[Helpers] Aspects of Consciousness.

[Mystress Angelique Serpent]

My conceptualizations of consciousness draw on Carl Jung's ideas, but also 
from my own insights as a Shaman, and my experiences with Kundalini.

"As above so below"... I am going to describe the aspects of the human 
consciousness in terms of layers. In my description we are beginning at the 
surface and moving downward through the layers, into unity, but I could 
just as easily speak of "higher" instead of lower.

I am defining separate layers of the unconscious mind, for the purposes of 
conceptualization, but the map is not the territory.  We conceptualize in 
linearity, our minds are linear- we think one thought at a time, but there 
really isn't any linearity, outside of our experience of time-space. Space 
and time are illusion, an artefact of linear perception. Everything 
everywhere is really happening all at once.

We draw maps, and put in boundary lines defining areas and territory, but 
those dividing lines are fuzzy to nonexistent in the reality of the 
individual psyche.  The spiritual truth is that 'All is One.'

The "Top" or surface layer is the ego mind:  who you think you are; your 
conditioned mind. Usually, it is a grocery list of qualities, much like how 
you might define yourself for a personal ad or resume.  Your age, 
occupation, marital status, politics, height, weight, etc. Your beliefs, 
opinions, likes and dislikes, plus the baggage of your experiences: The 
personal qualities that are a result of how you chose to respond to events, 
in the past.  The ego includes anything that you believe about yourself, 
that is a fear, judgment, belief or limit.  Most people are only aware of 
the ego aspect of themselves, as identity, although in dreams they may get 
a glimpse of greater potential.

Jung defines Shadow self as "What you think you are not."  Those qualities 
you deny and repress in yourself, and project onto, or see in others.  He 
classifies it as the part of the ego, and that makes sense, because it 
really is a shadow cast by the ego, a mirror reflection of ego beliefs.  I 
consider it part of the unconscious... because it is usually hidden from 
the ego.

   People normally do not consider what they are not, as part of what they 
are; yet it is.  Generally speaking, you only criticize qualities in others 
that are also part of you.
You are All that Is, manifest into an illusion of individuality. Therefore, 
the content of Karma that is held by the Shadow is also the veil of 
separation that keeps you from knowing your Divine, infinite Self.  You are 
All.

The Shadow only takes form, as a guide if you are a Shaman.  In Kundalites, 
it remains hidden, mysterious and invisible except for the growing 
awareness of how the things that bug us most about other people, are faults 
we have ourselves.  That which we think we are not, the projections, are 
separation that keeps us from experiencing Unity.

If you are All that Is, then you are Christ, Gandhi, Buddha, Mohammed and 
all the Archangels. If you are All that Is, then you are also Hitler, 
Genghis Khan, Dracula and Pinochet... but those aspects of yourself are 
likely repressed and hidden by the Shadow. If you feel a negative reaction 
to the idea that you are Hitler, then you understand better, what Jung 
meant: "The shadow is that which we think we are not. " It also means the 
qualities you most admire in others are a part of you, too.  What you see 
is yourself reflected.

The Unconscious IS the Divine Beloved.  Jung said the unconscious mind is 
the opposite gender of the body: anima/animus.  The Divine Beloved holds 
your whole life's memories.  You don't see your whole life flashing before 
your eyes unless you are dying or in serious crisis situation, but the 
process of Kundalini brings forth a lot of forgotten memories and emotional 
experiences up into consciousness so they can be forgiven, surrendered, 
integrated. Kundalini is a death and rebirth process, so you may see you 
life flashing before your eyes but over a span of years of meditations, out 
of linear order, because your Divine Beloved will pace and guide the 
process to what is best for you, and what you can handle.

  Your Divine Beloved knows where all your personal karma is stored, the 
Shadow is Gatekeeper who keeps you from being inundated by all of the 
information at once. The Divine Beloved chooses what will come up to be 
integrated or released, and when.  It is in charge of your Kundalini process.

