As Jung observed, according to David Tacey in "The Darkening Spirit", perfection could no longer be upheld as a viable ideal and that wholeness would replace it in a new ethical dispensation. So perhaps a "more wholesome union".
Image: Still from Wim Wenders’ Im Lauf Der Zeit (1976).
A black-and-white still from Wim Wenders’ Im Lauf Der Zeit (1976). It shows two men leaning against the front of what may have been a Volkswagen van, one reading, the other drinking. It looks like only the body of the van remains, with the chassis and wheels removed and the windscreen and body all painted a light colour. Only a Coca-Cola sign remains visible between the headlights.
“An excellent question to ask ourselves is, “Who would I be without this story? This belief? This identity? This fear?” This question takes courage, because we have to look beyond the safety of the familiar.”
~ Ezra Bayda, The Authentic Life: Zen Wisdom for Living Free from Complacency and Fear.
Source: Gary Lachman, Lost Knowledge of the Imagination.
Image: Peace-Imagine-Lennon / Marko Kafé / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Peace-Imagine-Lennon / Marko Kafé / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0. It shows a white peace symbol with the inscription "Imagine" against a multi-coloured abstract background, from the John Lennon song on the John Lennon Wall in Prague.
“A.R. Orage, the literary critic and student of the esoteric teacher Gurdjieff, believed with [Bernard] Shaw that imagination is the propellant of evolution. ‘Evolution is altogether an imaginative process,’ he wrote. ‘You become what you have been led to imagine yourself to be’.”
~ Gary Lachman.
A white water lily of the genus nymphaea with a yellow core and surrounded by green leaves.
Source: James Hollis, Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times.
Image: Water lily 1 / Plane777 at English Wikipedia / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.
Image containing a text quotation, with the grey silhouetted profile of a man like Jung lighting his pipe, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from James Hollis, Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times, reads: “Jung challenges us to consider that within each of us is a center that is wiser than our knowledge, deeper than our learning, older than our chronology, and more durable than our calcified convictions. From time to time, life humbles us, calls us to account, leads us back to the drawing board, and asks us to start over. Isn’t it nice to think there might also be some resources available there to help us when we think we are bereft, when we have exhausted our conscious tools, when we have lost our way? “In writing about the aims of psychotherapy in 1929, Jung observed that the therapeutic project is less about “cure,” for life is not a disease, and more about an ongoing experiment to be lived through. So, the common work, he asserts, “is less a question of treatment than of developing the creative possibilities latent within the patient.”
“Jung challenges us to consider that within each of us is a center that is wiser than our knowledge, deeper than our learning, older than our chronology, and more durable than our calcified convictions. From time to time, life humbles us, calls us to account ...”
~ James Hollis.
Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.
The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0. A painting by Gwabryel, based on H. P. Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu. It shows a man with arms outstretched worshipping a very tall, black figure. To his left and right, victims are suspended upside down from gallows, and in front of the dark figure are several other, perhaps tormented figures.
The Root Causes of Why We're FUBAR
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Source: Carl Jung, quoted in David Tacey, The Darkening Spirit: Jung, spirituality, religion.
Image: Ruins of the North Palace of king Nebuchadnezzar II / Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.
Ruins of the North Palace of king Nebuchadnezzar II at the ancient city of Babylon, Mesopotamia, Iraq / Osama Shukir Muhammed Amin FRCP(Glasg) / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.
“Where are the answers to the spiritual needs and troubles of a new epoch? And where the knowledge to deal with the psychological problems raised by the development of modern consciousness?”
~ Carl Jung, quoted in David Tacey, The Darkening Spirit: Jung, spirituality, religion.
This painting was painted for Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici in 1575-6, as part of a set of nine coppers intended for a cabinet or writing-desk (studiolo) in the Cardinal's bedroom in the Villa Medici, Rome. The present copper is the only surviving piece of the set. The subject of the painting has been variously identified as The Assembly of the Gods or The Birth of Minerva. Upper centre sits Jupiter, King of the gods, from whose head Minerva has just been born. To the left and right of him are Neptune, Mars, Apollo, Venus, Mercury and Diana (or Luna) who holds up the moon. The bearded figure lower right, larger in scale and apparently holding the whole group on his shoulders, is probably Atlas and in the lower left corner Vesta, goddess of Mother Nature, is shown guarded by a corbante and sitting above Pluto, god of the Underworld. In the centre are Neptune and Juno, with a peacock at her feet, and upper left seated on a cloud are Ceres and Flora with two satyrs (possibly representing the Four Seasons).
