"...building the psychic vessel of containment, which is another way of speaking of soul-making, seems to require bleeding and leaking as its pre-condition. Why else go through that work unless we are driven by the despair, of our un-stoppered condition? The shift from anima-mess to anima-vessel shows in various ways; as a shift from weakness and suffering to humility and sensitivity; from bitterness and complaint to a taste for salt and blood; from a focus upon the emotional pain of the wound - its causes, perimeters, cures - to its imaginal depths..." (Hillman, The Wound and the Eye)
I've been sitting with this passage for a few days (hence, no blog entry), waiting - allowing - some understanding and inspiration to present itself.
Of course, my first instinctive reaction is the same final conclusion arrived at after weighing up, sorting through and putting aside various other 'more sensible' ideas.
Its this; having 'revisioned' the dirt and mess in my life, both the actual physical clutter of this existence, and the inner trash that refuses to be cleared - the stuff I have because I need it - I've been looking at why I need it.
The urge toward solar heroics dies hard, even in the dark.
I've been sitting with this passage for a few days (hence, no blog entry), waiting - allowing - some understanding and inspiration to present itself.
Of course, my first instinctive reaction is the same final conclusion arrived at after weighing up, sorting through and putting aside various other 'more sensible' ideas.
Its this; having 'revisioned' the dirt and mess in my life, both the actual physical clutter of this existence, and the inner trash that refuses to be cleared - the stuff I have because I need it - I've been looking at why I need it.
The urge toward solar heroics dies hard, even in the dark.
Man - I was doing so well with all the Mars stuff until this week. In one week (partly with the aid of AW) I seemed to have dragged up a barrow full of the stuff. All at a time when I can trying to conceptualise the article on anger that I am meant to be submitting for a new magazine this Friday!!
ReplyDeleteI've been trying to sit with my stuff - to follow your example and neither rage against it, or allow myself to give in to it - but its damn hard. I admire you.
Why do we have it/need it? To grow, perhaps? To give us a soul marker from which we can 'measure' our evolution? Because no matter how hard you try to toss it - you never really can, so yes, it's got to serve some purpose.
Because on the spiral of life, there are markers and on our inwards journey we will continue to hit on them - therefore they are indelable - we can't erase, scrub, clear, excavate them away. Would we want to do away with all the good ones?
Perhaps we keep the less than desireable ones to balance out the really desireable ones - the yin and yang (this balance thing keeps coming up for me - another of the Temperance card topics!) so we remain balanced within and without ourselves.
Or else - I have no bloody idea!! Anyway - I had better get myself off to bed ...
xxx