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THERIANTHROPIC VARIATION OF REALITY 1
Western Civilization May Well Be A Therianthropic Variation
of Potential Reality
Looking for Europa by Jamie Kimmel Shelton
David Shane Shelton, MA, Indigenous Mind, Wisdom University, September 2011, Garrison, NY
1841 Pearce Ct., San Marcos, Tx,[email protected], 512.754.0427
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Abstract
What we experience, thus far, as Western Civilization is based on how we think and, thus
far, we are not thinking very well relative to pre-Western Civilizations. Contemporary
mindset has been, with rare exception, essentially the same mindset as our ancient
Greek counterparts. Our main interface with the absolute space of phenomena is our
triune brain: the neo-cortex, limbic system and basal ganglia (r-complex) in the
brainstem where dopamine is produced. Dopamine eventually synthesizes into
adrenaline in our bodies. This has been the main use of our brain to continually
produce, it would seem, adrenaline as we shifted perspective to a sensory stimulated
belief in reality. We can see reflections of this in Greek Mythologies. From these myths
and a neurological look at our brains and bodies we discover the perspective shift in
how we prepare for stress in that we no longer prepare thoroughly. This leaves us with
emotionally reactive moments creating memories of this behavior in our bodys organs
and causing an addiction to adrenaline.
In mythology, Hades can be interpreted as our collective unconscious. And, down there
with him is our repressed animus, Medusa and Eurydice. Perseus serves to project the
repressed animus while Orpheus continually searches for the noumena in surrounding
phenomena. Zeus is iconic of our consciousness, our self-awareness. Feminine aspects
here are represented by Athena, Hera and others and they work to reveal the shadows
of Hades to our awareness through reflective measures and outright disruptive activities
on daily lives. Specifically through Herakles, Hera instructs us in our misguided ventures
to shed light on our psychic shadows. Hephaestus allows us discovery of,
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metaphorically, our innovative compulsions; Hera, thus, reveals the feminine disapproval
as it cultivates our proclivity for adrenaline as we strive for newer and better
advancements. It is, though, with the contemporary interpreting of the story of Theseus
and of Minos we come to the ultimate consequence of our adrenaline addiction, the
Minotaur. It reveals many things of a causal nature to us: father abandonment, Oedipal
complexes and the results of not dealing with these repressed issues with proper daily
contemplative rituals.
These myths were enacted in our history. Alexander the Great very well may have
murdered his father and subsequently stabbed out at the Persians and Indians to
continually fulfill his adrenaline habit as this is misconstrued as filling his psyche, a
void left by the repression of the feminine energies. As astrology shows, with particular
astronomical alignments, combined with galactic positioning of our solar system, this
adrenaline addiction and altered perception of reality may not be entirely the fault of
our species as we are unaware of the cosmic energies rippling through our systems.
Regardless, we abandoned our mysticism to rely solely on the cosmological and
sociological aspects. Without mysticism, we react emotionally to the challenges of
reality, clench up and continually fall back on decisions from our r-complex. Worst case
scenario, we erupt violently, bestially. Such was the bestiality in our evolved nature
and mindset that therianthropic folklore arose. If we could overhaul our brains and
mindfully reprogram them with re-installed daily contemplative rituals, we could create
a new world from our neo-cortex. These rituals can be found where Alexander sought
sub-consciously to fill his empty psyche, India and the Far East.
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keywords: Western Civilization, adrenaline junkies, schisms, Greek Mythologies, r-
complex, bestial nature, bull, contemplative ritual
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THERIANTHROPIC VARIATION OF REALITY 5
Western Civilization May Well Be a Therianthropic Variation of Potential Reality
From the East We Depart
I think it would be a good idea. These are the irreverent words of Mahatma
Gandhi when asked his thoughts on Western Civilization. What he had experienced and
what we all experience within the construct of Western Civilization is a mere fraction of
its potential. This experience is often one of violence, famine, poverty and exploitation.
Naturally, there are positive attributes such as stated in Americas founding
documents, carried over from ancient Hebrew law, they specifically emphasized 4
traits: liberty, justice, truth, equality (Bhaerman, 2009). When not overlooked those
just mentioned provide a balanced approach to life. Which brings us to another quote
by Gandhi which says: A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he
becomes (http:// www.brainyquote.com/ quotes/authors/m/ mohandas_ gandhi.html).
