In our lived experience of being a human on this planet, we are tasked with the age-old quest of realizing answers to life's greatest questions. Why are we here? What are we to do with our time? How can I find true peace and happiness in a world where chaos seems to lurking in every corner, threatening my intrinsic well-being?
Today, I want to write about what I feel is the essence of the spiritual journey. My understandings and revelations on the aforementioned questions have emerged out of my own spiritual process. I can't say I have all the answers, but I have discovered what I would consider to be the "scaffolding" and framework of what is a deeply transformative path.
Some of these realizations come through the lens of my studies into Archetypal Psychology. This has been a mystical path of self-discovery and I believe a deeper understanding on this topic can help us delve into the essence of our being. This branch of science, Archetypal Psychology (also known as "Depth Psychology") can nominally be attributed to the insights of Carl Jung. Although an understanding of the Archetypes has existed since the early days of pagan worship and original Nature-based wisdom traditions, Carl Jung was able to synthesize these primordial ideas and interlace ancient perspectives with modern concepts.
In this blog post my hope is that you walk away with an overall understanding of some of the mechanics of real human spiritual transformation, what it really means to "transform", how it happens, and what we can do with this information
Unveiling the Archetypes Within
The first step occurs with our introspection and inquiry into what makes us human. What makes us tick? Why do we do what we do? How is it that somehow, for some reason, there seems to be some sort of "intelligence" or guidance system embedded within our psyche that helps point us in the "right" direction?
According to Carl Jung (and his subsequent contemporaries), within every human psyche are what is considered to be Archetypal Energies, or Archetypal Forces. One may think of these things not as entities but rather as personalities or "faces of the Divine". Or maybe a better way to look at it would be to see them as "blueprints" for our expression. Pathways of energy. For example, within each of us are the archetypal blueprints for courage, for strength, for softness, for receptivity, for generosity, for willpower, for discipline. We may be able to get inspired by witnessing human embodiments of these qualities (when I see someone perform a courageous deed it may remind me of my own potential for courage), and yet the fact remains that the blueprints seem to exist within us. The raw materials are there.
In Tantra -- the spiritual science of self-empowerment and therefore Self-Realization -- practitioners are encouraged to build real relationships to these forces. However, instead of calling them "archetypal energies", Tantrikas connected images and personalities to these forces and called them "deities". For those who are not familiar, a large part of successful Tantrik practice is what is known as "deity yoga" . This refers to the process undertaken by the individual of created a link, or a yoga, between the individual self and an elevated or exalted facet of the Self. Notice the difference between individual self and Supreme Self. This is an important point to take into consideration -- one must reach the humbling realization that there is a more Supreme Being than the ego and that this "Supreme Being" contains within it codes and guidance for the transformation of the individual. To become an optimized individual, the irony is that we let go a little bit of who we think we are so that we can discover who we might be. This discovery process is a death and re-birth of the psyche and it requires a metaphysical journey of the individual.
Embracing the Hero's Journey
Many have heard of the concept of the "Hero's Journey" which was a term coined by one of Jung's contemporaries, Joseph Campbell. This journey reflects the process of an individual who decides that they must undergo some sort of character change or transformation; it happens to someone when they realize, "if things are going to be different, then I need to become different."
This crucial and principle step must be made in order for real change to occur. The yogis understood this, and this concept is found in all ritual-based systems of spiritual technology. The purpose of the what we are calling "spiritual technology" is to give humans access to the primal powers of being and to leverage them for the benefit of all; to reveal to us the "user manual" of divinity, so to say. After all, we are not given a handbook when we inherit this biocomputer of the human body and we are not taught in schools how to regulate our breath or restore our nervous system to balance. We are not really taught how to think. These are tools that must be sought, found and practiced on our own -- driven out of our own innate need for self-mastery. If and when we fail to understand the mechanics of our being, we are driven by impulse, compelled and influenced by external factors, and driven across the seas of life hither-and-thither without any real direction to our ship. With that, an essential piece of the puzzle that must be contemplated and realized is that "external factors" include the ruminations of our own mind. We are influenced by our own thoughts! All of our behaviors, and therefore the outcomes we manifest in life are shaped by the thoughts we think. The problem is that sometimes, these thoughts are, to put it quite frankly, inferior to other thoughts that we COULD think if we were to know how to think them.
