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Fascism and totalitarianism are rapidly rising today, as people demand more and more personal safety and security from the state, and governments are only to willing to oblige. 

Many people today feel unstable, unsafe and insecure, they feel lonely and isolated and are desperate for someone or something to believe in, someone to take care of them. This is how an infant feels when cut off from the external source of life, when it feels separated from its mother, The Breach of the “We”. Childhood trauma produces the feelings of isolation, loneliness, and insecurity, and the infant seeks desperately to fill the inner void, created by a sense of detachment. In desperation the ego steps in and tries to repress these uncomfortable feelings and forms external attachments as a form of substitution. The infant becomes attached to its blanket or teddy bear, seeking comfort and solace wherever it can find it, in the external environment. These repressed feelings of isolation, loneliness, fear, insecurity, abandonment and vulnerability form the Core Constellation of feelings for many of us, they are deeply repressed into the unconscious so we are not consciously aware of them but they are there and seeking expression. 

Feeling vulnerable and alone we search desperately for external forms of belonging, approval, attachment and security. We develop a sense of personal powerlessness and look to others for safety and security, and this is the basis of governance. We want our mother to return and nurture and take care of us, we want the safety and security we knew in the womb.  

The Breach of the “We” is the loss of Unity, a disconnection from the inner life, we become disconnected from our True Self and the Life Force, the Spirit within. We have lost our foundation our inner structure and a connection to anything meaningful. Cut off from the Spirit the inner life fades and we live a life of pure extroversion. 

Our Spiritual Bankruptcy leads to all forms of deviance, we turn to alcohol, drugs, money, sex, power, and war anything to fill the inner void. 

There is a Spiritual Maxim “As within, so without”. Our inner condition and all that is repressed into the unconscious ends up being projected unto our external world. The external world is conformed to our inner state. Inwardly we are bankrupt and so is the world. Inwardly we are driven by fear and are shame based, and we live in a terrifying shameless world. We compensate for the lack of inner structure by demanding external structures like the church and the corporate state and its military for our security. Our inner chaos makes ever increasing demands for more law and order. Our inner unattached free floating fear needs an external source of attachment and so we create our enemies. Our enemies are to blame, we can fixate on “them”, “they” are to blame for all that is wrong in the world. We need stronger government and even a war to vanquish our enemies and then all will be well. The American dream was created by violence, slavery and genocide, and violence, slavery and genocide are how it must be restored and maintained. America is a deeply traumatized nation, that projects its trauma unto everyone else. 

Fascism is on the rise and will take over in the west very soon. Climate and economic chaos will increase civil unrest in the coming years and the militarized police will conduct urban warfare against its own subjects to serve and protect the rich. 

Man is a Spirit who has lost his way. His inner Spiritual Bankruptcy has created nothing but fear and chaos within, which then materializes in the external realm. Therefore we must begin the healing journey within and reconnect with our Spiritual Life and the True source of life within. Our inner life must be based on a secure foundation, rooted and grounded on the source of Life and Love within. Once we achieve this inner connection to the source of all life, we will feel at one with the world and each other, peace and stability will be restored and the need for all forms of external governance will disappear, because we will be governed by the Spiritual laws of Love and Compassion. Man’s laws destroy life and the Spirit. God’s laws of Love, Compassion and self-sacrifice create the true life, the life in the Spirit, and Bliss Consciousness. If we elevate our state of consciousness we change the world. If we bring into consciousness all that is repressed into our unconscious mind we stop projecting it into the world and as we become whole, so does our world. The only true religion is the inner way, a personal religion led by the Spirit within, a life lived by following God’s Laws of Love, Compassion and forgiveness for all. 

We are living in angry times.

All of us experience anger, it seems a normal human response to certain negative situations we find ourselves in. But notice that the word mad is often substituted for the word anger, and perhaps anger is a form of madness. It’s not so much the fact that we experience anger that complicates our life but how we act on those feelings is what matters. Anger can be acted upon destructively or it can be used on the path to individuation.  

Anger is a complex emotion, a complex constellation of feelings, grounded in fear. Anger results from a series of cognitive distortions and can be considered a thought disorder. Anger is always a response to internal or external stimulus, that activates a conditioned response. The emotion of anger can not exist without its accompanying thoughts. Anger is totally dependent on thoughts, thoughts that generate feelings. These feelings generate more thoughts that tend to amplify or inflame the angry emotion. Therefore anger truly is a thought disorder, and as a result should be amenable to more rational thought. 

When experiencing angry thoughts it might be helpful to consider the true source of our anger. Anger is a response to some perceived threat or injury that affects  ones sense of self. In other words ones ego perceives a threat or an injury to itself. Ones pride, self-esteem, ambition, financial security, or relationship security is threatened or injured. 

