity and our relationship to each other. Thus, as more of us experience a shift in our consciousness from self to whole, we recognize that we are not isolated units, identifying only with our family, group or our nation. We recognize we are each a living cell within the greater planetary and cosmic whole. We are aware of what the anthropologist, Jean Houston, calls our "leaky margins"--that is, the continual exchange, the regular in-breathing and out-breathing between our internal and external environments.
"Somewhere there was once a Flower, a Stone, a Crystal, a Queen, a King,
a Lover and his Beloved, and this was long ago, on an Island somewhere
in the Ocean 5000 years ago. Such is Love, the Mystic Flower of the Soul.
This is the Center, the Self." --C.G. Jung
a Lover and his Beloved, and this was long ago, on an Island somewhere
in the Ocean 5000 years ago. Such is Love, the Mystic Flower of the Soul.
This is the Center, the Self." --C.G. Jung
“The subconscious has a symbolic language that is truly a universal language, for it speaks with the vocabulary of the great vital constants, sexual instinct, feeling of death, physical notion of the enigma of space—these vital constants are universally echoed in every human. ...the only pre-requisite is a receptive and intuitive human being.” -- Salvador Dali
The theory of heredity, proving that the child has the ancestral heritage biologically in himself, and to a large extent actually “is” this heritage, also has a psychological justification. Jung therefore defines the transpersonal - or the archetypes and instincts of the collective unconscious - as “the deposit of ancestral experience.” Hence the child, whose life as a prepersonal entity is largely determined by the collective unconscious,
actually is the living carrier of this ancestral experience."
--Erich Neuman, Origins & History of Consciousness)
The theory of heredity, proving that the child has the ancestral heritage biologically in himself, and to a large extent actually “is” this heritage, also has a psychological justification. Jung therefore defines the transpersonal - or the archetypes and instincts of the collective unconscious - as “the deposit of ancestral experience.” Hence the child, whose life as a prepersonal entity is largely determined by the collective unconscious,
actually is the living carrier of this ancestral experience."
--Erich Neuman, Origins & History of Consciousness)
THE LIVING TREE
BRANCHING DESCENT
Nothing Lives As Long As Deep Memory
BRANCHING DESCENT
Nothing Lives As Long As Deep Memory
The Tree Where Man Was Born
Parental complex:
A group of emotionally charged images and ideas associated with the parents.
Jung believed that the numinosity surrounding the personal parents, apparent in their more or less magical influence, was to a large extent due to an archetypal image of the primordial parents resident in every psyche.
The importance that modern psychology attaches to the “parental complex” is a direct continuation of primitive man’s experience of the dangerous power of the ancestral spirits. Even the error of judgment which leads him unthinkingly to assume that the spirits are realities of the external world is carried on in our assumption (which is only partially correct) that the real parents are responsible for the parental complex. In the old trauma theory of Freudian psychoanalysis, and in other quarters as well, this assumption even passed for a scientific explanation. (It was in order to avoid this confusion that I advocated the term “parental imago.”)["The Function of the Unconscious," CW 7, par. 293.]
The imago of the parents is composed of both the image created in the individual psyche from the experience of the personal parents and collective elements already present.
The image is unconsciously projected, and when the parents die, the projected image goes on working as though it were a spirit existing on its own. The primitive then speaks of parental spirits who return by night (revenants), while the modern man calls it a father or mother complex.[Ibid., par. 294.]
So long as a positive or negative resemblance to the parents is the deciding factor in a love choice, the release from the parental imago, and hence from childhood, is not complete.["Mind and Earth," CW 10, par. 74].
A group of emotionally charged images and ideas associated with the parents.
Jung believed that the numinosity surrounding the personal parents, apparent in their more or less magical influence, was to a large extent due to an archetypal image of the primordial parents resident in every psyche.
The importance that modern psychology attaches to the “parental complex” is a direct continuation of primitive man’s experience of the dangerous power of the ancestral spirits. Even the error of judgment which leads him unthinkingly to assume that the spirits are realities of the external world is carried on in our assumption (which is only partially correct) that the real parents are responsible for the parental complex. In the old trauma theory of Freudian psychoanalysis, and in other quarters as well, this assumption even passed for a scientific explanation. (It was in order to avoid this confusion that I advocated the term “parental imago.”)["The Function of the Unconscious," CW 7, par. 293.]
The imago of the parents is composed of both the image created in the individual psyche from the experience of the personal parents and collective elements already present.
The image is unconsciously projected, and when the parents die, the projected image goes on working as though it were a spirit existing on its own. The primitive then speaks of parental spirits who return by night (revenants), while the modern man calls it a father or mother complex.[Ibid., par. 294.]
So long as a positive or negative resemblance to the parents is the deciding factor in a love choice, the release from the parental imago, and hence from childhood, is not complete.["Mind and Earth," CW 10, par. 74].
Hermes-Souls-on-the-Banks-of-the-Acheron-Hiremy-Hirschl-1898
The Grail Table
Illustration of 'The Round Table and the Holy Grail',
from a manuscript of 'Lancelot-Grail' written by Michel Gantelet, completed in 1470
It reappears in Medieval to late Renaissance alchemy and Freemasonry, and lies at the core of the Medieval stories about the loss and recovery of that mysterious object of adoration and restoration—Sangreal, the Holy Grail.
Illustration of 'The Round Table and the Holy Grail',
from a manuscript of 'Lancelot-Grail' written by Michel Gantelet, completed in 1470
It reappears in Medieval to late Renaissance alchemy and Freemasonry, and lies at the core of the Medieval stories about the loss and recovery of that mysterious object of adoration and restoration—Sangreal, the Holy Grail.
"My soul - are you there? I have returned, I am here again. I have shaken the dust of all the lands from my feet, and I have come to you, I am with you. After long years of long wandering, I have come to you again. Should I tell you everything I have seen, experienced, and drunk in? Or do you not want to hear about all the noise of life and the world? But one thing you must know: the one thing I have learned is that one must live this life. This life is the way, the long sought-after way to the unfathomable, which we call divine." --C.G. Jung
The knowledge of death came to me that night, from the dying that engulfs the world. I saw how we live toward death, how the swaying golden wheat sinks together under the scythe of the reaper, like a smooth wave on the sea-beach.
He who abides in common life becomes aware of death with fear. Thus the fear of death drives him toward singleness. He does not live there, but he becomes aware of life and is happy; since in singleness he is one who becomes, and has overcome death. He overcomes death through overcoming common life. He does not live his individual being, since he is not what he is, but what he becomes.
One who becomes grows aware of life, whereas one who simply exists never will, since he is in the midst of life. He needs the heights and singleness to become aware of life. But in life he becomes aware of death. And it is good that you become aware of collective death, since then you know why your singleness and your heights are good.
Your heights are like the moon that luminously wanders alone and through the night looks eternally clear. Sometimes it covers itself and then you are totally in the darkness of the earth, but time and again it fills itself out with light.
The death of the earth is foreign to it. Motionless and clear, it sees the life of the earth from afar, without enveloping haze and streaming oceans. Its unchanging form has been solid from eternity. It is the solitary clear light of the night, the individual being, and the near fragment of eternity.
From there you look out, cold, motionless, and radiating. With otherworldly silvery light and green twilights, you pour out into the distant horror. You see it but your gaze is clear and cold. Your hands are red from living blood, but the moonlight of your gaze is motionless.
It is the life blood of your brother, yes, it is your own blood, but your gaze remains luminous and embraces the entire horror and the earth's round. Your gaze rests on silvery seas, on snowy peaks, on blue valleys, and you do not hear the groaning and howling of the human animal.
The moon is dead. Your soul went to the moon, to the preserver of souls. Thus the soul moved toward death. I went into the inner death and saw that outer dying is better than inner death. And I decided to die outside and to live within. For that reason I turned away and sought the place of the inner life. ~Carl Jung; Red Book.
The knowledge of death came to me that night, from the dying that engulfs the world. I saw how we live toward death, how the swaying golden wheat sinks together under the scythe of the reaper, like a smooth wave on the sea-beach.
He who abides in common life becomes aware of death with fear. Thus the fear of death drives him toward singleness. He does not live there, but he becomes aware of life and is happy; since in singleness he is one who becomes, and has overcome death. He overcomes death through overcoming common life. He does not live his individual being, since he is not what he is, but what he becomes.
One who becomes grows aware of life, whereas one who simply exists never will, since he is in the midst of life. He needs the heights and singleness to become aware of life. But in life he becomes aware of death. And it is good that you become aware of collective death, since then you know why your singleness and your heights are good.
Your heights are like the moon that luminously wanders alone and through the night looks eternally clear. Sometimes it covers itself and then you are totally in the darkness of the earth, but time and again it fills itself out with light.
The death of the earth is foreign to it. Motionless and clear, it sees the life of the earth from afar, without enveloping haze and streaming oceans. Its unchanging form has been solid from eternity. It is the solitary clear light of the night, the individual being, and the near fragment of eternity.
From there you look out, cold, motionless, and radiating. With otherworldly silvery light and green twilights, you pour out into the distant horror. You see it but your gaze is clear and cold. Your hands are red from living blood, but the moonlight of your gaze is motionless.
It is the life blood of your brother, yes, it is your own blood, but your gaze remains luminous and embraces the entire horror and the earth's round. Your gaze rests on silvery seas, on snowy peaks, on blue valleys, and you do not hear the groaning and howling of the human animal.
The moon is dead. Your soul went to the moon, to the preserver of souls. Thus the soul moved toward death. I went into the inner death and saw that outer dying is better than inner death. And I decided to die outside and to live within. For that reason I turned away and sought the place of the inner life. ~Carl Jung; Red Book.
The Holy Guardian Angel is the personification of the immortal bloodline collective consciousness, a genetically-carried and accessible connection back through the mists of time that constitutes genius: One Blood, One Life, One Love
Preface
"In the deepest sense, we all dream not of ourselves,
but out of what lies between us and the other." --C.G. Jung
"The realm of the psyche is immeasurably great and filled with living reality.
At its brink lies the secret of Matter and Spirit." ~Carl Jung
but out of what lies between us and the other." --C.G. Jung
"The realm of the psyche is immeasurably great and filled with living reality.
At its brink lies the secret of Matter and Spirit." ~Carl Jung
"But "the heart glows," and a secret unrest gnaws at the roots of our being."
--Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
illus. Johann Daniel Mylius’ Rosarium Philosophorum, image #2
--Jung, Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious
illus. Johann Daniel Mylius’ Rosarium Philosophorum, image #2
Genealogy Writes You into the Story of History
"To let each impression and each embryo of a feeling come to completion, entirely in itself, in the dark, in the unsayable, the unconscious, beyond the reach of one's own understanding, and with deep humility and patience to wait for the hour when a new clarity is born: this alone is what it means to live as an artist: in understanding as in creating."
--Rainer Maria Rilke
"Through scientific understanding, our world has become dehumanized. Man feels himself isolated in the cosmos. He is no longer involved in nature and has lost his emotional participation in natural events, which hitherto had a symbolic meaning for him. Thunder is no longer the voice of a god, nor is lightning his avenging missile. No river contains a spirit, no tree makes a mans's life, no snake is the embodiment of wisdom and no mountain still harbors a great demon. Neither do things speak to him nor can he speak to things, like stones, springs, plants and animals. His immediate communication with nature is gone forever, and the emotional energy it generated has sunk into unconscious."
~Carl Jung, Collected Works 18, Paragraph 585
--Rainer Maria Rilke
"Through scientific understanding, our world has become dehumanized. Man feels himself isolated in the cosmos. He is no longer involved in nature and has lost his emotional participation in natural events, which hitherto had a symbolic meaning for him. Thunder is no longer the voice of a god, nor is lightning his avenging missile. No river contains a spirit, no tree makes a mans's life, no snake is the embodiment of wisdom and no mountain still harbors a great demon. Neither do things speak to him nor can he speak to things, like stones, springs, plants and animals. His immediate communication with nature is gone forever, and the emotional energy it generated has sunk into unconscious."
~Carl Jung, Collected Works 18, Paragraph 585
You Get the Genealogy You Deserve
Life and consciousness are the ultimate emergent phenomena, but we still don't know their real origin, which remains veiled in Mystery. We are Cosmic psychophysical beings with a core reaching down into the microcosm of quantum dynamics and the still center of Zero-Point.
Beyond hormonal and limbic impulses and narratives of the biological imperative of procreation -- why or why not and when or with whom to create -- consciousness informs the inception of new life. Our reasons for giving birth are often unconscious. Each of us was conceived and each of us continues to conceive everyday. Conscious conception is the ritual of thought, prayer, energy, sex, and work around the event birth. Just as we can benefit from processing work around our own births, we can learn from the stories of our progenitors.
In the split second moment of conception, the two streams of genetic information from your parents, handed on from generation to generation over literally hundreds of millennia, combined in one single cell embodying your unique potential. It ensured that you became an unequaled living record of the lives and ways of your ancestors.
All of your ancient ancestors had one thing in common -- they were survivors who overcame daunting obstacles and hardships in their natural world. Your DNA is a legacy passed down to you from thousands of generations of fittest individuals. You have the best of their collective genes, all meticulously spelled out within the DNA of your genome.
Your individual DNA fingerprint depends on how the chromosomes line up at conception. Some traits from both parents’ potentials will be there, while others get excluded. So, some siblings can be redheads, others not; some can have family medical problems, others not, some may be Rh neg., others not. Extensive historical knowledge of cultural practices and human migratory patterns helps us piece each story together. We may find things we never imagined and find no evidence for traits known within our lineage.
Each individual is very much like the fractal units of every individual human being, yet is distinctly different in many dimensions--genetically, in a biological dimension. But each individual also resides in many dimensional worlds--some in academic worlds, some in spiritual worlds, some in political worlds, some in worlds of despair and some in worlds of optimism. Some individuals share like worlds and are polarized by some worlds.
A child and parents are fractal levels of a family tree and at the same time units of a larger community fractal, and may be a fractal unit of a religious group or political affiliation within that set. This same child, parents, the community are all fractals of county, state, national fractals and may be fractal units of sets within any of these larger fractals--organizations, spiritual affiliations, clubs, special interest groups, schools, workplaces, etc.
In genealogy the term direct line refers to a relationship of one person to another in a direct line. A direct-line ancestor is someone from whom you descend in a direct line, parent to child, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. Direct-line research refers to genealogy research focused on one's direct-line ancestors. Blood relations refer to the underground stream, the Red River of Memories that flows within us. The Blood is real and it's fresh; it flows in your veins.
By contrast, collateral line is a term used to describe family relationships not in the direct line of descent such as siblings, spouses and children of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Researching direct-line ancestry is a common focus of genealogists and family history researchers. Proving a direct line of descent is generally required for membership in heritage societies. A mere seven generations back we have over 200 people in just our immediate, or father-mother, grandfather-grandmother line.
We are not just talking about the way you look, but about your ancestral memories, the complete set of instincts and response patterns that were responsible for the survival of those two genetic streams in the first place. The instincts and response patterns that you were actually born with are what Jung called the Collective Unconscious. Science calls it epigenetics. Genealogy functions as a therapeutic portal, much like dreams or symptoms allow us to enter the imaginal dimension.
We are born with both a psychological and a biological heritage, as determinants of behavior and experience. The collective unconscious, which results from experiences that are common to all people, also includes material from our prehuman and animal ancestry. It is the source of our most powerful ideas and experiences.
Jung described individual and collective symbols. Symbols veil what remains hidden to us. He called individual symbols "natural" symbols -- spontaneous productions of the individual psyche, rather than images or designs created deliberately. Personal symbols are found in dreams and fantasies. But, important collective symbols appear which are often religious images such as the cross, the six-pointed Star of David, the Grail, and the Buddhist wheel of life.
Jung says, "Just as the human body represents a whole museum of organs, each with a long evolutionary period behind it, so we should expect to find that the mind is organized in a similar way. It can no more be a product without history than is the body in which it exists" (1964, p. 67).
Quo Vadis?
Fundamentally, genealogy is a search for Self -- universal spirit. Your personal family tree merges with the collective in The World Tree. The goal is creating a single family tree for the world. The World Wide Web has made such collaboration possible, creating a single world family tree.
In mythology the World Tree is the axis between heaven and earth. Many people believed that gods and their messengers climbed up and down the tree to get from one realm to the other. Sometimes these trees were said to bear fruit that was powerful for healing or knowledge. Among those who study myths and legends, this type of tree is known as a “World Tree” or a “Cosmic Tree.”
The world tree is a universal symbol. It’s primary meaning is creation and consciousness (the divine will of creation). The growing of the the tree is the symbol of the creation of the Universe and its Evolution -- a Tree of Life. This was the symbol of the Druids (meaning “tree”). They believed that in the branches of the tree you could discern the secrets of the universe.
Some are armchair genealogists, while others hit the genealogy trail, making their life a perpetual pilgrimage and search by visiting family domiciles and sacred sites. Many search for relics or novel solutions to riddles they pose to themselves. It is a way of connecting the psychological dots into a seemingly coherent story, one that keeps the narrative moving forward while it looks back.
Some write novels that filter information and scenes through the consciousness of their characters. There are battles and leaders, matriarchs, partriarchs and malefactors. Others create esoteric organizations, usually with themselves set up as authority figures. They hook those who are susceptible to the promise of Mystery. Most such groups devolve into banal cults of personality, which all seem to share the same squabbles and organizational problems.
Some are convinced only they know the real truth of the matter. But you cannot really tell anyone anything, due to the brain's hardwiring. Research shows that in the public realm, a lack of information isn't the real problem. The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are. We rationalize what our emotions already want to believe. Do facts matter? The answer, basically, is no. When people are misinformed, giving them facts to correct those errors only makes them cling to their beliefs more tenaciously.
Further, most exposés of the knowledge of the underground stream are materialistic interpretations of it. They claim to empower you while lining their pockets. Some of this may be compensatory to lack of power in other areas of life. Claims to shift world vision seem more of a self-serving perception than a reality -- more memes than genes.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when we filter our perceptions to screen out (deny) threatening information we cannot deal with. It is magical thinking to take a symbol to be its referent or an analogy to represent an identity. Magical thinking comes from an instinctual search and recognition of patterns, and regards symbols not as representations but as handles attached firmly to real-life objects and outcomes. Out of context, symbols are ineffectual. Evocative “power” is one of the attractive aspects of the meme concept which is also a symbol and signifiers of meaning that are context dependent.
There are three types of symbols: 1) Symbols that reflect intrinsic mental states; 2) Symbols that stand in for extrinsic (actual or objective) conditions or objects, and 3) Symbols that stand in relation to cultural artifacts, or constructs, or memes. Here the symbol and the object it represents are one and the same. Any distinction between symbol and symbolized is spurious. The emotional projection of symbols, or “magical thinking,” happens in psychosis, in cultures, and subcultures. Disgust is an emotion heavily caught up in symbolic and magical thinking. Yet, symbols can have biophysical and material effects. We trick ourselves into mobilization.
Magical thinking helps us feel more secure in an unpredictable world. By manipulating symbols, we imagine being able to manipulate the reality that a symbol represents, but it makes us vulnerable to manipulation, too. The psychology of superstition “works” better in a virtuality. Superstition provides the illusion of increased control. Symbols are captivating, indistinct, metaphoric and enigmatic portrayals of psychic reality. The content, i.e. the meaning of symbols, is far from obvious; instead, it is expressed in unique and individual terms while at the same time partaking of universal imagery. Our society is having to rethink such fundamental notions as money, security, growth and many other bases of our current worldview.
Symbols can be recognized as aspects of those images that control, order and give meaning to our lives. The source of symbols can be traced to the archetypes themselves which by way of symbols find more full expression. Symbols are thus one type of what Jung called “archetypal images,” that is, the representation in consciousness of an underlying archetype. The anamorphic is not the fractal, because the fractal is repeating a pattern.
When the dominant vision that holds a period of culture together cracks, consciousness regresses into earlier containers, seeking sources for survival which also offer sources of revival. Self-empowerment can be entangled with self-delusion. We can no longer distinguish clearly between neurosis of self and neurosis of world, psychopathology of self and psychopathology of world. Species-wide trauma is playing out on the world stage. We compulsively recreate individual and collective trauma, perhaps as a way to awaken ourselves. Such madness is its own ritual and revelation. (Miller, Holographic Archetypes)
Perhaps the biggest value of questionable literature is that people now search elsewhere for their own half-remembered origins.
Many who claim to guard the history actually prey on their vulnerable kinsmen. So we must look at the effects of such behavior rather than relying on proclamations. There have been many blatant hoaxes. It begs the question, "Where is this leading?". In many cases, the answer is nowhere. Reinterpreting sacred sites with idiosyncratic tropes doesn't make it so. Nor does finding out what the Templars or Cathars were doing substitute for one's own individuation and may work against it, fitting a modern person into an obsolete mold.
These overwrought works mostly regurgitate the symbolic understanding developed more completely in depth psychologies, applying skewed versions to the selected symbols, often from New Age thought, another faddish collective movement which mostly rehashes theosophical notions. There isn't much "new" about it. If such critique sounds like tough love it is because it comes from close observation of the effects of such subcultures. Schisms and tragedy have been the result, not illumination unless you count disillusionment as such.
Following pilgrimage routes, such as "the Camino" may be stimulating but will likely never be illuminating. It doesn't substitute for the work of self-discovery in the cave of the heart. Overlaying such sites with new age gloss doesn't improve the clarity of the situation and may just add irrelevant data. Our attunement to the world is especially influenced by culture and society, whether we call it human potential or human illusion.
In some cases, pilgrimage is another form of what is termed the geographic escape. There are many writers eager to host such trips for their own benefit. It has become a thriving cottage industry whether the goal is ancient aliens or earth chakras. That doesn't mean there is no value in such travel or mystery centers, but it doesn't supersede the inner work and may lead to flooding and inflation. Sentience is not the same as sentimentality. But people will do what they are going to do. All things seek their own level.
Ultimately, individuation is a solitary pursuit, a mode of experience that opens the door to the otherwise hidden world. To Edward Edinger (1972), individuation means not having to continually repeat the cycle, but to develop conscious dialogues between I and Self. Without a displaced religious obsession there is little reason to pursue the lies, theories or directives of others over one's own creative genius. Ultimately, the real issue with the bloodline has always been about the concept of "sovereignty".
It isn't merely our royal genealogy that makes us who we are. After all, we share most of it with millions of people. Still, there is no better way of actively working within your ancestral matrix than delineating and curating your own lines. What is unique is our personal reaction to such knowledge and how our relationship with it evolves as we assimilate and integrate that expanded awareness -- the Mystery of the whole matter.
Genealogy is the root of the hieros gamos or symbolic royal marriage. The rich variety of psycho-physical hierosgamic themes are illustrated in many alchemical works, illustrating simultaneous humanity and divinity. The hierosgamos union of opposites between human and divine is mediated by Mercurius, the Hermetic method, or hermeneutics. It requires interpretation of experiential material. For example, originally, the dove was a symbolic attribute of ancient female divinities of Mesopotamia.
We need To Know genealogy much like we need to know physics and psychology to comprehend what matter is, as well as what makes us matter. We have thousands of ancestors whose lines are not preserved, making the small slice of royal descent largely archetypal as well as material. The part stands for the Whole - the cosmic process.
In a Gnostic exercise for inner growth the personal mind must be made empty or void of all preconceptions, but at the same time become keenly attentive, transformed into pure sense, or capacity for greater sensations. The soul must be in a searching frame of mind, searching not inquiring, that is to say synthetic not analytic. Inquiry suggests penetrating into a thing with the personal mind; while searching denotes embracing and seizing ideas, "eating" or "digesting" or "absorbing" them, so to say; getting all round them and making them one’s own, surrounding them--it is no longer a question of separated subject and object as with the personal and analyzing mind.
The "vision" of the soul is, literally, the "eye" of the soul. The mind must be emptied of every
object, so that it may receive the fullness. It becomes the "pure eye," the æon, all-eye; not,
however, to perceive anything other than itself, but to understand the nature of understanding -- namely, that it transcends all distinctions of subject and object. Silence nurtures the divine -- The Great Silence and the Holy Fire. The One Body of all thing is the
Mother of souls, the Inbreather of life -- cosmic "vitalizing," or "quickening," or "ensouling".
Union of Opposites
The body is the alchemical laboratory that generates the subtle body, astral vehicle, and the Body of Light or Diamond Body as the highest vehicle. Consciousness is drawn up with sublimation. The elixir of life transforms body and consciousness.
The tensional relationship of the opposites, (life and death, good and evil, one and many), remains the great operational mechanism of manifest life and of transformation. This relationship exists within the context of a unitary world-model wherein matter and spirit, King and Queen, appear as aspects of a psychoid (psychophysical) realm of reality.
In alchemy the resurrection stands not for transcendence of the body, but its glorification and perfection. Alchemy is the art of seeing what is invisible to others, hearing what others are deaf to, and feeling what others are dead to. Sophia, the Divine Feminine, personifies that World Soul, of inherent primordial Wisdom.
We are affected not only by things that happen to us personally, but also by things that have happened in our lineage, to our parents, grandparents and ancestors. Epigenetics shows that the traumas that happened within our culture affect us. Ironically, this is more so when they have been forgotten, relegated to the unconscious realm, where they can cause physical symptoms, phobias, depression, nightmares and other unexplained things.
Another genealogical form of opposites is twins or siblings. They are there from the beginning, as Enki and Enlil, as Cain and Abel. Such myths arose in the age of Gemini, the Celestial Twins.
They were destined to become the most prolific progenitors of the world. Their offspring divided in two. Those that went east to cross the Bering Strait, to become the most prominent inhabitants of the New World as far as Tierra del Fuego, were the descendants of one brother, while the numerous descendants of the other brother that remained created a shock-wave in the Old World, felt as far as West Africa, the Atlantic and India.
Like in a fantasy tale, both people founded incredible civilizations, each highlights of human talent and splendor. Tales of the Two Brothers persisted in myth and legend, representing the dichotomy of all polarities and their underlying transcendental unity. This is a story of the reunion of the archetypal brothers.
Legends of the Two Brothers arose in the Age of Gemini (6000 BC - 4000 BC) and come down in the story of Cain and Able, which was historically preceded by allegorical stories of Enki and Enlil. Each Age has its gods. The Age of Gemini corresponded to the flourishing period of early Hinduism.
It was under this sign that Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu was manifested by the birth of the two pair of brothers: Rama and Lakshmana on the one hand, Satrughna and Bharata on the other. Rama Himself had twin sons: Lav and Kush.
Lav went to Russia; from this we get the name of Slav. The other son, Kush went to China, hence we get the name Kushan. These two divine principles were also incarnated as Buddha and Mahavira, then as Adi Shankaracharya and Gnyaneshwara. In other Avatars they were Hassan and Hussein, the sons of Fatima and Hazrat Ali.
The Quest
Joseph Campbell asks, "What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There is nothing you can do that's more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way you will find, live, become a realization of your own personal myth."
The Quest for wholeness is the search for meaning, orientation, renewal, and transformation. By making the trauma in our lineage and in our culture more conscious, we can loosen its hold. This helps us to restore a sense of our own self and our own freedom of choice, and allows what is not ours to rest in peace. Thus, genealogy is a kind of healing ritual, which retrieves the lost and disowned parts of the soul, what we've buried in the earth and forgotten.
Thus your soul is your own self in the spiritual world. As the abode of the spirits, however, the spiritual world is also an outer world. Just as you are also not alone in the visible world, but are surrounded by objects that belong to you and obey only you, you also have thoughts that belong to you and obey only you. But just as you are surrounded in the visible world by things and beings that neither belong to you nor obey you, you are also surrounded in the spiritual world by thoughts and beings of thought that neither obey you nor belong to you.
Just as you engender or bear your physical children, and just as they grow up and separate themselves from you to live their own fate, you also produce or give birth to beings of thought which separate themselves from you and live their own lives.
Just as we leave our children when we grow old and give our body back to the earth, I separate myself from my God, the sun, and sink into the emptiness of matter and obliterate the image of my child in me. This happens in that I accept the nature of matter and allow the force of my form to flow into emptiness. Just as I gave birth anew to the sick God through my engendering force, I henceforth animate the emptiness of matter from which the formation of evil grows.
Nature is playful and terrible. Some see the playful side and dally with it and let it sparkle. Others see the horror and cover their heads and are more dead than alive. The way does not lead between both, but embraces both. It is both cheerful play and cold horror. (Jung, Red Book)
Genealogy is like organic gardening. We till the soil until things break through the surface where we tend and fertilize them with creative expression and contemplation. Living branches of our Tree become knotted together generating many leaves. Entwined with roses and thorns they represent the complexities of life, including the union of opposites. At the microcosmic level they may represent quantum entanglement. All macroscopic parts of the world are entangled quantum mechanically. Entanglement is a property of nonlocal quantum information exchange.
