🌀🐇 #76 magician archetype, healing the world, laughing dragonfly

Plus Subversive Grief  ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ​ ​ ​ ⚡️ Enlightening Bolts Gems of The Weird and Wonderful From Around The Web 🎩 Venturing into Sacred Space: This fascinating video from Like Stories of Old explores the archetype of the magician. [Watch it here.](=)​ 🌎 On Grief and Healing The World: The real tragedy is we've become people who can't cry. [Read more here.]()​ 🍄 Deep Work: The most important realization Ava got from psychedelics was the understanding that everything was okay. [Read it here.](=)​ Did someone forward you this email? Get this newsletter every week when you [sign up here.](​ 🎇 Image of The Week ​ Photographer Axel Bocker captured this stunning image of a "laughing" dragonfly. It's wild how reality is brimming with such detail. You can zoom in and see things like this. You can zoom out and see vast star systems. So many reasons in this universe to be struck by wonder. 👁 The Society of Self "Do I contradict myself? Very well then I contradict myself, (I am large, I contain multitudes.)" This quote from Walt Whitman is a classic way of describing the vastness of self. The self is not singular. It's made of many aspects and depending on the context, certain qualities will have more prominence in our external expression and interior experience. In a therapeutic setting, people navigate these various elements of self using parts work and internal family systems. I had a realization a couple of weeks back that I'd like to spell out for you today... Imagine the self as a large room with many individuals interacting. These rooms can vary dramatically. For some people, their rooms are tidy, everything is well ordered and everyone falls in line like a military assembly. In other cases, you have a chaotic, free-flowing party environment. In some instances, it's like a warzone with emotional bombs going off constantly. If each of these rooms represents a micro-culture or society of self, what sets the tone? What dictates the rule for engagement between parts? The answer is the internal caretaker or ideal parent figure. This part, well developed, is mature, loving, strong and sage-like in its navigation through messy conflicts. In lieu of this part being well cultivated, you can see the emergence of an authoritarian tyrant that monopolizes strength, discards warmth, and rules through fear. You might also find a floaty, hippy parental figure that prioritizes warmth, demonizes strength, and denies the responsibility to preside. You might also find the complete absence of this figure. This is the scenario in which most of the bombs go off. I use to consider the internal caretaker/ideal parent figure just another part among many. But now I see it can serve as a metapart in some ways. It sets the tone, shapes the culture, and creates the boundaries in which other parts interact. Just like a mother attending to two of her children in a scuffle. Her approach to the conflict will transform how the children interact in the future. Her approach can intensify future conflict, promote the repetition of the pattern, or create a learning moment that reduces future conflict. So focusing on the cultivation of the internal caretaker is a powerful enterprise that can have sweeping and long-lasting effects on our experience of life. Done well, it affords us a wellspring of deep love as well as reasonable guardrails to guide our behavior in a generative direction. The cultivation of this part takes patient loving awareness and the wisdom to be aware of cliffs in the distance to steer towards safety. So ask yourself: In the way I relate to myself, do I need more warmth? More strength? Both? If it's warmth, try practicing Metta Loving Kindness Meditation as a place to begin. If it's strength, work on giving yourself structure and sticking to it (start small at first). Just be mindful that in adding what you're missing you do not subtract what you already have. Don't swing from warmth to strength or vice versa. Bring your warmth with you to strength. Bring your strength with you to warmth. And one final prompt to stimulate the emergence of this metapart: With the knowledge that you will sometimes fail, try to embody the nurturing love and encouragement that a superwise future civilization would possess. Relate to yourself like you were parenting a child in that world. The "how" to this prompt is vague and imprecise. It's fog we all need to walk through. And perhaps, if we do this today, it might support the becoming of that civilization in the deep future. But that's another conversation.... 😢 Subversive Grief Enjoy these sentiments from Francis Weller on the nature of grief... “Grief is subversive, undermining the quiet agreement to behave and be in control of our emotions. It is an act of protest that declares our refusal to live numb and small. There is something feral about grief, something essentially outside the ordained and sanctioned behaviors of our culture. Because of that, grief is necessary to the vitality of the soul. Contrary to our fears, grief is suffused with life-force.... It is not a state of deadness or emotional flatness. Grief is alive, wild, untamed and cannot be domesticated. It resists the demands to remain passive and still. We move in jangled, unsettled, and riotous ways when grief takes hold of us. It is truly an emotion that rises from the soul.” “Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning. Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close.” 🤓 Learn This Word hózhó: "In Navajo culture, for example, illness and loss are seen as communal concerns, not as the responsibility of the individual. Healing is a matter of restoring hózhó — beauty/harmony in the community." ⏳ From The Archives A hand-picked classic HighExistence article. ​[30 Days of Challenges to Transform You From n00b to Demi-God](​ Many people pour thousands of hours into the overcoming of challenges within video games. What would happen if we stopped pouring so much energy into artificial challenges and instead undertook real challenges in our own lives? How epic would our lives become? Below you will find 30 challenges, each to be completed in under twenty four hours in sequential order. Each challenge will test you further than the last. Your ego and excuses will be challenged and smashed. Your self-belief will be broken down like a muscle only to be built back up stronger than ever. The difficulty levels are as follows: - n00b - Recruit - Veteran - Legend - Demi-God There is only one rule: each challenge must be completed in under 24 hours. Do you accept? ​[Continue Reading](​ 🤗 Wanting & Desire The next issue of our premium newsletter [Stairway To Wisdom](=) is coming out on Friday and we'll be diving into Wanting: The Power of Mimetic Desire in Everyday Life. =​ Here's just a taste of what's inside this book: "The imitation of desire has to do with our profound openness to other people’s interior lives – something that sets us apart as humans. Desire, as Girard used the word, does not mean the drive for food or sex or shelter or security. Those things are better called needs – they’re hardwired into our bodies. Biological needs don’t rely on imitation. If I’m dying of thirst in the desert, I don’t need anyone to show me that water is desirable. But after meeting our basic needs as creatures, we enter into the human universe of desire. And knowing what to want is much harder than knowing what to need.” Want access when it's released on Friday plus 60+ additional book breakdowns? Sign-up for the Stairway To Wisdom. Right now you can claim a free trial so you can test-drive with zero risk. [Get Your Free Trial](=) 🎬 Endnote We hope you enjoyed this issue of Down The Rabbit Hole. Feel free to reply and tell us what you think. Want to help us spread the word? We love sharing these gems of wisdom and wonder with you each week. If you love receiving them and want to help us spread the word, here is one quick way you can do that: Forward this email to one friend. That's it. It will take 5 seconds and will help us spread the good vibes and reach more people. We appreciate you. With Wonder, Mike Slavin & The HighExistence Team P.S. Did a friend forward you this email? Read previous issues and sign-up to receive future issues here: [(​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​ ​[Unsubscribe]( | [Update your profile]( | 40 E. Main St. #1137, Newark, DE 19711 [Built with ConvertKit](=)