rhythms

Today I am focused on rhythm.  I had a dream in which a young boy was rocking in a window ledge.  And the rocking sensation touched a place of how we can put ourselves into a trance by performing a rhythmic movement.  This has happened forever:  we did it as little babies, as young children, and still do it today.  Notice it in yourself.  Native Americans have many ways of creating rhythms through drumming, dancing, or any repetitive movement which transfers energy from our bodies to mother earth.

And...then there is the rhythm of our lives, our dreams, and how those interact.  Our daily lives have a rhythm of their own which most often we do without being aware.  And certainly our dreams have their own rhythm which if we look at and study reveals some interesting patterns.  As I have been recording my dreams, I am seeing some dreams now that reflect earlier dreams that I could not understand.  In other words, I am seeing patterns and rhythms.  These rhythms may be the order than underlies the disorder in most of our activities:  at a deep level, I mean.  More to contemplate.  It also leaves room for the possibility of synchronicity.

Coming together of the opposites

Okay, so the process is one of separating the opposites, such as good/bad, masculine/feminine, earth/sky which may be the first step of individuating while the final step is reconciling the opposites so that I can hold one side by side with the other rather than either/or.  In the final analysis (if there could be one), the black pearl image may be pointing in that direction where black and white are united to form the black pearl.  In the bowl which contained ten black pearls they were arranged in Pythagoras' magic ten number where four pearls surrounded one pearl in an equilateral triangle.  More food for thought because Pythagorans believed that number was the key to the mystery of matter.  I don't fully grasp that yet, but perhaps in another decade or so, it will be clear to me. 

They also believed that ten was a number of wholeness. 

Structure of the psyche

I think that what Jung is referring to is that images come from stars, sun and moon as well as inorganic represented by earth, air, fire and water, and also reptilian (cold blooded creatures).  Down deep in our unconscious are the foundations  of life prior to when human (warm blooded) creations came into being.  So we receive images from these layers of our unconscious because they form the structure of our psyche.  When I first realized that my unconscious held all the history of mankind (and now history of life), I felt comforted to know that I had a simple, true, individual place in the whole history of life.

When images of snake, black pearl, or whatever, I know I am in touch with ancient history and that the image has something to share with me about my life now.  Finding the meaning of these symbols is fascinating to me, and I enjoy search until I find a meaning that completes my search for I feel a relationship to the image.

Matter and Spirit

In Jung's Seminar in Dream Analysis, he spends quite a bit of time exploring the relationship between the patterns of the stars and the patterns of our human lives.  I find this interesting because it brings together for me a parallel cycle between the stars and us:  for example women menstruate according to moon cycles:  certainly not every woman having her period at the same time as every other woman, but there are cycles in each individual woman which are fairly constant.  Perhaps there is not such a difference between matter and spirit as I have thought.  What Jung talks about in these pages brought to my attention an interaction between matter and spirit.  Or perhaps a facet of the same process.  That matter and spirit are the same energy seen by my eyes and ears as different when in fact they are the same.

I am holding these thoughts to see what comes of them.

Symbols: sun and moon

On page 404 of Jung's Seminar on Dream Analysis, he states the sun and moon have something to do with the structure of the mind.  To me, that is a powerful statement, one that I don't completely understand.  I do understand that we have projected qualities onto the sun and moon such as sun being masculine and active and rational and the moon being mystery, irrational, feminine, and passive.  And certainly these characteristics are part of my own individual makeup. Even if I don't completely understand what he means, I do relate to the characteristics of each and can find relevant aspects in my own psychology.

I like that Jung searches through our past, both near and far, to uncover deeper and deeper associations to images.  It brings a certain richness and depth to those images that come to me in my dreams.  And, then I can find the certain characteristics of these images which touch me with their meaning.  In order to travel these paths, I have to yield up my scientific demands and my Western way of approaching meaning.  That is not easy to do because it is so ingrained in me.  My friend, Pat, has been helping me with this understanding and how challenging these views are to my scientific frame of reference.

Black Pearl: Moon

After a great deal of research, I have completed for now my information on the black pearl.  The symbol of the moon has sustained the most interest for me because the moon symbol is really a movement from black (new moon) to white (full moon), and also represents the mother, feminine, and perhaps an integration or certainly movement from one to the other:  black to white as process.  In my own experience, I find myself moving from darkness and chaos to fullness and light and places in between.For me personally, I like the black pearl and moon symbol.

Now to answer "onthepath"s question about four, I say as we move from chaos to begin to form our identity, we move from the one to "I" which indicates a separation of masculine and feminine as well as spirit (upper) and lower (human, animal).  These four cardinal points help us grow into our uniqueness.

One last remark:  the moon is more irrational than the sun which is more rational:  it moves across the sky each day as itself while the moon comes in the night (mystery) and has rhythms.  I have profited by becoming more irrational and demanding less rationality.  Good for me.  I am also more aware of my own rhythms of activity, rest, inactivity, and how these cycle through my months and years.

Black Pearl: Individuation

Today, I am struck by how the black pearl could suggest the individuation process which starts in chaos and confusion (black) and through our spirits separates into the four:  upper and lower, feminine and masculine.  This involves a wedding of sorts, and parallels the alchemical process of turning metals into gold.  Jung has likened the alchemical scientists to early psychologists although that was not a conscious awareness on their parts.  He feels that they were projecting the individuation process onto their chemical work.  

Heraclitus suggested four colors which were reduced to three in the 15th or 16th century (see Jung, vol.14, para. 333.  In paragraph 334, Jung compares the individuation process as moving from the black to white as a moon condition which then arises to sunrise (red).  I know this is becoming somewhat academic, but I want to share the depth and richness of just one image from my dreams.

I have been wanting to find themes and patterns in my dreams for several years, but I have not tackled the research necessary to do that until now.  I am very excited.  

Tomorrow, I want to explore the black pearl and the moon.