A beingness beyond the regular beingness of the world

Whenever I thought of my ego, I would envision it as that part of me that is self-centered, arrogant, self-sufficient, or in the negative, self-righteous, self-serving, self-indulgent, self-aggrandizing, closed, inflexible, and judgmental. I never thought of it as self-correcting, flexible, self-reflective, open, or compassionate for you see I thought of these attributes to be that of my deeper more soulful self, certainly not of my shallower bodily ego-self. It’s what some have called the “two hearts” or body and soul. You can imagine my surprise when I discovered that the ego me, what Carl Jung called das Ich, was both the so called negative and positive aspects and that I had split off the good side and hidden it in something called soul. But it wasn’t really the soul.

Some philosophies fold spirit, soul, self, ego into something called the psyche while others separate spirit from the rest and others use soul and spirit synonymously. How does one parse what aspect they’re operating out of if there’s no agreement to what’s actually there? When operating out of the enlightened side am I transcending the unenlightened or just flipping to a different side? When do I transcend body and inhabit soul? When I take on a new way of being am I transcending the old by embracing the spirit or just flipping the coin over?

Truth be told it was pretty much self-serving on my part to imagine that as I learned to let go of old ways of thinking and acting that the new more open, deeper thinking, and flexible person was an enlightened being reflecting a more spiritual self than the old self-centered ego-self. But the ego-self was more flexible in its approach to life than I had given it credit for. What I credited with enlightened spirit values was just a shift in values, same ego, different side.

The “two-hearts” concept is for me actually one heart, a dark and light duality that’s a function of the body i.e., the ego-self.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m much happier with this other side, it’s much less stressful, more accepting, with a greater sense of pride of self. However, I’m left with what is this deeper, soulful, spirit-self I’ve been searching for all this time? Intuitively I know it’s there, but what is it? If all the “goodness” that I’ve attributed to it is just a reflection of the dual aspect ego, then what are its attributes? Does it even have attributes? Sometimes it just feels like an IS. It’s there, calmly sitting, a wisdom beyond words and thoughts, guiding, holding my figurative hand, displaying an objectless knowing, and an other-presence or alternate-self deep within or perhaps surrounding the dualistic ego-self.

This alternate-self is not the split personality depicted in the Jekyll and Hyde story or the multiple personality described for those who exhibit Dissociative Personality Disorder. This is a beingness neither subjective nor objective but a wholly different construct, a fact subjectively experienced or a twin spirit if you will. For me an example might be my experience of God as a non-objective presence subjectively experienced. It’s also a being resting beneath my everyday identity of self. It is a place where both objective and subjective realities coexist, where the dichotomy between them breaks down. It’s a construct that when realized reveals the authentic self. I use the word ‘construct’ because like the ego there’s no concrete reality or adequate description for what I’m trying to convey.

It’s a place that when I trip and fall into it because I can never just walk through its door uninvited, I know that I’m there i.e., a beingness beyond the regular beingness of the world. It’s a place where I know that all is as it should be for how could it be anything else?

Psyche’s Dream: A dragon’s Tale

• Psyche’s Dream: A dragon’s Tale (ISBN-10: ‎1663227276; ISBN-13: ‎978-1663227270)

As a Jungian trained psychologist and after working with children in a variety of mental health programs and venues e.g., in schools and day treatment programs I learned a great deal working with their dreams. It was through these dreams that the staff and I often had great insights into their inner life and how that played out in their social environments and families.

The story is of a young man who meets an ancient wizard who teaches him the mysteries of real magic, not the magic of wands, spells, and mystical creatures but the mysteries of the inner self and the great power it can wield when one learns to harness it.

The story tells of the great magic that lies all about and within each of us. Young Adam the protagonist undergoes a number of alchemical transmutations and witnesses a number of strange and frightening visions as he undergoes his own process of transformation. Along the way the young man confronts his own inner demons, heals those places within him where life has injured him, and learns to open himself to the magical alchemical powers of the psyche that for most are beyond imagining. 

This is my fourth book on the mysteries of dreams.

