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Intro5
RELATIONSHIP OF ARCHETYPES TO THE TAROT AND ASTROLOGY

Those familiar with astrology or the Tarot Trumps have entree to the archetypal world of PANTHEON already. They will be meeting their old friend: Venus, mars, Jupiter, or "the magician," "the wise old man," "virgin," "savior," and "devil."

Though Pantheon is not a tarot book, per se, it may be used to augment your divinations or readings. Each god is corresponded with its corresponding trump number. Chapter number = trump number. Use it to see what god is at the core of the tarot trump, and how it may affect your life and feelings. Those well versed on the nature of the planers and signs in astrology will definitely learn some new facets of the archetypes to add to their tools of the trade...to flesh out their ideas of the planetary forces and their interaction.

Archetypes express themselves through their fundamentals patterns of symbol formation. Certain symbols tend to cluster around the nexus point of the archetype. It acts like a "strange attractor" to order those correspondences in a non-linear, chaotic way that is unique in each unfolding. Out collective inheritance is not one of ideas, but of pathways or modes, or states of consciousness, with their classical thoughts, feelings and behaviors. Each godform or archetype has characteristic states of consciousness. Like the tarot trumps these archetypal pathways provide an underlying unity for diverse forms of symbolism. The Tree of Life, tarot, and astrology are metanarratives or systems that hold all of them together in a subtle network.

The powers represented by the tarot trumps and astrological planets are with us in every facet of life, from the most mundane to the most exalted. These powers reside in the earlier and deeper levels of the psyche, but reveal themselves through dreams, myths, and great ideas.

By working with astrology, tarot, or godforms in imagination we open the lines of communication to the subconscious and learn to decipher the messages. These sacred aspects of the archetypes are not separated from their profane images. They manifest directly in a very substantive form. This form is eternally unique. Archetypes gain life and meaning when their motif is embodied or filled out through our personal experience.

Although the origins of the tarot are not clearly defined, these strange and beautiful cards form a system of communications through multi-leveled symbols. They very accurately predicted the archetypes of the collective unconscious as "discovered" and described by Jung and his followers.

Whoever their ancient creators were, they had psychological insight into the workings of the soul of man, and on the nature of the universe. That awareness is inherent; it emerges when the visionary looks within. The tarot is not only a system of divination, but also constitutes a sort of Book of Life. The trumps represent pictorial depictions of pure archetypal forms, as revealed to the various mystics who created each pack.

Since each Tarot trump has an astrological attribution and a god-form, it is a pictorial representation of the Forces of Nature (instinctual forces). Through symbolism, it provides a pictographic presentation of the major aspects of existence.

The position of the card shows the relationship of these different aspects among one another. It may be described as the divine forces of individual creation or emanation, including its purpose and direction. By meditating on the tarot trumps, we activate certain archetypal forces within ourselves, bringing them into consciousness.

The basis of the tarot lies in the Hermetic mystical system known as the Qabalah. The Qabalah also describes mankind's basic inherited pathways. The tarot cards correspond with the 22 letters of the sacred Hebrew alphabet, and the 22 paths of the Tree of Life (the basic Qabalistic consciousness map). By this system of interrelated archetypes, ideas could be exchanged without the necessity of either spoken or written word. Pictures rather than words express ideas, making communication about eternal verities easier between those who speak different languages.

Tarot in its Qabalistic form sets out to show the relation between God, Nature, Mankind, and the Universe. The practical value is that it reveals the harmonies preexisting between signs, symbols, and archetypes, letters, and numbers. It is a bit more abstract than interacting gods and goddesses who behave much like humans with one another. However, it brings all the corresponding symbolism into play and allows us to categorize most objects and behaviors.

Both tarot and the Tree of Life function like a generic filing-system of symbolism and human behavior. A symbol emerges precisely to awaken in our consciousness the memory of that which we inherently know, but don't know we know. If it was conscious, it would be a thought, not a symbol. We can use the tarot imagery in this way as a tool for developing self-realization.