Jung pointed out that procreative power is only a special instance of the ‘procreative nature of the Whole', as illustrated in alchemical works such as the Rosarium Philosophorum, which depicts a symbolic hieros gamos, combining the powers of the upper and lower worlds, leading out the gold. We acquire an experiential understanding of the ontological wholeness of the cosmos and know we are in no way separate from that. Such non-duality that closes the gap between spirit and body was the magnificent obsession of the alchemists as it is of the mystics.
Eliade wrote, "The Sun and the Moon must be made one. . .above all, prajna, wisdom, must be joined with upaya, the means of attaining it. . .all this amounts to saying we are dealing with the coincidentia oppositorum achieved on every level of Life and Consciousness."
Chaos becomes cosmos; the profane becomes sacred; potential is actualized. Alchemical tracts bookend the entire alchemical process between an initial and final image. Opening and closing illustrations frame the psycho-physical transformation. Like dreams and moods, the fruits of personal insight and practical guidance affect us physiologically, emotionally, psychologically, and/or spiritually, and become part of our being.
Death, afterlife beliefs, mediumship, and spirit possession are contentious subjects. Belief is a open-ended system. Anomalous experiences can arise as a function of relational care or concern. In a genealogical approach, we have no burden to prove the source of psi phenomena or synchronicities.
A Jungian approach is more concerned with their meaning in the life of the person who reports the phenomena. You cannot argue with anyone's belief or experience. It can be approached literally, metaphorically, or symbolically. Metaphors are paradoxical. Like Jung we take a phenomenological approach, looking backwards and forward at the same time. Jung's theory of possession by autonomous complexes differs from notions of possession within specific belief systems.
Social Anthropologist, Fiona Bowie writes: "Virtually all other cultures hold to the notion, based on the experience of individuals and groups, that the Self, if it exists at all, is permeable, and in constant contact and relationship with other selves at a psychic as well as a physical and emotional level. Communications may be unconscious or conscious, mediated by others or unmediated, wanted or unsought, but they exist nonetheless, and come in many different forms, with different results and effects. They involve communication between living humans and those who have died, between human and non-human beings, between visible and invisible entities.These entities may be projections of one or more minds, or have a non-human origin.The forces or entities with which people communicate may be regarded as angelic or demonic, helpful or dangerous, mischievous and playful or sad and lonely, and in need of help and guidance."
Ancestral impressions change us regardless of whether we make any logical waking connections or not. Even when we spot such connections, it can be limiting to assume that this was the sole ‘point’ of the discovery, and therefore drop further exploration or creative expression for an "Aha" moment. Carrying away golden coins, we may miss the priceless jewel fashioned or concealed within the chest itself.
Genealogy is an Art, a quest for the truth within. Harvesting the fruits of the Tree of Life mobilizes the soul for creative self-expression, self-discovery and self-healing. Much benefit and fulfillment comes simply by remembering, writing, tape-recording, sharing, painting, enacting or otherwise birthing them into the physical world. Understanding is always the experience of a gestalt. Creatively arranging the elements of a whole is precisely what genealogy does, anatomizing and analogizing.
Genealogy takes tremendous effort, like the Great Work. It affects the psyche with both historical and imaginal, known and unknown elements. It has its own magic, alchemy, and synchronicities. Psyche is Mystery, the very essence of humanity, and world. Jung comments, “In reality, there is nothing but a living body. That is the fact, and psyche is as much a living body as body is living psyche: it is just the same,” and “The psyche creates reality every day.”
Jungian genealogy is a broadly interdisciplinary approach, integrating research from neurosciences, genetics, depth psychology, anthropology, shamanism, and philosophy. We wish to consider the ways in which genetic, linguistic, historical, esoteric, and ethnographic data can be used to test theories.
We discuss theoretical and methodological concerns that are directly relevant to study, research and data interpretation. We have surveyed and are correlating historical sources and secondary sources: legends, folklore, astrological, genealogies, tales, chansons, oral histories, mystical writings, etc.
Even genetic genealogy requires interpretation -- hermeneutics, the study of theories and methods of the interpretation of systems of meaning, including interpretations of experience, or human behavior generally. It includes language and patterns of speech, social institutions, and ritual behaviors.
Genealogy is a search for the Beloved, and as such is a Way of the Heart -- a love of psyche.
“Love and the Soul (for that is what Psyche means) had sought and, after sore trials, found each other; and that union could never be broken.” This is the mythic theme. (Edith Hamilton, Mythology)
Genealogy is about Identity. Some attempt to garner social status through their genealogies when other avenues elude them. Some in search of their identity wind up finding their Shadow -- the archetypal adversary and trickster.
Each archetype has a shadow. The archetype of the shadow "coincides with the 'personal' unconscious, stranger/predator/evil intruder. When it is activated in a particularly strong and gripping way, inevitably interconnects the wider collective with the personal.
Archetypes do not create archetypes like themselves but like the shadows of archetypes like themselves. Archetypes evolve from the form in which they first present, but the underlying identity endures unchanged. Each have awakenings (revolution in culture) and crises (upheaval in public life).
Shadow, the dark archetype, is the root of defensive reaction formation (repression, denial, projection, and displacement). Consciousness of the Shadow benefits the group by enhancing social responsibility. We have to consciously suffer the perpetual tension of good and evil. We are shadow-possessed to the extent it dominates personality.
As each generation fulfills its midlife leadership role, it nurtures a child generation as its shadow that reacts against its elders' excesses. The four-fold cycle of generations propels the wheel of time. The social cycle begins in growth and moves through maturation into entropy, death, then rebirth. In a cyclic High people want to belong; in an Awakening, to defy; in an Unraveling, to separate; and in a crisis, to gather. Thus, in our lifetime we confront our deepest spiritual and worldly needs. (Strauss)
Underprotected children become over protective parents. Overprotected children become increasingly indulgent parents. But generations overlap making a complementary mix. There have been 24 post-medieval generations between the Arthurian generation and Millennial children. They are fourteenth in the American line.
The shadow is "the 'negative' side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, what is hidden by the conscious personality. It is the enemy within, with which we must make peace. Von Franz declared the Shadow is simply the whole unconscious, as it also contains unlived aspects of the the Self. It also contains the potential necessary for healing.
Some people who come to genealogical practice use it to build a persona that becomes their main way of connecting in the world, an excessive commitment to a rather false image. We identify with our persona. Jung called it a social mask or psychological armor. Recovery, the aim of individuation, "is not only achieved by work on the inside figures but also, as conditio sine qua non, by a readaptation in outer life," according to Jung. We live in the present moment.
The path of Individuation is the psychological equivalent of self-initiation. The goal of individuation is self-realization through increasing conscious relationship with the Self, archetype of wholeness. This Self includes both positive and negative traits of an individual which, in the beginning of analysis, are generally projected out, or attributed to, the environment.
As the ego continues its heroic journey through the labyrinthine psyche, it comes into confrontation with personifications of various archetypal and ancestral characters. During the maturing process, these characters emerge from the undifferentiated mass of unconscious contents. Though their presence in the psyche was implied from the beginning, they begin to unfold in unique patterns in the life of the individual.
Jung called the persona the "conformity archetype." As part of its positive function, it protects the ego and the psyche from the varied social forces. Thus one goal for individuation is for people to "develop a more realistic, flexible persona that helps them navigate in society but does not collide with nor hide their true self". Eventually, "in the best case, the persona is appropriate and tasteful, a true reflection of our inner individuality and our outward sense of self."
Jung also cautioned, "It would indeed be the height of absurdity if a man tried to have a conversation with his persona, which he recognized merely as a psychological means of relationship." So, the purpose of genealogy is not to over-identify but distinguish ourselves from our ancestral lines. It is especially true for an adopted fantasy-based social role which functions like an actor's mask. A mask is what individuals wear to hide their real self or when gaming.
Hobby genealogists may be taken unawares by such strong feelings, images and impulses. A person unfamiliar with psychic dynamics may not recognize that these are processes that Jung described and for which he developed now time-tested therapies to circumvent the pitfalls of alienation, dissociation, projection, and inflation. It's as if unconscious contents lack genealogical links to consciousness proper.
A Jungian genealogy permits a cultural study of the unconscious and a psychological study of culture that facilitates an understanding of the emotional impact culture provides, the unconscious elements of group creation, and the multiple individual perspectives in each historical moment. Formal structures help us understand the significance of mythical discourse. Joseph Campbell called myth a mirror of the ego.
Theories and ideas also have 'genealogies' that trace how they transform over time as they are inherited through culture. This is particularly true of faith-based ideas. They can be used instead of historical analysis or traditional explanations that are more magical than effective. We can follow the transformation of notions without drawing conclusions on their origin.
Even without knowing the cause we can describe the transformations themselves, their strengths, weaknesses, ideology and competing arguments, mechanisms of coercion and contents of knowledge. A genealogy is an open system of relationships, the effect of making a process intelligible and describes cultural elaboration.
“Cultural complexes structure emotional experience and operate in the personal and collective psyche in much the same way as individual complexes, although their content might be quite different. Like individual complexes, cultural complexes tend to be repetitive, autonomous, resist consciousness, and collect experience that confirms their historical point of view”. (Thomas Singer and Samuel L. Kimbles, The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society).
Using an archaeology and genealogy of process reveals multiple strategies, conditions of acceptability, and a field of possiblities, and possible dislocations. We can look at socio-historical data as an event that allows us to describe ways of experiencing that are
unique to particular sets of people -- a group's way of perceiving itself. Repetitive group experiences take root in the cultural unconscious of the group.
Genealogy is the thread that connects. Joseph Campbell notes,
Centuries of husbandry, decades of diligent culling, the work of numerous hearts and hands, have gone into the hackling, sorting, and spinning of this tightly twisted yarn. Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.
It stimulates the imaginal faculty and can induce strong identifications, projections, activated archetypes, ego inflations, and even possessions. Identification means being fused to an unconscious content. Projection is a kind of unconscious identification with the object. A complex is an entity within the unconscious that is a strange attractor for an emotion or way of being. Cultural complexes change over time.
The freed surplus of libido (psychological energy) causes inflation because an archetype has lost its container and becomes identified with the conscious mind. This activates various -isms, utopian fantasies, psychic infections, and a longing for collective ideals.
In possession, the archetype hijacks and overwhelms the conscious personality utterly, appearing as distinctly "other". Possession is a psychic rupture -- the phenomenology of the power of neurotic and psychotic symptoms. In the Middle Ages it meant a sort of obsessive suffering. Outside of the Jungian arena, the potential of the ancestral field has been derided or ignored as a coherent vector of spiritual and cultural experience. But it is a matrix within which we can deal with aggression, sadism, wealth, power, and position without becoming possessed by such shadow impulses, current or ancestral.
Life and consciousness are the ultimate emergent phenomena, but we still don't know their real origin, which remains veiled in Mystery. We are Cosmic psychophysical beings with a core reaching down into the microcosm of quantum dynamics and the still center of Zero-Point.
Beyond hormonal and limbic impulses and narratives of the biological imperative of procreation -- why or why not and when or with whom to create -- consciousness informs the inception of new life. Our reasons for giving birth are often unconscious. Each of us was conceived and each of us continues to conceive everyday. Conscious conception is the ritual of thought, prayer, energy, sex, and work around the event birth. Just as we can benefit from processing work around our own births, we can learn from the stories of our progenitors.
In the split second moment of conception, the two streams of genetic information from your parents, handed on from generation to generation over literally hundreds of millennia, combined in one single cell embodying your unique potential. It ensured that you became an unequaled living record of the lives and ways of your ancestors.
All of your ancient ancestors had one thing in common -- they were survivors who overcame daunting obstacles and hardships in their natural world. Your DNA is a legacy passed down to you from thousands of generations of fittest individuals. You have the best of their collective genes, all meticulously spelled out within the DNA of your genome.
Your individual DNA fingerprint depends on how the chromosomes line up at conception. Some traits from both parents’ potentials will be there, while others get excluded. So, some siblings can be redheads, others not; some can have family medical problems, others not, some may be Rh neg., others not. Extensive historical knowledge of cultural practices and human migratory patterns helps us piece each story together. We may find things we never imagined and find no evidence for traits known within our lineage.
Each individual is very much like the fractal units of every individual human being, yet is distinctly different in many dimensions--genetically, in a biological dimension. But each individual also resides in many dimensional worlds--some in academic worlds, some in spiritual worlds, some in political worlds, some in worlds of despair and some in worlds of optimism. Some individuals share like worlds and are polarized by some worlds.
A child and parents are fractal levels of a family tree and at the same time units of a larger community fractal, and may be a fractal unit of a religious group or political affiliation within that set. This same child, parents, the community are all fractals of county, state, national fractals and may be fractal units of sets within any of these larger fractals--organizations, spiritual affiliations, clubs, special interest groups, schools, workplaces, etc.
In genealogy the term direct line refers to a relationship of one person to another in a direct line. A direct-line ancestor is someone from whom you descend in a direct line, parent to child, grandparent, great-grandparent, etc. Direct-line research refers to genealogy research focused on one's direct-line ancestors. Blood relations refer to the underground stream, the Red River of Memories that flows within us. The Blood is real and it's fresh; it flows in your veins.
By contrast, collateral line is a term used to describe family relationships not in the direct line of descent such as siblings, spouses and children of siblings, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. Researching direct-line ancestry is a common focus of genealogists and family history researchers. Proving a direct line of descent is generally required for membership in heritage societies. A mere seven generations back we have over 200 people in just our immediate, or father-mother, grandfather-grandmother line.
We are not just talking about the way you look, but about your ancestral memories, the complete set of instincts and response patterns that were responsible for the survival of those two genetic streams in the first place. The instincts and response patterns that you were actually born with are what Jung called the Collective Unconscious. Science calls it epigenetics. Genealogy functions as a therapeutic portal, much like dreams or symptoms allow us to enter the imaginal dimension.
We are born with both a psychological and a biological heritage, as determinants of behavior and experience. The collective unconscious, which results from experiences that are common to all people, also includes material from our prehuman and animal ancestry. It is the source of our most powerful ideas and experiences.
Jung described individual and collective symbols. Symbols veil what remains hidden to us. He called individual symbols "natural" symbols -- spontaneous productions of the individual psyche, rather than images or designs created deliberately. Personal symbols are found in dreams and fantasies. But, important collective symbols appear which are often religious images such as the cross, the six-pointed Star of David, the Grail, and the Buddhist wheel of life.
Jung says, "Just as the human body represents a whole museum of organs, each with a long evolutionary period behind it, so we should expect to find that the mind is organized in a similar way. It can no more be a product without history than is the body in which it exists" (1964, p. 67).
Quo Vadis?
Fundamentally, genealogy is a search for Self -- universal spirit. Your personal family tree merges with the collective in The World Tree. The goal is creating a single family tree for the world. The World Wide Web has made such collaboration possible, creating a single world family tree.
In mythology the World Tree is the axis between heaven and earth. Many people believed that gods and their messengers climbed up and down the tree to get from one realm to the other. Sometimes these trees were said to bear fruit that was powerful for healing or knowledge. Among those who study myths and legends, this type of tree is known as a “World Tree” or a “Cosmic Tree.”
The world tree is a universal symbol. It’s primary meaning is creation and consciousness (the divine will of creation). The growing of the the tree is the symbol of the creation of the Universe and its Evolution -- a Tree of Life. This was the symbol of the Druids (meaning “tree”). They believed that in the branches of the tree you could discern the secrets of the universe.
Some are armchair genealogists, while others hit the genealogy trail, making their life a perpetual pilgrimage and search by visiting family domiciles and sacred sites. Many search for relics or novel solutions to riddles they pose to themselves. It is a way of connecting the psychological dots into a seemingly coherent story, one that keeps the narrative moving forward while it looks back.
Some write novels that filter information and scenes through the consciousness of their characters. There are battles and leaders, matriarchs, partriarchs and malefactors. Others create esoteric organizations, usually with themselves set up as authority figures. They hook those who are susceptible to the promise of Mystery. Most such groups devolve into banal cults of personality, which all seem to share the same squabbles and organizational problems.
Some are convinced only they know the real truth of the matter. But you cannot really tell anyone anything, due to the brain's hardwiring. Research shows that in the public realm, a lack of information isn't the real problem. The hurdle is how our minds work, no matter how smart we think we are. We rationalize what our emotions already want to believe. Do facts matter? The answer, basically, is no. When people are misinformed, giving them facts to correct those errors only makes them cling to their beliefs more tenaciously.
Further, most exposés of the knowledge of the underground stream are materialistic interpretations of it. They claim to empower you while lining their pockets. Some of this may be compensatory to lack of power in other areas of life. Claims to shift world vision seem more of a self-serving perception than a reality -- more memes than genes.
Cognitive dissonance occurs when we filter our perceptions to screen out (deny) threatening information we cannot deal with. It is magical thinking to take a symbol to be its referent or an analogy to represent an identity. Magical thinking comes from an instinctual search and recognition of patterns, and regards symbols not as representations but as handles attached firmly to real-life objects and outcomes. Out of context, symbols are ineffectual. Evocative “power” is one of the attractive aspects of the meme concept which is also a symbol and signifiers of meaning that are context dependent.
There are three types of symbols: 1) Symbols that reflect intrinsic mental states; 2) Symbols that stand in for extrinsic (actual or objective) conditions or objects, and 3) Symbols that stand in relation to cultural artifacts, or constructs, or memes. Here the symbol and the object it represents are one and the same. Any distinction between symbol and symbolized is spurious. The emotional projection of symbols, or “magical thinking,” happens in psychosis, in cultures, and subcultures. Disgust is an emotion heavily caught up in symbolic and magical thinking. Yet, symbols can have biophysical and material effects. We trick ourselves into mobilization.
Magical thinking helps us feel more secure in an unpredictable world. By manipulating symbols, we imagine being able to manipulate the reality that a symbol represents, but it makes us vulnerable to manipulation, too. The psychology of superstition “works” better in a virtuality. Superstition provides the illusion of increased control. Symbols are captivating, indistinct, metaphoric and enigmatic portrayals of psychic reality. The content, i.e. the meaning of symbols, is far from obvious; instead, it is expressed in unique and individual terms while at the same time partaking of universal imagery. Our society is having to rethink such fundamental notions as money, security, growth and many other bases of our current worldview.
Symbols can be recognized as aspects of those images that control, order and give meaning to our lives. The source of symbols can be traced to the archetypes themselves which by way of symbols find more full expression. Symbols are thus one type of what Jung called “archetypal images,” that is, the representation in consciousness of an underlying archetype. The anamorphic is not the fractal, because the fractal is repeating a pattern.
When the dominant vision that holds a period of culture together cracks, consciousness regresses into earlier containers, seeking sources for survival which also offer sources of revival. Self-empowerment can be entangled with self-delusion. We can no longer distinguish clearly between neurosis of self and neurosis of world, psychopathology of self and psychopathology of world. Species-wide trauma is playing out on the world stage. We compulsively recreate individual and collective trauma, perhaps as a way to awaken ourselves. Such madness is its own ritual and revelation. (Miller, Holographic Archetypes)
Perhaps the biggest value of questionable literature is that people now search elsewhere for their own half-remembered origins.
Many who claim to guard the history actually prey on their vulnerable kinsmen. So we must look at the effects of such behavior rather than relying on proclamations. There have been many blatant hoaxes. It begs the question, "Where is this leading?". In many cases, the answer is nowhere. Reinterpreting sacred sites with idiosyncratic tropes doesn't make it so. Nor does finding out what the Templars or Cathars were doing substitute for one's own individuation and may work against it, fitting a modern person into an obsolete mold.
These overwrought works mostly regurgitate the symbolic understanding developed more completely in depth psychologies, applying skewed versions to the selected symbols, often from New Age thought, another faddish collective movement which mostly rehashes theosophical notions. There isn't much "new" about it. If such critique sounds like tough love it is because it comes from close observation of the effects of such subcultures. Schisms and tragedy have been the result, not illumination unless you count disillusionment as such.
Following pilgrimage routes, such as "the Camino" may be stimulating but will likely never be illuminating. It doesn't substitute for the work of self-discovery in the cave of the heart. Overlaying such sites with new age gloss doesn't improve the clarity of the situation and may just add irrelevant data. Our attunement to the world is especially influenced by culture and society, whether we call it human potential or human illusion.
In some cases, pilgrimage is another form of what is termed the geographic escape. There are many writers eager to host such trips for their own benefit. It has become a thriving cottage industry whether the goal is ancient aliens or earth chakras. That doesn't mean there is no value in such travel or mystery centers, but it doesn't supersede the inner work and may lead to flooding and inflation. Sentience is not the same as sentimentality. But people will do what they are going to do. All things seek their own level.
Ultimately, individuation is a solitary pursuit, a mode of experience that opens the door to the otherwise hidden world. To Edward Edinger (1972), individuation means not having to continually repeat the cycle, but to develop conscious dialogues between I and Self. Without a displaced religious obsession there is little reason to pursue the lies, theories or directives of others over one's own creative genius. Ultimately, the real issue with the bloodline has always been about the concept of "sovereignty".
It isn't merely our royal genealogy that makes us who we are. After all, we share most of it with millions of people. Still, there is no better way of actively working within your ancestral matrix than delineating and curating your own lines. What is unique is our personal reaction to such knowledge and how our relationship with it evolves as we assimilate and integrate that expanded awareness -- the Mystery of the whole matter.
Genealogy is the root of the hieros gamos or symbolic royal marriage. The rich variety of psycho-physical hierosgamic themes are illustrated in many alchemical works, illustrating simultaneous humanity and divinity. The hierosgamos union of opposites between human and divine is mediated by Mercurius, the Hermetic method, or hermeneutics. It requires interpretation of experiential material. For example, originally, the dove was a symbolic attribute of ancient female divinities of Mesopotamia.
We need To Know genealogy much like we need to know physics and psychology to comprehend what matter is, as well as what makes us matter. We have thousands of ancestors whose lines are not preserved, making the small slice of royal descent largely archetypal as well as material. The part stands for the Whole - the cosmic process.
In a Gnostic exercise for inner growth the personal mind must be made empty or void of all preconceptions, but at the same time become keenly attentive, transformed into pure sense, or capacity for greater sensations. The soul must be in a searching frame of mind, searching not inquiring, that is to say synthetic not analytic. Inquiry suggests penetrating into a thing with the personal mind; while searching denotes embracing and seizing ideas, "eating" or "digesting" or "absorbing" them, so to say; getting all round them and making them one’s own, surrounding them--it is no longer a question of separated subject and object as with the personal and analyzing mind.
The "vision" of the soul is, literally, the "eye" of the soul. The mind must be emptied of every
object, so that it may receive the fullness. It becomes the "pure eye," the æon, all-eye; not,
however, to perceive anything other than itself, but to understand the nature of understanding -- namely, that it transcends all distinctions of subject and object. Silence nurtures the divine -- The Great Silence and the Holy Fire. The One Body of all thing is the
Mother of souls, the Inbreather of life -- cosmic "vitalizing," or "quickening," or "ensouling".
Union of Opposites
The body is the alchemical laboratory that generates the subtle body, astral vehicle, and the Body of Light or Diamond Body as the highest vehicle. Consciousness is drawn up with sublimation. The elixir of life transforms body and consciousness.
The tensional relationship of the opposites, (life and death, good and evil, one and many), remains the great operational mechanism of manifest life and of transformation. This relationship exists within the context of a unitary world-model wherein matter and spirit, King and Queen, appear as aspects of a psychoid (psychophysical) realm of reality.
In alchemy the resurrection stands not for transcendence of the body, but its glorification and perfection. Alchemy is the art of seeing what is invisible to others, hearing what others are deaf to, and feeling what others are dead to. Sophia, the Divine Feminine, personifies that World Soul, of inherent primordial Wisdom.
We are affected not only by things that happen to us personally, but also by things that have happened in our lineage, to our parents, grandparents and ancestors. Epigenetics shows that the traumas that happened within our culture affect us. Ironically, this is more so when they have been forgotten, relegated to the unconscious realm, where they can cause physical symptoms, phobias, depression, nightmares and other unexplained things.
Another genealogical form of opposites is twins or siblings. They are there from the beginning, as Enki and Enlil, as Cain and Abel. Such myths arose in the age of Gemini, the Celestial Twins.
They were destined to become the most prolific progenitors of the world. Their offspring divided in two. Those that went east to cross the Bering Strait, to become the most prominent inhabitants of the New World as far as Tierra del Fuego, were the descendants of one brother, while the numerous descendants of the other brother that remained created a shock-wave in the Old World, felt as far as West Africa, the Atlantic and India.
Like in a fantasy tale, both people founded incredible civilizations, each highlights of human talent and splendor. Tales of the Two Brothers persisted in myth and legend, representing the dichotomy of all polarities and their underlying transcendental unity. This is a story of the reunion of the archetypal brothers.
Legends of the Two Brothers arose in the Age of Gemini (6000 BC - 4000 BC) and come down in the story of Cain and Able, which was historically preceded by allegorical stories of Enki and Enlil. Each Age has its gods. The Age of Gemini corresponded to the flourishing period of early Hinduism.
It was under this sign that Rama, the seventh incarnation of Vishnu was manifested by the birth of the two pair of brothers: Rama and Lakshmana on the one hand, Satrughna and Bharata on the other. Rama Himself had twin sons: Lav and Kush.
Lav went to Russia; from this we get the name of Slav. The other son, Kush went to China, hence we get the name Kushan. These two divine principles were also incarnated as Buddha and Mahavira, then as Adi Shankaracharya and Gnyaneshwara. In other Avatars they were Hassan and Hussein, the sons of Fatima and Hazrat Ali.
The Quest
Joseph Campbell asks, "What is it we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself. There is nothing you can do that's more important than being fulfilled. You become a sign, you become a signal, transparent to transcendence; in this way you will find, live, become a realization of your own personal myth."
The Quest for wholeness is the search for meaning, orientation, renewal, and transformation. By making the trauma in our lineage and in our culture more conscious, we can loosen its hold. This helps us to restore a sense of our own self and our own freedom of choice, and allows what is not ours to rest in peace. Thus, genealogy is a kind of healing ritual, which retrieves the lost and disowned parts of the soul, what we've buried in the earth and forgotten.
Thus your soul is your own self in the spiritual world. As the abode of the spirits, however, the spiritual world is also an outer world. Just as you are also not alone in the visible world, but are surrounded by objects that belong to you and obey only you, you also have thoughts that belong to you and obey only you. But just as you are surrounded in the visible world by things and beings that neither belong to you nor obey you, you are also surrounded in the spiritual world by thoughts and beings of thought that neither obey you nor belong to you.
Just as you engender or bear your physical children, and just as they grow up and separate themselves from you to live their own fate, you also produce or give birth to beings of thought which separate themselves from you and live their own lives.
Just as we leave our children when we grow old and give our body back to the earth, I separate myself from my God, the sun, and sink into the emptiness of matter and obliterate the image of my child in me. This happens in that I accept the nature of matter and allow the force of my form to flow into emptiness. Just as I gave birth anew to the sick God through my engendering force, I henceforth animate the emptiness of matter from which the formation of evil grows.
Nature is playful and terrible. Some see the playful side and dally with it and let it sparkle. Others see the horror and cover their heads and are more dead than alive. The way does not lead between both, but embraces both. It is both cheerful play and cold horror. (Jung, Red Book)
Genealogy is like organic gardening. We till the soil until things break through the surface where we tend and fertilize them with creative expression and contemplation. Living branches of our Tree become knotted together generating many leaves. Entwined with roses and thorns they represent the complexities of life, including the union of opposites. At the microcosmic level they may represent quantum entanglement. All macroscopic parts of the world are entangled quantum mechanically. Entanglement is a property of nonlocal quantum information exchange.
Jung pointed out that procreative power is only a special instance of the ‘procreative nature of the Whole', as illustrated in alchemical works such as the Rosarium Philosophorum, which depicts a symbolic hieros gamos, combining the powers of the upper and lower worlds, leading out the gold. We acquire an experiential understanding of the ontological wholeness of the cosmos and know we are in no way separate from that. Such non-duality that closes the gap between spirit and body was the magnificent obsession of the alchemists as it is of the mystics.
Eliade wrote, "The Sun and the Moon must be made one. . .above all, prajna, wisdom, must be joined with upaya, the means of attaining it. . .all this amounts to saying we are dealing with the coincidentia oppositorum achieved on every level of Life and Consciousness."
Chaos becomes cosmos; the profane becomes sacred; potential is actualized. Alchemical tracts bookend the entire alchemical process between an initial and final image. Opening and closing illustrations frame the psycho-physical transformation. Like dreams and moods, the fruits of personal insight and practical guidance affect us physiologically, emotionally, psychologically, and/or spiritually, and become part of our being.
Death, afterlife beliefs, mediumship, and spirit possession are contentious subjects. Belief is a open-ended system. Anomalous experiences can arise as a function of relational care or concern. In a genealogical approach, we have no burden to prove the source of psi phenomena or synchronicities.
