Back-firing affirmations in the Face of the Transpersonal Selv



Working with affirmations is a powerful tool in the prosess of reprogramming outdated inner software. Like with all activities that involve human beings, the potential fields of shadows are never far from the sunny patches. In the case of affirmations, human beings have a tendency to base 99 % of their bids to the cosmos on their subjective wishes and wants. Understandable as that may be, there is a snag in that design. And that particular snag is why so many, if not most, of people´s affirmations back-fire: they are soley based on their personal needs.
The point is: if the subjektive wish that is expressed through the affirmation is not in correspondance with the individual´s larger transpersonal developement scheme, it will
a) either not happen
b) happen, but in consequence confront the affirmer with un-wished-for side effects that are meant to enlarge the limited wishfull thinking into a larger, transpersonal context
That is why we -if we use affirmations at all- are smartly advised to check the personal wishes that are expressed through the affirmation against one´s larger picture: is this in accordance with who I am to become ? Or is it just a little ego-wishfull wishing ? The best tool I am aware of for check the personal against the transpersonal is the astrological chart. It says it all (from the cosmological perspective). The question is only if one is able to read it. But that again is one´s own responsibility. Everybody can learn to read it.
But then there are other tools, too. Simple one´s , democratically available to all and everyone. Just asking the question to one´s Self: « is this wish/ affirmation is accordance with my larger evolution or is it just a little ego wish «, will get one on track.

For the astrologically & other-Wise minded: Dates in books

I read a lot of books, among them also quite a bit of novels. I have found that the best novels often are better psychology books than most psychology books, just like some of the best psychology books often are better novels than most novels.


There is a lot one could say about what books really say (f x that all characters in a novel are nothing but variations on the author´s own 12 personas that (s)he tries to become conscious of by the writing process), but that would take many books to write, so I within this frame there is just one interesting astrological point I´d like to make:
whenever a date shows up in a novel ( f x like in the book Edgar Sawtelle I am currently reading in front of the fireplace, while the rain is pounding on the mossy roof, : « He was that baby-boy, born on the thirteenth of May 1958, at six o ´clock in the morning. They named him Edgar «), I take an internal note of that. Often, from my experience, I know what moon-nodes such a date would correspond to (axis Taurus-Scorpio). Plus other information that might be in a given date, like the sun sign (Taurus, in this case), and if I feel so inclined, I might even check the time against the chart. And here comes the clue and reason why I am writing this: it turns out that the «fictional time/ date», that the writer seemingly by chance has put down actually astrologically reflects in how the characters lifes evolves in the course of the book ! Meaning, the accidental chart of the fictional character plays out in the pages. Bingo.
But what does that mean, how can that be possible ? I think we can rule out the option that the writer is an astrologer-in-the-closet, and old magician of sorts, that happens to have a knack for writing novels that contain oscure messages to esoteric readers.
What this say to me (everybody is free to chose their own beliefs) is that
  1. no matter if something is «fictional» or «real», the same cosmological mechanics are at work, if the instrument (the writer) is aware of it or not
  2. the borders between fiction and reality are rather arbitrary
    Something to reflect upon.
    Time for me to get back to my book !

Anima & Animus: Notes from the Other Side of Self


One thing that has become increasingly clear to me over the years, is the decisive role of the Anima and the Animus in love relationships. The the original concept as formulated by C.G. Jung, points towards the anima as the feminine side within a man and the animus to be the masculine part within a woman. Working with relationship´s many facettes in therapy, the following psycho-cosmological law has crystallized for me:

The men/man that a woman attracts/is attracted to, represents and reflects the evolutionary state of her personal animus
and, logically:
The women/woman that a man attracts/is attracted to, represents and reflects the evolutionary state of his personal anima.

In practise this means that every human being creates and calls upon their partner in order to see one´s other side (which always has the opposite gender ) of Self in this external mirror. If you dare to look and live with the consequences: right there -bingo !- is your own Anima / Animus.
Nota bene: what you see is your Anima/ Animus in its current state of maturation, not in its fullest potential (unless you have developed its fullest potential within your Self. In that case, your Other Side would naturally reflect that level of beauty).
What one sees is not always too flattering or becoming (except for: it is all about becoming- the growth of what is lacking). No quest for truth can truly lead anywhere without the degree of courage it takes to look facts into the mirrored eye. In other words: if you are totally -or partially dissatisfied- with the quality of what you «get» in that magical mirror, in the form of your partner, then there is little point in hammering on -or wrestling with- the surface of the mirror. 
This does also imply that if you want the « quality» of your partner (either current or potential, in the future) to change, you´d have to work on developing your own healthy, vital, beautiful (or whatever you desire) anima/animus. Thus, after a while (which could be short or long, or something in-between, all depending on how committedly you work on this), what you «get» in the mirror will change. You will attract different energies. Either from the partner that you already are with or from «new» people that drop into your life. All accordingly to the internal (r)evolution that you initiate within your Self.
And in the final consequence this leads us to understand that
every man and woman is Self-responsible for the quality of their lover(s).