The accumulated thoughts of 2500 hundred years of Western Civilization (actually
I believe it is only of the first 500 hundred years which formulated the mindset of the
West, established in Greece as a base operating system and encrypted programming
run to this day) have echoed and reverberated in our everyday actions. Thoughts
conceived of in the West seem to stem from various schisms in our collective psyche
such as our separation from Nature and the separation of the masculine and feminine,
which were not problematic when ancient daily contemplative rituals were applied.
Contemplative rituals create a balanced mindset and an ability to approach daily
stresses from the higher brain functions. Thus, without these contemplative rituals we
are most often left in a constant state of angst and repression; we have found ourselves
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never fully out of our basal ganglia (r-comlex) systems. We have had glimpses
throughout history, epiphanies which contradict this statement and show off the
potential of our neo-cortex, however I consider the overall effect to be a dismal
mistreatment of the absolute space of phenomena we have been provided. By
dismissing the ancient practices, the daily rituals of contemplation, we allow ourselves
to sink into our basic animal natures and disregard our holistic potential.
The Brain: Hormones and Body Memory
The unique qualities of our triune brain (a three compartmentalized map
consisting of the basal ganglia, the limbic and neo-cortex), rather our unique ability to
use this triune brain and its setup, allows our collective consciousness to interact and
manipulate this absolute space of phenomena, as the Buddhists name our sensory
reality. The gem of this structure is, of course, the neo-cortex, a penthouse of
cognizance and self-awareness. Sandwiched in the middle is the limbic system, home of
our emotional centers and memory; and, the majority of the thalamus resides here. It
is the major integration center for all sensory information passing into the brain, except
for smell. Research indicates it plays a major role in both emotion and consciousness
(Baumann, 2010). Let us not forget the endocrine system. It is of vital importance and
can be found in the limbic system. It is an invaluable link between our minds and
bodies. The endocrine system, hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, as well, form a
delivery system like railroad tracks down into the kidneys, liver, and heart. The
hypothalamusplays the principle role in control ofhormonal release; the
hypothalamus lies on top of the pituitary gland and also influences the latters activity in
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hormone production (Baumann, 2010). Curled up beneath all of that is our basal
ganglia, also called the r-complex. Here is the location of our brainstem and cerebellum
and, most important for this topic, our dopamine manufacturing center, which
eventually ends up as adrenaline in our bodies. This extremely basic anatomy is only to
serve as a roadmap for later discussion (Baumann, 2010).
With the Western mindset, as illustrated in ancient Greek mythologies, to be
mentioned later, we find a more haphazard use of this triune system than from pre-
Western usage, to my understanding. Pre-Western chants and prayers, whatever they
may have been, prepared their minds and bodies pre-emptively to respond positively
from within to challenges and stress. These mental enactments became embedded in
the memory clusters of the limbic system and subsequently imprinted in the hormones
secreted throughout the body, by the above mentioned, into the kidneys, liver and heart
(essence, flow and soul-center of Qi in Chinese medicine). However, having
discontinued the use of daily contemplative ritual, the West instead falls back on the
production of dopamine; feeds daily off of this addiction and, I am wont to believe, it is
for the worse for soulful development.
Shift in Perspectives: The West Reinvents How We See
In the West, with the Greeks and later using Alexander as an example, we see
prayers made to gods which exist external to their personal space. Prayers are sent out,
projected from our unconsciousness, in hopes that some sentience out there will enter
said personal space and grant the recipient his/her wish. Depending on a specific
dialogues context, Zeus, Apollo, Hera, Ares, Aphrodite, and the rest could signify actual
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deities, allegorical figures, character types, psychological attitudes, modes of experience,
philosophic principles,divine communications,or rulers and teachers of mankind
(Tarnas, 91). When no sensory answer is relayed or fed back to them, a frustration sets
in a subconscious voiding sensation clenches the body and, voila, adrenaline comes to
temporarily satisfy. As rational thought and sensory inputs dominate their conceptual
processes they no longer embody the aspects of the gods from within themselves and
therefore create a different reality due to this difference, this shift in perspective and
subsequent misuse of the brain provided.
As the Greeks reprogrammed the operation of our brains, they ceased these
preparations (Mandalas, chants, prayers, some form of breath-work) and thus reacted
emotionally in the moment of the onset of a stressful situation. These negative
responses then embedded themselves in the memory center of the limbic system and
thus were delivered through the same endocrine system with imprinted signals for the
body to retain for future use.
