Barque: Thomas Moore Network

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Hi,
My name is Andy. I chose the nickname 'Waking' because if feel as if I'm slowly waking up from slumbering unconsciousness and the superficial ego roles I’ve identified along with my history. My wish is to move beyond the contempt I used to harbor in defense of my shadow qualities (fundamentalist/literalist, amongst others) and vector towards being radically open to life's questions, soul questions.

On the outside of things, I'm a father and one-time founder of a local club, the 'Ventura Friends of Jung, Soul Psychology Club'.

Looking inside, up till the last 5 years or so I've really been asleep, somewhat contemptuous & certainly closed-minded. My ego consciousness was the only lens through which I could see, define, or attempt to control the world and 'Reality' with… I didn't “get” art, myth, poetry, symbolism & metaphor....I still don't, but am now in love with it! The world of metaphor now connects me with a wider world of potentials & possibilities!

What changed? Well, to borrow a couple terms brought back into use by the late-great C.G. Jung: I experienced my own Enantiodromia assisted by the Auseinandersetzung of looking inwards.

After turning 40 and facing imminent first time fatherhood I knew something BIG was coming my way! I had I suppose what might be called classical existential angst along with financial burdens and general depression… I needed some kind of therapy in depth to deal with these issues. To be sure, I had sought therapy many times in the last 20+ years but it never really got through (I wasn't ready & primed I guess).
At one point about 10 years ago, I read Robert Johnson's “Owning Your Own Shadow” and a tiny mustard seed was planted. Things started to change.

I doggedly pursued jungian therapy and finally got in with a great analyst where we started going deep into my psyche (well, a hell of a lot deeper than I ever ventured anyhow). I can't emphasize enough the depth of curiosity that I feel towards everything! My horizons have expanded like the Big Bang. Anyhow, depth analysis has helped and proves to be a work in progress…and I believe in progress, not perfection (spiritus contra spiritum). I attend men’s groups and retreats, sometimes host a little “Friends of Jung” club I started last year…

What else? On a different note, following the start of the war and all the neurotic spin & hype we disconnected the cable to the television and stopped subjecting ourselves the mind-numbing, brain washing madness of the mass media. This was liberating of course…

I'm a big fan of Moore's recorded lectures & writings on the soul and seriously studying James Hollis' lectures, books.
I'm enamored with the late poet John Keats' concept of 'Negative Capability': “…I mean Negative Capability, that is when man is capable of being in uncertainties, Mysteries, doubts without any irritable reaching after fact & reason…”
As an antidote to the struggle between polarized either/or logic, win or lose zero-sum, right or wrong or black & white thinking, a tension of the opposites allows the transcendent potential to have its role. And negative capability opens me to a principle which includes neither/nor as well as both/and thinking in a more open fashion. This allows me to ask important questions but not necessarily seeking hard & fast answers on things like the vocatus my soul (or Self) is calling to live apart from social roles. I'm also looking at agnostic Buddhism with interest…

Let’s see…back on the outside of things, I've been an old school trad rock climber since late 70's. I love reading poetry, physics, sci-fi and jungian literature and am a HUGE consumer of books on tape/CD for my 500 mile a week commute.
I own all of Moore's books, audio and video as well as James Hollis & David Whyte - they all seem to compliment and resonate with each other.

That’s enough of an introduction. I look forward to cultivating connections here and sharing perspectives...

Andy

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Comment by RussellSD on April 3, 2008 at 6:14pm
Hey Andy,
Appreciate the post, and good to know you. I see you mention fundamentalsim several times. You might get a kick out of an article I co-authored titled Neuroscience & Fundamentalsim (http://www.tikkun.org/magazine/tik0709/frontpage/neuroscience). I look forward to more interaction..
Comment by Barque on March 3, 2008 at 1:52am
Hi Waking/Andy,
Many thanks for sharing your full introduction and welcome to Barque. I appreciated your Amazon comment about Moore/ Hollis/ Whyte and share your sense of complementing sensibilities, especially when it comes to "work." I haven't read Robert Johnson yet and look forward to his book. D.

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