This is terribly good news, as it brings power home where it belongs; to one´s Self-responsibility. One is NOT dependened on the other to change. Hooray and too bad: nobody to blame

The follow-up question is naturally: how DOES one do that work, how do I grow my anima / animus ? The first step is, as always: develop a consciousness that this internal entity does exist.
And second: not forget about it around the next corner (« remember to remember»). The third step: make a clear decision to work with it. Four: start investigating the psychological players in your family system that could be related to it:
>For women and their animus: relationship with their father, men «in the shadow» further down the ancestral lines (grand-fathers,). Possibly brothers (dead, still-born, aborted). Everything «fishy» around men and masculinity in the family system (sexual abuses). Black sheep.
Plus: earlier relationships with men (more for the pattern they reveal, then for their «causal» effect)
>For men and their anima: relationship with their mother, women «in the shadow» further down the ancestral lines (grand-fathers). Possibly sisters (dead, still-born, aborted). Everything «fishy» around women and feminity in the family system. Black sheep. Women that «sacrificed» themselves. Plus: earlier relationships with women (more for the pattern they reveal, then for their «causal» effect)

That would make an excellet start. «Working « with them could mean «inner journeys», constellations, whatever works. A good therapist might help, but is not vital, depending on the state of one´s own «inner therapist» (that is again a whole new story, haha....)

BTW: the same applies for one´s children. They are on one level reflections of the state of one´s own inner child. So: if one is not happy with one´s children, or some of their sides/ qualities, the question number No 1 would always be what that reflections tells about maturing processes that still need to happen within one´s own inner child.


Slow Therapy: Melting ice-cubes


Human beings are impatient beings. And more often than not short-sighted, both metaphorically and literally. This reflects in the context of therapeutical work, too. Patients are often anything but..... patient. Formed by our Zeitgeist´s restless imprint, terapeutees (my term for people in terapeutic processes) often hope for instant gratification. Or maybe: instant grace- i-fication. A heaven-send therapeutic-pill that cures the psychological headaches within half an hour. Been there
(therapy), done that. On with the show. It could seem that psychiatry with in inflationary use of anti-depressants bases its work on such implicit premisses.
Unfortunately and fortunately, inner work that truly transforms the content (not just the form) of the individual´s internal software takes its time. How long that times takes in chronological time measurement, nobody can possibly know nor say. It´s part of the mystery of working with the soul. It´s a little bit like Slow Food. Really good food often takes time (and the consciousness that goes along with it) to prepare. Which does not mean that all good therapy necessarily needs to be snail-slow. Many tools exist today that can greatly accellerate the therapeutic prosess, in comparision to old school psychoanalysis- where a normal analysis lasted something like 6 years with three sessions per week. Much sharper and to the point tools exist today and we need to use them if we want to be able to deal with the tsunami waves of psychological challenges that the individual and collective soul face in our time and space. My sense is that their primary function is to set in motion the transformative process, the jump-starting impuls. A bit like shooting the white billard ball in an expert way into the other balls. Things start rolling. Balls start bouncing into each other. The whole former order of the field rearranges itself. But when does the first ball fall into a hole (the «whole») ? Who can say ?
Another analogy that seems to hit the spot and can inform us about the prosess of internal transformation is what I call the ice-cube analogy. Think about a bunch of ice-cubes at minus 6 degrees. Slowly the temperature is raised by one degree: -5, -4, -3, -2, -1. Until you reach 0 degrees nothing seems to have changed. They seem like the same old, frozen ice-cubes. Only when you reach the critical temperature, the freezing/melting point, a dramatic change takes place: The crystalline structure of the ice-cubes dissolves and the water molecules start floating freely in all directions. If one would only stare at the phenomenlogy, that is: what is visible on the surface, one would conclude that nothing has changed before you hit 0 degrees. All the way down from – 6 nada happened! But that is not true. To get to the critical point where «everything changes» one needs to go the process of -5, -4, -3, -2, -1. Otherwise it would be possible to get there and nothing could happen then.
The same applies for the therapeutic transformational process. Often one may not see the immeditate change one hopes for (still being stuck in the instant gratication paradigm). But that is not because nothing has happened. The happening in the psyche often happens step by step, degree by degree in the invisible. Until suddenly -one day- it goes boom ! This can happen both ways of course. In the therapeutic context most hopefully as positive eureka, where old outdated inner ice finally melts and the waters of the soul get flowing again, watering the former internal desert soils.
But in order to see the whole picture one also has to consider the inverse scenario, the negative version of it: something can built up in the darkness of the unconscious over time and at at some critical point, something goes boom – a relationship, a bodily function, a part of the soul that collapses.
Life has it all. Individual consciousness decides where things turn.