Imagine a scene like one seen on TV, imagine a psychotic killer is holding a gun to your head with every intention of ending your life, when in bursts the hero and saves you from certain death. Would you feel angry or would you be overwhelmed with relief?  I think most people would be overwhelmed with relief and even experience a deep sense of gratitude for just being alive. So when your life is threatened and you miraculously survive you feel relief, but if someone cuts you off in traffic you feel angry. Anger is a luxurious emotion for those that are still alive. So often in life it’s the little things that drive us mad. 

Anger is a fear based emotion a twisted form of Pride, some aspect of our egoic, false-self is threatened or injured. If we take a step back, away from our ego and observe it from the outside, we can get a whole new perspective on the situation responsible for the egos anger and see that the anger is not our own. The ego is angry and upset but I am not. I can see that the ego is injured but I am not. I am not my ego, the ego is apart of me, and my ego is often mad and easily upset. The more I identify with my ego, the more unhappy I become. If I am an angry man it is because I am over identified and attached to my ego, and oh how petty my ego can be. So the next time someone cuts you off in traffic be grateful, it proves your alive!

Always embrace your anger, don’t repress it, feel it fully but don’t act on it externally. Act internally instead. Anger can be used to explore core values, beliefs and the emotional responses learned in childhood. I said earlier that anger flowed from a conditioned response, these conditioned response were programmed into the unconscious in early childhood, and are an infantile response to childhood trauma.

Let’s say I am angry because I’ve been insulted by someone. That affects my feelings of pride and my self-esteem. My pride and self-esteem have been injured. Now all I have to do is walk back through time and look at all the times I have felt this way. If I can work my way back to early childhood I can discover the origins of my anger and conditioned response to it. I can see what values and beliefs I attached to my trauma as a child and better yet I can challenge their validity. 

When I was a child and my parents insulted me, it hurt me deeply because a part of me felt what they were saying was true. If my parent said “stop being stupid” apart of me felt I was stupid and that belief hurt me, that belief injured my pride and self-esteem. I felt worth-less, I felt Shame. Shame always causes separation, the Breach of The We.   I became Shame based, and now whenever anyone Shames me, or makes me feel worth-less (Raca) I experience shame, hurt and fear, and my response is to throw a temper tantrum just like when I was a child. A child who believed his parents were right, when they were wrong. 

In Alcoholics Anonymous to which I owe much gratitude, they saved my life. They have a saying:

“It is a spiritual axiom (truth) that whenever I am upset there is something wrong with me” (AA Twelve Steps and Traditions:pg 90) 

This saying has proven in my life always to be true. When I am upset it is because I am over identifying with my petty little ego and not my True-Self. 

If I truly want to be happy joyous and free I must set my ego aside and live the True Life out of my Authentic Self. 

This is the question all men ask. It is so hard to understand for a man so familiar with the material realm, that a realm exists beyond the human intellect. God exists beyond space and time. There was no beginning  and there is no end. There is no space and there is no time, they are part of the physical realm, the realm of creation and that which is created.  God came from nowhere, because there is no where and there is no when. There is just the eternal moment, here and now. That’s where God is, He is Here, He is Now. There is no past there is no future the eternal moment is now. It is a state of consciousness beyond creation. It can never be known, for it is unknowable to the intellect, but it can be experienced and felt, when the self disappears, and I am no longer I but I Am Him. 

God is a Spirit, a Spirit does not occupy space nor is it bound by time. God is Spirit, God is Divine Consciousness from which Creation flowed and time and space began to facilitate creation. Space and time belong to the realm of the created, they are from the Creator but separate from Him, for He is Beyond them. The Spiritual realm is the realm of the uncreated, the realm of the not yet born, where there is no birth there can be no death. The life force within you, that which animates the flesh is the life force flowing from God into you. That life force is your Spirit and it is who you were meant to be.  We are meant to experience life in the Spirit and experience creation from it. We were never meant to be apart of Creation. We were meant to ”Be” in the world but not of it. We were meant to remain non-attached. Free of ambition, want and desire. 

All infants suffer some form of the “Breach of the We” in varying degree, and as a result of this separating experience we all form an “I “ with which we identify. This independent “I” is created by the ego, the great deceiver, and we are deceived into the realm of illusion. The infant has lost its sense of belonging, feels vulnerable and alone and desperately seeks comfort in what can be seen and is lured into the material realm, the realm of illusion, the realm of suffering and death. 

We must abandon the realm of the familiar for that which is unknown, unknown and unknowable by the ego and its intellect, but Heartfelt by the Spirit within. 