   The form of your Divine Beloved will be unique to you, but the Divine is 
All, so it also encompasses many of the deeper layers, just as the vast 
unconscious mind includes or encompasses the collective consciousness. The 
Unconscious is unified with the Collective Cosmic Consciousness, which in 
turn is not separate from the Unity consciousness which is All... Goddess. 
The Divine Beloved can take any form, or none at all, but usually it will 
take the form of your "ideal" partner, the man or woman of your dreams. 
Within you, Goddess takes a form that you can love, to have a personal, 
intimate relationship with you. You can have a personal relationship with 
your own Spirit.

The layer between your personal memories, and the collective, contains the 
Archetypes ... usually perceived as the "Old gods", like Thor and Kali... 
they have *form*. That is, they often can be recognised by how they look, 
dress, and behave.  They are a part of you, but they are also themselves, 
and are manifestations of the universal energy and your own unconscious 
mind.  Often archetypes are connected to particular symbols, like how Thor 
is represented by the peculiar pointed Celtic hammer, and a Nordic 
Rune.  Archetypes are representations of different aspects of being human, 
although some make take the form of animals or monsters.

    There are many different forms or representations of the Archetypes. 
One is the 12 signs of the Zodiac, another is the Greek pantheon of old 
Gods. Each of the Greek Gods represents an aspect of Being: Athena is 
wisdom, Aphrodite is sexual love, Mars is war and aggression, etc. The 
Tibetans have a similar cosmology, with hundreds of lesser deities or 
demons representing the many aspects of being human. In esoteric 
Christianity, these take the form of angels or demons.
   Most older religions do not separate the old ones into concepts of good 
and bad, so clearly. Aphrodite was the Goddess of love, but she could also 
be jealous, angry, manipulative... just like people.

Below the level of the archetypes, is the collective, which is the 
storehouse of every lifetime that ever has or will be, or could be, on 
every sentient planet. This is sometimes referred to as the Akashic records.

You can learn to read the Akashic records deliberately, but I do not 
recommend it.  It is not very useful, since limitless manifestation 
suggests that within the Records, lies *every* possibility.  Not only what 
did or will happen, but also everything that ever could happen.  The 
possibility you tap into, is not necessarily the one that was or will Be. 
What you will see, is yourself reflected. You will see into a mirror of 
your fears and limiting beliefs, so you can surrender your fear and integrate.

Trying to be guided by the Akashic records can really pull you off balance, 
especially if you get attached to what you see, as "Truth." I have seen 
people get pulled into some crazy ideas from going there, especially if 
they have an ego attitude of specialness at being able to do so, or think 
they are some kind of clairvoyant messenger of truth.  Better to stay in 
the Now and let "Goddess handle it"...let higher wisdom guide your path, 
and be a passive recipient of Divine insights.

If you need to know something, Goddess will find a way to communicate... 
either intuitively, or through synchronicity.  Goddess is omnipotent and 
outside of time, She can arrange the synchronicities you need years in 
advance, so to speak... and She will, because She loves you.  A song on the 
radio answering a question you posed in your mind, a show on TV mirroring a 
situation you are struggling with... As you start to become more observant 
of yourself, you will notice a line from a song or conversation will seem 
to stand out, or stick in your head.  Do not get obsessive trying to give 
these events meaning.  They will tend to be clarified by appearing in 
patterns of 3 or more. Be patient; wait to be shown meaning rather than 
quickly attaching to an interpretation. When you consider interpretations, 
stay grounded and pay attention to your gut reaction: tension means it is 
not true.

   The collective consciousness is also where your "Past lives" are 
stored.  I discourage people from getting too absorbed with the idea of 
past lives.  Sometimes people will use a belief in a special past life to 
build ego, or they will use an idea of a bad past life to emotionally abuse 
themselves.

    For myself, I believe in past lives every second Tuesday
 and on those 
days I can contemplate whether the Tibetan elements of my work come from a 
past life as a Lama, or the SM elements come from my past life as a 
Romanian Prince.  It is fun.  The rest of the time it is irrelevant.  Here 
and now is what is important.