Prefab Sprout: The Ice Maiden  

Vale ! The Value of Self and Others


One spanish term one hardly ever learns in school but is among the most frequently used in daily life, is the expression «vale». People use it in the same way as people in English speaking countries (and others) would say « OK «.
As I am always curious and have my third ear open for hidden symbolic phenomena I meet on my way through Life, it suddenly occured to me how wonder-full of an expression this simple «vale» is.
«Vale» comes from the same etymological roots as the english word «value». Which means in linguistic practise that people in Spain each time theu say «vale» affirm:
  1. the value in what the other expresses (« I value what you are saying»)
  2. the worth of the other human being (« I value who you are»)
    Even though this happens primarily on an   unconsiously level in everyday conversation, I am sure, I find it to be a beautiful way of affirming the other and his/her set of values.This is especially true as I see in my work how fundamental the theme of Value of Self and Other is. In reality it seems that very, very few people are capable valueing themselves and – in logical consequence- incapable of valueing others and their values.
    Thus it might be valuable ritual to practice saying (and meaning, too) to your Self and the other: VALE !

    As I am writing this on the beach and the sun has been gracefully filling up my vitamin D reservoirs I now am inclined to follow the call of the Sea and take a dip. Tune in again next week,

The 12 Faces of Human Potential Developement


Einstein famously stated that human beings use on average only about 10 % of their total brain capacity. The statement in itself is remarkable (as in: worth noticing), not because it reflects a absolute truth for everybody at that particular percentage, but because it points to what I perceive to be the essence of all problems, challenges, difficulties, depressions, sickness, symptoms.. you name it. Furthermore, this does apply on all levels of possible unhappiness: physically, psychologically and spirtually. My take on the Whole thing is: All unhappiness an individual experiences is nothing but the inverse experience of the yet-un-experienced. Meaning: what pains us when we experience pain in the body or soul is not what we HAVE or rather:ARE, but what we Not-yet-Have or rather: Not-Yet-Are. It is the lack that hurts, the minus, the deficit of what could (and should, in larger sense) be and but -oh bother- not-yet has become. And I don´t mean the «could be» hypothetically. My assumption is that each individual is born with a spesific set of potential-seeds and that these seeds fruitcaking desperately want, need, long to be developed. Developed to be realized. Come to full fruitition (fruitcake, again). Like the plumtree here in the garden (these plums are delicious), hanging full and ripe and sweet and wonder-full, and generously willing to share its fully developed potential. That is why, to put it simply, all a human being really needs to work with is the developement of its potentials. Nada more, because Everything Else Ensues, falls into place on its own, as a logical consequence.
The 12 Personas-microcosmos´
As for the pitfalls, where even seemingly »realized» (at least in the eyes of the others) fail: The biggest mistake in that equation, apart from just plain choosing not to develop, is that people only grow some parts of them selves. They might even become GREAT, GIGANTIC in their fields: top neurosurgeons, reseachers, celebrated artist, top shrinks, major sports idols, endlessly rich, whatever. But it doesn´t help their happiness a bit. (ok, maybe a bit, but not overALL). The point is: We all carry 12 Major Personas within ourselves. Each of these personas -or sub-personalites- is like an individual entity in itself (even though they are all connected and interact). Each is like a individual microcosmos. It is worth noting that each of the Major Twelve constitutes -logically-a 1/12 of the total wholeness of the individual. Or a 1/12 of the Total Potentials. And here comes the clue: all 12 need to be equally (but differently) developed, all in their own, specific and individual way. So if you really aspire to become fully realized, that´s the only road to take. Or to say it inversly: you cannot become more happy as a Whole Human Being as the least of your Personas. Let´s say you are a superdupa painter. Greatly developed in that particular persona, plus to three that are part of the process. But to become that great of an artist, you decided unconsciously to let the other 8-9 potential-personas fall asleep in the Ivory Tower. Roses grow over the tower, but that is just the icing on a cake that has gone rancid. Your body is in bad shape (1), your are incapable to committ to a love relationship (2), you are a wreck in organising and administrating your life, can´t even pay your bills in time (3), you have developed a nice set of addictions (4), take yourself og your work way too seriously (5), etcetc...All of the above examples, no matter how sucessfull you are in a particular arena of your life- will inevitably drag your Whole Being down. Maybe not yet when you are in your twenties, but you start feeling it in your thirties, feel serious trouble in your forties...etc.In other words: as human beings we don´t really have a choice. We need to become ALL. Everything. And the route goes via becoming a 12-faceted diamond, working on all 12 sides at all times. The alternative is being worked on by a larger transpersonal intelligence. But that is a lot more painful, because one´s resistance creates a type of nose-on-the-grindstone effect. No fun.
Thus the smart way is to align one´s personal intelligence with one´s transpersonal (cosmic) intelligence -something that is part of every human being, if they are aware of it or not- and work ON IT ALL.
Time to chop some wood...carry water.