Using the ancient stars to navigate the inner self

Star map

On a nightly stroll on the island of Kauai near Poipu Beach recently I stopped near a rocky point with sand and rolling waves on one side and lush vegetation on the other. Standing there and looking up into the night sky I spotted Sirius (A’ā) to my right and Arcturus (Hokule’a: “Star of Gladness” or “Star of Joy”) on my left. These were stars that I had learned earlier the ancient Hawaiians had used for navigation. To me It was as though they were bookends, and I was the book. It occurred to me that the metaphor wasn’t too far afield for I do represent a story, many stories really. 

Navigating more deeply, I realize that in many ways I am a whole library. I am a dictionary, an encyclopedia, historical and biographical, fiction and fantasy, travelogue, philosophy, art, love story, and cookbook. Every memory is a book on a shelf reflecting a whole world of experiences.

As I look at the universe spread out above me, I have the distinct feeling that it is looking down at me. Once again, I realize that this is my universe, and it is different than all the other universes that are gazing at the sky tonight. 

We are born, live a short while and then cease to exist as though it is this bubbling of existence that is making up the very fabric of reality.

It is said that at the quantum level of reality particles pop in and out of existence and together they too create the foundation of existence. 

In some ways as universes, we are a multitude or a multiverse of realities if you will. We are all multiverses popping in and out of existence, pulled off the shelf of the cosmic library to be returned when the story has been read. 

Isn’t it magical how the individual mirrors the universal?

Here I stand with Sirius to the south wing and Arcturus to the north wing and adding yet another book to Psyche’s shelf.

Mandalas as archetypes of the unconscious*

Type of dream mandala

According to CG Jung the Swiss psychiatrist and a founder of Analytic Psychology a mandala in a dream represents the individual’s total personality or Self. As such these images symbolize the individual’s psychological health and spiritual well-being. He also saw the mandala (translated as a “magic circle”) as an archetype that shows up in the dreams, literature, and mythology of all humans. Many therapists believe that any circular object in a dream (or that keeps showing up unexpectedly and/or significantly in one’s waking life) can be a mandala.

Archetypes are believed to be innate tendencies that we all share in our unconscious mind that influence and shape what we believe, how we act, and think, ethically, morally, religiously, and culturally. In short, archetypes are inborn tendencies that shape our behavior.

Flying saucer as archetypal mandala image

The presence of these mandalas in our dreams reflect what Jung calls the “two-mind confrontation” and our current state of wholeness or lack thereof. They are symbols of the unconscious attempting to bring the conscious mind (the ego us) into balance with the unconscious. Some think that a mandala created by the individual (through a dream, a meditation, or as an art project **) can be an echo of their soul, or soul expression.

Many religions use the mandala to represent the spiritual journey starting from our outer self to our inner core, the essence of ourselves. These mandalas are often used to induce a state of consciousness conducive to getting in touch with our inner self and to connect our inner and outer aspects.

Frisbee as mandala image in dream

*To read more about mandalas and archetypes check out the book, Morpheus Speaks: The Encyclopedia of Dream Interpretation

**https://www.art-is-fun.com/how-to-draw-a-mandala

Detachment as a gateway to magic (part one)

Detaching from your illusions in order to see the portal into a new reality.

(Excerpt from the book Psyche’s Dream: A dragon’s Tale)

Without even a “good evening,” the old magus motioned the boy to sit on the braided rag rug before him and began to talk. Adam felt a little as though he were back in kindergarten, sitting on a carpet square before the teacher; and now, as then, he was full of fear, excitement, and anticipation for all the wonders to be revealed.

The old man waved his hand through the air, and the room filled with light. 

“There, that is better; we can see each other now. First, you need to remember that magic is not about things. Things have no magic, though there are those who use things, like idols, for magical effect. To the degree that your consciousness is preoccupied with things—the having and not having of them, and your unending compulsive plans around your life—to this degree you will not be able to produce any magic.

