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Skillfully Wielding Emotion as a Weapon of Transformation

The (very rare) occasions when someone is honestly interested in what I'm up to provide an invaluable opportunity for me to articulate my thoughts. As they say, you don't understand anything until you can explain it to someone else. That ability improves with practice. From Reddit:

"I am curious about this heightened sense of emotionality. In my practice I normally see emotion as the response of the body and tend to disregard it. Is there any filter you use towards emotions? Any meditation techniques (sans substance , well except for maybe wine or cannabis) you would recommend to someone who tends to highly value serenity over emotional experience? I think balance is important, and I think you may have some insights that would help me out."

In response I wrote,


To gain skill in accessing and skillfully wielding emotion, sing along to your favorite songs. Every recorded pop and rock song has been carefully engineered to created a certain kind of emotional experience. Lovelorn yearning, psyched-up aggression, mystical wonder, etc. It's why we love music--it makes us feel things. These aesthetic emotions are directly connected to the archetypal aspects of our psyche.

Take a jam like "The Immigrant Song" by Led Zeppelin. Dig the charging, martial rhythm, and especially Robert Plant's wailing vocals. It tells a story about Viking conquest, and if you're willing to get really into it, you'll feel like a Viking for the 2:27 of the song. That's why Taika Waititi used it in "Thor: Ragnorok"--it was the perfect soundtrack for Thor going into battle. The thrill you get from that marriage of image and song, the emotion you feel, is you brushing up against the archetype of the Warrior.

Serenity is great, but if you concentrate on only being serene, you'll miss out on a huge part of your capacities as a human being. We should all be able to access the warrior aspects of our nature. Not to go into physical combat, necessarily, but to have it to draw on when we inevitably face conflict with someone or something that tries to bully or oppress us.

But of course "Warrior" is only one archetype among many. Phonomancy allows you to train a full spectrum of archetypes of masculinity by associating them with the stages of the Hero's Journey. Fool, Novice, Explorer, Soldier, the Shadow, Devil, Lover, Sorcerer, Hunter, the Self, and the Hero. There's also a part of the Rite that takes you through the feminine equivalents of the stages, but in the context of relationships: Young and Free; Love at First Sight; Sworn Devotion; Ecstatic Jubilation; Betrayed and Shattered; Glamorous Suicide; Salvific Grace; Bottomless Gratitude; Celebration of the Synthesized Self.

Archetypes = emotions = frequencies of Spirit, which is to say, aspects of the God(dess). With regular practice you can deepen your understanding of those energies, strengthen your ability to express them, and alloy them into your character.

Comments

  1. cool. how do i join this church?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. https://www.meetup.com/First-Church-of-David-Bowie-Phonomancer/

      Delete

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