MEMOIR LOGO CONCEPT: The aleph and a Sufi mystic inspired my creation and design of the syzygy logo, which I initially based on the symbolism of the yin and yang.
But the concept expanded when I first saw the aleph in Judith Cornell’s
Mandala Healing Kit, My inexplicable attraction to it led me to incorporate it into my logo before I knew what it meant.
I later read that the “Aleph (the first letter of the sacred Hebrew alphabet) embodies the primordial, divine potential of the universe. ... Aleph contains all the universe’s potential and all of its emptiness simultaneously. Aleph represents a dynamic process of movement from unity to diversity and back to unity,” Jennifer Judelsohn, Songs of Creation.
And the mystic poet Rumi inspired me to use the fire and water concept after I read The Question. Here is an excerpt:
“The presence is there in front of me. A fire on the left, a lovely stream on the right.
One group walks toward the fire, into the fire. Another toward the sweet flowing water.
No one knows which are blessed and which are not.
Whoever walks into the fire appears suddenly in the stream.
A head goes under water, and that head pokes out of the fire.”
LOGO ART: Cropped fire and water images from Free Images.
LOTUS LOGO: In spiritual and religious literature, “the lotus is a symbol for the macrocosm and the microcosm, the universe and man. The lotus represents the divinity of the cosmos as well as the divinity of man.
The lotus is the center of the infinite, omnipresent consciousness which connects with the consciousness of the universe. Through the intuition, one of man’s divine gifts, the spiritual student can see the infinite, omnipresent consciousness as the lotus flower within himself.”
LOTUS ART: Courtesy
Homestead, my website service provider. (Temporary art while I design of my own lotus logo.)
TO DOWNLOAD FREE SAMPLE CHAPTER OF SYZYGY:
THE MEMOIR
TO BUY MEMOIR
(Thru Amazon)
THE MEMOIR
CROSSING THE BRIDGE TO SELF
THE WEBSITE
THE MEMOIR
NEW!
© 1955–2019 Syzygy: Crossing the Bridge to Self. All Rights Reserved.
When we first see ourselves through the mirror of another, we may feel embarrassed. But once we are aware of the projection, we can pull it back, claim it as our own, accept it. But don’t beat ourselves up about it.
Jung said, “We cannot change anything unless we accept it. Condemnation does not liberate. It oppresses. And I am the oppressor of the person I condemn—not his friend and fellow sufferer.”
To help identify and accept Shadow aspects, we can trace the history of this repressed matter in our lives and seek ways to integrate and honor the parts of ourselves that we once banished. See Shadow Work on this website for an example of this process. This process begins the healing of a psyche on an individual level, which will help to mend the psyche of all humankind, thus, heal within, heal the world. And ultimately—as was Jung’s life-long objective—“help men and women to know themselves, so that by self-knowledge and thoughtful self-use they could lead full, rich, and happy lives.” ♂ ♀
Memoir, website: “Heal within, heal the world”
Replace “child” with “world,” and Jung’s quote echoes Gandhi, “You must be the change you want to see in the world,” and Wayne Dyer, “Change the way you look at things and the things you look at change,” each suggesting healing begins within.
Healing the psyche in the Jungian sense is not about improving or repressing behaviors you dislike. It’s more like defragging your mental hard drive, recovering and reorganizing and reintegrating the lost parts of yourself that have been split off from your consciousness or damaged, that is, wounded or rejected or abandoned, not to cure yourself, but to optimize your capacity to realize your full potential.
Jung theorized that human suffering in general stems from this fragmented state, in which the conscious ego
is completely unaware of its outward expression of fears and desires and insecurities, which often stem from forgotten traumatic experiences; characteristics of themselves that they dislike; memories they found too difficult to cope with; and/or latent aspirations that others may have inhibited or ridiculed or even forbidden. All of these denied aspects in our psyches collect in what Jung called the Shadow.
Jung found that when we repress these fears and desires in the Shadow, they manifest themselves outwardly in various mental disorders and behaviors we are often completely unaware of. But if we can identify and integrate these traits with the conscious personality in a safe environment, we can integrate these fragments and restore our sense of wholeness.
Identifying these unconscious aspects is the first step in a process of integration—a process Jung called “individuation.” But how are we to bring to consciousness something we do not even know exists?Jung said our first clue is to identify a trait in another that bugs us. He said rather than claim these undesirable characteristics as our own, we likely projected them onto others. If you find yourself emotionally charged over an apparent flaw in someone else, chances are, if you look honestly at yourself, you will see that the other person is merely reflecting your own flaw, that is, the repressed material in your own Shadow. “Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people,” Jung said.
“And I think this is the most important thing in Jung: To the degree that you condemn others, and find evil in others, you are to that degree unconscious of the same thing in yourself—or at least to the potentiality of it.”
Alan Wilson Watts