There is no physical carnal resurrection, no life after death for the individual, individuated man whose god is individualism, power and wealth. The only resurrection is to be found in rising above this earthly life, by renouncing it and living your life in God and expressing His will. Eternal life is only achieved in Unity with God, achieved through the sacrifice of the self. One must give up, loose his worldly life and live in God, and express His Will, to have eternal life. There can be no other life than the life lived in God. All else is an illusion, and will pass away. The true life is the life of the Spirit, not the life of the flesh. God is The Spirit, and so are you!  Again I implore you, choose Life over death. Live your life in the Spirit, as the Son of God, loose your worldly life for the sake of Gods Kingdom Within. While living in the world do as God does, Be Loving, Compassionate and Wise. Resist not evil, do not judge, do not condemn nor punish, but forgive every man his sins, as God has forgiven you. Love your neighbors, love your enemy, love those that use and abuse you, love those that persecute you. Do good to all people, be a servant to all and thereby serve God. Love the Son Of God, who resides in all men, and become aware you are One with them. That is why it is easy for me to say Love your enemies, we are all one in God, United in Love and Compassion for all, with Him. God’s Word is Love and Compassion, that is the basis of His Creation, and that is His Will, We must Love and obey, to become heirs to the Kingdom Within. 

A predicament is a difficult and usually embarrassing situation from which there is no easy way out, a catch 22, damned if you do and damned if you don’t . 

We often hear a lot of “if only” or conditional statements, when predicaments are faced(Stage 4 Grief). 

Examples would be, “ if only I’d quit smoking ten years ago, when I was warned, I wouldn’t have stage four cancer now”. Or if only we’d listened to the warnings about climate change twenty years ago, we wouldn’t be facing extinction now”.  

Take the person who been given a terminal diagnosis of lung cancer, the doctor warned them twenty years ago they had to quit smoking, and they didn’t listen. They still smoke two packs a day.  They are embarrassed, “if only” they had listened to the doctor twenty years ago, they wouldn’t be dying now. They wonder if they should quit smoking now, well they’re damned if they do and damned if they don’t, and that’s the predicament. There are no easy answers, nothing they do now seems to provide a solution, they are going to die, smoking or not. What are they supposed to do?

Stage four grief is where we can really get stuck in the predicament, we have a terminal diagnosis, it seems there is no way out, what are we supposed to do now?  

In comes the ego, rushing to our rescue, its tactics are distraction, diversion and displacement, three well know psychological defense mechanisms. The ego says “there must be a way out, we need to do more research”, and off we go, burying ourselves in tons of research, avoiding the painful emotions of grief. As long as we keep our mind busy we avoid dealing with our emotional pain. 

Climate change is a like a cancer, its eating away at our life, we are in a predicament, there’s no easy way out, we had plenty of warning, which we chose to ignore, and now there seems no way out. If we stop burning fossil fuels today our entire economy will collapse, and we’ll all starve to death and anarchy and chaos will prevail. All,of our options are to painful to consider, there’s no easy way out. In steps the ego, “ we need more info”, and off we go reading and researching, avoiding our pain. We read every article, we follow the news, we keep our mind focused and we don’t feel our pain. 

Our emotional pain hasn’t really gone away, it’s been pressed down beneath the surface of consciousness, into the unconscious. Emotion must be understood as an e-motive force, an energy that motivates behavior, consciously or unconsciously. Repressed emotions always find a way out, but having been repressed they are often very distorted, and can be quite negative. Sudden seemingly unprovoked negative outbursts can occur, further compounding our predicament. 

If every waking moment of our life is preoccupied with dwelling on the predicament we shouldn’t be surprised if our sleep is disturbed. We are reading and researching, and keeping abreast of the news; there is so much information we are taking in, and much of it is emotionally laden as well. The result of all this is that our unconscious mind is working really hard as well. Unconscious emotion and unprocessed news are mixing together in our unconscious mind, and this won’t be good. Soon even our dream life becomes consumed with the predicament. We dream every night, whether we remember of not, house keeping dreams are normal, the subconscious mind is sorting and filing everything we’re taking in, feelings and facts have to be processed and dreams are a part of that process. However, if we are overloaded, unfiltered, unprocessed emotion slips into the unconscious, and now nightmares occur. The unconscious dreams are full of archetypal imagery, dragons and demons are often found here, and they can be quite terrifying, the landscapes in our nightmares can be apocalyptic in appearance, death and destruction abound. nightmares can be seen as an extreme formulation of the fears and feelings that we have been avoiding by our preoccupation with the news. The egoic defense strategies have repressed our pain, but now in our nightmares it’s breaking out. 

