Red Sky in the Morning
Fire in the sky - Calgary at dawn
I was up early as usual and as a result was able to appreciate my first dawn in Calgary. I thought that it would be appropriate to share it here with you since I seem to be sharing just about everything else. It makes me think of the old sailor’s rhyme – “Red skies in the morning, sailors take warning!”
I guess I should be alert and wary as I set to sea again, the inner sea of the unconscious. I know that I have done a lot of preparatory work in terms of journal writing, active imagination, and attention to my dreams; but I must not think for a moment that because of this preparation that it will be smooth sailing. If anything, the preparatory work was more about making sure that the life jackets are all in place and that the emergency kits are all safely stowed on the life raft. The seas will be rough, very rough. And in battling these seas, I test myself, discover my limits, and discover even more, discover the presence of my soul.
“When we resonate to this incarnated energy, we know we are in the presence of soul. When, for whatever reason, the energy no longer enlivens that image for us, then that structure dies for us as a source of the divine. There remains but a dead myth or ritual that touches us not.” (Hollis, Tracking The Gods, p. 9)
It is about the energy and the myth and the images (imagination) that arise from setting out on the journey on rough water that enlivens or animates me, makes me feel as though I am finally waking up and being present. As I wake up, the world is filled with images that are alive, that have a pulse, that hint at a greater mystery.
“. . . when people feel they are living the symbolic life, that they are actors in the divine drama. That gives the only meaning to human life . . . ” (Jung, CW 18, para. 630)
I’d forgotten this statement, that living the symbolic life gives meaning to Life.
Urspo
23 Feb 12 at 10:49 PM
I have been trying to see how I am living through a symbolic lens, or through the lens of mythology. Even though we live in the present, live ordinary lives, there is a symbolic and mythologic layer within our ordinariness.
rgl
24 Feb 12 at 8:10 AM
What a beautiful way to start this next step in your journey, Robert. Amazing photo.
seekraz
24 Feb 12 at 1:38 PM
Thanks for the comment
rgl
24 Feb 12 at 3:10 PM
In a positive way, this makes me feel more comfortable with having an overactive imagination. As if Jung recognized that imagination can be a way to explore ourselves in wild and unconventional ways that aren’t “normally acceptable.” …or something like that…
Lawrence
28 Feb 12 at 8:18 PM
I have to admit that you do have an active imagination, the reason you are now “family.” Thanks, Lawrence, for taking time out to post here on my blog site.
rgl
28 Feb 12 at 8:38 PM