|
|
|
Reflection for December 2000 "May
there be peace on Earth" Jung also believed that the Muses' favorite horse, Pegasus, would be another important bridging symbol of our time. He saw Pegasus as a symbol of the positive instinctual force of the subconscious that signals the unification or synthesis of polarities and oppositions. Pegasus comes from the Greek word pegae, geyser, or "to draw forth water." The essential symbol of the feminine has long been water, aqua femina. Whenever Pegasus's hooves drew water, the Muses would always appear. Many said that those who drink from the mysterious waters are endowed with poetic inspiration, loving expression, and heightened creativity. The development of the feminine principle, the intermediary within every man and woman, allows us to creatively stay with conflicting impulses long enough for the two opposing forces to teach the other something and produce an insight that serves both. To view the elements of our life in a paradoxical manner is to draw forth, like Pegasus, a whole series of creative possibilities until a hidden unity is revealed. When we access the Muses consciously as an intermediary force, we begin to mobilize our true creative work, which Robert Johnson identifies as: dimming our egos, befriending our shadows, and committing to building a bridge between polarities, conflicts, and oppositions in order to create solutions that go beyond a compromise or quarrel. In his book Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche, Johnson further states that our creative challenge to- day is to transform opposition into paradox, which is to allow both sides of an issue, or pair of opposites, to exist in equal dignity and worth until the hidden unity is revealed.
|
|
Send e mail to