The use of the tarot evokes the associations which we have already formed in the past. Symbols are intended to arouse a thought by means of suggestion, thus causing the truth which lies hidden to be revealed. This book corresponds tarot paths with members of the Greek pantheon. This ensures an orderly unfolding and helps organize the diverse symbolism presented.

Ouspensky once said that only a symbol can deliver us from the slavery of words and formulas, and allowus to attain the possibilities of thinking freely. Jung implied much the same with his free association experiments and technique. Imagination is the "royal road" to our experience of archetypal adventure. The collective aspect of the archetype stimulates the imagination, leading each of us to our unique personal experience of the divine. Our insight helps us see them at work in our physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual lives.


Next: The Four Levels of Experience

Intro 6
THE FOUR LEVELS OF EXPERIENCE:

The Tree of life represents the emanations from the Divine Being which created (and IS) the Universe. The Paths leading down from the top (Kether) are stages in the process through which the Universe came into being. If these paths are symbolically and mystically traversed in reverse order, starting at the bottom (Malkuth) and climbed upward, they are the way of the soul's experiential ascent to the divine -- THE PATH OF RETURN (self-realization or enlightenment).

The paths represent access to subjective or personal experience of the unchanging objective energies of the 10 Spheres of the Tree of Life. Each Path belongs to one of the Tarot trumps, whose symbolism contains the key to the Path's nature. No two persons are likely to interpret the symbolism of the card in exactly the same way.

As in life, we may travel the same roads, but we focus on different landmarks along the way. There is a great diversity of opinion, even among "initiates," as to the meaning of these symbols. However, the patterns are quite distinctive and easily associated with the archetypes of the Greek pantheon. The gods and goddesses personify the quality of each path.

The members of the Greek pantheon are introduced by their corresponding Tarot trump. This association allows access to those symbols for a more personal meditation. It is by this multi-sensual (visual, visceral, etc.) image that the goddesses and gods enter our consciousness. This visual image assists personification and identification. Use the Tarot card as a take-off point for our visualization of the godform when trying to dialogue with it, such as imagining Hestia as The Hermit, Aphrodite as The Empress, or Hermes as The Magician.

The format of Pantheon is modularized into four planes of awareness, or "worlds" of experience, to use the Qabalistic term. Each plane resonates with the other planes, giving a depth to the symbolism. Rather than considering these worlds as "real or unreal," we can imagine them as virtual realities. They are simulations symbolic of higher truths, but filtered through our own perception and information-gathering system. Our input system is conditioned by our early experience and other factors, such as belief systems.

Each world is a form or view of the same phenomenon. This depth of symbolism yields a broader perspective from a specific level of awareness. By imaginally "becoming" these symbols you open up whole new states of consciousness for yourself, far wider than your typical human responses.

We live in a universal web of consciousness. But our culture has programmed us to limit our awareness drastically. Some of this programming cuts us off from our bodies and sensuality, other injunctions limit our ability to feel, while others suggest we don't think for ourselves.

The visual image of the god-form assists personification and the process of identification with the god-form. You can experiment with using the Tarot card as a take-off point for your visualization of the god-form when trying to dialogue with it. The card may function as a doorway down the path which leads to the archetype. Just follow the symbols back down deeper and deeper into the more fundamental and primal levels of the psyche.

The "worlds" are categorized in each chapter as follows:

PHYSICAL FORM represents the actual manifestations which affect our five senses. This physical plane is the most accessible region of the subconscious mind. To a great degree our minds do manifest our reality. Just because events are experienced as "real" does not mean they are a content of consciousness. This awareness does not occur until one "plumbs" the psychic depths and can see through to the archetypal core of the situation. This level includes the solidity and tangibility of physical objects. This is where the archetype affects the body through perception or disease.

EMOTIONAL IMAGE represents the world of forces behind the veil of physical things, the Astral Plane. This is where archetypes are perceived in images or mind-pictures. These images on the astral are eternal shape-shifters and change rapidly from one moment to the next. This is the realm of reams and divination, the lunar planes of psychics and mediums. This is the level of intense feelings or affects and creative patterns. It is a formative world where archetypes effect the emotions.

INTELLECTUAL IDEA stands for the region of psychological conceptions concerning archetypes. Known as the (non-Euclidean) geometrical realm of the Causal Body, it is a crystallization of the archetype of the Self. It represents the re-integration of the multiple forms in the figure of the higher Self. It is the level of rational mental thought where psychological understanding occurs. Here a love of images is nurtured and archetypes affect styles of thinking and spontaneous ideas.

SPIRITUAL MYTH represents matrix patterns before they descend into material manifestation, the realm of pre-geometry and information theory. It is from these primordial spiritual myths, this mythic level of the psyche, that form manifests. On this level archetypes communicate through intuition and affect one's spiritual life through belief systems. It is an experience of the Divine. All myths are sacred eternal patterns.


Next: Archetypes as a Means of Self-Realization

Intro8
PRACTICAL TECHNIQUES FOR FINDING AND REALIZING THE GODS WITHIN:

Even with all this discussion on archetypes and imagination, you may still find yourself at a loss how you can recognize and contact these internal forces. The answer is practice, and taking the time to notice what forces are at play, interweaving with your life and your goals. What is fostering you, nourishing you, your ally? What opposes you, thwarts your will, sabotages your dreams for the future?

Two techniques are immediately accessible. One, from Jungian Psychology is known as ACTIVE IMAGINATION. The second, from the Hermetic Qabalah, is known as PATHWORKING. Both build a thorough understanding of the nature of imagination. They are experiential journeys, waking dreams with symbolic interaction with the subconscious that have consequences in real time. Both methods culminate in a spontaneous internal dialogue with personified archetypes, who become guides of the soul.

Soulful exploration of this undiscovered country is possible through imagination -- through consciousness journeys. In fact, soul or PSYCHE IS IMAGINATION. It is both a realm of experience and a human faculty. The mythic layers of the psyche are welded to our thoughts, emotions and behaviors, even our spiritual ideals. Emotions are unlearned reactions to external or internal events, while feelings are thoughts about those reactions. The realm of soul lies between, and joins together those of matter and spirit. In other words, the realm of imagination lies between the physical world and perceptions and the spiritual level of conceptualization and direct epiphany.

We needn't go to sleep to experience this rich inner world. In fact, we frequently get glimpses of it in our daydreams. But daydreams are something our ego makes up to serve its own desires. We make things up in daydreams to be the way we want them. Deeper levels of the imagination simply "happen to us." The scenario doesn't serve the ego, but the higher Self, our wholeness. So compensating factors may be at work and reveal their dynamics. At this level, imagination is autonomous, and we simply immerse ourselves in that stream of consciousness.

Therapeutic process work provides a way and place for applying watchful or sustained attention to our inner imagery. A process helps us penetrate even deeper into the levels of the imagination, or universal consciousness field. The imagination forms a middle ground where life and meaning merge, and are revealed as emergent images.

Imagination is the realm of sacred psychology which approaches the gods through imagining and personifying, rather than through ritual, prayer, and sacrifice with a religious orientation. Imagination is a primary reality with a non-verbal, non-linear logic of its own. Archetypes function like the "strange attractors" of deterministic chaos, ordering the jumbled contents of the psyche. We can learn to orient ourselves to internal and external reality by noticing and responding to the images, sensations and emotions we experience in imaginal encounters. We can make friends with these inner figures, or at least form relationships.

Comprehensive theories of the imagination distinguish three types of imaginative experience: 1) everyday conscious imagining; 2) Jung's active imagination and other process work; 3) archetypal or visionary imagination that is spontaneous. Therefore, active imagination gives anyone entree to the world of imagination. One you learn this technique, you might try the "visionary" mode, simply by emptying and opening yourself. You can do it either with extreme arousal, such as dancing to exhaustion, or with relaxation techniques. Both will produce vivid experiences. They can be entered as dialogues of ego and Self, I and Not-I, or through direct identification.

The imaginal world is the result of an overlapping of our emotional and higher mental faculties. In metaphysical terms, it consists partly of the Astral and Causal levels of experience. These terms are antiquated, implying a causal relationship. Archetypes are deterministic. Unpredictable at any given moment, they operate in distinguishable parameters and patterns. This is characteristic of a "chaotic system," one that is complex, dynamic, and subject to turbulence. The imaginal world reflects this chaotic, bizarre pattern. It is paradoxical, neither perceptual nor conceptual, but intermediate -- and visceral, as well.

The three modes of interaction of the conscious and subconscious forces in imaginal encounters may be summarized as follows:

1). EVERYDAY CONSCIOUS IMAGINING is where the ego is under the illusion that it is controlling the content of the vision. The ego feels proud of its "fantasy of control" over the fabric of the imagination. But the subconscious has its own surprise in store for the ego, and may respond sooner or later with a wake-up call that shatters the illusion. A powerful eruption of images and emotions can arise that is totally beyond the ego's control or ability to contain them. The ego is swept helplessly into the stream of consciousness.

At this point the ego's image of itself dissolves, fragments or is torn apart. This is known as ago-death. The shattering of the old form of the fragile ego makes way for rebirth in a new form. First, personality is profoundly disrupted. There may be images of dismemberment, apocalypse, near death, etc. The opposing power of the subconscious drives are now brought to the surface in daily life, demanding some form of reconciliation. When we are in crisis, we can no longer cope through our ordinary means of "keeping it together."

2). ACTIVE IMAGINATION is a means of addressing this problem. We gain self-knowledge rather than being merely overwhelmed and impotent to face the challenges life is offering us. Our stunned ego can eventually develop a means of coping with these inner forces; in fact, it is an imperative. When we actively engage the imagination, symbols of the Self appear spontaneously to reintegrate the fragmented personality. This is the cyclic process of rebirth or resurrection. Jung noticed the Self appeared often in mandala forms. We see them in dreams, art, visions, and religious iconography.

Active imagination also involves controlling the direction the imaginal journey takes, but not for the benefit of the ego. It means deepening the process. It ensures the progressive unfolding of an imaginative sequence. Ego works with the tendencies of the psyche, seeking guidance from inner figures to achieve movement into a new situation or level of being. This results n an increased awareness of your internal processes. Active imagination works through visualization and multi-sensory images (kinesthetic, visceral, audial, olfactory). Sometimes the senses meld and appear in non-ordinary ways, such as tasting music.

The practice of active imagination requires six steps:

STEP 1: The preliminary phase requires focusing on your immediate life problems or aspirations. You establish the intent or goal of the operation. If there is a problem or issue, it should be identified. The excursion into imagination should have a well-defined purpose.

STEP 2: Next, empty your mind, dropping into a reverie, or natural trance. Become physically and mentally relaxed. Assume a position where you are comfortable but will not fall asleep. Empty the mind of ego's train of thought. If thoughts crop up, just watch them come and go, dismissing them if they deal with your outer life.

STEP 3: This is the phase of letting go to your unconscious stream of images and letting that absorb your attention. If you are pathworking, visualize the corresponding Tarot Trump at this point, and enter into its virtual scenery. Focus on this image, but not enough to arrest the activity taking place spontaneously. Don't make a frozen picture of it, but don't let it change too rapidly, either, or you will become overwhelmed. If that happens flow with the dizzying whirlpool and let it take you deeper and deeper, and find what is there. The point is to participate fully in the drama, rather than watching yourself like a movie. You must be there with your own values, intentions, wounds, and will.

STEP 4: Active imagination requires an ethical confrontation with the archetypal forces to be truly transforming. You must enter the inner drama with your true personality, not as your ideal. Leave your images of heroism and grandiosity behind. Be the unique person you are in inner, as well as outer life. Once the imaginal experience begins, the ego is engaged and compelled to participate. Take advantage of the opportunity to ask these forces just what they are seeking from you as a mortal being. See if the god-form has any gifts or treasures for you to take back into the day-world.

STEP 5: The gifts of these forces take many forms, some of which are physically and emotionally healing. The idea of this stage is to apply what you have learned in the encounter and make it practical. The god-form may have ordered or asked for certain behavior on the part of the ego. If this does not contradict cultural, moral or ethical laws, you may experiment with these inner directions. Mostly they seek attention. In any event, the contact is established and you know where and to whom to return if there is further need of "discussion."

STEP 6: If you have an intriguing inner journey, and meet the godform in imagination by directing the unfolding of the fantasy, give it some form of expression in your external life. For example, write it down in your journal of inner events or dreambook, paint what you saw, sculpt it, dance it, or play the music you heard there.

NOTE OF CAUTION: There is the chance of repressed unconscious forces breaking through into daily life, overwhelming the ego. If you feel emotionally unstable, seek a therapist to function as a guide on your inner journeys. There is a great deal of energy locked up, or stuck in past traumas, which needs to be released. Active imagination is a means of facing up to and dealing with these shadowy problems.

Active imagination may bring unusual manifestations in its wake, including psychosomatic changes in blood pressure or heartbeat. These are from strong emotions and can be worked through by consciously relaxing yourself, or being physically expressive. Or, you might experience a strong sense of euphoria as the ego identifies with the archetypal forces during the event. There might be a reactionary let-down, but it won't last long.

Synchronistic events, or seemingly magical, meaningful coincidences may appear. Don't let your judgment be blurred by excitement. This is a normal occurrence when working on the inner levels and provides additional insight on the dynamics at work.

GUIDELINES FOR PRACTICE include the following:


1). Maintain a critical distinction between wish fulfillment and the experience of true imagination.
2). There is no rush to experience every god-form or Tarot Path via imagination. Take it slowly, learning and assimilating each new experience thoroughly before going farther.

3). Insure your freedom from interruption during your imaginal excursion.

4). Establish a time limit. It is a good idea to have a trusted friend nearby to monitor you.

5). Record results in your journal of self-discovery, including physical reactions and synchronicities.

6). Never do an active imagination which concerns living people. This especially includes intentional sexual visualizations. This is unethical from the magician's point of view, as it is an encroachment on their True Will. It is a misapplication of the technique.

7). Ground exercises in active imagination by applying the experiences gained in pathworking to daily life.

8). Try to establish contact with your personal "inner guide" who will always offer protection if requested and allowed to do so.



PATHWORKING:

Pathworking, using the qabalistic diagram the Tree of Life has much in common with active imagination. It means taking an imaginal journey to the 'location" of an archetypal form or dynamic group of symbols. Once you recognize imagination is the realm of the soul, you can develop a method for exploring the soul through imagination. The paths of the Tree of Life function as metaphorical "in-roads." Their correspondences (mindscapes, colors, animals, plants, symbols, etc) produce a gestalt awareness of soul through its own system of metaphorical language.

There are three primary modes of pathworking:


1) a trance-like state where the ego is overwhelmed (possibly through drug use) and incapacitated by the forces of the unconscious,
2). "active," and

3). "passive" pathworking.

The first is a regression of consciousness, producing hallucinatory rather than imaginal experiences. Active pathworking is analogous to active imagination. The major purpose of a pathworking is to produce a conscious contact with the archetypal powers connected with the particular path. There are active and passive forms of pathworking, but do not let this glib terminology lead you astray. "Passive" in this sense does not imply the ineffective attitude of type-1 experience. Both active and passive styles are desirable to develop. Passive pathworkng is analogous to visionary imagination, not ego-driven.
Active pathworking is an exercise of the creative imagination. It is an excursion or consciousness journey into the astral plane using clairvoyance. It is a combination of ego, will, and imagination. Pathworking produces a dynamic imagery experience. It surpasses sensory information processing, but precedes conceptual lucidity. This is not a trance state where the images transform freely from one to another, but a disciplined artform, such as music, painting or dance.

Clairvoyance means seeing the inner world with increasing clarity. This clarity comes through the ego's conscious participation. The main use of active pathworking is for introspection.

In pathworking, the will forces the image to maintain certain parameters. They are determined by the qabalistic correspondence system (for the classic attributions, see Aleister Crowley's 777, or The Qabalah of Aleister Crowley").. The "will," in turn, is brought into direct non-verbal contact with the non-rational, with mystery. In other words, the communication is visual or multi-sensory rather than verbal, much like an RPG game.

Pathworking is a dynamic process which requires us to react to situations immediately through our feelings or instincts. It is similar to (but more profound than) some of the X-games which reflect the mythic theme of The Quest. The difference is, in pathworking the Will maintains a sense of responsibility for the ego's behavior on the inner planes. You are more your self, not playing another. All of your faculties are kept alert. Thinking and emotions are immersed in the situation. The ego's forceful elaboration helps ensure unfolding of a particular imaginative sequence.

An active pathworking traces the routes described in Qabalah as the transition stages between spheres. Consciousness moves along them from one state of consciousness to another, following a thread or path of imagery. A pathworking begins in one sphere, and culminates in the sphere immediately higher on the Tree of Life. For example, the path Art leads from Yesod to Tiphareth, from the lower emotions to the spiritual heart. Some of its correspondences include the moon, color blue, Sagittarius, the centaur, and the goddess Artemis. So, a sample pathworking might consist of a moon-lit journey into a magical forest in the depth of winter, finding a centaur as an ally, and culminating in a conversation with the goddess.

Anytime two particular terminals are used, the traveler establishes a contact with both the "place" and the "entities" who inhabit that psychological "area." With repetition, the imaginal reality of the place is confirmed through personal experience. You can evoke this experience from your own imagination if you try, and become a regular visitor to these spiritual regions.

Always remember, in pathworking return to your point of origin. This is one main reason the ego must be able to maintain concentration and follow-through. If you use a Tarot Trump as the gateway to your experience, definitely pass through it on your way "out." Visualize all you saw on your approach fleeting by on your "return." Ground your pathworking by returning consciousness to its normal condition.

3). VISIONARY IMAGINATION (or archetypal imagination) is analogous to passive pathworking. All images are archetypal, in that they carry enfolded information about primal realities. This form of imaginal journey is termed passive since ego-consciousness is present, though it does not interfere with the emergence and unfolding of psychic imagery.

True vision is a non-directive process. This passive pathworking is actually more advanced because the traveler must employ his creativity or ability to synthesize information. The practitioner requires an ability to deal with the opening of the lower, as well as higher mind. We want to penetrate to super-celestial regions, not suffer an invasion from the primitive unconscious.

This form of pathworking uses a doorway of some type to initiate the experience. This might again be a Tarot card, god-form visualization, or an I Ching hexagram, last night's dream image, etc. The difference is that instead of following procedural instructions on where to go and what to visualize, you allow the pathworking itself to present images spontaneously.

What are describing is revealed in the world's great art. Leonardo daVinci, Michaelangelo, William Blake, etc. were all visionary artists. Whenever they lived, they exemplified the Renaissance-type of spirit, which lives close to soul and the world of myth and personified archetypal forces. These show on the canvas as demons, angels, gods and goddesses - now in modern forms.

This passive pathworking may be likened in some respects to what is termed "archetypal imagination" in leading-edge Jungian psychology. It is an authentic visionary mode of experience, which produces keen insight through psychological perception.

We need to examine the meaning of "archetypal" if our purpose in pathworking is contacting archetypal powers which embody its dynamic process. Archetypal theory has four general premises:

1). Archetypes are located in the imaginal world of the soul, and are called gods and goddesses since ancient times.
2). Psychopathology, or the negative manifestation which leads to human problems is emphasized. The shadow is confronted in its physical, behavioral, and psychophysical manifestations..

3). Archetypes are extremely important to human behavior and seem to carry a quality of "unkownness" and holiness or divinity.

4). The ego comes to realize it is only one psychological perspective and understands its relative lack of control over the psyche and physical organism.

Archetypal imagination transcends active imagination by offering a method where we can learn to redeem some dignity through our suffering. In archetypal psychology, pathologies (archetypal afflictions) are recognized as an essential component of the human soul. Jung said, "The gods have become diseases."
Therefore, psychologists have explored the divine by insight into the light and dark aspects of the gods. Greek myth is full of different versions of divine images of darkness, death, and perversion, reflecting the world of mental illness and personality disorders. Who could imagine sending Ares for anger management classes? These divine forces are so powerful the ego cannot really "do" anything to them.

Like the Qabalah, archetypal psychology recognizes many varieties of consciousness reflecting the plurality and freedom of styles within the structure of myth. Since there are no procedural constraints in this passive pathworking, what can we expect to experience in this awakened visionary mode? This is the realm of true inner plane contact with the deities revealed through folk tales, classical myths, and in psychology through dreams. Any attempt to engage in the inner life brings a deeper relationship with the unconscious.

To experience a luminous visionary imagination we must become acquainted with the archetypes through personifying their potent forces. An archetypal topography, or psychic road map is of inestimable value here. Qabalah is a generic road map of the psyche. It provides the possibility of interaction of an individual with the divine, immortal forms.

There is a long tradition throughout history which regards personifying as a necessary mode of comprehending the world and our personal existence. It is a way of ensouling psychic powers and getting to know them intimately. Personifying allows us to discriminate among, and love or cherish these forces which make up our very being.

Personification is a path with heart, since it allows us to imagine both through and beyond what our eyes see into the primordial dimension of celestial beings. Living is a special way of "knowing" which arises from personification. The strong feelings aroused by subjective experiences of the soul speak volumes to the heart.

We can develop a passionate engagement with the mythic dimension, gaining access to our creative imagination. Through getting to know the gods within, we learn to see visions and hear voices. We may talk with them and they may talk with each other without us losing our grip on ordinary reality.

We can speak directly to these archetypal forces within. When we do, the basic transformative formula is always the same. In terms of self-analysis there are three distinct steps.

1). IDENTIFY THE PROBLEM. Name the neurotic pattern to loosen its grip on your identity and seek the help of inner spiritual guiding principles. This means you will have to suffer consciousness of your condition. No more "ignorance is bliss." When we recognize our bad habits they seem to amplify. Actually we are much as we have always been, but we have never turned our attention in this direction before. We may suffer a terrible, proud ego (Zeus), or a tendency to dishonesty with ourselves and others (Hermes), or an irresistible urge for an affair (Aphrodite), etc. But our plight will no longer be unconscious once we have named it.

2). Accept that suffering and find meaning in it. Don't be a passive victim; face up to the shadow of outgrown behavior patterns and power-trips. Confront the negative forces of the psyche by mustering inner strength. Once you name a neurotic pattern, you claim it as a part of yourself; to deny this fact is to deny one's wholeness. When you consciously relate to its source, the 'problem' is automatically transformed. It is crying out for attention.

3). Try to accept and manifest the potential strength of the inner self once it is called up. In other words, once you have an imaginal contact with the archetype, try to contact its potential for positive transformation. Experience the more exalted qualities of the archetype as well as its instinctual, compulsive side. For example, the courage and loyalty of Mars, not just the bravado and violence. Don't give up, because to passively withdraw means to stay stuck in neurotic patterns.

Confront inner and outer crises with the reserves of strength accessible through creative imagination.

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