Soul

One of the laments of the writers theorizing about synchonicity and psychology is the difficulty of translating this cosmology, based on the quantum discoveries and resulting revaluation of the nature of the universe, into the common language and understanding. Even more so, perhaps, into the felt-sense of life. The up and out nature of much of the ways science, and some of these authors, discuss these new perceptions of reality can have the effect of divorcing the individual from the whole while attempting to connect instead. I’ve been pondering this deeply lately because I have great concerns about the tendency to become so heady and philosophical, even so directed toward the skies, that we end up working against the desire to connect, to feel and experience the connection, to the cosmos for many people.

At one point in his book Le Grice calls individuation the process of “transformation involved in consciously aligning oneself with the evolutionary movement of the cosmos” referring to is as Logos (The psychological dimension of evolution, para. 10). This coupled with Swimme’s comment that, “the relationship between part and whole has to do with the fulfillment that comes with creativity” (p. 96), led me to thinking deeply about the necessity of Eros in this process of understanding and translation. Eros as expressed through our creativity.

We touch the truths of life, and the cosmos, through poetry, myth, music, dance, etc. When we create, and attend to creativity, we are a cosmos that loves. We love what we create and are broadened by the act of creating, loved in return by our creation. We are transformed by love. I am interested in the science, and the philosophy, but I am moved by poetry and literature, by music. The logos doesn’t have meaning without the eros; it has no impact. When I turn to Rumi, Oliver, Gibran, then the science matters to me and can enact on me and in me, but without the mythopoetic I find it devoid of the necessary soul. Depth psychology offers a mythopoetic soulfulness which encourages relationship between the logos and eros.

Le Grice, K. (2010). The archetypal cosmos: Rediscovering the gods in myth, science and astrology. Edinburgh, UK: Floris Books.

Swimme, B. (1996). The hidden heart of the cosmos: Humanity and the new story. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books.