You paint such a beautiful image of Cornwall, I've never been, but I can feel it in your words. I think returning to our birthplace, exploring ancestral roots, is so very important. I've done some of that in recent years, going to Sicily where my family is from, back to where I was born in New York. Yet, I did find that there was still a longing within, even when the landscape provided a sense of healing and belonging. The inner principle had to be met along with the outer.
Thank you for these tarot images, the pole star is such an apt portrayal of what I have felt often. So much wandering in the dark, with only the cosmic-sort of light to guide me. The six of swords as the necessary journeying, but the heaviness that comes with it.
It's reminiscent of what Marion Woodman speaks to regarding finding the symbolic/metaphorical component behind compulsive behaviors:
тАЬI always try to grasp the metaphor at the root of an addiction. That varies. With food, it can be mother; with alcohol, spirit; with cocaine, light; with sex, union. Mother, spirit, light, union тАУ these can be archetypal images of the soulтАЩs search for what it needs. If we fail to understand the soulтАЩs yearning, then we concretize and become compulsively driven toward an object that cannot satisfy the soulтАЩs longing.тАЭ
Without that inner principle being recognize, we overly concretize, literalize the psychological impulse (somatically, behaviorally, etc). It's really helped me look at certain issues/desires/compulsions in a new way.
I relate to a lot of what you've written here, Deryn. I first heard of the death mother archetype from my therapist, who worked with Marion. I wrote about some of those insights and ideas in this older post: https://www.theartemisian.com/p/gazing-in-a-reflective-shield
Ohh, I'd like to hear more on this. What of the labyrinth specifically? Is there a sense of ever leaving it, like Theseus with the support of Ariadne as guide? Is it the twists and turns as we venture towards the center, but never truly finding the end?
Thanks for sharing, it sounds like a difficult inward journey, with many potential rewards. When dealing with such charged psychological dynamics, I find it helpful to consider how these images and symbols manifest mythically, ritualistically. The labyrinth in Greek mythology is created as a place to contain and trap the minotaur (whose story is very tragic and complicated). But, we also see many ritualistic uses of labyrinths in religious sites. A way to do an embodied, walking meditation, to drop into prayer, to contemplate. It's such a rich symbol.
You paint such a beautiful image of Cornwall, I've never been, but I can feel it in your words. I think returning to our birthplace, exploring ancestral roots, is so very important. I've done some of that in recent years, going to Sicily where my family is from, back to where I was born in New York. Yet, I did find that there was still a longing within, even when the landscape provided a sense of healing and belonging. The inner principle had to be met along with the outer.
Thank you for these tarot images, the pole star is such an apt portrayal of what I have felt often. So much wandering in the dark, with only the cosmic-sort of light to guide me. The six of swords as the necessary journeying, but the heaviness that comes with it.
It's reminiscent of what Marion Woodman speaks to regarding finding the symbolic/metaphorical component behind compulsive behaviors:
тАЬI always try to grasp the metaphor at the root of an addiction. That varies. With food, it can be mother; with alcohol, spirit; with cocaine, light; with sex, union. Mother, spirit, light, union тАУ these can be archetypal images of the soulтАЩs search for what it needs. If we fail to understand the soulтАЩs yearning, then we concretize and become compulsively driven toward an object that cannot satisfy the soulтАЩs longing.тАЭ
Without that inner principle being recognize, we overly concretize, literalize the psychological impulse (somatically, behaviorally, etc). It's really helped me look at certain issues/desires/compulsions in a new way.
I relate to a lot of what you've written here, Deryn. I first heard of the death mother archetype from my therapist, who worked with Marion. I wrote about some of those insights and ideas in this older post: https://www.theartemisian.com/p/gazing-in-a-reflective-shield
Ohh, I'd like to hear more on this. What of the labyrinth specifically? Is there a sense of ever leaving it, like Theseus with the support of Ariadne as guide? Is it the twists and turns as we venture towards the center, but never truly finding the end?
Thanks for sharing, it sounds like a difficult inward journey, with many potential rewards. When dealing with such charged psychological dynamics, I find it helpful to consider how these images and symbols manifest mythically, ritualistically. The labyrinth in Greek mythology is created as a place to contain and trap the minotaur (whose story is very tragic and complicated). But, we also see many ritualistic uses of labyrinths in religious sites. A way to do an embodied, walking meditation, to drop into prayer, to contemplate. It's such a rich symbol.
I have not read Piranesi, I will check it out!