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Excerpt from an edge-stained, lousy printed photo card. A wider crop was not possible. Slightly sharpened and colors corrected. Single code on back: .903
1342
no conscious thought or self-awareness
Music: Right Click and select "Open link in new tab"
www.youtube.com/watch?v=sFLGQ6waxck
John Zorn's Dreamers (as Electric Masada) - Marciac 2010 Track 4 Karaim
"Consciously adopt the mindset of a young child,
to whom all of life is a grand adventure.
Life is your playground.
Fashion grand castles and sweeping boulevards,
defeat fire-breathing dragons,
leap tall buildings in a single bound."
- Jonathan Lockwood Huie
To those of you that asked... the rainbow stairs in the previous photo lead to a small balcony on the front of the tower of the Gingerbread Castle. We didn't go all the way up the stairs because there was one missing and they didn't seem to be all that securely attached to the wall...and if all 95 lbs of Sharon wasn't going to try it, I wasn't either! But, maybe next time! ; )
I am ever so thankful for the people in my life that have chosen not to grow up in spite of chronologically having been considered to be adults for many years! To have such great friends willing to go on grand adventures with me, put up with me, and keep pointing me in the right direction when I am lost (as well as being willing to go to jail with me) is such a tremendous blessing!! Time spent in side-splitting laughter with you are the best times of my life! Thank you! Love you! ♥
“Everything in the Universe, throughout all its kingdoms, is conscious: i.e., endowed with a consciousness of its own kind and on its own plane of perception.”
H. P. Blavatsky
Have a great start to your week!
2/60
Listen: Pressure by The 1975
this picture is from the summer that i never even thought about editing until a couple of days ago. i really like how it turned out because it's something different from what i usually do.
i've decided that i'm not going to upload daily of this project just yet. for now, i'm going to wait until i meet with my mentor and get the ok that i can officially start it. this picture was kind of just an update.
view large
I rarely photograph a scene with myself in it so when a hoped for colorful sunrise didn't materialize at Lake of Two Rivers in Algonquin Park, I thought I would give it a try.
The question of a pose came up and after several attempts, I realized that standing with arms at my sides didn't work well and pointing at some imaginary distant object or having my arms akimbo just looked tacky. I finally settled for hands on hips.
As an afterthought, 10 seconds is not a lot of time to run into position on snowshoes - I completely forgot about the on camera intervalometer.
The Hydra agents that were still conscious fled as soon as Dracula popped up. I don't blame them.
Although he's just standing there, I'm just imagining Drac being all; "So how do you like my tomb? It's really roomy with high ceilings. Everyone said I was crazy to build it that way (and then I had them tortured and killed). But who's laughing now? THEY didn't know I'd have to live here for centuries. And it came in handy when I had to fight this Belmont family, don't ask it was a thing for awhile..."
Barlingbo Church (Swedish: Barlingbo kyrka) is a medieval Lutheran church in Barlingbo on the Swedish island of Gotland, in the Diocese of Visby.
The presently visible church was finished c. 1280. It was however preceded by another church, whose foundations have been discovered under the floor of the present one. The oldest parts of Barlingbo Church are the choir and apse. These have been dated to 1225.[2] Following this, the nave was built, and lastly the tower. The church in its entirety dates from the 13th century.
The church has three portals, two of which are in Gothic style and one, the oldest, which is still in the Romanesque tradition. The largest of the Gothic portals seems to have been inserted after the walls were built, as it is obviously too large for the façade and the walls have been made thicker around it in order to accommodate it. This portal dates from c. 1300. In the western, tower façade there is a rose window. There are also Gothic windows with still extant painted glass from c. 1280 in the apse and the south façade.
Inside, Barlingbo Church is divided by vaults in three sections, length-wise. It is a single-nave church. Its consciously conceived plan has been interpreted as being influenced by Cistercian architecture. The walls are decorated by frescos from different times. Oldest of these are a number of purely decorative, grey triangles and crosses, dating perhaps from the earliest construction period. A set of more monumental but likewise purely decorative frescos in the nave and around the east window of the apse date from c. 1280. Later, from the 14th century, are frescos in the apse depicting six apostles, unique in their appearance on Gotland.
Among the furnishings, the medieval altar (which has probably once housed a relic) has a Baroque top, dated 1683 and with the monogram of King Charles XI of Sweden. The triumphal cross featuring the crucified Jesus is from c. 1240 and is attributed to the anonymous Tingstädemästaren. In the choir, some tombstones from the 13th and 14th centuries are visible, and the pulpit, itself dating from 1673, has been placed on a medieval side altar. The pews and the organ cover are from the 19th century. One of the church bells is from c. 1440 and carries inscriptions evoking Christ, Mary and Saint Dionysius; the latter is believed to have been the patron saint of the church in Catholic times.
Perhaps the most unusual item in the church is the baptismal font, dating from the second part of the 12th century and richly decorated with carved figures. It displays figures from the Bible and the symbols of the evangelists. Some of the figures are also marked with runes. The unusual font, carved from a single block of limestone, is not comparable to any other baptismal font on Gotland. Swedish art historian Johnny Roosval (1879–1965) considered it to be one of the finest pieces of art from medieval Sweden. Influences from medieva English art from the time have also have been traced in the font.
Source: Wikipedia
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Barlingbo kyrka är en kyrkobyggnad på Gotland som tillhör Barlingbo församling i Visby stift.
Kyrkobyggnaden stegrar sig trappstegsvis i tre avsatser från koret i öster till det kraftiga kyrktornet i väster. Kyrkan är väl synlig över det omgivande åkerlandskapet. Trots sina betydande proportioner är tornet inte uppfört till full höjd utan klockvåningen med ljudgluggar har inrymts i nedre delen av tornspiran. Rester av en tidigmedeltida stenkyrka med kyrktorn har grävts fram under den nuvarande kyrkan av putsad kalksten.
Under 1200-talets andra fjärdedel uppfördes nuvarande kor i öster. Koret är ett slags absid med ett fyrsidigt utsprång där altaret är placerat. Samtida med koret är en sakristia med två rum vid korets norra sida. Vid 1200-talets mitt uppfördes murarna till långhuset. På 1280-talet avslutades byggnaden med tornet, samtidigt som långhuset välvdes.
Den stora gotiska sydportalen i långhuset fungerar som huvudportal. Den har en huggen omfattning av perspektiviskt placerade bågar och upptill ett gavelfält vars höjd överstiger takfoten. En stor gotisk portal, nu igenmurad, finns även på tornets nordsida, och en romansk i korets sydfasad. Interiören får sin karaktär av de kraftiga bågarna som bär upp de djärva kryssvalv som spänner över rummets från utsprånget i öster till ringkammaren i väster. I östväggen finns ett spetsbågigt fönster med masverk från 1200-talets slut och i väster avslutas rummet av ett stort rundfönster från samma tid. Flera av kyrkans fönster har märkliga figurala och ornamentala glasmålningar från 1280-talet. På väggarna och i valven finns medeltida kalkmålningar från olika perioder. Bland dessa märks en för Gotland ovanlig serie apostlabilder kring altaret.
Vid en mindre restaurering 1948 tog man bland annat fram tidigare överkalkade vägg- och valvmålningar.
Det stora triumfkrucifixet med hjulkors och evangelistsymboler i korsändarna är daterat till 1240-talet och tillskrivs Tingstädemästaren.
Den rikt skulpterade dopfunten i ringkammaren härrör från 1100-talet och är en av de märkligaste på Gotland.
Predikstolen är daterad till 1673 och står på ett medeltida sidoaltare.
Altaruppsatsen i sandsten gjordes 1683.
Kyrkklockan är gjuten i början av 1400-talet.
Källa: Wikipedia
Don't use this image on websites,blogs or other media, without my explicit permission.
"One writes neither for themselves nor for others. You write from a deep inner need speed. The artist helps because he has dedicated his life to art, which enables him, the deeper reality to make comprehensible to others.
The will to work , the creative will that pushes the artist and tormenting the artist, my view is equally applicable to our individual and our personal life and on every work of art. That means we have a will, a way and a force to change ourselves, and if we do, we do not act self-centered or introverted.
It is an action that ultimately affect an entire community, influenced and reshaped. So I think the big change will come into our consciousness. We have become conscious, we may not despair. We are conscious to the obstacles to the deliberate mendacity tidy up with which we are. "
Anais Nin 1903-77, The diary
In the pursuit of megapixels, photographers and manufacturers (many) have lost something ... This is my first digital camera. After more than 20 years of working with film, then I decided to purchase it ... The choice was a conscious and very exciting experiment. Until now, many of its properties - dimensions, weight, noise in low light leave no chance for anyone ...
Kurt Weiser is Professor in Ceramics at ASU. Follow link below.
art.asu.edu/ceramics/index.html
In the hands of Kurt Weiser, (b. 1950) the centuries-old tradition of china paint on porcelain is given new life. Weiser’s sumptuous, provocative teapots and jars, resplendent with lush jungle scenes, can be both alluring and unsettling. Detailed depictions of tropical splendor become wayward reveries as radiant colors and subtle distortions transform classic porcelain vessels.
Weiser, trained in ceramics at the Kansas City Art Institute and the University of Michigan, originally worked in an abstract, non-representational style with minimal surface decoration. While director of the Archie Bray foundation in Helena, Montana from 1977-88, he began to feel limited by this approach and contemplated new ways of working. Around 1990, he took the first step towards his current style when he covered a porcelain teapot with intricate botanical imagery using black and white sgraffito. After making a series of visits to Thailand, where he was inspired by the region’s luxuriant, intensely colored flora and fauna, a black and white palette no longer satisfied him. Seeking to capture Thailand’s richness, he began to experiment with China paints. Soon his skill as a colorist became an indispensable element of his work.
With the introduction of color into his work, Weiser also began to indulge his narrative impulses by incorporating figurative elements, drawn both from fantasy and art history, into his jungle scenes. Weiser’s figures, often nude and distorted across the planes of his vessels, move through steamy, Eden-like landscapes, interacting with the natural world they encounter. Themes of lust, predation, scientific curiosities, and the vulnerability of both man and nature abound in these scenes, resonating curiously with the cultivated vessel forms and refined medium Weiser has chosen.
Although Weiser has worked in this style for more than ten years, his work continues to evolve. The technical challenge of the overglazing process he uses, which requires multiple firings for each vessel and careful attention to the order in which colors are applied, forces him to thoroughly consider each piece he creates. Through refining this method of working, he has learned to take full advantage of the three-dimensionality of his surfaces by extending his scenes to fully encompass each vessel. In his recent work, he says that the softened, amorphous forms of his vessels should blend with their seamlessly painted surfaces so that the pots fade from view and “the painting is the three dimensional reality” floating in space as would a dream or reverie. Whether Weiser’s work is interpreted as three-dimensional painting or sensuously decorated porcelain, the pots he creates are among the most vivid and decadent of modern ceramics, providing a distinctive contribution to the ever-expanding medium.
Awards
1999 Arizona Commission on the Arts, Artist Fellowship
Regents Professorship A.S.U.
1998 Asian Cultural Council, Artist Fellowship
Research and Creative Activity Award, A.S.U.
