The Quest: Vision in an Age of Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

We live in an age of apocalyptical possibilities. We now truly have the means to bring this about. Humans have always had to face their own darkness and even evil - the life-destructive Satanic force within them. The world's mythologies are testimony to this. This episode, after reflecting on aspects of the current evolving crises, turns to a myth from Ancient Egypt that of Isis and Osiris, which is at the beginning of civilization, whereas we fear we may be at the end. Here we see clearly the battle between the creative and destructive forces, good and evil, told in this magnificent narrative which offers hope - exactly what we need today.

The essence of this precious life,

The seed upon the flower.

The scent within a perfume,

The light that is a star.

The freedom of the wild west wind,

The mist on mountain side,

The thought before you think it,

She knows you from inside.

The sweetness of the desert breeze

You can’t grasp in your hands.

She’s like the waters of the Nile,

She comes from other lands.

        From Alan Mulhen The Sower and the Seed

These podcasts explore the evolving crises of the 21st century. The Virus pandemic, extremely serious though it is, has revealed the fracture lines of the world economy. We have a series of crises, and if we wish to understand more of the world we have created we have to understand them in their interacting totality – i.e. as a system.

As the podcast series progresses we will examine these dimensions, which we also call the horseman of the Apocalypse. Apocalypse comes from the Greek word meaning to reveal. It is also, in the bible, associated with the idea of a great judgement and end times,

It is only by this means of a spiritual awakening that a new vision can emerge that can save us. There has to be a spiritual rebirth because mankind’s reason cannot solve the crises in front of us. The term apocalyptic is therefore appropriate to describe our age. We will approach this final horseman, the spiritual crisis, slowly and with great caution for there is no telling the hour or the manner of its coming

El siglo XXI está siendo testigo de la emergencia de numerosas crisis que vienen operando de manera sistémica e interconectada conduciendo a la humanidad a un momento crítico y muy decisivo.  El tema de hoy es, El Momento De La Verdad, que abordaremos en forma breve, en cuatro niveles: colectivo, individual, moral y espiritual. Estamos entrando en la primera Gran Depresión Global. De hecho, muchas economías ya están experimentando un colapso importante a una escala nunca antes vista.

Este es nuestro momento de la verdad. Esto es lo que la evolución de la vida y la conciencia en este planeta le ha llevado después de miles de millones de años. A menos que lo recibamos con la verdad, nos enfrentaremos con la puerta en la cara.

Libros

shorturl.at/jqISY     The Sower and the Seed: Reflections on the Development of Consciousness

shorturl.at/xGIR9     La Inteligencia de Sanación: El Espíritu en Psicoterapia

Website:                    https://www.alanmulhern.com/

The fault lines of the world economy are explained and these are the fractures that are opening in the Great Global Depression we are now entering. These existed before the Corona Virus which is the detonator of the inflated global economic and financial structure. The virus is serious enough but the origins of the multiple crises that are upon us were not caused by Covid 19. A virus feeds and grows upon the weakness of the host.

This episode explores the demonic in our species. I don’t believe that the human race is principally or only demonic rather that humans are divided into opposites of light and dark. The dark has the demonic as one of its possibilities while the light is that which seeks healing, growth, and which transcends the realm of the ego and its selfish, animal desires and obsessions, and embraces life itself, the good. Humans are split between these two positions which are intimately linked.

This drama is currently being played out in our economic and political systems which are also possessed by these forces. 

Such a conflict of opposites comes into focus in every age of crisis and, like the crises of past ages, ours too may re-birth a spiritual vision, if it confronts its darkness and embraces a new vision, the light. For this it needs not only sound argument and science, but a spiritual and moral vision and experience from the depths of the psyche. It needs to have its vision renewed, to have the doors of perception cleansed. In other words this is the crisis of the 21st century – that we are possessed by forces we can call demonic which are driving to destruction. It is not enough that we just see our shadow, and know our darkness, it is necessary to seek the light which gives birth to new vision - - the rebirth. Out of the spiritual crisis, only when fully experienced, can there be a rebirth of the current age. All the evidence however points to the great difficulty of human beings voluntarily doing this, so I consider, that it will only be via the hard path, that of trauma and suffering, that this may occur.

