Space for vocation

A couple of days in hospital gave me time to read. I finished Miklos Banffy's Transylvanian Trilogy, which described the end of the proud, strange, out-of-equilibrium and yet fascinating place that was the Transylvania of the Dual Monarchy. That was swept away by 1918, and that which followed was retaken in 1941 then smashed a few years later. I rode, drove and bicycled through the wreckage, and only now really begin to understand what happened and that which led to such a tragic succession of collapses. Perhaps now I know better the peculiar shadow - an entrancing collective unconscious - that drew me in and then caused me to leave?

I read Jung too, about that which leads a person to go his own way and to rise out of unconscious identity with the mass as out of a swirling mist. It is a vocation and, therefore, an irrational factor. It was that vocation that led me to Transylvania, and the same vocation that leads me to think so deeply, to write, and to embark on the whole voyage of discovery that life has become. There is much more to be revealed about that journey, about which I read and think with such hunger.

The view from Brena's field expresses a microcosm of my dreams. There, beyond the first bank of trees, is a green space. The woods are a fascinating place to explore, at least in imagination, and the pasture within the trees represents a place to rest awhile. Then the journey continues, as always it does, for something remains ahead to discover however far one has tramped.

Then, although one cannot see it from this photo, woodland appears to stretch all the way to the horizon. It's an illusion, though the vale has many trees. However there is something about that image that unlocks primitive emotions: the sense of being surrounded by wilderness; a feeling of mystery engulfing; deep curiosity; and a desire to find certainty through what we call knowledge and our ancestors knew as myth.

My transport is ready, if in need of a good brushing. To take a horse is another concession to primitive thoughts, therefore to my inner self. Another lesson from Jung is that the unconscious is real. The common view is that things we can see and touch are real. That which we dream or imagine is "unreal" therefore useless, the masses think, for it cannot be grasped in one's hand or bought or sold. How wrong they are!

Thoughts and dreams are very real. The great unconscious majority of one's soul is real. It makes one who one is. Who one is, that is real. Acknowledging the reality of the deep and barely tangible veiled interior makes one authentic.

The other common error is to imagine that hidden within to be intrinsically evil. Yes, a person who hasn't integrated their Shadow may be ready to do ill. But the unconscious brings forth inspiration and enlightenment, poses questions and sometimes suggests the route towards an answer. It brings forth compensatory opposites to imbalances in conscious life. One must just learn to listen and see, then to interpret, and then to grow as a result.

The vocation of personality becomes clearer. The strange winding and sometimes arduous path to get here is more explicable. The way ahead may only be revealed step by step, however knowing a part of the reason for the journey makes those steps easier to bear.

Comments

[Wrexie]

"as a man thinks in his heart, so is he."

That which we dream, imagine,long for and believe is very real indeed..it never begins with the tangable. You can't say or do something without first having a thought...

I have some of my best, most productive ideas upon waking from the unconscious state of sleep. How could that be if the unconscious is not important.

[White Horse Pilgrim]

Your confirmation is appreciated. Over here I live in a place where psychological factors have been displaced by a mechanistic viewpoint - expect for the few with the intellect to see the need for therapy and the money to buy it. Society goes downhill because problems are blamed on "education", "boredom" and "greed". But what about the monstrous Shadow bred within so many? My illumination from within is real. That inside the mass is real too. At least I'm seeing within me, and I'm sure that you see within yourself too. We have our hope.