1992 Artists Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts
1990 Artists Project Award: Arizona Commission on the Arts
1989 Artists Fellowship: National Endowment for the Arts
1986 Artists Fellowship: Montana Arts Council
Education
1976 M.F.A. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
1972 B.F.A. Kansas City Art Institute, Missouri
1967 Interlochen Arts Academy, Interlochen, Michigan
Museum Collections
Archie Bray Foundation, Helena, Montana
Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe
Carnegie Mellon Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Ceramics Monthly Magazine, Columbus, Ohio
Charles A.Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
The George M. Gardiner Museum of Art, Toronto, Canada
Hallmark Cards, Inc., Kansas City, Missouri
Hamline University, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Helsinki Museum of Applied Arts, Helsinki, Finland
Kansas City Art Institute, Kansas City, Missouri
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles
Mesa Arts Center, Mesa, Arizona
Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, North Carolina
Muscarelle Museum of Art, Williamsburg, Virginia
Museum of Contemporary Ceramics, Shigaraki, Japan
National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
National Museum of History, Republic of China, Taipei, Taiwan
Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Portland Art Museum, Portland, Oregon
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence, Rhode Island Schien-Joseph International Museum of Ceramic Art at Alfred University,
Alfred, New York
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska
Valley National Bank, Phoenix, Arizona
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England
Washington University Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
Winnipeg Art Museum, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Yellowstone Arts Center, Billings, Montana
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2001 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
2000 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1999 Working His Way Around China, Montgomery Museum of Art, Montgomery, Alabama
1998 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
1996 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1995 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1994 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1993 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Joanne Rapp Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
1992 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1990 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
1986 Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon
Salem Art Association, Salem, Oregon
1985 White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, Oregon
Paris Gibson Square, Great Falls, Montana
1984 Yellowstone Art Center, Billings, Montana
Anderson Ranch Arts Center, Aspen, Colorado
Lawrence Gallery, Portland, Oregon
1983 Brentwood Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
Hand and Spirit Gallery, Scottsdale, Arizona
The Craftsmen’s Gallery, Omaha, Nebraska
1982 Surroundings Gallery, New York
The Craftsmen’s Gallery, Scarsdale, New York
Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
1981 White Bird Gallery, Cannon Beach, Oregon
whose biggest worry is the polluted air. Even in front of a moving train.
Somewhere near Komlapur Station. Dhaka, Bangladesh.
21/12/2010
I am more and more conscious that I will one day die. life, the world, will not exist forever for me. I will die one day and the world will die for me. If I will continue to be, we will see. Meanwhile I just feel, breath and be.And that is really not a pesimistic way of life, I think it is pretty realistic and i even feel it as an optimist.
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Cada día soy más consciente de que moriré algún día. Un día moriré y la vida, el mundo ya no existirán más para mí. Si voy a continuar siendo, ya lo veremos. Mientras tanto, siento, respiro, soy. Y de verdad que no creo que esto sea una manera pesimista de vivir, más bien creo que es bastante realista incluso lo veo de forma optimista. :)
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“The detectors don’t induce the phenomenon of wave function collapse; conscious observation does. Consciousness is like this giant roving spotlight, collapsing reality wherever it shines—and what isn’t observed remains probability. And it’s not just photons or electrons. It is everything. All matter…A testable, repeatable fault in reality.”
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At 21:47 GMT, the equinox happened, and so from then on, light is destined to win over darkness. Which meant, of course, that the day before then was the shortest "day", or amount of daylight.
This is the end of the year, the build up and excitement before Christmas, and at the same time, looking back at the year, and what has happened in the previous 50 or so weeks. So, a time of mixed emotions, good and bad, happy and sad.
But I was on vacation, or not going to work.
I am not up to date, but I did all the tasks I was supposed to do, threw a few electronic grenades over the walls, and was now happy not to think of that shit for two whole weeks.
For Jools, however, there was half a day to do, and then her employers paid for all those employed at the factory to go to a fancy place in Folkestone for lunch, drinks at the bar and a bottle of wine between four folks.
It was, in short, a time for celebration. Something I realise has not happened in my job since I left operational quality, to be happy and give thanks to those we work with. And be recognised for the good job we do.
So, I was to take Jools to work, and have the car for the day.
Jools was conscious that my plan for the day involved driving to the far west of Kent, so realised I needed an early start, and not dropping her off in Hythe at seven.
We left after coffee just after six, driving through Dover and Folkestone on the main road and motorway before turning over the downs into Hythe. I dropped her off in the town, so she could get some walking in. She always didn't walk, as waves of showers swept over the town, and me as I drove back home for breakfast and do all the chores before leaving on a mini-churchcrawl.
So, back home for breakfast, more coffee, wash up, do the bird feeders and with postcodes, set out for points in the extreme west. Now, Kent is not a big county, not say, Texas big, but it takes some time to get to some parts of the west of the county. Main roads run mainly from London to the coast, so going cross-country or cross-county would take time.
At first it was as per normal up the A20 then onto the motorway to Ashford then to Maidstone until the junction before the M26 starts. One of the reasons for going later was to avoid rush hours in and around Maidstone, Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells.
As it was, after turning down the A road, things were fine until I got to Mereworth, but from there the road began to twist and turn until it lead me into Tonbridge. Once upon a time, this was a sleepy village or small town. The the railways came and it became a major junction. The road to Penshurt took me though the one way system, then down the wide High Street, over the river Medway and up the hill the other side.
Two more turns took me to my target, through what were once called stockbroker mansions, then down a hill, with the village laid out before me just visible through the trees.
The village was built around the outskirts of Penshurst Place, home to the Sidney family since Tudor times. Just about everything is named the Leicester something, the village having its own Leicester Square, though with no cinemas, and all timber framed houses and painfully picturesque.
The church lays behind the houses, the tower in golden sandstone topped with four spirelets.
I parked the car, and armed with two cameras, several lenses and a photographer's eye, walked to the church.
The reason for coming was I can only remember a little about my previous visit, but the Leicester name thing triggered in my head the thought the memorials and tombs might be worth a revisit.
So there I was.
Gilbert Scott was very busy here, so there is little of anything prior to the 19th century, but the memorials are there. Including one which features the heads of the children of Robert Sidney (d1702) in a cloud. Including the eldest son who died, apparently, so young he wasn't named, and is recorded as being the first born.
This is in the Sidney Chapel where the great and good are buried and remembered, it has a colourful roof, or roof beams, and heraldic shields. It has a 15th century font, which, sadly, has been brightly painted so is gaudy in the extreme.
I go around getting my shots, leave a fiver for the church. Go back to the car and program Speldhurst into the sat nav.
Its just a ten minute drive, but there is no place to park anywhere near the church. I could see from my slow drive-by the porch doors closed, and I convinced myself they were locked and not worth checking out.
I went on to Groombridge, where there is a small chapel with fabulous glass. I had been here before too, but wanted to redo my shots.
It was by now pouring with rain, and as dark as twilight, I missed the church on first pass, went to the mini-roundabout only to discover that it and the other church in the village were in Sussex. I turned round, the church looked dark and was almost certainly locked. I told myself.
I didn't stop here either, so instead of going to the final village church, I went straigh to Tunbridge Wells where there was another church to revisit.
I drove into the town, over the man road and to the car park with no waiting in traffic, how odd, I thought.
It was hard to find a parking space, but high up in the parking house there were finally spaced. I parked near the stairs down, grabbed my cameras and went down.
I guess I could have parked nearer the church, but once done it would be easier to leave the town as the road back home went past the exit.
I ambled down the hill leading to the station, over the bridge and down the narrow streets, all lined with shops. I think its fair to say that it is a richer town than Dover because on one street there were three stores offering beposke designer kitchens.
The church is across the road from the Georgian square known at The Pantiles, but it was the church I was here to visit.
I go in, and there is a service underway. I decide to sit at the back and observe.
And pray.
I did not take communion, though. The only one there who didn't.
About eight elderly parishioners did, though.
I was here to photograph the ceiling, and then the other details I failed to record when we were last here over a decade ago.
I was quizzed strongly by a warden as to why I was doing this. I had no answer other than I enjoyed it, and for me that is enough.
After getting my shots, I leave and begin the slog back up to the car, but on the way keeping my promise to a young man selling the Big Issue that I would come back and buy a copy. I did better than that in that I gave him a fiver and didn't take a copy.
He nearly burst into tears. I said, there is kindness in the world, and some of us do keep our promises.
By the time I got to the car park, it was raining hard again. I had two and a half hours to get to Folkestone to pick up Jools after her meal.
Traffic into Tunbridge Wells from this was was crazy, miles and miles of queues, so I was more than happy going the other way.
I get back to the M20, cruise down to Ashford, stopping at Stop 24 services for a coffee and something to eat. I had 90 minutes to kill, so eat, drink and scroll Twitter as I had posted yet more stuff that morning. In other news: nothing changed, sadly.
At quarter past four I went to pick up Jools, stopping outside the restaurant. When she got in she declared she had been drinking piña coladas. Just two, but she was bubby and jabbering away all the way home.
With Jools having eaten out, and with snacks I had, no dinner was needed, so when suppertime came round, we dined on cheese and crackers, followed by a large slice of Christmas cake.
She was now done for Christmas too.
----------------------------------------------------
A large sandstone church of nave, aisles, chancel and chapels that was restored by Sir George Gilbert Scott in 1864. It stands in an excellent position set back from the street in a large well-kept churchyard. The tower is of three stages with four pinnacles strangely set well back from the corners. Inside it is obvious that there have been many rebuildings and repairs, leaving a general character of the Victorian period. The good chancel screen is by Bodley and Garner and dates from 1897. Whilst it is well carved the florid design is more suited to a West Country church than to the Garden of England. The fifteenth-century font has been painted in bold colours in a way that can never have been imagined when it was new! Nearby is the Becket window designed by Lawrence Lee in 1970. It is quite unlike any other window in Kent and has an emphasis on heraldry - the figure of Becket and three knights are almost lost in the patchwork effect. Under the tower is the famous Albigensian Cross, a portion of thirteenth-century coffin lid with the effigy of a woman at prayer. The south chapel, which belongs to Penshurst Place, was rebuilt by Rebecca in 1820 and has a lovely painted ceiling. It contains some fine monuments including Sir Stephen de Pencester, a damaged thirteenth-century knight. Nearby is the large standing monument to the 4th Earl of Leicester (d. 1704) designed by William Stanton. It is a large urn flanked by two angels, above which are the heads of the earls children's floating in the clouds!
www.kentchurches.info/church.asp?p=Penshurst
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PENSHURST.
THE next parish eastward from Chidingstone is Penhurst, called in the Textus Roffenfis, Pennesherst. It takes its name from the old British word Pen, the height or top of any thing, and byrst, a wood. (fn. 1) It is called in some antient records, Pen cestre, and more vulgarly, Penchester, from some sortified camp or fortress antiently situated here.
There is a district in this parish, called Hallborough, which is within the lowy of Tunbridge, the manerial rights of which belong to Thomas Streatfeild, esq. and there is another part of it, comprehending the estate of Chafford, which is within the jurisdiction of the duchy court of Lancaster.
