Monday, June 7, 2010
The Urge to Dissolution
The alchemical goal is to bring a reaction to a state of blackenss and from there the real healing begins. This blackness or darkness involves a tearing apart of the ego realm and a temporary psychosis in which we deal with real people and things from the perspective of a crazy person. It is here the archetypal realm spills into the conscious realm and there is "going to be trouble". But this splitting apart is required as in Rapunzel when she and the prince are banished and separated, one blind and the other destitute (but pregnant). Nathan Schwartz-Salant calls this the carzy parts of ourselves that break us apart so we can be rebuilt into a new perspective. Hamlet too goes through this blackness, in fact the whole of the play is his playing the role of alchemist adding ingredients to the story that is intended to drive it to blackness. We are often overtaken by this madness even in the light of day but the urge to dissolution is complemented by an urge to unite and the coniunctio is that alchemical phase which pulls it all together again sometimes over a cup of coffee.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
I am reminded of being a child and playing with Legos. There is a terrible moment after you've built something and tired of it when you first decide to break it apart. That first moment is the worst, and then you are committed to a new course of action that is chaotic buy also creative and challenging and fun. Like a painter who decides to paint primer over a finished canvas. Something is lost but something is gained. Often in art, history and psychology, it seems destruction is the first step of the next creative phase.
ReplyDeleteThat is correct. As a culture our destructive capabilities are kept in shadow and only those outside can really see it. When we don't own our ability to destroy we leave a wasteland with all our heroic intentions.
ReplyDelete"I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact"
A Ritual to Read to Each Other
If you don't know the kind of person I am
and I don't know the kind of person you are
a pattern that others made may prevail in the world
and following the wrong god home we may miss our star.
For there is many a small betrayal in the mind,
a shrug that lets the fragile sequence break
sending with shouts the horrible errors of childhood
storming out to play through the broken dyke.
And as elephants parade holding each elephant's tail,
but if one wanders the circus won't find the park,
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all cruelty
to know what occurs but not recognize the fact.
And so I appeal to a voice, to something shadowy,
a remote important region in all who talk:
though we could fool each other, we should consider—
lest the parade of our mutual life get lost in the dark.
For it is important that awake people be awake,
or a breaking line may discourage them back to sleep;
the signals we give—yes or no, or maybe—
should be clear: the darkness around us is deep.
-by William Stafford
"We're jungle creatures, Henry, and the dark is all around us. See them? In the corners, you can see the eyes." – Eleanor, "The Lion In Winter"
ReplyDelete