In my ongoing correspondence with Morten Sorensen, now living near Oslo, this is what I sent him today.
You asked “at what point – as a natural progression of human life into maturity (rather than old age) do we give up on wanting to change the world and rather concentrate on our moving forward spiritually, that is; preparing ourselves for our transition.”
For my inquiry into the change of consciousness necessary to avert global eco-catastrophe, I want to focus on the theme that is currently emerging. For this purpose, I’m going back and forth between two resources that I’ve been digging into for months. They are Scott Preston’s blog The Chrysalis and Jordan Peterson’s YouTube videos of the two courses he teaches at the University of Ottawa. That’s Scott in the photo above.
For almost my entire adult life I have been periodically drawn to the writings of Carl Jung. But every time I engage, I find myself somewhat mystified. I usually tell myself that I should try again when I am older and wiser. It always feels like there is something there I need to know, but I’m not quite ready to grasp it.
I want to share this whole essay I received today from Charles, called By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them. It captures the two poles of hope and realistic despair, and shows how they work together.
What is the collective shift of consciousness so many refer to as necessary for the healing of the earth?
I was bogged down after spending about a year of inquiry into that question. I found myself strongly drawn to reading The Red Bookof CG Jung, which started with him being called by “the spirit of the depths”. It took me to a deeper level, but I was unable to connect it with the results of my inquiry up to that point.
My far-flung concerns have settled into the interaction of two mythic archetypes: the Bodhisattva and the Anima Mundi. I’m watching to see how it unfolds.
An old friend I haven’t seen for years has started a video blog where he and a partner are doing a collaborative discussion of The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible, by Charles Eisenstein.
I watched their Introductory video and read the first four (short) chapters of the book. They invited participants to comment on their personal reactions to the material. Here’s the comment I submitted to the web page:
I’ve been stuck in my blog because I have defined the theme as inquiring into “what is the shift in the global planetary consciousness that will be necessary for the self-healing of the earth?” I had developed a table some years ago of various answers found in books I had been drawn to read.I read the first 4 chapters of “More Beautiful World” yesterday. The shift from the Separation story to the Interbeing or Reunion story is a perfect fit, and in fact an underpinning, for the contrast that has been forming up.
Reading C.G. Jung’s Red Book and using it as a tool for digging deeper in my life, thought, and various practices.
Imentioned Jung at the end of the last post, but that was more than three months ago. I have since been drawn in by the vortex of his Liber Novus (The Red Book). The gigantic facsimile edition has graced our home for almost five years, ever since I read this tantalizing pre-publication article in The New York Times. (Two paragraphs rendered unreadable in this version are here.) I was able to read a little of the book, but I eventually found the size and weight too unwieldy to handle. Recently I discovered its more conveniently sized companion,The Red Book: A Reader’s Edition,which arrived in the mail last Tuesday, along withReading the Red Bookby Sanford Drob. I have a lot of momentum into reading The Red Book after listening to all of Lance Owens’ lectures and starting to read C.G. Jung: A Biography in Books, which I bought on Owens’ recommendation. It seems I am being called by the Spirit of the Depths to overcome the Spirit of This Time 🙂
Inhis 1990 book of essays The Practice of the Wild, Gary Snyder says, “Creatures who have traveled with us through the ages are now apparentlydoomed, as their habitat–and the old, old habitat of humans–falls before the slow-motion explosion of expanding world economies. If the lad or lass is among us who knows where the secret heart of this Growth-Monster is hidden, let them please tell us where to shoot the arrow that will slow it down.”
Isowanted to be that lad! Every time I have read that line over the years I took it as a personal challenge.
