After going through pages 10-14 of my book, Lunacy, in my last post... I came to understand something very important. Creative libido is accessible if we acknowledge that outer reality symbolically imitates an inner reality. The development of the axis necessary to work in communion with the libidinal power of subconscious is built with symbolic thinking. Neo-Jungians call this the ego-Self axis. Jungians define the ego as just the conscious part of the psyche. The ego is a small portion of the totality of the psyche, called the Self (with a capital s). The ego- Archetypal Self axis is a line of communication between ego consciousness and the libidinal subconscious.
When I designed this double page spread I thought “I can’t finish this, its too much stuff!” I also knew that part of pushing myself meant I would commit to tasks that overwhelm me. In an unexpected way, this is where the blood in this page played a role.
When I designed this double page spread I thought “I can’t finish this, its too much stuff!” I also knew that part of pushing myself meant I would commit to tasks that overwhelm me. In an unexpected way, this is where the blood in this page played a role.
In my "Violence and Lunacy" post, I talked about the fact that humans have a psychological preconfiguration to be enamored with blood. Let’s consider this fact: the entire time our psyche was evolving, we had experiences with blood. This is probably why so many religions use blood in their rituals. If you think about it, it makes sense that our primitive mind (The Self) would have a potent relationship with blood. We see blood, and it does something to us internally. This intense, internal reaction is jarring, it defies any kind of logical explanation, and transcends culture. Our psyche didn’t evolve alongside Gatorade. Seeing a cup of Gatorade isn’t nearly as intense as seeing a cup of blood. When I talk about “archetypal power”, this is a good dynamic that I think illustrates what I am talking about. Blood’s interaction with internal psyche has a lot of archetypal power. That internal intensity when we see blood is a good frame of reference in terms of understanding the archetypal. The various functions blood has served in terms of religious rituals are wonderfully outlined in Edward Edinger’s “Ego and Archetype.” Since this reaction to blood takes place across all of humanity, its jarring nature is transpersonal is rather than personal. When Jungians talk about archetypes, they are talking about the transpersonal preconfigurations in the psyche that arouse the primitive libido.
Here is a quote from Edinger’s “Ego and Archetype” that best explains how blood resonates with the primitive Psyche.
"Since primitive times blood has carried numinous implications. The blood was considered to be the seat of life or soul. Because the liver was thought to be a mass of clotted blood, the soul was located in that organ. Since life ebbed away as one bled to death, the equation of blood and life was natural and inevitable."
Edinger, Edward F.. Ego and Archetype (C. G. Jung Foundation Books Series) (Kindle Locations 3942-3945). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
“Numinous” means that something has a spiritual quality. The archetypal pull of blood is numinous.
Because blood was a divine fluid it was a crime to spill it except in a sacrificial ritual dedicated to the gods. Hence blood was associated with murder and with the guilt and vengeance which follow it. Blood was thought of as an autonomous entity which can call for its own revenge as when the blood of Abel cries from the ground (Genesis 4:10). According to primitive thinking (i.e., unconscious thinking) it is not that it is morally wrong to take the life of another but rather that it is highly dangerous to interfere with such a potent substance as blood.
Edinger, Edward F.. Ego and Archetype (C. G. Jung Foundation Books Series) (Kindle Locations 3952-3956). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
Here is a quote from Edinger’s “Ego and Archetype” that best explains how blood resonates with the primitive Psyche.
"Since primitive times blood has carried numinous implications. The blood was considered to be the seat of life or soul. Because the liver was thought to be a mass of clotted blood, the soul was located in that organ. Since life ebbed away as one bled to death, the equation of blood and life was natural and inevitable."
Edinger, Edward F.. Ego and Archetype (C. G. Jung Foundation Books Series) (Kindle Locations 3942-3945). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
“Numinous” means that something has a spiritual quality. The archetypal pull of blood is numinous.
Because blood was a divine fluid it was a crime to spill it except in a sacrificial ritual dedicated to the gods. Hence blood was associated with murder and with the guilt and vengeance which follow it. Blood was thought of as an autonomous entity which can call for its own revenge as when the blood of Abel cries from the ground (Genesis 4:10). According to primitive thinking (i.e., unconscious thinking) it is not that it is morally wrong to take the life of another but rather that it is highly dangerous to interfere with such a potent substance as blood.
Edinger, Edward F.. Ego and Archetype (C. G. Jung Foundation Books Series) (Kindle Locations 3952-3956). Shambhala. Kindle Edition.
My conscious mind thought blood is simply symbolic of murder, carnage and pain. The with my new Neo-Jungian lens, the transpersonal subconscious (which also resides in me) knows blood to have the numinous quality of a celestial currency that serves to regulate archetypal, transpersonal, libidinal energies. If I consciously think of it this way, my subconscious aligns with the conscious, and I have successfully tapped into my creative drive. Situations became bloody when people were unable to regulate archetypal energies nonviolently. My conscious self wanted to reject this fascination, but my primitive self was drawn to this because blood represents the magical aspect of archetypal regulation.
This requires a person to have the capacity to embrace their irrationality on a level that is too much for some. As an artist, it means that when I was creating this spread, the archetypal potency of blood imagery, and its context in my story stimulated my primitive consciousness to give me a powerful drive. This spread communicates the intensity of this libidinal drive through detail, shape, and color. The bright red of the blood gives it a magical, divine sensibility that my Neo-Jungian lens can see.