Past and Future in Equilibrium


  The great Roman philosopher Cicero is know to have said: « not to know about one´s past means to remain a child forever «. One could read this statement on several levels: historically -knowing the past
of a country, its historical background in order to understand its current politcal and social landscape, psychological- being aware of the factors that shaped one´s childhood, astrologically- understanding your karmic past, your outdated software that is waiting to be replaced, family-systemically- getting in touch with your genealogy, the traumas and potentials of your for-mothers and for-fathers, etc..
No matter on which level one choses to read the statement, it holds true. Not being aware, conscious, mindfull of the forces that have brought you to where and who you are, obstructs the future -and becoming an adult, in the most positive sense of the word. Past and future are two sides of ONE scale. When they are in balance, you arrive where all mystics claim one needs to go, the eternal Here & Now, the place where neither past nor future – and thus no time- exist. And the way to get there, would be to bring the past and the future into an equilibrium.
And as we always come from the past, already «own it», one would have to start working from that end of the scale. Being hooked to an unconscious past, would keep the scale tipped into the direction of the past and bring the future into a deficit. A future in deficit would translate into a future that keeps reenacting itsself with the shadows of the past hanging over it. This dark cloud would give the future an continous taste of feeling «under the weather». To come back to Cicero´s quote- one would for example psychologically continue to react to situations in the future out of the psychological wounds of the past, thus spoiling the future. Well, you get the picture.
Time for a jump into the lake (one hour outside of Berlin in the eco-village of Brodowin).

Paradisologi


  Jeg har lagt merke til det at jeg har en tilbøyelighet til å å bevege meg fra ett paradis til det andre. Og at jeg i grunnen hele tiden ubevisst, semi-bevisst, bevisst søker etter det her på jorden. I skrivende stund sitter jeg for eksempel på et lite øy utenfor Portør, hvor alt er paradisisk. Hav, svaberg, nydelig hus, herlige mennesker. Det er sol hele dagen, jeg kan fiske, både, lese, lage meg kaffe, drikke god vin til lunch og middag. Det kunne ikke være bedre (det må et av kjennetegnene av paradiset). Lykkefølelse er tilnærmet 100 %. Jeg kommet hit hjemmefra, hvor det på mange måte er også rimelig paradisisk. Uken før det var jeg i Sør-Frankrike, også på et helt himmelsk sted. Så skal vi videre retning Berlin og Potsdam, hvor vi også kommer til å være omgitt av det best mulige urbane omstendigheter, det beste som en by har å by på. Og ikke bare i den ytre forstand: også i henhold til mennesker-møte, utveksling av ideer, impulser er jeg hel-happy. Hvis jeg la de siste 6 uker passere før mitt indre øye, må jeg konstatere at Livet kunne knapt være. Selvsagt vet jeg at dette ikke er evig vedvarende, at det er holdbart på sikt å har det slik. Og det er helle ikke poenget mitt. Det som interessere meg at fenomenet - å legge merke til at og hvordan jeg alltid virke til å havne i paradisiske omstendigheter. (Teit uttrykk, forresten. Men kanskje treffende.)
I hvilken grad er jeg medskapende at det blir slik ? I relativ stor grad, tror jeg. Med min Descendent i Vekten tiltrekkes jeg av det venusiske, av skjønnheten. Jeg søker etter det, så at min Vær AC kommer energetisk i gir. Uten den venusiske stimulus hadde Væren min kanskje ikke vist hva han kommer i gir for. Slik var det i det minste med den mytologiske Væren, som representert gjennom arketypen Mars/ Ares. Han var ute og kriget hele dagen så at han om kvelden kunne legge seg til Venus/Afrodite. Enkelt og greit. I tillegg: med den ansamlingen av planeter som jeg har i det 12 hus, er man vel uansett alltid på veien «hjem» til paradiset- som er jo symbolsk et utrykk for å være All-En med kosmos. Her på jorden er det vel kanskje bare begrenset mulig- det er i hvert fall min erfaring. Polaritetens lov slår til og balansere gjennom «vann & brød» tider, for eksempler i faser hvor man blir syk, hvor man får mye motvind (mens medvinden her hvor jeg sitter på en svaberg her og nå er mild og varm), utfordringer, problemer. Nøkkelen er vel å hverken tar det ene eller det andre modus for «alt» (-for alvorlig) og hverken tror at det paradisiske er all-lykke skapende og heller ikke at de utfordrende faser varer evig, og skjønne hvordan her på den polare jorden det ene trenger det andre, er fruktbar for hverandre, og beveger seg i bølger. Apropos bølger: tid for et morgenbad og så en liten cortado med blåbær pannekaker, stekt på bål.