“I will not teach you magic, but I will teach you how to open the door to it. There is a greater spirit beyond that which is recognized and worshiped in the religions of most of humankind. It is from this truth that magic flows. This is not the magic of medicine bags, wands, idols, incantations, and charms; nor is it the magic of tranquilizers, drugs, rationalism, positive thinking, or the power of your will—at least not the will of your smaller self.”

“My smaller self?” 

“Yes, yes. You have two selves; the smaller is the one you are most familiar with, and the bigger is your essential self, your real self. We will go into that in much more detail when you have had the experience of this bigger self.”

“Sounds intriguing! Can I experience it now?”

“Not if you keep interrupting!” the magus exclaimed. “Now where was I … oh yes, the things that we collect on our spiritual journey through life are not the source of power; it is their meaning to the person who honors them that is the source of the power. You cannot even begin to see what magic is if you are attached to the world of things. When you realize that you are not one of those things but rather are the container of all things, then and only then will you be open to magic. 

“Let me be clear; things are a false prophet. Beyond the basics of physical survival, love, and belonging, there is nothing that needs to be attained, or even held on to, that is of any real or lasting value. We are complete and with nothing left out. Anything worth being we already are there is nothing missing. All the striving is just so much noise. Whether we think of ourselves highly or are burdened by self-criticism and doubt, it is just so much noise.”

“But what’s wrong with things?” Adam asked.

“Do not mistake my words; there is nothing wrong with things or even in their having. We can have as many things as we want, and the process of getting and having the things can be fun, but the things are not going to make any real difference in our lives. The degree to which we are “attached” to these things is also the degree to which we cannot experience magic.

The very act of unconditional giving or detachment magically becomes a receiving, whereas acts of mostly getting create a dissonance that will separate you from the magic. In short, anything that separates will keep you from the magic. Why do people hoard things such as objects, money, food—whatever?”

“Well, I guess to survive a future time when they won’t have them.”

“Yes, but that suggests that their worldview is one of not enough, limit, and scarcity. But that view only drains the energy for realizing magic, whereas letting go of these attachments allows for the flow of energy that leads to magic.

What we will be doing from here on is disentangling you from all inner and outer attachments of your life—that is, all the things that you believe are real and necessary to life.”

A Jungian primer: A way of looking at the psyche and its dream world.

Gandalf from J.R.R. Tolkien’s Hobbit- The archetype of
the sage or wise old man.

Over the years that I’ve been writing this blog, I’ve used several words and phrases regarding the constructs of the mind and how they related to the field of dreams. Most of these concepts have been explored and defined by Carl Gustav Jung, a late 19th to middle 20th-century Psychiatrist and contemporary of Freud. At the risk of oversimplifying Jung’s philosophy of dreams, I believe that he has opened the field of psychotherapy and dreamwork to a whole new way of looking at the human mind.

Archetypes: In Jungian psychology, archetypes refer to a collectively inherited unconscious idea, a pattern of thought, image, etc., that are universally present within the individual. Some dream images seem to permeate people’s dreams all over the world regardless of faith or culture, with very similar meanings. For example, images of the divine, masculine/feminine images, shadow beings, death, and apocalyptic events.

Self: Is also one of the Jungian archetypes, signifying the unification of consciousness and unconsciousness in a person and representing the psyche. According to Jung, it is the end product of individuation, which integrates the opposites in one’s personality, including the conscious with the unconscious, while still maintaining the relative autonomy necessary for a person to become whole.

He thought of it as the central ordering principle of a human psyche, i.e., the show’s Director.

Shadow: Is an archetype in itself. All those things, ideas, worries, fears, feelings, and memories are rejected by the conscious mind and shoved into the unconscious. They frequently enter the consciousness through nightmares. They also tend to affect our decisions and actions when we are awake.

Ego: Simply put, it is the “I” of one’s life. It’s who you think you are and is your sense of self.

Symbols: Attempts of the psyche to express the inexpressible.

Myth: This is a story that expresses symbolically a philosophical or religious idea that evokes a particular response from one’s inner being.

