LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Ancestral Heuristics
One of the meanings of Magdalene is 'to weave'
One of the meanings of Magdalene is 'to weave'
Vocation, our "calling", is another way of summoning the depths into re-search. Our lives have collectivities of conscious and unconscious stories from ancestors and imaginal figures. For them we find ourselves 'called' into the work. They provide a space where the ontological character of psychic existence as images provides an epistemology of metaphor. In this transference field imagination is a valid form of knowledge.
Moreover, the transference can be sculpted into a ritual space, just as empirical research uses experiment to do the same. Another way of working with these ritual planes of the soul is to enact dialogues with the imaginal figures. Here we learn to listen to the 'other's' point of view in the work and decenter the ego. By suspending our rational prejudices of modernity, we make a space for the imaginal others to do their work in the work.
Romanyshyn, in The Wounded Researcher, details four levels of transference field: personal, cultural-historical, collective-archetypal and eco-cosmological. His study clusters around words that act like yeast in bread dough or seasoning in food: Orphic, anamnesis as un-forgetting, haunt, remember, metaphor, memory, body, hermeneutic, backward glance, poetic, transference, dialogue, history, reverie, cardiognosis, witness, grief, mourning, failed, orphan, ancestor, vocation. We can add our own keywords to the list.
This method includes intersubjective enquiry between researchers, social activism, ecological contextualisation, and engagement with the unconscious, experiencing and symbolizing -- a
structured pattern of engagement and reflection. Symbolizing can represent experiencing in many different ways, but can never fully specify it. For example, the experience of being in a place we love can be symbolized in words, shapes, colors, music, textures, movements and so on. None of these symbols can ever fully “capture” the whole feeling of actually being there, but they can help lead us to a “felt sense” of the experience.
In focusing (Gendlin), the practitioner alternately rests in the realms of experiencing and of symbolising. The process is iterative, and takes time, discipline and patience. With each shift
between realms, symbolisation is refined: gradually, the momentum of this repeated movement builds up and allows fresh insights to emerge. The understandings that come from this process can be expressed in poetry, prose, sculpture, drawing, music and so on. The diversity of expressive media is much richer than that used in mainstream science.
Polanyi’s concept of “tacit knowing” also informs the heuristic method. Tacit knowing is a way of intuitively getting to know the wholeness of something. Polanyi suggested that this happens when “subsidiary factors” (conscious, visible, easily described elements) combine with “focal factors” (which are unseen, implicit and subliminal) to make a complete body of knowledge.
In active looking the object of study becomes part of the researcher: If this works as it should, one can experience the suspension of one’s preconceived notions and habitual responses about the thing being perceived, so that its exact sensorial qualities enliven and deepen perception... One has the intuitive perception of the thing as within oneself, and not as an object outside one’s own being. The object of our interest does not only live within us: we also live within it.
We share our lives with what we study; we are part of the same ever-changing gestalt; we cannot be separate. We live the question in waking, sleeping, and even dream states. Everything in our lives becomes crystallized around the question and meaningful answers.
Intense engagement with the question happens as a natural part of the research process, and this intensity is needed to produce something. But wrapping around the subject matter too tightly can cut off the flow from unknown into known and the process can become lifeless.
Relaxation and surrender to unknowing are built in to the heuristic method. Phases of surrender happen cyclically in the focusing process, and on a larger scale, in the incubation and contemplation phases where we completely come away from the question for a period of time.
These smaller and larger openings to the unknown – like breathing in and out – are needed to allow something new to come into life. Relaxation and surrender unclench the mind’s desperate grip on a problem, and allow space, mystery and freedom. Research with soul in mind does not monumentalize the occasion, pin it down with facts, exhaust it with explanations, or imprison it with ideas.
“Co-researchers” help us create meanings, context, and understanding. This collective effort and immersion can liberate the individual ego from fears of opening to the unknown. As any researcher knows, it is easy to become anxious and lose perspective when working in isolation. The companionship of others can help us to relax and widen our perspective. It can also help us to be more creative and playful in our thinking.
However, working with each other in this way not only provides support, it generates a creative tension. The intersubjective process is alchemical, dialectical; a potent force for creating something new. Sometimes we come into conflict, but it is in resolving these conflicts that relationship is deepened and new insights emerge.
