Duality

In the Carl & Me class last week, Carl touched on the idea of dualism. He talked about his work in the context of hot and cold, east and west, logos and essence, the dark and the light, the good and the evil, life and death. It was a fascinating class for me because of one of the dreams I had worked with my therapist just before going into the class. I feel this is one of the most important pieces we have learned about so far from the Carl & Me teachings.

Dream:

I see a woman [the Anima]. She is holding two miniature planets in her hand: Mars and Earth. Mars is hot and earth is cold. They are in opposition to each other. She oscillates them in her hand like you would with Chinese medicine balls and I feel that they are moving back and forth between the two states of hot and cold or light and dark. I see other planets that appeared to be paired in a similar fashion.

I felt as if in the section of the reading (starting at the bottom of page 277 titled First Day), Carl was talking about the hot/cold duality of the logos vs feeling. Where the east and west meet at the horizon between these two places, is a place where one meets and perhaps even seeks the other. If you go too far towards the light of the east then you are oscillated back towards the dark and the west. We cannot leave behind the “poison of science” of what we know in the world because it is too inherent in our nature. For better or worse, we do have a brain that functions in a very specific and well grooved way. I had the idea that perhaps the enlightened person cannot exist solely in her essence and still teach what she knows. She needs the mind. Carl talks about how we need the mind in Primus.

I was reminded of my strings at the last NOE retreat, where I am in the center of the spin and the Anima is teaching something to me and some other people from NOE. She is teaching from this place in the center of the spin. The spin is equated to our outer life, our persona, our ego, the constructs of the intellect and body. The “poison of science” resides in the spin. I wondered if this place where Carl & the horned beast meet is the same as the center of the spin. This is the singular place that is of neither extreme. It is the place where the duality ceases to be, where it is cancelled out. It is the place where the balls are always touching, neither moving from hot nor cold. The place where the totality of the essence is intact and the mind is still there to understand the lessons to be learned. The place where the lame God may be healed by the power of faith that he is just as real as science. I wondered if the greening that Carl keeps referring to is the place of learning and growing in a spiritual way, in this life. Because to leave this life behind is to die the true death.

Marc said that the goal is not the attainment of the soul, that there is still more. I wondered if part of the more is about an enlightenment that involves an integration of science and God, an integration of reason and intellect with the mysterium.

I have noticed that the sharing by people in NOE of their journey in Archetypal dreamwork is part of the work of this integration. It seems inclusive of living in essence but also being able to help lead others to a truth or spiritual awakening through sharing our outer world experiences and interactions, which is a necessary part of this work. The sharing seems a most important part of the work to me and we must have the logos to do it.