THIS PARISH lies in the Weald, about four miles Southward from the foot of the sand hills, and the same distance from Tunbridge town, and the high London road from Sevenoke. The face of the country is much the same as in those parishes last described, as is the soil, for the most part a stiff clay, being well adapted to the large growth of timber for which this parish is remarkable; one of these trees, as an instance of it, having been cut down here, about twenty years ago, in the park, called, from its spreading branches, Broad Oak, had twenty-one ton, or eight hundred and forty feet of timber in it. The parish is watered by the river Eden, which runs through the centre of it, and here taking a circular course, and having separated into two smaller streams, joins the river Medway, which flows by the southern part of the park towards Tunbridge. At a small distance northward stands the noble mansion of Penshurst-place, at the south west corner of the park, which, till within these few years, was of much larger extent, the further part of it, called North, alias Lyghe, and South parks, having been alienated from it, on the grounds of the latter of which the late Mr. Alnutt built his seat of that name, from whence the ground rises northward towards the parish of Lyghe. Close to the north west corner of Penshurst-park is the seat of Redleaf, and at the south west corner of it, very near to the Place, is the village of Penshurst, with the church and parsonage. At a small distance, on the other side the river, southward, is Ford-place, and here the country becomes more low, and being watered by the several streams, becomes wet, the roads miry and bad, and the grounds much covered with coppice wood; whence, about a mile southward from the river, is New House, and the boroughs of Frendings and Kingsborough; half a mile southward from which is the river Medway; and on the further side of it the estate of Chafford, a little beyond which it joins the parish of Ashurst, at Stone cross. In a deep hole, in the Medway, near the lower end of Penshurst-park, called Tapner's-hole, there arises a spring, which produces a visible and strong ebullition on the surface of the river; and above Well-place, which is a farm house, near the south-east corner of the park, there is a fine spring, called Kidder's-well, which, having been chemically analized, is found to be a stronger chalybeate than those called Tunbridge-wells; there is a stone bason for the spring to rise in, and run to waste, which was placed here by one of the earls of Leicester many years ago. This parish, as well as the neighbouring ones, abounds with iron ore, and most of the springs in them are more or less chalybeate. In the losty beeches, near the keeper's lodge, in Penshurst-park, is a noted beronry; which, since the destruction of that in lord Dacre's park, at Aveley, in Effex, is, I believe, the only one in this part of England. A fair is held here on July I, for pedlary, &c.
The GREATEST PART of this parish is within the jurisdiction of the honour of Otford, a subordinate limb to which is the MANOR of PENSHURST HALIMOTE, alias OTFORD WEALD, extending likewise over parts of the adjoining parishes of Chidingstone, Hever, and Cowden. As a limb of that of honour, it was formerly part of the possessions of the see of Canterbury, and was held for a long time in lease of the archbishops, by the successive owners of Penhurst manor, till the death of the duke of Buckingham, in the 13th year of king Henry VIII. in the 29th year of which reign, Thomas Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, exchanging Otford with the crown, this, as an appendage, passed with it, and it remained in the hands of the crown till the death of king Charles I. 1648; after which the powers then in being, having seised on the royal estates, passed an ordinance to vest them in trustees, to be sold, to supply the necessities of the state; when, on a survey made of this manor, in 1650, it appeared that the quit-rents due to the lord, from the freeholders in free socage tenure, were 16l. 18s. 3½d. and that they paid a heriot of the best living thing, or in want thereof, 3s. 4d. in money. That there were copyholders holding of it, within this parish, by rent and fine certain; that there was a common fine due from the township or borough of Halebury, and a like from the township of Penshurst, a like from the townships or boroughts of Chidingstone, Standford, and Cowden; and that there was a court baron and a court leet. The total rents, profits, &c. of all which amounted to 23l. and upwards. (fn. 2) After this the manor was sold by the state to colonel Robert Gibbon, with whom it remained till the restoration of king Charles II. when the possession and inheritance of it returned to the crown, where it remains, as well as the honour of Otford, at this time, his grace the duke of Dorset being high steward of both; but the see farm rents of it, with those of other manors belonging to the above mentioned honour, were alienated from the crown in king Charles II.'s reign, and afterwards became the property of Sir James Dashwood, bart. in whose family they still continue.
SOON AFTER the reign of William the Conqueror Penshurst was become the residence of a family, who took their name from it, and were possessed of the manor then called the manor of Peneshurste; and it appears by a deed in the Registrum Roffense, that Sir John Belemeyns, canon of St. Paul, London, was in possession of this manor, as uncle and trustee, in the latter part of king Henry III.'s reign, to Stephen de Peneshurste or Penchester, who possessed it in the beginning of the reign of king Edward I. He had been knighted, and made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports by Henry III. in which posts he continued after the accession of king Edward I. (fn. 3) He died without issue male, and was buried in the south chancel of this church, under an altar tomb, on which lay his figure in armour, reclining on a cushion. He left Margery, his second wife, surviving, who held this manor at her death, in the 2d year of king Edward II. and two daughters and coheirs; Joane, married to Henry de Cobham of Rundale, second son of John de Cobham, of Cobham, in this county, by his first wife, daughter of Warine Fitz Benedict; (fn. 4) and Alice to John de Columbers, as appears by an inquisition, taken in the 3d year of king Edward II. His arms, being Sable, a bend or, a label of three points argent, still remain on the roof of the cloisters of Canterbury cathedral. Alice, above mentioned, had this manor, with that of Lyghe adjoining, assigned to her for her proportion of their inheritance; soon after which these manors were conveyed to Sir John de Pulteney, son of Adam de Pulteney of Misterton, in Leicestershire, by Maud his wife. In the 15th year of that reign he had licence to embattle his mansion houses of Penshurst, Chenle in Cambridgeshire, and in London. (fn. 5) In the 11th year of king Edward III. Thomas, son of Sir John de Columbers of Somersetshire, released to him all his right to this manor and the advowson of the chapel of Penshurst; (fn. 6) and the year following Stephen de Columbers, clerk, brother of Sir Philip, released to him likewise all his right in that manor and Yenesfeld, (fn. 7) and that same year he obtained a grant for free warren within his demesne lands within the former. He was a person greatly esteemed by that king, in whose reign he was four times lord mayor of London, and is noticed by our historians for his piety, wisdom, large possessions, and magnificent housekeeping. In his life time he performed several acts of public charity and munificence; and among others he founded a college in the church of St. Laurence, since from him named Poultney, in London. He built the church of Little Allhallows, in Thamesstreet, and the Carmelites church, and the gate to their monastery, in Coventry; and a chapel or chantry in St. Paul's, London. Besides which, by his will, he left many charitable legacies, and directed to be buried in the church of St. Laurence above mentioned. He bore for his arms, Argent a fess dancette gules, in chief three leopards heads sable.
By the inquisition taken after his death, it appears, that he died in the 23d year of that reign, being then possessed of this manor, with the advowson of the chapel, Lyghe, South-park, and Orbiston woods, with lands in Lyghe and Tappenash, and others in this county. He left Margaret his wife surviving, who married, secondly, Sir Nicholas Lovaine; and he, in her right, became possessed of a life estate in this manor and the others above mentioned, in which they seem afterwards jointly to have had the see; for Sir William Pulteney, her son, in his life time, vested his interest in these manors and estates in trustees, and died without issue in the 40th year of the same reign, when Robert de Pulteney was found to be his kinsman and next heir, who was ancestor to the late earl of Bath. The trustees afterwards, in the 48th year of it, conveyed them, together with all the other estates of which Sir John Pulteney died possessed, to Sir Nicholas Lovaine and Margaret his wife, and their heirs for ever. Sir Nicholas Lovaine above mentioned was a descendant of the noble family of Lovaine, a younger branch of the duke of Lorraine. Godfrey de Lovaine, having that surname from the place of his birth, possessed lands in England in right of his mother, grand daughter of king Stephen, of whose descendants this Nicholas was a younger branch. He bore for his arms, Gules, a fess argent between fourteen billets or; which arms were quartered by Bourchier earl of Bath, and Devereux earl of Essex. (fn. 8) He died possessed of this manor, leaving one son, Nicholas, who having married Margaret, eldest daughter of John de Vere, earl of Oxford, widow of Henry lord Beaumont, died without issue, and a daughter Margaret, who at length became her brother's heir.
Margaret, the widow of Nicholas the son, on his death, possessed this manor for her life, and was afterwards re-married to Sir John Devereux, who in her right held it. He was descended from a family which had their surname from Eureux, a town of note in Normandy, and there were several generations of them in England before they were peers of this realm, the first of them summoned to parliament being this Sir John Devereux, who being bred a soldier, was much employed in the wars both of king Edward III. and king Richard II. and had many important trusts conferred on him. In the 11th year of the latter reign, being then a knight banneret, he was made constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports. In the 16th year of that reign, he had licence to fortify and embattle his mansion house at Penshurst, the year after which he died, leaving Margaret his wife, surviving, who had an assignation of this manor as part of her dower. She died possessed of it, with Yensfield, and other lands, about the 10th year of king Henry IV. and was succeeded in them by Margaret, sister and heir of her husband, Nicholas Lovaine, who was twice married, first to Rich. Chamberlayn, esq. of Sherburn, in Oxfordshire; and secondly to Sir Philip St. Clere, of Aldham, St. Clere, in Ightham. (fn. 9) Both of these, in right of their wife, seem to have possessed this manor, which descended to John St. Clere, son of the latter, who conveyed it by sale to John duke of Bedford, third son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, Essex, and Northampton.
The duke of Bedford was the great support and glory of this kingdom in the beginning of the reign of his infant nephew, king Henry VI. his courage was unequalled, and was followed by such rapid success in his wars in France, where he was regent, and commanded the English army in person, that he struck the greatest terror into his enemies. The victories he acquired so humbled the French, that he crowned king Henry VI. at Paris, in which city he died greatly lamented, in the 14th year of that reign, (fn. 10) and was buried in the cathedral church of Roan. He was twice married, but left issue by neither of his wives. He died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, as was then found by inquisition; in which he was succeeded by his next brother, Humphry duke of Gloucester, fourth son of king Henry IV. by Mary his wife, daughter and coheir of Humphry de Bohun, earl of Hereford, &c. who in the 4th year of king Henry V. had had the offices of constable of Dover castle and warden of the cinque ports, granted to him for the term of his life; and in the 1st year of king Henry VI. was, by parliament, made protector of England, during the king's minority; and the same year he was constituted chamberlain of England, at the coronation of that prince was appointed high steward of England.
The duke was, for his virtuous endowments, surnamed the Good, and for his justice was esteemed the father of his country, notwithstanding which, after he had, under king Henry VI. his nephew, governed this kingdom twenty-five years, with great applause, he was, by the means of Margaret of Aujou, his nephew's queen, who envied his power, arrested at the parliament held at St. Edmundsbury, by John lord Beaumont, then high constable of England, accompanied by the duke of Buckingham and others; and the night following, being the last of February, anno 25 king Henry VI. he was found dead in his bed, it being the general opinion that he was strangled; though his body was shewn to the lords and commons, with an account of his having died of an apoplexy or imposthume; after which he was buried in the abbey of St. Alban, near the shrine of that proto-martyr, and a stately monument was erected to his memory.
