Essay
A basic human response to any situation is either to feel “I like it” or “I don’t like it”. The name for the “I like it” response is sympathy, while the name for the “I don’t like” response is antipathy. These feelings color every response in normal everyday life. As such, they represent a fundamental…
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If we think about it most of our trials come out of the inner experience that we seem to have two contrasting modes of consciousness in us. An alchemist would call these two modes of consciousness the Sun and the Moon. These two complementary modes often are the source of inner conflicts. When we listen…
Read MoreI have been approached a number of times by students who say they feel the closeness of a departed friend or relative and ask, “Sometimes they seem so far away and sometimes they feel near. How can I maintain my relationship with this person? I know they haven’t just disappeared from existence. How can I…
Read MoreYou are shopping in the grocery store and run across an old friend. You both start to talk about mutual friends and they mention old Ted what’s his name. You draw a blank, then say that his name wasn’t Ted but Fred. Your friend says you are right but that his name was neither Fred…
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The picture is an image of stars falling out of the sky as snow and then falling to earth as crystals. From the point of view of alchemy my thinking is creative when it is focused on the cosmic or starry dimension of my life. That is the source of solutions to my issues. Alchemically,…
Read MoreComputers use formulas known as algorithms that dictate mathematically how changes are being created in a set of inputs. A researcher converts data from an experiment into mathematical equations or algorithms that are repeated or iterated many, many times by a computer. The logic language in constructing such a formula is, “if this, then :…
Read MoreA pandemic can be characterized technically as a cascade. One event triggers two events and they in turn trigger four and so on to create a cascade. In biology the cascade effect is a fundamental life strategy for many opportunistic organisms like viruses. However, social scientists point out that the lingering effects of a cascading…
Read MoreArtists who have worked for a long time can confirm that overcoming the trials of the two tyrannies is difficult. The first trial is the tyranny of the white. This is the sinking feeling that the first stroke on a drawing or the first strike of a chisel has set in motion a destruction process.…
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Esoterically an aspect of the unfolding health crisis is the question of why is there a return of some sort of virus for which there is no remedy? A spiritually oriented person could ask many questions about the world karma of such events. Is human error to blame for the suffering caused by pandemics? What are the global implications of the power of natural pathogens when combined with human lack of foresight regarding health policies? Deeper questions would be why does the spiritual world allow such things to happen? Are suffering and death retribution for culpability or a nudge by the spirit to something better?
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