CYBELE THE GREAT MOTHER
MAY NEWSLETTER 2019 –
SOUL DEVELOPMENT
INTRODUCTION
Carl Jung understood archetypes
as universal, archaic patterns and images that derive from the collective
unconscious and are the psychic counterpart of instinct. They are inherited
potentials which are actualized when they enter consciousness as images or
manifest in behaviour on interaction with the outside world. They are
autonomous and hidden forms which are transformed once they enter consciousness
and are given full expression by individuals and their cultures. In Jungian
psychology, archetypes are highly developed elements of the collective
unconscious. The existence of archetypes can only be deduced indirectly by
using story, art, myths, religions, or dreams. The soul is considered the
depository of the inherent elements of the collective, but it takes time to
develop and mature this soul. (see later).
THE GREAT MOTHER ARCHETYPE
From around the 6th century BC,
cults to the Anatolian mother-goddess were introduced from Phrygia into the
ethnically Greek colonies of western Anatolia, mainland Greece, the Aegean
islands and the westerly colonies of Magna Graecia. The Greeks called her Mātēr
or Mētēr ("Mother"), or from the early 5th century Kubelē; in Pindar.
She was a complex figure combining the Minoan-Mycenaean tradition with the
Phrygian cult imported directly from Asia Minor. In Greece, as in Phrygia, she
was a "Mistress of animals" (Potnia Therōn), with her mastery of the
natural world expressed by the lions that flank her, sit in her lap or draw her
chariot. She was readily assimilated to the Minoan-Greek earth-mother Rhea,
"Mother of the gods", whose raucous, ecstatic rites she may have
acquired. As an exemplar of devoted motherhood, she was partly assimilated to
the grain-goddess Demeter, whose torchlight procession recalled her search for
her lost daughter, Persephone.
DURGA MOTHER
HINDUISM
In Hinduism, Durga represents the
feminine aspect and the shakti (energy/power) of the One God (The Brahman), as
well as the empowering and protective nature of motherhood. From her forehead
sprang Kali, who defeated Durga's enemy, Shumbh. She is considered the
primordial energy as power of Time, literally, the "creator or doer of
time"—her first manifestation.
After time, she manifests as
"space", as Tara, from which point further creation of the material
universe progresses. The divine Mother, Devi Adi parashakti, manifests herself
in various forms, representing the universal creative force. She becomes Mother
Nature (Mula Prakriti), who gives birth to all life forms as plants, animals,
and such from Herself, and she sustains and nourishes them through her body,
that is the earth with its animal life, vegetation, and minerals. Ultimately,
she re-absorbs all life forms back into herself, or "devours" them to
sustain herself as the power of death feeding on life to produce new life. She
also gives rise to Maya (the illusory world) and to prakriti, the force that
galvanizes the divine ground of existence into self-projection as the cosmos.
The Earth itself is manifested by Adi parashakti. Hindu worship of the divine
Mother can be traced back to pre-vedic, prehistoric India.
We can now reflect on the soul
that is represented in the creative and destructive process of the great
mother. There is the universal soul that is called the great spirit and our
inner soul that arrives at birth and wants to grow and develop as a unique body
& mind of a human being. It is Interesting to note that even today we
worship the mother archetype in the name of MOTHER MARY. She is the embodiment
of our collective spirit.
However, in contemporary Western
society, the underworld journey is neither understood nor encouraged by most
parents, teachers, health professionals, or cultural leaders, to say nothing of
mainstream business, science, or politics. Yet a genuine soulful adulthood is
possible for everyone. We need to restore the ways of soul initiation — but not
by adoption of other cultures’ traditions or rites; rather, through the
creation of our own contemporary and diverse models that better fit our
post-industrial selves.
Spiritually, we can grow in two
directions: toward spirit, on the one hand, and toward soul, on the other. Soul
embraces and calls us toward what is most unique in us. Spirit encompasses and
draws us toward what is most universal and shared. Our human souls are embodied
(i.e., made visible in the world) through our core powers, our deepest and most
enduring powers, those central to our character and necessary to manifest our
soul-level uniqueness. Our core powers can be divided into our most central
values, abilities, and knowledge. Our core values are the ideals for which we
would be willing to die and for which we in fact live. Our core abilities are
the natural talents or gifts indispensable for performing our soul work; these
abilities are developed effortlessly or are capable of being honed to
exceptional levels.
Although both are transpersonal,
spirit takes you in one direction from the conscious mind or personality, and
soul takes you in the other. The movement toward spirit is a journey of ascent,
a journey of transcendence, while the movement toward your soul is a journey of
descent.
Plotkin, Bill. Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of
Nature and Psyche (pp. 24-25).