We truly are in a predicament, it seems no matter what we do we are going to die. And there it is, we are afraid to die. The unknown is terrifying, we have been given a terminal diagnosis, we are going to die. What does that look like?  What does it mean?  What’s going to happen to me?  Will it be painful, will it hurt?  Is there life after death? Is it really the end?  What’s going to happen?  I don’t understand?  Death, dying, decomposition, and decay it’s all so awful and it’s happening to me, and what’s going to happen to my family. 

By focusing and obsessing on the predicament we have repressed all these horrible questions and their accompanying terrifying feelings into the unconscious. No wonder we’re having nightmares, we are in one. It’s time to face the facts. That’s what the nightmare is trying to convey. 

Living in the solution means we have to address the real issue, death and dying, our impending mortality. 

We have to sit down and examine our beliefs about death, and how we really feel. We have to stop all distraction and personally deal with the biggest question of life, death. 

If there is a solution to our dilemma, this is where the answer will be found. What do I really believe and think about death, and what do I really feel?

While most people consider stage seven the end of the process, some aren’t satisfied with returning to the status quo, they want change, they do go back to work and get on with life but carrying on isn’t enough. 

Stage eight is where it can all come together and a new you can be born, or more correctly the original you is reborn. The real you, the untraumatized, uncompensated, unaltered you. So much good was repressed into the Shadow, along with the bad, we are amazed. Empathy, compassion, the willingness to understand, kindness, generosity, self-sacrifice, patience and tolerance, they were all buried in there. 

When you look at our society, The war and the violence, the disparity and despair, poverty, hunger, homelessness, and no one seems to care, you wonder what happened, how did we get here, how did we become so indifferent.  It never used to be this way. The American West was built by the barn building bee, community action, neighbor helping neighbors, the men built the barns while the women prep’d the food, and the children played nearby, it was a fun filled festive event. The same was true in old England where communities were interdepend. People needed each other to survive and took care of each other.  Then came the industrial revolution and the age of mass production, followed very quickly by the engineered age of mass consumption. The Century Of Self (watch the “Century of Self”, on youTube) was created and community destroyed. The age of mass deception was created as the advertising industry was born. Capitalism triumphed, and benefited a few, at the expense of the many, people like me and you. People were transformed into consumers by skilled psychologists who exploited their vulnerabilities and exploited their inner sense of shame. We honestly felt we were never enough. Propaganda replaced the news. An illusion was created, called the American Dream, “Prosperity for All” was the promise and we became deceived. We were duped into conformity, we wanted it all, but our kindness and caring stood in our way, and we soon learned they must be put away. Selfishness, self-centeredness, Self-seeking are the norms of today, a manufactured epidemic of narcissism exists, dissatisfaction and unhappiness, a sense of dis-ease makes us restless and irritable and so hard to please. 

Thank God this crisis, our impending doom has brought us to our knees.  Our suffering our mourning was meant to bring change, if we’ve allowed the grieving process to continue unimpeded to this final stage joy and happiness replace bitterness and rage. Yes we are dying, it was so hard to comprehend, but now we see life was a journey meant for our growth. Everything we’ve experienced was the pathway to peace, all that we’ve searched for was always inside, all we had to do was put anger and resentment aside, freeing us to deal with our pride. 

Early in childhood we had been traumatized, the ego convinced us we had been victimized. In the role of the victim we held unto our hurt, and it lasted a lifetime as we externalized blame, leaving us all, alone with our Shame. 

The infant really believed it was to blame for the “Breach of the We”. The “We” was replaced with the “I”, and the “I” felt all alone and vulnerable. The ego stepped in to fill the void, and began to manipulate everything to get our needs met. Trust was lost replaced with mistrust and our fears were intensified. Eventually fear and shame dominated our core and we began compensating more and more. Our true Self got buried as a fully contrived  other emerged and we were left feeling other’ed, never really belonging, and we kept on pretending just to fit in. If we were successful we gained the whole world and all it had cost us was the loss of our Soul. 

Thank God for this crisis, we finally woke up, we peeled back the layers one by one, as we worked through the process right back to our core and discovered our wounded child waiting for us. We realized our ego had always been wrong, we were always enough, an infantile ego had perceived an illusion, and this was the source of our lifelong delusion. 

All the mystics throughout the ages spoke of the Perennial Truth.  Socrates said the unexamined life isn’t worth living, and Jesus said “Know thyself, and the truth will set you free”. All along we had an inner sense that there was more to life than the way we had been living it, but there was no sense of urgency to bring about change. We had become habituated and tolerant of our suffering, and therefore indifferent to the suffering of others, we had hardened our hearts, unconsciously increasing our shame. This crisis, our impending doom struck with enough force to crack open our hearts and release all the pent up pain, and this was what was needed to bring about change. Leave your heart open, let it drain, don’t seal it up, all over again.  Leaving it open lets the light in and that is when compassion begins. 

