Tuning In — A Consciousness Stream

“Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune. ”
― C.G. Jung

 

Tuning in, turning on, tuning to, Are we ever striving towards perfect pitch and perfect tune? Is there not beauty in cacophony? Are we tuning to each other, the universe or both? Are we tuning to our own subconscious? What kind of harmonies go on beneath the surface in notes we may never hear until they become conscious? I heard your song the other day and wanted it to blend with mine. How do we agree which not to tune to? What is the universal note and how do we denote it? Does it sound like an Om spoken by every being simultaneously ?

Blessings, G

 

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Viper MandalaViper Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Kachina MandalaKachina Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – January 6 2012

“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”
–Carl Jung

 

Who do you trust with your dark side?  I want people to see me at my best and most positive. There are relatively few people I feel safe enough to show my shadow, my ignorance, my dark and negative side. Why? What am I afraid of ? If Jung is right, doesn’t it work in reverse, by showing other’s my darkness, I allow them to encounter their own shadow? My claim up to now is that I don’t wish to offend but in reality isn’t it that I have not yet found the courage to do so? Do I really have that much fear that mommy will slap me for saying the wrong thing?
It seems of late as if I have been given more and more pieces of myself. Not all of them are pretty
Blessings, G

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Page of Swords

Tarot – Page of Swords by G A Rosenberg

All manner of things be Wheel

 

All Manner of Things Be Wheel by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 24 2012

“The meeting of two personalities is like the contact of two chemical substances: if there is any reaction, both are transformed.”
― Carl Jung

 

Interpersonal alchemy is quite possibly my favourite kind. Meeting someone with a whole new set of values and intricacies, who has learned to deal with their lives in totally different ways than I have. Someone with whom in both qualities I enjoy and qualities I don’t will show me a fun house mirror of myself that we will both have to accept for things to continue. Of course I will be showing them the same. But in the relationship, a new kingdom waits to be explored..
Blessings, G

 

On a somewhat heavier personal note, my mother-in-law tonight faced some medical complications bravely. She was operated on and it looks like she will pull through just fine. I am grateful to the universe. As cliched as it sounds, hold your loved ones tight, you never know when your mutual exploration of each other’s country will come to an end…..
 

 

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Crystal Blue Persuasion

Generator by G A Rosenberg

 

Amonite Persian RugAmmonite Persian Rug by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – December 23 2012

“I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become.”
― C.G. Jung

 

A friend of mine on Facebook has started a new group. He is encouraging each person who joins to repeat (well type) the mantra “I AM THE NEW DAY”. I find this amazingly empowering. I have written before on my view of self-victimization and being stuck on the moments in the past when we have been hurt either by ourselves or by another. Too often, this results in an inability to move forward. Society seems to reward this behaviour. Our victims get book deals and run the interview circuit. Everyone wants to feel sorry for someone and too often sympathy can become a drug.

 

By my saying this, please do not think that I am discounting ANYONE’S pain. I have cried from the things I’ve heard that friends and family have gone through. When I hear or read about some of the truly creative ways that we have found to be destructive towards each other it hurts. At the same time I try very hard not only to know the pain of the person whom it has been inflicted on but to know the pain of the persecutor also. I would love to build a world where such pain does not exist. Who would like to help? Any ideas?

 

So yes, we have gone through a lot and we may still go through more but do we cling to the pain of the past or do we become something more than a victim, an object of pity not just for others but for ourselves. What do we want to become? How do we heal? I believe these two questions are intimately intertwined.

Blessings, G

 

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Black Light Mandala

Black Light Mandala by G A Rosenberg

 

Page of PentaclesTarot – Page of Pentacles by G A Rosenberg

 

Monday Mandalas

“The ‘squaring of the circle’ is one of the many archetypal motifs which form the basic patterns of our dreams and fantasies. But it is distinguished by the fact that it is one of the most important of them from the functional point of view. Indeed, it could even be called the archetype of wholeness.”
— Carl Jung

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Textured Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Gold Wave Mandala by G A Rosenberg

Cosmic Spiral by G A Rosenberg

Monday Mandalas

“In the products of the unconscious we discover mandala symbols, that is, circular and quaternity figures which express wholeness, and whenever we wish to express wholeness, we employ just such figures. ”
–Carl Jung

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Green Sun Mandala by G A Rosenberg

In the Machine by G A Rosenberg

Stained Glass on Slate by G A Rosenberg

Back to Freedom and Responsibility

‎”There is no coming to consciousness without pain. People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own soul. One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.”

– Carl Jung.

I’ve run from many things in my life. I have avoided a lot more. So very often, I’ve run from seeing parts of myself that I didn’t want to see. It seems I didn’t  run very effectively.  I would run, geographically and consciously into new circumstances that would bring another part of myself that needed to be faced, usually something I had been even more reluctant to deal with. If I decided to stay and deal with that part of my shadow, a feeling of amazing liberation would occur. Then the original thing I had run away from would show up in a new guise so that I would have to deal with it again.
I believe consciousness will out and that one’s shadow can only be suppressed for so long before it emerges.
I feel several themes in this blog seem to be converging and perhaps a more personal approach may be necessary. In the next few weeks, depending on my own high level of distractibility, I will be sharing more about my own experiences of facing and avoiding responsibility and my own shadow.

