01-31-2020, 04:15 PM
As an artifact of infinity, one’s seeking never ends, but it does reach a milestone pivot point when it confronts and integrates the duality within its own soul, recognizes its oneness with the universe, and the eternal nature consciousness. This awakening event is metaphorically deeply ingrained in many myths and cultures across the globe: the search for the Holy Grail which endows eternal life, the alchemist’s quest for the Philosopher’s Stone, which transmutes base metal (ignorance) into gold, and Jason’s mythical search for the Golden Fleece of a holy ram are just three examples. The parallels between these traditions were recognized by the Rosicrucians, who reframed the common, underlying spiritual quest in Christian symbology. The Rosicrucian inscription “Ingi Natura Renovatur Integra” is reminiscent of the Romani flag’s symbolism and means “By the (divine) Fire (of Love) all Nature becomes renewed.”
The integration of the unconscious anima/animus by the conscious mind and resultant rebirth is perhaps best demonstrated symbolically however by the depiction of the violent interplay of the primordial demon-slaying goddess Kali (unconscious raw energy) trampling on her husband Shiva (the substrata of universal consciousness) while holding the decapitated head of the ego. Slaying the ego can also be seen as the opening of the “third eye” or ajna chakra – the Shiva/Shakti energies reside there in their merged, primordial state as Ardhanarishvara. The integration yields Isis and Osiris: the hard edges and the soft lines, the Golden Ratio, the balanced male and the female, the nobody and the woman of stars, twin flames, you and your husband/wife. Everyone is an embodiment of the divine masculine and feminine. This dynamic is also reflected in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as the intertwined relationship between Chokmah (male) and Binah (female). This unifying/balancing experience – while painful – pales in comparison to the inevitable world-destroying trauma of an ego left unconfronted and unchecked. Once the male and female principles have reconciled, they reside back in the heart center.
Enter the dragon. The man who has conquered fear, integrated his anima, and undergone a spiritual transmutation is now primed to reenter the material world and embark on the next phase of his journey. This phase is best represented archetypically as the slaying of the dragon, which in turn wins the hero the love of a princess. Perhaps the most foundational myth of this type is that of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus, having slain the serpentine Medusa (the embodiment of his fear), releases the winged Pegasus from her neck, is given winged sandals by Hermes. Perseus flies to Ethiopia to kill the sea monster guarding the princess and ultimately marries her. Andromeda – to Perseus, the collective consciousness, and the field of astronomy itself – represents fundamentally something that is “more than meets the eye”, a continuously unfolding revelation. Just as Perseus discovers she is not merely just a princess, but in fact the key to both of their spiritual enlightenment and immortality, the world discovered that the constellation of Andromeda of 12 stars actually contains within it an entire galaxy of more than 1 trillion stars (more than twice the number of our own Milky Way galaxy).
Spiritual liberation can thus be seen as a four step, sequential, duality-bridging process. The female aspect first liberates the male spiritually (integration of the anima), the male liberates the female materially (the slaying of the dragon), the female liberates the male materially (the holy marriage), the male liberates the female spiritually (the integration of the animus) – this final step is hinted at by Andromeda’s very name, which means “to be mindful of man.” In Jungian terms, the result is a quaternio hieros gamos – a holy marriage between the four aspects of the two individuals.
The integration of the unconscious anima/animus by the conscious mind and resultant rebirth is perhaps best demonstrated symbolically however by the depiction of the violent interplay of the primordial demon-slaying goddess Kali (unconscious raw energy) trampling on her husband Shiva (the substrata of universal consciousness) while holding the decapitated head of the ego. Slaying the ego can also be seen as the opening of the “third eye” or ajna chakra – the Shiva/Shakti energies reside there in their merged, primordial state as Ardhanarishvara. The integration yields Isis and Osiris: the hard edges and the soft lines, the Golden Ratio, the balanced male and the female, the nobody and the woman of stars, twin flames, you and your husband/wife. Everyone is an embodiment of the divine masculine and feminine. This dynamic is also reflected in the Kabbalistic Tree of Life as the intertwined relationship between Chokmah (male) and Binah (female). This unifying/balancing experience – while painful – pales in comparison to the inevitable world-destroying trauma of an ego left unconfronted and unchecked. Once the male and female principles have reconciled, they reside back in the heart center.
Enter the dragon. The man who has conquered fear, integrated his anima, and undergone a spiritual transmutation is now primed to reenter the material world and embark on the next phase of his journey. This phase is best represented archetypically as the slaying of the dragon, which in turn wins the hero the love of a princess. Perhaps the most foundational myth of this type is that of Perseus and Andromeda. Perseus, having slain the serpentine Medusa (the embodiment of his fear), releases the winged Pegasus from her neck, is given winged sandals by Hermes. Perseus flies to Ethiopia to kill the sea monster guarding the princess and ultimately marries her. Andromeda – to Perseus, the collective consciousness, and the field of astronomy itself – represents fundamentally something that is “more than meets the eye”, a continuously unfolding revelation. Just as Perseus discovers she is not merely just a princess, but in fact the key to both of their spiritual enlightenment and immortality, the world discovered that the constellation of Andromeda of 12 stars actually contains within it an entire galaxy of more than 1 trillion stars (more than twice the number of our own Milky Way galaxy).
Spiritual liberation can thus be seen as a four step, sequential, duality-bridging process. The female aspect first liberates the male spiritually (integration of the anima), the male liberates the female materially (the slaying of the dragon), the female liberates the male materially (the holy marriage), the male liberates the female spiritually (the integration of the animus) – this final step is hinted at by Andromeda’s very name, which means “to be mindful of man.” In Jungian terms, the result is a quaternio hieros gamos – a holy marriage between the four aspects of the two individuals.