Human relationships are always charged with unconscious phenomena that can become confusing. Unconscious processes can surface in the form of conflict that is difficult to resolve: they can also lead to collusion. Regular reflection on personal and shared processes, as well as external supervision is very useful in making these processes conscious. But crucially, as ecopsychologists, we also engage with the physical and metaphysical world of wider nature. This, more than anything else, helps us realign ourselves and come into authentic relationship with each other and with the earth.
For us, collaboration with nature goes far beyond the duality of metaphor. Ecological contexts can become synonymous with the unconscious itself. This allows unconscious phenomena to manifest physically and gives us a precious opportunity to explore previously unknown areas of the psyche. Right at the heart of our research method is an ecological collaboration with the larger body of the earth – “a coparticipative relationship”.
All the way along, we go into wild nature to test our theories and to surrender in absolute humility to the potential that dwells there. This is an ever unfolding process. Our constant return to the earth is the fertile ground from which our intuitions and ideas emerge. As we go deeper into the research, we go deeper into the unconscious.
If we pay heed to the unconscious, it can be a great source of help and direction at all stages, particularly encouraging us in dreams. We are transformed by our contact with the unconscious. It is not just a helpful tool in our research. It acts on us, and we act on it. Our life experience is the central reference point.
Krippner suggests that internal structures created by all our experiences, woven into tacit knowledge, in the form of a “personal myth”, act as a “chaotic attractor” which pulls towards it experiences and interpretations which in turn support the existing structures of the researcher’s psyche. This principle is well known in psychotherapy.
Our own past experience, particularly if it is traumatic, influences how we see the world. The personal myth is still a chaotic attractor, but one which draws the researcher back on a journey to find “what has been left behind” – the untold stories or neglected mindscapes of the researcher's childhood, family, land, culture, and so on.
This is an older way of knowing – like the shamanic traditions, where strands connecting us to our ancestors, to our ecological context, and to ancient or archetypal stories are honoured as allies in understanding and healing the present. We suggest that remembering our personal, collective, and ecological wounds, in both conscious and unconscious domains, is a vital source of motivation.
We need to be able to go into the darkness with a clear eye and an open heart. This gives us the best chance of understanding and healing these wounds. However, we not only need to remember our wounds. We also need to remember the joy we feel personally and collectively when we reconnect with our ecological selves. Ultimately, this joy is both our touchstone and our source.
In the context of psychological enquiry, Jung writes of this delicate subjectivism, “All the true things must change and only that which changes remains true” (Jung, 1955-6: 503). From this perspective, “truth” is contradictory, ephemeral and infinitely relative. These include reference to bodily reactions, intuition and emotions.
We are also aware of the important caveat that unconscious processes such as transference and projection can apparently come in on the same “frequency” as intuition, bodily reactions and emotions. Intuitive interpretations always need to be offered tentatively, and need to ring true with their recipient. In our view, this is one of the great strengths of intersubjective exploration – we can test out our intuitions with each other.
Moreover, the transference can be sculpted into a ritual space, just as empirical research uses experiment to do the same. Another way of working with these ritual planes of the soul is to enact dialogues with the imaginal figures. Here we learn to listen to the 'other's' point of view in the work and decenter the ego. By suspending our rational prejudices of modernity, we make a space for the imaginal others to do their work in the work.
Romanyshyn, in The Wounded Researcher, details four levels of transference field: personal, cultural-historical, collective-archetypal and eco-cosmological. His study clusters around words that act like yeast in bread dough or seasoning in food: Orphic, anamnesis as un-forgetting, haunt, remember, metaphor, memory, body, hermeneutic, backward glance, poetic, transference, dialogue, history, reverie, cardiognosis, witness, grief, mourning, failed, orphan, ancestor, vocation. We can add our own keywords to the list.
This method includes intersubjective enquiry between researchers, social activism, ecological contextualisation, and engagement with the unconscious, experiencing and symbolizing -- a
structured pattern of engagement and reflection. Symbolizing can represent experiencing in many different ways, but can never fully specify it. For example, the experience of being in a place we love can be symbolized in words, shapes, colors, music, textures, movements and so on. None of these symbols can ever fully “capture” the whole feeling of actually being there, but they can help lead us to a “felt sense” of the experience.
