Archives: Cards

The Babylon Matrix suppresses your empowered awakening by convincing you that you are nothing but a particular identity at a specific age, with a certain amount in your checking account, your laundry list of worries, and so forth. Actually, your real identity is that you are an interdimensional traveler who has arrived from some other dimension at birth, departs almost every day to another dimension called the dream time, and has a guaranteed portal out of this matrix popularly known as "death." You are also a social interdimensional traveler who interpenetrates with the varied dimensions generated by other psyches. The life that weighs so heavily on your mind is merely one of myriad timelines. As the boy Jake says in the Dark Tower books, "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

The Babylon Matrix suppresses your empowered awakening by convincing you that you are nothing but a particular identity at a specific age, with a certain amount in your checking account, your laundry list of worries, and so forth. Actually, your real identity is that you are an interdimensional traveler who has arrived from some other dimension at birth, departs almost every day to another dimension called the dream time, and has a guaranteed portal out of this matrix popularly known as "death." You are also a social interdimensional traveler who interpenetrates with the varied dimensions generated by other psyches. The life that weighs so heavily on your mind is merely one of myriad timelines. As the boy Jake says in the Dark Tower books, "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

The Babylon Matrix suppresses your empowered awakening by convincing you that you are nothing but a particular identity at a specific age, with a certain amount in your checking account, your laundry list of worries, and so forth. Actually, your real identity is that you are an interdimensional traveler who has arrived from some other dimension at birth, departs almost every day to another dimension called the dream time, and has a guaranteed portal out of this matrix popularly known as "death." You are also a social interdimensional traveler who interpenetrates with the varied dimensions generated by other psyches. The life that weighs so heavily on your mind is merely one of myriad timelines. As the boy Jake says in the Dark Tower books, "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

The Babylon Matrix suppresses your empowered awakening by convincing you that you are nothing but a particular identity at a specific age, with a certain amount in your checking account, your laundry list of worries, and so forth. Actually, your real identity is that you are an interdimensional traveler who has arrived from some other dimension at birth, departs almost every day to another dimension called the dream time, and has a guaranteed portal out of this matrix popularly known as "death." You are also a social interdimensional traveler who interpenetrates with the varied dimensions generated by other psyches. The life that weighs so heavily on your mind is merely one of myriad timelines. As the boy Jake says in the Dark Tower books, "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

The Babylon Matrix suppresses your empowered awakening by convincing you that you are nothing but a particular identity at a specific age, with a certain amount in your checking account, your laundry list of worries, and so forth. Actually, your real identity is that you are an interdimensional traveler who has arrived from some other dimension at birth, departs almost every day to another dimension called the dream time, and has a guaranteed portal out of this matrix popularly known as "death." You are also a social interdimensional traveler who interpenetrates with the varied dimensions generated by other psyches. The life that weighs so heavily on your mind is merely one of myriad timelines. As the boy Jake says in the Dark Tower books, "Go then, there are other worlds than these."

You are living in what might be the end of a more than six-thousand-year period characterized by dominator cultures that have oppressed the feminine in females and males. This realm is dying for the rebirth of the feminine. Rebirth of the feminine requires leaving the default reality and venturing into the sometimes lonely frontiers of mutation and metamorphosis. Rebirth of the feminine may include: The re-empowerment of your intuition. An emphasis on authentic, loving relationships. Living the full spectrum of life as compared to emphasizing vertical spiritual transcendence or optimized functioning. A reawakened connection to the body and to the earth. An altered relationship to time that leaves room for spontaneity and unstructured being time. Emphasizing Eros (oceanic merger with other beings) as compared to pornographic sex on the level of the genitalia or as a metaphor for power. Without rebirth of the feminine, you live in a state of rage and or existential anxiety where, as Jung put it: "The life-giving rhythms of the eons becomes the dread ticking of the clock." Rebirth of the feminine allows for the further possibility of the inner alchemical marriage of your masculine and feminine elements to create the androgynous wholeness that is your birthright.

Overcome what others see as overwhelming odds in a righteous inner/outer battle. Human incarnation is capable of presenting us with gigantic struggles, adversities and adversaries. Celebrate the challenge you signed on for and don’t fall into victimhood or self-pity. Rise to the challenge and look for that key leverage point where you can shift the matrix.