   If time and space do not truly exist and everything is really happening 
all at once, what is "past"?  It is better to consider visions of past 
lives as parables or metaphors drawn from the library of the collective, to 
give insights into what is happening in your life and relationships in the 
present life and time.

   If you are truly All that Is, then all "past lives" are yours, part of 
you already. It is best to think of past lives, as simply metaphors of what 
is occurring in the here and now. Resonant parables drawn from the 
collective, by your unconscious to give you insight into current events.

Below the level of the collective, is the "Light", the Godhead. Most people 
who have Near Death experiences don't make it all the way into the Light. 
They stop at the edge of it, "Heaven's gate" where they meet angels and 
dead relatives.
   Deeper in, you will find a non-dual place of light. In that place you 
are God, there is lots of bright light, and you are alone. You are All.

  If you go through the light you come out the other side, into the Void: 
the place outside of time that can be thought of as the "Dreamtime"... the 
place "before" creation where all of creation comes from. Infinite womb of 
Goddess, a place of no forms, but infinite potential.

In the Genesis of the Old testament, it says that in the beginning there 
was Void, nothingness. Out of the Void came a voice that said "Let there be 
light." Goddess, the Void (Consciousness) giving birth to her consort, God 
the Light (matter and energy)... and between them, they created everything 
else.

   There spiritual aspects of consciousness that are individual, include 
the soul and the Higher self. The higher self often appears in dreams as a 
wise older person the same gender as yourself. The higher self is like 
halfway between the ego and the soul. It is individual as you are, and it 
interacts with people as you do, but it is closer to spirit. Sometimes it 
is easier to deal with someone on a higher self level, and allow things to 
trickle down into physical reality; but it is best to let your Angels 
negotiate on your behalf. The Higher Self has free will, like the ego, and 
so it carries a reflection of your karma, and becomes more enlightened as 
you do. I have found some people's higher selves in need of healing, 
whereas the Soul cannot be harmed by anything you do in this life.

  The soul appears as a tiny, infinitely bright spark of light, most often 
found near the power chakra. It is Divine, it chose from your parents DNA 
to make you, and it knows your path for this lifetime. What you incarnated 
to experience. It does not experience separation from Goddess, beyond 
duality there is only one soul, having every experience everywhere. It is 
like that physics theory that suggests there is only one photon, very busy 
appearing everywhere at once.

   I know these are tricky concepts, slippery at best.  I will explain it 
another way to give greater understanding.

