The New Year appeals to me with its emphasis on resolutions and fresh starts. Eager to declutter my home, I watch YouTube videos on minimalism, inspired by deep insights into materialism and intention. I can’t shake a suspicion that the advice ‘choose experience over things’ means experience as activity. My interest lies more behind the curtain–in experience as encounter. From that perspective, experience unfolds and happens … shaped, forged and rendered according to the consciousness of the experiencing-individual.
Which brings me to an experience of my own.
I resolve to post to my blog regularly but, as I put in my time and effort, insidious thoughts creep in. “Who do you think you are?!!” they ask. “No one cares what you say. You don’t amount to a hill of beans! You are an invisible nothing … an insignificant nobody!” On the third day I ‘believe myself’ and stop writing.
A week goes by before I recognize this unsettling experience is brought to me by what author Erich Neumann calls ‘pre-existing determinants of consciousness’ — the archetype and personal complex. In this example, the Mother archetype in negative form delivers a death-blow costumed in my own thoughts. Breaking free of her spell demands that I recognize her ‘behind the curtain’ existence and defy her intentions.
Catching an archetype at play, within one’s own consciousness, builds more consciousness. The result is increased choice, more freedom, and enhanced experience.