Know that there are always blind spots, parts of ourselves we cannot see. Summon the courage to see them. Most human beings are a host of sub-personalities, each of which calls themselves "I" when they take over, though they may have quite different agendas and modus operandi. The process of self-unification usually involves the creation of a central witness self that observes the sub-personalities and is aware of their comings and goings and how they vie for control. The voices in your head are of various kinds -- some are nagging, fearful, needy, strident, insistent, arrogant, filled with self-hate, and so forth. The voice of the Self, however, is calm, clear and compassionate. But we may have trouble hearing that calm, quiet voice from the depths when the clamor of competing subpersonalities dominates our inner space. That's the short version; here's a bit more: We tend to think of ourselves as a single cohesive personality and expect the other to be a single cohesive personality as well. But a single human being can support many personalities. A dramatic example is Multiple Personality Disorder (DID -- Disassociative Identity Disorder is another flawed term), which is extremely rare. The familiar example, which is anything but rare, is how different we or the other can think, feel or act based on different moods. A human being is almost always an aggregate of subpersonalities, and each of these personalities calls themselves "I" when they take over. One of the principal goals of individuation is to build up a central witness personality that is aware of the subpersonalities, communicates and empathizes with all of them, but doesn't allow them to rule unnoticed. A powerful way to build up the witness and reduce fragmentation is to listen attentively to the various voices in your head. Silent meditation is one way to sharpen awareness of the inner voices, but ongoing observation of the the revolving cast of inner voices/subpersonalities is even more effective. Throughout the day, there is an almost continual soundtrack, a voiceover monologue (to use a movie analogy), and the voiceover is usually in your native language. If you're honest with yourself, you'll notice that a single personality does not control the voiceover monologue. Listen to both the content of what the inner voices say and their tone. I might, for example, hear a needy, childish voice in my head say, "I want that!" Another voice that sounds like an anxious and irritated parent says, "You know you're not supposed to have that." Another voice sounds like a gruff pirate and says, "Aaargh, what the hell, just grab for it!" Still another voice has a wheedling tone and says, "I really shouldn't, but just this once, and starting tomorrow, I won't ever again," and so forth. Different drives within us can personify into inner characters that become the voices of those drives. One of the essential purposes of an oracle is to act as a mirror of the psyche and confront the inquirer with various aspects of themselves. It takes moral courage to face the multiplicity of selves operating within us. Depending on the position of this card, it could mean that this is an auspicious time to strengthen your central witness personality and/or a need to be more aware of the many sides of others. A good rule of thumb with relationships is to realize that if you don't know someone's shadow, you don't know the person. Idealization is a state of dangerous blindness that purposefully overlooks various subpersonalities in the other to form a unified but false picture of them. For example, a romantically infatuated person thinks of the beloved as an angel, just as a guru-worshiping person thinks of the guru as a god. Such idealizations will likely become equal and opposite states of bitter disillusionment as they inevitably discover that the idol has feet of clay. Be wary about listening to (or becoming) inner voices that are not calm and compassionate. The same holds interpersonally. You may have to listen to voices that are nagging, anxious, wheedling, self-pitying, angry, and so forth, but listen to them with calm, compassionate understanding. This empathy may gain you influence over the subpersonality (or the outer person), and it will certainly limit how much those uncentered voices can influence you. Thomas Jefferson said, "The price of freedom is eternal vigilance." The real freedom is free will, which requires eternal vigilance with our inner process.

Summon your will to defy the Babylon Matrix. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- G.B. Shaw, Man and Superman, 1903 Be a mutant, be unreasonable. But being unreasonable is not a license to act out every caprice. Many confuse the pre conventional with the post conventional. For example, many think they are being rebels by being promiscuous, intoxicated, irresponsible. But this is pre conventional, it is even more primitive than the conventional and it certainly doesn't transcend the conventional. Infantile unreasonableness is not to be confused with mutant unreasonableness. Deviate from the program, but by being more life-affirming and more evolved than what the matrix expects you to be.