The 12 Faces of Eros


In a time and space that seems both oversexed and -at the same time- still somewhat repressed in regard to sexuality, it might be interesting to explore the question of the Eros archetype. One might start with the fundamental question: what does Eros mean ? Or, if one looks at it in an archetypal way: who is Eros ?
The first things to «get» is that Eros is a God. This means that there is in reality nothing trivial about Eros. Rather the other way around: a «God» means in my book « a major archetypal force». Eros is the archetypal force working behind the Law of Attraction. Everything that attracts us, that we find attractive is an emenation of Eros.
Every person carries inside themselves their own personal and transpersonal Eros. In a more differentiated way of perception one could split up the Eros wholeness into 12 Sub-Eros´es, plural, as each of the individual´s 12 subpersonalities has their own microcosmic Eros. Which might lighten up another fundamental misunderstanding around Eros: in consensus reality people assume that the erotic is something that comes from the outside. That assumption is misleading, as it oversees the fundamental aspect that human being in the first instance carry their own Eros(es) within themselves -which THEN get trigged by stimuli outside themselves. And -but this would lead to a whole new book, potentially book title 987 – of course, it is well worth noting that the stimuli that meet us from the outside don´t meet us accidentially, but in correspondance with the laws of the larger cosmic dance. They come when they must, in order to challenge to individual to exactly the growing edge that (s)he requires at that point in time & space.
Which has already pretty much answered the another fundamental question, namely which function Eros has in our lives, why we need to be attracted to something or someone erotically: we need the attraction -as a superb trick of the cosmos- to pull us out of our old selves and get -excuse me, - our asses into gear. Moving towards that which attracts us, so that it can -on the long run- make us meet the yet unrealized potential that is still asleep in the shadow realms of our own soul. Thus, the erotic attraction is meant to direct our attention towards our own shadow, with the intention that we eventually realise that symbolic content behind it as our own material, waiting to be kissed awake, in good old – and always equally new- Cinderella style. BTW: note that your role in this play is to be the princess asleep and the climbing-kissing prince at the same time !
To formulate it inversely: we cannot get attracted to something that we already have realized ourselves. Eros turns his back there, it is not interesting ! This means that Eros is always, always, always (old shamanic wisdom, you have to say it THREE TIMES) related to the shadow. And even if we might not be too hip to hear it: the Eros that attracts us to our partners is cannot be other-Wise.
Our partner is (a large part of) our shadow. In that context we have the chance to either see the partner as such (loving and learning) or fighting him/her, that in reality only are a reflection of a dark part of ourselves. Dark as = not visible. Not as = scary shit.
Eros is all around and all within, and a driving force of both personal and collective evolution.
Eros has consenus reality been reduced to physical sexual attraction. Nothing wrong with that form of Eros -Life would be quite a lot poorer and less fun without it- but that is just ONE of TWELVE possible forms of Eros.
Eros is all around and all within, any given moment of time and space, and a (the ?) driving
force of both personal and collective evolution.



The Dream Reader


One of my favourite approaches towards dreamwork is to log into the dream material by means of astrological archetypes. The general idea of that particular approach is to look at the main motives that show up in the dream and correlate them to the planetary archetypes or archetype combinations. Let´s say, for instance, that the motive of a snake shows up as a dream image. This would points towards the Pluto/Scorpio and thus informs me that the dreamer is in the process of under (!)-going a plutonic transformation and initiation. As a therapist, I would then do what I can (and not do what I can´t !) to help churning the alchemical fire and at the same time work with the individual´s conscious understanding of what is happening.
Let´s say a person is dreaming about a Volcano. This would again point towards the Scorpio principle. Maybe in combination with Leo/tSun, which stands for ex-press-ion. Also in this case it would mean that the dreamer is preparing for a metamorphosis, but – as the image suggests- with a slightly different spin: the volcano image connotates that is a lot of internal material has been stuffed down and is now pressing towards a release, or waiting to be expressed. Therapeutically, I would then start drilling holes in the side of the Volcano and let the lava slowly run out (better than to wait for the eruption and have a few villages burned by it).
A dream about an escape would hint towards unredeemed Pisces/Neptun and would thus inform me as a therapist that this archetypes neeed to be lifted towards a new level of the indi-vidual´s evolution.
Thus, the astrogical archetype approach could facilitate therapeutic processes by letting the potential dream reader know via linking it to the respective archetype what the «actual deal is», meaning: which developement is «up» now (or rather: soon. As the dream is still «down» and yearning to come «up»...into the awareness and integrated into Life.)



Hva er de beste erfaringer ?


Jt


De beste erfaringer er de som gjør vondt nok til at de setter i gang en lære prosess, og ikke så vondt at man tar langvarige skader av dem.

Med andre ord: en slags «balansert» erfaring, ikke for mye, ikke for lite. Blir den nemlig for sterkt, kan man blir traumatisert. I så fall kan man bli fristet å trykke dem ned – og dermed blir læringen, som er jo den virkelige og overordnete meningen med alle erfaringer – borte, eller i de minste: forsinket. Blir impulsen som erfaringen setter for svak, er det nærliggende å ikke legge merke til utviklingen som skjuler seg bak den.

Personlig har jeg hatt en del ulykker (som jo alt er annet enn u-lykker. De er jo ment til å skape lykke gjennom lære prosessen de setter i gang). De var såpass kraftige at jeg virkelig «kjenner» erfaringen på kroppen og sjelen. Jeg kan fremkalle for eksempel den voldsomme kraften av bil kollisjonen, når jeg lukker øyene, når som helst. Det var ikke så kraftige at de slo meg helt ut (av Livet), men kraftig nok som oppvåknings kall. Jeg har flere ganger nesten hogget, saget eller kuttet den ene eller andre fingeren av meg, med det som var igjen dinglende på en siste sene. Men: alle finger og tå er fortsatt på plass. Vis meg en sushi kniv eller en veldig tung øks eller en hardt smellende bil dør og jeg « vet» hvordan det føles ut når den møter kroppen med sin skarpe ende.
Jeg har jobbet med en del pasienter med forskjellige grader av utmattelses syndrom. Ingen av dem hadde noen varige skader, hverken fysisk eller neurologisk. Men heldigvis -objektivt sett- hadde de blitt truffet så hardt (men ikke «for hardt») at de skjønte at de ikke kunne gå tilbake til sine vanlige livs modaliteter.
Derfor er erfaringer som er tøffe, men ikke for tøffe, etter min erfaring de beste læremestere.