Ever since, those of the West, mostly, rely on emotional reactions and adrenaline.
This serves to clench the body and the flow of blood to the brain decreases. These
chemical signals, [adrenaline and cortisol], constrict the blood vessels in the viscera,
which preferentially redirects blood flow to the somatic system (Bhaerman, 2009).
Blocked out of our neo-cortex, now, we must fall back on dopamine to physically
alleviate our problems rather than through diplomacy.
The following takes us back to the beginnings to eek out a cross-section of the
mindset of the West; the Mythologies which reveal the underlying themes of this
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mindset. It will only serve, I am afraid, to reveal a possible set of errors, not any
solutions. It may also reveal the cause of the errors which lie in the very way we think.
Maui: So Far West It Becomes East
I found myself on a plane recently, with my wife, over the Pacific Ocean en route to
Maui. It was an anniversary vacation. It had been such a long flight, fatigue began to
set in and, with current studies of Greek Mythology and my personal transformation in
mind, I could not help but think of Hades and the underworld setting that has become
synonymous, for me, of the inevitable direction of Western Civilization (and we were
heading as far west as one can go before entering the East). As the sun set, and left
shades of colors never before seen, by my eyes, in the clouds, the magnificent colors
seemed to personify my thoughts of this darkened realm. I have long felt and noticed
the slow demise of Western Civilization. The correlations to a now ancient hegemony of
Western Civilization, the Romans, has seemed all too prevalent and has caused me to
wonder how or why no real effort to alternate potentials has been considered and
enacted to prevent a cyclical outcome to such similar activities.
Our plane lands and we find our way to the hotel and settle in. It is late, but we
still indulge in a night stroll along the beach. And, because I have in mind the West as
both civilization and as descent to transformation, I inevitably create a comparison.
Maui obviously has the trappings of America, the current model of the West, but there
also exists here a hint of its fate as it has, with the acquisition of Hawaii, expanded so far
west, it actually has tapped into and blended the feeling of the East and its
masculine/feminine balance. It is a much needed, very refreshing perspective for
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where divine feminine is not allowed to exist, an imbalance is spawned ( MacEowen,
2007).
Maui, the cultural hero and icon, was responsible, in the mythologies, of pulling
forth the islands from the depths of the ocean and tricking his brothers into helping
him. But, from a psychological standpoint, the islands could well be interpreted as a
form of self-consciousness, self-awareness in our species pulled up from the
subconscious realm.
Greece: One End to the Other
We returned from Maui with a deeper sense of, well, yes, relaxation, but also a
deeper sense of where Western Civilizations destiny, potentially, rests-in-wait. In the
meantime, we catapulted ourselves half-way back around the world to Greece, the seed
and sprout of Western Civilization. Here we spent a week with Dr. Ray Moody learning
more and more of Greeces ancient methods of perception, its mythologies and link to
the underworld. We tap into their thoughts for thoughts continue to live and act
when even the very name of the man who created them has been converted into a
myth (Ouspensky, 2011). We traveled to Heraklion, the Necromantium, and to the
Oracle of Delphi.
It was at this time I gained an intuitively initiated glance at the insight of some of
Greeces most potent mythologies from a psychological standpoint; focusing on the
three brothers, Zeus, Poseidon and Hades each ruling the overworld, the seas, and
underworld respectively. Similar to the Maui interpretation, I regarded these Greek
triplets of masculine origin as metaphorically ruling our conscious mind, and Zeus
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ultimately playing the role of our super-ego, Poseidon as our subconscious, leaving
Hades as he who dominates our collective unconscious mind.
Hades: Underneath and Within
If I may, I would like to elaborate on the realm of Hades and consider the
collective unconsciousness in relation to it by commenting on a most popular tale, that
of Medusa. The tale begins with a young devotee of Athena. She finds herself
consorted to Poseidon and they marry, thus stealing her away from her station and out
of favor with her previous mistress. In an act of vengeful cruelty, Athena spites her to
the underworld where she enfolds bitterly upon herself to become the hideous gorgon
we all know and love (Berens, 2008; Martin, 2003).
Intuitively translated as part of our collective psyche, as told by our ancient
forebears, we may see the Greeks actively suppressing the feminine spirit to the
unconscious realms. Initially married down to subconsciousness, they ultimately tried
to cast the feminine away into the oblivion of the unconscious from where we
continually project outward our lack of anima/animus balance.