The world's leaders, both in the political and economic spheres, have failed in any preparation for this curent health crisis which is morphing into a Great Global Depression which will utterly change our political and social landscape. Previous declarations of the Quest Series concerning the multiple crises that are to unfold in the 21st century - the horeseman of the apocalyse and the like - might have been thought of as hyperbole. I think that view may now well be changing.

This present crisis is of the greatest seriousness but transformation is just possible. The human race must pass through deep trauma and then a chance might emerge. The potential transformation will necessarily have deep spiritual elements informing it throughout, and reason and science should be subordinate to that vision. There is no guarantee of the outcome of this process. There is no inevitable happy ending. The human race has no guardian angels or gods that necessarily see them through this. It does however have immense help if visionary material is accessed. Once the spiritual eye is opened then transformation is possible, a renewed personal and world vision may occur. There is a narrow door of opportunity. The Quest is committed to that possibility. The difficult journey, the descent, has to be undertaken so this opportunity arises. No matter how dark the vision is at times it is the light of the transformation possibility that is the raison d’etre of the Quest Series.

We further examine the evolving crises of our times and argue that a renewed spiritual and moral vision fit-for-purpose in the 21st century is urgently required. 

This is our moment of Truth. This is what the evolution of life and consciousness on this planet have led to after billions of years. Unless we meet it with the Truth we face the exit door.

Our species is sleepwalking to the edge of a precipice. Awaken

I do not believe there is any easy escape from the multiple crises that are now unfolding and anyway if by some miracle we returned to business as usual we would only move onto another crisis of greater magnitude. That is the evidence of our history and certainly our economic system. However I am a psychotherapist and someone deeply respectful of the world's spiritual traditions and it is a common observation that individuals change most when they can face their traumas fully and honestly and harness the energies to effect fundamental change. The same applies to the collective in this series of crises that are unfolding. By facing not only our own shadow and self-made traumas, but also those traumas we have inflicted on others, the earth, animals of all descriptions – the trauma and killing we have inflicted on this incredibly beautiful and miraculous life that we have been so privileged to have been given, only by facing this, acknowledging it, feeling it, can we begin the process of change. However, the likelihood of extreme, radical parties taking over in the near future is very high since the poltical centre that we have known will disappear as the crisis mounts.

.

 "And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself—

Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve,

And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act 4 Sc1.

Christ has a changing image over time. The first is that of holy man, the curer of the sick, an exorcist of devils, the worker of miracles, and he who demonstrates the soul. This second image rapidly moves to that of a prophet, as in the line of Old Testament prophets – an elevation of his status. The third image is an even greater elevation to that of the chief prophet, the messiah himself, the anointed one, from the house of David who is still a human being, but has come to rebuild the temple and bring the Jewish religious authorities and the Jewish people back to their true god. This image and role is both religious and political. So far we are in the Jewish traditions. The fourth image steps outside of this Jewish framework and the Christian writers of the Gospels elevate Jesus to the son of the Father, the son of god, and the route to the father who is heaven. By now the Christians have their eye on the lands outside of Judea, and their mission is  to the peoples of the Roman empire and perhaps even beyond. A universalist vision is to take hold of Christianity.  But this comes next in our story.

There is also an introduction to the next podcast in two weeks time, March 21 2020 - the emerging economic and financial crisis of our time. 

Reference: Tanakh - The Hebrew Bible - Ketuvim - Scriptures - Psalm 22

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16243/jewish/Chapter-22.htm

References from Gospels using Psalm 22:

Verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", is quoted in Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46[16]

Verse 7, "They hurl insults, shaking their heads", is quoted in Mark 15:29; Matthew 27:39[16]

Verse 8, "He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him", is quoted in Matthew 27:43[16]

Verse 18, "They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment", is quoted in Mark 15:24; Matthew 27:35; Luke 23:34; John 19:24[16]

The Archetypal Core and the Historical Conjuncture are presented as our underlying methodology. The resurrection story is explored as a myth, that is, an archetype flowing from the core and manifesting in a particular historical epoch. Those who lived out the myth, the apostles for example, tended to experience it though the historical lens they were given but nevertheless experienced the core sufficiently to transform history.

The gospel of Thomas the Gnostic says:

And his disciples said to him, "Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it."

He said to them, "Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness."

Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like."

Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger."

Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher."

Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like."

Jesus said​, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring that I have tended."

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you"

The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas