RECENTLY DURING A PUBLIC TALK about archetypes, the phrase, “holographic self-portrait” popped up. I was looking for a way of describing how personality traits appear when witnessed as generically distributed styles of awakening versus localized attributes “owned” by a particular ego. Seen through the archetypal lens, I explained, personalities no longer fall on a continuum from captivating to underwhelming to distasteful. As we learn to live in archetypal space, each bouncy bundle of me-stories redirects our attention back to the benevolent Being that animates them. It was at this point that the image of a painter came to mind.
Imagine yourself lurking around in an art studio, peering over the shoulder of a Divine prodigy deeply absorbed in a holographic self-portrait. This, I maintain, is our fundamental situation. Whenever we observe a fellow mortal, or look in the mirror, we are spying on an otherworldly Da Vinci dabbing his horse hair into a messy palette of DNA. From this perspective, a few things become crystal clear:
1) Critiquing The Artist’s medium (our own or another’s body/mind) is not just absurd, it’s a backhanded way of losing faith in the holder of the brush.
2) To gaze intelligently at any soulscape, we must feel into the intent of The Artist and understand the limits and possibilities of the particular body/mind medium they’re working with. That’s called, “becoming archetypally literate.”
In short, we must learn to gaze softly at sharp-edged egos through the sepia-toned lens of felt archetype. We must set aside our garish taste for separate somebodys and spend some serious time in that art appreciation class called “Astro Self-inquiry.”
Before inquiring into any particular astrological sign, however, best to first feel into the sentient center from which these twelve archetypal rays radiate. Until we’re in a habit of actively reverse engineering each archetype back to the Pixillated Puppy dreaming these styles of awakening up, we’re simply throwing conceptual firewood into the ego’s bonfire of separation.
Here are two preliminary inquiries to get you started. They can be approached as impossible-to-answer koans that frustrate you into naked seeing or as sincere contemplations that test the boundaries of your comprehension- your choice. Why not try both?
Suggestion: Try reading them aloud to a friend — first weighty and sober, then playful and tongue-in-cheek. Then close your eyes and notice how the question reverberates through your body.
1) What kind of Artist would breathe sentience and interactivity into their chosen medium?
2) What kind of Script Writer would endure amateur editorial feedback from fictional characters who talk back?
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