A Jungian approach is more concerned with their meaning in the life of the person who reports the phenomena. You cannot argue with anyone's belief or experience. It can be approached literally, metaphorically, or symbolically. Metaphors are paradoxical. Like Jung we take a phenomenological approach, looking backwards and forward at the same time. Jung's theory of possession by autonomous complexes differs from notions of possession within specific belief systems.
Social Anthropologist, Fiona Bowie writes: "Virtually all other cultures hold to the notion, based on the experience of individuals and groups, that the Self, if it exists at all, is permeable, and in constant contact and relationship with other selves at a psychic as well as a physical and emotional level. Communications may be unconscious or conscious, mediated by others or unmediated, wanted or unsought, but they exist nonetheless, and come in many different forms, with different results and effects. They involve communication between living humans and those who have died, between human and non-human beings, between visible and invisible entities.These entities may be projections of one or more minds, or have a non-human origin.The forces or entities with which people communicate may be regarded as angelic or demonic, helpful or dangerous, mischievous and playful or sad and lonely, and in need of help and guidance."
Ancestral impressions change us regardless of whether we make any logical waking connections or not. Even when we spot such connections, it can be limiting to assume that this was the sole ‘point’ of the discovery, and therefore drop further exploration or creative expression for an "Aha" moment. Carrying away golden coins, we may miss the priceless jewel fashioned or concealed within the chest itself.
Genealogy is an Art, a quest for the truth within. Harvesting the fruits of the Tree of Life mobilizes the soul for creative self-expression, self-discovery and self-healing. Much benefit and fulfillment comes simply by remembering, writing, tape-recording, sharing, painting, enacting or otherwise birthing them into the physical world. Understanding is always the experience of a gestalt. Creatively arranging the elements of a whole is precisely what genealogy does, anatomizing and analogizing.
Genealogy takes tremendous effort, like the Great Work. It affects the psyche with both historical and imaginal, known and unknown elements. It has its own magic, alchemy, and synchronicities. Psyche is Mystery, the very essence of humanity, and world. Jung comments, “In reality, there is nothing but a living body. That is the fact, and psyche is as much a living body as body is living psyche: it is just the same,” and “The psyche creates reality every day.”
Jungian genealogy is a broadly interdisciplinary approach, integrating research from neurosciences, genetics, depth psychology, anthropology, shamanism, and philosophy. We wish to consider the ways in which genetic, linguistic, historical, esoteric, and ethnographic data can be used to test theories.
We discuss theoretical and methodological concerns that are directly relevant to study, research and data interpretation. We have surveyed and are correlating historical sources and secondary sources: legends, folklore, astrological, genealogies, tales, chansons, oral histories, mystical writings, etc.
Even genetic genealogy requires interpretation -- hermeneutics, the study of theories and methods of the interpretation of systems of meaning, including interpretations of experience, or human behavior generally. It includes language and patterns of speech, social institutions, and ritual behaviors.
Genealogy is a search for the Beloved, and as such is a Way of the Heart -- a love of psyche.
“Love and the Soul (for that is what Psyche means) had sought and, after sore trials, found each other; and that union could never be broken.” This is the mythic theme. (Edith Hamilton, Mythology)
Genealogy is about Identity. Some attempt to garner social status through their genealogies when other avenues elude them. Some in search of their identity wind up finding their Shadow -- the archetypal adversary and trickster.
Each archetype has a shadow. The archetype of the shadow "coincides with the 'personal' unconscious, stranger/predator/evil intruder. When it is activated in a particularly strong and gripping way, inevitably interconnects the wider collective with the personal.
Archetypes do not create archetypes like themselves but like the shadows of archetypes like themselves. Archetypes evolve from the form in which they first present, but the underlying identity endures unchanged. Each have awakenings (revolution in culture) and crises (upheaval in public life).
Shadow, the dark archetype, is the root of defensive reaction formation (repression, denial, projection, and displacement). Consciousness of the Shadow benefits the group by enhancing social responsibility. We have to consciously suffer the perpetual tension of good and evil. We are shadow-possessed to the extent it dominates personality.
As each generation fulfills its midlife leadership role, it nurtures a child generation as its shadow that reacts against its elders' excesses. The four-fold cycle of generations propels the wheel of time. The social cycle begins in growth and moves through maturation into entropy, death, then rebirth. In a cyclic High people want to belong; in an Awakening, to defy; in an Unraveling, to separate; and in a crisis, to gather. Thus, in our lifetime we confront our deepest spiritual and worldly needs. (Strauss)
Underprotected children become over protective parents. Overprotected children become increasingly indulgent parents. But generations overlap making a complementary mix. There have been 24 post-medieval generations between the Arthurian generation and Millennial children. They are fourteenth in the American line.
The shadow is "the 'negative' side of the personality, the sum of all those unpleasant qualities we like to hide, what is hidden by the conscious personality. It is the enemy within, with which we must make peace. Von Franz declared the Shadow is simply the whole unconscious, as it also contains unlived aspects of the the Self. It also contains the potential necessary for healing.
Some people who come to genealogical practice use it to build a persona that becomes their main way of connecting in the world, an excessive commitment to a rather false image. We identify with our persona. Jung called it a social mask or psychological armor. Recovery, the aim of individuation, "is not only achieved by work on the inside figures but also, as conditio sine qua non, by a readaptation in outer life," according to Jung. We live in the present moment.
The path of Individuation is the psychological equivalent of self-initiation. The goal of individuation is self-realization through increasing conscious relationship with the Self, archetype of wholeness. This Self includes both positive and negative traits of an individual which, in the beginning of analysis, are generally projected out, or attributed to, the environment.
As the ego continues its heroic journey through the labyrinthine psyche, it comes into confrontation with personifications of various archetypal and ancestral characters. During the maturing process, these characters emerge from the undifferentiated mass of unconscious contents. Though their presence in the psyche was implied from the beginning, they begin to unfold in unique patterns in the life of the individual.
Jung called the persona the "conformity archetype." As part of its positive function, it protects the ego and the psyche from the varied social forces. Thus one goal for individuation is for people to "develop a more realistic, flexible persona that helps them navigate in society but does not collide with nor hide their true self". Eventually, "in the best case, the persona is appropriate and tasteful, a true reflection of our inner individuality and our outward sense of self."
Jung also cautioned, "It would indeed be the height of absurdity if a man tried to have a conversation with his persona, which he recognized merely as a psychological means of relationship." So, the purpose of genealogy is not to over-identify but distinguish ourselves from our ancestral lines. It is especially true for an adopted fantasy-based social role which functions like an actor's mask. A mask is what individuals wear to hide their real self or when gaming.
Hobby genealogists may be taken unawares by such strong feelings, images and impulses. A person unfamiliar with psychic dynamics may not recognize that these are processes that Jung described and for which he developed now time-tested therapies to circumvent the pitfalls of alienation, dissociation, projection, and inflation. It's as if unconscious contents lack genealogical links to consciousness proper.
A Jungian genealogy permits a cultural study of the unconscious and a psychological study of culture that facilitates an understanding of the emotional impact culture provides, the unconscious elements of group creation, and the multiple individual perspectives in each historical moment. Formal structures help us understand the significance of mythical discourse. Joseph Campbell called myth a mirror of the ego.
Theories and ideas also have 'genealogies' that trace how they transform over time as they are inherited through culture. This is particularly true of faith-based ideas. They can be used instead of historical analysis or traditional explanations that are more magical than effective. We can follow the transformation of notions without drawing conclusions on their origin.
Even without knowing the cause we can describe the transformations themselves, their strengths, weaknesses, ideology and competing arguments, mechanisms of coercion and contents of knowledge. A genealogy is an open system of relationships, the effect of making a process intelligible and describes cultural elaboration.
“Cultural complexes structure emotional experience and operate in the personal and collective psyche in much the same way as individual complexes, although their content might be quite different. Like individual complexes, cultural complexes tend to be repetitive, autonomous, resist consciousness, and collect experience that confirms their historical point of view”. (Thomas Singer and Samuel L. Kimbles, The Cultural Complex: Contemporary Jungian Perspectives on Psyche and Society).
Using an archaeology and genealogy of process reveals multiple strategies, conditions of acceptability, and a field of possiblities, and possible dislocations. We can look at socio-historical data as an event that allows us to describe ways of experiencing that are
unique to particular sets of people -- a group's way of perceiving itself. Repetitive group experiences take root in the cultural unconscious of the group.
Genealogy is the thread that connects. Joseph Campbell notes,
Centuries of husbandry, decades of diligent culling, the work of numerous hearts and hands, have gone into the hackling, sorting, and spinning of this tightly twisted yarn. Furthermore, we have not even to risk the adventure alone; for the heroes of all time have gone before us; the labyrinth is thoroughly known; we have only to follow the thread of the hero-path. And where we had thought to find an abomination, we shall find a god; where we had thought to slay another, we shall slay ourselves; where we had thought to travel outward, we shall come to the center of our own existence; and where we had thought to be alone, we shall be with all the world.
It stimulates the imaginal faculty and can induce strong identifications, projections, activated archetypes, ego inflations, and even possessions. Identification means being fused to an unconscious content. Projection is a kind of unconscious identification with the object. A complex is an entity within the unconscious that is a strange attractor for an emotion or way of being. Cultural complexes change over time.
The freed surplus of libido (psychological energy) causes inflation because an archetype has lost its container and becomes identified with the conscious mind. This activates various -isms, utopian fantasies, psychic infections, and a longing for collective ideals.
In possession, the archetype hijacks and overwhelms the conscious personality utterly, appearing as distinctly "other". Possession is a psychic rupture -- the phenomenology of the power of neurotic and psychotic symptoms. In the Middle Ages it meant a sort of obsessive suffering. Outside of the Jungian arena, the potential of the ancestral field has been derided or ignored as a coherent vector of spiritual and cultural experience. But it is a matrix within which we can deal with aggression, sadism, wealth, power, and position without becoming possessed by such shadow impulses, current or ancestral.
Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self By Anthony Stevens
Individuation
Doing your genealogy can induce a process Jung called Individuation, by which an individual self emerges from the undifferentiated unconscious. A natural process, Individuation is the innate urge to wholeness -- self-actualization or self-realization. He said, "Evolution is the line of least resistance whereas individuation is the line of most resistance."
A person who enters this experiential dimension has gone beyond that of hobby genealogist, but without a consciousness map or a guide it may seem overwhelming. Even Jung complained of emotional flooding at the onset of his inner journey. Flooding is your physiological reaction to a perceived threat. The threat can be real, it can be an old tape replaying a pattern, or it can be imagined. Automatic, instinctive, reactive emotional processes rush in to numb and protect you from being overwhelmed.
Individuation helps us fulfill our conscious relationships with the ancestors and archetypes of the collective unconscious (ancestral memory). They come in dreams, in revere, in ritual, with the gentle assist of an "angel" or other surprise clues, and they inform our being, literally and figuratively. They carry mystery in their wake, often with cryptic messages or information that can later be verified or found in the physical world. Dynamic archetypes like The Quest or Hero's Journey inform and modulate our behavior.
They inspire our spiritual studies and humanitarian efforts, our self-expression, proclivities and desires. They compel our loves and help create our children, perpetuating the line. We are theirs and they are ours. We are family; we are Blood. We feel their experience from their point of view. As we collect them in name, we collect their experiences, integrating them into our own meaning.
We cultivate our own rows or lines of ancestors through genealogy, the pedigree of our origins. Genealogy and even genetic genealogy are pursuits that require interpretation of assembled data, not literal interpretation, due to hidden variables and a variety of other factors, including the interpretive bias of the researcher.
Thus, they are essentially Hermetic pursuits and should be approached as such, seeking both their wisdom and their subtle misdirection, outright lies of the past and present, misrepresentations, and other Trickster elements.
Even today, grandiose speculation often passes for science. Those unfamiliar with either subject are most likely to misinterpret their own family's functional relation to others, and likewise to misinterpret the evidence of their alleles in relation to antic origins and their meaning. Identifying SNPs from deep common ancestry, or rare SNPs related to shared characteristics helps us recognize one another as kin.
Even with scientific linkage to specific ancestral groups, self-discovery should not be confounded with personal mythology though both necessarily overlap. There is what the evidence shows or suggests, then the narrative which we construct from that limited evidence, which suggests certain things about our ourselves, our families, current and former cultures, and the future of society.
Hermeneutics is the study of theories and methods of the interpretation of systems of meaning, including interpretations of experience, or human behavior generally, including language and patterns of speech, social institutions, and ritual behaviors. It is a specific method or theory of interpretation, such as archetypal and depth psychologies, for example.
The word hermeneutics is a term derived from 'Ερμηνεýς, the Greek word for interpreter. This is related to the name of the Greek god Hermes in his role as the interpreter of the messages of the gods, the mystagogue who reveals divine mysteries.
Hermes was believed to play tricks on those he was supposed to give messages to, often changing the messages and influencing the their interpretation. The Greek word has the basic meaning of one who makes the meaning clear -- a decoder. DNA still manages to preserve its deepest secrets about who and what we are. We decode it by living our lives deeply.
The Men Who Would Be King
Your truth lies beyond any media controversies over bloodlines, false ideologies, erroneous claims, hoaxes, works of fiction, spin-doctored history, genetic superiority, occultism, vanity courts, ancient aliens, subcultures, cults, gnostic, pseudo-masonic or templar revivals, idioyncratic philosophies, or other ways people come together around their shared beliefs, real or self-delusional. Without conversation, philosophy is dogma.
There is no end to the pretentious claims of "royal" wannabees, phony personae, delusional fantasists, and obsessional megalomaniacs to be this or that reincarnation, usually to sell their "celebrity" brand. Let the buyer beware of self-styled experts with little or no traction. They are modern claimants to the mantles of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, St. Germain or any number of other illustrious figures.
By Soul, Jung is not defining something religious. He speaks of a return to the Soul of the World, the source of knowledge. Our instincts begin to grow sharper, our emotions more radical, the signs of life are of greater importance than logic, our perception of reality is no longer so rigid. We begin to deal with things we are not used to, and to react in ways that not even we ourselves would expect. Hillman speaks of soul or psyche as "a perspective rather than a substance, a viewpoint toward things rather than a thing itself."
Then we discover that if we can only manage to channel this surge of energy, it self-organizes as a very solid center, which Jung calls the Wise Old Man for men, or the Great Mother for women. It’s quite dangerous to allow this to manifest itself. Generally speaking, whoever reaches that point tends to consider himself holy, a tamer of spirits, a prophet. It's time for a reality check.
In the US, the 'New England family' - probably 100 million contemporary Americans descended from 5000 - 8000 Great Migration immigrants of 1620-50. If you have 50 or more sets (husbands and wives) of Great Migration immigrant forebears, you are probably related to almost all of the 100 million, within the range of 8th-12th cousins. The probability of kinship to notables is fully 100 percent, and the number of such 'household name' distant kin probably surpasses 500, possibly 1000." http://humphrysfamilytree.com/famous.descents.html
"Divine Pride" & Ego Inflation
So you find you come from royalty -- get over it! Many who make this discovery of ancestry become ego inflated, self-proclaiming pretentious titles to which they have no claim. Lying or confabulating does not make it so. The over-identification is the opposite of the right psychological move. At the very least, it puts the cart before the horse.
Jung describes his remedy: assimilation of contents of the collective unconscious, not through identification, but through confrontation, avoiding equation with either the lowest or highest aspects of one’s own psyche.
Jung’s warning that inflation necessarily attends identifying oneself with an archetypal motif would seem completely applicable to self-styled "royal" claimants. To do so means one is in the very first stage of initiation, utterly unconscious that the Persona or social mask is confounded with your Shadow self. It is a fallacious attempt to prop up a weak ego, not the claim of a "noble" ego or a valid claim of anything. As psychologists well know, the moral conflict is not to be settled merely by a declaration of superiority bordering on inhumanity, nor a declaration one is better than or fit to rule others in any way.
Afflicted pride is a version of ego-inflation which Jung sought to avoid by advising against identifying with assimilated contents. But people will defend their self-delusion self image to the grave, even when profoundly misconceived. It is an assurance of later problems and is an avoidance of the work of individuation. Jung's cautions are profound and serve to highlight the enormity of the task we are attempting. Jung frequently warns against the inflation attendant upon assimilation of autonomous complexes and identification with their content, as, for instance, when he says:
It will be remembered that in the analysis of the personal unconscious the first things to be added to consciousness are the personal contents and I suggested that these contents which have been repressed, but are capable of becoming conscious, should be called the personal unconscious. I also showed that to annex the deeper layers of the unconscious, which I have called the collective unconscious, produces an extension of the personality leading to the state of inflation. (Jung 1953, 7:243 )
Such misperception and misapplication of genealogy leads to positive and negative inflation and all their attendant ills:
In projection, he vacillates between an extravagant and pathological deification of the doctor, and a contempt bristling with hatred.
In introjection, he gets involved in a ridiculous self-deification, or else a moral self-laceration. The mistake he makes in both cases comes from attributing to a person the contents of the collective unconscious. In this way he makes himself or his partner either god or devil. Here we see the characteristic effect of the archetype: it seizes hold of the psyche with a kind of primeval force and compels it to transgress the bounds of humanity. It causes exaggeration, a puffed-up attitude (inflation), loss of free will, delusion, and enthusiasm in good and evil alike (Jung 1953, 7:110).
Positive inflation of the religious or megalomaniacal sort can lead to assumptions of grandeur, viewing oneself as having the universal panacea:
The second possible mode of reaction is identification with the collective psyche. This
would be equivalent to acceptance of the inflation, but now exalted into a system. In
other words, one would be the fortunate possessor of the great truth that was only
waiting to be discovered, of the eschatological knowledge that means the healing of
the nations. This attitude does not necessarily signify megalomania in direct form,
but megalomania in the milder and more familiar form it takes in the reformer, the
prophet, and the martyr. (Jung 1953, 7:260)
The prophet is convinced that he/she has the final truth but is merely inflated through identification with the forces of deep contents. The humble disciple affects the posture of only
following the master’s dictums:
But besides the possibility of becoming a prophet, there is another alluring joy,
subtler and apparently more legitimate: the joy of becoming a prophet’s disciple.…
The disciple is unworthy; modestly he sits at the Master’s feet and guards against
having ideas of his own. Mental laziness becomes a virtue; one can at least bask in
the sun of a semidivine being.…Naturally the disciples always stick together, not out
of love, but for the very understandable purpose of effortlessly confirming their own
convictions by engendering an air of collective agreement.…[J]ust as the prophet is
a primordial image from the collective psyche, so also is the disciple of the prophet.
(Jung 1953, 7:263-265)
In both cases inflation is brought about by the collective unconscious, and the independence
of the individuality suffers injury. In a similar vein:
These few examples may suffice to show what kind of spirit animated these movements. They were made up of people who identified themselves (or were identified) with God, who deemed themselves supermen, had a critical approach to the gospels, followed the promptings of the inner man, and understood the kingdom of heaven to be within. In a sense, therefore, they were modern in their outlook, but they had a religious inflation instead of the rationalistic and political psychosis that is the affliction of our day. (Jung 1969, 9:140)
Jung advises against identifying with offices and titles since such excludes the richness of our situation:
A very common instance is the humourless way in which many men identify
themselves with their business or their titles. The office I hold is certainly my special
activity; but it is also a collective factor that has come into existence historically
through the cooperation of many people and whose dignity rests solely on collective
approval. When, therefore, I identify myself with my office or title, I behave as though
I myself were the whole complex of social factors of which that office consists, or
as though I were not only the bearer of the office, but also and at the same time
the approval of society. I have made an extraordinary extension of myself and have
usurped qualities which are not in me but outside me. (Jung 1953, 7:227)
And:
There is, however, yet another thing to be learnt from this example, namely that these
transpersonal contents are not just inert or dead matter that can be annexed at will.
Rather they are living entities which exert an attractive force upon the conscious
mind. Identification with one’s office or one’s title is very attractive indeed, which
is precisely why so many men are nothing more than the decorum accorded to them
by society. In vain would one look for a personality behind the husk. Underneath all
the padding one would find a very pitiable little creature. That is why the office—or
whatever their outer husk may be—is so attractive: it offers easy compensation for
personal deficiencies. (Jung 1953, 7:230)
The basic problem is that one has lost a healthy respect for the need to mediate between the
conscious and the unconscious, thereby (in one version) inflating the importance of the ego.
More on this subject here - http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/royal-ego-trips.html
Understanding the Numbers
The Pyramid Theory, a doubling of ancestors each generation back, claims you have 2048 ancestors by the 12th generation in your past, and possibly 60,000 direct ancestors going back to the Crusades. By Generation #40, you would have more than one trillion ancestors.
About 360 years, or just short of 15 generations mtDNA peters out. At 15 generations, an individual living today would carry only three thousands of 1% (00.003052%) of the DNA of an ancestor who was “pure” anything 15 generations ago. So even if one ancestor was indeed Mediterranean or whatever 15 generations ago, unless they continuously intermarried within a pure Mediterranean population, the amount would drop by 50% with each generation to the miniscule amount that would be found in today’s current generation. With today’s technology, this is simply untraceable in autosomal DNA.
We are at the end of a long and winding genetic journey that continues after and through us. We are probably all connected by the 25th gr-grandparents, if you do the math. There is a great possibility that we are descendants (or are related) from almost everyone alive some seven hundred years ago. With our parents' generation as Nº 1, the number of persons is 33,554,432.
That number is the theoretical result of (x2) progression, since many of those ancestors are the same persons. The genealogical evidence shows that many of the families intermarried for generations, producing a rich genealogical matrix.
Yet, somehow a determined gen can survive intact through all those descendants and become a particle of memory that will give you a dejá vu once in a while. Ancestral memories may not be of actual events. They should not to be confused with the idea of past life or reincarnation as they are reactive response patterns and emotional states brought about by environment.
The past has gone and the future has yet to come. All you have is the present.
Doing your genealogy can induce a process Jung called Individuation, by which an individual self emerges from the undifferentiated unconscious. A natural process, Individuation is the innate urge to wholeness -- self-actualization or self-realization. He said, "Evolution is the line of least resistance whereas individuation is the line of most resistance."
A person who enters this experiential dimension has gone beyond that of hobby genealogist, but without a consciousness map or a guide it may seem overwhelming. Even Jung complained of emotional flooding at the onset of his inner journey. Flooding is your physiological reaction to a perceived threat. The threat can be real, it can be an old tape replaying a pattern, or it can be imagined. Automatic, instinctive, reactive emotional processes rush in to numb and protect you from being overwhelmed.
Individuation helps us fulfill our conscious relationships with the ancestors and archetypes of the collective unconscious (ancestral memory). They come in dreams, in revere, in ritual, with the gentle assist of an "angel" or other surprise clues, and they inform our being, literally and figuratively. They carry mystery in their wake, often with cryptic messages or information that can later be verified or found in the physical world. Dynamic archetypes like The Quest or Hero's Journey inform and modulate our behavior.
They inspire our spiritual studies and humanitarian efforts, our self-expression, proclivities and desires. They compel our loves and help create our children, perpetuating the line. We are theirs and they are ours. We are family; we are Blood. We feel their experience from their point of view. As we collect them in name, we collect their experiences, integrating them into our own meaning.
We cultivate our own rows or lines of ancestors through genealogy, the pedigree of our origins. Genealogy and even genetic genealogy are pursuits that require interpretation of assembled data, not literal interpretation, due to hidden variables and a variety of other factors, including the interpretive bias of the researcher.
Thus, they are essentially Hermetic pursuits and should be approached as such, seeking both their wisdom and their subtle misdirection, outright lies of the past and present, misrepresentations, and other Trickster elements.
Even today, grandiose speculation often passes for science. Those unfamiliar with either subject are most likely to misinterpret their own family's functional relation to others, and likewise to misinterpret the evidence of their alleles in relation to antic origins and their meaning. Identifying SNPs from deep common ancestry, or rare SNPs related to shared characteristics helps us recognize one another as kin.
Even with scientific linkage to specific ancestral groups, self-discovery should not be confounded with personal mythology though both necessarily overlap. There is what the evidence shows or suggests, then the narrative which we construct from that limited evidence, which suggests certain things about our ourselves, our families, current and former cultures, and the future of society.
Hermeneutics is the study of theories and methods of the interpretation of systems of meaning, including interpretations of experience, or human behavior generally, including language and patterns of speech, social institutions, and ritual behaviors. It is a specific method or theory of interpretation, such as archetypal and depth psychologies, for example.
The word hermeneutics is a term derived from 'Ερμηνεýς, the Greek word for interpreter. This is related to the name of the Greek god Hermes in his role as the interpreter of the messages of the gods, the mystagogue who reveals divine mysteries.
Hermes was believed to play tricks on those he was supposed to give messages to, often changing the messages and influencing the their interpretation. The Greek word has the basic meaning of one who makes the meaning clear -- a decoder. DNA still manages to preserve its deepest secrets about who and what we are. We decode it by living our lives deeply.
The Men Who Would Be King
Your truth lies beyond any media controversies over bloodlines, false ideologies, erroneous claims, hoaxes, works of fiction, spin-doctored history, genetic superiority, occultism, vanity courts, ancient aliens, subcultures, cults, gnostic, pseudo-masonic or templar revivals, idioyncratic philosophies, or other ways people come together around their shared beliefs, real or self-delusional. Without conversation, philosophy is dogma.
There is no end to the pretentious claims of "royal" wannabees, phony personae, delusional fantasists, and obsessional megalomaniacs to be this or that reincarnation, usually to sell their "celebrity" brand. Let the buyer beware of self-styled experts with little or no traction. They are modern claimants to the mantles of Jesus, Mary Magdalene, St. Germain or any number of other illustrious figures.
By Soul, Jung is not defining something religious. He speaks of a return to the Soul of the World, the source of knowledge. Our instincts begin to grow sharper, our emotions more radical, the signs of life are of greater importance than logic, our perception of reality is no longer so rigid. We begin to deal with things we are not used to, and to react in ways that not even we ourselves would expect. Hillman speaks of soul or psyche as "a perspective rather than a substance, a viewpoint toward things rather than a thing itself."
Then we discover that if we can only manage to channel this surge of energy, it self-organizes as a very solid center, which Jung calls the Wise Old Man for men, or the Great Mother for women. It’s quite dangerous to allow this to manifest itself. Generally speaking, whoever reaches that point tends to consider himself holy, a tamer of spirits, a prophet. It's time for a reality check.
In the US, the 'New England family' - probably 100 million contemporary Americans descended from 5000 - 8000 Great Migration immigrants of 1620-50. If you have 50 or more sets (husbands and wives) of Great Migration immigrant forebears, you are probably related to almost all of the 100 million, within the range of 8th-12th cousins. The probability of kinship to notables is fully 100 percent, and the number of such 'household name' distant kin probably surpasses 500, possibly 1000." http://humphrysfamilytree.com/famous.descents.html
"Divine Pride" & Ego Inflation
So you find you come from royalty -- get over it! Many who make this discovery of ancestry become ego inflated, self-proclaiming pretentious titles to which they have no claim. Lying or confabulating does not make it so. The over-identification is the opposite of the right psychological move. At the very least, it puts the cart before the horse.
Jung describes his remedy: assimilation of contents of the collective unconscious, not through identification, but through confrontation, avoiding equation with either the lowest or highest aspects of one’s own psyche.
Jung’s warning that inflation necessarily attends identifying oneself with an archetypal motif would seem completely applicable to self-styled "royal" claimants. To do so means one is in the very first stage of initiation, utterly unconscious that the Persona or social mask is confounded with your Shadow self. It is a fallacious attempt to prop up a weak ego, not the claim of a "noble" ego or a valid claim of anything. As psychologists well know, the moral conflict is not to be settled merely by a declaration of superiority bordering on inhumanity, nor a declaration one is better than or fit to rule others in any way.
Afflicted pride is a version of ego-inflation which Jung sought to avoid by advising against identifying with assimilated contents. But people will defend their self-delusion self image to the grave, even when profoundly misconceived. It is an assurance of later problems and is an avoidance of the work of individuation. Jung's cautions are profound and serve to highlight the enormity of the task we are attempting. Jung frequently warns against the inflation attendant upon assimilation of autonomous complexes and identification with their content, as, for instance, when he says:
It will be remembered that in the analysis of the personal unconscious the first things to be added to consciousness are the personal contents and I suggested that these contents which have been repressed, but are capable of becoming conscious, should be called the personal unconscious. I also showed that to annex the deeper layers of the unconscious, which I have called the collective unconscious, produces an extension of the personality leading to the state of inflation. (Jung 1953, 7:243 )
Such misperception and misapplication of genealogy leads to positive and negative inflation and all their attendant ills:
In projection, he vacillates between an extravagant and pathological deification of the doctor, and a contempt bristling with hatred.
In introjection, he gets involved in a ridiculous self-deification, or else a moral self-laceration. The mistake he makes in both cases comes from attributing to a person the contents of the collective unconscious. In this way he makes himself or his partner either god or devil. Here we see the characteristic effect of the archetype: it seizes hold of the psyche with a kind of primeval force and compels it to transgress the bounds of humanity. It causes exaggeration, a puffed-up attitude (inflation), loss of free will, delusion, and enthusiasm in good and evil alike (Jung 1953, 7:110).