This duke married two wives; first Jaqueline, daughter and heir of William duke of Bavaria, to whom belonged the earldoms of Holand, Zeland, and Henault, and many other rich seignories in the Netherlands; after which he used these titles, Humphrey, by the grace of God, son, brother, and uncle to kings; duke of Gloucester; earl of Henault, Holand, Zeland, and Pembroke; lord of Friesland; great chamberlain of the kingdom of England; and protector and defender of the kingdom and church of England. But she having already been married to John duke of Brabant, and a suit of divorce being still depending between them, and the Pope having pronounced her marriage with the duke of Brabant lawful, the duke of Gloucester resigned his right to her, and forthwith, after this, married Eleanor Cobham, daughter of Reginald, lord Cobham of Sterborough, who had formerly been his concubine. A few years before the duke's death she was accused of witchcrast, and of conspiring the king's death; for which she was condemned to solemn pennance in London, for three several days, and afterwards committed to perpetual imprisonment in the isle of Man. He built the divinity schools at Oxford, and laid the foundation of that famous library over them, since increased by Sir Thomas Bodley, enriching it with a choice collection of manuscripts out of France and Italy. He bore for his arms, Quarterly, France and England, a berdure argent. (fn. 11)
By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears, that he died possessed of the manors of Penshurst, Havenden-court, and Yensfield, in this county, and that dying, without issue, king Henry VI. was his cousin and next heir.
¶The manor of Penshurst thus coming into the hands of the crown, was granted that year to Humphrey Stafford, who, in consideration of his near alliance in blood to king Henry VI. being the son of Edmund earl of Stafford, by Anne, eldest daughter of Thomas of Woodstock, duke of Gloucester, sixth and youngest son of king Edward III. Mary, the other daughter and coheir, having married Henry of Bullingbroke, afterwards king Henry IV. and grandfather of king Henry VI. (fn. 12) as well as for his eminent services to his country, had been, in the 23d year of that reign, created duke of Buckingham. He was afterwards slain in the battle of Northampton, sighting valiantly there on the king's part. By the inquisition, taken after his death, it appears that he died in the 38th year of that reign possessed of this manor of Penshurst, among others in this county and elsewhere; which afterwards descended down to his great grandson, Edward duke of Buckingham, but in the 13th year of Henry VIII. this duke being accused of conspiring the king's death, he was brought to his trial, and being found guilty, was beheaded on Tower-hill that year. In the par liament begun April 15, next year, this duke, though there passed an act for his attainder, yet there was one likewise for the restitution in blood of Henry his eldest son, but not to his honors or lands, so that this manor, among his other estates, became forseited to the crown, after which the king seems to have kept it in his own hands, for in his 36th year, he purchased different parcels of land to enlarge his park here, among which was Well-place, and one hundred and seventy acres of land, belonging to it, then the estate of John and William Fry, all which he inclosed within the pale of it, though the purchase of the latter was not completed till the 1st year of king Edward VI. (fn. 13) who seems to have granted the park of Penshurst to John, earl of Warwick, for that earl, in the 4th year of that reign, granted this park to that king again in exchange for other premises. In which year the king granted the manor of Penshurst, with its members and appurtenances, late parcel of the possessions of the duke of Buckingham, to Sir Ralph Fane, to hold in capite by knight's service, being the grandson of Henry Vane, alias Fane, of Hilsden Tunbridge, esq. but in the 6th year of that reign, having zealously espoused the interests of the duke of Somersee, he was accused of being an accomplice with him, and being found guilty, was hanged on Tower-hill that year.
PENSHURST is within the ECCLESIASTICAL JURISDICTION of the diocese of Rochester, and being a peculiar of the archbishop of Canterbury, is as such within the deanry of Shoreham.
The church, which is a large handsome building, is dedicated to St. John Baptist. It consists of three isles, a cross isle, and three chancels, having a tower steeple at the west end.
Among other monuments and inscriptions in this church are the following:—In the middle isle, a grave-stone, with the figure of a man and his two wives, now torn off, but the inscription remains in black letter, for Watur Draynowtt, and Johanna and Anne his wives, obt. 1507; beneath are the figures of four boys and three girls, at top, arms, two lions passant, impaling or, on a chief, two lions heads erased; a memorial for Oliver Combridge, and Elizabeth his wife, obt. 1698. In the chancel, memorials on brass for Bulman and Paire; within the rails of the altar a gravestone for William Egerton, LL. D. grandon of John, earl of Bridgwater, rector of Penshurst and Allhallows, Lombard-street, chancellor and prebendary of Hereford, and prebendary of Can terbury, he left two daughters and one son, by Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Head, obt. Feb. 26, 1737; on the south side of the altar, a memorial in brass for John Bust, God's painful minister in this place for twenty-one years; on the north side a mural monument for Gilbert Spencer, esq. of Redleafe-house, obt. 1709, arms, Spencer, an escutcheon of pretence for Combridge; underneath is another stone, with a brass plate, and inscription for William Darkenol, parson of this parish, obt. July 12, 1596; on grave-stones are these shields in brass, the figures and inscriptions on which are lost, parted per fess, in chief two lions passant guardant in base, two wolves heads erased; on another, the same arms, impaling a chevron between three padlocks; another, a lion rampant, charged on the shoulder with an annulet, and another, three lions passant impaling parted per chevron, the rest defaced. In the south chancel, on a stone, the figures of a man and woman in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Pawle Yden, gent. and Agnes his wife, son of Thomas Yden, esq. obt. 1564, beneath is the figure of a girl, arms, four shields at the corner of the stone, the first, Yden, a fess between three helmets; two others, with inscriptions on brass for infant children of the Sidney family; a small grave-stone, on which is a cross gradated in brass, and inscription in black letter, for Thomas Bullayen, son of Sir Thomas Bullayen; here was lately a monument for lady Mary . . . . . . eldest daughter of the famous John, duke of Northumberland, and sister to Ambrose, earl of Warwick, Robert, earl of Leicester, and Catharine, countess of Huntingdon, wife of the right hon. Sir Henry Sidney, knight of the garter, &c. at the west end of the chancel, a mural monument for Sir William Coventry, youngest son of Thomas, lord Coventry, he died at Tunbridge-wells, 1686; on the south side a fine old monument of stone, under which is an altar tomb, and on the wall above it a brass plate, with inscription in black letter, for Sir William Sidney, knightbanneret, chamberlain and steward to king Edward VI. and the first of the name, lord of the manor, of Penshurst, obt. 1553; on the front are these names, Sir William Dormer, and Mary Sidney, Sir William Fitzwilliam, Sir James Haninngton, Anne Sidney, and Lucy Sidney; on the south side a handsome monument, with the arms and quarterings of the Sidney family, and inscription for lord Philip Sidney, fifth earl of Leicester, &c. obt. 1705, and was succeeded by John, his brother and heir; for John, sixth earl of Leicester, cosin and heir of Henry Sidney, earl of Romney, &c. obt. 1737, his heirs Mary and Elizabeth Sidney, daughters and heirs of his brother the hon. Thomas Sidney, third surviving son of Robert, earl of Leicester, became his joint heirs, for Josceline, seventh earl of Leicester, youngest brother and heir male of earl John, died s. p. in 1743, with whom the title of earl of Leicester expired; the aforesaid Mary and Elizabeth, his nieces, being his heirs, of whom the former married Sir Brownlow Sherard, bart. and Elizabeth, William Perry, esq. on the monument is an account of the several personages of this noble family, their descent, marriages and issue, too long by far to insert here; on the north side is a fine monument for several of the infant children of this family, and beneath is an urn and inscriptions for Frances Sidney, fourth daughter, obt. 1692, æt. 6; for Robert Sidney, earl of Leicester, &c. fourth earl of this family, who married lady Elizabeth Egerton, by whom he had fifteen children, of whom nine died young, whose figures, as cherubims, are placed above, obt. 1702; Robert, the eldest son, obt. 1680, æt. 6; Elizabeth, countess of Leicester, obt. 1709, and buried here in the same vault with her lord. In the same chancel is a very antient figure in stone of a knight in armour, being for Sir Stephen de Penchester, lord warden and constable of Dover-castle in the reign of king Edward I. It was formerly laid on an altar tomb in the chancel, but is now placed erect against the door on the south side, with these words painted on the wall above it, SIR STEPHEN DE PENCHESTER. In the fourth window of the north isle, are these arms, very antient, within the garter argent a fess gules in chief, three roundels of the second, being those of Sir John Devereux, K. G. lord warden and constable, and steward of the king's house in king Richard II's reign; near the former was another coat, nothing of which now remains but the garter. In the same windows are the arms of Sidney; in the second window is this crest, a griffin rampant or. In the east window of the great chancel are the arms of England. In the east window of the south chancel are the arms of the Sidney family, with all the quarterings; there were also, though now destroyed, the arms of Sir Thomas Ratcliff, earl of Sussex, and lady Frances Sidney.
This church was of the antient patronage of the see of Canterbury, and continued so till the 3d year of queen Elizabeth, when Matthew, archbishop of Canterbury, granted it to that queen in exchange for the parsonage of Earde, alias Crayford; and though in the queen's letters patent dated that year, confirming this exchange, there is no value expressed, yet in a roll in the queen's office, it is there set down, the tenth deducted, at the clear yearly value of 32l. 1s. 9d. (fn. 24)
¶Soon after which the queen granted the church of Penshurst to Sir Henry Sidney, whose descendants, earls of Leicester, afterwards possessed it; from whom it passed, in like manner as Penshurst manor and place, to William Perry, esq. who died possessed of it in 1757, leaving Elizabeth his wife surviving, who continued proprietor of the advowson of this church at the time of her death in 1783; she by her last will devised it to trustees for the use of her eldest grandson, John Shelley, esq who has since taken the name of Sidney, and is the present owner of it.
In the 15th year of king Edward I. this church was valued at thirty marcs. By virtue of the commission of enquiry into the value of ecclesiastical livings, taken in 1650, issuing out of chancery, it was returned that the tithes belonging to the parsonage of Penshurst were one hundred and ten pounds per annum, and the parsonage house and glebe lands about fifty pounds per annum, the earl of Leicester being patron, and master Mawdell, minister, who received the profits for his salary. (fn. 25)
The annual value of it is now esteemed to be four hundred pounds and upwards. The rectory of Penshurst is valued in the king's books at 30l. 6s. 0½d. and the yearly tenths at 3l. 0s. 7½d. (fn. 26)
John Acton, rector of this parish, in 1429, granted a lease for ninety-nine years, of a parcel of his glebe land, lying in Berecroft, opposite the gate of the rectory, containing one acre one rood and twelve perches, to Thomas Berkley, clerk, Richard Hammond, and Richard Crundewell, of Penshurst, for the purpose of building on, at the yearly rent of two shillings, and upon deaths and alienations, one shilling to be paid for an heriot, which lease was confirmed by the archbishop and by the dean and chapter of Canterbury. (fn. 27)
This is the artwork of Tony Bond, which is called Nudge. It represents the moment after an earthquake strikes and your treasured ceramic items are tumbling off the shelves towards their destruction on the ground. The artwork is on shelves angled at 30 degrees to give them a feeling of kinetic energy represented by gravity and the "nudge" of an earthquake.