Consider the aspects of your consciousness, as if they are sitting 
together, at an outdoor cafe on the French Riviera.
You sit in one chair.  You as your ego, that which you think you are, your 
conditioned mind. Anything that you believe about yourself that is a fear, 
judgment, belief or limit. All your ideas about yourself.
Across from you, sits your Shadow side.  Your inner demon, that which you 
think you are not. It may look like simply a very deep shadow, or it may 
take the form of someone you judge and reject.  Or even someone you admire, 
someone you think you cannot measure up to. The Shadow is a reflection of 
the ego:  the bigger the ego, the larger shadow it casts. They both 
represent your separation from the Divine, except the Shadow is the part of 
the Divine that has taken on the task of reflecting your fears back to you, 
so you can choose love instead and clear karma.
For everything you believe you are, there is a belief of what you are not. 
Ego polishes its buttons of pride and illusions of holier than thou, 
because all flaws and negative judgments are projected onto the 
Shadow.  The Shadow plays the bad guy, by reflecting it all back at you so 
you can see what you fear, and have the free will option to choose love and 
unity. In most awakened people the shadow is integrated through the 
discipline of seeing yourself mirrored as what you judge.  With some 
spiritual awakening, such as Shamanism, it is not unusual for the Shadow to 
take a form, to be an inner teacher. A harsh trainer, whose sharp tongue 
teaches humility. You have to learn to love and accept your own shadow 
unconditionally, to integrate it and become self realized.
To one side of you sits your Divine Beloved, your own unconscious mind 
which has a mind of its own. It is usually the opposite gender of your 
body.  It is your soul mate, lover and guide.
Behind and above you floats an invisible presence, the Witness. The part of 
you can see outside of your ego, it sees things as they really are without 
the distortions of ego or emotion.  This aspect of you is outside of 
duality, emotionless unconditional love.  You will learn how to 
deliberately invoke this presence, or state of mind, in a later lesson.
Behind the Shadow and the Divine beloved, there is a large crowd gathered: 
the Archetypes.  These are most easily understood as manifestations of the 
old Gods. Many Pagan pantheons, such as the Greek, Roman, Norse and Mayan 
Pantheons had a God for each aspect of being human.  Athena is the Goddess 
of reason and self defensive war, Mars is the God of aggressive war and 
conflict.
Behind the Archetypes, is an infinite crowd; the collective consciousness. 
Every being whom ever existed, or ever will exist. Every event, every blade 
of grass and every snowflake that ever has been or will be, is alive in the 
eternal moment, outside of time.  All of this is within the infinity of the 
collective consciousness.
The Divine Beloved, encompasses all the archetypes, and the entire 
collective. Your unconscious, the "Divine Beloved", does not experience 
itself as separate from the Archetypes, the Collective, or the Witness 
Self.  Many faces, one Self.  Imagine all the archetypes, the collective 
and the Divine beloved wear the same clothes, the same uniform.
One aspect of the Shadow, is that it is also the Portal Guardian, the 
gatekeeper between your conscious and unconscious mind. The veil of 
forgetfulness. Its role is protective; it keeps your conscious ego mind 
from being overwhelmed by the crowded chaos of the collective.  By 
reflecting your fears back to you, it keeps you from going to altered 
states that you are not yet ready for.  You could say that it is the Shadow 
that is in charge of pacing and arranging your process... the pace and 
order of its unfolding.
It is also the Angel of Death, because spiritually, death is the doorway to 
the Light, and the unconscious is not separate from that.  The awakening 
process eventually leads you to experience the death of your ego.  The 
experience of separation from the Divine ends and you become the Light
 and 
then eventually, the Void: Blissful, peaceful nothing of a Zen silent 
mind.  Ego dies and goes into the light, and your Higher Self comes down 
into the body to be You. Body lives on as a temple of your Spirit.
The shadow keeps you from going there before you are ready, because too 
much karma clearing all at once would be a mentally hazardous 
experience.  The Shadow, is the fiery sword that guards Eden, so that only 
those who are without fear, can pass.
Understanding the many aspects of consciousness is useful for the Kundalini 
process, because these aspects so often show up symbolically, in 
dreams.  Understanding that your consciousness is made up if an internal 
cast of characters is useful because it allows you to communicate directly 
with these aspects of yourself, in meditation.  You already experience 
yourself as separate from these aspects of you.  Surrender to that, and 
create a relationship between the aspects so they can teach and guide you.
I'll give you a third metaphor.
Think of your ego as a mountain that you can see.  The mountain is 
reflected in a lake. A lake or ocean is a metaphor for the unconscious 
mind, the mystery of what is hidden beneath the surface. Water is symbolic 
of spiritual energy, in dreams and visions.  At the boundary between air 
and water, the reflection of the mountain on the lake is the Shadow, the 
Guardian who hides the secrets of the lake's depths.  Below the lake are 
the layers of the Earth, the Archetypes and the Akashic records, the unity 
of the Earth itself, Gaiamind, and encompassing it all is the Void.  The 
Earth suspended in the starry void of space.

Through the process of consciousness expansion that is Kundalini, we 
integrate with everything... but everything, would overwhelm awareness, so 
we only get the "Reader's Digest version".  We get information on a "need 
to know" basis, we are shown what we need to see, to choose to surrender, 
but we are not shown everything all at once.

Nor do we necessarily integrate the unconscious material in any particular 
order... order implies linearity, and the unconscious is not linear, 
although I describe it as such, for the purpose of conceptualizing it for you.