Numinous:  Any image or feeling that relates to the spiritual dimension of reality. It can be an odd and otherworldly sense of presence and often represents a strong religious or spiritual experience. It often shows up when an archetype visits the dream.

Psyche: Soul, spirit, the conscious and unconscious mind, the whole personality with nothing left out, nothing rejected. The psyche is what influences our thoughts, behaviors, and personalities.

Whole personality: This includes the conscious, personal and collective unconscious, archetypes, persona (see below), and ego.

Collective unconscious: A term of analytical psychology, coined by Carl Jung. He thought of it as a part of the unconscious mind, expressed in humanity and all life forms with nervous systems, and describes how the structure of the psyche organizes experience. Jung distinguished the collective unconscious from the personal unconscious. The personal unconscious an individual’s reservoir of experience that is unique to each of us. In contrast, the collective unconscious collects and similarly organizes those intimate experiences with each member of a particular species.

Waking Dream: The idea that most of what we call reality is but a projection of our own psyches onto the world outside ourselves invokes the idea that most of what we experience is imaginal. This projection is not unlike our dream material that is also imaginal and projected by our unconscious minds during sleep. There are some psychologists and therapists who suggest that we can treat our waking world images and patterns of behavior like the images from a dream and glean much information through their interpretation.

Four psychological functions: 

Sensing– Data gathering part of the self

Intuitive– Potentials, innovative part of the self

Thinking– Logical, objective, systematic aspects of the self

Feeling– Subjective, personal part of the self.

One of these is used more than the others in each of us and becomes the dominant way we deal with the world.

Transcendent dimension: That aspect of the four psychological functions used to make contact with one’s inner unconscious being. Here is where we humans can relate to the spiritual world.

Active Imagining: A process where one can embody or reanimate the images of a dream to work with the image further beyond the initial interpretation. For example, one might bring the dream image of a dead loved one into the room and engage him or her as though they were still alive.

Complex: This is a core pattern of memories, perceptions, emotions, and wishes in the personal unconscious organized around a common theme, such as power or status. It is primarily a psychoanalytic term found in the works of Jung and Sigmund Freud.

An example of a complex would be as follows: if you had a limb amputated when you were a child, this would influence your life in profound ways, even if you successfully overcame the handicap. Even those who have dealt with their disability may have many thoughts, memories, emotions, feelings of inferiority, bitterness, and decisions made about life on that one aspect of their life. If these thoughts troubled you, they might be called a complex.

The idea of complexes assumes that the most important factors influencing your personality are deep in the unconscious and influence the individual’s attitude and behavior. 

Synchronicity: The idea of synchronicity is that the relationship between concepts is structured logically and gives rise to relationships that are not causal but are not strictly coincidental. These relationships can show up as occurrences that are meaningfully related.

Synchronistic events reveal an underlying pattern, a conceptual framework that includes, but is more extensive than, any systems that display synchronicity. 

Persona: This appears as a consciously created personality or identity fashioned out of part of the collective psyche through socialization, acculturation, and experience. Jung used the classical term persona because it meant the actor’s mask and expressed his role.

The persona, he argues, is a mask for the “collective psyche,” a mask, or an act, that ‘pretends’ individuality.

My mythopoetic self

Edward Burne Jones “The Beguiling of Merlin- Merlin and Vivien” 1874 Reproduction Print Enchanter Wizard & Seductress to gain knowledge power

Mythopoetic

adjective

1. relating to the making of a myth or myths. Giving rise to the creation of myths. 2. relating to or denoting a movement for men that uses activities such as storytelling and poetry reading as a means of self-understanding. Often attached to such authors as Robert Bly and Joseph Campbell and often referring to the archetypes drawn from Jungian analytical psychology. Fantasy writers such as J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and Lewis Carroll were all well known mythopoeic authors whose characters were archetypes of the human psyche. Myth in this context is a reflection of the self and not to be mistaken as fantasy even though fantasy is often used to bring this part of the human psyche into consciousness.