I suppose that the final part of this artwork is missing at the moment, which is when another major earthquake in Christchurch, causes them to really act out their roles.
An initiation ceremony in Papua New Guinea
Archetypes are innate universal pre-conscious psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic themes of human life emerge. The archetypes are components of the collective unconscious and serve to organize, direct and inform human thought and behaviour. Archetypes hold control of the human life cycle.As we mature the archetypal plan unfolds through a programmed sequence which Jung called the stages of life. Each stage of life is mediated through a new set of archetypal imperatives which seek fulfillment in action. These may include being parented, initiation, courtship, marriage and preparation for death.
"The archetype is a tendency to form such representations of a motif – representations that can vary a great deal in detail without losing their basic pattern ... They are indeed an instinctive trend".[15] Thus, "the archetype of initiation is strongly activated to provide a meaningful transition ... with a 'rite of passage' from one stage of life to the next":[16][17] such stages may include being parented, initiation, courtship, marriage and preparation for death.In Jungian psychology, archetypes are highly developed elements of the collective unconscious. Being unconscious, the existence of archetypes can only be deduced indirectly by examining behavior, images, art, myths, religions, or dreams. 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 behavior on interaction with the outside world.They are autonomous and hidden forms which are transformed once they enter consciousness and are given particular expression by individuals and their cultures.Strictly speaking, Jungian archetypes refer to unclear underlying forms or the archetypes-as-such from which emerge images and motifs such as the mother, the child, the trickster, and the flood among others. It is history, culture and personal context that shape these manifest representations thereby giving them their specific content. These images and motifs are more precisely called archetypal images. However it is common for the term archetype to be used interchangeably to refer to both archetypes-as-such and archetypal images.In Jungian psychology, archetypes are highly developed elements of the collective unconscious. Being unconscious, the existence of archetypes can only be deduced indirectly by examining behavior, images, art, myths, religions, or dreams. 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 behavior on interaction with the outside world. They are autonomous and hidden forms which are transformed once they enter consciousness and are given particular expression by individuals and their cultures.Strictly speaking, Jungian archetypes refer to unclear underlying forms or the archetypes-as-such from which emerge images and motifs such as the mother, the child, the trickster, and the flood among others. It is history, culture and personal context that shape these manifest representations thereby giving them their specific content. These images and motifs are more precisely called archetypal images. However it is common for the term archetype to be used interchangeably to refer to both archetypes-as-such and archetypal images.The intuition that there was more to the psyche than individual experience possibly began in Jung's childhood. The very first dream he could remember was that of an underground phallic god. Later in life his research on psychotic patients in Burgholzli Hospital and his own self-analysis later supported his early intuition about the existence of universal psychic structures that underlie all human experience and behavior. Jung first referred to these as "primordial images" – a term he borrowed from Jacob Burckhardt. Later in 1917 Jung called them "dominants of the collective unconscious."It was not until 1919 that he first used the term "archetypes" in an essay titled "Instinct and the Unconscious". The first element in Greek `arche' signifies 'beginning, origin, cause, primal source principle', but it also signifies 'position of a leader, supreme rule and government' (in other words a kind of 'dominant'): the second element 'type' means 'blow and what is produced by a blow, the imprint of a coin ...form, image, prototype, model, order, and norm', ...in the figurative, modern sense, 'pattern underlying form, primordial form'.In later years Jung revised and broadened the concept of archetypes even further, conceiving of them as psycho-physical patterns existing in the universe, given specific expression by human consciousness and culture. Jung proposed that the archetype had a dual nature: it exists both in the psyche and in the world at large. He called this non-psychic aspect of the archetype the "psychoid" archetype.
Jung drew an analogy between the psyche and light on the electromagnetic spectrum. The center of the visible light spectrum (i.e., yellow) corresponds to consciousness, which grades into unconsciousnessness at the red and blue ends. Red corresponds to basic unconscious urges, and the invisible infra-red end of the spectrum corresponds to the influence of biological instinct, which merges with its chemical and physical conditions. The blue end of the spectrum represents spiritual ideas; and the archetypes, exerting their influence from beyond the visible, correspond to the invisible realm of ultra-violet. Jung suggested that not only do the archetypal structures govern the behavior of all living organisms, but that they were contiguous with structures controlling the behavior of inorganic matter as well.The archetype was not merely a psychic entity, but more fundamentally, a bridge to matter in general.[8] Jung used the term unus mundus to describe the unitary reality which he believed underlay all manifest phenomena. He conceived archetypes to be the mediators of the unus mundus, organizing not only ideas in the psyche, but also the fundamental principles of matter and energy in the physical world.It was this psychoid aspect of the archetype that so impressed Nobel laureate physicist Wolfgang Pauli. Embracing Jung's concept, Pauli believed that the archetype provided a link between physical events and the mind of the scientist who studied them. In doing so he echoed the position adopted by German astronomer Johannes Kepler. Thus the archetypes which ordered our perceptions and ideas are themselves the product of an objective order which transcends both the human mind and the external world.opular and new-age utilizations have often condensed the concept of archetypes into an enumeration of archetypal figures such as the hero, the goddess, the wise man and so on. Such enumeration falls short of apprehending the fluid core concept. Strictly speaking, archetypal figures such as the hero, the goddess and the wise man are not archetypes, but archetypal images which have crystallized out of the archetypes-as-such: as Jung put it, "definite mythological images of motifs ... are nothing more than conscious representations; it would be absurd to assume that such variable representations could be inherited", as opposed to their deeper, instinctual sources – "the 'archaic remnants', which I call 'archetypes' or 'primordial images'".However, the precise relationships between images such as, for example, "the fish" and its archetype were not adequately explained by Jung. Here the image of the fish is not strictly speaking an archetype. The "archetype of the fish" points to the ubiquitous existence of an innate "fish archetype" which gives rise to the fish image. In clarifying the contentious statement that fish archetypes are universal, Anthony Stevens explains that the archetype-as-such is at once an innate predisposition to form such an image and a preparation to encounter and respond appropriately to the creature per se. This would explain the existence of snake and spider phobias, for example, in people living in urban environments where they have never encountered either creature.The confusion about the essential quality of archetypes can partly be attributed to Jung's own evolving ideas about them in his writings and his interchangeable use of the term "archetype" and "primordial image". Jung was also intent on retaining the raw and vital quality of archetypes as spontaneous outpourings of the unconscious and not to give their specific individual and cultural expressions a dry, rigorous, intellectually formulated meaning.
Mental Constructs: the cornerstone of self-improvement
Think about what moved you to self-improvement in the first place.
I guess that it probably was some frustration or some obstacle on the pursuit of an objective, which made you stop, step back, and think that maybe it was your own behavior or attitude which needed to change, rather than external circumstances.
Hopefully you solved your problem.
Nonetheless, the assumption you made — that you could change your own point of view and beliefs — would have not been possible for normal people before some centuries ago.
Before the birth of Kantian philosophy and then psychology, people could not even imagine that they had an inner life, that their psychology was separate from external reality, and that the former was viable to errors, and to be even doubted and changed. Your banal assumption is then the product of centuries of philosophical speculation by the finest minds humans have ever known.
What’s truly interesting about that idea though, is that its explicit content — that we can change our way of seeing things — is at once the application of such content to yourself. By thinking that maybe your way of seeing things can be modified, you are indeed already influencing your though patterns. You are moving your focus on different elements, from external elements, to your own thought process.
The consequences are real: your actions might change, your empathy towards others might too — maybe you’ll stop thinking you are right, and you might start thinking that your opinion is one among many. You might experiment with new ways to deal with people, or do things.
There nowadays exist entire professions devoted to studying and influencing our perceptions of things: psychologists, psychiatrists, marketers, politicians, philosophers, journalists. The common thread is the basic, uninteresting idea that our ideas, feelings and reality might not coincide. That we might be wrong.
Welcome to mental constructs.
The anatomy of Mental constructs
The example above is the father of mental constructs, while being a mental construct itself.
Mental constructs are simply the set of ideas and beliefs that we hold. While this seems easy on the surface, truth is that most mental constructs are so deeply ingrained in us, and backed up by so many experiences and emotional baggage, that we fail to see them as opinion, not facts.
Furthermore, I like referencing to them as constructs, rather than only beliefs, because they they indeed possess entire scaffolds to back them up, and we mostly experience them as entire world views, rather than individual ideas. This makes it even harder to separate them from facts.
Mental constructs literally form the structure of our world. This is because they orient our attention, and therefore actions in the World. They give meaning to our experiences. They are meaning itself. Experience without it would be raw data, as much as a foreign language is just mere sound before you know not only its words, but its rules as well.
The very idea of “World” is a mental construct.
We can’t ever really escape mental constructs, nor should we. The very beliefs which might not be fully accurate are the same ones that allow us to feel emotions and give richness to experiences.
The power of Mental Constructs
Mental constructs are power itself, as philosopher Michel Foucault held. They are since power itself is the desire to influence the world, and we define what is the world, and how to influence it, by mental constructs.
Mental constructs form the invisible net through which you live your life, the maze which you try to navigate and which determines which choices you’re allowed to take, and which ones seem inaccessible to you.
Your emotions are products of them, since emotions are our reaction to our perception of events. Between events and feeling stand the transparent world of ideas and beliefs, which determine if we feel sadness or joy, anger or calm.
We like to think that events are reality: we do since events are tangible, and therefore more readily available. Thoughts are not. We also do since most of our mental constructs are strongly backed up by hard emotions, since they constitute our most fundamental mean of power and security in life.
Mental constructs are the fabric of our worlds, and this is not going to change.
What can we do about it?
Some practical tips to use mental models
1)Discerning emotions, thoughts and facts
The basic tip is one from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
When living an experience, learn to discern between emotions and thought, and thought and facts.
You do this by questioning “is this an emotion, a thought, or a fact?”. Everyone gets this wrong from time to time. “I feel you are right” is actually an opinion, and should say “I think you are right, therefore I feel secure”.
The above tool is useful, and is taught in CBT sessions to patients, because emotions, thoughts and facts need to be dealt with differently.
Emotions need to be accepted as they are and experienced. They cannot be directly changed.
Facts must be accepted, but can be influenced with action.
Opinions can be seen, accepted but also questioned. “How much is this opinion realistic, and useful?”. This is the question to apply to opinions, after you’ve spotted it out.
Problems start when:
you treat emotions as facts, so you try to force them to change, you deny them, or you apply judgement (so called secondary beliefs) to them, thus making the feeling usually worse
you treat thoughts as facts or emotions, therefore forgetting that they can be questioned in their usefulness
It’s usually hard to treat emotions as thoughts since emotions are more direct and hardly get mistaken for something colder like a thought.
It is usually helpful to start from emotions, as they are directly noticeable due to their physical quality, then discern the event or fact associated to it, and last individuate the thought which stands in the middle. Thoughts are more elusive and usually taken for granted, so they are harder to pinpoint at first.
