Though Now Apart, They’ll Be Together Forever in Our Hearts

Posted on March 24, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Ordinary People, Living Ordinary Lives (Bee Gees 1989)

Image of “One” album courtesy of amazon.ca

This post may seem a bit disjointed, but if you bear with me, its meaning may become clear.

But first, I’d like to quote the lyrics from “Ordinary People” (and not the John Legend song):

There’ll be one small light
All over the world tonight
The search will go on for the one
It was love with no name and we glowed in the sun

There was one small dream
Incredible highs and lows
What little we knew living ordinary lives
Made a dream for you, living ordinary lives

Ordinary people, living ordinary lives
Ordinary people, living ordinary lives

We were ordinary people, living ordinary lives
We were ordinary people, living ordinary lives

The clock on the wall keeps moving
Time stands still
No matter how the dice may fall
Someone else always gets to call the number

Say goodbye, cruel world
No pity, no pain tonight
Whatever the cost, all is lost
And if it’s love with no name, then it’s all in the stars

Whether it’s wrong or right
There’s no one to blame, no lies
What else could we do living ordinary lives
Made a dream for you, living ordinary lives

Songwriters: Maurice Ernest Gibb / Robin Hugh Gibb / Barry Alan Gibb

I woke up with this song in my head this morning, and it seems appropriate for the day.

The song was written before Andy Gibb died, and was originally called “Cruel World”. After his death, the song was recorded, mostly by Barry Gibb, who changed its name to the one we know today. Was it a premonition, or just chance?

I see the idea of the “One” album as an anthem to a (literal) ‘band of brothers’ who go through thick and thin together. The Bee Gees (Brothers Gibb) went through many trials and tribulations, most of which we will never be able to understand, but through it all they made beautiful music together.

“He who has ears to hear, let him hear.”

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BeBe’s Seventh Anniversary Today

Posted on March 21, 2021 by cdsmiller17
In need of a haircut, during the current lockdown

She will be 13 on her next birthday, May 22nd. She’s been with us for more than half her life.

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When the Light of Knowledge is Seen Again…

Posted on March 19, 2021 by cdsmiller17

The Search for Meaning

There is a passage from “Ego and Archetype” which is a Jewish legend. I will quote that legend here.

Prior to the birth of a child, God calls the seed of the future human being before him and decides what its soul shall become: man or woman, sage or simpleton, rich or poor. Only one thing He leaves undecided, namely, whether he shall be righteous or unrighteous, for, as it is written, “All things are in the hand of the Lord except the fear of the Lord.” The soul, however, pleads with God not to be sent from the life beyond this world. But God makes answer: “The world to which I send thee, is better than the world in which thou wast; and when I formed thee, I formed thee for this earthly fate.” Thereupon God orders the angel in charge of the souls living in the Beyond to initiate this soul into all the mysteries of that other world, through Paradise and Hell. In such manner the soul experiences all the secrets of the Beyond. At the moment of birth, however, when the soul comes to earth, the angel extinguishes the light of knowledge burning above it, and the soul, enclosed in its earthly envelope, enters this world, having forgotten its lofty wisdom, but always seeking to regain it.

Quoted by Gerhard Adler, Studies in Analytical Psychology. New York, C.G. Jung Foundation, 1967, p. 120f

I’ve written about this effect, before, here. The search for meaning in life wakes us up.

Here ends today’s lesson.

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Song Lyrics as ‘The Journey’ (Jungian Psychology)

Posted on March 18, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Bruce Miller: Fairy Tales On The Highway (1975)

As you may have surmised by now, I am in the middle of reading “Ego and Archetype” by Edward F. Edinger. I already knew a great deal about the subject matter, having studied it years ago, but the benefit of hindsight shows me that my earlier appreciation was from the point-of-view of someone who hadn’t had enough experience. So, growing older does have its good points.

About a week before my son lent me this book, I’d had a song running through my head, on constant replay, like an earworm, but without the annoyance. The song was this one:

Fairy Tales On The Highway

.

Fairy tales out on the highway

Lonesome blue over my shoulder

Like a ship in the harbour

I’ve been waiting for my cargo

Like a thief in the night

I’ve been oh, so hungry

But Lord, you’ve gotta help me

Find that Golden Road

Lord, you’ve gotta help me

I can’t make it on my own.

.

See my love, there in the Garden

She has diamonds in her eyes

Like Noah’s Ark in the thunder

She will keep me from going under

Like a leaf in the wind

I’ve been falling in

But Lord, you’ve gotta help me

Find that Golden Road

Lord, you’ve gotta help me

I can’t make it on my own.