Sitting in silence, embracing the pain, watch it dissolve slowly all on its own. After awhile it’s all emptied out, and we are left open and free to receive all the blessings of “Being”, just “Being”, nothing left to achieve. We are United, we have become One. No longer divided and “Knowing” Our-Self, we understand suffering and everyone else. 

Nobody moves through the stages of grief in a linear fashion, we tend to vacillate, or jump around a lot, and many get stuck in a particular stage along the way. Many get stuck at the denial stage, especially now with catastrophic climate change and its impending consequences. But many people reach stage seven and for most people this is as far as it goes. They’re back to work, getting on with life, almost normal. Bouts of sadness occur, but they’re coping ok. They’re moving on and getting on with life. 

However an emotional impairment remains, while capable of superficial emotional experience, deep and profound emotional experience eludes them. Two examples would be; firstly, deep laughter, the belly laugh, uncontrollable, unstoppable laughter that brings tears to the eye, and the second one heartfelt joy that again brings tears to the eyes and warms the heart. I would suggest that most people today have these emotional impairments as a result of unresolved grief resulting from emotional trauma. Failure to resolve Stage Seven and Eight will leave us emotionally guarded, leading to emotional impairment, that stops us from loving life and being really happy and joyful. Many people will ask, how can you be happy knowing your going to die?  Well humans have always known that, everybody dies sooner or later. If we’re going to die sooner all the more reason to enjoy today, while we still can. Guy McPherson says “Only Love remains”, isn’t love supposed to make us happy? 

During stage six we realized there were some disturbing aspects of ourselves. We had some dark emotions, thoughts and behaviors. We realized that we had this debating society in our heads that filled our minds with endless chatter, and we came face to face with our dark side, The Shadow, and for some of us it was very dark in deed. Our task is to unify, to bring together all these split off aspects of ourselves so that we can be happy and fulfilled. We really need to make friends with our Shadow, it is the path to liberation. 

There is another ancient story I’ll use to shed some light on our plight. It is an ancient archetypal story about going out to get back in. 

I’m sure most of you have heard the story of “The Prodigal Son”, it could have been called The Prodigal Daughter, the outcome would be the same. 

As the story goes there was a teenage boy, who approached his wealthy father and demanded his inheritance now, while he was young enough to enjoy it. The extremely wise father smiled and said ”of course”, what a wonderful idea. 

The Prodigal took his wealth and headed for town, and he partied endlessly. Wine, women and song, a completely hedonistic life for years till the money was all gone. He woke up desperate and alone, and he headed for home. His father got news that his son was returning, he was filled with compassion  and joy and ran off to meet his wayward son. He hugged him and embraced him when they met. The son apologized profusely, but the father waved it off, he was already preparing for the homecoming party, and he spared no expense. 

The elder brother witnessing this festival was shocked and dismayed. Full of righteous indignation he complained to his father. His father replied “son you’ve always been with me, all that I have has always been yours, but this is your brother, who was lost to me, but now has been found.” 

During stages six and seven many people realize that we are all the Prodigal sons and daughters. We have squandered our wealth pursuing the great American dream. We became intoxicated pursuing success, love, acceptance and belonging, or as the Buddha said addicted to Power, Property, Prestige and Pleasure. We squandered our inheritance pursuing in the city which was already ours at home. The father of compassion said, “all that I have has always been yours”. Stage six and seven are marked by this inner Soul searching, and many of us realize how intoxicating life in the fast lane can be. Driven by ambition, and the will to succeed, we never stop to ask “What do I really need?”  We shop till we drop, we’ve never enough, and we never ask why. How did we, and not just us, how did our species stray so far from home. 

This crisis has given us the opportunity, the excuse we need to question and explore the dark side of our life, and the dark side of humanity. The internal conflict we have experienced working through the stages of grief is reflected in the conflicts we see in our society. The dark side is considered evil by some, but this evil is simply composed of layer upon layer of unresolved trauma. We are all victims of trauma, and in our turn we all become participants in or perpetrators of trauma. Complacency is the enemy of good. 

So many of us have been the Prodigal sons and daughters while so many others are the self-righteous elder sibling. 

Kunkel would say the the Prodigal son is merely the Shadow, and the self-righteous indignant elder brother is the ego. 