2)Finding alternatives to thoughts
Try it now. Pick a thought you had recently, maybe about an argument you had. Try for a moment to imagine an alternative explanation to it. Maybe you thought “they’ve been really rude to me”. Try to think “they behaved rudely, but maybe I need to understand their reasons”. Now check your emotions. Do you feel a difference? At first you felt resentful, annoyed. Now you feel calmer.
This brief experiment is simply to show you how experimenting with different perspectives can truly shift our feelings about a situation, and it also show how two different opinions are not more or less real, as they both feel true when you hold them.
It is not “lying to ourselves” as we do this all the times, albeit unknowingly.
The knowledge of mental models hopefully give you the tool to be more in control of your inner state in a conscious way.
A core idea is that of experimenting with new perspective after you’ve spotted an opinion. This is since we all hold our opinions very dearly and trying to force them to change can actually work against us, causing negative emotions and self-judgement to take place.
3)Accept your emotions, be compassionate of your mental constructs
Emotions are experientially closer to facts than opinions, because they are experienced in the body. Emotions cannot really be influenced directly (without the use of substances) but can be influenced modifying opinions and facts (although the latter are always filtered by mental constructs).
We often feel bad for some emotions we experience, or some thoughts we entertain. You might feel shame, or guilt. These are usually the consequence of secondary thoughts which we formulate about our own emotions.
Fact is, our mental construct were mostly there before we even noticed them. We are not to be held responsible for their creation (nor are our parents). Most importantly, we can put them in perspective and even experiment with alternative ones.
We can react to our own mental constructs, and work on building more useful ones.
An useful mental construct is to see them as something we were endowed with during our growth, but which are passible of change, and improvement.
4)In every situation, know a mental construct is in action
We often get stuck in life and feel there is no way out of situation when we forget that we are employing a mental construct to interpret it.
We see reality and our emotions so tied that we deduce they must be one.
The knowledge of mental constructs lets you now that the key to your wellbeing is really inside of you, not in some deep way but simply in your possibility to choose the mental construct which you live by.
Often facts need to change to make us finally well-off, but cannot influence facts until we come to see them as passible of being acted upon, and that comes through a change of mental construct.
Change comes after we decide we can change, or something makes us realize that we can do it.
The way you see and approach a situation determines the elements you’ll pay attention to, and the action you will take.
By knowing this and reminding yourself of it, you will hopefully feel more empowered and less victim to circumstances.
To conclude
Mental constructs are at work continuously in our lived. There is no escape from them.
While this might seem a prison, and we might never come to see reality as it is, it actually is the source of great power. The power to, literally, choose the form of the world we live in.
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Using small batch format production we as independent operators deliver uniquely integrated beauty, wellbeing and environmentally conscious products. PURE is Sodium Laurel Sulphate and Paraben free and is created without dyes or synthetics. We only use high quality essential oils to scent and each product is made in small batches to ensure quality. Through the use of natural, botanical ingredients, free of harsh chemicals and preservatives we deliver health and beauty products to the eco minded health conscious consumers through hotels, spas and retail locations throughout North America.
(If you'd like to use any of these photos for anything pls contact Kris Krüg first - kriskrug@gmail.com or 778. 898. 3076. Thank you! (c) (r) (tm) 2016)
I want to be brave like Esther who risked her life and position as queen to save her people.
I want to be selfless like Hannah who gave her only child to god for his entire life.
I want to be courageous like Ruth who followed Naomi into a place that was not her home.
I want to be like Mary who had the faith to disregard all judgement set against her for being a pregnant virgin mother.
I’ve spent so much time looking in the mirror and wanting to be all these superficial things. Or being afraid to look a certain way because people might think it’s too different. But have you ever looked in the mirror and said “I wish I could be more like Esther?”. Of course not, that sounds silly doesn’t it?
You know what the crazy thing is, if you were to bring that to god he would give you a new, unbelievable courage. But when you spend your time wishing your hair would be a certain way or your skin would be perfect you are wasting your time for something that will not last.
I’m almost positive I talked about this in the last project but that’s okay because something changed in between that time. A pastor was down at my church and she prayed over me. I had been lost and broken and scared and I had never met her before yet she put her hands on my head and right away told me, “God wants you to know he thinks you’re a gem.” A gem. Something so beautiful, valuable, and precious. Tell me, how can a woman I never knew, reach into the darkest part of me and speak words of fire and light? How could I not believe when a woman was standing in front of me telling me something only god could know and understand that I needed to hear?
This picture represents me in every single way. From my quirky personality to the way I’m afraid to part my hair in the middle because of what the kids at school might say. However that person is in the mirror, in a cage and stuck there. All I had to do and all I have to do is walk away. He is begging for you to turn away from that broken glassed mirror and to hear him tell you how beautiful you are. He wants you to know you are a gem to him. Unpolished, maybe. Chipped, probably. I mean I know I am. But still so beautiful and so unique.
You have a beauty that nobody else can obtain and only he can set a fire that will shine through those brittle bones and set heat to the coldness of your soul. We do not need anymore self conscious people who are obsessed with the way they don’t resemble Tyra Banks. He needs people with a beauty that only Esther, Hannah, Mary and Ruth had. A type of beauty that is only found buried beneath the dark coals inside. A type of beauty kept away in a hidden gem.
The tech chose this color for my toe nails because a lot of women are wearing it this summer. And she told me that it'll be a wonderful conversation starter when women notice that we're wearing the same color on our toes.
Update:
This photo was taken about 3 weeks ago.
But today I was in the nail salon, waiting my turn to get a fill on my french manicure, wearing a generic women's polo shirt and shorts, nude pantyhose and the flats from my "Amanda's Flats" pictures, minimal makeup, and my purse. A man walked in and sat down next to me, looking somewhat self-conscious in a shop full of women. After a few minutes, he awkwardly started to talk, and told me that he was there to "have my calluses attended to." I told him that was always good and "more men should take care of their feet". Then I told him "they do a great job here with pedicures", slipped out of my flats and held up my nylon-covered, bright-pink-nailed feet for him to see. "Wow, very pretty, miss, but I won't be getting any polish on mine." "Oh, you don't need to get color, but you really should treat yourself to clear polish. It makes them look nice for longer. Here, I even use clear polish on these." And both French-manicured hands went up to show him. He stared at them attentively for a few seconds and said "Gorgeous nails," but our respective techs interrupted his gaze and called us to their stations. Since he was a first timer he was addressed as "sir." I've been going there almost forever, so they called me by Miss Amanda.
The ladies (both techs and customers) were fine with his presence, but nonetheless, with three women around him, at in various stages of having their pretty polish applied, and one (me) getting a fill, he seemed a bit nervous, like someone was going to bite him! (Or worse yet, give him - gasp - red nail polish!!!) He was done before I was...and didn't get any polish, but I think he'll at least be back for another pedicure.
Maybe our paths will cross again and I can get him convinced to try clear!
Featured Image from Sonata Series
Sonata concentrates on seeing rather than looking. In our waking-state, we look at things all the time but consciously unless chosen to do we make the effort to see. This on-going series concentrates on the elements of design ; color, line, shape texture form and pattern. Each image composes of a singular point of interest to achieve photographic satisfaction. Here the visible, mundane & overlooked has its moment.
Nkosi.artiste@gmail.com
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Chance Nkosi Gomez known initiated by H.H Swami Jyotirmayanda as Sri Govinda walks an integral yogic path in which photography is the primary creative field of expression. The medium was introduced during sophomore year of high school by educator Dr. Devin Marsh of Robert Morgan Educational Center. Coming into alignment with light, its nature and articulating the camera was the focus during that time. Thereafter while completing a Photographic Technology Degree, the realization of what made an image “striking” came to the foreground of the inner dialogue. These college years brought forth major absorption and reflection as an apprentice to photographer and educator Tony A. Chirinos of Miami Dade College. The process of working towards a singular idea of interest and thus building a series became the heading from here on while the camera aided in cultivating an adherence to the present moment. The viewfinder resembles a doorway to the unified field of consciousness in which line, shape, form, color, value, texture all dissolve. It is here that the yogi is reminded of sat-chit-ananda (the supreme reality as all-pervading; pure consciousness). As of May 2024 Govinda has completed his 300hr yoga teacher training program at Sattva Yoga Academy studying from Master Yogi Anand Mehrotra in Rishikesh, India, Himalayas. This has strengthened his personal Sadhana and allows one to carry and share ancient Vedic Technology leading others in ultimately directing their intellect to bloom into intuition. As awareness and self-realization grows so does the imagery that is all at once divine in the mastery of capturing and controlling light. Over the last seven years he has self-published six photographic books, Follow me i’ll be right behind you (2017), Sonata - Minimal Study (2018), Birds Singing Lies (2018), Rwanda (2019), Where does the body begin? (2019) & Swayam Jyotis (2023). Currently, Govinda is employed at the Leica Store Miami as a camera specialist and starting his journey as a practitioner of yoga ॐ
A beautiful species in the genus Zamarada. I wonder if he chose the background on purpose. He certainly wasn't eager to move.
Now, that I'm here
breaking my relationship with time and space
watching my life through the milky glasses of a window
now it all becomes so clear
If I had the opportunity to smell
the enchanted wind of a spring flower
I would take a deep breathe
to relax
If I had the chance to get the tingling emotion
of warm white sea sand
slipping through my fingers
I would hold on to the feeling
If I could see the pure and carefree smile of a child
as the original nature of honesty
it would be so refreshing
being able to respond
If I could hear the greatest sound
the silence of forest in the early morning
just interrupted and up valued by the lonely call of a bird
I would answer
If I could have my body back
to be reloaded by a sip of crystal clear water
water which is not polluted by chemical industry
I could taste the freshness of the unspoiled nature
Now, that I'm here
breaking my relationship with time and space
watching my life through the clear glasses of a window
I get aware of the small things which are least the greatest
I left my life
my physical form of life behind
I realize my blunted and senseless way of life
I should have lived my life much more conscious!!!
-Kai Mac Donald-
Better larger:
www.flickr.com/photos/vithassan/4093670440/sizes/o/
Taken by Anna.
Animus and Anima are present in all modes of consciousness. The masculine and feminine both manifest themselves consciously in qualia (feeling a baby kick in the womb) in the subconscious and unconscious (releasing progesterone during pregnancy to stop ovulation, producing semen, the focus arising from testosterone) and in the collective unconscious (masculine and feminine roles structure collective experience, language, literature, etc.)
Animus has distinctive notes that must be expressed in the mode of Anima where Anima predominates. For Jung, the distinctive notes of Animus are Power, meaning, and self-consciousness. Power is the predominant mode of animus in primitive experience. Here the paradigms are the hero (Achilles, Beowulf), the cowboy, the athlete. The paradigm manifests competition, drive, determination, authority, superiority. This level of Animus has many expressions in Anima: the figure skater, female gymnast, powerful queen, grizzly-mother, activist, office manager. Where meaning and self-consciousness are measured by relationship to God or in religious terms, there are also clear modes of equality between Animus and Anima: Animus makes theologies and disputes over abstract concepts; Anima has personal, mystical insight within the religious-wisdom tradition.
