Pandora's Box<s>

[Guest guest]

Dear Fire-fiends<g>,

I know you hate this...but if it's gonna work right, i am going to have

to open the BOX. Just a little bit...enough to keep hope from flying

off, anyway. Right now, i am picturing Rossetti's wonderful artwork by

the same title of 'Pandora'. It's beautiful..she is like the same

model(or anima), from his 'Proserphine' painting. She is bathed, not in

a golden light...but a fiery-golden light. Her look is not one of

surprise...but resignation, if not peace? As i recall, the lid is

slammed shut on the box...but yet it's contents still ooze through the

cracks, in a visible stream of fiery, golden smoke...creating almost a

halo around her head? Something to think about anyway. You all know(the

oldies around here anyway), that i have always loved the Pandora story.

I see it as all the GODS/GODDESES shadows...that is what escaped that

day! Pandora holds the key to something that never escapes...and that is

hope!

Another painting which came to me is called " The Magic Circle " ...can't

remember who it's by(maybe or Waterhouse)..anyway, it's a witch

over a cauldron, with crows on the ground and she's drawing a

'fire-circle' around herself with a stick.There is this great smoke in

the painting...looks like 'spirits' escaping the cauldron. I will try to

find out who it is and post it here for all to see, as a token of one

of the spirits of this flame. There are many 'spirits' here, not just

Mr. Jung's. There are our own to contend with and those of others and

from my memory of this painting...it is apt. I want to apologize for

making all around here so uncomfortable. Frances and Deborah, you must

not leave. Take a break, if you must, and i shall do the same. We all do

the best we can, given the circumstances of our psyches at the time. I

don't want to leave...i need you all..i really do. It's a weakness,

perhaps...but there is only so much work you can do on yourself in

isolation and alienation. We are not meant to be abandoned or

isolated...EVER. Only as long as it takes for certain 'events' to be

ELUCIDATED. So,before i lose my self-respect<S> here...for i hang by a

'thin thread'. I promise you, all that much self-flagellation has taken

place and for now, the beast is tamed<s>! Let's don't forget that HOPE

is left in that box and mercy resides in our hearts. A few Jung quotes

for you all....

" There are many spirits, both light and dark. We should, therefore, be

prepared to accept the view that spirit is not absolute, but something

relative that needs completing and perfecting through life. "

" Just as there is a passion that strives for blind unrestricted life,so

there is a passion that would sacrifice all life to spirit because of

it's superior creative power. This passion turns the spirit into a

malignant growth that senselessly destroys human

life. " ........(*personal note: reminded me of my dream of the

rock-candy(crystal), i had to cut off my arm in the 'big shaman

dream'?*)

" The archetype as an image of instinct is a spiritual goal toward which

the whole nature of man strives; it is the sea to which all rivers wend

their way, the prize which the hero wrests from the dragon. "

" It is a great mistake in practice to treat an archetype as if it were a

mere name, word, or concept. It is far more than that: it is a piece of

life, an image connected with the living individual by the bridge of

emotion. "

" Good does not become better by being exaggerated, but worse, and a

small evil becomes a big one through being disregarded and repressed.

The shadow is very much a part of human nature, and it is only at night

that no shadows exist. "

" Redemption " does not mean that a burden is taken from one's shoulders

which one was never meant to bear. Only the " complete " person knows how

unbearable man is to himself. "

" Masses are always breeding grounds of psychic epidemics. "

And to that last one...i say, thank god! At least for our small 'mass'

around this fire...gives us something to effect a 'CURE " with!! BTW...in

Edinger's work on the apocalypse...an interesting, almost missed side

remark he alluded to, was the 144 thousand or some such number, (too

lazy to go get the book<s>)...you know..the number that will be sitting

at the right hand of god at the apocalypse as the " chosen ones " ?.....the

ones that all Jehovah Witnesses think they are<s>...he hints that it

might just be JUNGIANS!!! HAHA.....A taste of Edinger's shadow, or our

own, if we take our beliefs too far? Or maybe just the truth......Here's

looking at you, kids!!! No wonder Jung thought it better to be Jung and

not a JUNGIAN.....LOL!! Love,