The question then is -- we, HOW do we think "superior" thoughts?!
Navigating the Labyrinth of the Psyche
To get to the answer of this question, we have to descend the vast and intricate maze of innermost being. The "psyche" is a greek word which means "soul" -- it is the animating spark of our being, inherited at birth and, according to some traditions, traveling across time and space eternally collecting wisdom to help consciousness evolve. The soul is the fragment of the Supreme Being that is unique to each of us and yet is considered to a be a holographic whole within the Whole. What happens at birth for each of us as that this spark of light enters to animate and give life to the biological matrix of our human body. The light then has to filter through the matrix or structure of our being so that we can create the life we live. Due to our karma, this light is then "shaped" according to certain preset conditions. As we grow and age, we accrue our own karma which then further shapes this light. If we do not pay attention to this process, we may end up as an adult and never question where the light is coming from, where it going, or what it is doing. We just end up in a sort of conditioned or learned way of living. To break free of our conditioning, we have to learn to literally "think outside of the box" and, thus, do things differently to how we've been doing them.
To figure out how to do them differently, we first must understand ourselves. We must understand the nature of the light that emerges through us, how it becomes molded or shaped according to our ideas and beliefs about ourselves. We are quite complicated on the surface, but as we dive into our psyche, we may come to realize that we are not very different from each other. Carl Jung noticed this in his contemporary studies on the human psyche, and realized that we are all driven by core motivations. He also observed that the psyche has a predictable and "mappable" structure to it. Navigating this maze and understanding the inner terrain of the mind is the subject of many (perhaps all) spiritual systems.
The Call to Transformation
At the heart of Archetypal Psychology is the call to transformation—a sacred invitation to shed old patterns and beliefs that no longer serve our highest good. The call to transformation occurs when an individuals is fed up with the way things are. They are ready to do it differently. As we talked about above, this happens when a person starts to take full responsibility for their life and their destiny -- no longer casting blame or pointing fingers or making up reasons why the world sucks, but rather choosing to empower themselves and seek for the immensity of divine potential made manifest. Spirituality -- true spirituality -- comes as a result of one accepting the Call, which is accompanied by the pre-requisite of humility and an acceptance that "this (whatever this is) isn't all there is to it." Suddenly a person is thrust into the mystical realms of onsciousness -- a place where the world becomes less real and the underlying energetics of the Universe become more obvious.
Embracing Alchemy
As one embraces the hero's journey and answers the call of transformation, alchemy occurs -- the ego goes through a period of trials & challenges which purify and burn off the dross of inferior ways of thinking. We search for a "better way". This is not found in books, and although scripture can point the way, we are tasked with living this experience out for ourselves to validate and confirm what the sages and mystics have been saying all along. To be successful here means that we end up on the other side different than we were. What is happening? Well, according the Jung and others, a literal re-shaping to the psyche. A re-patterning of thoughts and energy flows. Inferior thoughts are replaced by superior ones, and therefore behavior patterns change, and the outcome of our life changes. We are literally manifesting Reality differently. Think about that for a moment. This is an alchemical process.
Conclusion: Walking the Path
There is much more I could say on these topics -- I am merely scratching the surface and introducing a few ideas to contemplate. Much of what has been shared in the essay is not "complete" but requires further reading and practice to understand; maybe that is the point.
The question I might leave you with is this -- are you ready to embark on the quest of self-discovery and spiritual metamorphosis? A word of warning: while cognition can serve a role in this, the real journey happens where the rubber meets the road. Ya gotta have skin in the game to play. No one can do this from the sidelines with a wisely nodding head saying "yeah, I know."
We begin where we are and we work with what we've got. Hopefully we realize that the ego is limited in its ability to grasp the Infinite but maybe the ego can be subdued and optimized to work with the various aspects of the Infinite known as archetypes.
This is a path of fire and light and the burning away of everything that is not real; it requires tremendous courage and a will to face obstacles that can appear to be insurmountable.
May you find the right people, teachings and practices to support you in this and may you be sincere in your quest.
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