The problem arises when self-consciousness is defined through the inherently abstract, impersonal, and fundamentally subjugative mode of technological accomplishment. Anima has yet to find a way to express itself in this mode, and so finds itself fundamentally alienated. This is the problem of Anima in the contemporary world, and it is not clear whether valuing technology in this way can be just. But this does not bode well for technology, since Anima simply will not tolerate this sort of exclusion from the highest mode of consciousness for long.
“The problem arises when self-consciousness is defined through the inherently abstract, impersonal, and fundamentally subjugative mode of technological accomplishment. Anima has yet to find a way to express itself in this mode, and so finds itself fundamentally alienated.”
Which sort of technological accomplishment do you have in mind here?
I guess when I think of technological trends in the last 10-20 years, a significant number have been toward an increase in social functions (Facebook & other social media, texting, Skype), intuitive interface (iPad, Nintendo Wii), and personal customization (iPhone, Android). Rather than abstract and impersonal, they are becoming normal elements of everyday social interaction and personal expression.
The use of technology (used broadly to include biotech, machines, etc.) and science can always be personal and integrative, but its the making of the stuff that is seen as the height of self-consciousness and human achievement. We’ve exalted the mastery and dominance over nature in thought and praxis as the ideal, and Jung’s claim is that we have yet to find a way in which Anima can express this. This has led some to deny the value of Anima and say either that liberation requires assimilating all to the masculine or that masculine and feminine mere constructions imposed on a sexless substrate. But what could be more male than to see “person” as an objectively sexless substrate? This is exactly the sort of depersonalized abstraction that is alienating Anima in the first place. Both ideas involve the grossest sexual injustice.
Note that, while on the first level of approximation this will lead to an obvious tension between the sexes and a subjugation of women, Animus and Anima are definitive characteristics in all persons. To put it concretely if crudely, men have estrogen and women have testosterone. While the problems set down above is primary a problem with alienating women, the problem will manifest itself in another way by alienating the proper expression of the Anima in male life too.
Okay. That helps. Perhaps the problem is that modern technology arises from a largely Animus-dominated scientific progression, focusing on impersonal laws and mechanisms in the first place. I’m not sure what the Anima parallel might be, but I guess it is easier for me to imagine something arising in the future altogether different than the technology in question than to see some significant way in which Anima could modify or fit into what we have now. The way you put it, it seems like a square peg/round hole problem, akin perhaps (acknowledging that both men and women have Animus and Anima) to the protests of some modern feminists today that the liberation women achieved in the past was that women could do everything a man does like a man, but that she still is not honored to do specifically feminine things as a woman, e.g. having special breaks at work after childbirth to beastfeed her child or pump milk. I’m not sure if that is the most helpful example, but it’s the best I can do.Emma Jung (1880-1955) was wife of psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) for more than 50 years and, also for many years, was one of the directors of Carl Gustav Jung Institute in Zurique, where she gave lectures and worked as a psychotherapist and supervisor. Twelve important works (from 1931 and 1955) are together in this book; the book was published in Jerusalem in 1967 and only now in Portuguese. Jung's psychology, the animus and the anima are forças mentais that, among other activities, form laços between (1) or collective unconsciousness, that is present from birth and that is genetically (biologically) determined, and (2) the unconscious person, that is the product of all the experiences of a person in the environment. Animals and animations also have important functions in the sexual identification of a person and in forming relationships with people of the opposite sex. In Jung's terminology, these are special types of archetypes. For the last few years, C. G. Jung's psychotherapy theories and techniques are attracting ever-growing attention. Jung is not suffering the progressive decline of interest that other psychiatric psychiatric writers, such as Freud and the various post-Freudians, are suffering. It is provable that in large part the persistence, and even the increase, of Jung's influence is due to the fact that Jung's psychology combines well with religious points of view. Only Jung, among the great pioneers in psychology and psychiatry in the 20th century, has this quality. Jung also has, and always has, a wide audience, especially among people who are interested in spiritual matters. In order to satisfy the growing interest of Jung in Brazil, Editora Cultrix, besides this volume, published in recent years more than a few vintage or other classic works of Jungian literature. It's clear that many psychiatrists and psychologists cannot accept Jung's basic theories. They cannot agree with the Jungian theses that (1) complete mental health requires an extensive development of forces (arquétipos) that have potential for religious expression, and that exist since the birth of collective unconsciousness in each person, and (2) one of the fundamental functions of psychotherapy is to help that spiritual development. Still, it is clear that psychiatrists and other professionals in the field of mental health are updated on important currents in the various branches of our profession, and this book by Emma Jung deals with a significant aspect of the Jungian psychological system. Readers who have accepted, or are willing to accept, Jung's points of view will make this book interesting enough, but readers who cannot afford to accept Jung's theories will try to make many speculative parts of it.
Practising psychotherapists in the West are becoming
familiar with the emergence of the psychological
problems that are affecting “liberated” women. A large
number of women who are highly successful and
competent in outer terms are plagued with a deep-
rooted inner feeling of worthlessness, lack of value and
inferiority. The conventional approach to this malaise
has been to ascribe it to psychological overloading, ME
or the necessity for these women to become yet more
ambitious and striving.
The Jungian concept of the animus is particularly suited to dealing with the problems facing the new women. Jung discovered that the human psyche was androgynous
and consisted of both masculine and feminine. Because of gender-identified ego-development, however, the masculine element in the woman and the feminine element in the
man remain unconscious and undifferentiated. When any psychological content is unconscious it follows two courses – either it becomes projected outwards onto an external
object, or leads to identification with it.
While a woman’s animus remains unconscious it too will follow these channels for expression. Whilst the “unliberated” woman will project her animus outwards through
romantic novels, stereotyped relationships and an existence lived through the men in her life, the liberated woman falls into the other side of the trap, i.e. she becomes identified with her animus and loses the vital link with her feminine identity, living on a false (for a woman) masculine level. Such a woman will then find herself in a double-bind situation, where her idealisation of the masculine leads her to denigrate the feminine. Considering the thousands of years of the patriarchal inflation of the male principle it is hardly surprising that women who introject this find themselves in the grip of a tyrannical, powerful and judgemental force that undermines their individual identity. ’Together with this the woman also introjects inferior images of the feminine, images that are based on the two classic reactions of the male to the female: horror and fascination. The witch at one end of the pole suggests woman in her demonic aspect, devouring, ugly, isolated, and phallic, representing everything that is despised and rejected in the feminine. The enchantress on the other end of the pole is sexually voracious, a siren and a Circe who traps men and turns them into swine. On the individual level
each woman carries this rejected aspect of the feminine in her shadow side.Women who are presenting with this problem in analysis will often have initial dreams of witches, hags and down-and-out women, which is how they see themselves unconsciously. Thus identified with the negative side of their shadow they find that the moment the animus emerges it allies itself with the shadow, leading at the moment of greatest outward animus-fulfilling achievements to the most dejected feelings of inner worthlessness.
The Father Complex
Because the first carrier of the woman’s animus is her father the condition and force of her personal animus will be determined by the father-complex. If her father has been
too strong, she will internalise the voice of judgement and critical authority. If he is too weak, she will have no opportunity for internalising the masculine and will lead a
vegetative, unconscious existence, ready to serve the projections and needs of all the male forces in her life. The animus also provides a woman with the ability to question,
think, and for spirituality. It must not be forgotten that the animus does have a positive role to play in the psychological development of women. When it is activated
in its positive aspect, it releases positive masculine energy, focused attention, concentration and every quality associated with logos thinking, the ability to connect in consciously with what was previously unconscious. It can also be a positive “father-force”, carrying encouragement, protection, principle and containment. In dreams the animus can appear as collective body of men, soldiers, sailors, jury, committees and other symbols of masculine authority. It can also appear as the father, brother, lover, husband, son or other male figure from the dreamer’s life. More undifferentiated animus symbols includes clouds, wind, rain, thunder, penetrating phallus,
animals such as snakes, bulls, horses and dogs. In its more collective archetypal force the animus can appear as a king, a warrior, a wise man as well as mythological figures such
as Pan, Adonis, Dionysus, Appollo and Hermes.Apart from the father aspect of the animus in its mantel of law, order, authority and establishment, the animus also presents itself in the unexpected guise of the trickster both on the outer and the inner plane. In this aspect, the animus is an amoral dissolute adventurer who yet performs the necessary function of releasing the woman from the tyranny of established law (father) to a life of adventure, instability and subversion. On
the outer level, women often get involved with Don Juans with whom they can only enjoy a transient non-committal relationship which they can use as a tool of rebellion
against an authoritarian father. On the inner level too the trickster-animus has a similar function, providing a woman with a counterpoint against the father-animus. Pan,
Hermes, monkeys, goblins, dwarves, knackers, clowns, harlequins, leprechauns etc. are images of the trickster in dreams. Over a period of time, the trickster has a way of evolving from an amoral, half-human creature to its rightful function as a symbol of transformation and then it appears increasingly in dreams in the various guises of Hermes, ringing bells, knocking on doors, demanding attention, bearing gifts, guiding journeys, and generally being indispensable in the woman’s psychological development.
It is important to keep in mind that as in any psychological process, there is no strict logical order; the analysand is having to deal with different aspects of the animus at the
same time, and this will be reflected in her dreams. It will generally be well into the process of differentiation when dreams contain different aspects of the animus. When this
happens, it is important to pay attention to what is presenting, allowing the woman to reclaim what is hers and reject that which is psychologically alien. A woman engaged in
this process dreamt:
”While my father, my husband and I are out of our flat, my maid has let in a 14 year old boy who had come selling sachets of herbal perfume. He needs a job as he is quite poor, and there is something very honest
about him. My father sees red, and says he will only break things. But the boy assures me he is very careful and always pushes back drawers that he has opened. I have a struggle with myself, my first instinct being to listen to the better judgement of my father. But then I decide that I can find a job for the boy, he can take charge of the daily shopping for
groceries.”The dream indicates a distinct turning point in the dreamer’s struggle for liberation from an idealised father. The boy is the new emerging personal animus who will be in
the service of the woman, the rightful place psychologically speaking for a woman’s masculine element. Both perfume sachets and shopping indicate the feeling values, which is
what the dreamer needs to balance her thinking-orientated activities. The boy is very careful to push back the drawers which to the dreamer held contents that were intimate,
for instance jewellery and underwear. So this animus can be entrusted with exploring the secrets of her psyche whilst yet providing a container that is safe and private. This would be yet another function of the positive animus.The above dream occurred about two years into the woman’s analysis. Her previous dreams had consisted of negative male figures constellated both by her father-complex and her partner. In its negative aspect, the animus constellates as the inner critic, judge, sadist, murderer, evil magician and the proverbial cad who constantly informs the woman that she’s ugly, worthless, stupid, and unlovable. It disrupts all the feeling-relationships
of the woman, in the face of all reality “proving” to her that her partner doesn’t love her. This is the inner critical voice that every woman has heard. It always strikes when something has already occurred to shake the woman or when she has been very successful, to deflate her. This inner tyrant holds complete sway and she finds herself yielding areas of her life that gave her pleasure and enrichment. Every time she tries to enjoy a well-deserved rest or treat the animus will taunt her with the accusation that she’s wasting her time, she’d be better off doing something “productive”.This is the introjected father-turned-judge who lays down the laws of acceptable behaviour and feelings. It convinces us that if we go against these dictates we are letting some authority down. In the presence of this voice every woman will be made to feel
like a silly little girl, who possesses no dignity in her own right.