THE SEVEN SEASONS OF GROWTH
Psychologists are using the concept “attachment theory” to
study the ways young children and teens develop secure bases with others that help develop their personality. However, no science tells us how the SOUL aspect develops in
relationships as humans grow to maturity. Here is one concept to reflect upon:
According to the great master
OSHO, life has an inner pattern. Every
seven years, physiologists say, the body and mind go through a crisis and a
change. Every seven years all the cells of the body change, are completely
renewed. In fact, if we live over seventy years, our body dies many times. Each
seventh year everything changes. It is just like changing seasons. Finally, the line that moves from birth comes
to death. In fact, man’s life should not
be divided into childhood, youth, old age – that is not very scientific because
every seven years a new age, a new step is taken, that is the soul growing in
all of us.
For the first seven years a child
is self-centred, as if he is the centre of the whole world. The whole family
moves around him. Whatever his needs are, they are to be fulfilled immediately,
otherwise he will go into a tantrum: anger, rage, fury… He lives like an
emperor. His mother, his father – all are servants, and the whole family just
exists for him. And of course, he thinks the same is true for the wider world.
The moon rises for him, the sun rises for him, the seasons change for him.
A child remains totally egoistic,
self-centred for seven years. If you ask psychologists, they will say a child
remains “masturbatory” for seven years, satisfied with himself. He does not
need anything, anybody. He feels complete. After seven years – a breakthrough.
The child is no longer self-centred; he becomes eccentric, literally. Eccentric
– the word means going out of the centre. He moves toward others. The other
becomes the important phenomenon – friends, gangs… Now he is not so interested
in himself; he is interested in the other, the bigger world. He enters an
adventure to know who this “other” Is. Inquiry starts. After the seventh year,
the child becomes a great questioner. He questions everything. He becomes a
great sceptic because inquiry is there; he asks millions of questions. He bores
the parents to death; he becomes a nuisance. He is interested in the other, and
everything of the world is of interest. Why are the trees green? Why did God
create the world? Why is this so? He starts becoming more philosophic; inquiry,
scepticism – he insists on going into things. He kills a butterfly to see what
is inside, destroys a toy just to see how it works, throws a clock just to investigate
it, how it goes on ticking and chiming – what is the matter inside? He becomes
interested in the other, but the other remains of the same sex. He is not
interested in girls. If other boys are interested in girls, he will think they
are sissy. Girls are not interested in boys. If some girl is interested in boys
and plays with them, she is a tomboy, not normal, average; something is
wrong.
Psychologists will say this
second stage is mono-sexual. After the fourteenth year, a third door opens. He
is no longer interested in boys; girls are no longer interested in girls. They
are polite, but not interested. That’s why any friendship that happens between
the seventh year and the fourteenth is the deepest, because the mind is mono-sexual,
and no longer in life will such friendship happen again. Those friends remain
friends forever. You will become friendly with people, but it will remain an
acquaintance, not that deep phenomenon that happened between the seventh and
the fourteenth year. After the fourteenth year, a boy is not interested in boy.
If he is not stuck somewhere, he will be interested in girls. Now he is
becoming heterosexual – not only interested in the others, but really the
other, because when a boy is interested in boys, the boy may be other, but he
is still a boy just like himself, not exactly the other. When a boy becomes
interested in a girl, now he is really interested in the opposite, the real
other. When a girl becomes interested in a boy, now the world enters. The
fourteenth year is a great revolutionary year. Sex becomes mature, one starts
thinking in terms of sex, sex fantasies become prominent in the dreams. The boy
becomes a great Don Juan, starts courting. Poetry arises, romance. He is entering
the world.
By the twenty-first year – the
person becomes interested more in ambition than in love. He wants a Rolls
Royce, a great palace. He wants to be a success, a billionaire, a prime
minister. Ambitions become prominent: desiring for the future, being a success.
How to succeed, how to compete, how to move in the struggle is his whole
concern. Now he is not only entering the world of nature, he is entering the
world of humanity, the marketplace. Now
the market becomes the most prominent thing. His whole being goes toward the
market: money, power, prestige. If everything goes right – yet it never
actually goes that way.
By the twenty-eighth year, a man
is not in any way trying to enter an adventurous life. From twenty-one to
twenty-eight, one lives in adventure; by the twenty-eighth year, one becomes
more alert that not all desires can be fulfilled. There is more understanding
that many desires are impossible. If you are a fool, you can go after them. But
people who are intelligent, by the twenty-eighth year enter another door. They
become more interested in security and comfort, less in adventure and ambition.