 

Travel notes. Today we fly back to Vancouver. I find that this trip has been fruitive on many levels. England and Ireland have amazing beauty and my spirit is renewed. Blessings, G

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Knight-Time Watch by G A Rosenberg

Quote of the Day – March 16 2012

“You may never understand
how the stranger is inspired
but he isn’t always evil
and he is not always wrong”
–Billy Joel, The Stranger

Who is the stranger that Billy refers to in the song? He is our shadow self. The unexpressed side of our being that many of us keep a tight lid on out of fear. What am I so afraid of? I used to ask myself this all the time. Occasionally I would examine my fears. I am afraid that people will see me for who I am and they will reject me? It took me a long time to realize that what I was afraid people would see was that stranger, that shadow side of myself. The side of myself that sometimes disapproved of others or who got angry or demanded attention. I was so afraid that I kept throwing myself into situations where I was forced to either acknowledge those parts of myself or bury them deeper. Far too often I did the latter.
That’s the thing about repressing our shadow side however.The more we repress it; the stronger the shadow becomes and eventually if we don’t acknowledge it, it breaks free around the edges and causes all kinds of potential harm. Where does this fear come from? We all have this hidden side and if we can see it in ourselves then surely we can give others room to show theirs as well. If repressing our shadow makes it stronger, what happens if we bring it into the light?

‎”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.”
Carl Jung
“Good and Evil in Analytical Psychology” (1959). In CW 10. Civilization in Transition. P.872

Somewhere along the way, after finding myself in situation after situation where i was forced to confront myself both what I showed and what I tried to hide away, I grew tired of trying to force the genie back in the bottle. These days when some new aspect of myselhe pops up, I find it interesting rather than frightening. I know that acknowledging that these parts of myself exist doesn’t mean that I have to act on them. I can just say “Hmmm, look at that” That doesn’t mean that I have a perfect handle on it. there are still parts of myself I don’t necesarily like. It has just become a bit easier to acknowledge them.
Blessings, G

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Quote of the Day – February 24 2012

“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.”
— Carl Jung

As many of you who read this blog may know I’ve been working on a set of tarot pictures that will eventually consist of all 78 cards of a standard tarot deck. I’ve completed a little over a third of the deck. I started making art in order to be able to do these so its a project close to my heart. On the days I feel like starting a new card, I shuffle the deck and ask what would be the best card for me to work on and shuffle and draw until I get to one I haven’t done yet. Today Trump 15-The Devil came up.
So tonight I’m taking a bit of a detour from The Hero archetype and talking about leaps of faith. Hmmm, or am I? The Devil by its very nature represents our shadow selves, some of the very qualities that try to hold us back from taking that leap. It could represent insecurities and fears that we may not be good enough. It may represent hopelessness that the system is rigged and there’s no way that it will do any good. All those lies and rationales we use for not taking that chance to be a hero. In the picture, both figures are only chained by very flimsy strings that they can break at any time. It is not the externals keeping them chained. It rarely is. We are not only the prisoners but our own jailers as well.
How do we break free? How do we reclaim ourselves. The simple yet oh so difficult answer is self-honesty and courage. I believe that each of these grows out of the other one. We need to first admit that our shadow self is there and that its real. What about yourself would you sweep under the rug rather than admit? For me lack of confidence and laziness tend to be the main ones along with too much reliance on my left-hemisphere logical self and too little trust in my ability to feel. Other things too no-doubt, those shadow selves be sneaky buggers.
Once exposed at looked at and shared the shadow can be dealt with. It is only when we hide it or fight it that our chains become stronger. The more we disassociate from our shadow self, the stronger it becomes. The more we accept it and integrate it the more whole we become. Accepting our shadow? That requires quite the leap of faith. Hmm maybe this subject isn’t as far a detour from the Hero as I thought.
Much Love, G

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Quote of the Day – February 4 2011

“All the works of man have their origin in creative fantasy. What right have we then to depreciate imagination.”
–Carl Jung

Conceive, Believe, Achieve…I love conceptual space. Letting my mind run wild and child-like I reach and grab at any pretty or shiny thing that crosses my minds cape. Sometimes admiring and putting it to use, other times I let it go and wander onto the next thing, not too concerned about distractibility. If something wants to be created, it will be. Sometimes I can call it, other times not so much. Once an idea catches then it becomes times to play. I stretch it out to see if it visually stimulates or if it needs words, then I bend it, warp it, massage it, talk to it, commune and meditate, wrestle and negotiate,question and cogitate until it starts to manifest. Occasionally then a poem or a picture gets created. Other times just a line or two, or perhaps some pretty colours and patterns that will one day contribute to a picture. File it away for later use. Namaste, G

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Reaching Out by G A Rosenberg

Violet Diamond Mandala by G A Rosenberg