Positive inflation of the religious or megalomaniacal sort can lead to assumptions of grandeur, viewing oneself as having the universal panacea:
The second possible mode of reaction is identification with the collective psyche. This
would be equivalent to acceptance of the inflation, but now exalted into a system. In
other words, one would be the fortunate possessor of the great truth that was only
waiting to be discovered, of the eschatological knowledge that means the healing of
the nations. This attitude does not necessarily signify megalomania in direct form,
but megalomania in the milder and more familiar form it takes in the reformer, the
prophet, and the martyr. (Jung 1953, 7:260)
The prophet is convinced that he/she has the final truth but is merely inflated through identification with the forces of deep contents. The humble disciple affects the posture of only
following the master’s dictums:
But besides the possibility of becoming a prophet, there is another alluring joy,
subtler and apparently more legitimate: the joy of becoming a prophet’s disciple.…
The disciple is unworthy; modestly he sits at the Master’s feet and guards against
having ideas of his own. Mental laziness becomes a virtue; one can at least bask in
the sun of a semidivine being.…Naturally the disciples always stick together, not out
of love, but for the very understandable purpose of effortlessly confirming their own
convictions by engendering an air of collective agreement.…[J]ust as the prophet is
a primordial image from the collective psyche, so also is the disciple of the prophet.
(Jung 1953, 7:263-265)
In both cases inflation is brought about by the collective unconscious, and the independence
of the individuality suffers injury. In a similar vein:
These few examples may suffice to show what kind of spirit animated these movements. They were made up of people who identified themselves (or were identified) with God, who deemed themselves supermen, had a critical approach to the gospels, followed the promptings of the inner man, and understood the kingdom of heaven to be within. In a sense, therefore, they were modern in their outlook, but they had a religious inflation instead of the rationalistic and political psychosis that is the affliction of our day. (Jung 1969, 9:140)
Jung advises against identifying with offices and titles since such excludes the richness of our situation:
A very common instance is the humourless way in which many men identify
themselves with their business or their titles. The office I hold is certainly my special
activity; but it is also a collective factor that has come into existence historically
through the cooperation of many people and whose dignity rests solely on collective
approval. When, therefore, I identify myself with my office or title, I behave as though
I myself were the whole complex of social factors of which that office consists, or
as though I were not only the bearer of the office, but also and at the same time
the approval of society. I have made an extraordinary extension of myself and have
usurped qualities which are not in me but outside me. (Jung 1953, 7:227)
And:
There is, however, yet another thing to be learnt from this example, namely that these
transpersonal contents are not just inert or dead matter that can be annexed at will.
Rather they are living entities which exert an attractive force upon the conscious
mind. Identification with one’s office or one’s title is very attractive indeed, which
is precisely why so many men are nothing more than the decorum accorded to them
by society. In vain would one look for a personality behind the husk. Underneath all
the padding one would find a very pitiable little creature. That is why the office—or
whatever their outer husk may be—is so attractive: it offers easy compensation for
personal deficiencies. (Jung 1953, 7:230)
The basic problem is that one has lost a healthy respect for the need to mediate between the
conscious and the unconscious, thereby (in one version) inflating the importance of the ego.
More on this subject here - http://jungiangenealogy.weebly.com/royal-ego-trips.html
Understanding the Numbers
The Pyramid Theory, a doubling of ancestors each generation back, claims you have 2048 ancestors by the 12th generation in your past, and possibly 60,000 direct ancestors going back to the Crusades. By Generation #40, you would have more than one trillion ancestors.
About 360 years, or just short of 15 generations mtDNA peters out. At 15 generations, an individual living today would carry only three thousands of 1% (00.003052%) of the DNA of an ancestor who was “pure” anything 15 generations ago. So even if one ancestor was indeed Mediterranean or whatever 15 generations ago, unless they continuously intermarried within a pure Mediterranean population, the amount would drop by 50% with each generation to the miniscule amount that would be found in today’s current generation. With today’s technology, this is simply untraceable in autosomal DNA.
We are at the end of a long and winding genetic journey that continues after and through us. We are probably all connected by the 25th gr-grandparents, if you do the math. There is a great possibility that we are descendants (or are related) from almost everyone alive some seven hundred years ago. With our parents' generation as Nº 1, the number of persons is 33,554,432.
That number is the theoretical result of (x2) progression, since many of those ancestors are the same persons. The genealogical evidence shows that many of the families intermarried for generations, producing a rich genealogical matrix.
Yet, somehow a determined gen can survive intact through all those descendants and become a particle of memory that will give you a dejá vu once in a while. Ancestral memories may not be of actual events. They should not to be confused with the idea of past life or reincarnation as they are reactive response patterns and emotional states brought about by environment.
The past has gone and the future has yet to come. All you have is the present.
Introduction
'Every one of those unfortunates during the process of existence should constantly sense and be cognizant of the inevitability of his own death as well as of the death of everyone upon whom his eyes or attention rests'. --Gurdjieff
Genealogy of the Soul
Longing for the Lost Other
Here is the book of thy descent,
Here is the book of the Sangreal,
Here begin the terrors,
Here begin the miracles.
The History of the Grail – 12th Century, Anonymous
Here is the book of the Sangreal,
Here begin the terrors,
Here begin the miracles.
The History of the Grail – 12th Century, Anonymous
"Everywhere the virgin earth causes at least the unconscious of the conqueror to sink to the level of its indigenous inhabitants. Thus, in the American, there is a discrepancy between conscious and unconscious that is not found in the European, a tension between an extremely high conscious level of culture and an unconscious primitivity. This tension forms a psychic potential which endows the American with an indomitable spirit of enterprise and an enviable enthusiasm which we in Europe do not know. The very fact that we still have our ancestral spirits, and that for us everything is steeped in history, keeps us in contact with our unconscious, but we are so caught in this contact and held so fast in the historical vice that the greatest catastrophes are needed in order to wrench us loose and to change our political behavior from what it was five hundred years ago. Our contact with the unconscious chains us to the earth and makes it hard for us to move, and this is certainly no advantage when it comes to progressiveness... . [...] Plurimi pertransibunt- but he who is rooted in the soil endures. Alienation from the unconscious and from its historical conditions spells rootlessness. That is the danger that lies in wait for the conqueror of foreign lands, and for every individual who, through one-sided allegiance to any kind of -ism, loses touch with the dark, maternal, earthly ground of his being." -Jung, 'Mind and Earth', 1931
The Quest for Transcendence
Jung describes Individuation as a process of transformation that incorporates the personal and collective unconscious into consciousness (by means of dreams, active imagination, or free association) to be assimilated into the whole personality. This natural process facilitates the integration of the psyche. The pursuit of self-knowledge is a pilgrimage to our deep center with its divine inner spark or Light.
We seek to remember what our soul has always known. When the psyche heals it produces mandala-type images, balancing dark and light, male and female, yin and yang aspects of nature. The genealogical image is more than a metaphor: you are the center of multiple radiant lines of descent, all of which converge in your unique manifestation.
It can be combined with transpersonal techniques, including hypnotherapy, regressions, shamanic healing, vison quest, mystic arts, seasonal celebrations, spirit journeying, psychodrama, bodywork, trauma release, meditation, soul retrieval, kin contact, and personal mythology. We consider using healing therapies on our ancestors in special cases. Woolger's Deep Memory Process suggests you can use such therapies to:
• clearly recognize the core issues or complexes running your life
• journey in time to resolve childhood and other traumas
• vividly relive and resolve emotional conflicts through a healing psychodrama
• develop somatic awareness of deep memories to release them from your body
• let go of old unwanted ancestral patterns and influences
• integrate wounded soul fragments (“past lives”)
• clear your energy field of negative influences
• open up with love to higher spiritual resources within yourself
We have to find and heal the Grail King within, reowning the projections and meaning we have conveniently let others carry for us, for good and evil. In that process we may glimpse and lose the Grail many times over. Genetic descent is amplified creatively by a recursive psychological descent into the unconscious to retrieve our lost soul and lost ancestors. It establishes an intergenerational feedback loop.
Individuation has a holistic healing effect on the person, both mentally and physically. Individuation is a self analysis, a self discovery, analyzing your own psyche. It serves as the guide or goal of a quest—the Holy Grail, the Elixir of Immortality, the Philosopher's Stone.
Like genealogy, individuation is the story of you as the unique individual you are. Genealogy, like a dragon's hoard, is a treasure hard to attain, yet priceless to the person who holds it. This most collective situation becomes the most individual experience because no two individuals incorporate it in exactly the same way.
We all search for something. In genealogy we narrow that search for the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood. In this case, in genealogy the blood is precious because it is our own lifegiving blood. Legend tells us the Blood and the Grail are united. In medieval literature the Grail is often associated with a feast -- it is, indeed, a great feast of metaphors attached to the primary icon.
Legend has it there is a fellowship or underground Family of the Grail that furthers and protects its interests in all worlds. The "underground stream" is yet another symbol of the Grail. The Grail appears in many forms, including radiant light and the sangreal of the Holy Bloodline that flows from the Davidic line, including the Desposyni descendants of the Holy Family, perhaps including offspring of Jesus and Mary Magdalene -- or so they say.
Genealogies bring revelations, which may belong to millions of descendants but feel extremely important because they are part of our own personal heritage. It comes with strong spiritual and mythic overtones from the elder god-kings, the royal Davidic/Solomonic line, the family of Jesus, the Merovingians, Gnostics, Grail Kings, Camelot, and crusading Templars. Internal conflict may arise when loyalties are torn between opposing forces, each of which are ancestral lines.
In fact, the symbolic treasure of genealogy is that it encodes the entire transformational process from the war of opposites to the reconciling royal marriage. Genealogy show s graphically just how intimately our very existence is through those who gave us faces. This knowledge, more than a pedigree on paper, is the treasure hard to attain that nourishes and sustains us in our intergenerational Being. This is, in fact, The Grail, which serves the divine spark within.
Phillip Stephen Lansky concludes, “Interestingly, the “chymical wedding” of alchemy was a symbol for the simultaneous constellation of psychic opposites, which we have already suggested concurs with a state of physiological paradox. Might not the contents of the two archetypal flasks represent two amines, serotonin and noradrenalin, being poured simultaneously into a marriage bath in the hypothalamus?”
The Grail symbolizes life, spirituality, youth, health, joy, purity, creativity, the unconscious, and generativity [Jung and von Franz 1970, 114]. Spirituality means the perception of transcendent meaning and participation in a higher purpose and numinous experiences. It harmonizes the conflicting opposites of male-female, rationality and emotion, dark and light, good and evil, etc. [Jung and von Franz 1970, 194]. Wholeness requires a coniunctio oppositorum (conjunction of opposites).
William Blake describes it paradoxically: "Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good and evil is Heaven just as evil and good is Hell."
The conflict of opposites in Parsifal's psyche needed to be discovered for him to get back into the Grail Castle. He needs to expand his consciousness and travel, psychologically speaking, far beyond the naive fool, to find the Grail Castle and discover himself, to be conscious of and reconcile the opposites in his psyche.
The Fisher King, or the Grail King, represents a limited consciousness, one who is too rational and is incapable of solving the real problem his kingdom faces [Jung and von Franz 1970, 212]. The successor who will free him was prophesied to be a wholly innocent fool who would ask a specific question. "The myth is telling us that it is the naive part of a man that will heal him and cure his Fisher King wound. It suggests that if a man is to be cured he must find something in himself about the same age and about the same mentality as he was when he was wounded" [Johnson 1989, 11].
Jung himself experienced this woundedness after his break with Freud that opened his deep unconscious, flooding him with imagery that took a lifetime to assimilate and analyze. He speaks of his soul-loss and efforts to retrieve it in his visionary tome, The Red Book, which has only recently been published, many years after his death.
The Red Book illuminates all of his theories of unconscious dynamics. As in dreams, we are all of the characters in mythological tales, and their stories hold deep meaning for us when they are activated by our own life experiences. They call us into the hero's adventure and one of their ways of doing so is the call to trace our genealogical roots.
Jung describes Individuation as a process of transformation that incorporates the personal and collective unconscious into consciousness (by means of dreams, active imagination, or free association) to be assimilated into the whole personality. This natural process facilitates the integration of the psyche. The pursuit of self-knowledge is a pilgrimage to our deep center with its divine inner spark or Light.
We seek to remember what our soul has always known. When the psyche heals it produces mandala-type images, balancing dark and light, male and female, yin and yang aspects of nature. The genealogical image is more than a metaphor: you are the center of multiple radiant lines of descent, all of which converge in your unique manifestation.
It can be combined with transpersonal techniques, including hypnotherapy, regressions, shamanic healing, vison quest, mystic arts, seasonal celebrations, spirit journeying, psychodrama, bodywork, trauma release, meditation, soul retrieval, kin contact, and personal mythology. We consider using healing therapies on our ancestors in special cases. Woolger's Deep Memory Process suggests you can use such therapies to:
• clearly recognize the core issues or complexes running your life
• journey in time to resolve childhood and other traumas
• vividly relive and resolve emotional conflicts through a healing psychodrama
• develop somatic awareness of deep memories to release them from your body
• let go of old unwanted ancestral patterns and influences
• integrate wounded soul fragments (“past lives”)
• clear your energy field of negative influences
• open up with love to higher spiritual resources within yourself
We have to find and heal the Grail King within, reowning the projections and meaning we have conveniently let others carry for us, for good and evil. In that process we may glimpse and lose the Grail many times over. Genetic descent is amplified creatively by a recursive psychological descent into the unconscious to retrieve our lost soul and lost ancestors. It establishes an intergenerational feedback loop.
Individuation has a holistic healing effect on the person, both mentally and physically. Individuation is a self analysis, a self discovery, analyzing your own psyche. It serves as the guide or goal of a quest—the Holy Grail, the Elixir of Immortality, the Philosopher's Stone.
Like genealogy, individuation is the story of you as the unique individual you are. Genealogy, like a dragon's hoard, is a treasure hard to attain, yet priceless to the person who holds it. This most collective situation becomes the most individual experience because no two individuals incorporate it in exactly the same way.
We all search for something. In genealogy we narrow that search for the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood. In this case, in genealogy the blood is precious because it is our own lifegiving blood. Legend tells us the Blood and the Grail are united. In medieval literature the Grail is often associated with a feast -- it is, indeed, a great feast of metaphors attached to the primary icon.
Legend has it there is a fellowship or underground Family of the Grail that furthers and protects its interests in all worlds. The "underground stream" is yet another symbol of the Grail. The Grail appears in many forms, including radiant light and the sangreal of the Holy Bloodline that flows from the Davidic line, including the Desposyni descendants of the Holy Family, perhaps including offspring of Jesus and Mary Magdalene -- or so they say.
Genealogies bring revelations, which may belong to millions of descendants but feel extremely important because they are part of our own personal heritage. It comes with strong spiritual and mythic overtones from the elder god-kings, the royal Davidic/Solomonic line, the family of Jesus, the Merovingians, Gnostics, Grail Kings, Camelot, and crusading Templars. Internal conflict may arise when loyalties are torn between opposing forces, each of which are ancestral lines.
In fact, the symbolic treasure of genealogy is that it encodes the entire transformational process from the war of opposites to the reconciling royal marriage. Genealogy show s graphically just how intimately our very existence is through those who gave us faces. This knowledge, more than a pedigree on paper, is the treasure hard to attain that nourishes and sustains us in our intergenerational Being. This is, in fact, The Grail, which serves the divine spark within.
Phillip Stephen Lansky concludes, “Interestingly, the “chymical wedding” of alchemy was a symbol for the simultaneous constellation of psychic opposites, which we have already suggested concurs with a state of physiological paradox. Might not the contents of the two archetypal flasks represent two amines, serotonin and noradrenalin, being poured simultaneously into a marriage bath in the hypothalamus?”
The Grail symbolizes life, spirituality, youth, health, joy, purity, creativity, the unconscious, and generativity [Jung and von Franz 1970, 114]. Spirituality means the perception of transcendent meaning and participation in a higher purpose and numinous experiences. It harmonizes the conflicting opposites of male-female, rationality and emotion, dark and light, good and evil, etc. [Jung and von Franz 1970, 194]. Wholeness requires a coniunctio oppositorum (conjunction of opposites).
William Blake describes it paradoxically: "Without Contraries is no progression. Attraction and Repulsion, Reason and Energy, Love and Hate, are necessary to Human existence. From these contraries spring what the religious call Good & Evil. Good is the passive that obeys Reason. Evil is the active springing from Energy. Good and evil is Heaven just as evil and good is Hell."
The conflict of opposites in Parsifal's psyche needed to be discovered for him to get back into the Grail Castle. He needs to expand his consciousness and travel, psychologically speaking, far beyond the naive fool, to find the Grail Castle and discover himself, to be conscious of and reconcile the opposites in his psyche.
The Fisher King, or the Grail King, represents a limited consciousness, one who is too rational and is incapable of solving the real problem his kingdom faces [Jung and von Franz 1970, 212]. The successor who will free him was prophesied to be a wholly innocent fool who would ask a specific question. "The myth is telling us that it is the naive part of a man that will heal him and cure his Fisher King wound. It suggests that if a man is to be cured he must find something in himself about the same age and about the same mentality as he was when he was wounded" [Johnson 1989, 11].
Jung himself experienced this woundedness after his break with Freud that opened his deep unconscious, flooding him with imagery that took a lifetime to assimilate and analyze. He speaks of his soul-loss and efforts to retrieve it in his visionary tome, The Red Book, which has only recently been published, many years after his death.
The Red Book illuminates all of his theories of unconscious dynamics. As in dreams, we are all of the characters in mythological tales, and their stories hold deep meaning for us when they are activated by our own life experiences. They call us into the hero's adventure and one of their ways of doing so is the call to trace our genealogical roots.
The Wounded Fisher King
Jung and the Ancestors
The long-awaited release in the 21st century of Jung's RED BOOK (2009) reveals just how much of a role his ancestors and inner figures played in his own psychic life. They led directly to the formation of many of his theories of psychic dynamics.
Historically, in Western societies the focus of genealogy was on the kinship and descent of rulers and nobles, often arguing or demonstrating the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. The term often overlapped with heraldry, in which the ancestry of royalty was reflected in their coats of arms. Modern scholars consider many claimed noble ancestries to be fabrications, such as the Anglo-Saxon chronicles that traced the ancestry of several English kings to the god Woden.
But Jung healed and transformed his own fragmentation by taking up imaginal relationships with his inner figures. He developed what might be called a Dialogical Gnosis -- a Way of Knowing informed by the wisdom of the Collective Unconscious, the plenum of inherent knowledge and experience.
Jung was engaged in the process of individuation -- cognitive, empathic engagement with the living and discarnate.Engagement implies committment, rather than participation, per se. Respect for the freedom of others and the intention toallow their personhood expression is a basic tenet of engagement
One does not choose the path of individuation, but rather is chosen by it. Individuation seems to be the innate urge of life to realize itself consciously. The transpersonal life energy, in the process of self-unfolding, uses human consciousness, a product of itself, as an instrument for its own self-realization.
New discoveries must not only be made, but assimilated with concurrent experience and meaningful psychological insight. The individual meaningfulness of an experience is what creates unique personality. The instinctive feeling of significance is expanded by rooting experiences in their mythical patterns.
If the ego can withstand the irrational temptations, ordeals, and peril at the hands of the unknown, it is eventually rewarded with an expanded experience of self and a rejuvenation, or rebirth. In his essay on the "Relationship between the Ego and the Unconscious," Jung has stated that,
It is impossible to achieve individuation by conscious intention, because conscious intention invariably leads to a typical attitude that excludes whatever does not fit in with it. This assimilation of the unconscious contents leads, on the contrary to a condition in which the conscious intention is excluded and supplanted by a process of development that seems irrational. This process alone signifies individuation, and its product is individuality as we have defined it; particular and universal at once....Only when the unconscious is assimilated does the individuality emerge more clearly, together with the psychological phenomenon which links the ego with the non-ego and is designated by the word attitude.
But this time it is no longer a typical attitude but an individual one.
What the conscious ego can do in regard to individuation is make the commitment to work in harmony with the unfolding subconscious process, to give it constant attention, and to place proper value on the experience. This creates a resonance, the experience of "being in harmony with the cosmos", reflecting the Hermetic Axiom, "As Above, So Below."
The long-awaited release in the 21st century of Jung's RED BOOK (2009) reveals just how much of a role his ancestors and inner figures played in his own psychic life. They led directly to the formation of many of his theories of psychic dynamics.
Historically, in Western societies the focus of genealogy was on the kinship and descent of rulers and nobles, often arguing or demonstrating the legitimacy of claims to wealth and power. The term often overlapped with heraldry, in which the ancestry of royalty was reflected in their coats of arms. Modern scholars consider many claimed noble ancestries to be fabrications, such as the Anglo-Saxon chronicles that traced the ancestry of several English kings to the god Woden.
But Jung healed and transformed his own fragmentation by taking up imaginal relationships with his inner figures. He developed what might be called a Dialogical Gnosis -- a Way of Knowing informed by the wisdom of the Collective Unconscious, the plenum of inherent knowledge and experience.
Jung was engaged in the process of individuation -- cognitive, empathic engagement with the living and discarnate.Engagement implies committment, rather than participation, per se. Respect for the freedom of others and the intention toallow their personhood expression is a basic tenet of engagement
One does not choose the path of individuation, but rather is chosen by it. Individuation seems to be the innate urge of life to realize itself consciously. The transpersonal life energy, in the process of self-unfolding, uses human consciousness, a product of itself, as an instrument for its own self-realization.
New discoveries must not only be made, but assimilated with concurrent experience and meaningful psychological insight. The individual meaningfulness of an experience is what creates unique personality. The instinctive feeling of significance is expanded by rooting experiences in their mythical patterns.
If the ego can withstand the irrational temptations, ordeals, and peril at the hands of the unknown, it is eventually rewarded with an expanded experience of self and a rejuvenation, or rebirth. In his essay on the "Relationship between the Ego and the Unconscious," Jung has stated that,
It is impossible to achieve individuation by conscious intention, because conscious intention invariably leads to a typical attitude that excludes whatever does not fit in with it. This assimilation of the unconscious contents leads, on the contrary to a condition in which the conscious intention is excluded and supplanted by a process of development that seems irrational. This process alone signifies individuation, and its product is individuality as we have defined it; particular and universal at once....Only when the unconscious is assimilated does the individuality emerge more clearly, together with the psychological phenomenon which links the ego with the non-ego and is designated by the word attitude.
But this time it is no longer a typical attitude but an individual one.
What the conscious ego can do in regard to individuation is make the commitment to work in harmony with the unfolding subconscious process, to give it constant attention, and to place proper value on the experience. This creates a resonance, the experience of "being in harmony with the cosmos", reflecting the Hermetic Axiom, "As Above, So Below."
The Secret Garden of the Rose
The Rose in mysticism and Hermetic Philosophies is a profound symbol of consciousness and the soul personality. It symbolizes consciousness projected into the material form. Consciousness is symbolized in a very apt and beautiful way as a flowering process and an unfolding manifestation. This flowering , blooming and unfolding of its petals in a perfect
mandalic symmetry, represents man's divine inner consciousness being revealed as layers of his being open up to reveal its ever becoming center, the Inner Self. To the Rosicrucians the symbol of the Rosy Cross is sacred. The Rose crucified on the cross is the symbol of the true divinity of humanity. The cross represents the four cardinal points of being in a
balanced state. The crossing of the vertical and the horizontal lines represent the conjunction of the opposites. The vertical, being the positive and active, conjuncts the horizontal, the negative and passive. It is at this conjunction point, representing balance nd harmony, that the rose flowers and unfolds itself. The cross also represents the body of man with
outstretched arms as his whole earthly plane and his heart being again at a conjunction between the superiors and inferiors, head or heaven, feet or earth, and also between left and right as opposition between the forces of light and darkness, life and death .
To the initiates this symbol of divine consciousness crucified or infused upon and in his physical body is a most profound and sacred mystery of the incarnation of the soul.
A beautiful Hermetic saying of the Rosicrucians is,
"Ad Rosam per crucem, ad crucem per Rosam."
-Steve Kalec
More and legends and myths of the rose:
http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/rose.htm
mandalic symmetry, represents man's divine inner consciousness being revealed as layers of his being open up to reveal its ever becoming center, the Inner Self. To the Rosicrucians the symbol of the Rosy Cross is sacred. The Rose crucified on the cross is the symbol of the true divinity of humanity. The cross represents the four cardinal points of being in a
balanced state. The crossing of the vertical and the horizontal lines represent the conjunction of the opposites. The vertical, being the positive and active, conjuncts the horizontal, the negative and passive. It is at this conjunction point, representing balance nd harmony, that the rose flowers and unfolds itself. The cross also represents the body of man with
outstretched arms as his whole earthly plane and his heart being again at a conjunction between the superiors and inferiors, head or heaven, feet or earth, and also between left and right as opposition between the forces of light and darkness, life and death .
To the initiates this symbol of divine consciousness crucified or infused upon and in his physical body is a most profound and sacred mystery of the incarnation of the soul.
A beautiful Hermetic saying of the Rosicrucians is,
"Ad Rosam per crucem, ad crucem per Rosam."
-Steve Kalec
More and legends and myths of the rose:
http://www.whitedragon.org.uk/articles/rose.htm
ROSA MUNDI
http://www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk/rosamundi.html
"Take the fayer Roses, white and red / And joyne them well in won bed. /
So betwixt these Roses mylde / Thou shalt bring forth a Gloriuse chylde."
(Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image, Bollingen C, Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 254)
http://www.clanoftubalcain.org.uk/rosamundi.html
"Take the fayer Roses, white and red / And joyne them well in won bed. /
So betwixt these Roses mylde / Thou shalt bring forth a Gloriuse chylde."
(Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image, Bollingen C, Princeton University Press, 1974, p. 254)
Cult of the Archetypal Feminine
The Mother of us all is also the Earth, as the light of the divine womb (primal source) and the mystery of divine light that informs and transforms into matter. The Sangreal is a cult of bloodline. Many who are of it are unaware or unawakened to that genealogical and gnostic awareness.
Many who think they are 'awake' are merely enthralled with the fugue state or eruption of symbolic material which is actually a form of dissociation. Dissociative disorders are typically experienced as startling, autonomous intrusions into the person's usual ways of responding or functioning. Due to their unexpected and largely inexplicable nature, they tend to be quite unsettling. Jung theorized that theorized that dissociation is a natural necessity for consciousness to operate in one faculty unhampered by the demands of its opposite.
Much of the magic and mystery enters our lines through our grandmothers, from the distaff side of our physical inheritance. It is carried in the mitochondrial DNA, inherited only from the mother on the x chromosome. It is very persistent through generations in both men and women, which helps us determine the relationship of populations.
About 360 years, or just short of 15 generations mtDNA peters out. At 15 generations, an individual living today would carry only three thousands of 1% (00.003052%) of the DNA of an ancestor who was “pure” anything 15 generations ago. So even if one ancestor was indeed Mediterranean or whatever 15 generations ago, unless they continuously intermarried within a pure Mediterranean population, the amount would drop by 50% with each generation to the miniscule amount that would be found in today’s current generation. With today’s technology, this is simply untraceable in autosomal DNA.
The fact that mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited enables genealogical researchers to trace maternal lineage far back in time. The concept of the Mitochondrial Eve is based on the same type of analysis, attempting to discover the origin of humanity by tracking the lineage back in time.
In the medieval era, a cult of the Feminine arose with a persistent theme of gender reunion in the Great Rite of the ancient bloodline, mystical eroticism known as the Mysterium Coniunctionis or Royal Marriage, in the underground Church of Love. Jung wrote a large book with that title describing "the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy".
The opposites to be reconciled were Venus and Mars. It's about healing sexual woundedness, the pathless Wasteland of male-female relationships (literal and psychic), with a mystical inner marriage. Like Isis and Horus, when the Madonna holds the infant Jesus, he represents the Future, and he continues to do so as the future is always coming.
The Sacred Heart and Mary Magdalene are twin symbols of the Grail. She has been used to symbolize the hidden teachings of Jesus. The cult of Mary Magdalene and the Cult of the Black Virgin survive in many forms to this day. The meeting of the sun-god and the earth-mother brings forth the miracle of birth, death, and rebirth from her dark creative womb. The god comes through the goddess.
We find that balance in Individuation, after facing the Shadow and connecting with inner wisdom. Through his relationship with the feminine a man gains access to his own soul, to the deeper layers of his "heart". His sensitive quest for his "queen" makes him wiser, more sensitive, more scrupulous as a person. AMOR is a spiritual development. The courage to persist is the hallmark of loyalty.
The Mother of us all is also the Earth, as the light of the divine womb (primal source) and the mystery of divine light that informs and transforms into matter. The Sangreal is a cult of bloodline. Many who are of it are unaware or unawakened to that genealogical and gnostic awareness.