The Inner Tyrant
The classic manifestation in dreams of this inner tyrant is as a Nazi imprisoning the woman in a concentration camp. If we keep in mind that the Nazis considered themselves Ubermenchen (Supermen) we can see how apt a symbol of this inflated masculine the unconscious has chosen. Women often have dreams of trying to escape from a camp,
being chased or shot at by the Nazi guards. Rapists, killers, and burglars are also common symbols. As well as violation, invasion, mutilation and dismemberment all indicate the
masculine principle turned awry and attacking the feminine identity. The following is a dream of a 26 year old woman before analysis:“It is night-time. There is a young, beautiful homosexual man inside a military camp. Outside the military camp, under a street lamp, sits a dwarf in a wheelchair. The young homosexual man passes by. The dwarf
calls him over as if asking for help. When the young man comes up to the dwarf, the dwarf pulls out a big knife and cuts the young man up in pieces.”The violence perpetrated in this dream is on the emerging personal animus. The young, beautiful aspect of the animus has an ambiguous masculinity, i.e. he is homosexual. The young and beautiful also suggests a narcissistic quality which in fact is a reflection of the dreamer’s father who suffered a narcissistic personality disorder. The dwarf is a stunted animus who is guarding the military camp and who cuts up the young
animus with a huge (and phallic) knife.The experience of sexual abuse can greatly affect the woman’s introjection of the masculine. When this has been the case the analyst has to take special care to disentangle the symbolic from the literal. For instance, a woman who had been sexually molested
when she was eight, as an adult often had dreams and fantasies of being attacked by several large penises. She also felt extremely uncomfortable with male physicality. During
the course of the analysis the possibility that she had been abused began to emerge. In her case, the invasion by the masculine had been a literal one, and had contaminated her
animus so that the animus too had turned against her. She was obsessive about her work, cut off from feeling type activities, highly successful but also with an inbuilt feeling of
worthlessncss which reflected her damaged femininity. The task of therapy was to cut down the animus to size by enhancing and encouraging the feminine.
The Wise ManAnother aspect of the animus is the Wise Man, the man who knows everything, whose function it is to inform, guide, teach and lead us. In its positive forms this is the archetype of wisdom. Like Moses or Solomon this man can relate to an idea in a subjective way and represents the true thinking function which is not split off, cold, sterile and objec
tive as it is assumed to be, but passionate and original However, if the woman identifies with the wise man archetype, she can become totally, and dangerously, caught up with the ideal way to be, invaded by the “spirit-father”. She will then seek achievement in masculine spiritual and cultural terms seeing herself as a sybil, a genius or a pure unearthly angel untainted by the blood and flesh of her feminine identity. Or she could live out this fantasy vicariously, through serving as the anima of some great man.Identification with any aspect of the animus, negative or positive, incurs the enmityand wrath of the Great Mother archetype (the mature feminine) which turns negative and appears in the woman’s dreams often as a witch, devouring, malignant. The negative great mother can also manifest in physical symptoms such as irregular menstruation, amenorrhoea and fertility problems.
High-achieving, animus-possessed women can also suffer from compulsive disorders such as bulimia or anorexia nervosa. Because of the lack of a strong female matrix, the
body is attacked by the negative animus, and the woman becomes split off from the feminine. Women who suffer from these disorders will in fact often acknowledge that it is
their own femininity they are attacking, and will often say that it is an internal dictator who drives them in such a regimented and forceful way to the brink of death. Angelyn Spignesi, in “Starving Women” quotes an analysand who describes the “morbid urge which rules her” as “an enemy, a man with a drawn sword, or an armed man who surrounds me and stops me whenever I try to escape his domination.”The animus possesses such extraordinary power within the woman’s psyche because it is an archetype. It is impersonal, inhuman and autonomous. If we don’t relate to it and allow it a conscious channel, it can obliterate the ego-identity. It has a life of its own, which is not under human control. Barbara Hannah pointed out that the animus jumps in whenever the feminine ego is not functioning, choosing and discriminating.
Emma Jung wrote that women have need for the spiritual. When this need is denied, the animus appropriates the Self.
Jung, in the Visions Seminars , wrote that “the animus is a very greedy fellow, and everything that falls into the unconscious is possessed by it. He is there with open mouth
and catches everything that falls down from the table of consciousness….if you let some feeling or reaction get away from you he eats it, becomes strong, and begins to argue
.” So becoming more conscious of her thoughts, feelings and values is crucial to the woman. This is particularly so as regards hurt feelings which if not expressed in a related way,
can turn into animus attacks. These attacks take the form of being caught or possessed in a spiral of rage, which gathers, momentum and leads us on to say the most appalling
things. The animus can damage marriage or close relationships by cutting off the feeling function, and also by unconsciously engaging the man’s anima. When the anima and animus begin to argue they are fed by a store of suppressed feelings of anger, resentment, envy, power, coldness and fear, each fed by the parental complexes of the partners.
Redeeming the Personal Father
In dealing with the problem of the animus the therapist will first have to deal with the father, since the main problem of the animus is constellated by the father-complex.
The woman’s main task in this process is to redeem her personal father, or rather her inner relation to her father. By attempting to see her father in both his dark and light
side she can get out of the trap of being caught in opposite sides of a spectrum which is what gives a complex its force. The dark side of the father consists of anger, lack of con
trol and incompleteness, the positive side offers power, generosity and creativity. But as long as the woman is caught in an idealised/rejecting pole she will be disowning elements of her own psyche. Being whole also requires the withdrawal of projections by reclaiming the parts of ourselves that we have projected externally. Because the father
also represents authority and something, by rejecting him the woman is also rejecting her own authority. If the woman’s attitude to her father is too idealised on the other hand, it will have the effect of cutting her off from her own professional capabilities. She will only be able to succeed on her father’s terms, and will have great difficulty in accepting and devel
oping her own talents. They will always appear slightly inconsequential to her. Too positive a relationship to the father can also prevent the woman from having a real re
lationship with another man, as any prospective partner will be compared to the idealised father and inevitably found wanting. To internalise the father principle, the woman then
has to break the idealised transference to her father by acknowledging his negative side. Linda Schierse Leonard, writing in “To Be a Woman” (3) says that “ultimately, redeeming the father entails reshaping the Masculine within, fathering that side of ourselves. Instead of the “perverted old man” and the “angry, rebellious boy”, we need to find the Man with Heart, the inner man with a good relation to the Feminine.” The emergence of this man with heart was signalled for an analysand in the following dream:“A friend of my partner’s called Sweetman has called on me. He has a briefcase in one hand and a doll in the other. He says that the doll had gone bald but he had transplanted hair back onto its head. He never went anywhere without it now.”The bald doll represents a sterile logos, thinking without heart. One is reminded of Yeats’ “Bald heads forgetful of their sins”. By restoring hair, Sweetman restores to it the crowning glory of the feminine. This is the man who is sweet, who has found a balance between the masculine and the feminine. Now he never goes anywhere without the feminine.Of course the integration with the feminine is still only in its formative stages, since it appears as a doll, but its a start and this analysand’s subsequent dreams show how the doll becomes a flesh and blood woman, a positive shadow figure who is “at her side”.
Strengthening the Feminine
Apart from redeeming the father and the masculine the woman, in her efforts to humanise the animus, also has to strengthen the feminine within her. This means not only
restoring value to the feminine in the face of patriarchy and her own rejection of the feminine but also to acknowledge her female ancestors. Modern woman, in order to free herself from the shackles of subservient femininity also rejects her mother and the collective archetype of femininity. The conscious separation from the mother’s model of life and marriage also separates the woman from the emotional and instinctive part of herself. So an intrinsic part of the healing will be to develop a strong feminine container, which can reconcile the woman to her nurturing, receptive, biological identity. The therapist’s role is crucial to this process in providing a safe maternal container. The unwary therapist can worsen matters at this stage if he/she has political feminist views which are concerned with liberating women from the feminine rather than liberating them to be feminine. Counselling the animus-identified woman who secretly feels inferior to be more assertive and ambitious is the worst possible thing. In fact, the therapist has to make it possible for the analysand to be more receptive, intuitive and feeling.
Rituals are particularly good for grounding in the feminine. Anything that the patient relates to is valuable e.g. drawing, sculpting, clay-modelling, dancing, knitting. It enables the patient to act out the boundaries outside that she’s trying to create inside. Rituals provide containers which allow one to play within a pattern. Acting them out can be tremendously healing. I have found rituals to be of particular help to women suffering from eating disorders. Women should also be warned against sacrificing their personal instincts and feelings for an ideal, an achievement or external goal, a particularly strong temptation for the conscious female. Animus, being very goal-oriented keeps woman on the move. Whenever this voice dictates, women should try and resist it, by taking time off or treating themselves. Humour can quickly restore a sane perspective, deflating the pompous self-importance of the animus. Indulging oneself in trivialities too can be very healing. One woman, in the grip of her animus, dreamt that she was in a large store in Grafton Street looking at little trinkets. She then bought a perfume called “Sweet Nothings”.The dream was a gentle hint to pay more attention to the sweet nothings of life. Caught in the grip of the animus, a woman feels cut off from precisely the sweetness of life. Activities that help us to use our feeling function of relatedness are perhaps the best antidote to the grip of the animus. Taking time off to play with the children, giving attention to a pet, cultivating a garden, these are all activities that centre around nurturing life. They have to be undertaken in a very deliberate manner, even though this might seem unspontaneous at the time.
Channelling Energies
If a woman is in the grip of the “spirit-father: (see above) animus, she can be caught up in thinking that she is a creative genius or get involved in some project that is vague and inflated. At this time, what is needed is a very specific project that the woman can channel her energies into. This grounds the high-flying animus, at the same time of fering it a channel for its energy. Emma Jung wrote in “Anima and Animus” that “confronted with one of these aspects of the animus, the woman’s task is to create a place for it in her life and personality. Usually our talents, hobbies and so on, have already given us hints as to the direction in which this energy can become active. Often too, dreams point this way, and….will mention studies, books, and definite lines of work, or of artistic or executive activities”.
Confronted with the difficulties that the animus creates, women sometimes wonder whether it is not best left alone. The animus in fact is extremely important in the psychological development of women, enabling her to extend her consciousness, and through the capacity for objective, independent thought, allowing her to reclaim territories of her psyche previously unconscious and in the possession of extrinsic authority. The big struggle that now faces women is in learning to contain the animus both in its archetypal and personal spheres. Traditional feminist theories have fed the negative animus, because they have believed that women can only succeed on men’s terms. This extreme position was necessary to compensate for the oppression of women. But now women need to create structures in their lives and in society which ensure a niche for the conscious feminine. It is time to explode the fallacy that men and women are the same. Being equal does not mean having to be similar. Perhaps the time has come when we can afford to be different yet equal.
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