How do you let go of your Ego

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“The ego that sees a thou is not the same ego that sees an it.” ~ Joseph Campbell

In this quote Joseph Campbell points to a truth genius in its simplicity, the ability to transform the ego through how you view the things, environment and people in your world. We are all on our journey with the ego, whether we are in it and unaware of it, embrace it as a matter of pride, or have taken up a context in which we wish to transcend it. For those of us who wish to transcend it the journey can at times become disheartening or overwhelming, the more you wish to step out of the ego the more you begin to see all the areas where the ego appears.

It can at times appear as if your ego is getting more prevalent even though you have chosen to follow a path to shed the ego. This is not in fact because the ego has gotten worse, but rather in your commitment to shed it you begin to see what you were not able to see before. Your eyes are open to a new view, you have adopted a new lens and in that lens the appearance of your ego can be glaring. The intention is not to have you feel a failure or set back in any way, but to give you the opportunity to see what you have never seen before and transform it. The question of how to transform it then becomes the issue; an issue that has been discussed, philosophized, pondered, and meditated upon by multiple religions and spiritual communities for centuries. Once you are aware that your ego exists and you have seen the benifits of letting go of it, how exactly do you do that?

It is in the quote that Joseph Campbell offers a solution, a way in which to view things that if embraced can provide a spiritual context for looking at everything that we encounter in our world. To view everything as a thou, rather than an it, is essentially to view everything as having a spirit. Not only that, but everything as having a spirit worthy of respect and sacred to the value and worth of the planet. It is to view everything as being connected to you in an intricate way, to be one with all that is. To embrace this view is to take on a view similar to nature, where everything has its proper place and its natural flow. A place where nothing is wrong but everything is taken to follow its own natural divine course. Where death, though it can be painful, provides access to birth, where there is not only a flow but a natural way of being and a connection to all that exists.

It is this connection, this freedom of ease, this ability to just be that is the opportunity of surrendering your ego. In this you are able to connect with your fellow man and woman, with nature, with the divine, and with all that is. Joseph Campbell does not offer something that is necessarily easy or the only way, but he does present an access to a way of seeing that can transform your entire experience of life and as he puts it “change your whole psychology”.

When you look at your world today ~ your friends, your family, the trees in your front yard, the sky above, and the stranger in line next to you ~ do you see an it or a thou? Who would you be if everything and everyone was a thou?

(Image ©2011 Alexandra Candler)

Spirituality and Myth

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A journey I never wanted to end, Werner Herzog’s Cave of Forgotten Dreams, is both a learning experience and a spiritual journey. In it I found my love of spirituality honored and an access to connecting with the people of a different time, the evolution of not only humanity but of the human soul. It amazed me that Herzog paid homage not only to the art historian, the archaeologist, and the scientist, but also the spiritualist.

This film is multilayered with art, how we as humans express ourselves, and our journey as a soul ~ our oneness together. In this film noted prehistorian Jean Clottes points out the paleolithic “concepts which produce a world view, fluidity and permeability”. To the paleolithic fluidity is the ability for a tree to speak, a man to become animal. This speaks not only to the spiritual concept and practice of shapeshifting, but to the multiple different cultures around the world that have used this as their spiritual context. Native American groups, for instance, have combined with animal spirits such as bear and eagle for centuries to receive spiritual guidance and become one with their surroundings and the earth. Through this is the ability to learn not only from books, but to listen and learn from the environment around us. To truly experience this the paleolithic peoples embraced the second concept of permeability, “there are no barriers between our world and the world of the spirits” (Ibid.). Clottes explains that to the paleolithic Shaman they could speak to the world of the spirits and the spirits could speak through them.

Woman and Bull

These concepts are tied back to the physical in the film team’s exploration of the only human image found in the cave, the painting of a female form combined with a bull (or Minotaur). As the film points out this is extraordinary because it means that we as humans have had a collective story of the myth of the woman and the bull for at least 28,000 years. It is further inspiring though because it points to a connection with other cultures of the worship of the goddess. This is a connection to the collective human spirit’s worship of the divine and all that provides for us.

Our spirit seeks oneness and it is oneness I found in Cave of Forgotten Dreams. From the spiritual context of the paleolithic people that ties to the modern day Aborigines to the combination of the team exploring the cave, a sense of common spirit prevailed. Watching scientist, art historians, perfumers, archaeologist, and paleontologist combining their skills to form the story of this cave and add to the journey of the human spirit moved my heart and stirred my soul.

Although parts of the film take patience for the viewer used to watching a more faced paced film scenario, it is akin to the reward found in being silent and still while watching nature unfold. Your spirit finds peace and you can hear that sometimes very quite voice calling you towards your purpose for higher good.

(Image Courtesy Bradshaw Foundation)