I do not believe the Greeks, the original hegemonous representatives of the
West, to have been the ones who purged the feminine aspect of our psyche from our
conscious workings to create this imbalance; they were simply a culture who concretized
the existing ideals. Now these myths illustrate a Western mindset. Contemporary
interpretation can reveal and decrypt for us what becomes of our psyche when we
neglect our contemplative practices. For the West, we can further utilize the myths as
an interpretation of the Greek state-of-mind, observing how these archetypes played
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themselves out through the physical and sensory natures of these people; to more
deeply understand how our contemporary mindset reflects theirs. The archaic Greek
vision reflected an intrinsic unity of immediate sense perception and timeless
meaning; a peculiarly indivisible synthesis of the individual and the universal (Tarnas,
91).
In the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, we see an attempt by the artists of the
patriarchy to vow to retrieve the noumena of the feminine from the underworld, the
collective unconscious, and expect to find a phenomenal woman as the soul of an
artist can understand and feel the reflection of the noumena. We usually see nothing,
we merely feel our way; therefore we do not notice those differenceswhich cannot be
explained in terms of chemistry or physics (Ouspensky, 2011). Try as we might, the
West will never be able to touch her with our hands nor of any sensory capacity.
Noumena was recognized as really existing in itself, but inaccessible for our receptivity
(Ouspensky, 2011).
One quick last reference back to Medusa, lest we forget the magnificent efforts of
one Perseus, son of Zeus, a son of conscious awareness as he dives deep into the
unconscious mind, the underworld to confront Hades, slay Medusa; shattering this bitter
image and retrieving feminine energy and placing her proper on Athenas shield as a
shadow projection into the material realm! We see here, in the myths, examples of an
attempt towards the path of integration in this shadow work of the underworld and
awareness of projections. Unconscious images emit a weak signal which does not
reach the threshold of consciousness. This weak signal can be amplifiedby bouncing
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captured imagesoff of a backboard of collectively existing cultural image patterns such
as found inmyth, and ritual (Bosnak, 2007).
We see, then, an effort in the psyche of the Greeks and thus the West to at least
recognize the unconscious projections seeking balance in the masculine/feminine split.
This reconnect will not be accomplished from the r-complex or sensory phenomena. It
will be a conceptual, from the neo-cortex, healing and the first step is to put down the
shield from the defensive posture and look into it again to reflect on the feminine
wisdom. The manifestation of energy, and thought will remain somewhere beyond the
limits of investigation, retreating like a shadow at every approach (Ouspensky, 2011).
Zeus, et al
Let us go topside, all the way up Mount Olympus, to visit what amounts to our
self-consciousness. Yes, there is the ever present Zeus with the thunderbolts and the
lightning; very, very frightening. But, while we are here, I would much prefer, in the
interest of the potentiality of the development of Western Civilization and its schisms,
we look at how women are perceived from the top end of our collective psyche and the
Greek perspective; specifically Athena, and Hera. When we speak more in depth with
Hera we will want to discus her son Hephaestus and the epic cultural hero of the West,
Hercules.
We will begin, only too briefly a mention, with Athena, goddess of wisdom. While
I often question the wisdom of casting a devotee, such as Medusa, into the oblivion of
the underworld to be forgotten, I find it quite appropriate that wisdom is bestowed by
this feminine archetype for, concerning Ares [ego], his sister Athena ever appears in
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opposition to him (Berens, 2008). Ego is tempered by wisdom. And her wisdom makes
us at least aware of our projections.
On the one hand, it appears as if the Greeks find women and their perspective
quite the headache, as portrayed through Athenas rupturing birth through Zeus skull,
while on the other hand, Athena charges a man, Perseus, a normal Greek citizen who,
like his fellow citizens, lacks an integrated mindset, to descend into the underworld to
shatter and decapitate the embodied bitter woman and project her image on the shield
to utilize as a tool to find this lost animus outwards in the hopes that some omniscient
being will reward him with wholeness of mind; the Greeks seem to want to call for an
integration of our collective psyches (Berens, 2008; Martin, 2003).
Unfortunately, I believe these projections to be outward seeking and futile. Men
may conquer women and vice-versa, but, ultimately, will only serve to feed the
adrenaline junkie within us and not to integrate. Ourconsumerism becomes a self-
fulfilling prophesy. Whether wesate it with food,drugs, sex, or gas [guzzlers],
such glutony does not address the inner vacuumof [the] modern world (MacEowen,
2007).