They start settling. The twenty-eighth year is the end of hippiedom. At
twenty-eight, hippies become squares, revolutionaries are no longer
revolutionaries; they start settling, they seek a comfortable life, a little
bank balance. They don’t want to be billionaires - that urge is no longer
there. They want a small house, but established, a cosy place to live in, job security
– so at least this much they can always have; a small bank balance. They start settling. They may purchase a house, start living a
comfortable life…They becomes civilized. The word civilization comes from the
word “civis”, meaning citizen. Now they become part of a town, a city, an
establishment. The person is no longer a vagabond, a wanderer. Now he is not
going to Kathmandu and Goa. He is not going anywhere – finished, travelled
enough, known enough; now he wants to settle and be calm.
By the thirty-fifth year, life energy reaches
its “omega point”. The circle is half complete and energies start declining.
Now the man is not only interested in security and comfort, he becomes a Conservative
or orthodox. He becomes not only disinterested in revolution; he becomes an anti-revolutionary.
Now he is against all change. He is a conformist; he wants the status quo
because now he has settled and if anything changes, the whole thing will
unsettle him. Now he is talking against hippies, against rebels; now he has
become really a part of the establishment.
By the forty-second year, many
physical and mental illnesses erupt because now life is declining. Energy is
moving toward death. Just as in the beginning energies were coming up and you
were becoming more and more energetic, you were becoming stronger and stronger
– now just the opposite happens, you become weaker and weaker. But the habits
persist. You have been eating enough up to the age of thirty-five; now you
continue your habit. You will start gathering fat. Now that much food is not
needed. It was needed but now it is not needed because life is moving toward
death, it does not need that much food. If you go on filling your belly as you
were doing before, all sorts of illnesses will happen: high blood pressure, heart
attack, insomnia, ulcers – they all happen nearabout forty-two. Forty-two is
one of the most dangerous points. The hair starts falling out, becoming grey. Slowly
Life is turning into death.
By the forty-ninth year, the
search becomes clear; seven years it takes for the search to become clear. Now
a determination arises. You are no longer interested in the others,
particularly if everything has gone right. Before this, life was too much and you
could not be alone; there were responsibilities to be fulfilled, children to be
raised. Now they have become young people. They are married – by the time you
are forty-nine your children are getting married, settling. They are no longer hippies;
they must be reaching the age of twenty-eight. They will settle – now you can
unsettle. Now you can move beyond the home; you do not need a home. At the age
of forty-nine, one should start looking toward the forest, moving inward,
becoming introvert, becoming more and more meditative and prayerful.
By the age of sixty-three you
again become like a child, only interested in yourself. That is what meditation
is – to be moving inward, as if everything has fallen away. Only you exist. Again,
you have become a child – of course, very much enriched by life, very mature,
understanding, with great intelligence. Now you again become innocent. You
start moving inward. Only seven years are left, and you must prepare for death.
You must be ready to die. And what is the readiness to die? To die celebrating
is the readiness to die. To die happy, joyfully, to die willingly, welcomingly,
is to be ready. Existence gave you an opportunity to learn, and be, and you
learned. Now you would like to rest. Now you would like to go to the ultimate
home. Your soul is full.
By the age of seventy, you are
starting to be ready. And if you have followed this natural pattern, just
before your death, nine months before your death, you will become aware of it.
As a child must pass nine months in the mother’s womb, the same circle is totally
repeated, completely repeated, utterly repeated. By the time death comes, nine
months before, you will become aware. Now you are entering the womb again. This
womb is no longer outside in the mother, this womb is inside you. Indians call
the innermost shrine of a temple the garbha, the womb. When you go to a temple,
the innermost part of the temple is called the womb.
Ando so the soul is mature now.
We know that many saints have declared their deaths. Exactly nine months
before, a man of awareness, uncluttered with the past – because one who never
thinks of the future will never think of the past. They are together, the past
and future are together, joined together.
Osho International Foundation. The Chakra Book: Energy and
Healing Power of the Subtle Body .
Note: In the modern wealthy society there are more years to cover but the idea of soul development is still valid.
IN CONCLUSION
I am always inspired by my mentor
Michael Meade, the mythologist. His book:
AWAKENING THE SOUL. I highly recommend. He states:
"Awakening the Soul"
addresses the issue of the loss of soul throughout the world and the loss of
meaning and truth in modern life. Michael Meade shows how meaning is essential
to the human soul and uses ancient stories and compelling insights to describe
how soul can be recovered and people can learn to live in truth. Drawing from
dramatic episodes in his own life, Meade shows how the soul tries to awaken at
critical times, and how an awakened soul is crucial for finding medicine to
treat the ailments and alienation of modern life. What we need now is not a
minor repair, but a major transformation of the world that can only start with
the awakening of the individual soul.”