Løsnings-Orientert



Det finnes en enkelt, men -i all beskjedenhet- genial filosofi for Livet. Den går ut på det følgende:

Hvis noe ikke fungere, så betyr det at det finnes en bedre løsning.

Jeg har praktisert den i minst 30 år- kanskje i minst 30 liv ?- og jeg kan bare anbefale den på det varmeste. Eksempel: Jeg skal drar til Frankrike via Tyskland for å plukke opp møbler. Men:
bilen streiker dagen før, feilen la seg ikke fikse så fort. Kjøringen la seg ikke gjennomføre her & nå.
Man kunne blir sint, irritert, oppgitt. Men hva hvis man heller tenker: « hmm, hvis det som jeg subjektivt hadde planlagt ikke blir slik, da betyr det vel kanskje at det objektivt ikke stemte.». Over de årenejeg har eksperimentert med denne tilnærmingen, har det blitt mer og mer tydelig for meg, at det er greia:

Alt som objektiv skal skjer, skjer. Alt som ikke skjer, var kanskje bare en subjektivt spinn og objektivt ikke meant to be.

Så enkelt, og så vanskelig.

Men tilbake til reisen min. Jeg har da altså tolket dette misfunksjonen som et impuls fra kosmoset, og la gå av det opprinnelige scenario. Dermed setter jeg igang en prosess for å finne alternative muligheter. Etter en del refleksjon og prøving-og-feiling har jeg funnet til en annet scenario, som viser seg i retrospekt til å være i siste konsekvens mye bedre på alle måte.
Jeg vil påstår -pga de ovennevnte lovmessigheter- at det alltid er slik. Prøv å tenk på det neste gang noe gå i dunken. Det finnes ingen virkelig grunn å blir sur: noe enda bedre venter rundt neste eller over-neste hjørne. Livet & det trans-personlige er adskillige smartere enn vår lille subjektivitet. Alltid. Det kan vi virkelig stole på. La Livet med stor «L» være din virkelige læremesteren fra virke-ligheten. Der blir ditt mikrokosmos et stykke mer synkronisert med makrokosmoset.

Hvorfor det finnes så mange hyperaktive barn disse dager


 
Bare i USA anslår man at 11 % av barn lider av ADHD. I mange andre land, med lignende livsstil, skulle man antar at statistikken ligner. Som vanlig når mennesker er vitenskapelig motivert
og setter i gang, blir der fort «much ado about nothing». Mye styr, mye research, mye penger- og man ser ikke skogen for alle trær. Man ser og høre ikke det som ordet allerede sier: så tydelig, nemlig at barn some hyperaktive, over-aktive, GJØR FOR MYE.
Ok, takk, det var det. Neste spørsmål, pliiis.
Ingen spøk, det. Grunnen hvorfor barn er hyperaktive er for de gjør for mye. De har et for fullt program. De er overflodet av aaaaaaaaalt for mye. I hvert fall: mye mer enn dere sjel, kropp og hjerne fikser. Ser på hva de fleste barn i USA gjør, hvor tettpakket deres døgnet er, fra alpha til omega. Det begynner å ligner her i Norge, også. Vår ygnste sønn Daniel, 8 år, har knapp noen å leke med på hverdager fordi alle sine venner (og det er en del, selv her ute i skogen) har piano timer, karate, fotball trening, ski trening, håndball, kor, korps- you føkkin´name it ! Foreldrene shuttler sine barn frem og tilbake fra det ene programpunkt til det andre. Selvsagt «støtter» foreldre det, fordi deres barn skal blir så fordømt vellykket. Vi snakker: foreldrenes ambisjoner på veien av sine barn.
Og ja, selvsagt, foreldrene driver selv med det samme, og er dermed «gode» (dvs: dårlige) forbilder til sine barn. Også her, ingen rolige minutter. Slag etter slag. Fritids stress.
Og da lurer man på hvorfor i all verden barn får ADHD, og blir hyper ? Hvor blind kan man egentlig være ? Når skal det ståkkårs barne hjernen og psyken falle til ro, tar en dyp pust ? Spesiell hvis den etter alle programpunkter må i tillegg prestere på alle sosiale media fronter, og spiller syyykt vellykket der.
Dermed er også ADHD et livsstil sykodom.

Gheez. Jeg kjenner jeg begynner selv blir hyper, bare av å skrive det.
Gjør dine barn en tjenste: ikke ståpp dem for fullt med dine ambisjoner.  

Garden Analogies: Re-Potting


I could write a whole book just about the analogies between the cultivation of the human soul and working in the garden.