There is a place, a realm, a fancy, a state of mind, sense, country, and experience that exists within the imaginal spaces within my being. It is a soulful place where reality is nurtured and the mysterious grows dense and tangled as an aggressive vine weaving its branches into every corner of my consciousness. It’s a place where time is measured in experience not finite number. It’s the place where the dream of my conscious and unconscious selves meet and share what is real.

An example of this was posted in this blog in March of 2017: 

My conversation with the night

However, I believe that in everything I see I project a part of myself and it is this that creates the myth that is myself the part of the real self that is being continuously created. We are more poetry than we imagine, the archetypal hero of the journey we find ourselves on. Our connection with each other and with all that we see or seem is the gift that sustains us. Whether male or female, to reconnect with our poetic selves and to strive to become whole again will open us to all those unconscious aspects of who we really are.

A midafternoon reverie nap straddling the line between two worlds.

Transcending the veil of reality

Prior to the sleep I had been in a rip roaring argument with my God about the messy way it, He/She had created us humans. We are a totally illogical if not cynical creation I thought and why didn’t they just take pity and clean it up and fix the mistakes?

In the reverie I was meditating on the experience of the divine without, I confess, really knowing what that is. However, my experiences over the years have given me some clues.  For example, the divine is not rational, not bound by pattern or belief and can only be seen by the irrational mind that has given itself over to the nonlinear, non-thinking, non-intellectual and seemingly chaotic and illogical. The divine cannot be heard or seen or touched through the mind, the brain, the intellect or what we call consciousness. It follows no pattern or dogma and is completely dissociated from what we call normal. In fact, it cannot exist in the “normal”. It also can neither confirm nor deny our sanity but certainly has all the earmarks of insanity.

One can only have a “conversation” with the divine when not in their rational, logical, and sane mind. But to hear this essence of reality one must take a leap of faith and give up their sanity without knowing that they can ever return to it when the conversation is finished or to know for sure whether the experience was or is just a function of a dysfunctional mind i.e., a hallucination. And once the leap has been made there’s no guarantee that they are right or wrong about what they are doing. For the religious mind they may be leaping into either heaven or hell and not be able to tell the difference.

This is the frightening aspect of touching the face of the divine and never being able to return. To take this road to where you cannot know, where the very real possibility exists that you’ll never find your way back is a terrifying concept. Why would anyone who really understood the ramifications be willing to do it? Why embrace something that looks and is by all normal standards and belief insane, irrational and illogical and where the possibility of being trapped in the abyss it creates is the most likely outcome? Why take the chance that you may actually be embracing insanity?

Even to be writing about it seems to border on this no-person’s land and places me precariously at the cliff’s edge. What’s on the other side of the leap, oblivion? But oblivion to what? What’s to be gained by giving up the rational mind if only for a moment? Why take the chance?

I’ve stood at this precipice before and followed its rabbit hole into the darkness. But there was some part of me that knew that I needed to leap and would be safe in doing so. Foolhardy? Perhaps. I think that I came out of it unscathed but who really knows for it did irretrievably change me! How? I don’t know really as it was more a sense of change than a physical knowing because to follow the rabbit down the hole will change not only who you’re being but also who you were so there’s no benchmark from which to see yourself or compare. The ground of being shifts and this can be very disconcerting. And the logical, rational mind does not like disconcerting because it’s an unbalanced feeling and the psyche can’t deal with imbalance wanting always to strive for some kind of equilibrium. Imbalance looks like irreversible chaos and entropy with the potential for never being able to make it whole again (something Humpty Dumpty should have thought about before sitting on the wall). 

But this is where we must go, what we need to leap into in order to get a glimpse of the other side of the veil, whether that veil is what separates one person from another or our true self from our illusory self that is, the reality matrix we’ve all been conned into thinking is the real and only reality. It’s a leap with no idea that there is anything there or any guarantees that we can return to the reality that we’re used to. How crazy is that? Pretty crazy I’d say and for most I imagine will result in a crazy mental breakdown that they can never return from.