When the outer world shares aspects of one’s internal world and the ego can recognize it, a regulated euphoric libidinal drive begins to pump. The Neo-Jungian lens provides a framework of identifying what is archetypally significant, how it resonates internally, and when this is actualized as a creation of art, our creative libido comes out to play. This was just my first introduction to this experience.
So what? Does this mean you just have to think about blood a lot, and put it in everything to be inspired? Well, I could do that but I don’t ONLY want to make that kind of work. I created this spread, had this experience, and later discovered Edinger’s writings about blood. Edinger’s words contextualized this experience for me. The understanding I gained was as follows: When I relate to my experiences of the outerworld archetypally, I can more easily access my creative libido.
This requires a person to have the capacity to embrace their irrationality on a level that is too much for some. As an artist, it means that when I was creating this spread, the archetypal potency of blood imagery, and its context in my story stimulated my primitive consciousness to give me a powerful drive. This spread communicates the intensity of this libidinal drive through detail, shape, and color. The bright red of the blood gives it a magical, divine sensibility that my Neo-Jungian lens can see.
When the outer world shares aspects of one’s internal world and the ego can recognize it, a regulated euphoric libidinal drive begins to pump. The Neo-Jungian lens provides a framework of identifying what is archetypally significant, how it resonates internally, and when this is actualized as a creation of art, our creative libido comes out to play. This was just my first introduction to this experience.
So what? Does this mean you just have to think about blood a lot, and put it in everything to be inspired? Well, I could do that but I don’t ONLY want to make that kind of work. I created this spread, had this experience, and later discovered Edinger’s writings about blood. Edinger’s words contextualized this experience for me. The understanding I gained was as follows: When I relate to my experiences of the outerworld archetypally, I can more easily access my creative libido.
I realized that the Neo-Jungian model that Robert Moore studied provides me with a very efficient means of developing an axis to tap into these psychological energies. To develop an ego-Self axis is to develop an efficient communion with the enormous powers of the transpersonal, archetypal Self.
My therapist suggested that I read Robert Moore’s “Facing the Dragon: Confronting Spiritual Grandiosity.” In reading this, I started to understand the significance of the archetypal. Its not just some neat thing to study to feel inspired. These are not neutral forces in the psyche, they are imperialistic. In “Facing the Dragon” Moore points out a dynamic that is inescapable: For the sake of keeping our ego’s comfortable, we deny its futility to the archetypal; consequently, we are possessed by imperialistic archetypal forces within the transpersonal, archetypal Self. This will cause us to destroy ourselves and eventually destroy the planet.
Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette put out a series of books called “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover.” These books are geared towards men to help us mature. The bigger picture though, is that these books provide a potent archetypal frame of reference for understanding how our inner world relates to our outer world. How consciously relating to the archetypal significance allows for one to maximize their human potential. This series also provides the information necessary to build the ego-Self axis to channel our creative libido. In short, to access the creative drive, we must develop a way of relating to ourselves and to the world archetypally.
After I started practicing the information Moore writes about and lectures about (see is-publications.com), I began having intense spiritual experiences. The first one was a bit much. It felt like I was skydiving while my spine started having a really intense tingling. I felt like I was about to leave my body. I was driving while this happened, so I had to pull over. I didn’t begin believing things that are untrue, but I started having experiences that are life affirming in ways I never could have anticipated. Since I have done this work, I have been able to cultivate ecstasy everyday. I can feel a tingly euphoria everyday running up and down my spine and into the base of my head. I feel really good. I can tap into energies and work in communion with them instead of having to wait for them and ride like a wave. I set out to determine away to tap into my creative libido and I was successful in my quest. I also found something that was much more important: what I found was life affirming ecstasy.
My therapist suggested that I read Robert Moore’s “Facing the Dragon: Confronting Spiritual Grandiosity.” In reading this, I started to understand the significance of the archetypal. Its not just some neat thing to study to feel inspired. These are not neutral forces in the psyche, they are imperialistic. In “Facing the Dragon” Moore points out a dynamic that is inescapable: For the sake of keeping our ego’s comfortable, we deny its futility to the archetypal; consequently, we are possessed by imperialistic archetypal forces within the transpersonal, archetypal Self. This will cause us to destroy ourselves and eventually destroy the planet.
Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette put out a series of books called “King, Warrior, Magician, Lover.” These books are geared towards men to help us mature. The bigger picture though, is that these books provide a potent archetypal frame of reference for understanding how our inner world relates to our outer world. How consciously relating to the archetypal significance allows for one to maximize their human potential. This series also provides the information necessary to build the ego-Self axis to channel our creative libido. In short, to access the creative drive, we must develop a way of relating to ourselves and to the world archetypally.
After I started practicing the information Moore writes about and lectures about (see is-publications.com), I began having intense spiritual experiences. The first one was a bit much. It felt like I was skydiving while my spine started having a really intense tingling. I felt like I was about to leave my body. I was driving while this happened, so I had to pull over. I didn’t begin believing things that are untrue, but I started having experiences that are life affirming in ways I never could have anticipated. Since I have done this work, I have been able to cultivate ecstasy everyday. I can feel a tingly euphoria everyday running up and down my spine and into the base of my head. I feel really good. I can tap into energies and work in communion with them instead of having to wait for them and ride like a wave. I set out to determine away to tap into my creative libido and I was successful in my quest. I also found something that was much more important: what I found was life affirming ecstasy.