Herakles
Hera creates a perplexing view of the Greek patriarchy. She seems to be epicentric
to what can only be described as a bitchy archetype. She seems to at all times, and I
can not say that I blame her, complain of her husbands extra-marital behaviors. While
a staunch defender of the loyal house-maid/wife, she exerts all energies into thwarting
the disloyalty of Zeus through his bastard son, Hercules, the icon of the West. She
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hounds Hercules, who we will address with a bit more rigor shortly, and boots her own
son, Hephaestus, right off of the mountain for not meeting her standards. But, we find
in Hera a strong, spirited woman who is a champion of women and a potent rep-
representative of doing what it takes to keep women in the conscious mind of
awareness in both ancient and contemporary Western Civilization that seems bent on,
until very recently, repressing feminine aspects at all costs.
As Hercules enters the scene of Western Civilization, son of Zeus and bane of
Hera (animus projections he would not accept, perhaps?), we take a look at a cross-
section of what amounts to the struggle of men in this era. [Leonard] Laskow, [M.D.]
wrote: When you accept and love the parts of yourself you want to reject or change,
you create an opportunity to discover the positive life force behind them (Bhaerman,
2009). We know him more popularly as Hercules, but he was referred to by the Greeks
as Herakles. That is, the glory of Hera. Herakles is merely a name bestowed upon
Alkeides as he battled through life over the hurdles set upon him by Hera not out of
unforgiving spite but rather to form opportunities for Herakles to accept a holistic
mindset to include Athenas wisdom (Berens, 2008; Martin, 2003). His ordeals follow
and are representative of our collective psyche. Although he does seem to perpetuate
the separation from Nature, at times he does show great poise in his decisions as if he
were ultimately utilizing that feminine wisdom to balance his warrior mentality; allowing
access to his neo-cortex.
There are a handful of subplots most interesting to Herakles plight and of
Wo/Man in Western Civilization. The first of these subplots to make note of involve
his interactions with Prometheus. Prometheus, in the context of this work, could
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represent the scientific realm of endeavor for our species. As the benefactor of our first
technology, fire, Prometheus was severely punished by his cousin, Zeus. Chained atop
Mount Caucuses; Prometheus was daily ravaged by Zeus eagle through the
consumption of his liver. All of these details beg the question of their interpretation
and the liver detail is no different (Berens, 2008; Martin, 2003).
In Chinese medicine, the liver regulates blood flow and Qi; connection of the
various body parts and wholeness. Thus, without the liver, as was Prometheus, there
would be a lack of Qi or conscious connection to this god who represents scientifically
motivated activities (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liver_(Chinese_medicine)). In other
words, our collective psyches, at this time, were unaware of the modality of science in
their daily regiment. As our cultural icon, Herakles, slays the eagle and opens our
conscious awareness to science.
Herakles, then, switches Prometheus out with Chiron, the Centaur to whom he had
inadvertently shot with an arrow poisoned with the blood of the hydra. In this we see
the Greeks replacing in the psyche Nature for science. And, I not only say Chiron and
the Centaurs represent Nature but, more specifically, I am saying that Centaurs must
represent, as I have interpreted it, Wo/Mans self-emergence from Nature and self-
awareness. To the Greeks, Centaurs were analogous to an absurd creature (Berens,
2008; Martin, 2003) and, furthermore, the Greeks had little respect, it would seem, to any
connection with Nature even though their greatest heroes personages were set and
matured by nature and could not have accomplished such greatness without it.
Yet, emergent as our self-awareness has progressed we still maintained, in small
pockets, a connection back to Nature in this conceptual form of the Centaur. To take
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literally the idea of a Centaur, though, I can only imagine wandering bands of woodland
people who either refuse to live within the cities confines or cannot afford them and are
thus homeless.
Hephaestus
Hephaestus is not so much a son of Zeus, as are Herakles and Minos, as he is a son
of Hera and the feminine. He was born of a virgin birth, no father had been involved;
and so was of the matriarchal mindset. Oddly enough Hera found this baby, as we will
see as a metaphor for technological innovation, so hideous a notion she heaved him off
of Mount Olympus and the awareness of his metaphorical nature into the subconscious
realm of Poseidon, into the ocean. It seems a statement of the matriarchy to have
opposed such things, perhaps.