.

(If you’d like to hear the song, here’s the whole album “Rude Awakening”:)

Fairy Tales On The Highway starts at 26:15.

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Flying High in April, Brought Down in May

Posted on March 17, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Encounter With The Self

Job confessing his presumptions to God who answers out of the whirlwind

Have you ever been so down and out that you finally give in and let go? That seems to be the whole purpose of failure: to show your ego that you (and it) are not in control of your life. Only then can you succeed at accepting your higher Self as the author and architect of your being.

The story of Job is the only book of the Bible (Old Testament) that is entirely a conversation. All the characters, who show up, are aspects of Job himself. Their ‘advice’ is no more than reminders of the past, religious conventions, perhaps, that Job recalls during his questioning of his own faith in a supreme being. Even his wife’s words, “Curse God and die,” aren’t to be taken literally, although when you’re in that state of mind, anything is possible.

I used to wonder how a man, such as Job, could call out his maker and expect an answer. But if this is just an example of Jungian psychology before the process was even named, this conversation with God was always going to be ‘interesting’.

After God reminds Job that he wasn’t there at the beginning of creation and therefore has no right to question what’s going on, does Job finally admit to being changed:

I had heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees thee; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

Job 42:5-6 RSV

Reading this ‘conversion’ when I was younger, I didn’t find it satisfying. “Damn right,” I thought, “Job has the guts to ask God, ‘Why?’ and he should be given the answer that it was all just a test to see if Job was for turning. God didn’t do that. Something’s not right about this.”

Yes, my inflated ego was invested in Job’s question. Now, more than 25 years after my own ‘conversation with God’ do I understand Job’s repentance. To be brought low, one can be humble again, and accepting of whatever ‘fate’ decrees. “Not my will, but Thine be done.”

The Job drama is personally applicable to all. It speaks immediately to the almost universal question, “Why must this happen to me?” We all have an underlying resentment against fate and reality which is a residue of inflation. Such resentment takes many forms: “If only I had had a better childhood;” “If only I were married;” “If only I were not married;” “If only I had a better husband or wife,” etc., etc. All of these “if onlys” are the means by which one excuses himself from relating productively to reality as it is. They are symptoms of inflation which will not grant the existence of a greater reality than one’s personal desires. Job asked why his misery should happen to him. The answer that emerges from the Book of Job is so that he may see God.

Ego and Archetype (page 96)

Here ends today’s lesson.

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What Happens When We are Afraid to Live AND Afraid to Die?

Posted on March 16, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Ego Inflation and Alienation

It’s a disturbing thought: afraid to live and afraid to die. One’s ego sees one’s little life as vulnerable, so it puffs the personality up to make it a formidable foe to the world.

But, at the same time, this causes alienation from everything outside of one’s self, and from the Self on the inside. In other words, it makes the personality feel more alone and vulnerable.

I like this illustration because it uses Greek, Hebrew, Latin and Hindu symbols. But what does it really mean? If you can decipher its meaning, you may already be more than halfway there.

So true.

“Missed the mark” means:

“For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God”

(Romans 3:23)

Here ends today’s lesson.

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Inner Authority: The Spirit of Rebellion

Posted on March 15, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Ego and Archetype

My son lent me this book: I wonder what he’s trying to tell me…

The very first chapter deals with the ego separating from the Self. So, nothing new there, then.

But it’s a circular argument, as the ego must be reabsorbed by the Self, toward the end of one’s life. In the meantime, each of us goes through a process that can only be described as a rejection of everything that was before, so that we may grow into the being that we were meant to be. Strange idea, eh?

As an interesting offshoot of this concept, I read this personal journey from fundamentalism to liberation. And then I thought about my own journey from preacher’s kid to karmic astrologer.

In the last meeting I had face-to-face with my retired minister, adoptive father, we discussed reincarnation. As usual, the discussion got heated, until Rus stopped talking and listened to his ‘inner authority’. Then he said to me, “I’m being told it’s alright.” That moment (at age 35), I knew I had gained full emancipation from his ‘control’. I was free to choose my own path.

When I was 17, I looked into the future and ‘saw’ that I would die by age 34. What I saw was the death of the ego, after its struggle to gain freedom from the Self. (But only now do I understand it to mean that. At the time, I saw it was my literal death.) I had been rebelling against control since I was in my middle teens. My journey to England and the events that unfolded could only have happened after Rus let me go. Then I could become my Self again.

Now, using the image of the Ouroboros again, let’s look at The Journey:

These are the layers we shed before we can become less personal and more universal in our being. The archetypes can also show us where we are in the circle of life.