Many who think they are 'awake' are merely enthralled with the fugue state or eruption of symbolic material which is actually a form of dissociation. Dissociative disorders are typically experienced as startling, autonomous intrusions into the person's usual ways of responding or functioning. Due to their unexpected and largely inexplicable nature, they tend to be quite unsettling. Jung theorized that theorized that dissociation is a natural necessity for consciousness to operate in one faculty unhampered by the demands of its opposite.
Much of the magic and mystery enters our lines through our grandmothers, from the distaff side of our physical inheritance. It is carried in the mitochondrial DNA, inherited only from the mother on the x chromosome. It is very persistent through generations in both men and women, which helps us determine the relationship of populations.
About 360 years, or just short of 15 generations mtDNA peters out. At 15 generations, an individual living today would carry only three thousands of 1% (00.003052%) of the DNA of an ancestor who was “pure” anything 15 generations ago. So even if one ancestor was indeed Mediterranean or whatever 15 generations ago, unless they continuously intermarried within a pure Mediterranean population, the amount would drop by 50% with each generation to the miniscule amount that would be found in today’s current generation. With today’s technology, this is simply untraceable in autosomal DNA.
The fact that mitochondrial DNA is maternally inherited enables genealogical researchers to trace maternal lineage far back in time. The concept of the Mitochondrial Eve is based on the same type of analysis, attempting to discover the origin of humanity by tracking the lineage back in time.
In the medieval era, a cult of the Feminine arose with a persistent theme of gender reunion in the Great Rite of the ancient bloodline, mystical eroticism known as the Mysterium Coniunctionis or Royal Marriage, in the underground Church of Love. Jung wrote a large book with that title describing "the separation and synthesis of psychic opposites in alchemy".
The opposites to be reconciled were Venus and Mars. It's about healing sexual woundedness, the pathless Wasteland of male-female relationships (literal and psychic), with a mystical inner marriage. Like Isis and Horus, when the Madonna holds the infant Jesus, he represents the Future, and he continues to do so as the future is always coming.
The Sacred Heart and Mary Magdalene are twin symbols of the Grail. She has been used to symbolize the hidden teachings of Jesus. The cult of Mary Magdalene and the Cult of the Black Virgin survive in many forms to this day. The meeting of the sun-god and the earth-mother brings forth the miracle of birth, death, and rebirth from her dark creative womb. The god comes through the goddess.
We find that balance in Individuation, after facing the Shadow and connecting with inner wisdom. Through his relationship with the feminine a man gains access to his own soul, to the deeper layers of his "heart". His sensitive quest for his "queen" makes him wiser, more sensitive, more scrupulous as a person. AMOR is a spiritual development. The courage to persist is the hallmark of loyalty.
The Rosy Cross is a symbol of the human process of reproduction elevated to the spiritual: The fundamental symbols are the female rose and the male cross. As generation is the key to material existence, those symbols exemplify the reproductive processes. As regeneration is the key to spiritual existence, the symbolism of the rose and the cross typifies redemption through the union of our lower temporal nature with our higher eternal nature.
The Rosy Cross is equivalent to the Philosopher's Stone or Holy Grail, and refined Gold. All represent the Grail of Self-Realization. As an image The Grail was a symbol of not just spiritual transcendence but also the Divine Immanence in creation. In Jewish mysticism, every woman is an earthly embodiment of the celestial Shekinah. The Grail Temple is the body, our sacred vessel. We need to learn again that the family is a being, a goddess.
There are many icons of Mary that show black faces and hands. In France, these are called Vierge Noires—Black Virgins. Elsewhere, they may be called Black Madonnas or the "other Mary." Jung called her Isis, while others claim she is the symbolic remains of a prehistoric worship of the Earth Mother. She is generally connected with Cybele, Diana, Isis, and Venus, as well as with Kali, Inanna, and Lilith. Historically she is connected with the Crusades, the Islamic occupation of Spain, the Conquistadors, the Kabbala, as well as the Merovingians and Knights Templar, who viewed her as Mary Magdalene.
Courtly Love (courtezia) and Troubadours were institutions that compensated the misogyny of medieval times. The contemplation of beauty in its feminine incarnation opens the Middle Way between debauchery and self-abnegation. Transcendent beauty is reflected in a beautiful face or body. Contact with the beautiful is a sacrament. The culture of l'amour courtois flourished in Anjou and the Languedoc. The House of Anjou remains the senior Grail family.
The Crusades, the so-called 'holy war', filled the need for collective Shadow projection. In this scenario, Venus and the cult of the Feminine played counterpoint to the Martian cult of warrior-knighthood, with its chivalric code of honor. This Quest for a lost sacred object, the Holy Grail, appears out of a deep and urgent need to counteract the brutality of the rapacious crusading, murderous military oppression. AMOR was a gnostic and esoteric doctrine of the divinity of the Mother and the higher meaning of the chivalric quest.
The persecuted became persecutors in a collective defensive strategy known as identification with the aggressor and the splitting-off of the victim. Whether personal or collective the consequence is the same. A need arises to find and project the shadow onto an external victim who opposes the newly found power of the aggressor. The real problem was and remains how to reconcile the two warring extremes of human nature: spirituality and sexuality. Men met the challenge by becoming more rigid and investing women and the Grail with the powers of generation and regeneration.
The historical origin for the collective resurgence of the sacred feminine is most likely derived from ancient cults of the Great Goddess—the mysteries of Isis, of Diana of Ephesus or Cybele, and especially the Sophia of the Gnostics. They were carried to Europe through the artistic contacts of troubadours who had been to the East.
Above all, the Cathars revered a version of Isis-Sophia and ordained women as priestesses equally with men. However, their Gnosticism also vilified the flesh and therefore all matter. Their archetypes, The Archons, were likewise demonized, being stunted by duality.
The Gnosticism of the second-century sects involves a coherent series of characteristics that can be summarized in the idea of a divine spark in man, deriving from the divine realm, fallen into this world of fate, birth, and death, and needing to be awakened by the divine counterpart of the self in order to be finally reintegrated (into the divine realm). (Filoramo, 1990, p. 143)
It is likely that the troubadour aubades or songs to the lady in spring ultimately derive from remnants of the old cults of Demeter, the Mother Goddess and her daughter Persephone. The Greeks brought this worship to Provence when they colonized Marseille and the south of Gaul in early times.
In the ancient Basilica of St. Victor in Marseille, on the 2nd of February each year thousand of candles are lit to attend the raising of the famous Black Madonna from the infernal darkness of the crypt up into the upper air. Persephone returned to the upper world every spring in Greek times, with masses of torches, to re-unite with her mother Demeter.
So in many of the noble courts of the South of France in the 11th-12th centuries there is a kind of revival of the pagan substrate that has been buried, but not entirely, by Christianity. What re-emerges is Christianity’s pagan shadow, to use Jung’s terms. What we see is the upsurge from the unconscious of the repressed pagan archetypal energies of the Dionysian-Venusian. Ecstatic use of art, music, and the body led to communion with the godhead within the body. (Woolger) http://www.deepmemoryprocess.com/page33.html
The Rosy Cross is equivalent to the Philosopher's Stone or Holy Grail, and refined Gold. All represent the Grail of Self-Realization. As an image The Grail was a symbol of not just spiritual transcendence but also the Divine Immanence in creation. In Jewish mysticism, every woman is an earthly embodiment of the celestial Shekinah. The Grail Temple is the body, our sacred vessel. We need to learn again that the family is a being, a goddess.
There are many icons of Mary that show black faces and hands. In France, these are called Vierge Noires—Black Virgins. Elsewhere, they may be called Black Madonnas or the "other Mary." Jung called her Isis, while others claim she is the symbolic remains of a prehistoric worship of the Earth Mother. She is generally connected with Cybele, Diana, Isis, and Venus, as well as with Kali, Inanna, and Lilith. Historically she is connected with the Crusades, the Islamic occupation of Spain, the Conquistadors, the Kabbala, as well as the Merovingians and Knights Templar, who viewed her as Mary Magdalene.
Courtly Love (courtezia) and Troubadours were institutions that compensated the misogyny of medieval times. The contemplation of beauty in its feminine incarnation opens the Middle Way between debauchery and self-abnegation. Transcendent beauty is reflected in a beautiful face or body. Contact with the beautiful is a sacrament. The culture of l'amour courtois flourished in Anjou and the Languedoc. The House of Anjou remains the senior Grail family.
The Crusades, the so-called 'holy war', filled the need for collective Shadow projection. In this scenario, Venus and the cult of the Feminine played counterpoint to the Martian cult of warrior-knighthood, with its chivalric code of honor. This Quest for a lost sacred object, the Holy Grail, appears out of a deep and urgent need to counteract the brutality of the rapacious crusading, murderous military oppression. AMOR was a gnostic and esoteric doctrine of the divinity of the Mother and the higher meaning of the chivalric quest.
The persecuted became persecutors in a collective defensive strategy known as identification with the aggressor and the splitting-off of the victim. Whether personal or collective the consequence is the same. A need arises to find and project the shadow onto an external victim who opposes the newly found power of the aggressor. The real problem was and remains how to reconcile the two warring extremes of human nature: spirituality and sexuality. Men met the challenge by becoming more rigid and investing women and the Grail with the powers of generation and regeneration.
The historical origin for the collective resurgence of the sacred feminine is most likely derived from ancient cults of the Great Goddess—the mysteries of Isis, of Diana of Ephesus or Cybele, and especially the Sophia of the Gnostics. They were carried to Europe through the artistic contacts of troubadours who had been to the East.
Above all, the Cathars revered a version of Isis-Sophia and ordained women as priestesses equally with men. However, their Gnosticism also vilified the flesh and therefore all matter. Their archetypes, The Archons, were likewise demonized, being stunted by duality.
The Gnosticism of the second-century sects involves a coherent series of characteristics that can be summarized in the idea of a divine spark in man, deriving from the divine realm, fallen into this world of fate, birth, and death, and needing to be awakened by the divine counterpart of the self in order to be finally reintegrated (into the divine realm). (Filoramo, 1990, p. 143)
It is likely that the troubadour aubades or songs to the lady in spring ultimately derive from remnants of the old cults of Demeter, the Mother Goddess and her daughter Persephone. The Greeks brought this worship to Provence when they colonized Marseille and the south of Gaul in early times.
In the ancient Basilica of St. Victor in Marseille, on the 2nd of February each year thousand of candles are lit to attend the raising of the famous Black Madonna from the infernal darkness of the crypt up into the upper air. Persephone returned to the upper world every spring in Greek times, with masses of torches, to re-unite with her mother Demeter.
So in many of the noble courts of the South of France in the 11th-12th centuries there is a kind of revival of the pagan substrate that has been buried, but not entirely, by Christianity. What re-emerges is Christianity’s pagan shadow, to use Jung’s terms. What we see is the upsurge from the unconscious of the repressed pagan archetypal energies of the Dionysian-Venusian. Ecstatic use of art, music, and the body led to communion with the godhead within the body. (Woolger) http://www.deepmemoryprocess.com/page33.html
''Queen Eleanor & Fair Rosamund'' by Evelyn De Morgan
The Grail hero discovers a castle in the midst of a Wasteland of self-alienation
The Fisher King is the wounded father principle, the weakened, unproductive and spiritually desolate father-world of medieval times. The waters of life have dried up both within and without laving a damaged consciousness, cut off from Mother Earth.
Jung said that today "the Gods have become diseases," and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) describes not only the psychological victims of war and brutality but says something about our own "hostage" culture. It is a kind of stuckness where the trauma seems to be continuously recurring, a torturous victimization without relief. The war comes home in chaos, flashbacks, dark futures, and suicidal impulses. We can imagine that the old warrior-knights were not immune from such human frailties. http://ptsdpolitics.iwarp.com/
“Peace for veterans is not an ‘absence of war’ but its living ghost in the bedroom, at the lunch counter, on the highway. The trauma is not ‘post’ but acutely present, and the ‘syndrome’ is not in the veteran but in the dictionary, in the amnesiac’s idea of peace that colludes with an unlivable life.” “The return from the killing fields is more than a debriefing; it is a slow ascent from hell. …The veteran needs a rite de sortie that belongs to every initiation as its normal conclusion, making possible an intact return.” (James Hillman)
In contrast, the passion of the troubadours was earthy, bodily and sensual no matter how sentimentalists would later portray it. Dali quipped, "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot." There is no longer any excuse to see the ladies of the troubadours through rose-tinted spectacles of the early Romantic poets and the Pre-Raphaelite painters, as purely ethereal disembodied “spiritual” anima figures.
The troubadours celebrated the incarnation of the feminine every bit as much as its spiritualization. Some say fins amor, or pure love of a woman as a form of spiritual initiation through a forbidden but transcendent love affair, was practiced not for procreation but contemplation. http://www.deepmemoryprocess.com/page209.html
Woolger, Roger, The Holy Grail: Healing the Sexual Wound in the Western Psyche (1983/2010)
Jung said that today "the Gods have become diseases," and Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) describes not only the psychological victims of war and brutality but says something about our own "hostage" culture. It is a kind of stuckness where the trauma seems to be continuously recurring, a torturous victimization without relief. The war comes home in chaos, flashbacks, dark futures, and suicidal impulses. We can imagine that the old warrior-knights were not immune from such human frailties. http://ptsdpolitics.iwarp.com/
“Peace for veterans is not an ‘absence of war’ but its living ghost in the bedroom, at the lunch counter, on the highway. The trauma is not ‘post’ but acutely present, and the ‘syndrome’ is not in the veteran but in the dictionary, in the amnesiac’s idea of peace that colludes with an unlivable life.” “The return from the killing fields is more than a debriefing; it is a slow ascent from hell. …The veteran needs a rite de sortie that belongs to every initiation as its normal conclusion, making possible an intact return.” (James Hillman)
In contrast, the passion of the troubadours was earthy, bodily and sensual no matter how sentimentalists would later portray it. Dali quipped, "The first man to compare the cheeks of a young woman to a rose was obviously a poet; the first to repeat it was possibly an idiot." There is no longer any excuse to see the ladies of the troubadours through rose-tinted spectacles of the early Romantic poets and the Pre-Raphaelite painters, as purely ethereal disembodied “spiritual” anima figures.
The troubadours celebrated the incarnation of the feminine every bit as much as its spiritualization. Some say fins amor, or pure love of a woman as a form of spiritual initiation through a forbidden but transcendent love affair, was practiced not for procreation but contemplation. http://www.deepmemoryprocess.com/page209.html
Woolger, Roger, The Holy Grail: Healing the Sexual Wound in the Western Psyche (1983/2010)
Karena Karras "The Bath"
Rose Line Descent
The Da Vinci Code made much of the so-called Roseline marking sacred sites in the European landscape. But the real Rose Lines are revealed in the royal genealogies with which it is interwoven. The Grail is the source of life, of generativity, of the primordial Eros. The Grail belongs to all that is soft, yielding, yin, of the body, of the earth, of the Mother: full, rich, gentle, and infinitely abundant.
Certain images, such as the Garden of the Rose, the Fountain, the Loathly Bride, the Damsel in distress, and above all the Holy Grail recur in all kinds of variations. The symbol of the Rose, for example, finds its way from the Sufis to the Roman de la Rose, to Dante's Paradiso, to the windows of Chartres Cathedral, and eventually to the mystical Brotherhood of the Rosicrucians. The underground tradition of alchemy and esoteric arts kept the spiritual Mysteries and Great Goddess discipline alive in the Underground Stream.
The Da Vinci Code made much of the so-called Roseline marking sacred sites in the European landscape. But the real Rose Lines are revealed in the royal genealogies with which it is interwoven. The Grail is the source of life, of generativity, of the primordial Eros. The Grail belongs to all that is soft, yielding, yin, of the body, of the earth, of the Mother: full, rich, gentle, and infinitely abundant.
Certain images, such as the Garden of the Rose, the Fountain, the Loathly Bride, the Damsel in distress, and above all the Holy Grail recur in all kinds of variations. The symbol of the Rose, for example, finds its way from the Sufis to the Roman de la Rose, to Dante's Paradiso, to the windows of Chartres Cathedral, and eventually to the mystical Brotherhood of the Rosicrucians. The underground tradition of alchemy and esoteric arts kept the spiritual Mysteries and Great Goddess discipline alive in the Underground Stream.
Great Rite
1180 and 1230 AD. This is the same prolific and fertile time period that saw the peak of the great cathedral building era; the rise to power of the Templar Knights; the rise and fall of Catharism in southern France; the formation of Kabbalistic and mystical schools in Spain. The Grail symbol first emerges in history in a series of remarkable writings that appear in France over a span of about half a century between the years 1180 and 1230 AD. This is the same prolific and fertile time period that saw the peak of the great cathedral building era; the rise to power of the Templar Knights; the rise and fall of Catharism in southern France; the formation of Kabbalistic and mystical schools in Spain in which Jews, Christians and Muslims all participated in relative harmony; the emergence of the Troubadours as channels for the diffusion and circulation of sacred knowledge; the rise of Sufism and the transmission of Hermetic knowledge to Europe via Islamic scholars and mystics.
Self-Reflection:
Mental activity that concentrates on a particular content of consciousness, an instinct encompassing religion and the search for meaning.
Ordinarily we do not think of "reflection" as ever having been instinctive, but associate it with a conscious state of mind. Reflexio means "bending back" and, used psychologically, would denote the fact that the reflex which carries the stimulus over into its instinctive discharge is interfered with by psychization. . . . Thus in place of the compulsive act there appears a certain degree of freedom, and in place of predictability a relative unpredictability as to the effect of the impulse.["Psychological Factors in Human Behaviour," CW 8, par. 241.]
In Jung’s view, the richness of the human psyche and its essential character are determined by the reflective instinct.
Reflection is the cultural instinct par excellence, and its strength is shown in the power of culture to maintain itself in the face of untamed nature.[Ibid., par. 243.]
Self-reflection, or – what comes to the same thing – the urge to individuation, gathers together what is scattered and multifarious and exalts it to the original of the One, the Primordial Man.
In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious, the sources of conflict are dried up. ~Carl Jung; Collected Works 11; Transformation Symbolism in the Mass; par. 401
To concern ourselves with dreams is a way of reflecting on ourselves-a way of self-reflection. It is not our ego-consciousness reflecting on itself; rather, it turns its attention to the objective actuality of the dream as a communication or message from the unconscious, unitary soul of humanity. It reflects not on the ego but on the self; it recollects that strange self, alien to the ego, which was ours from the beginning, the trunk from which the ego grew. It is alien to us because we have estranged ourselves from it through the aberrations of the conscious mind. ~"The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man" (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 318
If we do not fashion for ourselves a picture of the world, we do not see ourselves either, who are the faithful reflections of that world. Only when mirrored in our picture of the world can we see ourselves in the round? Only in our creative acts do we step forth into the light and see ourselves whole and complete. Never shall we put any face on the world other than our own, and we have to do this precisely in order to find ourselves. For higher than science or art as an end in itself stands man, the creator of his instruments. ~"Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung" (1928). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.737
Mental activity that concentrates on a particular content of consciousness, an instinct encompassing religion and the search for meaning.
Ordinarily we do not think of "reflection" as ever having been instinctive, but associate it with a conscious state of mind. Reflexio means "bending back" and, used psychologically, would denote the fact that the reflex which carries the stimulus over into its instinctive discharge is interfered with by psychization. . . . Thus in place of the compulsive act there appears a certain degree of freedom, and in place of predictability a relative unpredictability as to the effect of the impulse.["Psychological Factors in Human Behaviour," CW 8, par. 241.]
In Jung’s view, the richness of the human psyche and its essential character are determined by the reflective instinct.
Reflection is the cultural instinct par excellence, and its strength is shown in the power of culture to maintain itself in the face of untamed nature.[Ibid., par. 243.]
Self-reflection, or – what comes to the same thing – the urge to individuation, gathers together what is scattered and multifarious and exalts it to the original of the One, the Primordial Man.
In this way our existence as separate beings, our former ego nature, is abolished, the circle of consciousness is widened, and because the paradoxes have been made conscious, the sources of conflict are dried up. ~Carl Jung; Collected Works 11; Transformation Symbolism in the Mass; par. 401
To concern ourselves with dreams is a way of reflecting on ourselves-a way of self-reflection. It is not our ego-consciousness reflecting on itself; rather, it turns its attention to the objective actuality of the dream as a communication or message from the unconscious, unitary soul of humanity. It reflects not on the ego but on the self; it recollects that strange self, alien to the ego, which was ours from the beginning, the trunk from which the ego grew. It is alien to us because we have estranged ourselves from it through the aberrations of the conscious mind. ~"The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man" (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 318
If we do not fashion for ourselves a picture of the world, we do not see ourselves either, who are the faithful reflections of that world. Only when mirrored in our picture of the world can we see ourselves in the round? Only in our creative acts do we step forth into the light and see ourselves whole and complete. Never shall we put any face on the world other than our own, and we have to do this precisely in order to find ourselves. For higher than science or art as an end in itself stands man, the creator of his instruments. ~"Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung" (1928). In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.737
Chapter 1
On February 29, 1919, Jung wrote a letter to Joan Corrie and commented on the
Seven Sermons of the Dead, with particular reference to the last one:
"The primordial creator of the world, the blind creative libido, becomes transformed in man through individuation & out of this process, which is like pregnancy, arises a divine child, a reborn God, no more (longer) dispersed into the millions of creatures, but being one & this individual, and at the same time all individuals, the same in you as in me.
Dr. L[ong] has a little book: VII sermones ad mortuous. There you find the description of the Creator dispersed into his creatures, & in the last sermon you find the beginning of individuation, out of which, the divine child arises ... The child is a new God, actually born in many individuals, but they don't know it. He is a spiritual God. A spirit in many people, yet one and the same everywhere. Keep to your time and you will experience His qualities" (Copied in Constance Long's diary, Countway Library of
Medicine, pp. 21-22) ~The Red Book, Footnote 123.
Birth is an act of physical and psychological separation – the first decisive and abrupt,the latter more gradual. We learn to think of ourselves as discrete, separate individuals. We have our bodies, distinct from other bodies, with its boundary of skin,and a separate and unique mind, also separated from other minds, with which we think our own private thoughts and hold internal conversations. Neuroscience is beginning to track the location of some of these thoughts in the brain, and to help those without speech to turn images, ideas and preverbal signals into language. If we are spiritually minded we may also envisage a unique individual soul or spirit. The soul may be conceived of as pre-existent and capable of surviving the death of the physical body. It may retain some aspects of its individuality outside the physical realm, and even carry experiences and characteristics through successive incarnations.This unique, separate experience of embodied human existence constitutes the Self. We may be in relation to other selves, share many of their genes, and be mutually interdependent, but even in the case of identical twins, each Self is bounded and grounded in an individual body, mind and spirit. The sensation of not being so grounded and separate is commonly treated in Western medical terms as a pathology...
--Fiona Bowie
Seven Sermons of the Dead, with particular reference to the last one:
"The primordial creator of the world, the blind creative libido, becomes transformed in man through individuation & out of this process, which is like pregnancy, arises a divine child, a reborn God, no more (longer) dispersed into the millions of creatures, but being one & this individual, and at the same time all individuals, the same in you as in me.
Dr. L[ong] has a little book: VII sermones ad mortuous. There you find the description of the Creator dispersed into his creatures, & in the last sermon you find the beginning of individuation, out of which, the divine child arises ... The child is a new God, actually born in many individuals, but they don't know it. He is a spiritual God. A spirit in many people, yet one and the same everywhere. Keep to your time and you will experience His qualities" (Copied in Constance Long's diary, Countway Library of
Medicine, pp. 21-22) ~The Red Book, Footnote 123.
Birth is an act of physical and psychological separation – the first decisive and abrupt,the latter more gradual. We learn to think of ourselves as discrete, separate individuals. We have our bodies, distinct from other bodies, with its boundary of skin,and a separate and unique mind, also separated from other minds, with which we think our own private thoughts and hold internal conversations. Neuroscience is beginning to track the location of some of these thoughts in the brain, and to help those without speech to turn images, ideas and preverbal signals into language. If we are spiritually minded we may also envisage a unique individual soul or spirit. The soul may be conceived of as pre-existent and capable of surviving the death of the physical body. It may retain some aspects of its individuality outside the physical realm, and even carry experiences and characteristics through successive incarnations.This unique, separate experience of embodied human existence constitutes the Self. We may be in relation to other selves, share many of their genes, and be mutually interdependent, but even in the case of identical twins, each Self is bounded and grounded in an individual body, mind and spirit. The sensation of not being so grounded and separate is commonly treated in Western medical terms as a pathology...
--Fiona Bowie
Approaches to Genealogy
Your own BOOK OF THE DEAD is written in your DNA. Deciphering its inherent meaning is a Quest for the Grail and the journey of psychological transformation. We instinctively engage in semi-conscious conversations with these ephemeral figures from our past that feed our conceptions of the ineffable and our own extended self.
We find, perhaps to our surprise, that upon reflection they inform us with a hitherto unknown wisdom or perplex us with unsolvable riddles. The intangible world interacts with the tangible one through their effects on us. Ancestral spirits have their own histories, motivations, and social interactions and are traditionally viewed as agents in a rich network of social trajectories, not symbols.
A pedigree is a symbolic hologram of our intertwined histories and structure -- interacting waves upon waves of generations in the ocean of humanity. Because the ancestors number literally in the thousands, we come to understand the transformation is within the unfolding therapeutic practice, rather than contained only in each of the historical or fictional figures.
Genealogical research is a complex process that uses historical records and sometimes genetic analysis to demonstrate kinship. Reliable conclusions are based on the quality of sources, ideally original records, the information within those sources. Ideally evidence is drawn, directly or indirectly from primary or firsthand information.
Genealogy forces you to move through history in steps of 20-30 years, generation after generation, filling in every step. Whereas history often compresses or "telescopes" time, so that two hundred years in the medieval period is covered in far less space than two hundred years in the modern period. We know very well that we need a lot of generations to get from 1720 to 1950. Genealogy reminds us that we need exactly the same number of generations to get from 1220 to 1450. It forces us to pick our way step by step through those long unchanging medieval years. http://humphrysfamilytree.com/meaning.html
In many instances, genealogists must skillfully assemble indirect or circumstantial evidence to build a case for identity and kinship. All evidence and conclusions, together with the documentation that supports them, is then assembled to create a cohesive genealogy or family history. Overall patterns contains meaning.
Genealogist Mark Humphreys says, "Your ancestors were the same mix of bullies, fools, bigots, incompetents, cowards, and occasional smart and admirable people that always make up society. You exist because of many people who you would despise if you met them. Genealogy is about finding out who they were, it should have no interest in whether they were admirable or not.
Indeed, it's more fun when they murder each other, marry descendants of their ancestors' bitter enemies, conceive your ancestor as a result of sordid and regretted affairs, die before their child is born, and so on. It makes us realize how precarious our existence is, and how messy and unlikely our genetic inheritance. Anyone who believes they belong to one race, or that their ancestors were fine people, hasn't done enough genealogy.
This is especially true when applied to the nobility and royalty, who are often the only ancestors you are left with in the more distant past. Why should you admire some noble, or take their side, just because you descend from them? The nobility of the past were often no more than the most successful robbers, stealing other people's land, and living off other people's work. They weren't Appointed By God, but were the survivors of a long process of selection among the most aggressive and best-organized Strong Men, aided by the greatest thieves of them all, the Royal family.
No, the desire for a Royal Descent is quite different. It's because most of us exist in little islands of peasants and farmers, interconnected to each other but to no one else, and for all we know we would still exist no matter what had happened in mainstream history in the big world outside.
And the only way to break out of this island is to find a connection to one of these Strong Men, after which things explode and history becomes full of events on which our existence provably depends. The peer, the heiress, the gent, the precious link to the World Family Tree, is your goal, but to expect to actually like him or her, or be proud of them, is to rather miss the point." http://humphrysfamilytree.com/meaning.html
Genealogists begin their research by collecting family documents and stories. This creates a foundation for documentary research, which involves examining and evaluating historical records for evidence about ancestors and other relatives, their kinship ties, and the events that occurred in their lives. As a rule, genealogists begin with the present and work backward in time.
Your own BOOK OF THE DEAD is written in your DNA. Deciphering its inherent meaning is a Quest for the Grail and the journey of psychological transformation. We instinctively engage in semi-conscious conversations with these ephemeral figures from our past that feed our conceptions of the ineffable and our own extended self.
We find, perhaps to our surprise, that upon reflection they inform us with a hitherto unknown wisdom or perplex us with unsolvable riddles. The intangible world interacts with the tangible one through their effects on us. Ancestral spirits have their own histories, motivations, and social interactions and are traditionally viewed as agents in a rich network of social trajectories, not symbols.
A pedigree is a symbolic hologram of our intertwined histories and structure -- interacting waves upon waves of generations in the ocean of humanity. Because the ancestors number literally in the thousands, we come to understand the transformation is within the unfolding therapeutic practice, rather than contained only in each of the historical or fictional figures.