Innovation, Hephaestus, being what it is, developed a contraption to ascend itself
back to conscious awareness. Hephaestus designed a throne so lovely for Hera and had
it delivered via Thetis, daughter of Nereus (creatures of the sea are, in mythologies,
the typical delivery system of the subconscious; this and the giant sons of Poseidon)
(Martin, 2003). She received it and adored it. Upon sitting in her new throne, it
immediately ensnared her by the wrists and ankles and would not yield, even at the
prying of her peers. This throne, now an incarceration of Hera, began to waddle its way
to the edge; threatening to drop Hera off into the ocean with it; virtually threatening to
drop the matriarchy into the absolute suppression of the subconscious to be forgotten
if the gods, and Hera, did not permit Hephaestus a place in the heavens. Naturally, she
did yield to his demands and Hephaestus ascended, but bringing a Cyclops, another of
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the sons of Poseidon, with him. Thus innovations of technology emerged and continue
to emerge from the subconscious in the mind of the West (Berens, 2008; Martin, 2003).
Hephaestus relationship with Aphrodite, then, is also most curious, as one of the
stipulations for Heras release was this idyllic woman. She appears, though, to represent
all form and little-to-no function, except as a sensory stimulus. She has no affinity for
Hephaestus and is, from the get-go, repulsed. In this couple we discover an appealing
vehicle for which to deliver the function of the technology to a manifest reality.
However, the very nature of this relationship, being so tentative, and as we have all
discovered, our technology often times fails us. We very well may have a case of
opposing poles only attracting through a coerced state. For more often than not,
Aphrodite will flee for the big arms of Ares, metaphorically our warrior-minded egos,
who steps in and angrily wants to control and destroy such feeble technologies which
dare to, even in jest, embrace such beauty as Aphrodites (Berens, 2008; Martin, 2003).
We begin to see the power hungry structure of the r-complex beginning with
Hephaestus wanting to be an Olympian and wanting to fulfill his feminine needs as
projected onto Aphrodite. Beyond this lies, for each of us following this path,
corruption of the soul and self-consumption. The ego, Ares, remains a static warrior
aspect demanding more adrenaline, more dopamine to satisfy its bodily needs and our
own innovations, hesitantly allowed by the matriarchy, according to these mythic
interpretations, feed this corruption and flare dopamine production. The warrior can
have either an actualizedexpression that leads to peace, discipline, and personal
refinement or an imbalanced expression that can lead to violence, [and] unconscious
conflict (MacEowen, 2007 ). Again, Athenas wisdom is required in possible
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application of each of our innovative technologies rather than just creating because we
can.
Theseus and Minos
At last we move on to our final Greek Mythological reference in Theseus, a
contemporary of Herakles. A most underrated story in our contemporary culture until
we mention the Minotaur. At this, I believe, a majority of people would tune-in with
positive recognition. This tale is, in my opinion, a pivotal moment in the foundation of
what is Western Civilization where we encounter a subtle aspect of the psyche and the
reason for the daily contemplative practice: our lack of control over our own bestial
nature due to our subconscious projections to which we still encounter to this day and
the causal connection to our adrenaline addiction. King Minos and, surprise, Herakles
(in his 7th ordeal) begin this myth.
Minos as a projection of his psyche, called forth from Poseidon, his own
subconscious, to reveal the cause of his woes. He vows to slay any animal which
appears from the sea, the subconscious knot which torments his soul. A white bull
emerges. Uncanny this is the same form his father, Zeus, took to impregnate his
mother, Europa. Only, Zeus promptly abandoned them both afterwards. This trauma
has re-emerged in Minos, projected from his psyche, but, I must say, he prayed it come
forth. With no daily ritual or prayers to deal properly with this shadow archetype, the
bull then ferociously possesses Minos; it becomes him, rage and all.
It was not until Herakles, who having had many ordeals to gain a foothold into his
own shadow projections, and having gained some semblance of internal balance over
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his own Self to portray a much more holistic individual as demonstrated in the myth by
his riding freely, without the burden of trauma, of the Cretan Bull, that Minos was
impressed upon to gain self-control of this bestial portion of his psyche (Berens, 2008;
Martin, 2003). By this demonstration, I think, Minos aspires to seek the help of Daedalus
to construct a labyrinth to which, as we see, is a physical reflection of a conceptual
construct meant to be used as a psychological tool to corral our own bestial natures
which can otherwise possess us.