Now do you see why I like using PsyCards? (Tarot cards work just as well.) But the important thing is to realize that life is a mandala. It is the symbol of Earth.

Finally, one comes to an understanding of what Carl Jung was trying to show us.

Amen.

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Dr John Dee and Elizabeth I are Connected Through Astrology

Posted on March 15, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Coronation of Elizabeth I (January 15, 1559)

According to reports, Elizabeth I asked John Dee to draw up a chart for the best time for her coronation. This isn’t as unusual as you might think, since most royals thought that their reigns were ordained by Heaven, and the stars were the the proof of good or bad timings.

The double T-square seems to be this chart’s controlling aspect: Mars/Uranus conjunct in Scorpio, opposite the Saturn/Neptune conjunction in Taurus, are all square to a wide Mercury/Jupiter conjunction in Aquarius. But in setting that early hour of 7 am, the Moon is inconjunct to that Mars/Uranus ‘lightning strike’.

Moon Inconjunct Mars

Your relationship with your mother is especially important. If you and she don’t get along in some important way, you will have similar problems with other women when you get older. If you are a girl, you may prefer the company of boys now and men later. If you are a boy, you may have serious problems getting along with women when you are older. In either case, you are likely to be very aggressive and unpleasant when you are emotionally upset.

Moon Inconjunct Uranus

Your relationship with your mother may be rather unstable. She may be very involved in her own interests, which prevent her from being as close to you as she would be otherwise. She may be an unconventional person, a real free spirit. The problem is that your feelings about her are mixed, both loving and unloving. You may secretly resent her. Probably you don’t feel that you can express this consciously, but it could come out when you are angry or upset. Certainly this will result in not wanting to form close relationships with other people, especially women. And the people you do choose as close friends are likely to be exciting and different from anyone you have known in the past. However, they may also be rather upsetting.

Mars Conjunct Uranus

You are strongly freedom oriented, but the problem with your attitude toward authority is that you feel that any restriction is a threat to your being. Any kind of limitation brings out the disruptive side of your personality, and you put all your energy into asserting your own way of being. If you want to get along in the world, you must develop some self-discipline, although most people with this aspect manage to get their own way most of the time. These people are definitely eccentrics according to the rest of the world, and you will be also. Fortunately you have the courage to be your own person.

Remember: Uranus hadn’t been discovered yet

Looking back at events in hindsight is a wonderful gift, but it must be remembered that Uranus, Neptune and Pluto had not yet been discovered, so Dr. Dee would have seen that T-square as involving Mars, Saturn and Jupiter (a warrior king or queen). The undiscovered connections show us what really happened during Elizabeth’s reign. Oh, well…

And this triple combination chart shows how the two individuals and the event intersected.

Please note that John Dee and Elizabeth I were only six years apart in age…

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Sleight of Hand: Do You Believe in Magic?

Posted on March 14, 2021 by cdsmiller17

An Apport in Reality

Sometimes we all doubt our senses. Two days ago, I had my reality challenged by a disappearing piece of paper.

Susan had just changed her credit card pin. Thinking that I could help her remember it by writing it down, I found a slip of paper in the back of my 1987 Letts Horoscope Diary. I wrote on this slip: ‘Susan’s credit card pin’ (and the number), and just at that moment, there was a flurry of movement, and the piece of paper disappeared!

Thinking that I must have somehow dropped it, I looked for it, everywhere, but to no avail.

OK. What’s really going on?

I wonder: Who is powerful enough with physical reality to spirit away a mere slip of paper?

Hmm…

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It’s Like “Northern Exposure” but Without the Humour

Posted on March 14, 2021 by cdsmiller17

Virgin River

We starting binge-watching this series on Netflix last night. Almost immediately I got the “Northern Exposure” vibe. But, to be honest, this one is more like a Hallmark movie.

The mountains in the background weren’t fooling me: the white-capped one above the river looked like The Lions. That alerted me to the fact that this series is yet another Hollywood North production.

Centers around Melinda Monroe, who answers an ad to work as a nurse practitioner in the remote California town of Virgin River and soon discovers that small-town living isn’t quite as simple as she expected and that she must learn to heal herself before she can truly make Virgin River her home

Storyline (from IMDb)

There are a few familiar Canadian faces in the crowd, most notably, Nicola Cavendish as the town gossip, Connie. My word, though, she and the rest of the cast seem to be so much older than I remember them. Of course, I’m getting older, too.

Since it’s early days, I won’t comment on whether the show is worth watching or not. But it has some interesting ‘problems’ to sort through for both the individuals and the town…

A Sneak Peek (from the book)

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