About this clown

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I often feel that we're all spinning slowly... like a mirror ball. Yes, we are all mirrors to each other. And so, it is the Light between us that I hope to help reveal and celebrate. /// J'ai souvent l'impression que nous sommes une boule disco qui tourne lentement. Nous sommes tous des miroirs pour les uns les autres. C'est donc la lumière qu'il y a entre nous que j'espère contribuer à souligner et à célébrer.

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Robin Williams and the Archetypes

Here is a post from Clarissa Pinkola Estés (oringally posted on Aug.11, 2014), Jungian psychologist and author of the famous book ''Women dancing with wolves''. I don't remember whether I ended up publishing it or not, but I recently wrote about the Puer Aetarnus in another post. The following article by Dr. Pinkola Estés goes into this concept, as well as a handful of other archetypes.

 Rest in Peace Mr. Williams. You will forever touch our hearts and souls. I pray that we may keep growing whole, thanks to the journey you so passionately went through, and the emotional gifts you carried and so generously shared with us. Bless.

_______
From The Moderate Voice, August 11, 2014.
 (All rights reserved to TMV)

 Robin Williams is Gone, Aye! Long Live the Fisher King


11-04    Robin Williams, was not only a consummate actor and tour de force comedian. He appeared to also be a lovable Puer Aeternus, an eternal boy; and also a Pater Familias, a father not only to his own but to many many young persons pursuing comedy careers.
He was also a Lover — of life, so so deeply and so sensitively. His role in Fisher King* was hardly an act, regarding his character’s so easily written upon self, his character’s deep heartbreak for himself and for the world of souls on earth whom he felt had lost their tie to Spirit in all Things.
Robin was also a Mystical King, a person who channeled so many different strains and veins of characterization– and with energy and with ace-accuracy.
He showed in the signalings from his vessel over the decades, such bravery and also, at times, of his vessel being in distress. Anyone with the eyes to see… any with the ears to hear… As the song goes, “Vincent [van Gogh]… The world was not made for one as beautiful as you.”
One could see both the tremendous timbre of Williams, as well as what I would gently and lovingly call, ‘his efforts to constantly be bringing back treasure from the wreck.’
Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist, speculated that within masculine psychology are at least four central archetypes… that is, ideas that are enormous in instinct and appetite, pushing a person to great positive ideals but also, sometimes, into ideas darker.
The archetypes are sometimes parsed as these…
Puer, meaning eternal boy…positive in the masculine sense of energy, imagination, inquiry, exploration, ever highly excited about new and interesting possibilities. But also a person thusly configured can fall into the negative aspects of such. That is, [in the Peter Pan trope] unreliability, refusal to ‘grow up’, trying to charm others for not keeping commitments, meet responsibilities. There may be inability to evaluate and in a timely manner tend to critical matters of others and regarding self, because one might be off chasing ‘the next rainbow. That is, whatever most gives energy to an often underlying depression regarding the ‘senselessness of a too tame world.”
Thus the puer in extremis can be swamped by serious addictions that initially calm or give energy, yet leave the person debilitated immediately or over time. The secondary injuries [from addiction] to bodily functions can also add to the devastation of what was initially meant only to have meaning and ‘feel good.’
The middle way is to, just as one for instance, to choose carefully by roots and not just wings whatever one will pursue; to develop a ‘quiet craft’ of the hands and mind, to work evenly, while choosing excitements that build useful things, that bring bursts of life without mayhem and melancholy to the person and to those all around.
Pater, meaning being invested in being a father to love and protect in its positive aspect, but if allowed to tilt too far over into trying to create ‘perfect beings’ in children and colleagues– or in self– then to dominate and destroy in its negative aspect.
In the extremes, think of ‘Father Knows Best’, then think of “The Great Santini”. In the middle way, think of a father learning as he goes, but drawing on time tested good ways from the past, correcting for over or under-doing in love, and creating what needs to be done for the sake of loving others and self, helping to develop self and others in the present and future.
Lover… some have attempted to reduce this archetype to sexual sensations only, but it encompasses far more. It means to enter an alternative state of consciousness that is very real and nourishing of one’s energy, to see the worlds that merge between physicality and the psychic. Jung put it this way; that place in the psychoid unconscious where physicality and the soul are the same thing.
Think of who Lancelot and Arthur cherished. Think of the latters’ foibles in taking up some of the common negatives of the Lover archetype, re ‘taking for granted’ the great treasure, or in attempting to usurp physically the soul of another who’s elemental configuration is far more than physical only. As a positive, think of Philemon of Greek mythos, who like Merlin was said to have lived backward [with Philemon's it was with his lifelong mate Baucis] from the future, and in so doing, whomsoever he loved, [ Baucis who cherished Philemon in return] had the larger overview of what could be, and that love flowed through his loving Baucis, like a river flowing through a beautiful spillway of his lover, to include the mountain, the forest, the mint leaves, the harvest, the animals, the day to day crafts, and all else.
The Lover balanced is one who often may also have appetite for loving the unloved, including oneself. And for returning time and again to just ‘being with’ in that space between all worlds with those one loves, with earth and ideas and creatures and all life that one is devoted to.
King who can walk in two worlds, the mystical King: this appetite/influence/urge to develop a legacy, to create a kingdom in which there are like-kind who can thrive, interested followers/subjects, creative ways of building a world in most positive sense both spiritually and concretely, benevolent, without harms to others. Creating within and without, a golden ideal that holds ideas of the visible and also the not visible, but palpably felt influences of spirit and heart and soul… and doing what one can to administer these, enable these, follow this panorama of a great Self oneself –and to help others follow the best and life-granting radiant ideas.
In its negative sense: mayhem. Torments meted out, disregard for those vulnerable and for the tenuous human condition, ‘wrapping oneself in all the bullion’, killing off the talented, taking unto one’s inner circle the most diseased of minds and greedy minds. Think of the fictional Hannibal Lector. The most chilling combination throughout ancient and modern mythos: intelligent, psychic and… evil. Think of Zeus, the chief God/King of Olympus who could build and manage a pantheon, but often abused and harmed both Gods and mortals including his own son, Haephaesus. Think of ancient and modern tyrants and politicians. But then in a balanced sense, think of leaders of families and towns and states and nations who are evenhanded, who do-over what is failing the people, who listen and who within their powers attempt to make better for all.
Robin Williams. Robin seemed in his chosen roles and in his comedy routines and in his actual private life… understood at some level, was rocked and washed, half drowned and yet surfaced topside, in all these. He is what we call “a Sensitive.” Easily written upon, easily drowned, easily bobbing back up again time and again. Time and again.
Until today.
As the rest of the story comes in about Robin’s death, we’ll know, perhaps, the least important about him, how he died.
But the most important will be who he really was– complicated, easy as butter under a hot knife, intrepid, gifted, so so very gifted in all the archetypal energy swirling about his life as fire. He learned for 63 years of his life how to be ‘the fire handler.’ That is where I would praise him, for what he has managed to do for six+ decades; handle fire, while being made of parchment.
May Robin’s loving family be comforted and know that the angels are walking with them in many forms.
Resquiat in pacem Robin, Rest in Perpetual Peace… and May You Live Forever.
Fly on dear soul, fly onward. Whatever was once paper, is now winged and strong sinew and bone.
____________
*The Fisher King is the wounded king in mythos who is next in line to preserve and shelter the Holy Grail– which stands for the idea of eternal life, and resurrection from the dire, and resurrection from the dead. The wound in various of the mythos can be too much or too little of something physical, psychological, bodily or spiritually.
Nonetheless, the wounded king rises to protect what is most precious, even while injured, perhaps even because, not despite, his injury: He knows what cannot be allowed to vanish from this earth– nor from the minds of human beings with souls. He moves to show this, protect this, preserve this for all souls.