I can imagine, but don’t know’ that there may be many a mind afflicted with such things as schizophrenia or dissociative disorder where they have lost their identity and connection with this reality who made the leap for whatever reason (pushed, fell or jumped) and who may be struggling to get back. It may be impossible (or at least damn difficult) to straddle both realties at the same time in that we don’t seem to be made for it at least not in the physical reality. Imagine what it would be like if your psyche were trapped in a different reality than your body i.e., if your “dream body” were to have simultaneous existence with your physical body and you couldn’t get them to rejoin into one! Who or better yet, what, would you be then I asked?

And then I woke up.

A brief orientation to Magic as the master work of Psyche’s alchemy

“On the ground there is a Hill,

Also a serpent within a Well:

His Tayle is long with Wings wide,

Already to fly on every side,

Repair the Well round about,

That the Serpent pas not out;

For if that he be there agone,

Thou loosest the virtue of the Stone,

What is the Ground thou mayest know here

And also the Well that is so cleere: 

And else the Serpent with his Tayle, 

Or else the work shall little avail…”

George Ripley– 17th century Alchemist

What foolishness is this? Everyone knows that there’s no such thing as magic. You believe there’s no such thing, don’t you?

Are you sure?

What if I were to tell you that yes indeed there is such a thing as magic? 

Yes, I know that you’ve been taught that magic is evil or at best fantasy with no intrinsic spiritual value or the rational logic of a science, but the reality is that the magical is both good and evil but also neither, highly spiritual, rational but in a non-rational way, a proto-scientific activity, yes, but very, very real. 

Most psychologists and social anthropologists consider magic when they consider it at all as being delusional on behalf of its adherents. But over time the meaning of the word magic has degenerated and been demeaned as mere superstition.

At one time in humankind’s early history people’s lives were steeped in the magic of the world and its warm embrace was what kept the people of tribes and villages safe, healed from sickness, and fed. The gods and goddesses of their world provided them with everything they needed including entertainment and an ace in the hole against their enemies. The modern world has science, but it is often presented as cold, calculating and often soulless, and hard to invoke when the wolf has you backed into a corner. 

But the kind of magic revealed here is not of that early form or through modern science though it certainly existed and is and was practiced alongside both forms. 

I first became aware of this magic in the late seventies while walking through a forest in the Santa Cruz Mountains and again was introduced to it over many years by many modern-day wizards of the Psyche whom I “chanced” to meet as I grew in my professional practice of psychology.

It was during this first encounter that I became aware of the magic around me. It was as though someone had opened a heretofore unseen door that led me into a numinous forest that took on a faint glow and deep sound that resonated in every cell of my body that grew in intensity as I walked down a mountain trail and no, I wasn’t on any drug other than having come off an hours-long meditation that can present one with the feeling of being stoned. 

The glow and sound were sensed more than seen but were still very real. The feelings invoked reminded me of the joyful awe I once felt as a child when confronted with something new and powerful. This was a feeling that I had lost touch with along the way to being transformed into a grown up. It was the magic of the child, the Anthropos of the grown up, that I used to be and still am, and when in this space I remembered who I was and was once again drawn to explore anything and everything for no other reason than it is there to be explored and discovered. 

It was a place where everything was new as though it were all happening for the first time. It’s a place that I have never fully left because as with all who have entered this world the world one is born in becomes a little alien. You can live in this world but after having seen the other you are no longer of this world.

Real magic cannot be wielded through the everyday and is very difficult to experience if one is stuck on the idea of being a grown-up. Those who still honor the child within and in the affairs of others will find it much easier to pass through the door and find the magic and enchantment that lies beyond. It’s when you “let go” of your same-old, same-old way of being and drop into the chaos of uncontrolled play that the magical child returns. 

I think we all long for that place of never-ending imagination where everything is possible through the unfettered expression of the soul that came with us at our birth and where we are the true hero of our own story. 

Creating the world around us: It’s our world and we’re responsible for it, warts and all.

Seeing the world through our dreams. Dreams are about us, what is going on within us in our minds and in our bodies. Dreams are a projection from the unconscious psyche and a statement about what is going on in there, especially with regard to what is happening around us. Given that most of what we perceive is going on around us is a projection i.e. a personal construct of what is going on inside us, it might behoove us to look at who is really responsible for what we experience.

