My partner challenged me to explain the last post about the Gryphon, so here goes.
My thesis and my life is based on the idea that by working with images in particular ways we can evolve consciousness. This means that I work closely with the Unconscious and therefore my personal dreams as part of that realm. So how does this work in real terms?
I follow my dreams and images that 'appear' to me. All dreams are significant in that they reveal something of the unconscious and therefore lead us to the collective Unconscious. I pay attention to all of my dreams however, I work specifically and at length with those that have a high level of emotion attached to them. In Jungian theory this is known as 'affect' and it is the key to working with images in the evolution of consciousness, or what Jung called the process of individuation.
Images that are powerful - where you wake up terrified, disorientated, elated or have a sense that there was some deep significance or meaning you can't quite grasp - are the ones that lead us to the core achetypal images of the psyche. Some of these images emerge in the waking state. I have seen many of this type of image, through many years of study and working in this way. I am convinced that this is a useful and valid way to come to a greater understanding of existence.
Back to the Gryphon. This dream was so powerful that when I awoke startled, on hearing the 'voice of God' speak to me in a strange and ancient vernacular, I sat bolt upright in bed. My heart was pounding and I was blinking quickly in the dark, trying to figure out if I was awake, asleep or even alive. I was so hypersensitised I could actually hear my eyes opening and closing - very uncanny. The meaning of the words was obscure but I am used to that, patience usually pays off in the end though.
I won't go over previous posts about this topic but recently one of my blog readers mentioned that the Gryphon was one of the '12 Mithraic degrees' which I was pretty sure was yet another initiatic system. I'll try not to get too esoteric here.
There are many initiatic systems, different cultures, different times - but they are all basically about the evolution of consciousness and they correspond, as you might expect, with each other and therefore Jung's contemporary psycho-spiritual theories. These initiatatic systems vary in practice and superficial content but the similarities between different stages of the psychic journey can easily be found. There seem to be 4 stages earth, water, fire and air (sometimes air and fire are the other way around) and there are symbols associated with these elements. (This system is based on the 3 + 1 which I have mentioned before also)
The Gryphon is a third stage symbol, igneous, which is fire and relates to the transforming power of the heart, emotion, inspiration. Fire represents transition - it is also a recurring theme in alchemy because to transmute 'substances' requires that they undergo some process. The Gryphon is a creature that spans several realms, it is the mediator, as it were, between earth (Body) and divine Spirit. When the 'voice of God' spoke the words: wear this image and thou shalt be anointed - I eventually understood it as: integrate, know this symbol and you will be given something very precious - some knowledge, understanding or insight. (I had to look up the meaning of 'anointed' by the way)
My recent post included this quote: Consciousness and unconsciousness arise simultaneously out of the primal sea of undifferentiation, which might better be described as twins born from the same mother. The Self is the Mother, one twin is (soul) consciousness and the other twin is (ego) consciousness. The Self, or Great Mother archetype, remains undifferentiated energy. Here is the 3 + 1 again but even more significantly for me is that the Gryphon here represents an integration of consciousness and unconsciousness. This is a very powerful thing in the process of becoming 'whole'.
This does not mean the process is, by any stretch of the imagination, over. But it is significant because these images do not manifest until or unless we are ready to integrate the knowledge. It is a key indicator in my own journey because it was unbidden and unconsciously delivered. You can't simply decide to have a specific dream, it is beyond the control of the individual and therefore the ego-self - and that's why I have learned to trust it.
13 comments:
2nd attempt.
Thank you, I think. I am left feeling particularly unconscious! It seems some of us, such as yourself obviously, work at consciousness more directly than others who depend unknowingly as the muddle of their life forces them to become more so even if only a little bit. I think I fall heavily in the latter category!
There is no linear continuum here. I suspect we have no way of knowing who is at what stage, what the purpose of any life is or which methods are in use. I also suspect that some lives offer 'respite' from the journey. veryone does the work in thrie own time and in their own way
There are also many people far more conscious than myself.
Excellent...mmm elucidation - making lucid. Loving this shared journey MF. Synchronous in that I too am beginning to make lucid a dream of significance.
Completely resonate with your experience and through your fiery initiation you are most assuredly kindling the fires within the whole - can attest to this by the inspiration experienced when I come in contact with the alchemy of your images and you words - charged with the electricity of awareness - awesome.
Thanks WY - very generous.
I think it was Jung who said that even one individual attempting individuation consciously has an affect on the entire world.
OK, so Jung said that too. I didn't know that. The master I was referring to was Rajneesh actually. He might wonder at my immersion in Western esoteric systems after delving initially into the East, not that he would care.
Thanks to everyone for your comments.
Might not have been Jung, I just threw that out there. Jung did write a book on Eastern meets Western. One funny thing he wrote was that if you are practising yoga in a location with a telephone system, then you're faking it ;-)
I used to document my dreams, sometimes still do, for me though it's fraught.
I like that comment by Jung.
These days I tend to only work with the type of dreams I described because the more personal, day-to-day unconscious stuff just gets a bit tedious for me. I can work with one image, one 'dream', for years sometimes because there are layers of meaning. Sometimes it takes me 20 years to get to the bottom of something. But I definitely don't rely on dream 'analysis' or have other people interpret them, it is such an individual thing.
Joan said:
I can relate to everything you have written i.e. the process not necessarily individual images. You have been a lot more systematic in your study. I received a lot of stuff at particular initiatic times but was not able or ready to give it a lot of time to continue the
work with it. I can clearly remember the big change in my life style in having an infant and putting esoteric studies on the back burner for some years. When I took it up again I had immersed myself in art
and art history and art education to some extent.
My esoteric work appears intuitively in my artwork fairly informally at first and then as the years went on in a very symbolic way. I am now really
enjoying the sharing of your journey, especially as I know that my work even yet is very different. We all have our own tasks.
I love dreaming. I think I have commented before on my take on dreams so I won't repeat myself here. I only hope that you are not over analysing your dreams, therefore missing the message?
I don't 'analyse' my dreams. I don't come to any conclusions until and unless the meaning has come to me already via illogical means, through the image itself. I don't go in search of 'meaning' either. I rely on my emotional and abstract responses to illuminate the image. And I let the image keep working in my psyche, even after I have attributed some meaning to it.
Yes thats what I do. Let the emotion of the dream tell the story for that is where the message lies. I don't think you can come to conclusions but you can definitely be guided by them.
You can come to an understanding.
Excellent, dream on!
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