Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May there always be work for your hands to do,

May your purse always hold a coin or two.

May the sun always shine warm on your windowpane,

May a rainbow be certain to follow each rain.

May the hand of a friend always be near you,

And may God fill your heart with gladness to cheer you.

Happy St. Patrick's day!

(illustration courtesy of pixabay.com)

Happy New Year (a bit late)!

     Happy New Year!  Yes, I know it's nearly mid-March, but I realized that I had forgotten to wish you both happy Chinese New Year and happy Tibetan Lunar New Year. 

     The Chinese New Year started January 28 this year.  It is the year of the fire rooster.  People born this year (or in other fire rooster years such as 1957) are trustworthy, with a strong sense of timekeeping and responsibility at work.  They are active, social, talkative, and popular with people.  Among their shortcomings are the tendencies to be vain, arrogant, and a braggart about their achievements.  Interestingly, the Chinese calendar states that people born during rooster years may experience bad luck during the rooster year.

     The Tibetan Lunar New Year started February 27, and also celebrates the year of the rooster.  According to Philippe Cornu in his Tibetan Astrology, a rooster year "is an energetic but scattered year.  There are many opportunities, but concentration is necessary in order to enjoy their fruits.  On the global scale, there is political hardening and repression."

     That explains a lot, doesn't it? 

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)

Me and My Shadow, Part 3

     In the last post, we were discussing how we may be repelled by the events and personalities in our political sphere, but we need to recognize that they function as shadows of ourselves and our country.

     Capitalism and the American dream have shadow sides (see the list from the last post).  But what can we do about it?  Carl Jung gives us a hint:

To confront a person with his shadow is to show him his own light.  Once one has experienced a few times what it is like to stand judgingly between the opposites, one begins to understand what is meant by the self.  Anyone who perceives his shadow and his light simultaneously sees himself from two sides and thus gets in the middle.  (1959)

      I think what we need to do as individuals, and as a country, is to look at both what we value in the ideal (justice, equality, equal opportunity, valuing each person, caring for earthly home, etc.) and what is manifested as its shadow (ego, possessiveness, devaluing others and using them, competition, focusing on the short-term, abusing the environment, and so on).  By saying, "Yes, both parts are who we are right now" is a good first step.  The next step, I believe, is to ask, "What do we want ourselves, and our country, to become?"

     Once we focus on that question, I think the answers will guide who we elect, how we treat others in our country, how we treat the Earth, how we educate our young, and what we choose to spend our money on. 

     We have work to do.

(photo courtesy of pixabay.com)

Me and My Shadow, Part 2

     Last time we were discussing how the events in the political realm over the last few months, as painful and abhorrent as they may be, are aspects of our shadow self.  Jung described the shadow self as that part in us which we don't recognize until we see that our projections on others are merely manifestations of ourselves.  We see in others what we don't like in ourselves.  As Jung wrote:

A man who is unconscious of himself acts in a blind, instinctive way and is in addition fooled by all the illusions that arise when he sees everything that he is not conscious of in himself coming to meet him from outside as projections upon his neighbor.  ("The Philosophical Tree", 1945).

     I would like to take this a step further and submit the idea that our country has a shadow side.  We value capitalism and business success, don't we?  Isn't that the American dream -- to make it big?  But what is the shadow side of that?  How about:

• greed
• competitiveness
• doing anything (including abandoning a moral code) to win
• looking at others as winners or losers, not as fellow humans
• using people, not valuing them
• measuring one's value by external means (money, possessions, etc.) rather than by one's character 
• focusing on short-term gains rather than the benefit of future generations
• seeing Nature as something to be exploited rather than cherished and taken care of

I'm sure you could add to that list as well.  But, the question awaits, what can we do about it?

     More on that next time. 

Me and My Shadow

     My reaction to the political events of the last few months has left me with a serious taste of rotten kibble in my mouth.  How about you?  Do you feel like either hiding for the next four years, or wearing black every day until the next election, or moving to another country, or standing in the street and protesting?  Do you feel this internal sense of pushing away what is going on in our world?

     I think that many in our country right now experience these feelings to a greater or lesser extent.  Sadly, the truth is that pushing away is resistance in its purest form and won't make the problem go away.  Remember?  Resistance creates resistance, and both sides become more entrenched and stronger.  Yelling at your enemy only creates a lot of noise.  It won't change any one's mind.

     This brought me to Carl Jung's concept of the shadow.  Here's a quote Jung's Aion (1951):

The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort.  To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real.  This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge.

 Ouch!  You mean the ego-displays we see in our political realm, with the need to be right, the dominating energy, the intense feeling of competition and so on -- all that is in me? 

     Well, yes, it is in all of us.  And once we see it displayed in such a public manner, we realize that we have some work to do.

     I know that I certainly do.

Happy Valentine's Day

Wishing you

a very happy

Valentine's Day.

(image courtesy of pixabay.com)

Balancing the Male and Female Energies, Part 3

       We have been discussing how to bring balance to ourselves and to our world, after centuries of male-energy dominance.  Here's a thought to grab onto:

We must embody the change we want to see.

     If we think of male energy as fire, we need to act as water. 

     When we see aggression, we take a stand as peacemakers. 

     When we see control and manipulation, we live for truth and work for equality. 

     When we see callous disregard for our environment or the weakest in our society, we act with justice, compassion and nurturing. 

     When we see exclusion, we include. 

     By living the life we want to see, we become leaders of a better tomorrow.  Hopefully, this latest incarnation of male-energy dominance will prove to be a last gasp of that kind of imbalance. 

     Meanwhile, embody the change you want to see.