Let's start with Jung

Clare,

I am back...
sorry I used the inspiration that I was experiencing and completed all three papers still due for the semester...they are all submitted and I can relax...
well relax as much as I am able to.

I have to say that I feel as I did when I wrote all of the songs 6 or 7 years ago...
like I'm downloading information...
acting as a scribe.

So you want me to unpack my ramblings...
I will...it is a good opportunity to examine their intertwining...
I will start with Carl Jung...
Forgive me if you know about his work...
He and Freud were friends and then they disagreed...
He believed in 3 levels of consciousness
1. conscious...awareness, information processing, ego.
2. personal consciousness...thoughts feelings, perceptions that the individual ego wants to deny or suppress
3. collective unconsciousness...prehuman evolutionary experience...shared by all the members of a particular species...ancestors and living...it's the wisdom of the ages...the archetypes represent certain patterns of thought or behaviors..."psychic inheritance"...this is where dualism lies- light and shadow sides of everything simultaneously present.
Jung's idea of the life journey was to attain wholeness or self-realization- the true self is experienced in communion with others.

So my theory of behavioral evolution is based upon connection to and interactions within community...connecting with others and the environment and the deepest levels of collective unconscious...the journey is simultaneously interior and exterior....the spiral staircase goes both upward and down at the same time. Each person is affected by the environment and reciprocally influences the environment...very dynamic system...totally interdependent and symbiotic at its best.

We have unfortunately been handicapped in both directions...
we are afraid to trust others so our isolation and numbness prevent or hinder us from creating connection...
and we have locked up our hearts to protect them from further trauma so it is difficult to look within for growth and strength.

Reading Carolyn Myss years ago (Anatomy of a Spirit) I transformed my perceptions of religions and the purpose of sacraments or symbols. She compared the Christian sacraments to the Jewish Tree of Life to the Hindu Chakras...and they consistently followed a pattern...
connection to the earth/world...then to family and community....then to self...then to intimate partner...and then to higher power through surrender and self realization.
I have been toying with those levels and the testaments of Quakerism, this is where my thought processes are right now:
Simplicity- connection to self
Peace- connection to the higher power
Integrity- connection to self
Community- connection to family and community
Equality- connection to others
Stewardship- connection to the world
The bottom line, from all of this, is that we are creatures who need to belong and interact and communicate on many levels.

I am teaching my class about child abuse and neglect and how deadly stress is to animals...especially stress that is ingrained since childhood...they were actually engaged today...
That was a welcome occurrence for this class.

Love and blessings,
Maggie