What’s a planning horizon and how far does it extend? In geographical terms horizon is determined by the landscape. I’ve been in places in my life where the planning horizon narrowed to the next day. Currently I’m finding myself with a horizon that extends farther than I’m used to. This month I send in my application to the Jung Institute of New York and hopefully I’ll be accepted into their training program this fall.
The journey, if the doors keep opening, will take four years, maybe five. And considering that vista I’m recognizing three guiding words for my path:
Alchemy:
The process of investigating the psyche, of wrestling with self, the activity of transformation.
Juice:
Slang for electricity, I’m thinking psychic energy, libido.
Ladle:
A tool for drawing out and distributing the contents.
What’s the scope of your planning horizon and what three guiding words map it for you?
It’s been too cold to paint outdoors for most of the winter, but temperatures got to near the freezing mark last week and Judith was able to bundle up and paint this image of a neighbor’s barn.
The snow making its way down off the roof and the sense of the hay emerging in the foreground capture the seasonal thaw.
On some blogs comment feeds take on the character of applause. The assembled audience feels compelled to relate their approval. On a different type of blog, comment feeds develop into fierce opposition and contention. I feel blessed by the quality of contributions everyone makes here. Once and a while I hit upon something in my writing that results in achieving one of my primary goals for comments: providing an opening for original thinking on the topic by others to manifest. Much of my own development occurs by responding to what all of you share.
The post A memory before it happens had this effect. Jennifer Hill Robenalt offered this interesting response to one of the primary questions in that post. For me it clarified a great deal on the topic and I wanted to make sure you all were aware of it.
I’ve been thinking about intuition a lot recently and you specifically asked the question regarding how society might help foster healthy and useful intuition. I think we can take a cue from young children who have not been socialized to edit, shut down and not react to naturally intuitive processes which inherently lack social judgement, i.e. I really should or shouldn’t do or say “xyz” because…” A child’s natural state is to be receptive, emotional, inquisitive, joyful, creative and quickly moving from one interest or process to another… they live in a very intuitive state. And if they are fortunate enough receive guidance and modeling from adults who value this inner voice, then all the better. I think I am beginning to understand the value of self-directed studies and allowing people to move consciously and naturally into experiences that are driven by living intuitively.
What about you? How important are self directed studies to your intuitive development. I know it’s how I approach what I do here…
Language can be so tricky because words are in many ways pointers, and often we use the same word to point to very different realities. The word dream is a case in point. It can refer to the experience you had last night sleeping or to the ideal scenario you would like to see unfold in your life. Neither usage is wrong, and with a little probing, the usage of dream seldom leads to confusion.
The word feeling is not so simple. What are you feeling?
As of late I’ve been posting on the psychological functions of the ego, those tools that help us navigate our conscious lives. One of these four tools is “feeling.” To get a grasp of what this might mean it is essential to discriminate the function called feeling from the emotions.
For emotions it helps me to think of a definition I seldom see these days, but which highlights the relationship of the emotions to the instincts: namely, the passions. Our emotional life tends to happen to us. We certainly feel our anger, our joy, our resentment, our sorrow.
The feeling function is not the experience of our emotions (again, this is Jung’s psychological topography I’m charting). Instead, this tool of the ego is that manner of engagement with the world that makes value judgments. I feel she is trustworthy, I feel that painting is a masterpiece while that one is not. In it’s highest forms of development it’s quite sublime: empathy.
The challenge now appears. Once we arrive at empathy, we have found compassion, and of course love. And it as if the serpent is biting it own tail. We all recognize the emotional quality of falling in love. Perhaps the best I can offer is that the emotions operate autonomously of the ego, which must contend with them. The feeling function is one way the ego engages the world.
All this reminds me a lesson a teacher once shared: The problem with sharing knowledge about spiritual realities is simple. When your out walking your dog and you see something across the field, you quickly point it out to him. One’s ineptitude becomes clear as your dog intently stares at your finger.
Connecting in different ways
Tools of the Trade
The Colored Eggs
Resonance