This was to be daily contemplative practice to embody the inner beast, to utilize
the strengths of the bull in a mindful fashion. However, no sooner had it been
established than was too soon to be completely dismembered by Theseus and Western
Civilization. For it has no place, it would seem, in the new mindset of the West who
turns now to embrace Prometheus sciences. By bringing back the decapitated head of
the Minotaur, Theseus, son of Poseidon and the subconscious mind, makes the
statement that Greece and the West no longer honor the ancient traditions of the
Egyptians, Persian or Indians, et cetera, with their Pantheons. Egypts animal headed
gods, for example: Set, Khnum, Tefnut, Taueret, Sobek, Horus, Hathor, Thoth, Bastet,
and Anubis (I am almost certain to have left out one or more) to whom they prayed
daily and embodied as needed were of the inner-self, gods from within. This allowed
each citizen to enter mentally their neo-cortex to solve dilemmas and deal with daily
stresses. The Minotaur is of this vein of embodiment and the labyrinth the means to
acquire this mindset.
Ironically, Theseus, after the destruction of the labyrinth, becomes possessed by
the same raging bull from the sea (from his subconsciousness) so carefully contained
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by the ritual of the labyrinth of Daedalus, and kills his own son! Sadly, Minos demise
comes by similar fate in that he also becomes possessed by his bestial nature and is
killed, because of it, on the isle of Sicily seeking to destroy Daedalus. Consumed by his
inner bull-rage, the king there had him disposed of for his lack of self-control. These
are what fates await without daily ritual to enter higher brain functions (Berens, 2008;
Martin, 2003).
Mythologies Embodied
To summarize before moving on to actual historical events which played out,
mirroring the myths, the Greeks put down into words the existing myths which would
help set the foundation of Western Civilization. The myths were the living body
ofmeaning, constituting a language that both reflected and illuminated the essential
processes of life (Tarnas, 91). The Greeks inscribed tales embedded with wisdom such
as the need to retrieve and maintain awareness of the feminine voice, the switching of
science for nature, the coerced allowance of technology and innovation by the
matriarchy to prevent their complete and utter suppression, father abandonment issues,
Oedipal complexes, and the problems of technologys form manifest, as well as control
or lack thereof of our inner bestial natures as a by-product and demand of dopamine. I
believe that when I mention embedded wisdom I must be clear that I am referring to
not wisdom of what our self-consciousness should be, but more of what it will
potentially become if we continued to espouse the existing myths without realizing and
decrypting said wisdom. Thus, there are a few momentous historical events,
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movements, more like it, in the setting of the foundation for this new mindset. For
example: Alexander the Great.
Alexander the Great
I have not mentioned word one of astrology in this context, yet. But, I feel it
necessary at this juncture and for this particular astronomical event is unique to
recorded history. There so happened an event of a triple planetary conjunction of
Uranus, Pluto and Neptune which has not happened since, as a nebulous node of
initiation; sparking the onset of what we know to be the West. The triple conjuction
of the sixth century BCE coincided not only with the heart of the global Axial Age but
also with the rise of Greece and its rapid emergence as a world-historic civilization[;] the
eruption of a collective will to power during Uranus-Pluto eras canbecome
concentrated and embodied in a single powerful figure, a world-historic political-
military conquerordriven as if by a force of nature. And, this on the heels of the birth
of the Hellenistic agein the period from 443 to 430 BCE (Tarnas, 96).
And, who better in the sensory realm we understand to portray and manifest this
grand experiment than Alexander the Great. He not only launched the greatest invasion
and subsequent onslaught of military might and genius, he also calcified into stone,
into record, precedent for what it means to be either living within Western Civilization
or beyond its borders in-waiting for what it will do. For the West, now true adrenaline
junkies, under the movement of the energy of this triple conjunction was nothing less
than a declaration of patriarchal control, rather, attempted control of everything within
the sensuous order, of the absolute space of phenomena; continued repression of the
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feminine, usage of new technologies, mainly of warfare, and his own father issues were
all aspects of his campaigns. Symptoms of fear and terror are thus reflected in the
actions of the people of the West, beginning with the Greeks and these two aspects
cause an organism to put its energies to protection rather than growth (Bhaerman,
2009).