Genealogical research is a complex process that uses historical records and sometimes genetic analysis to demonstrate kinship. Reliable conclusions are based on the quality of sources, ideally original records, the information within those sources. Ideally evidence is drawn, directly or indirectly from primary or firsthand information.
Genealogy forces you to move through history in steps of 20-30 years, generation after generation, filling in every step. Whereas history often compresses or "telescopes" time, so that two hundred years in the medieval period is covered in far less space than two hundred years in the modern period. We know very well that we need a lot of generations to get from 1720 to 1950. Genealogy reminds us that we need exactly the same number of generations to get from 1220 to 1450. It forces us to pick our way step by step through those long unchanging medieval years. http://humphrysfamilytree.com/meaning.html
In many instances, genealogists must skillfully assemble indirect or circumstantial evidence to build a case for identity and kinship. All evidence and conclusions, together with the documentation that supports them, is then assembled to create a cohesive genealogy or family history. Overall patterns contains meaning.
Genealogist Mark Humphreys says, "Your ancestors were the same mix of bullies, fools, bigots, incompetents, cowards, and occasional smart and admirable people that always make up society. You exist because of many people who you would despise if you met them. Genealogy is about finding out who they were, it should have no interest in whether they were admirable or not.
Indeed, it's more fun when they murder each other, marry descendants of their ancestors' bitter enemies, conceive your ancestor as a result of sordid and regretted affairs, die before their child is born, and so on. It makes us realize how precarious our existence is, and how messy and unlikely our genetic inheritance. Anyone who believes they belong to one race, or that their ancestors were fine people, hasn't done enough genealogy.
This is especially true when applied to the nobility and royalty, who are often the only ancestors you are left with in the more distant past. Why should you admire some noble, or take their side, just because you descend from them? The nobility of the past were often no more than the most successful robbers, stealing other people's land, and living off other people's work. They weren't Appointed By God, but were the survivors of a long process of selection among the most aggressive and best-organized Strong Men, aided by the greatest thieves of them all, the Royal family.
No, the desire for a Royal Descent is quite different. It's because most of us exist in little islands of peasants and farmers, interconnected to each other but to no one else, and for all we know we would still exist no matter what had happened in mainstream history in the big world outside.
And the only way to break out of this island is to find a connection to one of these Strong Men, after which things explode and history becomes full of events on which our existence provably depends. The peer, the heiress, the gent, the precious link to the World Family Tree, is your goal, but to expect to actually like him or her, or be proud of them, is to rather miss the point." http://humphrysfamilytree.com/meaning.html
Genealogists begin their research by collecting family documents and stories. This creates a foundation for documentary research, which involves examining and evaluating historical records for evidence about ancestors and other relatives, their kinship ties, and the events that occurred in their lives. As a rule, genealogists begin with the present and work backward in time.
- Rational
- Spiritual
- Psychological
- Psychic
- Legendary
- Mythological
- Irrational
- Delusional
Some approaches are overtly Christian, or they may have religious overtones even for a non-religious person. Others will come to the subject with a pagan background or an affinity for the ancient ways. Paradoxically, we find ancestors listed from other ethnicities and religions.
The Prophet Mohammad often appears in Western royal lines, as do the emperors of the Han Dynasty, Attila the Hun, Turks, Khazars, and Xiongnu shamans of Siberia. We share roots with the Basque, Moors, Turks, Pashtun, and sub-Saharan Africa. A balanced approach to the heritage will not obsess on particular areas of the lineage to the exclusion of others, nor veer off into cos-play like fantasies of legendary beings. Genealogy shows your multi-ethnic heritage as well as a range of spiritual beliefs.
'Messianic complex' describes the phenomenon where individuals claim self-awareness of their proclaimed role as a 'savior'. Like those who claim to be Jesus, non-religious "Magdalene addicts" are prone to channeling her, or even claiming to be her. But most of these channelings are highly idealized and full of truisms.
The phenomenon is a complicated psychological problematic developed within a cultural group. In Jungian psychology a complex is a cluster of psychological energy that centers around a particular element that has developed partly through the disposition of a personality and partly through life experience (Jacobi). These energy clusters act as partial personalities within the psyche and are often unconscious and somewhat autonomous.
They don't reflect the deeply Gnostic belief in the evil of matter, the drive to perfection, or the demonic dominion of the Archons. Or, if they do embrace such ideas, they likely heard it on some internet show from a highly idiosyncratic speaker, invariably trying to sell his or her book. Somehow they all have a theory. But no one has made good on such claims yet.
They may be the victims of misguided inner authority. We can pick up misconceptions and self-delusions in the search for the soul. The faddish appearance of such identifications (a lived trance-state) is a social trend, and the meme-like nature of the Feminine proclamations reveal that this is a collective phenomena, not true individuation. It shows the collective influence of pop culture and the archetype on the psyche, no matter what you call "Her".
A relationship with the archetype can be primitive or sophisticated. James Hillman expands the concept of complex by adding a concept called personification to individual complexes, treating complexes as characters or entities within the psyche, with the proviso that it is not meant to be literal.
Jung’s complexes and James Hillman’s concept of personification permit the unconscious images to converse with the individual psyche in 'imaginal dialogue'. They manage to incorporate feelings, imagination, and metaphor, which other sciences reject. Imagination can alter our actual perceptions.
Sociological identification, including intense physical reactions, and relationships between the body and the psyche, can be independent of linear historical inheritance in a culture that is a product of ideas rather than location or blood inheritance and also experimental. Emergent imaginal content is metaphor for thinking about experience, including experiences tied to intense belief structures.
When you don't know what a symbol is, it appears split-off, as 'other'. It attempts to enter consciousness in the expressive arts. Collectively, spiritual conflict is worldview warfare -- irreconcilable differences in belief, including the structure of the Cosmos. But only creative emotional and cognitive comprehension of the inherent meaning of experience leads to individuation and self-realization -- the Grail.
Jung spoke of such creativity:
"The creative process has feminine quality, and the creative work arises from unconscious depths--we might say, from the realm of the mothers. Whenever the creative force predominates, human life is ruled and molded by the unconscious as against the active will, and the conscious ego is swept along on a subterranean current, being nothing more than a helpless observer of events.
The work in process becomes the poet's fate and determines his psychic development. It is not Goethe who creates Faust, but Faust which creates Goethe....The archetypal image of the wise man, the savior or redeemer, lies buried and dormant in man's unconscious since the dawn of culture; it is awakened whenever the times are out of joint and a human society is committed to a serious error.
When people go astray they feel the need of a guide or teacher or even of the physician. These primordial images are numerous, but do not appear in the dreams of individuals or in works of art until they are called into being by the waywardness of the general outlook.
When conscious life is characterized by one-sidedness and by a false attitude, then they are activated--one might say, 'instinctively'--and come to light in the dreams of individuals and the visions of artists and seers, thus restoring the psychic equilibrium of the epoch." (Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul).
"Every creative person is a duality or a synthesis of contradictory aptitudes. On the one side he is a human being with a personal life, while on the other side he is an impersonal, creative process...The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense--he is 'collective man'--one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic life of mankind. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being."
Worldview
Emotionally appealing truths are sandwiched into idiosyncratic notions ranging from the speculative to the fantastical, and trap many individuals like flypaper, because our minds love a good story. The brain feeds on stories, but the wrong stories just lead us down the garden path into ancient worlds that never happened, and mythic scenarios that were never meant to be taken literally. Accepting such beliefs uncritically is precisely the opposite of what Jung recommended as individuation.
Such false beliefs tend to cluster around an individual's personal issues and complexes, but are mistaken for and confounded with historical, philosophical and scientific 'reality'. Much of the "self-delusion" can be linked to exposure to memes functioning as emotional strange attractors or cultural artifacts or fallout,, as well as pre- and pseudo-scientific notions of by-gone centuries, and lack of understanding of standards and discernment.
The self-narrative may not match the reality. It's a truism that mediocrity (gaps and gaffs in awareness) boasts the loudest. Through hysteria, lack of critical judgment, and naive enthusiasm, a false idea can be hyped by the mainstream media to the point of not only looking entirely plausible, but even certain.
A world view is a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world. Everyone has a world view, whether he can explain it or not. It can be likened to a pair of glasses through which one views the world. It is important to have the right prescription, or reality will be distorted. Modem man is faced with a supermarket of world views; all of them claim to represent reality, but they are points of view about reality -- mental constructs, beliefs.
To construct our own worldview we are still confronted with the old formula - the cosmological creative and destructive cycles of time. Cosmology is the study of the origin and nature of the universe. Ontology studies the nature of being as being and existence. We have to fit the pieces together from epistemologies and psychodynamics into some sort of cumulative understanding. Some basic epistemological agreement about the phenomena under examination is needed. Metaphysics abstracts universal conceptions. Some of these grand narratives are more fanciful than others.
We can be sincerely convinced of the utterly wrong. Why do we continue to accommodate the irrelevant and easily falsifiable? Are we conscientious about our own self-delusions or simply unconsciously immersed in them due to a delusional perspective on our own misguided "gnosis" and obsessions with misguided theoretical perspectives? Even conscience is no ineffable guide to inner authority. There is no shortage of new myths to capture our attention. Dreams tell us who we are, collectively and individually.
If Inner Authority is linked to authentic power and wisdom, we need to examine our personal interaction with inner wisdom figures (archetypes) and values in order to create lives of positive action that arise from deep inner wisdom. Most of us shirk such important inner work, substituting a fantasy of transformation and mindfulness. Delusional self-improvement projects are aimed at adorning the ego.
People claim to hear messages that ring in their hearts as truth, or 'resonate' with material that confirms their own tacit or recognized beliefs, but most it originates in cultural conditioning and memetic patterning. All we hold is a piece of the Mystery. Buzzwords such as True Nature, intentionality, and mis-identified integrity compound the situation. Premature spiritual fixation can just as readily be a form of transcendental escapism.
Both the strategies of "transcendence" and "reduction" are expressions of bad faith — i.e., forms of self-deception and escapism that seek to deny the realities of the human existential situation. Self-delusion may be self-evident but few give themselves a reality check on it and doing so is compounded by our own psychological blindspots. This is a form of escapism or neo-mythology.
The depth psychological approach is about psyche, which brings with it a sense of the sacred. It is a way of incorporation that assimilates what has been considered the "Not-I" into the core of being. It is informed by the Hero's Journey and many of the iconic tropes of the royal genealogical lines. Archetypal psychology has experience dealing with parental images and ego development, as well as life passages that might intertwine with genealogical interest and the predictable crises such as childbearing, mid-life, aging and confronting mortality.
Jungians claim that, "A psychologically-oriented approach to spirituality and a new God-image are emerging alongside the Judeo-Christian tradition. This form of spirituality expresses itself from the depths of the psyche, and stresses personal experience rather than belief or sacred texts. Depth psychology gives us a contemporary way to express this evolving step in the history of religious consciousness. Sometimes a new language enables things to be said that have yet to be articulated, and depth psychology is providing this voice."
Traditional ideas about God and religion do not always express the individual’s personal spirituality, because one may experience the sacred in ways that are not fully articulated in the traditional teachings. For people who are committed to a traditional religious practice, depth psychology can deepen their relationship to the tradition and their understanding of its archetypal underpinning. (Corbett)
Surviving in the wilderness
The Grail Quest took place in the vast Wasteland of the alienated soul.
In his book Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales describes what it’s like to be lost in a wilderness, and how to survive the experience. Here are the stages he identifies in his description of the process:
1. You’re lost, but persist in thinking that everything will work out just fine if you continue along the same path.
2. You realize you’re lost, but you don’t have a clue what to do, so you continue on the wrong path, hoping against hope that home will be just over the next hill—even though somewhere within you, you know it’s not.
3. The knowledge that you are finally, irredeemably and undeniably lost causes makes you to panic—you run desperately through scrub and trees, burning yourself up, getting even more lost.
4. Exhausted by panic, you stop. You realize that wherever you are, you’re somewhere. You sit down where you are and take stock, making wherever you are your temporary home. What you do here is the key to whether or not you survive.
5. You rest, and take stock of the resources you have, and the information the landscape offers. With this, you begin to make a plan for the continuation of your life.
The Prophet Mohammad often appears in Western royal lines, as do the emperors of the Han Dynasty, Attila the Hun, Turks, Khazars, and Xiongnu shamans of Siberia. We share roots with the Basque, Moors, Turks, Pashtun, and sub-Saharan Africa. A balanced approach to the heritage will not obsess on particular areas of the lineage to the exclusion of others, nor veer off into cos-play like fantasies of legendary beings. Genealogy shows your multi-ethnic heritage as well as a range of spiritual beliefs.
'Messianic complex' describes the phenomenon where individuals claim self-awareness of their proclaimed role as a 'savior'. Like those who claim to be Jesus, non-religious "Magdalene addicts" are prone to channeling her, or even claiming to be her. But most of these channelings are highly idealized and full of truisms.
The phenomenon is a complicated psychological problematic developed within a cultural group. In Jungian psychology a complex is a cluster of psychological energy that centers around a particular element that has developed partly through the disposition of a personality and partly through life experience (Jacobi). These energy clusters act as partial personalities within the psyche and are often unconscious and somewhat autonomous.
They don't reflect the deeply Gnostic belief in the evil of matter, the drive to perfection, or the demonic dominion of the Archons. Or, if they do embrace such ideas, they likely heard it on some internet show from a highly idiosyncratic speaker, invariably trying to sell his or her book. Somehow they all have a theory. But no one has made good on such claims yet.
They may be the victims of misguided inner authority. We can pick up misconceptions and self-delusions in the search for the soul. The faddish appearance of such identifications (a lived trance-state) is a social trend, and the meme-like nature of the Feminine proclamations reveal that this is a collective phenomena, not true individuation. It shows the collective influence of pop culture and the archetype on the psyche, no matter what you call "Her".
A relationship with the archetype can be primitive or sophisticated. James Hillman expands the concept of complex by adding a concept called personification to individual complexes, treating complexes as characters or entities within the psyche, with the proviso that it is not meant to be literal.
Jung’s complexes and James Hillman’s concept of personification permit the unconscious images to converse with the individual psyche in 'imaginal dialogue'. They manage to incorporate feelings, imagination, and metaphor, which other sciences reject. Imagination can alter our actual perceptions.
Sociological identification, including intense physical reactions, and relationships between the body and the psyche, can be independent of linear historical inheritance in a culture that is a product of ideas rather than location or blood inheritance and also experimental. Emergent imaginal content is metaphor for thinking about experience, including experiences tied to intense belief structures.
When you don't know what a symbol is, it appears split-off, as 'other'. It attempts to enter consciousness in the expressive arts. Collectively, spiritual conflict is worldview warfare -- irreconcilable differences in belief, including the structure of the Cosmos. But only creative emotional and cognitive comprehension of the inherent meaning of experience leads to individuation and self-realization -- the Grail.
Jung spoke of such creativity:
"The creative process has feminine quality, and the creative work arises from unconscious depths--we might say, from the realm of the mothers. Whenever the creative force predominates, human life is ruled and molded by the unconscious as against the active will, and the conscious ego is swept along on a subterranean current, being nothing more than a helpless observer of events.
The work in process becomes the poet's fate and determines his psychic development. It is not Goethe who creates Faust, but Faust which creates Goethe....The archetypal image of the wise man, the savior or redeemer, lies buried and dormant in man's unconscious since the dawn of culture; it is awakened whenever the times are out of joint and a human society is committed to a serious error.
When people go astray they feel the need of a guide or teacher or even of the physician. These primordial images are numerous, but do not appear in the dreams of individuals or in works of art until they are called into being by the waywardness of the general outlook.
When conscious life is characterized by one-sidedness and by a false attitude, then they are activated--one might say, 'instinctively'--and come to light in the dreams of individuals and the visions of artists and seers, thus restoring the psychic equilibrium of the epoch." (Jung, Modern Man in Search of a Soul).
"Every creative person is a duality or a synthesis of contradictory aptitudes. On the one side he is a human being with a personal life, while on the other side he is an impersonal, creative process...The artist is not a person endowed with free will who seeks his own ends, but one who allows art to realize its purposes through him. As a human being he may have moods and a will and personal aims, but as an artist he is 'man' in a higher sense--he is 'collective man'--one who carries and shapes the unconscious, psychic life of mankind. To perform this difficult office it is sometimes necessary for him to sacrifice happiness and everything that makes life worth living for the ordinary human being."
Worldview
Emotionally appealing truths are sandwiched into idiosyncratic notions ranging from the speculative to the fantastical, and trap many individuals like flypaper, because our minds love a good story. The brain feeds on stories, but the wrong stories just lead us down the garden path into ancient worlds that never happened, and mythic scenarios that were never meant to be taken literally. Accepting such beliefs uncritically is precisely the opposite of what Jung recommended as individuation.
Such false beliefs tend to cluster around an individual's personal issues and complexes, but are mistaken for and confounded with historical, philosophical and scientific 'reality'. Much of the "self-delusion" can be linked to exposure to memes functioning as emotional strange attractors or cultural artifacts or fallout,, as well as pre- and pseudo-scientific notions of by-gone centuries, and lack of understanding of standards and discernment.
The self-narrative may not match the reality. It's a truism that mediocrity (gaps and gaffs in awareness) boasts the loudest. Through hysteria, lack of critical judgment, and naive enthusiasm, a false idea can be hyped by the mainstream media to the point of not only looking entirely plausible, but even certain.
A world view is a set of presuppositions (or assumptions) which we hold (consciously or subconsciously) about the basic makeup of our world. Everyone has a world view, whether he can explain it or not. It can be likened to a pair of glasses through which one views the world. It is important to have the right prescription, or reality will be distorted. Modem man is faced with a supermarket of world views; all of them claim to represent reality, but they are points of view about reality -- mental constructs, beliefs.
To construct our own worldview we are still confronted with the old formula - the cosmological creative and destructive cycles of time. Cosmology is the study of the origin and nature of the universe. Ontology studies the nature of being as being and existence. We have to fit the pieces together from epistemologies and psychodynamics into some sort of cumulative understanding. Some basic epistemological agreement about the phenomena under examination is needed. Metaphysics abstracts universal conceptions. Some of these grand narratives are more fanciful than others.
We can be sincerely convinced of the utterly wrong. Why do we continue to accommodate the irrelevant and easily falsifiable? Are we conscientious about our own self-delusions or simply unconsciously immersed in them due to a delusional perspective on our own misguided "gnosis" and obsessions with misguided theoretical perspectives? Even conscience is no ineffable guide to inner authority. There is no shortage of new myths to capture our attention. Dreams tell us who we are, collectively and individually.
If Inner Authority is linked to authentic power and wisdom, we need to examine our personal interaction with inner wisdom figures (archetypes) and values in order to create lives of positive action that arise from deep inner wisdom. Most of us shirk such important inner work, substituting a fantasy of transformation and mindfulness. Delusional self-improvement projects are aimed at adorning the ego.
People claim to hear messages that ring in their hearts as truth, or 'resonate' with material that confirms their own tacit or recognized beliefs, but most it originates in cultural conditioning and memetic patterning. All we hold is a piece of the Mystery. Buzzwords such as True Nature, intentionality, and mis-identified integrity compound the situation. Premature spiritual fixation can just as readily be a form of transcendental escapism.
Both the strategies of "transcendence" and "reduction" are expressions of bad faith — i.e., forms of self-deception and escapism that seek to deny the realities of the human existential situation. Self-delusion may be self-evident but few give themselves a reality check on it and doing so is compounded by our own psychological blindspots. This is a form of escapism or neo-mythology.
The depth psychological approach is about psyche, which brings with it a sense of the sacred. It is a way of incorporation that assimilates what has been considered the "Not-I" into the core of being. It is informed by the Hero's Journey and many of the iconic tropes of the royal genealogical lines. Archetypal psychology has experience dealing with parental images and ego development, as well as life passages that might intertwine with genealogical interest and the predictable crises such as childbearing, mid-life, aging and confronting mortality.
Jungians claim that, "A psychologically-oriented approach to spirituality and a new God-image are emerging alongside the Judeo-Christian tradition. This form of spirituality expresses itself from the depths of the psyche, and stresses personal experience rather than belief or sacred texts. Depth psychology gives us a contemporary way to express this evolving step in the history of religious consciousness. Sometimes a new language enables things to be said that have yet to be articulated, and depth psychology is providing this voice."
Traditional ideas about God and religion do not always express the individual’s personal spirituality, because one may experience the sacred in ways that are not fully articulated in the traditional teachings. For people who are committed to a traditional religious practice, depth psychology can deepen their relationship to the tradition and their understanding of its archetypal underpinning. (Corbett)
Surviving in the wilderness
The Grail Quest took place in the vast Wasteland of the alienated soul.
In his book Deep Survival, Laurence Gonzales describes what it’s like to be lost in a wilderness, and how to survive the experience. Here are the stages he identifies in his description of the process:
1. You’re lost, but persist in thinking that everything will work out just fine if you continue along the same path.
2. You realize you’re lost, but you don’t have a clue what to do, so you continue on the wrong path, hoping against hope that home will be just over the next hill—even though somewhere within you, you know it’s not.
3. The knowledge that you are finally, irredeemably and undeniably lost causes makes you to panic—you run desperately through scrub and trees, burning yourself up, getting even more lost.
4. Exhausted by panic, you stop. You realize that wherever you are, you’re somewhere. You sit down where you are and take stock, making wherever you are your temporary home. What you do here is the key to whether or not you survive.
5. You rest, and take stock of the resources you have, and the information the landscape offers. With this, you begin to make a plan for the continuation of your life.
Steven DaLuz, "Descent", Neo-Luminist Painting
http://stevendaluz.com/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=2310&AKey=8MKJWHEB
http://stevendaluz.com/GalleryMain.asp?GalleryID=2310&AKey=8MKJWHEB
The House of Our Flesh
Each generation has added to the historical account of our progenitors. The story drifts back into the mythos of pre-history -- the neolithic era of the Goddess, legends of Atlantis and other lost civilizations, catastrophe theories, cryptozoological fantasies, and displaced scifi themes. Paranormal powers lurk just behind the mystic veil separating the Known from deep Mystery.
What we think we knew gets profoundly revisioned. The great symbols of mankind, the iconic symbols, are mostly attached to ancient royalty in some way or another, so we encounter and activate them in our generational viewing. They include animal, vegetable, and mineral images, as well as personifications.
Marriage is a psychological relationship. The Hieros Gamos is the Holy Grail of sexual rites. Jung addressed the symbolism of cross-cousin marriages, lived out in the bloodline, which tended to overlook the taboos of incest. There was ritualized brother/sister pairing prior to the days of Sumeria, where the priest-king of the country marries “the land” – in the form of a high priestess – to rejuvenate it. The Great Rite is blessed by the gods who participate in it as a sacred act -- a sexual sacrament uniting the Sun and the Moon.
This mystic marriage or union stands for conjunction of conscious and unconscious. The joining together of conscious ego and shadow is the end result of the penetration of the conscious mind by the unconscious and/or the penetration of the unconscious by consciousness.
Symbolically - in myths and in dreams - consciousness is usually represented as male, the unconscious as female; and the sexual penetration of female by male is therefore a common symbol of the descent of consciousness into the dark cave-like depths of the unconscious.
Cross-cousin marriage, designed to keep power and assets in the family, is based on the archetype of the quaternio. This early form of mating that ensured that endogenous (kinship) libido--incest--held the family together but didn't overpower exogamous libido. The endogamous side wants a sister, the exogamous a stranger, so marrying a cousin balances the two. Marriage of a man's sister to his brother's wife is a relic of the "sister-exchange marriage" of many primitive tribes.
Today's pure exogamy leaves the kinship-libido demands largely unsatisfied and increases their power, which expresses itself in the formation of religions and sects and nations--but only individuation will contain the still-rising force. The incest prohibition, with help from the urge to individuate, created the self-conscious individual, who previously had been mindlessly one with the tribe.
Prepare to be astonished, amazed, and repulsed by the overwhelming burdonsome knowledge of history experienced as the behavior of one's great-grandparents. You will be confronted with unbridled power, pathologizing, perversions, and mental illness (narcissism, sociopathy, sadism, bipolarity, schizophrenia, etc.) that spreads through some lines like a virus.
There are some real monsters in there, as well as marriages made in hell, not above sacrifice and murder within as well as without the family. If you know the histories of these regions it may provide some orientation, but the story reads differently from the inside out. You have entered the panoply of history. Everything you ever imagined or feared you might be is there, somewhere in time. You may also find the physiological disorders and illnesses that have plagued the bloodline from earliest recorded times.
Even as an imaginal exercise -- an "as-if" reality -- such revisioning helps us reown the shadow of mankind by making a place for it within our own being. This is much easier said than done, but forewarned is fore-armed.
Each generation has added to the historical account of our progenitors. The story drifts back into the mythos of pre-history -- the neolithic era of the Goddess, legends of Atlantis and other lost civilizations, catastrophe theories, cryptozoological fantasies, and displaced scifi themes. Paranormal powers lurk just behind the mystic veil separating the Known from deep Mystery.
What we think we knew gets profoundly revisioned. The great symbols of mankind, the iconic symbols, are mostly attached to ancient royalty in some way or another, so we encounter and activate them in our generational viewing. They include animal, vegetable, and mineral images, as well as personifications.
Marriage is a psychological relationship. The Hieros Gamos is the Holy Grail of sexual rites. Jung addressed the symbolism of cross-cousin marriages, lived out in the bloodline, which tended to overlook the taboos of incest. There was ritualized brother/sister pairing prior to the days of Sumeria, where the priest-king of the country marries “the land” – in the form of a high priestess – to rejuvenate it. The Great Rite is blessed by the gods who participate in it as a sacred act -- a sexual sacrament uniting the Sun and the Moon.
This mystic marriage or union stands for conjunction of conscious and unconscious. The joining together of conscious ego and shadow is the end result of the penetration of the conscious mind by the unconscious and/or the penetration of the unconscious by consciousness.
Symbolically - in myths and in dreams - consciousness is usually represented as male, the unconscious as female; and the sexual penetration of female by male is therefore a common symbol of the descent of consciousness into the dark cave-like depths of the unconscious.
Cross-cousin marriage, designed to keep power and assets in the family, is based on the archetype of the quaternio. This early form of mating that ensured that endogenous (kinship) libido--incest--held the family together but didn't overpower exogamous libido. The endogamous side wants a sister, the exogamous a stranger, so marrying a cousin balances the two. Marriage of a man's sister to his brother's wife is a relic of the "sister-exchange marriage" of many primitive tribes.
Today's pure exogamy leaves the kinship-libido demands largely unsatisfied and increases their power, which expresses itself in the formation of religions and sects and nations--but only individuation will contain the still-rising force. The incest prohibition, with help from the urge to individuate, created the self-conscious individual, who previously had been mindlessly one with the tribe.
Prepare to be astonished, amazed, and repulsed by the overwhelming burdonsome knowledge of history experienced as the behavior of one's great-grandparents. You will be confronted with unbridled power, pathologizing, perversions, and mental illness (narcissism, sociopathy, sadism, bipolarity, schizophrenia, etc.) that spreads through some lines like a virus.
There are some real monsters in there, as well as marriages made in hell, not above sacrifice and murder within as well as without the family. If you know the histories of these regions it may provide some orientation, but the story reads differently from the inside out. You have entered the panoply of history. Everything you ever imagined or feared you might be is there, somewhere in time. You may also find the physiological disorders and illnesses that have plagued the bloodline from earliest recorded times.
Even as an imaginal exercise -- an "as-if" reality -- such revisioning helps us reown the shadow of mankind by making a place for it within our own being. This is much easier said than done, but forewarned is fore-armed.
Marriage is a psychological relationship. The Hieros Gamos is the Holy Grail of sexual rites. Jung addressed the symbolism of cross-cousin marriages, lived out in the bloodline, which tended to overlook the taboos of incest. There was ritualized brother/sister pairing prior to the days of Sumeria, where the priest-king marries “the land” – in the form of a high priestess – to rejuvenate it. The Great Rite is blessed by the gods who participate in the sacred act -- a sexual sacrament uniting the Sun and the Moon.
This marriage symbolizes the joining together of conscious ego and shadow, which is the end result of the penetration of the conscious mind by the unconscious and/or the penetration of the unconscious by consciousness. Symbolically - in myths and in dreams - consciousness is usually represented as male, the unconscious as female; and the sexual penetration of female by male is therefore a common symbol of the descent of consciousness into the dark cave-like depths of the unconscious.
Cross-cousin marriage, designed to keep power and assets in the family, is based on the archetype of the quaternio. It subconsciously recognizes that the anima and animus of both parties are involved in the archetypal relationship dynamic.
This early form of mating that ensured that endogenous (kinship) libido--incest--held the family together but didn't overpower exogamous libido. The endogamous side wants a sister, the exogamous a stranger, so marrying a cousin balances the two. Marriage of a man's sister to his brother's wife is a relic of the "sister-exchange marriage" of many primitive tribes.
