In every adult there lurks a child —
an eternal child, something that is always becoming, is never completed, and calls for unceasing care, attention and education, that is part of the human personality which wants to develop and become whole.
The dragons were handed down:
Demons men before me didn’t slay
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains” –
Not quite, Rousseau
As I happen to know, vice is handed down,
Addictions run in families like rivers
And when the tide is high,
They overrun the banks and wash away all that is
And these pathologies, these addictions, these deficiencies, go deeper than chemicals,
They are attachment patterns
Love is taught,
By example
Imprinted upon us,
And sometimes we are left with a depression
Rather than an impression,
So life is like a game of chirades
Where we walk around oblivious to our own disfunctions [sic],
But find them in others instead
When Jung said, “there is no coming to consciousness without pain,”
He knew, you only get wet in the rain
And when you’ve suffered long enough,
You’ll come in
Bitter and cold and shaking,
But you’ll come in
And if you follow the keepers of the light,
You’ll find the keys hidden by the pharisees
And if you look within, vis a vis these keys,
You’ll have come into contact with a few creatures of permanent validity:
Shadow / the dark side:
A hairyman; iron john; grendel; edward scissorhands
Anima or animus (soul) / the bridge:
Inward self of opposite gender
And at the inmost…
Inner child / the light side:
Pure light; innocence; vulnerability
Each of these energies has many gifts,
Which you must utilize and interact with, but I say one above the others…
Yes, you need shadow and anima to be whole,
Between light and dark, masculine and feminine…
But without inner child integration into your psyche,
You can not have inner peace
And I’m no PHD;
Poet, but take it from me:
Inner child has the eyes to see,
Inner insight
Path to the light,
Ways to engage shadow healthily
Playfulness,
Anima needs – and ‘needs’ is the word
For inner child knows your needs,
But inner child also knows your wants…
We’re getting into some good magic here,
But there’s a catch
Inner child has long been neglected,
Ignored –
Which is not to say shadow and anima are without their wounds
They are very wounded,
But inner child must be freed, cared for, loved, adorned – firstly
Inner child knows the wounds of the shadow
And of anima too
But they know not the pain of the innmost,
Wounded, vulnerable, neglected inner child
Because if you’re going to be whole, if this life is to be worthwhile,
You need to spend more time with inner child than never or every once in awhile
Inner child needs safe space to play,
And a narrative myth formed by Self to make life a game
Self we have not touched on,
For this is the outer and I deal in the inner
But I say Self is the sum,
As balanced or imbalanced – between shadow, anima, and inner child – as we are
Do you see how useless words like ego are?
When we can touch, talk to, and listen to the wounded parts of what we are?
We are an animal: shadow
We are repressed expression, sexuality: anima
We are a divine being: inner child
And none of us are without these individual pieces of our selves,
None of us are free from mortal coil
Only we never have a map,
Are never taught the multiplicity of our being
And this is mostly Jung,
But it’s also everything I know
For I’m learning to dialogue with and integrate these parts of myself into me
Wolf Waldo Black, Lawrence Black:
My Anima is Jules
(After Julian Casablancas, also: pun on jewels)
My Shadow is Grendel,
(The beast in Beowolf)
My Inner Child is Bubba
(A child nickname from my Mom)
So this is me:
Jules, Grendel, and Bubba
We’re quite the trinity,
Holy you might say
When we work together,
Neglecting not another
Communicating through Self,
Me, running queries to each of these human softwares through the command-line of self-inquiry
Interacting with each,
Allowing each part to express safely through me
Because when I only listen to self,
I break my heart again, hurt them
And for Jules, Grendel, and Bubba – for me,
I’m sorry, but I can’t do that (robot voice)
As a postscript:
Quit looking for your “higher self” – if something or someone is ‘higher’ or ‘above and beyond’ your inner child, your priorities are fucked; look within or be without. The light has always been within you, rather it is you that have been without [yourself].
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