But, isn’t it time we all became the compassionate parent. By understanding our dark side and being compassionate and forgiving of ourselves we can then be compassionate and forgiving of others. When we stop judging ourselves, we will stop judging others. If we explore our pain, make sense of our suffering we can stop reacting to it and compensating for it. We can make peace with our Shadow we can make peace with ourselves, and then by extension everyone else. Then and only then will Guy McPherson’s statement be true. “Only Love Remains”. But what is love?  A good definition of Love that we hear at a lot of weddings is:

1 Corinthians 13 (NIV)

13 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

We are through the worst of the crises now, we accept our loss. We have accepted the crisis as it is. We are no longer warring against the loss, we have accepted we cannot change yesterday’s news no matter how distressing. All we can do is change our response and try to give meaning and purpose to the crisis. 

This phase marks the end of the emotional chaos that has often raged in our head and ruled our days. The internal debate has ended, a consensus has been reached, the committee, exhausted by the heated debate has taken a vote. The result is split, three votes for and two against. But it has been decided, we have to accept the news and get on with life, no matter how difficult it might seem, is the committees decision. 

Now that the voices in our head have quieted we feel much calmer inside, less agitated, more at peace, we can sleep at night, we have stepped off the merry go round. 

But who are all these conflicting voices in our heads, that produce so much endless chatter? It seems we are always talking to ourselves, but who are we talking with? Welcome to Jung’s world of the archetypes. 

The archetypes are unincorporated, split off aspects of ourselves that live in our unconscious minds. They are the result of our personal and collective trauma. 

The list of archetypes is endless, due to their fluid, free floating nature but generally there are five we should look at and definitely integrate. 

In men the anima represents the mother figure and constitutes a part of a mans feminine side. You may have heard the men marry their mothers, and this is partially true. What really happens is men unconsciously project their mother unto a woman capable of carrying the projection and fall in love with the image created. 

The animus in women, represents the father, and shapes their masculine side. Again you have heard that women end up marrying men just like their father, but as in the case above they simply unconsciously project the father image unto a man that can wear the projection and fall in love with the image created. Projection plays a really unconscious but powerful role in our lives. Has your husband ever accused you of being just like his mother. That is what he sees in the projected image reflecting back at him. 

The trickster is another archetype of note, I love mine, he is so childlike and full of mischief. He has an amazing sense of humor and I can break out laughing at his internal antics. He is really colorful, the class clown. Being a male my trickster has masculine characteristics while in women it often appears as female, and oh, how scandalous she can be. My ego believes it has to keep a tight rain on this mischievous fellow or people might not take me seriously, and we can’t have that can we?

And lastly we have “THE SHADOW”, dark and looming large, the alter-ego, a threat to the throne. The shadow represents all the split off repressed aspects of ourselves that the ego declared as unacceptable to its survival strategy. 

Repression is always bad, its like dumping your garbage into a landfill, it eventually pollutes the ground water, and produces endless amounts of toxic waste. Well that’s what happens to us, the ego throws all the stuff it calls garbage into the unconscious, and toxicity results, making us sick. Integration might be the ultimate form of Recycle, Reuse, Repurpose and Compost. 

While the shadow side of our personality is always presented as the dark side, this is fake news. Yes, from the ego’s perspective the shadow side is a terrorist, and all the ego psychologists who make their living from ego psychology agree. The shadow is a terrorist that threatens the great American way of life, and it must be destroyed. We must make the ego strong in order to maintain an egocentric way of life. 

But wait, what if the shadow is actually  a freedom fighter, a white knight come to rescue the damsel in distress who is locked in the tower, by the evil king. 

A great archetypal story and now a movie is Robin Hood.  Robin Hood represents the shadow, a thief in the night who steals from the rich.  The imposter fraudulent evil king is Prince John, he represents the ego. While the Authentic Self is good King Richard the Lionheart, off fighting the Holy War (engaged in Spiritual Warfare, overcoming evil). Maid Marion represents the Divine Feminine, the Celestial Virgin, the Mother of God. She is the idealized woman, perfect in every way. However ego psychologists refer to her as Mary Magdalene, the woman of many sins, the tramp, the prostitute. After all she chose a thief over King John and was treasonous to the core. 

It is truly amazing how much we can learn about ourselves from this crisis if we can navigate it well. There is such an opportunity for meaningful growth. We can become fully integrated and therefore fully alive, our lives can truly become meaningful and have a great purpose all thanks to this crisis. If we weren’t facing death, how could we ever transcend it. Life is such a great paradox. To paradoxical to be coincidental. 

Stage Six of the grieving process is the actualization of the Serenity Prayer:

God grant me the Serenity

To accept the things I cannot change

Courage to change the things I can

And the Wisdom to know the difference. 

