Wait, what?!!
The only way out is UP?
I thought last month you said the only way out is THROUGH!
You’re right, that’s what I wrote last month as I was encouraging you through the bridge of retrograde planets. We’re half way there, three down, three to go. (Oh, except Mars just went retrograde so there’s that—four to go now.)
However, in a moment of kizmit I randomly came across a psychosynthesis article, stating that my beloved teacher, Roberto Assagioli*, creator of Psychosynthesis, wrote on a scrap of paper (he was fond of writing words and phrases on scraps of paper and leaving them all over his office in Firenze (Florence) Italy), that:
Motto of Psychosynthesis:
The only way out is the way up …
Turns out the phrase, “The best way out is always through” is actually ascribed to the poet Robert Frost. Hmmm… Roberts with their way through advice.
The way out counseled to be staying on the path through has become a common sentiment. When I think of this expression, I feel supported to feel my feelings, accept the current complexities or challenges, and surrender to the process. I trust that if I just stay with the situation and move through it, there will be resolution. I will get there, wherever “there” is.
But I imagine there are times when the best way out is to take a detour, to be creative, to stop and rest awhile.
Assagioli was a colleague of Freud and Jung. He believed Freud had too much focus on the darkness, the wounding, the never-ending exploration of “the basement.” He postulated the human primal wound was that we’d lost our sense of who we really are by forming coping personalities. He wanted us to remember the innate High Self capacity for bliss, joy, creativity, beauty… the way UP!
He suggested that when we were willing to go up and experience the higher realms of the unconscious and yes, also go down to explore the lower unconscious, that we would expand the middle unconscious, where we express our day to day personality. We would be fluid, neither attaching to pain nor to joy, trusting in our essential nature.
Right now, in the midst of the CRAZY world we are living in, there has never been a better time to get through by going UP. It looks like our planet is dying and our social fabric is fraying. We can feel hopeless and terrified. It’s important that we feel our deepest feelings about the world, and also that we open our gaze upward to the many wondrous aspects of our lives, our communities and our planet. The jury is not out. Most of the jurors think we’re doomed, but there are some wild cards in the mix, a little magic behind the scenes.
We only have this now moment. and then this one…
So let’s find the way up. Feel your joy, the beauty of the world where you can find it. Be creative. Revel in the art of others. Dance. Sing. Play with children. Find love in your heart for everyone and everything that you can, or at least, as the Dalai Lama suggests, cultivate compassion.
The way up reminds us of who we really are. Infinite Souls.
Do you want to know more about this philosophy, using the many tools and techniques to free yourself from limiting patterns and inner conflicts? To know more about Assagioli and Psychosynthesis, and how to live in this world through this beautiful spiritual philosohy, check out the Psychosynthesis class starting in January in the Calendar of Classes and Events.
*I didn’t study directly with Assagioli, but with John Firman and Ann Gila. John studied with Assagioli in person, and I feel Assagioli with me in the spirit world.