Here is one that hit me today:
Ingvild and I had to re-pot our kiwi plants. The old pots had become too small for the growing kiwi plants. The growth prosess of the plants would cease if we didn´t give them larger pots.
If we translate that principle to the level of human individuation: we outgrow our old forms all the time. As we grow, we need correspondingly larger containers, more expansive life modalities that can accomodate this new level of our personal evolution.
But (there always seems to be a «but» when hunan beings are involved): more often than not human beings stay put in their old forms: old forms of defining their own identities, outdated ways of being in relationships, safe but boring jobs that don´t correspond with one´s current visions of vocation and attraction – to name only a few. Or think about parents, trying to press their children into forms (schools, pedagogics etc) that don´t fit the size of their soul, brain, body, creativity -don´t get me started....
Think about society, and the collective psyche: also here we could quote thousands of examples where the developement of consciousness – the content- has outgrown the old forms. Economic and monetary politics, for example.Banks and their dealings.

In architecture it is often postulated that « form follows function «.
This applies for human evolution, too. Individually and collectively.
The function in that case is: growth as a human being into Self.

As usual: this work starts at the individual level. The collective is only the sum of the individual. So: feel free to check out your own form(s) and find new pots that fits who you are here & now.
Until you have outgrown that pot, as-well.
And so on.
Until the pot is as large as the whole cosmos and no more a pot at all.

For the astro-minded: we are talking the bright side of the Scorpio archetype- which is, of course, as bright as any.
I can hear Monty Python sing: « always look on the bright side of Scorpio...»

Free Therapy III: Birdsong






All the best things in life are free. This applies as-well for some of the very best therapy measures, This evening I became aware of one of those wonder-full free-bees while sitting out in the woods. Being out here among the trees is -without a doubt -in itself highly therapeutic. In addition, as bonus, there is the magical soundtrack of continous birdssong. One can hear the song of hundreds of birds, closeby, further away, overall, all the time. And all one has to do is listen. There it is, sound-healing, an open secret, no need to do anything, but open one´s first, second and third ear and listen, taking it IN. Therapy in its highest form. Message from the skies and the earth, at the same time.vNothing beyong that required for bliss.

Barnas ikke-oppdragelse og andre grønne vekster


Jeg har sagt det før, jeg sier det igjen: Vinflasken trenger en opp-trekker, men barn trenger ingen opp-dragelse. Barn trenger heller ikke noe pedagogikk. Eller psykologisering.
Min tese er det følgende: barn blir best seg SELV, hvis man bare la det som ligger i dem som potensial frø uforstyrret vokser frem. Og da blir de ikke bare de best-mulige barn for seg Selv og sin omverden, men også kommer til å utvikle seg selv til de best mulige ungdom og voksen når deres reise gjennom tid og rom bringer dem ditt. Man trenger altså ikke å fylle dem med noe som ikke er der, bare la dem utvikle de potensialene som allerede ligger der og bare trenger tid og rom til å vokse frem i lyset. Politisk hadde man kalt det non-involvement policy. Det betyr forresten ikke at man ikke bryr seg. Tvert imot : man ikke-gjør-det fordi man bryr seg. Det man kan gjøre er at
man prøver å skape de beste mulige ramme betingelse så at barne-planten kan vokste ut av seg Selv til å bli den som den er uansett ment til å være. Voksne, foreldre, lærer, pedagoger, psykologer, PPT tjeneste , barnevern- herreogdameminkosmos ! fikler alt for mye med barna. Hvorfor de gjør det ? For å prøve å forløse sine egne indre barn, så klart. Men så lenge man kan gjør det hos barna, trenger man jo ikke å relatere det til seg selv.
Tilbake til best mulige rammebetingelser. Hva mener jeg med det ? Først: foreldrene jobber hver for seg med sin egen Selv-utvikling og blir forhåpentlig i konsekvens mer og mer balansert i seg Selv. Dette har svært positive konsekvenser for barnet. Ikke fordi foreldre blir «mer pedagogiske», men fordi de ER mer seg SELV. Dermed virker i det usynlige gjennom det de Selv er, og gir barnet dermed en inspirasjon/modell til å også tørre å leve seg Selv mer og mer UT. For det andre: foreldrene utvikler parforholdet. Det godeste Bert H. pleier å si: «det som gjør barn mest lykkelig, er hvis foreldrene har en god partnerskap «. Og det stemmer: barn kan slappe mye mer av inn i seg Selv, hvis de opplever at foreldrene har det bra med hverandre. Bare fordi de ikke blir stresset av foreldrenes konflikter. Med andre ord: det dreier seg mindre om hva man skal gjøre MED barna (pedagogisk, oppdragelse etc), og mer om hva man la skal la være. La man barna utvikle seg Selv organisk, utifra sine egne potensialer og rytmer (som er ikke nødvendigvis «normert» med konsensus realiteten eller en spesiell tidsplan fra skole etaten), faller alt etterhvert på plass av seg selv. Hvis man bare la dem være og fokusere seg på å skape de beste mulige rammebetingelse rundt dem.
Det mest vesentlige blir til  av seg Selv, hvis man bare la det skjer !