We have accepted the crisis as it is and are having a taste of Serenity. We have become willing to change the only thing we really can change which is ourselves. We are ready to move on. 

In traditional models of grief stage four is named depression. This can lead to some confusion, depression is a clinical state often treated with medication that occurs when there has not been a significant loss. As a result I prefer to call this state remorse because sadness and remorse often arise out of the inner reflection and soul searching that constitute stage four. Stage five resembles the “mid-life crisis”, when the meaning and purpose of life come into question. 

Sadness and remorse are the predominant feelings during this phase. We are deeply saddened by the loss, and may feel totally despondent. Continuing on with life may seem futile, what’s the point?  We are filled with remorse as we ponder all the things we could have or should have done with our life, if only we had been different. There is a sense of failure, and we blame ourselves. All of these feelings are perfectly normal, and we must allow ourselves to process and incorporate them. The internalization process started in stage four continues in stage five, but the implications and ramifications are deepening and expanding and a form of paralysis may set in, a mental fog, a sense of numbness. 

This numbing is really helpful in a way, for it allows us to examine our role in the crisis, but even more importantly our role in general from a safe distance. There is a sense, that we haven’t been the person we wanted to be, the person we should have and could have been. We have been an inferior version of ourselves and we have been inadequate and insufficient. Our role was not one we would have chosen for ourselves, our life isn’t one that we would have chosen. If only things had been different. 

When one has reached this state you must not let others talk you down from it, or talk you out of it. This is the radical breakthrough moment where real and meaningful change can occur, where life takes on a new meaning and purpose that is far more reflective of who you really are and were always meant to be. 

Psychologists will tell you that by two years of age your character, your personality is basically formed, and that by age five it is fully developed. In other words your persona, or personality and your role in the family and in life is set, fully fixed by age five. You where fully formed during a period of time in which you had no power no control, and few real choices.  In other words who you have been up until this moment wasn’t determined by you, but was fully determined by others and factors beyond your control. Up until this moment you never had the need to change, but now because of this crisis, there is a compulsion to change, it feels like you have to change, there is an inner compulsion to change or to die. Choose life, choose change, rebel against your ego that resists change. Rebel against the members of your family and friends that want you to continue on in the role you have always played. The role you were assigned. the role that has always kept you stuck. 

I repeat, you were fully formed by the age of five, by factors beyond your control, and by people you had no influence over. You are not your fault. 

If by the age of two your Core Constellation of Feelings was fully formed and these shaped all your values and beliefs, how could you have ever been anyone else than who you have been up until know. 

Now here comes the hard part, if you had no power, no choice and no control over the factors that created who you are, the factors that created the false-self from which you have played your role and lived your life, then how on earth can you be to blame. Whatever you have done, you are not to blame, you are not guilty, and there is no shame. By the age of five an imposter had taken over your life.  The imposter, that isn’t even real, might be guilty, but You, You are not. 

This crisis almost seems a perfectly designed moment for you to challenge your very existence. Who are you really?  Why are you here?  What is the true meaning and purpose of life?  Seize this moment, this crisis has given you a real opportunity, an excuse even, to create meaningful change in your life. To become the person you always wanted to be. The person you have always wanted to be, is alive and well within you. That is why you have always wanted to be it. We can only search for things we know we have lost. It is time to stop looking on the outside for that which is within. 

Abducted in childhood and hidden in shame, how on Earth can You be to blame. 

No blame, no shame, use this crisis to set yourself free. 

Shakespeare said 

“All the world’s a stage,And all the men and women merely players;“

But the footnote was omitted. 

Not one Soul was injured or harmed during the making of this play, it was all an illusion, intended for enlightenment purposes only. 

Stage four of the grieving process marks a turning point in the process. Up until now we have been keeping the crisis at a safe distance, firstly by denying that there is a crises and then by blaming others, denial and anger have given us time to absorb the shock, while our conscious mind was busy externalizing and creating a safe distance for the ego to maintain a sense of balance and control the subconscious and unconscious minds where busy behind the scenes organizing and associating all the various aspects and ramifications the crises event contains within itself. All crises are complex and have broad ranging implications for the individual and others. This single piece of tragic news has multiple associations that need to be coherently linked together. Past memories need to be accessed and associated to the current event, they may be a valuable reference containing much needed information and strategies. So while the ego was busy with its defensive strategies of denial and anger, your subconscious mind and unconscious mind were busy researching and writing a report which is now arriving into consciousness, or the egoic mind. 