In a classical, idealized pattern of the awakening process, the chakras 
open in order from the bottom upwards, and in this fantasy, there would be 
linearity and order, in the integration... but the reality is that people 
can experience a bottom-upwards opening, or a top down opening, and often 
some of the upper chakras will open to some degree before the snakes wake. 
The karmic issues of the individual determine the path, and they may have 
some cultural commonalities but are essentially unique to each person.

One night you might be hanging with Kali, in your dreams, the next night 
you might be in the void or surfing "past" lives.

Or you might be dreaming, hanging out in the infinite alternative realities 
of the astral realms, which are like a big adventure schoolroom where you 
do role play games to grow in wisdom and experience.

There is a Zen story of a teacher who asks his students to try to hold the 
Ocean in a sieve.  The students are confused by this and only one student 
actually tries to do it. After many hopeless attempts at understanding, the 
Teacher shows up and the student asks for explanation.  To answer, the 
Teacher throws the sieve far out into the ocean, where it sinks to the bottom.

This is a metaphor for the Kundalini process.  The sieve is ego, and the 
Ocean is the unconscious.  The sieve cannot hold the ocean; it is too small 
and full of holes.  It needs instead to be thrown into the ocean and 
immersed there.  Then the ocean washes through it eternally, and it is 
always filled.



Home work:

- Try it! Imagine sitting at the cafe table from the essay, with the many 
parts of your mind, plus your Higher Self and Guardian Angel... and let 
them be a council, to sort out all of your problems for you.  Even if you 
cannot hear them, they will hear you, and act on your behalf and in service 
to your highest good and the continued unfolding of your spiritual path.

-  Become more mindful of your thoughts.  Begin to learn to watch thoughts 
go by and inquire of yourself, "Where did that come from?" instead of 
reacting to the content of the thought.
   Notice the types of thoughts you have.  Notice how many different 
"Voices" you have in your mind.  How often do you hear remembered voices of 
other people?  Parents, teachers, spouse or partner, boss, relative, etc?
     Some thoughts come as music.  Are there other thoughts when the music 
is present, or is the music interrupted if you have a thought?  Who is the 
DJ?  Does the music chosen sort of match what you are doing, or is it a 
song you heard recently, on replay in your head?
   Some people have an inner critic, and/or an inner narrator who tells the 
story of what you are doing.  Some have an inner defence attorney pleading 
their case before the critic and some known, or unknown judge.  Is there a 
Judge?  Who is the judge of you, in your mind? Do you have an inner coach, 
or cheerleader? Do you have a director who tells you what to do?  Pay 
attention to the voices rather than the words.  Do they remind you of 
anyone? Are they male, or female? Older, younger?
  Notice how your body and emotions respond to the noise of these characters.
  Notice the conversations that go on in your mind.  Do you find yourself 
mentally rehashing an argument after it has ended, or rehearsing what you 
would like to say to someone?
  If you are a visual person, what pictures do you get?  Is it a slideshow 
or a movie?  Is there a soundtrack?  As an artist, I often get cartoon type 
pictures in my imagination.

    If I tell you to imagine a banana, does it appear floating by itself, 
or is there a backdrop, or scenery? Do you think of a painting, or Carmen 
Miranda's hat? When you think of a banana, what other thoughts or feelings 
are associated? Do you remember the smell of a banana, or when you last ate 
one? What other thoughts, memories, feelings or images do you associate 
with "Banana?" A song? Day-O!  Are there some thoughts that always trigger 
a similar string of thoughts and feelings?
   If you focus on the source of thoughts, you may find a level of thought 
that is like a spark of beginning, before a thought is translated into 
words, images or feelings.
   Similarly, you may feel a subtle spark before a taste, smell or physical 
sensation translates into meaning.  This can be difficult; the spark is so 
tiny and fleeting.
   Notice how selective attention is.  Right now you are focusing on 
reading this, and so the rest of the world outside of your attention to 
these words, fades into an unimportant blur.

   Notice the relationship between thoughts and groundedness.  What 
thoughts interfere with your being grounded?  If you spend more time being 
grounded, are there fewer thoughts?  Do the inner voices change or grow 
silent?



   Experiences needed.
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