This last election, in my opinion, brought out the worse in people. It’s taken some time for people to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
Now that we are in spring, fresh air permeates and a veil has lifted.
Last night I saw the Wizard of Oz, it’s been decades since I’ve seen it. Watching it I thought of my dear friend and editor the late Mary Simmons whom I loved like a second mother. She was from Kansas and often talked of life on the farm. Mary was an educator, a wise woman who lived to be 100, who possessed a love of God, animals, truth, and of books. She left her body last January.
I was struck by the film's symbolism. Take for example the characters, their journey to Oz results in the realization that they had the powers (influence, heart, brains, and courage) they had sought; within them all along, only their shadow archetypes were dominating their personas.
Yet, it was these very shadow archetypes that propelled them to take the journey to see the great Oz in the first place.
Working with archetypal concepts can be a great way to work through psychological issues, and who doesn’t have some of these? Archetypes have a functional aspect and a shadow aspect. The shadow aspect may be operating in our lives but we are unaware of the dynamic.
Take Dorothy for example that operates as a wounded or orphaned child. Auntie Em is busy and Dorothy continues to harangue her with demands for attention. Operating from childlike insecurity and dependence without even knowing it, the question is - can she provide for herself, and still have aspects of her child archetype, like play, wonder and, joy.
While archetypes may emanate through us for short periods of time, no one can emanate an archetype continuously. Only the archetype itself can withstand any such projections such as all-giving, and eternally energetic. We may try to emulate these, but they are ideals, not achievable by humans, and not meant to be.
However, Dorothy on her hero’s journey when asked by Glinda the Good Witch of the North what she has learned responds with a deeper understanding of self.
As a side note, I realize I am rather over-simplifying a highly sophisticated theory here, for my own need, and to not over-complicate the point for my readers.
But asking the proper questions is central in the act of transformation – in fairy tales, in analysis, and in individuation. We should always be asking ourselves questions, not about other people but about ourselves. Key questions cause the germination of consciousness. The properly shaped question always emanates from an essential curiosity about what stands behind. Questions are the keys that cause the secret doors of the psyche to swing open.
The third eye chakra or Ajna is said to be the center of perception, that intuitive sixth sense of just knowing, without knowing how we know. It is also the center of our dreams and memory recall, the chakra where we can tap into archetypal energies. Through active use of our imagination, we can gain command over our vision of the world.
Many times our soul wishes to speak its truth, and yet she is pressured to be silent. It is the Ajna that we tap into the ‘collective unconscious’ and the world of archetypes.
Accessing the full power of the imagination is a gift inherent in all of us. The Ajna relates to the powers of visual imagination. This allows us to shift from left-brain rational cognition to right-brain creative thinking. This is the shift into our inner visionary.
Tapping into the archetypal world of the collective unconscious, allows synchronicity to flow into our lives. Synchronicity is often discounted as a casual coincidence, but it is far more meaningful.
Like the characters in the Wizard of Oz, we may search for external powers, like the Great Wizard, only to find he is just an ordinary man. Yet he is wise enough to know we have been acting from our power unconsciously all along. Like Dorothy, all we need to do is set the intention and we can go home at any time, the shoes, the incantation are just the point of focus, they bring our truth to our conscious mind, but the power is always within.
Here’s one of my favorite lines from the film:
When was the last time you told your personality to be silent and to step aside?
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