Friday, August 8, 2014

Being and doing (Doo-be-do, bee-do)


I get back to work in one week.

It's the end of the summer; and what a summer.
From one angle: Swaying between being and doing... What to do? What to make? What to buy? And why not just... slow down and stop!?

Because stopping kinda makes me dizzy. 'Cuz as Hiroko Tamano (Subterrean Arthouse, Berkeley) says: ''When you stop, then you start moving at a thousand miles per hour.''
And Google agrees with teacher Tamano:
''The earth rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09053 seconds, called the sidereal period, and its circumference is roughly 40,075 kilometers. Thus, the surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460 meters per second--or roughly 1,000 miles per hour.''   -Google
“Stop acting so small. You are the universe in ecstatic motion.”
Rumi

Complete liberty! (which is different than absolute freedom, by the way.)  
A whole lot of free time! (At least as long as I have money in the bank.)
As I anticipated, I've felt it somewhat compulsory to ''furnish'' the time-space I live in. I really wanted to do nothing. But I guess the mind did not quite surrender so easily. I guess I can't handle an empty room; there's always writing on the walls. That's what happens when you get a taste of mindfulness: the mind is so full!

I seek balance between doing and being. I take care of small actions that need to be done, like taking out the compost bin or trimming and watering the tomato plants. I dance a lot and I juggle; I so need to move the energy through my body. I haven't learned to contain the impressions the world make on me; I need to find appropriate ways to ex-press them. And when I stop moving my body, it's my thoughts that keep running. Observing the chatter in your mind will make you dizzy. Finding that you're quite powerless when you want to make it stop, that's a lesson in humility. Recognizing that trying to control or fight the stream actually gives the chattering mind even more power, that could lead to revolution.

...

Stopping to face a pregnant void. A distorted time-space of some sort. A plane of immanence. Matrix of potentialities, in which all things get revealed. And many demand to be made into manifestation; to be manifested.

(It's is a beautiful word;
man·i·fes·ta·tionˌ manəfəˈstāSHən,
noun
Event, action, or object that clearly shows or embodies something, especially a theory or an abstract idea.
"the first obvious manifestations of global warming"
  • the action or fact of showing an abstract idea. "the manifestation of anxiety over the upcoming exams"


  • a symptom or sign of an ailment. "a characteristic manifestation of Lyme disease"


''And I think to myself''... 'Am I manifesting anything'? What am I really doing with the time given me? Or should I ask myself about what I should be doing? What? No! The teachers have told us, 'There are no more shoulds', at least not in this case.
I should be doin' just what I'm doin' right now, conversing with my heart, grounded in cyberspace, spinning a thousand miles, per minute.
Just that. Living a blessed life. Doing what I love.



I'm sorry, I didn't get the credits for these three images. I give all credits to their authors et cetera.


“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.”
Rumi

“silence is the language of god,
all else is poor translation.”
Rumi

Monday, August 4, 2014

Get it while you can

''Get it while you can'' might be one of my favorite songs ever.
This woman here, playing a cover, is quite excellent.



And let's remember the original.