In focusing (Gendlin), the practitioner alternately rests in the realms of experiencing and of symbolising. The process is iterative, and takes time, discipline and patience. With each shift
between realms, symbolisation is refined: gradually, the momentum of this repeated movement builds up and allows fresh insights to emerge. The understandings that come from this process can be expressed in poetry, prose, sculpture, drawing, music and so on. The diversity of expressive media is much richer than that used in mainstream science.
Polanyi’s concept of “tacit knowing” also informs the heuristic method. Tacit knowing is a way of intuitively getting to know the wholeness of something. Polanyi suggested that this happens when “subsidiary factors” (conscious, visible, easily described elements) combine with “focal factors” (which are unseen, implicit and subliminal) to make a complete body of knowledge.
In active looking the object of study becomes part of the researcher: If this works as it should, one can experience the suspension of one’s preconceived notions and habitual responses about the thing being perceived, so that its exact sensorial qualities enliven and deepen perception... One has the intuitive perception of the thing as within oneself, and not as an object outside one’s own being. The object of our interest does not only live within us: we also live within it.
We share our lives with what we study; we are part of the same ever-changing gestalt; we cannot be separate. We live the question in waking, sleeping, and even dream states. Everything in our lives becomes crystallized around the question and meaningful answers.
Intense engagement with the question happens as a natural part of the research process, and this intensity is needed to produce something. But wrapping around the subject matter too tightly can cut off the flow from unknown into known and the process can become lifeless.
Relaxation and surrender to unknowing are built in to the heuristic method. Phases of surrender happen cyclically in the focusing process, and on a larger scale, in the incubation and contemplation phases where we completely come away from the question for a period of time.
These smaller and larger openings to the unknown – like breathing in and out – are needed to allow something new to come into life. Relaxation and surrender unclench the mind’s desperate grip on a problem, and allow space, mystery and freedom. Research with soul in mind does not monumentalize the occasion, pin it down with facts, exhaust it with explanations, or imprison it with ideas.
“Co-researchers” help us create meanings, context, and understanding. This collective effort and immersion can liberate the individual ego from fears of opening to the unknown. As any researcher knows, it is easy to become anxious and lose perspective when working in isolation. The companionship of others can help us to relax and widen our perspective. It can also help us to be more creative and playful in our thinking.
However, working with each other in this way not only provides support, it generates a creative tension. The intersubjective process is alchemical, dialectical; a potent force for creating something new. Sometimes we come into conflict, but it is in resolving these conflicts that relationship is deepened and new insights emerge.
Human relationships are always charged with unconscious phenomena that can become confusing. Unconscious processes can surface in the form of conflict that is difficult to resolve: they can also lead to collusion. Regular reflection on personal and shared processes, as well as external supervision is very useful in making these processes conscious. But crucially, as ecopsychologists, we also engage with the physical and metaphysical world of wider nature. This, more than anything else, helps us realign ourselves and come into authentic relationship with each other and with the earth.
For us, collaboration with nature goes far beyond the duality of metaphor. Ecological contexts can become synonymous with the unconscious itself. This allows unconscious phenomena to manifest physically and gives us a precious opportunity to explore previously unknown areas of the psyche. Right at the heart of our research method is an ecological collaboration with the larger body of the earth – “a coparticipative relationship”.
All the way along, we go into wild nature to test our theories and to surrender in absolute humility to the potential that dwells there. This is an ever unfolding process. Our constant return to the earth is the fertile ground from which our intuitions and ideas emerge. As we go deeper into the research, we go deeper into the unconscious.
If we pay heed to the unconscious, it can be a great source of help and direction at all stages, particularly encouraging us in dreams. We are transformed by our contact with the unconscious. It is not just a helpful tool in our research. It acts on us, and we act on it. Our life experience is the central reference point.
Krippner suggests that internal structures created by all our experiences, woven into tacit knowledge, in the form of a “personal myth”, act as a “chaotic attractor” which pulls towards it experiences and interpretations which in turn support the existing structures of the researcher’s psyche. This principle is well known in psychotherapy.