Self reflection is the hallmark of stage four  Guilt and Shame are the first feelings thrown up from the unconscious. Here we see all the conditional or “if only” statements. While morbid self-reflection is of little value, honest and objective self-reflection leads to growth. A good and often quoted example of a successful stage four process that arises out of the “if only” and other self reflective questions, is the workaholic who has received a terminal diagnosis and has only months to live. Working through stage four they realize that they could have done more, they realize they have ignored their family and friends and they quit their job to spend their remaining time with those they love. Guilt and shame, can be of real value when used to create positive change, or they can be very self destructive if the ego uses pride and self-esteem to prevent change. The ego uses pride and self-esteem to justify maintaining the status quo. Quitting your job and focusing on love and relationship would be an admission that you have been mistaken in the past, and the egocentric ego just can’t go there if the wounds of childhood have been to severe. Severe childhood trauma can produce a ridged and inflexible ego. In such cases denial reappears and the healing process is blocked, blocked by shame. 

Shame is the “original sin”. When Adam and Eve, living in paradise, ate the fruit of the Tree of Judgement, they looked down and saw their nakedness, and were ashamed, they hid from each other and covered up with fig leaves and they hid from God beneath some bushes, and we have been hiding from one another ever since, because we are ashamed. We are afraid to be seen naked, To be seen for who we really are. The fig leaves are the masks we wear, that compose the false-self we present to the world. When Adam and Eve ingested, or internalized the fruit of the judgement tree, judgement entered into paradise and Innocence and paradise were lost. Shame entered into the world and 99.9% of us are shamed based, living in shame based societies. There is no doubt Adam and Eve behaved badly, their behavior was bad, they disobeyed their father, and a reasonable amount of guilt would have been healthy in modifying future behavior. However, the serpent knew the Judgement fruit contained the seeds of judgement and once ingested these seeds would grow create more judgement and lead to Shame. 

Guilt says I have behaved badly. Shame says I am bad, bad to the bone. The bone taken from Adam. At the very core of my being, in my bones, I am bad, and I am unworthy. I must hide who I really am and wear a mask. 

Few realize that in the 1920’s psychologists fully understood shame and were hired by corporations to developed marketing strategies based upon the inner sense of shame affecting the masses. Self image became the key word of the day, image became everything. The fashion industry, and cosmetic industry, are just two prime examples of profiting from this inner sense of inferiority that shame produces, but every aspect of the American economy exploits our shame, from automobiles to housing.  You are constantly told you need more and then you will feel adequate. You must work on your self-image and create a better mask to wear. Shame got us kicked out of paradise, created materialism, consumerism and mass marketing. Shame is how we got here. We are not enough, we need more. 

If we have an active conscience, our Authentic Self is alive and well. Our conscience tells us we have made a mistake and need to take corrective action. Guilt is a really good thing, it leads to growth. 

Shame is a corrupted guilt feeling that was formed in early infancy. An infant believes it and its mother are one. Any time an infant feels its needs are not being fully met by the mother vague feelings of separation enter into consciousness, the “We” feeling is threatened, and the infant blames itself. Feelings of inadequacy, inferiority, and unworthiness appear, these are the core component feelings that constitute the emotion of shame. 

Our Core Constellation of Feelings (CCF) was developed in infancy in a pre-linguistic, and pre-rational infant. The judgements of an infantile ego created these feelings out on the sensory perceptions of the infant. However the (CCF) is responsible for the foundation of our values and beliefs, in particular how we feel about ourselves. 

Jung and Kunkel would agree that whenever we are experiencing a crises, the crises has been created by the unconscious so that we can deal with the repressed emotions of childhood. The crises has been manufactured for our good. This is the real secret of life, much of our life experience arises from unconscious belief systems. If we believe unconsciously that we are inadequate, inferior and unworthy, we will create life experiences that align with our unconscious beliefs. If we feel  unconsciously that we are unworthy of love, love in life will elude us and every romantic relationship will lead to suffering, until we address our (CCF). Shame is false, shame is a lie. Shame is a deception, created by the serpent long ago, shame was meant to separate and cause division, to make us feel vulnerable and alone. 

We must become free of our shame by rooting out these false belief systems and recognizing that at the core of your being, you are good, you are worthy you are adequate. The core of your being is not a bone, it is a heart and we have all been deceived by the serpent into a life of shame. This current crisis must be used constructively for your growth. We may only have a short time left, how better to use it than to overcome our feelings of shame. Your ego knows it is responsible for this false sense of shame, and will try very hard to hide it from you, it will fall back into a state of denial. Fritz Kunkel believed the ego was the serpent. Kunkel also believed that Creation Continues beyond death, even beyond the destruction of the planet.  Creation cannot be destroyed, life transcends death, and now is the time to prepare for that transition.