“The darkness is your mother; she behooves reverence, since the mother is dangerous. She has power over you, since she gave birth to you. Honor the darkness as the light, and you will illumine your darkness.”
— Carl Gustav Jung
Night moves in the crossroads
The past day meets the future at midnight
bringing the sounds of unknown danger
Shadows move and blend with our own
Somewhere in the distance
lovers moan as their dance
reaches a new height.
Hecate has her tribute
as does Artemis.
I will let go of the past
but not its lessons
and meet the future without fear
but with respect as a new moment begins
— G A Rosenberg
“Astrology is assured of recognition from psychology, without further restrictions, because astrology represents the summation of all the psychological knowledge of antiquity.”
― C.G. Jung
I wrote the following in response to a post by someone expressing their doubts about Astrology. I have read many arguments for and against the validity of Astrology and I find that often my chart when done by someone who is knowledgeable and intuitive gives me some remarkable insights both into myself and the cycles that I am currently going through:
From the point of view of hard science, astrology should not work. It is based on placement and shapes of constellations from quite a long time ago that don’t hold true. Vedic Astrology is a bit better in this regard from my understanding.
However, astrology and predictions (readings) from professional astrologers hits true much more often than random chance and statistics would have it.
I believe that this may be true because of the collective belief in astrology that each planet’s placement at any particular time has consistent meanings and consistent relationships with other planets. This collective belief has magically reshaped reality enough that you can look at someone’s chart and gain some insight into their personality and behaviours and be able to look at their chart in relationship to current positions and gain insight into the cycles that they are going through.
Newspaper horoscopes on the other hand tend to hold as much relationship to people’s lives as the average fortune cookie.
Blessings, G
“He who looks in the mirror of the water, first sees his own image. He who looks at himself, risks to meet himself. The mirror does not flatter, it shows accurately what is reflected in it, namely that face that we never show the world because we hide it by the persona, the mask of the actor. This is the first test of courage on the inner path, a test, which is enough to frighten most people, because the encounter with oneself belongs to those unpleasant things, one avoids as long as one can project the negative onto the environment.”
~ Carl Gustav Jung
Close to the mirror I see much that I have missed. Dorian Gray’s reflection staring back but no it is his portrait, the truer reflection for it showed the scars. Mine shows the weight of years and occasionally the weight of cares. Each line drawn in by experience. Oh I don’t mind the aging process much and sometimes when I mirror gaze, my eyes dance. Sometimes they are mad and sometimes they are cruel and always they reflect the heart of the beast. I am the one who loves and the one who angers, the one who wants to lash out and scream that the world needs to STOP! At other times I sing or whistle and my reflection follows along tho the tunes that we carry are seldom the ones that the song writers intended. I reach out towards the mirror and my reflection, in thrall to my movement reaches back and the touch of the eyes show connection..
Blessings, G
“I earnestly confronted my devil and behaved with him as with a real person. This I learned in the Mysterium: to take seriously every unknown wanderer who personally inhabits the inner world, since they are real because they are effectual.”
— Carl Jung
Gods and Demons walk among me
wearing each other’s drag
often in the same being
They speak with heroes
and hold debates
each one illuminates my process in some way
Archetypal imaginings
more real in some ways
than those I meet
outside my head
As I get to know them
they teach me
elements of being
they then move on
to be replaced
by talking space dogs and the like
Parts of me not yet realized
New shadows yet to cast.
— G A Rosenberg
“Be silent and listen: have you recognized your madness and do you admit it? Have you noticed that all your foundations are completely mired in madness? Do you not want to recognize your madness and welcome it in a friendly manner? You wanted to accept everything. So accept madness too. Let the light of your madness shine, and it will suddenly dawn on you. Madness is not to be despised and not to be feared, but instead you should give it life…If you want to find paths, you should also not spurn madness, since it makes up such a great part of your nature…Be glad that you can recognize it, for you will thus avoid becoming its victim. Madness is a special form of the spirit and clings to all teachings and philosophies, but even more to daily life, since life itself is full of craziness and at bottom utterly illogical. Man strives toward reason only so that he can make rules for himself. Life itself has no rules. That is its mystery and its unknown law. What you call knowledge is an attempt to impose something comprehensible on life.”
― Carl Jung>
I offer little resistance to my dark side. I let my madness move within me like a snake crawling and flexing where it will. Oh that’s not to say that I will randomly start harming people. How I express my insanity is up to me. I can let it move through me in odd thoughts or wild imaginings or I can turn it into art. Still in meditation I let myself feel it all, the torrents of emotion well up and subside and the dark mirror shows me my face. Occasionally it is a hall of mirrors where through the distortions I can see the me’s that never were or that might be but not yet. As an artist and writer I value these trips of both light and dark. It offers both inspiration and lessons in tolerance. How can I have problems with anyone else’s shadow if I can accept the darkest parts of my own. If the question comes up, which it does about who I really am at my core, the only honest answer is “All of this and more yet to be revealed”.
