Dealing with Trials and Tribulations
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It seems that monstrosities are bound to bubble up from the unconscious from time to time. I'm reminded of the putrification or blackening of those alchemical arts.
Are we to simply "Remember all ye that existence is pure joy; that all the sorrows are but as shadows; they pass & are done; but there is that which remains." and trust in this process? Or as AC says should we examine every aspect of our being and marry it with it's opposite? For it seems those shadows that bubble up are indeed often the opposites of who we thought we were in the first place (or the opposite of what we are trying to become)
Sometimes one can achieve a modicum of success by using those aspects of our psyche that bother us to drive the cultivation of it's opposite. Say for example we decide to cultivate discipline (driven by our dissatisfaction with our sloth). We notice this pattern early on and take the necessary steps. However after a few weeks we simply fall back into our slothful ways. Is it necessary that we fall to the pits of "slothfulness" before we can make some permanent and useful change or is this simply an indication that our attempts at cultivating discipline were too severe? Do we simply acknowledge our dualistic nature and let it drag us down to the pits to be hopefully reborn out of some terrible and painful putrification or do we constantly strive for balance each and every day, invoking the light into every darkness? For sometimes when we invoke the light not to counter some darkness but simply to bask in that light, the darkness taps us on the shoulder.
How can we approach this scientifically with a "guaranteed" outcome?
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No guarantees. Battling one's own smallness is an ongoing struggle. (Consider a certain Golden Dawn diagram which shows the entwining serpent continuing to follow one all the way up the Tree... until the Abyss.)
There's no easy answer for this, though there are answers. It's more of a skill to develop than an answer to hear. That's a main reason we encourage at least 6-12 months of good, weekly psychotherapy before getting too deeply into the work: One develops skills and tactics and sensitivities that nothing else quite gives.
The biggest single key is "honesty rather than denial." Don't hide behind "this is illusion." Start with "this is real right now - this is my experience." Feel the feelings, witness the actions, get the truth (in the sense of "this is the actual experience right now"), don't hide or attempt to suppress or think "I must not be much of an initiate if I'm having this kind of crap." Everybody does, even the Magus of the Aeon (read his diaries through the '20s for excellent examples!).
Speaking of diaries, that's the other biggest key: Keep the diary! Don't be obsessive, don't write it for screen adaptation, just write what's so - every day, like clockwork. This encourages the capacity to simultaneously have the feelings etc. while being concurrently a third-party observer of them.
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Thanks Jim,
Yes I think "resistance is futile". Resistance seems to create a very unpleasant tension (and I wonder if resistance is not the cause of so-called mental illness or an "unhealthy" expression of the self, whereas "dissolution" seems to be the key to dealing with these "neuroses" in a healthier manner). It sometimes feels like some great battle is going on within us.
It seems we continually want to assure ourselves that all will be well and I suppose will fabricate any excuse to escape the pain and suffering. It also seems that wallowing will achieve naught, and that only action can achieve a result.
I'm confused about how far resistance can be taken though. Can we "invoke" those things that make us "feel better", can we cultivate Love and Light in the depths of despair? Is this okay provided that we acknowledge the darkness or is this again just a form of resistance?
PS: The image of the serpent going up the tree is very apt, however would it be equally apt for O.T.O initiation as it would for A.A. My understanding is that it is more indicative of the latter, but then I suppose to take the middle path the opposites must be harmonized even if the Jachin and Boaz are not explored in-depth.
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Everything is Ok, depending only on its outcome
No single answers hear beyond the, "Yes, that of course is possible." But I think this is the main point: Over the decades, I've run into many people who try to banish Saturn during (say) a difficult Saturn transit, or just during a time of sustained difficulties. They are usually aghast when I tell them they should be invoking Saturn. (Their aghastness makes the underlying problem really clear: They really want to get away from it!)
Invoking a principleis really an aligning of your consciousness with it so that you both embrace it and have dominion over it within yourself (and, thus, outside of yourself). Banishing revrses this, divorcing you from the principle (at least consciously) - which means, it supports conscious denial.
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93 Jim.
You are a Star in every way.
I found this quote by searching the forum and it seemed apt:
"Death is afraid of such powerful brahmacharins who come of their own accord to his door. This stems from a very basic principle of nature.Whatever you treasure most, you love most, desire most in life, and would liike to have, would like to keep, you turn away from it a little, surrender it a little and it will remain yours. On the opposite hand, whatever you detest most in life, absolutely dislike, just turn to it a little and it will stay away from you. It is the principle of innoculation. It applies to all sciences. Poison is cured by poison. Everything is its own antidote. So life has death built into it. The only way to master death is not to run away from it, but to turn to it a little, recognize it daily."
Perhaps other will find inspiration in it as well.
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@Jim Eshelman said
"Invoking a principleis really an aligning of your consciousness with it so that you both embrace it and have dominion over it within yourself (and, thus, outside of yourself). Banishing revrses this, divorcing you from the principle (at least consciously) - which means, it supports conscious denial."
David Allen uses a great quote in one of his productivity books (not sure if it's his quote or someone else's), "What you resist you're stuck with."