Today's pure exogamy leaves the kinship-libido demands largely unsatisfied and increases their power, which expresses itself in the formation of religions and sects and nations--but only individuation will contain the still-rising force. The incest prohibition, with help from the urge to individuate, created the self-conscious individual, who previously had been mindlessly one with the tribe.
Prepare to be astonished, amazed, and repulsed by the overwhelming burdonsome knowledge of history experienced as the behavior of one's gr-grandparents. You will be confronted with unbridled power, pathologizing, perversions, and mental illness (narcissism, sociopathy, sadism, bipolarity, schizophrenia, etc.) that spreads through some lines like a virus. You may also find the physiological disorders and illnesses that have plagued the bloodline from earliest recorded times.
Even as an imaginal exercise -- an "as-if" reality -- such revisioning helps us re-own the shadow of mankind by making a place for it within our own being. This is much easier said than done, but forewarned is fore-armed.
This marriage symbolizes the joining together of conscious ego and shadow, which is the end result of the penetration of the conscious mind by the unconscious and/or the penetration of the unconscious by consciousness. Symbolically - in myths and in dreams - consciousness is usually represented as male, the unconscious as female; and the sexual penetration of female by male is therefore a common symbol of the descent of consciousness into the dark cave-like depths of the unconscious.
Cross-cousin marriage, designed to keep power and assets in the family, is based on the archetype of the quaternio. It subconsciously recognizes that the anima and animus of both parties are involved in the archetypal relationship dynamic.
This early form of mating that ensured that endogenous (kinship) libido--incest--held the family together but didn't overpower exogamous libido. The endogamous side wants a sister, the exogamous a stranger, so marrying a cousin balances the two. Marriage of a man's sister to his brother's wife is a relic of the "sister-exchange marriage" of many primitive tribes.
Today's pure exogamy leaves the kinship-libido demands largely unsatisfied and increases their power, which expresses itself in the formation of religions and sects and nations--but only individuation will contain the still-rising force. The incest prohibition, with help from the urge to individuate, created the self-conscious individual, who previously had been mindlessly one with the tribe.
Prepare to be astonished, amazed, and repulsed by the overwhelming burdonsome knowledge of history experienced as the behavior of one's gr-grandparents. You will be confronted with unbridled power, pathologizing, perversions, and mental illness (narcissism, sociopathy, sadism, bipolarity, schizophrenia, etc.) that spreads through some lines like a virus. You may also find the physiological disorders and illnesses that have plagued the bloodline from earliest recorded times.
Even as an imaginal exercise -- an "as-if" reality -- such revisioning helps us re-own the shadow of mankind by making a place for it within our own being. This is much easier said than done, but forewarned is fore-armed.
Louis XV Savonnerie Carpet
But Is It Real?
The bloodline as real as the psyche. Some say genealogy without proofs is meaningless, but that is certainly not true in the Jungian context which is happy to continue exploration within the mythic and imaginal realms, understanding them as such. There is a psychic if not historical truth to including archetypes in the lines, usually at the root. It is also possible that real culture heroes became ennobled as divinities over the eons.
Monks in the the Middle Ages constructed royal genealogies from Bardic tales that linked rulers not only to the dawn of time but to the legendary heroes and gods that inhabit that mystical realm. We all have an unconscious and conscious relationship to this world of the hyperdimensional imagination. How we choose to interact with it and what we call those processes characterizes our experience of it -- and how toxic, haphazard or sophisticated it is.
At first, genealogy served a purely serious purpose in determining the legal rights of related individuals to land and goods. Genealogy was cultivated since at least the start of the early Irish historic era. Upon inauguration, Bards and poets are believed to have recited the ancestry of an inaugurated king to emphasize his hereditary right to rule. With the transition to written culture, oral history was preserved in the monastic settlements. Over time, genealogy was pursued for its own merits.
Today, genealogy is second only to the topic of sex online. Humanity is re-discovering its roots and creating a BIG TREE in the Sky -- in the Cloud that describes our interconnections. Genetic Genealogy adds information to that big story -- filling in the migration patterns and tribal affiliations with molecular certainties. But it cannot provide the connective list of names -- the royal lines of descent -- that come from the pedigree. Both are equally important, but genetic genealogy may or may not add to what you already know. Genealogies always add new information.
Amateurs are demystifying the process by using rapid technological aids and open-source genealogical sites to help plug them into the "Motherboards". Experts continue their scholarly efforts within the crowd-sourced material to analyze and correct the public record. Thus, most ancestors have Master Profiles which have been vetted by experts, though the stubs and dead ends of amateurs can also be found. Be very careful to prove undocumented conclusions because many blind alleys have been created and deserted. Sometimes mistakes remain and get repeated.
The trend now is to disconnect lines from their legendary and mythic roots, and start a discussion with the last reliably known ancestor. Therefore, you may not be able to imagine how you ever connected with these mythic figures. Surely, this has psychological overtones perhaps as grave as literally believing in the descents created by the medieval Church after repeated efforts to suppress the Bloodline with genocidal crusades and witchhunts in Europe.
Even without erroneous digressions, our genealogical lines constitute a labyrinth of our soul. We can become lost within our ancestral lines, with an uncanny felt-sense of time travel as the time dimension seemingly collapses. The labyrinth is the Collective Unconscious and genealogy is but one method of entry into it.
The Internet is another labyrinth full of genealogical information colored by the beliefs of the writers. Often lies are hidden between two truths, so you have to exercise great discretion in separating the informational wheat from the chaff of fallacious material claiming to be truth. "Spin" or even popular memes are no substitute for objective scholarship.
The Red Thread Bloodline (Lost Tribes) of our ancestral lines keeps us from losing our way. Throughout the Bible 'scarlet' speaks of sacrifice made on the behalf of the believer, and it is seen in the vestments of the tabernacle and in the priestly garments in Exodus" (ibid., note on Joshua 2:18-21).
The scarlet thread running through the Bible is a picture of the Blood of Jesus. "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19). "For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11).
http://the-red-thread.net/
http://israelect.com/ChurchOfTrueIsrael/emahiser/emirishscott.html
The bloodline as real as the psyche. Some say genealogy without proofs is meaningless, but that is certainly not true in the Jungian context which is happy to continue exploration within the mythic and imaginal realms, understanding them as such. There is a psychic if not historical truth to including archetypes in the lines, usually at the root. It is also possible that real culture heroes became ennobled as divinities over the eons.
Monks in the the Middle Ages constructed royal genealogies from Bardic tales that linked rulers not only to the dawn of time but to the legendary heroes and gods that inhabit that mystical realm. We all have an unconscious and conscious relationship to this world of the hyperdimensional imagination. How we choose to interact with it and what we call those processes characterizes our experience of it -- and how toxic, haphazard or sophisticated it is.
At first, genealogy served a purely serious purpose in determining the legal rights of related individuals to land and goods. Genealogy was cultivated since at least the start of the early Irish historic era. Upon inauguration, Bards and poets are believed to have recited the ancestry of an inaugurated king to emphasize his hereditary right to rule. With the transition to written culture, oral history was preserved in the monastic settlements. Over time, genealogy was pursued for its own merits.
Today, genealogy is second only to the topic of sex online. Humanity is re-discovering its roots and creating a BIG TREE in the Sky -- in the Cloud that describes our interconnections. Genetic Genealogy adds information to that big story -- filling in the migration patterns and tribal affiliations with molecular certainties. But it cannot provide the connective list of names -- the royal lines of descent -- that come from the pedigree. Both are equally important, but genetic genealogy may or may not add to what you already know. Genealogies always add new information.
Amateurs are demystifying the process by using rapid technological aids and open-source genealogical sites to help plug them into the "Motherboards". Experts continue their scholarly efforts within the crowd-sourced material to analyze and correct the public record. Thus, most ancestors have Master Profiles which have been vetted by experts, though the stubs and dead ends of amateurs can also be found. Be very careful to prove undocumented conclusions because many blind alleys have been created and deserted. Sometimes mistakes remain and get repeated.
The trend now is to disconnect lines from their legendary and mythic roots, and start a discussion with the last reliably known ancestor. Therefore, you may not be able to imagine how you ever connected with these mythic figures. Surely, this has psychological overtones perhaps as grave as literally believing in the descents created by the medieval Church after repeated efforts to suppress the Bloodline with genocidal crusades and witchhunts in Europe.
Even without erroneous digressions, our genealogical lines constitute a labyrinth of our soul. We can become lost within our ancestral lines, with an uncanny felt-sense of time travel as the time dimension seemingly collapses. The labyrinth is the Collective Unconscious and genealogy is but one method of entry into it.
The Internet is another labyrinth full of genealogical information colored by the beliefs of the writers. Often lies are hidden between two truths, so you have to exercise great discretion in separating the informational wheat from the chaff of fallacious material claiming to be truth. "Spin" or even popular memes are no substitute for objective scholarship.
The Red Thread Bloodline (Lost Tribes) of our ancestral lines keeps us from losing our way. Throughout the Bible 'scarlet' speaks of sacrifice made on the behalf of the believer, and it is seen in the vestments of the tabernacle and in the priestly garments in Exodus" (ibid., note on Joshua 2:18-21).
The scarlet thread running through the Bible is a picture of the Blood of Jesus. "For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sins" (Hebrews 10:4). "Having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus" (Hebrews 10:19). "For it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul" (Leviticus 17:11).
http://the-red-thread.net/
http://israelect.com/ChurchOfTrueIsrael/emahiser/emirishscott.html
Prepare to be A-Mazed
The early maze was a figurative vortex; a tornado or whirlpool. The Chartres Maze is associated with Melusine and Sheba and their vortex, source of life and life's blood. The Maze is associated with the root word from which we derive the adjective "to amaze".
The maze represented the shamanic "Spiral Dance of the Vortex" (sacrificial sword dance), and on another level "The Quest for the Holy Grail". It can be associated with the name Mazda or Ormuzd, the principle of light, suggesting that whatever was at the center of a Maze rendered enlightenment and that ecstatic amazement, or wonder, accompanied it.
A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. It represents a journey or Quest to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools. A living labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. Walking the labyrinth can be considered an initiation in which you awaken the knowledge encoded within your DNA.
A labyrinth contains embedded geometric and numerological prompts that create a multi-dimensional holographic field. These unseen patterns are referred to as sacred geometry. They allegedly reveal the presence of a cosmic order as they interface the world of material form and the subtler realms of higher consciousness.
The contemporary resurgence of labyrinths in the west stems from our deeply rooted urge to honor again the Sacredness of All Life. A labyrinth can be experienced as the birthing womb of the Great Goddess. Thus, the labyrinth experience is a potent practice of Self-Integration as it encapsulates the spiraling journey in and out of incarnation. On the journey in, towards the center, one cleanses the dirt from the road. On the journey out, one is born anew to consciously dwell in a human body, made holy by having got a taste of the Infinite Center.
The maze represented the shamanic "Spiral Dance of the Vortex" (sacrificial sword dance), and on another level "The Quest for the Holy Grail". It can be associated with the name Mazda or Ormuzd, the principle of light, suggesting that whatever was at the center of a Maze rendered enlightenment and that ecstatic amazement, or wonder, accompanied it.
A labyrinth is an ancient symbol that relates to wholeness. It combines the imagery of the circle and the spiral into a meandering but purposeful path. It represents a journey or Quest to our own center and back again out into the world. Labyrinths have long been used as meditation and prayer tools. A living labyrinth is an archetype with which we can have a direct experience. Walking the labyrinth can be considered an initiation in which you awaken the knowledge encoded within your DNA.
A labyrinth contains embedded geometric and numerological prompts that create a multi-dimensional holographic field. These unseen patterns are referred to as sacred geometry. They allegedly reveal the presence of a cosmic order as they interface the world of material form and the subtler realms of higher consciousness.
The contemporary resurgence of labyrinths in the west stems from our deeply rooted urge to honor again the Sacredness of All Life. A labyrinth can be experienced as the birthing womb of the Great Goddess. Thus, the labyrinth experience is a potent practice of Self-Integration as it encapsulates the spiraling journey in and out of incarnation. On the journey in, towards the center, one cleanses the dirt from the road. On the journey out, one is born anew to consciously dwell in a human body, made holy by having got a taste of the Infinite Center.
The Grail Effect
Sovereignty: It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .--Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
We can call anyone of Sangreal blood who has yet to discover or prove their dynastic heritage, a "crypto-grail carrier." Over and over the phenomenon and transformative reaction repeats itself. We call it "the Grail Effect," which kindles an archaic revival and a recursive cycle of self-amplification -- a virtual awakening to a new order of reality, deep time, and sense of self-identity.
We are endowed with a genetic lust for life. Each new birth reminds us that life is a miracle. Genealogy is a Gnosis, a divine revelation, a Way of Knowing that only comes with the names that carry one's lineage back into the mists of pre-history. Our lines contain sacred mysteries.
Genealogy is a hermeneutic requiring interpretation and discretion between the literal, mythic, and symbolic. Gnosis is divine revelation not just philosophical reasoning. It is instantaneous spiritual understanding of the nature of man -- primordial awareness, the space of the mind itself where mental events arise and dissolve -- a direct experience of enlightenment -- luminous, empty, nonduality.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama described the Great Perfection:
“Any given state of consciousness is permeated by the clear light of primordial awareness. However solid ice may be, it never loses its true nature, which is water. In the same way, even very obvious concepts are such that their ‘place’, as it were, their final resting place, does not fall outside the expanse of primordial awareness. They arise within the expanse of primordial awareness and that is where they dissolve.”
The Dalai Lama is saying that the absolute ground state awareness is primordial awareness, the fundamental ground from which everything, space-time, massenergy, mind-matter, all arise and into which they eventually dissolve. (Wallace)
Hermetics and Gnosticism differed in cosmology and their use of philosophy and myth. Imagination was important to both, playing a central role in their religious experience and practice, bridging the micro- and macrocosm, as well as the function of the imagination in meditative, magical and alchemical praxis and in the emergence of metaphorical and dynamic images. Imaginal reality is a way of clarifying depth and substance not usually associated with the merely imaginary.
Imagination facilitates access to deeper levels of reality than ordinary experience. It bridges the microcosm and macrocosm, using the faculty of imagination as a method of gnosis. It enable more intimate knowledge of the object of religious yearning through body, soul and mind. Corbin describes the imaginal world as the 'mundus imaginalis ', 'supersensible world of the Soul', or sacred center.
The things of this world are vessels, entrances for stories; when we touch them or tumble into them, we fall into their labyrinthine resonances. The world is no longer divided, then,into those inconvenient categories of subject and object, and the world becomes religiously apprehended. (Sexson, Ordinarily Sacred)
Hermetics had techniques for penetrating and discerning the order of the cosmos. Gnosticism was only philosophical when describing God's absolute transcendence. It used the language of myth to describe the divine world of self-realization. Hermetics never labels the cosmos as bad or evil.
Hermetics had a positive view of the cosmos and man; while the Gnostic view was negative, the body was a prison of the soul. The Hermetic way included initiation and instructions in the nature of the cosmos and man. They were paradoxical complementary ways to arrive at the same Mystery.
The Grail Effect
We are involved in a pioneering project in the overlap of arts, sciences, humanities, network research, data science, and information design to log and archive our research. That which rings true, resonates. Imagination is a way of engaging reality. The flow of images creates thinking and the thinker -- the "seen" and the "seer". The wholeness of the Self is more than the sum of psyche's components. What was once only imagined is being proven with genetic genealogy. Dreams and philosophy make up myths.
It all begins when a seemingly ordinary person somehow develops an interest in their family genealogy, finds a historical Gateway Ancestor, whose pedigree leads them back to medieval times where they find they descend from multinational nobility and royalty. Because of intensive intermarriage among nobles in past eras, finding one royal usually means tapping into several blueblood lines.
Much like in dreamwork, where we are all parts of the dream, we are literally all of our ancestors incarnate -- male and female -- only this is a dream dreamt aloud in the manifest world, birth after noble birth. We are all the Fisher King. We go fishing for our ancestral legacies and voices in the deep lake of the unconscious, bringing them to the surface. We "fish" with our ancestral "lines", which tie us directly to our deep past.
When the Lady of the Lake responds spontaneously with the treasure of the magic sword, our intellects are sharpened and steeled, as well as our intuition. The 'fishing' is drawing these things up from the unconscious, but the 'fishing lines' are our progenitors, you might say -- the Fisher Kings and queens. And, the King and the land are one - that is, our divinity and our materiality are synonymous. We exist and in that sense we are 'divine' to the extent that we realize and actualize that blessing of our deepest Nature, balancing symbolic and material.
"It is the duty of one who goes his own way to inform society of what he finds on his voyage of discovery, be it cooling water for the thirsty or the sandy wastes of unfruitful error. The one helps, the other warns. Not the criticism of individual contemporaries will decide the truth or falsity of his discoveries, but future generations. There are things that are not yet true today, perhaps we dare not find them true, but tomorrow they may be. So every man whose fate it is to go his individual way must proceed with hopefulness and watchfulness, ever conscious of his loneliness and its dangers." (C.G. Jung)
At first we are struck with the richness of our personal family story, but soon come to realize many of our noble lines are intimately crossed with those already well-aware of their Sangreal heritage today. We learn to understand our lineage is that of the ancient dynastic houses, who are already deeply involved in their own historical reclamation and heritage projects. We begin to see that this is, indeed, our true extended family.
As the seeker's online search widens, sooner or later they come across some material on the Sangreal legend, legacy, or its many subcultures. Given a few hints on where and who to look for, suddenly they are faced with the mind-blowing distinction that they descend arguably from the oldest royal line on the planet, and that there is a deeper 'reality' to the mythic stories -- a living reality we each embody.
The God-Kings are rooted in mythic prehistory and extended their rule well into the Classical Period, before they were deposed and separated from their divine-rights by socio-political machinations. Looking to their own family lines and/or genetic genealogy reports, modern Grail-carriers come face to face with the revelation of their true being.
Thus awakened, they draw new energy from the collective unconscious and their Sangreal companions on the same journey to pursue the depths of their being and connection to Cosmos. So it has been, from the dawn of time. Suddenly their 'differences' make sense, possibly for the first time. They may experience an infusion of wisdom or Knowledge welling up from the Plenum within, which had formerly been experienced as a Void. The Void is not devoid.
Genetic Genealogy
Genealogists now use molecular genealogy, comparing and matching people by matrilineal DNA lineages -- matrilineal mtDNA or patrilineal Y-chromosome ancestry, SNP, and/or autosomal tests. People interested in ancestry now look at genetic markers to trace the migrations of the human species. You can trace your genealogy by DNA from your grandparents back 10,000 or more years.
Anyone can be interested in DNA for ancestry research, learning how different populations from a mosaic of communities reached their current locations. From whom are you descended? What markers shed light on your deepest ancestry? You can study DNA for medical reasons or to discover the geographic travels and dwelling places of some of your ancestors. DNA does not target specific ancestors by name but does reveal rare genetic markers. Specifically, you can interpret your DNA test and/or genealogy for family history.
Particular genetic markers are called ancestry informative markers (AIM). They correlate with populations of specific geographical areas. Autosomal DNA shows the "genetic percentages" of a person's ancestry from particular continents/regions or identify the countries and "tribes" of origin. SNPs are locations on DNA where nucleotides have "mutated" or "switched" to a different nucleotide. Tests listing geographical places of origin use alleles. Individual and family variations on various chromosomes across the genome are analyzed with the aid of population databases.
Initiation opens a communication link between the aspirant and divine guiding principle -- our inner genius -- fostering balance in the personality as the firm foundation for spiritual development. Maat or 'Balance' was the prime expression of the Egyptian Mystery Schools, because it gave order and meaning to life.
In the East, it is called the Tao, a dynamic blending of yin and yang. In Kabbalah, it is the Middle Way. Balance helps us to achieve the goals we want in life and to manifest our dreams. You can easily integrate this wisdom tradition in your own householder life. Empowerment comes through grounding and centering
Such knowledge transforms and activates a new level of Being, internally and in the world, at large. The Grail has come calling and collected its own, informing our sparks of consciousness with a connection to hyperdimensional depth, with a sense of mission and purpose, with a commitment to the recovery of our self-awareness and inherent potential of genius for clarity. This is the Path of Return.
We've had glimpses of a way of being human that embodies rare integrity, freedom, wholeness and beauty--and we dream of the life and world that could result from sustaining that ideal. Most of us are held back from our greater potential by a deep-rooted undertow pulling us down from the heights we could achieve. This persistent barrier to our optimal growth is the ancient, hardwired programming of our evolutionary past, the "software" of our primitive ancestry.
We operate (often unconsciously) from "inherited" instincts, assumptions, and responses that have been encoded into humankind for millennia--vestiges of an ancient animal past.
These unproductive patterns form an invisible ceiling preventing us from reaching our true potential. In fact, this innate and primitive "conditioning" is the key reason that most of our efforts at change fail--whether as individuals or as a society.
The key to breaking this "sound barrier" in consciousness is learning how to awaken and activate a latent spiritual capacity. It lives within each of us, but often remains dormant, just beneath the surface of our awareness. This often hidden dimension of our being is a boundless source of inspiration, passion, creativity and clarity--and when we learn how to tap into it, we rapidly find ourselves on the other side of everything that previously stood in our way.
Sovereignty: It is the individual's task to differentiate himself from all the others and stand on his own feet. All collective identities . . . interfere with the fulfillment of this task. Such collective identities are crutches for the lame, shields for the timid, beds for the lazy, nurseries for the irresponsible. . . .--Carl Jung (1875 - 1961)
We can call anyone of Sangreal blood who has yet to discover or prove their dynastic heritage, a "crypto-grail carrier." Over and over the phenomenon and transformative reaction repeats itself. We call it "the Grail Effect," which kindles an archaic revival and a recursive cycle of self-amplification -- a virtual awakening to a new order of reality, deep time, and sense of self-identity.
We are endowed with a genetic lust for life. Each new birth reminds us that life is a miracle. Genealogy is a Gnosis, a divine revelation, a Way of Knowing that only comes with the names that carry one's lineage back into the mists of pre-history. Our lines contain sacred mysteries.
Genealogy is a hermeneutic requiring interpretation and discretion between the literal, mythic, and symbolic. Gnosis is divine revelation not just philosophical reasoning. It is instantaneous spiritual understanding of the nature of man -- primordial awareness, the space of the mind itself where mental events arise and dissolve -- a direct experience of enlightenment -- luminous, empty, nonduality.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama described the Great Perfection:
“Any given state of consciousness is permeated by the clear light of primordial awareness. However solid ice may be, it never loses its true nature, which is water. In the same way, even very obvious concepts are such that their ‘place’, as it were, their final resting place, does not fall outside the expanse of primordial awareness. They arise within the expanse of primordial awareness and that is where they dissolve.”
The Dalai Lama is saying that the absolute ground state awareness is primordial awareness, the fundamental ground from which everything, space-time, massenergy, mind-matter, all arise and into which they eventually dissolve. (Wallace)
Hermetics and Gnosticism differed in cosmology and their use of philosophy and myth. Imagination was important to both, playing a central role in their religious experience and practice, bridging the micro- and macrocosm, as well as the function of the imagination in meditative, magical and alchemical praxis and in the emergence of metaphorical and dynamic images. Imaginal reality is a way of clarifying depth and substance not usually associated with the merely imaginary.
Imagination facilitates access to deeper levels of reality than ordinary experience. It bridges the microcosm and macrocosm, using the faculty of imagination as a method of gnosis. It enable more intimate knowledge of the object of religious yearning through body, soul and mind. Corbin describes the imaginal world as the 'mundus imaginalis ', 'supersensible world of the Soul', or sacred center.
The things of this world are vessels, entrances for stories; when we touch them or tumble into them, we fall into their labyrinthine resonances. The world is no longer divided, then,into those inconvenient categories of subject and object, and the world becomes religiously apprehended. (Sexson, Ordinarily Sacred)
Hermetics had techniques for penetrating and discerning the order of the cosmos. Gnosticism was only philosophical when describing God's absolute transcendence. It used the language of myth to describe the divine world of self-realization. Hermetics never labels the cosmos as bad or evil.
Hermetics had a positive view of the cosmos and man; while the Gnostic view was negative, the body was a prison of the soul. The Hermetic way included initiation and instructions in the nature of the cosmos and man. They were paradoxical complementary ways to arrive at the same Mystery.
The Grail Effect
We are involved in a pioneering project in the overlap of arts, sciences, humanities, network research, data science, and information design to log and archive our research. That which rings true, resonates. Imagination is a way of engaging reality. The flow of images creates thinking and the thinker -- the "seen" and the "seer". The wholeness of the Self is more than the sum of psyche's components. What was once only imagined is being proven with genetic genealogy. Dreams and philosophy make up myths.
It all begins when a seemingly ordinary person somehow develops an interest in their family genealogy, finds a historical Gateway Ancestor, whose pedigree leads them back to medieval times where they find they descend from multinational nobility and royalty. Because of intensive intermarriage among nobles in past eras, finding one royal usually means tapping into several blueblood lines.
Much like in dreamwork, where we are all parts of the dream, we are literally all of our ancestors incarnate -- male and female -- only this is a dream dreamt aloud in the manifest world, birth after noble birth. We are all the Fisher King. We go fishing for our ancestral legacies and voices in the deep lake of the unconscious, bringing them to the surface. We "fish" with our ancestral "lines", which tie us directly to our deep past.
When the Lady of the Lake responds spontaneously with the treasure of the magic sword, our intellects are sharpened and steeled, as well as our intuition. The 'fishing' is drawing these things up from the unconscious, but the 'fishing lines' are our progenitors, you might say -- the Fisher Kings and queens. And, the King and the land are one - that is, our divinity and our materiality are synonymous. We exist and in that sense we are 'divine' to the extent that we realize and actualize that blessing of our deepest Nature, balancing symbolic and material.
"It is the duty of one who goes his own way to inform society of what he finds on his voyage of discovery, be it cooling water for the thirsty or the sandy wastes of unfruitful error. The one helps, the other warns. Not the criticism of individual contemporaries will decide the truth or falsity of his discoveries, but future generations. There are things that are not yet true today, perhaps we dare not find them true, but tomorrow they may be. So every man whose fate it is to go his individual way must proceed with hopefulness and watchfulness, ever conscious of his loneliness and its dangers." (C.G. Jung)
At first we are struck with the richness of our personal family story, but soon come to realize many of our noble lines are intimately crossed with those already well-aware of their Sangreal heritage today. We learn to understand our lineage is that of the ancient dynastic houses, who are already deeply involved in their own historical reclamation and heritage projects. We begin to see that this is, indeed, our true extended family.
As the seeker's online search widens, sooner or later they come across some material on the Sangreal legend, legacy, or its many subcultures. Given a few hints on where and who to look for, suddenly they are faced with the mind-blowing distinction that they descend arguably from the oldest royal line on the planet, and that there is a deeper 'reality' to the mythic stories -- a living reality we each embody.
The God-Kings are rooted in mythic prehistory and extended their rule well into the Classical Period, before they were deposed and separated from their divine-rights by socio-political machinations. Looking to their own family lines and/or genetic genealogy reports, modern Grail-carriers come face to face with the revelation of their true being.
Thus awakened, they draw new energy from the collective unconscious and their Sangreal companions on the same journey to pursue the depths of their being and connection to Cosmos. So it has been, from the dawn of time. Suddenly their 'differences' make sense, possibly for the first time. They may experience an infusion of wisdom or Knowledge welling up from the Plenum within, which had formerly been experienced as a Void. The Void is not devoid.
Genetic Genealogy
Genealogists now use molecular genealogy, comparing and matching people by matrilineal DNA lineages -- matrilineal mtDNA or patrilineal Y-chromosome ancestry, SNP, and/or autosomal tests. People interested in ancestry now look at genetic markers to trace the migrations of the human species. You can trace your genealogy by DNA from your grandparents back 10,000 or more years.
Anyone can be interested in DNA for ancestry research, learning how different populations from a mosaic of communities reached their current locations. From whom are you descended? What markers shed light on your deepest ancestry? You can study DNA for medical reasons or to discover the geographic travels and dwelling places of some of your ancestors. DNA does not target specific ancestors by name but does reveal rare genetic markers. Specifically, you can interpret your DNA test and/or genealogy for family history.
Particular genetic markers are called ancestry informative markers (AIM). They correlate with populations of specific geographical areas. Autosomal DNA shows the "genetic percentages" of a person's ancestry from particular continents/regions or identify the countries and "tribes" of origin. SNPs are locations on DNA where nucleotides have "mutated" or "switched" to a different nucleotide. Tests listing geographical places of origin use alleles. Individual and family variations on various chromosomes across the genome are analyzed with the aid of population databases.
Initiation opens a communication link between the aspirant and divine guiding principle -- our inner genius -- fostering balance in the personality as the firm foundation for spiritual development. Maat or 'Balance' was the prime expression of the Egyptian Mystery Schools, because it gave order and meaning to life.