Don't lose your power and magic to infatuation and other forms of relationship obsession, or to the longing for glittering objects. The positive aspect is that this is a propitious time to work on that. Many human beings are extremely vulnerable to romantic obsession, falsely believing that they can only find wholeness through capturing someone else. One of the most powerful enchantments or spells of the Babylon Matrix is the delusion that wholeness (the inner alchemical marriage of masculine and feminine, yin and yang, within) can be imported from the outside. Dominated by this delusion, a person becomes a ring wraith forever seeking "The Precious," which may be the Hottie, money, celebrity or some other combination of outside objects and events. But wholeness can only be found where it already lies -- within. I recommend the book Love 101 which the late Peter McWilliams generously posted free online. What follows are my favorite quotations from the book: The consuming desire of most human beings is deliberately to plant their whole life in the hands of some other person. For this purpose they frequently choose someone who doesn't even want the beastly thing. I would describe this method of searching for happiness as immature. Development of character consists solely in moving towards self-sufficiency. -- Quentin Crisp In real love you want the other person's good. In romantic love you want the other person. -- Margaret Anderson When one is in love one begins by deceiving oneself, one ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls romance. -- Oscar Wilde Love is a gross exaggeration of the difference between one person and everybody else. -- George Bernard Shaw To be in love is merely to be in a state of perceptual anesthesia -- to mistake an ordinary young man for a Greek god or an ordinary young woman for a goddess. -- H.L.Mencken There is hardly any activity, any enterprise, which is started with such tremendous hopes and expectations and yet which fails so regularly as love. -- Erich Fromm To fall in love is to create a religion that has a fallible God. -- Jorge Luis Borges You will become as small as your controlling desire; as great as your dominant aspiration.�- James Allen Even in the common affairs of life, in love, friendship, and marriage, how little security have we when we trust our happiness in the hands of others! -- William Hazlitt 1822 The continued propinquity of another human being cramps your style after a time unless that person is somebody you think you love. Then the burden becomes intolerable at once. -- Quentin Crisp This is not from Love 101, but Cheri Huber wrote a book entitled, Be the Person you Want to Find -- the title says it all. Except for the attributed quotes, all of the following was written by Peter McWilliams: Who have you always lived with, and whom will you eventually die with? And who will be the only person to accompany you on that ultimate adventure (just think of death as a theme park with a high admission cost). And, who has been there every time you've had sex. Yes, from time to time others may have been nearby doing what they could to help, but whatever pleasure you felt was inside yourself, experienced in those inner electrochemical, physiological pleasure places that are entirely your own. The self-contained, emotionally autonomous, intellectually free individual is the greatest threat to the institutions that want to control us. Sexual attraction is just energy; if the time is not right to express it sexually, for whatever reason, then the energy can be used to create something else that is productive, satisfying, and fun. So it is in all relationships -- if you take care of your needs and wants, being with others is more enjoyable and productive. In fact, for most people, self-love makes one less selfish. The last quarter century of my life has been pretty constantly and faithfully devoted to the study of the human race -- that is to say, the study of myself, for in my individual person I am the entire human race compacted together. I have found that there is no ingredient of the race which I do not possess in either a small way or a large way. Self service -- our lives are probably cluttered with things that "we'd be a lot better off." Self-service is taking care of them... In being of service to yourself, ask yourself: If I were asked by the person I love most in the world (other than myself) to do this right now, would I do it? Self-discipline is a powerful tool for creating and maintaining good habits. Good habits let us love ourselves�automatically. Fortunately, sex lends itself quite well to dividing and conquering desires. Not only can sex be successfully separated from other relationship needs, but it can -- with a little effort and honesty -- be divided into smaller, eminently more fulfillable, desires itself. If we took the time to explore our desires and made an honest list of what we are looking for when we say or think we are looking for sex, we would probably discover that some of these desires could be met in other ways...We would also discover that many of these desires -- including orgasm -- can be met without another person even being around. In fact, some of these desires are better met without the interruptions and intrusions of others. Masturbation! The amazing availability of it! -- James Joyce The desire to be touched, to experience bodily pleasure, and to have muscular tension released in a way that "hurts so good" is often best met by a professional masseur or masseuse. Consider what you have in the smallest chosen library: a company of the wisest and wittiest men that could be picked out of all civil countries in a thousand years. The thought which they did not uncover to their bosom friend is here written out in transparent words to us, the strangers of another age. -- Ralph Waldo Emerson When we are alone, it is much easier to relate to the great minds and thoughts contained in books, audio tapes, movies, and other medial. It's also easier to relate to the great ideas and thoughts in our own mind. It's important to develop an appreciation for ourselves, for the pleasure of our own company. Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of solitude is doing what you want when you want to do it, with the absolute freedom (external realities aside) to change what you're doing at will. Solitude removes all the "negotiating" we need to do when we're with others. They are never alone that are accompanied with noble thoughts. -- Sir Philip Sidney One of the pleasantest things in the world is going on a journey; but I like to go by myself. -- William Hazlitt (1822) A man thinking or working is always alone, let him be where he will. -- Henry David Thoreau (1854) The man who goes alone can start today; but he who travels with another must wait until the other is ready. -- Henry David Thoreau He travels fastest who travels alone. -- Rudyard Kipling Aloneness is inevitable in being human. People cannot accept this. They should be aware of it and use it. It heightens your perceptions. -- Edward Albee Solitude gives birth to the original in us, to beauty unfamiliar and perilous -- to poetry. -- Thomas Mann If you are lonely when you are alone, you are in bad company. - Jean Paul Sartre What one has to do, usually can be done. -- Eleanor Roosevelt I shun father and mother and wife and brother when my genius calls me. -- Emerson Although keeping agreements is a good technique for building trust with others, the more important reason for keeping agreements is building trust with ourselves. I Committing to a dream is not a one-time occurrence. It must be done daily, hourly, continually. We must choose to commit to our choice, over and over. The test of this commitment is action. The time to commit is now. And now. And now. And now. And now... The illusion that romantic love is real, and all other reality less real, is a powerful one. ...service is not an obligation -- it's a privilege. The forty-six percent of marriages that do last longer than five years have almost all moved from being primarily romantic endeavors, to incorporating one or more of the other types of relationships. Thousands have lived without love, not one without water. -- W.H. Auden You never will be the person you can be if pressure, tension and discipline are taken out of your life. -- James G. Bilkey Some Jung quotes on love: Where love reigns, there is no will to power; and where the will to power is paramount, love is lacking. The one is but the shadow of the other. In spite of all indignant protestations to the contrary, the fact remains that love (using the word in the wider sense which belongs to it by right and embraces more than sexuality), its problems and its conflicts, is of fundamental importance in human life and, as careful inquiry consistently shows, is of far greater significance than the individual suspects. It is a favorite neurotic misunderstanding that the right attitude to the world is found by indulgence in sex.