Blessings, G
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart.
Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
— C.G. Jung
I drop a penny into my well
and wait for the landing echo.
There is much to see and hear inside
The sound of changing dreams
and compromise
The sad song of loneliness
playing at odds with the din of companionship
The anguish of uncertainty and doubt
with a counterpoint of hope
yet still the penny drops.
I find gods and demons exchanging masques
shifting belief structures in runed circles
hymns and dirges, invocational chants
and still the penny drops
It may never land
yet with each layer I come closer to the centre
of my soul’s heart awakening.
— G A Rosenberg
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”
~ Carl Jung
The past is gone,
its footprints fade as the present
ebbs and flows along my life’s ocean.
With it goes the past hurts and triumphs
its losses and joys as well
The only use they have for me now
is as lessons that need not be learned again
It is what I encompass now that matters
and where I will take it.
Those who live in the past
reliving their glories
or remaining victim to their pain
are stagnant swamps
I would rather be the mighty ocean
flowing proudly into the future
living each day and then washing it away
with its sediment used to build anew
— G A Rosenberg
“Philemon: “That is the third point that you must note as essential:
namely; that there is nothing for you to understand.”
Jung: “Well, I must confess that that is new and strange. So
nothing at all about magic can be understood?”
Philemon: “Exactly. Magic happens to be precisely everything that
eludes comprehension.”
Jung: “But then how the devil is one to teach and learn magic?”
Philemon: “Magic is neither to be taught nor learned. It’s foolish that you want to learn magic.”
Jung: “But then magic is nothing but deception.”
Philemon: “Watch out-you have started reasoning again.”
Jung: “It’s difficult to exist without reason.”
Philemon: ”And that is exactly how difficult magic is.”
Jung: “Well, in that case it’s hard work. I conclude that it is an
inescapable condition for the adept that he completely unlearns
his reason.”
Philemon: “I’m afraid that is what it amounts to.”
Jung: “Ye Gods, this is serious.””
— Carl Jung- The Red Book/Liber Novus
When doing anything for the first time, it is necessary to get past the idea that it cannot be done. If we start thinking about all of the reasons we have not successfully done it in the past then we are lost in a trap. We need to go forth in whatever we are attempting with full confidence that it is possible even if that confidence defies reason. This is true whether we are performing an act of ceremonial magick, going for our driver’s license or putting together Ikea furniture. If we think of magick as accomplishing something through use of will then anything that challenges our will works against us. Thoughts of failure no matter how logical will make what we wish to accomplish all but impossible. Therefore, there are times that reason like an unruly dog must be set outside in order to get anything done.
Blessings, G
“Man’s task is to become conscious of the contents that press upward from the unconscious.”
— Carl Gustav Jung
Have you had any inappropriate thoughts lately? Things that ran across your mind that startled you and made you uncomfortable and you immediately suppressed it and thought of something else? I don’t believe that there is any such thing as an inappropriate thought. It is all information that comes to us and if we can avoid judging our own minds, we can gain invaluable insight into our shadow selves. We all have darkness inside and the more we expose it to air the more light we will find as well. So next time you have thoughts of putting rat poison into somebody’s coffee or kicking a dog or other things that you tell yourself that you would never think of, instead of revulsion and suppression why not try curiosity? Look at the thought and say “That’s interesting. I wonder where that came from? You might find out something about yourself, resentments you’ve kept hidden away, little kinks that when looked at and exposed will be liberating rather than frightening. To paraphrase the old radio series, it’s our shadow that knows what evil lurks in our hearts and maybe its not evil, just suppressed.
Blessings, G
“Nights through dreams tell the myths forgotten by the day.”
― C.G. Jung
In our dreams we see wonders. Some of them give us positive feelings. We dream of loved ones or walk in fantasy realms. Others are more unsettling. Our own personal symbols of darkness come and threaten us in some way. Our fears play out and we wake up haunted. Yet what one person finds deeply unsettling another might find entertaining. Is it because some of us have darker shadows than others and a greater list of what we are unwilling to face? WIf we can look at our fears in the light of day than our dreams may become lighter. Perhaps tho its easier to externalize our shadows in dreams and work them out there. I guess it all depends on what we’re willing to face.
Blessings, G
Jewelled Forests at Night by G A Rosenberg 
Mating Rituals of Nether Beings by G A Rosenberg 