In the East, it is called the Tao, a dynamic blending of yin and yang. In Kabbalah, it is the Middle Way. Balance helps us to achieve the goals we want in life and to manifest our dreams. You can easily integrate this wisdom tradition in your own householder life. Empowerment comes through grounding and centering
Such knowledge transforms and activates a new level of Being, internally and in the world, at large. The Grail has come calling and collected its own, informing our sparks of consciousness with a connection to hyperdimensional depth, with a sense of mission and purpose, with a commitment to the recovery of our self-awareness and inherent potential of genius for clarity. This is the Path of Return.
We've had glimpses of a way of being human that embodies rare integrity, freedom, wholeness and beauty--and we dream of the life and world that could result from sustaining that ideal. Most of us are held back from our greater potential by a deep-rooted undertow pulling us down from the heights we could achieve. This persistent barrier to our optimal growth is the ancient, hardwired programming of our evolutionary past, the "software" of our primitive ancestry.
We operate (often unconsciously) from "inherited" instincts, assumptions, and responses that have been encoded into humankind for millennia--vestiges of an ancient animal past.
These unproductive patterns form an invisible ceiling preventing us from reaching our true potential. In fact, this innate and primitive "conditioning" is the key reason that most of our efforts at change fail--whether as individuals or as a society.
The key to breaking this "sound barrier" in consciousness is learning how to awaken and activate a latent spiritual capacity. It lives within each of us, but often remains dormant, just beneath the surface of our awareness. This often hidden dimension of our being is a boundless source of inspiration, passion, creativity and clarity--and when we learn how to tap into it, we rapidly find ourselves on the other side of everything that previously stood in our way.
"Grail Carriers" Today
We have reclaimed our voice on the world stage. We are speaking out, in part, because of the needful state of the world and because whole industries and memes are based on misapprehensions, out-right lies, and exploitation of our ancestral legacy. We are awakened.
We are engaged in a transpersonal, metaphysical method of knowing Truth. Namely, that Necessity binds us to our destiny, which is not to be confused with linear pre-ordination. The Underground Stream honors the Feminine. Cultural Transformation can only come through the cultural evolution toward partnership. We are here to set the record straight and define ourselves with our own narratives in today's world, as the stewards we rightfully claim to be. "Jung found further that the mandala does not only mirror an inner state of order, but that its harmony or disharmony encompasses also the surroundings of the individual. Thus a mandala needs a symbol in which the outer and inner world merge. There is for Jung a ultimate reality beyond matter and psyche which he called the unus mundus, its empirical manifestation is the principle of synchronicity because in synchronistic events the inner world behaves as if it were outside and the outer world as if it were inside. As the mandala symbolism expresses the holistic order of matter and psyche it should have been investigated by physicists as well as psychologists because the mandala reappears in their hypothetical models of the atomic world. The atomic model of Niels Bohr is already a cosmic mandala and the models which the physicists construct nowadays to visualize the quarks are also mandalas." (M-L von Franz)
Imagine for a moment that the fate of the entire human race rested on your shoulders alone. That humanity's evolution out of brute self-interest depended entirely on your willingness to transform your consciousness.
What if you knew that the human race could advance past its smallness and negative conditioning --if you only became an exemplar of humanity's highest potential for the world? Imagine that for you, evolving beyond ego became an evolutionary imperative. Would you approach your path any differently?
Would the energy you bring to your spiritual practice intensify? Would the quality of awareness and care with which you approached your interactions with others become more profound? Would you find yourself reaching with inner muscles you didn't even know you had to actually stay awake to the depth you've tasted in your most profound spiritual moments? If you knew it all rested on you, would you have any choice but to change?
The Indian sage Ramana Maharshi once said that the spiritual aspirant must want liberation like a drowning person wants air. Why? Because the challenges of authentic spiritual growth and transformation are so great that most of us will choose to continue suffering in our smallness, rather than feel the pain of allowing that smallness to die forever.
Modern science has in recent decades been verifying what the ancient traditions intuited long ago: that, in both tangible and mysterious ways, we are all interconnected. Any one of us can have a profound effect on the whole. Add to that the reality that we are evolving beings living in an evolving universe. We are all part of a grand, cosmic evolutionary process. Then the question of our obligation to the whole starts to cut close to the bone.
To reframe the earlier question: What if you realized that the entire human endeavor, the evolution of consciousness itself, depended on your willingness to evolve your own consciousness? How would it affect the choices you make every day if you knew that in a very real sense, those choices were either contributing to the evolution of the whole--or holding it back?
At this time when it seems that our very future depends on our willingness to evolve as a species, would you have any choice but to act in alignment with the greatest evolutionary good? The point is that when we take a closer look at what spiritual work and growth is actually for, it quickly becomes clear that the path of awakening is not primarily about freeing ourselves from suffering or securing our own happiness. Sure, that's a nice by-product. But, as long as that's all we're seeking, we probably won't get very far.
Where the spiritual path really begins to get interesting is when we recognize that transforming ourselves in the deepest possible way is in fact an evolutionary imperative, with profound consequences far beyond ourselves.
If we begin to embrace the fact that our lives are not simply our own to do with as we please--that in everything we do, we are in fact accountable to the Whole--something truly miraculous begins to happen. Faced with the palpable responsibility to evolve for a greater good, we find that we suddenly have access to a seemingly infinite source of energy, intention, passion and courage to confront whatever challenges present themselves on our path.
What's more, all of the personal issues and problems--all of the fears and doubts and resistances that once seemed so insurmountable--begin to seem a lot less significant. Why? Because our attention is now captivated by something much bigger than ourselves. This is the power of context.
We see our individual concerns, the worries we fret over day to day, from a different vantage point. Held up against this larger picture and greater purpose, those concerns suddenly seem very small indeed. Realizing "it's not all about me," and ignited by a noble calling to participate in the grand adventure of conscious evolution, we find we no longer even want to give those worries the time of day.
We have reclaimed our voice on the world stage. We are speaking out, in part, because of the needful state of the world and because whole industries and memes are based on misapprehensions, out-right lies, and exploitation of our ancestral legacy. We are awakened.
We are engaged in a transpersonal, metaphysical method of knowing Truth. Namely, that Necessity binds us to our destiny, which is not to be confused with linear pre-ordination. The Underground Stream honors the Feminine. Cultural Transformation can only come through the cultural evolution toward partnership. We are here to set the record straight and define ourselves with our own narratives in today's world, as the stewards we rightfully claim to be. "Jung found further that the mandala does not only mirror an inner state of order, but that its harmony or disharmony encompasses also the surroundings of the individual. Thus a mandala needs a symbol in which the outer and inner world merge. There is for Jung a ultimate reality beyond matter and psyche which he called the unus mundus, its empirical manifestation is the principle of synchronicity because in synchronistic events the inner world behaves as if it were outside and the outer world as if it were inside. As the mandala symbolism expresses the holistic order of matter and psyche it should have been investigated by physicists as well as psychologists because the mandala reappears in their hypothetical models of the atomic world. The atomic model of Niels Bohr is already a cosmic mandala and the models which the physicists construct nowadays to visualize the quarks are also mandalas." (M-L von Franz)
Imagine for a moment that the fate of the entire human race rested on your shoulders alone. That humanity's evolution out of brute self-interest depended entirely on your willingness to transform your consciousness.
What if you knew that the human race could advance past its smallness and negative conditioning --if you only became an exemplar of humanity's highest potential for the world? Imagine that for you, evolving beyond ego became an evolutionary imperative. Would you approach your path any differently?
Would the energy you bring to your spiritual practice intensify? Would the quality of awareness and care with which you approached your interactions with others become more profound? Would you find yourself reaching with inner muscles you didn't even know you had to actually stay awake to the depth you've tasted in your most profound spiritual moments? If you knew it all rested on you, would you have any choice but to change?
The Indian sage Ramana Maharshi once said that the spiritual aspirant must want liberation like a drowning person wants air. Why? Because the challenges of authentic spiritual growth and transformation are so great that most of us will choose to continue suffering in our smallness, rather than feel the pain of allowing that smallness to die forever.
Modern science has in recent decades been verifying what the ancient traditions intuited long ago: that, in both tangible and mysterious ways, we are all interconnected. Any one of us can have a profound effect on the whole. Add to that the reality that we are evolving beings living in an evolving universe. We are all part of a grand, cosmic evolutionary process. Then the question of our obligation to the whole starts to cut close to the bone.
To reframe the earlier question: What if you realized that the entire human endeavor, the evolution of consciousness itself, depended on your willingness to evolve your own consciousness? How would it affect the choices you make every day if you knew that in a very real sense, those choices were either contributing to the evolution of the whole--or holding it back?
At this time when it seems that our very future depends on our willingness to evolve as a species, would you have any choice but to act in alignment with the greatest evolutionary good? The point is that when we take a closer look at what spiritual work and growth is actually for, it quickly becomes clear that the path of awakening is not primarily about freeing ourselves from suffering or securing our own happiness. Sure, that's a nice by-product. But, as long as that's all we're seeking, we probably won't get very far.
Where the spiritual path really begins to get interesting is when we recognize that transforming ourselves in the deepest possible way is in fact an evolutionary imperative, with profound consequences far beyond ourselves.
If we begin to embrace the fact that our lives are not simply our own to do with as we please--that in everything we do, we are in fact accountable to the Whole--something truly miraculous begins to happen. Faced with the palpable responsibility to evolve for a greater good, we find that we suddenly have access to a seemingly infinite source of energy, intention, passion and courage to confront whatever challenges present themselves on our path.
What's more, all of the personal issues and problems--all of the fears and doubts and resistances that once seemed so insurmountable--begin to seem a lot less significant. Why? Because our attention is now captivated by something much bigger than ourselves. This is the power of context.
We see our individual concerns, the worries we fret over day to day, from a different vantage point. Held up against this larger picture and greater purpose, those concerns suddenly seem very small indeed. Realizing "it's not all about me," and ignited by a noble calling to participate in the grand adventure of conscious evolution, we find we no longer even want to give those worries the time of day.
Where Do We Come From?
By analyzing the genetic variation of modern Europeans, Cavalli-Sforza and Ammerman decided that Europeans are descended largely from populations of farmers who started migrating out of the Middle East 9,000 years ago. As the sons and daughters of farming families left their parents’ farms and moved into new territory, they interbred with the existing hunter-gatherer populations, which produced gradients of genetic change radiating from the Middle East.
Only in mountainous areas unattractive to farmers—the Pyrenees homelands of the Basques, for example—were the genes of the indigenous peoples comparatively intact. Other historical events, too, appeared to have influenced the European gene pool. For example, a genetic trail leads from the area north of the Black and Caspian Seas into the rest of Europe. Cavalli-Sforza linked this trail to the spread of the descendants of nomadic warriors and herders who first domesticated the horse, about 4,000 B.C.
Evidence clearly indicates that sometime in the period 100,000 to 200,000 years ago our ancestors went through a severe genetic bottleneck. Perhaps an environmental change drove ancient people to the brink of extinction. A more likely scenario, however, is that a relatively small group, numbering fewer than 20,000 at times and probably living in eastern Africa, was isolated for many thousands of years from the many groups of archaic human beings scattered throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia.
The people who emerged from this genetic bottleneck had traits never before seen in human beings. They had lighter builds, new ways of interacting among themselves, and perhaps a greater facility with language. Eventually the descendants of these people spread throughout Africa and beyond.
They reached Australia at least 60,000 years ago, probably traveling from the Horn of Africa and then along the South Asia shoreline. They arrived in the Middle East a bit more than 40,000 years ago. By 35,000 years ago anatomically modern people had spread into Europe from the Middle East and into East Asia from Southeast Asia. Sometime more than 12,000 years ago they entered the Americas.
Fewer than 10,000 generations separate everyone alive today from the small group of Africans who are our common ancestors. That’s much more than the twenty or so generations mentioned in Genesis, but it’s the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. Even over thousands of generations human groups have not differentiated in any substantial way.
Rather, the genetic evidence indicates that modern human beings have expanded as a single, relatively well mixed population without subsequent genetic bottlenecks (bottlenecks tend to erase the evidence of previous bottlenecks, which is how geneticists know that the bottleneck in Africa was the most recent one). Our comparative youth as a species accounts for our extreme genetic homogeneity. The chimpanzees living on a single hillside in Africa have twice as much variety in their DNA as do the six billion people scattered across the globe.
There’s another reason for our biological homogeneity. Modern human beings have never been able to resist for long what Noël Coward called “the urge to merge.” A person traveling due east from Madrid to Beijing (both at about 40°N latitude) would pass Italians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Uighurs, Mongolians, and Han Chinese, among others. All these groups resemble their immediate neighbors more than they do groups farther away because of the continual exchange of mates across group boundaries.
There’s a simple way of describing our genetic relatedness. Not only do all people have the same set of genes, but all groups of people also share the major variants of those genes. Geneticists have never found a genetic marker that is of one type in all the members of one large group and of a different type in all the members of another large group. That’s why ethnically targeted biological weapons would never work. Every group overlaps genetically with every other. We have cultural differences masquerading as race problems.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
There is no singular gene, mutation, allele, STR or SNP that tells the whole story. There are clusters of mutations that show deep relationship patterns of regional origin in some individuals. There is no DNA report that is 100% conclusive. They use the statistical mathematics of the educated guess.
Statistical and sampling flaws can lead to misinterpretations, based on too small of samplings and comparison studies. So, our own conclusions about our own DNA tests are, in part, interpretations of an interpretation. We can only draw inferences about the past based on the patterns observed in human DNA. And this is what keeps our quest alive.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
By analyzing the genetic variation of modern Europeans, Cavalli-Sforza and Ammerman decided that Europeans are descended largely from populations of farmers who started migrating out of the Middle East 9,000 years ago. As the sons and daughters of farming families left their parents’ farms and moved into new territory, they interbred with the existing hunter-gatherer populations, which produced gradients of genetic change radiating from the Middle East.
Only in mountainous areas unattractive to farmers—the Pyrenees homelands of the Basques, for example—were the genes of the indigenous peoples comparatively intact. Other historical events, too, appeared to have influenced the European gene pool. For example, a genetic trail leads from the area north of the Black and Caspian Seas into the rest of Europe. Cavalli-Sforza linked this trail to the spread of the descendants of nomadic warriors and herders who first domesticated the horse, about 4,000 B.C.
Evidence clearly indicates that sometime in the period 100,000 to 200,000 years ago our ancestors went through a severe genetic bottleneck. Perhaps an environmental change drove ancient people to the brink of extinction. A more likely scenario, however, is that a relatively small group, numbering fewer than 20,000 at times and probably living in eastern Africa, was isolated for many thousands of years from the many groups of archaic human beings scattered throughout Africa, Europe, and Asia.
The people who emerged from this genetic bottleneck had traits never before seen in human beings. They had lighter builds, new ways of interacting among themselves, and perhaps a greater facility with language. Eventually the descendants of these people spread throughout Africa and beyond.
They reached Australia at least 60,000 years ago, probably traveling from the Horn of Africa and then along the South Asia shoreline. They arrived in the Middle East a bit more than 40,000 years ago. By 35,000 years ago anatomically modern people had spread into Europe from the Middle East and into East Asia from Southeast Asia. Sometime more than 12,000 years ago they entered the Americas.
Fewer than 10,000 generations separate everyone alive today from the small group of Africans who are our common ancestors. That’s much more than the twenty or so generations mentioned in Genesis, but it’s the blink of an eye in evolutionary terms. Even over thousands of generations human groups have not differentiated in any substantial way.
Rather, the genetic evidence indicates that modern human beings have expanded as a single, relatively well mixed population without subsequent genetic bottlenecks (bottlenecks tend to erase the evidence of previous bottlenecks, which is how geneticists know that the bottleneck in Africa was the most recent one). Our comparative youth as a species accounts for our extreme genetic homogeneity. The chimpanzees living on a single hillside in Africa have twice as much variety in their DNA as do the six billion people scattered across the globe.
There’s another reason for our biological homogeneity. Modern human beings have never been able to resist for long what Noël Coward called “the urge to merge.” A person traveling due east from Madrid to Beijing (both at about 40°N latitude) would pass Italians, Greeks, Turks, Armenians, Uzbeks, Tajiks, Kyrgyz, Uighurs, Mongolians, and Han Chinese, among others. All these groups resemble their immediate neighbors more than they do groups farther away because of the continual exchange of mates across group boundaries.
There’s a simple way of describing our genetic relatedness. Not only do all people have the same set of genes, but all groups of people also share the major variants of those genes. Geneticists have never found a genetic marker that is of one type in all the members of one large group and of a different type in all the members of another large group. That’s why ethnically targeted biological weapons would never work. Every group overlaps genetically with every other. We have cultural differences masquerading as race problems.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
There is no singular gene, mutation, allele, STR or SNP that tells the whole story. There are clusters of mutations that show deep relationship patterns of regional origin in some individuals. There is no DNA report that is 100% conclusive. They use the statistical mathematics of the educated guess.
Statistical and sampling flaws can lead to misinterpretations, based on too small of samplings and comparison studies. So, our own conclusions about our own DNA tests are, in part, interpretations of an interpretation. We can only draw inferences about the past based on the patterns observed in human DNA. And this is what keeps our quest alive.
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2001/04/the-genetic-archaeology-of-race/2180/
Dynastic Houses
Puzzles of Flesh
The Grail, the Rose, the Lily & the Bee
Serpent, Dragon & Eagle
Puzzles of Flesh
The Grail, the Rose, the Lily & the Bee
Serpent, Dragon & Eagle
A sample of Red Thread Lines of Descent
Queen Eleanor
Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys, 1858. Oil on canvas; 40.6 x 30.5 cm
Amgueddfa Cymru Caerdydd [National Museum of Wales, Cardiff]. Accession Number: NMW A 185.
Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys, 1858. Oil on canvas; 40.6 x 30.5 cm
Amgueddfa Cymru Caerdydd [National Museum of Wales, Cardiff]. Accession Number: NMW A 185.
References
Begg, Deike, In Search of the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood: A Travellers' Guide.
Begg, Ean, The Cult of the Black Virgin
Baldwin, William J. (2003) Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits From Your Energy Body . Charlottesville, Virginia: Hampton Roads Publishing.
Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. New York: Bantam, 1973.
-----. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York: Penguin, 1976.
Colander, David, and Arjo Klamer. The Making of an Economist. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1990.
Economic Journal, January 1991; special 100th anniversary edition.
Johnson, Robert A. He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, Revised Edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
-----. Transformation: Understanding the Three Levels of Masculine Consciousness. New York: Harper & Row, 1991.
-----. The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden. New York: Harper & Row, 1993.
Jung, Carl, THE RED BOOK,
Jung, Emma, and Marie-Louise von Franz. The Grail Legend. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970.
Levy, Paul, The World Is Psyche,
http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/the-world-is-psyche/
Loomis, Laura Hibbard, and Roger Sherman Loomis. Medieval Romances. New York: Modern Library, 1957.
Wisman, Jon D. "The Excessive Formalism Charge in Economics." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, 1993.
The Tree of Life and the Holy Grail: Ancient and Modern Spiritual Paths and ... By Sylvia Francke
Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times edited by R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff 1998, State Universityof New York Press, - Karen-Claire Voss, "Spiritual Alchemy" http://books.google.com/books?id=0zfCrnqj_FUC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=karen+voss,+mysterium&source=bl&ots=GA2X9sGrA2&sig=UveOue1pCUjWpXFSXGP6fR7Uc9k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EdM9Uo9-h-mKApWqgJAI&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=karen%20voss%2C%20mysterium&f=false
IMAGINATION IN MYSTICISM AND ESOTERICISM: Marsilio Ficino, Ignatius de Loyola, and Alchemy by Karen-Claire Voss Published in Studies in Spirituality No. 6, 1996, 106-130. http://www.scribd.com/doc/127003294/Karen-claire-Voss-Imagination-in-Mysticism-and-Esotericism http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=68
The Social Life of Spirits Edited by Ruy Blanes and Diana Espírito Santo
Fiona Bowie's paper on 'Self, Personhood and Possession' from the Afterlife Research Centre's panel at the IUAES conference
http://www.academia.edu/4512697/Self_Personhood_and_Possession_IUAES_2013_MANCHESTER
Building Bridges, Dissolving Boundaries: Towards a Methodology for theEthnographic Study of the Afterlife, Mediumship and Spiritual Beings Fiona Bowie, Wolfson College, Oxford
Possession: Jung's Comparative Anatomy of the Psyche By Craig E. Stephenson, 2009,
http://books.google.com/books?id=dqPAD8UDSjIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Possession:+Jung%27s+Comparative+Anatomy+of+the+Psyche&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KbdAUqy3C-eXigLbloHgCA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Possession%3A%20Jung%27s%20Comparative%20Anatomy%20of%20the%20Psyche&f=false
The Fourth Turning By William Strauss, Neil Howe
Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self By Anthony Stevens
Journeys into emptiness - http://books.google.com/books?id=Pioe-Uxo3lIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=journeys+into+emptiness&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NyFDUpu4JaeCiwKjtoDACA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=journeys%20into%20emptiness&f=false
'ECHOES FROM THE GNOSIS', VOL. VIII.. BY G. R. S. MEAD, THE CHALDÆAN ORACLES, VOL. I., 1908
http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=classics_honors
Begg, Deike, In Search of the Holy Grail and the Precious Blood: A Travellers' Guide.
Begg, Ean, The Cult of the Black Virgin
Baldwin, William J. (2003) Healing Lost Souls: Releasing Unwanted Spirits From Your Energy Body . Charlottesville, Virginia: Hampton Roads Publishing.
Campbell, Joseph. Myths to Live By. New York: Bantam, 1973.
-----. The Masks of God: Creative Mythology. New York: Penguin, 1976.
Colander, David, and Arjo Klamer. The Making of an Economist. Boulder, Colo.: Westview, 1990.
Economic Journal, January 1991; special 100th anniversary edition.
Johnson, Robert A. He: Understanding Masculine Psychology, Revised Edition. New York: Harper & Row, 1989.
-----. Transformation: Understanding the Three Levels of Masculine Consciousness. New York: Harper & Row, 1991.
-----. The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden. New York: Harper & Row, 1993.
Jung, Carl, THE RED BOOK,
Jung, Emma, and Marie-Louise von Franz. The Grail Legend. New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1970.
Levy, Paul, The World Is Psyche,
http://www.awakeninthedream.com/wordpress/the-world-is-psyche/
Loomis, Laura Hibbard, and Roger Sherman Loomis. Medieval Romances. New York: Modern Library, 1957.
Wisman, Jon D. "The Excessive Formalism Charge in Economics." Paper presented at the annual meetings of the Society for the Advancement of Socio-Economics, 1993.
The Tree of Life and the Holy Grail: Ancient and Modern Spiritual Paths and ... By Sylvia Francke
Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times edited by R. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff 1998, State Universityof New York Press, - Karen-Claire Voss, "Spiritual Alchemy" http://books.google.com/books?id=0zfCrnqj_FUC&pg=PA174&lpg=PA174&dq=karen+voss,+mysterium&source=bl&ots=GA2X9sGrA2&sig=UveOue1pCUjWpXFSXGP6fR7Uc9k&hl=en&sa=X&ei=EdM9Uo9-h-mKApWqgJAI&ved=0CFYQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=karen%20voss%2C%20mysterium&f=false
IMAGINATION IN MYSTICISM AND ESOTERICISM: Marsilio Ficino, Ignatius de Loyola, and Alchemy by Karen-Claire Voss Published in Studies in Spirituality No. 6, 1996, 106-130. http://www.scribd.com/doc/127003294/Karen-claire-Voss-Imagination-in-Mysticism-and-Esotericism http://www.healingtaousa.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?rm=mode2&articleid=68
The Social Life of Spirits Edited by Ruy Blanes and Diana Espírito Santo
Fiona Bowie's paper on 'Self, Personhood and Possession' from the Afterlife Research Centre's panel at the IUAES conference
http://www.academia.edu/4512697/Self_Personhood_and_Possession_IUAES_2013_MANCHESTER
Building Bridges, Dissolving Boundaries: Towards a Methodology for theEthnographic Study of the Afterlife, Mediumship and Spiritual Beings Fiona Bowie, Wolfson College, Oxford
Possession: Jung's Comparative Anatomy of the Psyche By Craig E. Stephenson, 2009,
http://books.google.com/books?id=dqPAD8UDSjIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=Possession:+Jung%27s+Comparative+Anatomy+of+the+Psyche&hl=en&sa=X&ei=KbdAUqy3C-eXigLbloHgCA&ved=0CC8Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=Possession%3A%20Jung%27s%20Comparative%20Anatomy%20of%20the%20Psyche&f=false
The Fourth Turning By William Strauss, Neil Howe
Archetype Revisited: An Updated Natural History of the Self By Anthony Stevens
Journeys into emptiness - http://books.google.com/books?id=Pioe-Uxo3lIC&printsec=frontcover&dq=journeys+into+emptiness&hl=en&sa=X&ei=NyFDUpu4JaeCiwKjtoDACA&ved=0CE4Q6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=journeys%20into%20emptiness&f=false
'ECHOES FROM THE GNOSIS', VOL. VIII.. BY G. R. S. MEAD, THE CHALDÆAN ORACLES, VOL. I., 1908
http://digitalcommons.macalester.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1012&context=classics_honors
Keywords:
Grail Lineage, holy grail, Sangreal, sang real, Bloodline, God-Kings, Merovingian Dynasty, Gnostics, Carolingian Dynasty, Ulvungar Dynasty, Desposyni, House of Poitiers, Plantagenet Dynasty, Capetian Dynasty, Bourbon Dynasty, Valois Dynasty, Philippine Dynasty, House of Basarab, Aviz Dynasty, House of Braganza, Bergundian Dynasty, Kiev Dynasty, Hapsburg Dynasty, Franks, Goths, Visigoths, House of Lorraine, Ostrogoths, Vikings, Normans, Anglo-Norman, Picts, Welsh Kings, English High Kings, Scottish Kings, Irish Kings, Plantagenet, Anjou, Cathars, Templars, Lombardys, Anglo-Saxons, Byzantines, Holy Roman Empire, Boyars, Magna Carta Barons, Crusaders, Anunnaki, Sumerian Kings, Egyptian Pharaohs, Babylonian Kings, Nephilim, Celtic Christianity, Scythians, Dal Riada, Tribe of Dan, Davidic Line, Tribe of Benjamin, Tribe of Levi, Royal Ashina-Khazar, Trojans, Freemasons, Druids, Pendragon Dynasty, Messianic Legacy, Dragon Legacy, Tuatha de Danaan, Fir Bolg, Sidhe, Transylvania, Vinca, Dacia, Kush, Ethiopia, Saka, Scythians, Xiongnu, White Huns, Han Dynasty, Turkic Clans, Lusignan, Toulouse, Rennes le Chateau, Wave Genetics, Roman Emperors, Spanish Royal Houses, Norse Viking Kings, Danes, Frankish Kings.
Grail Lineage, holy grail, Sangreal, sang real, Bloodline, God-Kings, Merovingian Dynasty, Gnostics, Carolingian Dynasty, Ulvungar Dynasty, Desposyni, House of Poitiers, Plantagenet Dynasty, Capetian Dynasty, Bourbon Dynasty, Valois Dynasty, Philippine Dynasty, House of Basarab, Aviz Dynasty, House of Braganza, Bergundian Dynasty, Kiev Dynasty, Hapsburg Dynasty, Franks, Goths, Visigoths, House of Lorraine, Ostrogoths, Vikings, Normans, Anglo-Norman, Picts, Welsh Kings, English High Kings, Scottish Kings, Irish Kings, Plantagenet, Anjou, Cathars, Templars, Lombardys, Anglo-Saxons, Byzantines, Holy Roman Empire, Boyars, Magna Carta Barons, Crusaders, Anunnaki, Sumerian Kings, Egyptian Pharaohs, Babylonian Kings, Nephilim, Celtic Christianity, Scythians, Dal Riada, Tribe of Dan, Davidic Line, Tribe of Benjamin, Tribe of Levi, Royal Ashina-Khazar, Trojans, Freemasons, Druids, Pendragon Dynasty, Messianic Legacy, Dragon Legacy, Tuatha de Danaan, Fir Bolg, Sidhe, Transylvania, Vinca, Dacia, Kush, Ethiopia, Saka, Scythians, Xiongnu, White Huns, Han Dynasty, Turkic Clans, Lusignan, Toulouse, Rennes le Chateau, Wave Genetics, Roman Emperors, Spanish Royal Houses, Norse Viking Kings, Danes, Frankish Kings.
Copyright © 2013-2015, Iona Miller,
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If you mirror my works, pls include the credit and URL LINK for reference.
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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
All Rights Reserved, Sangreality Trust; GenIsis Genealogy
on all graphic and written content.
If you mirror my works, pls include the credit and URL LINK for reference.
[email protected]
http://ionamiller.weebly.com
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Bernat Martorell - Sant Jordi Mata El Drac (Saint George Killing the Dragon) c.1434 - 1435