Source: Carl Jung, Alchemical Studies, Collected Works, Volume 13. Quoted in James Hollis, Living Between Worlds: Finding Personal Resilience in Changing Times.
Image: The Assembly of the Gods - WGA26036 / Jacopo Zucchi (1542–1596) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.
Image containing a text quotation, with the grey silhouetted profile of a man like Jung lighting his pipe, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from ~ Carl Jung, Alchemical Studies, reads: “We think we can congratulate ourselves on having already reached such a pinnacle of clarity, imagining that we have left all these phantasmal gods far behind. But what we have left behind are only verbal specters, not the psychic facts that were responsible for the birth of the gods. We are still as much possessed by autonomous psychic contents as if they were Olympians. Today they are called phobias, obsessions, and so forth; in a word, neurotic symptoms. The gods have become diseases; Zeus no longer rules Olympus but rather the solar plexus, and produces curious specimens for the doctor’s consulting room, or disorders the brains of politicians and journalists who unwittingly let loose psychic epidemics on the world.”
“We think we can congratulate ourselves on having already reached such a pinnacle of clarity, imagining that we have left all these phantasmal gods far behind. But what we have left behind are only verbal specters ...”
~ Carl Jung, Alchemical Studies, Collected Works, Volume 13.
The Perilous Compassion of the Honey Queen, a painting by Carrie Ann Baade. It depicts a Queen Bee giving her precious honey to heal the wounds of a man, serving as a powerful evocation of the archetype of universal compassion. The artwork symbolizes resurrection and the cycle of death and rebirth, as bees are described as resting in winter and re-emerging in spring, mirroring the themes of the astrological sign of Pisces associated with the work.
Source: James Hillman, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling.
Image: The Perilous Compassion of the Honey Queen / Carrie Ann Baade / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.
![Image containing a text quotation, with the grey silhouetted profile of a man like Jung lighting his pipe, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from James Hillman, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling, reads:
WizzyWig:
“[Y]ou find your genius by looking in the mirror of your life. Your visible image shows your inner truth, so when you're estimating others, what you see is what you get. It therefore becomes critically important to see generously, or you will get only what you see; to see sharply, so that you discern the mix of traits rather than a generalized lump; and to see deeply into dark shadows, or else you will be deceived.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:x74slsd2biicwqwvuxon5dol/bafkreiani3do7pnnicabbucnhd4ue4cgqw5ea3gbvtqj6vj5jmc52pcegq)
Image containing a text quotation, with the grey silhouetted profile of a man like Jung lighting his pipe, in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from James Hillman, The Soul's Code: In Search of Character and Calling, reads: WizzyWig: “[Y]ou find your genius by looking in the mirror of your life. Your visible image shows your inner truth, so when you're estimating others, what you see is what you get. It therefore becomes critically important to see generously, or you will get only what you see; to see sharply, so that you discern the mix of traits rather than a generalized lump; and to see deeply into dark shadows, or else you will be deceived.”
“You find your genius by looking in the mirror of your life. Your visible image shows your inner truth, so when you're estimating others, what you see is what you get. It therefore becomes critically important to see generously, or you will get only what you see; to see sharply...”
~ James Hillman.
A woman in bustling clothes and wearing a green wreath on her head is sitting with a pile of papers, having difficulty in writing poetry, a hand resting on her forehead. To the left, there are closed books on the ground, and to her right is a young naked child with what looks like a closed book. Behind the woman is a cloudy sky.
Source: Kathleen Raine, “W.B. Yeats and the Learning of Imagination” (lecture).
Image: An Allegory of Poetry / Auger Lucas (1685–1765) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.