The Rest, They Say
From this briefly exposed perspective, we can get a sense of psychological cause
and effect, the cause being the collective unconscious level schisms such as the
anima/animus, Wo/Man from Nature, and its aftermath of adrenaline addiction. We
see, too, a species relying much more exclusively on sensory inputs to stumble their way
through life, subconsciously disregarding more cognizant solutions. To make a clearer
distinction, we can always turn to Joseph Campbell. When relying on mythologies for
some form of guidance, Mister Campbell states that myth serves 4 functions: (one) that
of the mystical or invisible world, (two) of the cosmological, visible world, (three) of the
sociological here and now order, and (four) the pedagogical. This final detail serves to
show as the inevitable crisis of the world (Free, 99).
Thus, as Alexander moved to crush and conquer, he too was moved by the
cosmos; and, the people of the West leave behind the mystical aspects to rely more on
the cosmological which led to more imbalance and greater pedagogy. Imbalance of
energies formed stressful living conditions to which people of Western Civilization
responded with through adrenaline, r-complex mindsets as threatening signals from
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the external environmentactivate[d]the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal axis
(Bhaerman, 2009).
The Aftermath: Christendom and Folklore
As it was with Theseus, when we cease to use intuition and react strictly from
emotional centers with a need of adrenaline and without a firm practice of detachment,
we find ourselves living with our poor decisions made under the duress we helped to
create and mire into our r-comlex. In neurological terms, our triune brain allows self-
consciousness to access this absolute space of phenomena through functional brain
compartments such as the thalamus and neo-cortex. Yet, these have grown around the
still existing, still needed r-complex; no higher brain activity occurs here. My point
being that under these circumstances, with the void of mysticism, we tend to clench up
and cease our regular breathing which cuts off enough of the blood supply to the neo-
cortex and the higher brain functions to where we fall into the bestial modality of our
r-complex (synonymous to basal ganglia). We have become overwrought with the bull
of the sea.
Through the centuries, I believe the church perpetuated this and concretized the
separation from Nature. This includes the fanning of the fire of the werewolf lore. It
seems silly folklore to us contemporaries, however, when broken down and looked at in
the context of history, it reveals this lost Daedalus of psychology which prepares us a
guided pathway to positively engage negative situations with emotional detachment.
Without this profound mental tool, this exercise and daily practice (one might call it
chanting, prayer or meditation, or yoga) people have succumbed to this bestial nature
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as second nature, indicative of r-complex modality. And, when cursed, become, at
times, werewolves right before our eyes and fly off into tangential rages and lose their
awareness entirely.
This r-complex modality, an entropic step of our collective psyches, has been
taught to each successive generation. Although we today live in a world where we have,
or are realizing, a power to create and destroy through our interaction with the absolute
space of phenomena with set intentions, this embedded overreliance of the r-complex,
a power happy and adrenaline rush mindset, we have created a world of violence,
famine and poverty. Think of the potential world if we all chanted and breathed
contemplatively together everyday. Think of the world we could create and the
challenges we could face from a mind set way up in the neo-cortex! Only when we own
responsibility do we have an opportunity to cultivate processes and practices that
empower us to respond differently the next time we are revisited by previous stressful
situations. Life success is predicated on navigating our actions with conscious decisions
rather than engaging in reflexive, preprogrammed subconscious behaviors (Bhaerman,
2009).
Where to (Re)Turn?
Interesting, I would say, that Arnold J. Toynbee, a British historian, said in the
1950s that The vast literature, the magnificent opulence, the majestic sciences, the soul
touching music, the awe inspiring gods. It is already becoming clearer that a chapter
which has a western beginning will have to have an Indian ending if it is not to end in
the self destruction of the human race. At this supremely dangerous moment in history
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the only way of salvation for mankind is the Indian way (http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/
Arnold_J. Toynbee). He says this and then there is Gandhi. From Indias Mythologies, I
agree, is where the West should seek to solve its many multi-faceted dilemmas but
without limiting itself to just India. Western Civilization must look deeply into the
philosophies of the Eastern mind as did Pythagoras, Gurdjieff, Campbell and the
mythological Maui of the Hawaiian Islands and fulfill the potential garden rose that is
Western Civilization. If we could change our psyche apparatus and should then
discover that the worldwas changing, this would constitute for us the proof of the
dependence of the properties of space upon the properties of our consciousness
(Ouspensky, 2011).
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