Kollektiv Psykologi & Astrolo




Jeg vet ikke om dere har også lagt merke til det, med det virker som om det er mange mennesker som får en god overhøvling i disse dager. Jeg ser det på det individuelle plan, veldig mye i partnerskapets landskap, og selvsagt også på alle andre plan, det sosiale, økonomiske, politiske. Sammen tema, på forskjellige analoge plan. Dette er selvsagt ingen tilfeldighet. Jeg forstår astrologi -spesiell hvis man betrakter de aktuelle planet konstellasjoner- som et slags kollektiv Høyde Psykologi. Dermed er det interessant å se for eksempel på den aktuelt måneknute aksen. Etter min oppfatning reflektere den rådende måneknute aksene grunn tonaliteten av de kollektive psykologiske utviklinger som er «opp». Her får vi akkurat nå den svært så opplysende opplysningen at den nedstigende måneknute befinner seg i Tyren og dermed den oppstigende måneknute i Skorpion. I klartekst vil dette si at alt som er fastkjørt, i grunnen død og utdatert av gamle mønstre, væremåte, indre software, livs modaliteter etc er opp for en grundig revisjon. Trofast til seg selv og følgeriktig er Skorpionen relativ kompromissløst i sin gjennomføring. Og bra er det, objektivt sett, selv om det kjennes subjektiv vondt. Den potensiell gode nyheten er at Skorpionens magiske sting er akkurat så giftig som den trenger å være for vedkomnes forvandling. Ikke mer, ikke mindre. Akkurat passe, som det hør og bør i et fungerende kosmos: «no pain, no gain» !  

Den Virkelig Voksens ABC, del I: Barn som foreldrenes Speil



Som del av Høyde Pedagogikkens fundamentale ABC virker det på tide at foreldre oppdrar seg selv til å se gjennom følgende åpent hemmelighet:

Det som foreldrene reagere på ved sine barn, er primært en speiling av sine
egne skygger.

Å lese dette er forholdvis lett. Å leve i samsvar med den realisasjonen adskillig mer vanskelig. Derfor: neste gang du blir irritert, oppgitt, misfornøyd, sliten av det ditt barn gjør eller ikke gjør, kan du klare å vokse ut over din egen skygge, løfte deg selv opp til å være virkelig voksen og tar projeksjonen tilbake, bort fra barnet, og peke mot deg selv ?
Peke mot seg selv – ikke anklagende, dømmende eller skyld fordelende- men som 100 %
Selv ansvarlig voksen (en god øvelse for lærer også, forresten !)
Vokser du inn i slike gode vaner blir det lettere og viere for både deg og barnet.
Begge blir avlastet av en tyngde som kun eksistere og blir matet så lenge projeksjonen -og mistolkningen som henger i hop med den- forsetter å eksistere.

For å gi et enda mer differensiert bilde, som gjør forståelsen enda mer helhetlig, men også mer komplekst (de fleste mennesker foretrekker enkle forklaringer, det er derfor VG, The Sun, Bild Zeitung etc kan selge så mange aviser ):det er klart at barna er seg Selv og de har sin egen vei, skjebne, karma, horoskop,fortid og det hele. Men det er ikke det vi diskutere her og nå. Det vi prøve å rette oppmerksomheten på er det man selv som voksen reagere på. Og den reaksjonen hører helt tydelig til en selv, altså den voksne, og ligger dermed på ens eget side av ansvars balansen.

Fuglene synger i skogen, blåbær lyngen er så grønt at det virker surrealistisk og det er på tide å slå på min 35 år gamle italienske Pavoni kafe maskin. Den virker i dag like bra som for 35 år siden. Som jeg leste nylig at en av pionerene av Decroissance («ikke-vekst»)bevegelsen i Frankrike sa: «vi trenger ikke flere produkter og ting. Det er bedre å kjøpe ting av god kvalitet som holder lenge.». Saturn prinsippet på sitt beste: The coffee machine that never dies......lissom



Therapy as an Alchemical Process



Yesterday, while at a friend´s who helped us fix the exhaust pipe of our old Mitsubishi
4 x 4, my attention was seized by an old Citroen resting on top of a ramp, dismanteled to its core. The sight of this sceleton reminded me of the central formula of alchemy solve et coagula, signifying something along the lines of take it apart, clean it to the bones and put the cleansed parts together again into a new whole.
My associative chain led me further into therapeutic landscapes. The process seems to operate after the same principles: first you need to dismantle the whole of the human being´s old
ego & identifications - all the way down to the bones of the particular parts, spesific content. You need to clean the old wounds -that often had hidden under layers of articifical plasters, scrape them clean from the old debris and rust, desinfect them. This may burn, hurt on the short run– but definitely helps and heals on the long run. And finally one needs put the parts together again, integrate the insights, discovered potentials, new consciousness until a new human being is born.
Sounds a bit like creating a Frankenstein of some sort. But- also the Frankenstein monster is a symbol of an attempt to transform shadows that have been locked away over a long time.
Astrologically this corresponds to the Scorpio principle (alchemy, the dismanteling, the transformation, metamophosis). In the magical syklus of the zodiac, Sagitarius follows after Scorpio, meaning, related to this context: in order to arrive at a New Vision of Self -that must be the ultimate goal of any therapeutic process - the alchemical transformation first needs to have taken place in the laboratory of the Inner Alchemist. That´s why the working chronology in the Zodiac is (astro-)logical: first Scorpio, than Sagitarius.