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“Where love rules, there is no will to power, and where power predominates, love is lacking. The one is the shadow of the other.” ― Carl Gustav Jung
It’s easy to fall into power games and struggle for dominance. Many species are hierarchical, with alpha and beta positions and competition for status. Consider this an auspicious time to recognize and work on the ever-shifting ratio of power and love in your life.
Aspects of power, status, and dominance color almost all relationships. But this does not mean that love and compassion are not also present. Relationships are complex — an array of forces compete for ascendancy, and the power principle wins out more than most people realize. It’s beyond the scope of an oracle card to even glance at the myriad of human power struggles. When people used to talk about psychoanalysis, they would mention three giant figures — Freud, Jung, and the one you hear the least about these days — Alfred Adler. Adler’s theory of personality and his whole school of psychology are based on the human will to power.
Human beings are not equal in their attributes and control over resources. There are huge disparities between people in key aspects such as size, strength, beauty, intelligence, talent, wealth, status, access to sexual partners, etc. People often compare their ranking in these aspects to others, usually people of their gender who are close in age. If we compare ourselves to others, feelings of inferiority are inevitable because there are always people who outrank us in particular attributes. Feelings of inferiority, as Adler observed, can paradoxically turn into a “superiority complex” where an insecure person attempts to display superiority and dominance over others to compensate for feelings of inferiority.
If we take a penetrating look at our relationships, we’ll likely discover many ways we attempt to elevate our status via subtle and unsubtle competition with those who arouse our power complexes. If we’ve worked on ourselves enough to reduce these tendencies, they may provoke envy from those dominated by status-seeking, setting up another type of power struggle. Even people who seem very superficial will often unconsciously pick up on the core level of development of another. If you’re more developed, they may perceive this as a challenge to their level of personality, and they’ll seek to test you, throw you off your high horse, etc. If they can cause you to lose your center, they can feel satisfied that you are not more developed, which relieves them of the anxiety about their lack of development.
When someone comes at you with power games, lovingly withdraw energy from them. Come forward when they are more modest and sincere.
In some cases, however, you may need to stand up to a bully, and withdrawal won’t be effective. Power dynamics are complex, and no formula can tell you how to handle all of them.
Consider this an auspicious time to see how and where power games influence you, the ones that others bring to you and the ones you may sometimes bring to others.