The world seems full of shadow people, monsters, demons, and bullies. But if we look closely at some of their behaviors we would see that to a varying degree these behaviors reflect some of our own. We cheat (though not as much as some others), we betray, sometimes lie, are occasionally selfish, cruel (though we may not intend to be), rationalize our misdeeds, make ourselves look more important, more talented, smarter, more attractive than we are, sometimes we’re insensitive to others, we develop addictions, participate in hurtful gossip, dehumanize those who are different from us, and/or treat others badly. Yes, mixed in with all our good qualities there are negative qualities. In short, we are human. And it is these human frailties that we reject and keep hidden inside us that color the world we see around us. The truth is that those behaviors that we condemn in others are to some degree our own shadows– what doesn’t work in us we project onto the world around us.

But as humans we don’t really want to be responsible for what isn’t working in the world around us, who would want to? It’s too much of a burden and besides what can one person do? But what if I were to tell you that we are responsible for it all? I didn’t say that we are to blame, or that you and I have to take on the whole world, what I said is that we are responsible. Not as a burden but as a simple fact. Simply put, it’s our world, our nation, our community, and our family. What kind of revolution would it be if we were to acknowledge that it’s our world and that we are responsible for it all?

Yet we act as though something outside of us is responsible i.e. God, the President, Bankers, corporate CEOs, politicians, Mom, Dad and the ubiquitous “They.” But nothing outside of ourself can really save our butts, just as nothing outside the dream is the cause of the dream, or its focus. Both inside and out of the sleeping dream we use our images, our constructs, of people, events, and things to establish meaning, our meaning.

There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man. How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world most people only think of changing humanity, getting rid of the “they” and getting a new “them” to change it all and very few think of changing themself. Often this comes from thinking that we are too small to make these changes in ourselves, that something is broken and making it too hard to make the changes needed. Besides what can one person do?

In the book The Archipelago of Dreams, Airmeith the Dream Healer realizes that it only takes the awakened awareness of one ‘Being’ to transform the human universe–that to bring light to one Dark Lord can have a balancing force on everyone else. You see she knew that at a fundamental level we are all connected and part of the One, in the book it is called “The Is” (for ‘what is’), and what is done to one is done to all of us. What she needed to do was to heal the rift between a man’s mind and his soul so that the illusory separation caused by the ego, the individual personality, would disappear and leave behind the true nature of mankind. 

As Robert wanders deeper into the region of the Otherworld, that often-dark world within the mysterious realm of our dreams, he discovers a healing, a truth and honesty the likes of which most of us have never seen. In our waking lives there seems to always be a battle brewing between what we are and what the smallness of the world wants us to believe we are. 

Deeper still Robert becomes aware that the Dark Lords aren’t the enemy outside ourselves but the enemy within us. It is our own Dark Lord that we need to come to grips with and to transform our experience of.

“There can be only one permanent revolution — a moral one; the regeneration of the inner man.
How is this revolution to take place? Nobody knows how it will take place in humanity, but every man feels it clearly in himself. And yet in our world everybody thinks of changing humanity, and nobody thinks of changing himself.”

–Leo Tolstoy–”Three Methods Of Reform” in Pamphlets

In the Archipelago there is also a battle that reflects this struggle to become whole. It’s a battle that if not won, human kind will face eternal loss and damn them selves to a hell of their own construct. Ahh, but aren’t we already doing that? We’ve created the hell we experience in the world and with a shift in the way we hold responsibility I wonder if we could also create the heaven? 

In the Archipelago of Dreams, Robert needs to find it in his self the power to become big enough to turn his life around. Though he is accompanied by a small band of ancient magi it is really up to him, for there’s not really any one to turn to for the kind of help he needs. In short, there is no “they” out there.

You want the world to change? Be what you want the world to be and it will change.

“Confront the dark parts of yourself, and work to banish them with illumination and forgiveness. Your willingness to wrestle with your demons will cause your angels to sing.” 
― August Wilson