Our own past experience, particularly if it is traumatic, influences how we see the world. The personal myth is still a chaotic attractor, but one which draws the researcher back on a journey to find “what has been left behind” – the untold stories or neglected mindscapes of the researcher's childhood, family, land, culture, and so on.
This is an older way of knowing – like the shamanic traditions, where strands connecting us to our ancestors, to our ecological context, and to ancient or archetypal stories are honoured as allies in understanding and healing the present. We suggest that remembering our personal, collective, and ecological wounds, in both conscious and unconscious domains, is a vital source of motivation.
We need to be able to go into the darkness with a clear eye and an open heart. This gives us the best chance of understanding and healing these wounds. However, we not only need to remember our wounds. We also need to remember the joy we feel personally and collectively when we reconnect with our ecological selves. Ultimately, this joy is both our touchstone and our source.
In the context of psychological enquiry, Jung writes of this delicate subjectivism, “All the true things must change and only that which changes remains true” (Jung, 1955-6: 503). From this perspective, “truth” is contradictory, ephemeral and infinitely relative. These include reference to bodily reactions, intuition and emotions.
We are also aware of the important caveat that unconscious processes such as transference and projection can apparently come in on the same “frequency” as intuition, bodily reactions and emotions. Intuitive interpretations always need to be offered tentatively, and need to ring true with their recipient. In our view, this is one of the great strengths of intersubjective exploration – we can test out our intuitions with each other.
"Come you lost Atoms to your Center draw,
And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return and back into your Sun subside."
-- The Conference of the Birds, Sufi Poems of Farid ud-Din Attar
Learning Objectives:
Discovery, Awakening, Integration, Implimentation
1. To compare traditional, contemporary and SangREAL thinking about
symbols, myths and themes and their place in the dragon heritage;
2. To analyze the creation, use and misuse (exploitation; coercion) of symbols in cultural and personal life;
3. To create symbolic meaning and describe its impact on individuals and culture;
4. To describe symbolic processes and expression in individual and group transformation;
5. To critique new conceptualizations of our historical symbols and the creation of symbolic meaning. Many puzzling and confusing things have been written about the Sangreal or Holy Blood by authors too numerous to mention. Each presents a different point of view, including mythic, legendary, and idiosyncratic or personalistic theories. No single theory contains the whole truth of the Grail because its multidimensional reality can only be experienced directly. This is Gnosis.
We engage the Mystery simply by asking, by making ourselves receptive to learn something. Here, we present many conflicting opinions and options for your consideration, allowing you to make up your own mind which resonate for you. We also include some psychological guidelines and transformative exercises that help you understand and navigate through the labyrinth of Bloodline lore and the media maze.
And be the Eternal Mirror that you saw:
Rays that have wander'd into Darkness wide
Return and back into your Sun subside."
-- The Conference of the Birds, Sufi Poems of Farid ud-Din Attar
Learning Objectives:
Discovery, Awakening, Integration, Implimentation
1. To compare traditional, contemporary and SangREAL thinking about
symbols, myths and themes and their place in the dragon heritage;
2. To analyze the creation, use and misuse (exploitation; coercion) of symbols in cultural and personal life;
3. To create symbolic meaning and describe its impact on individuals and culture;
4. To describe symbolic processes and expression in individual and group transformation;
5. To critique new conceptualizations of our historical symbols and the creation of symbolic meaning. Many puzzling and confusing things have been written about the Sangreal or Holy Blood by authors too numerous to mention. Each presents a different point of view, including mythic, legendary, and idiosyncratic or personalistic theories. No single theory contains the whole truth of the Grail because its multidimensional reality can only be experienced directly. This is Gnosis.
We engage the Mystery simply by asking, by making ourselves receptive to learn something. Here, we present many conflicting opinions and options for your consideration, allowing you to make up your own mind which resonate for you. We also include some psychological guidelines and transformative exercises that help you understand and navigate through the labyrinth of Bloodline lore and the media maze.
(c)2013; All Rights Reserved, Sangreality Trust
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This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
[email protected]
Fair Use Notice
This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.