![An image containing a text quotation, with a pink rose and green leaves in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from Kathleen Raine, “W.B. Yeats and the Learning of Imagination” (lecture), reads:
Poetry and Materialism:
“In the course of my long lifetime, I have seen the meaning of the word ‘poetry’ change. At the beginning of this [20th] century the name of the poet was honoured with the corresponding expectation from the poets of what I would venture to call ‘food for the soul’, meaning and values, beauty and wisdom ... In, I suppose, every civilization before our own, knowledge has been concerned with such values – facts of mind, to use Coleridge's phrase rather than facts of the material world; those immeasurable meanings and qualities with which human beings have been concerned at all times until a materialist science redefined reality in terms of the measurable and rational thought, based on observable facts of an objective world ... The prevailing climate of this [current] civilization does not favour works of the imagination. There's a prevailing rejection – or, perhaps more truly, ignorance – of those regions of the mind which are the true sources of poetry.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:x74slsd2biicwqwvuxon5dol/bafkreih7kiayzurvkdg2h2jjzdf4jk2ezo4fy4ucntv67wshkm3nvygh6u)
An image containing a text quotation, with a pink rose and green leaves in the lower left-hand corner. The text, from Kathleen Raine, “W.B. Yeats and the Learning of Imagination” (lecture), reads: Poetry and Materialism: “In the course of my long lifetime, I have seen the meaning of the word ‘poetry’ change. At the beginning of this [20th] century the name of the poet was honoured with the corresponding expectation from the poets of what I would venture to call ‘food for the soul’, meaning and values, beauty and wisdom ... In, I suppose, every civilization before our own, knowledge has been concerned with such values – facts of mind, to use Coleridge's phrase rather than facts of the material world; those immeasurable meanings and qualities with which human beings have been concerned at all times until a materialist science redefined reality in terms of the measurable and rational thought, based on observable facts of an objective world ... The prevailing climate of this [current] civilization does not favour works of the imagination. There's a prevailing rejection – or, perhaps more truly, ignorance – of those regions of the mind which are the true sources of poetry.”
“In the course of my long lifetime, I have seen the meaning of the word ‘poetry’ change. At the beginning of this [20th] century the name of the poet was honoured with the corresponding expectation from the poets of what I would venture to call ‘food for the soul’ ...”
~ Kathleen Raine.
A painting titled "The Man Made Mad with Fear ", showing a man close up, surrounded by countryside greenery. He has long dark hair and is wearing a mustard coloured shirt or jacket with black stripes, his right arm extended, his left hand clutching the top of his head and a look of fear on his face.
Source: Michael Meade, Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss.
Image: The Man Made Mad with Fear / Gustave Courbet (1819–1877) / Wikimedia Commons / Public domain.
Image containing a text quotation, with a man in manacles in the bottom left-hand corner. The text, from Michael Meade, Why the World Doesn't End: Tales of Renewal in Times of Loss, reads: Fear is a Key: “In the end, what we fear will not go away, for it indicates what we must go through in order to awaken, become more genuine, and live more fully. The problem is that we tend to be most afraid of what our own souls require of us. Often our deepest fear is that we might become who we are intended to be, who we already are at our core. For becoming who we truly are requires the greatest amount of change.”
“In the end, what we fear will not go away, for it indicates what we must go through in order to awaken, become more genuine, and live more fully. The problem is that we tend to be most afraid of what our own souls require of us ...”
~ Michael Meade.
A theatrical poster for the magician Zan Zig, showing him clutching hold of a rabbit, and with other objects in mid-air that he's made appear, such as doves and roses. Sporting a handle-bars moustache, Zan Zig is wearing a black suit with tails, and a white short and white bow tie.
Image: Zan Zig performing with rabbit and roses, magician poster / Strobridge Litho. Co., Cincinnati & New York / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 2.0.
![Image containing a text quotation. The text, from Dean Radin, Real Magic, reads:
Personal and Universal Consciousness:
“Neoplatonism proposed the existence of deep interconnections among all things, including what is normally viewed as the distinction between mental and physical phenomena. From the everyday, ego-based state of awareness [the personal form of consciousness], mind and matter appear to be fundamentally different. But from the rarefied state of gnosis, which provides direct access to higher states of existence [Universal Consciousness] the apparent distinctions between mind and matter, or space and time, are revealed as illusions.”](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:x74slsd2biicwqwvuxon5dol/bafkreihkbjhjkta5ov6kernhvefmmayzfswjjurmqy26xznja2x2lt3gs4)
Image containing a text quotation. The text, from Dean Radin, Real Magic, reads: Personal and Universal Consciousness: “Neoplatonism proposed the existence of deep interconnections among all things, including what is normally viewed as the distinction between mental and physical phenomena. From the everyday, ego-based state of awareness [the personal form of consciousness], mind and matter appear to be fundamentally different. But from the rarefied state of gnosis, which provides direct access to higher states of existence [Universal Consciousness] the apparent distinctions between mind and matter, or space and time, are revealed as illusions.”
“Neoplatonism proposed the existence of deep interconnections among all things, including what is normally viewed as the distinction between mental & physical phenomena. From the everyday, ego-based state of awareness, mind & matter appear to be fundamentally different...”
~ Dean Radin, Real Magic.
Azada Women: Afghan Women Need Your Help — One Woman. One Hundred Dollars:
Scheherazade Foundation.
Video (2 min 24 sec) ...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=vX79...
Photo of a homeless man sitting on a pavement in a chair holding up a brown cardboard sign which reads, in block capitals, "Seeking human kindness". He has a grey beard and an orange woolly hat.
Source: Richard Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View.
Image: Seeking human kindness / Enver Rahmanov / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Image containing a text quotation, with a whte lotus and green leaves in the bottom left-hand corner. The text, from Richard Tarnas, Cosmos and Psyche: Intimations of a New World View, reads: Busy Making Progress: “Humanity's "progress of knowledge" and the "evolution of consciousness" have too often been characterized as if our task were simply to ascend a very tall cognitive ladder with graded hierarchical steps that represent successive developmental stages in which we solve increasingly challenging mental riddles, like advanced problems in a graduate exam in biochemistry or logic. But to understand life and the cosmos better, perhaps we are required to transform not only our minds but our hearts. For the whole being, body and soul, mind and spirit, is implicated ... Our world view ... is profoundly affected by the degree to which all our faculties–intellectual, imaginative, aesthetic, moral, emotional, somatic, spiritual, relational–enter the process of knowing ...”
“Humanity's "progress of knowledge" and the "evolution of consciousness" have too often been characterized as if our task were simply to ascend a very tall cognitive ladder with graded hierarchical steps ... stages in which we solve increasingly challenging mental riddles ...”
~ Richard Tarnas.
Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0.
Image: The Unholy Worship / Gwabryel, Illustrator of Weird Fiction / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 3.0. A painting by Gwabryel, based on H. P. Lovecraft's story The Call of Cthulhu. It shows a man with arms outstretched worshipping a very tall, black figure. To his left and right, victims are suspended upside down from gallows, and in front of the dark figure are several other, perhaps tormented figures.
The Root Causes of Why We're FUBAR
or “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea” ...
esowteric.vivaldi.net/2026/01/16/t...
#PostTrust #PostTruth #Materialism #Disenchantment #Resist #Resistance #Underground #Survival #DarkAges
The American Transcendentalists:
Video (53 min 51 sec).
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Leoj...
#Transcendentalists #Transcendentalism #Emerson #RalphWaldoEmerson #Thoreau #HenryDavidThoreau #Fuller #MargaretFuller #Idealism #Individualism #Intuition #Newness #Romanticism #Consumerism #Creativity
A painting in the shape of a round-topped arch, depicting an alchemical scene, with Mercury and Sulfer personified.
Source: David Fideler, Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond with Nature’s Intelligence.
Image: Alchemy - Mercury and sulfur personified / Unknown artist / Wikimedia Commons (from Wellcome Collection) / Public domain.
An image containing a text quotation. The text, from David Fideler, Restoring the Soul of the World: Our Living Bond with Nature’s Intelligence, reads: The Great Work: “There is no absolute distinction between the alchemist and nature, between the inner and outer worlds. All are part of one creative, evolutionary process. Because of this alchemy has always possessed a spiritual dimension, since it is not possible to participate in the Great Work of Nature without experiencing a self-transformation. In order for the work to be successful, total participation is required. Alchemy is a comprehensive science of the cosmos in which both humanity and the larger universe are implicated.”
“There is no absolute distinction between the alchemist and nature, between the inner and outer worlds. All are part of one creative, evolutionary process. Because of this alchemy has always possessed a spiritual dimension ...”
~ David Fideler.
Ceramic vase depicting an androgynous Eros offering a flower to a Maenad, who is holding a tambourine.
Source: Patrick Harpur, A Complete Guide to the Soul (UK) or The Secret Tradition of the Soul (US).
Image: Eros androgyne et Ménade vers -330 GroupeZ / Codex / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0.