Defeat BY KAHLIL GIBRAN Defeat, my Defeat, my solitude and my aloofness; You are dearer to me than a thousand triumphs, And sweeter to my heart than all world-glory. Defeat, my Defeat, my self-knowledge and my defiance, Through you I know that I am yet young and swift of foot And not to be trapped by withering laurels. And in you I have found aloneness And the joy of being shunned and scorned. Defeat, my Defeat, my shining sword and shield, In your eyes I have read That to be enthroned is to be enslaved, And to be understood is to be leveled down, And to be grasped is but to reach one’s fullness And like a ripe fruit to fall and be consumed. Defeat, my Defeat, my bold companion, You shall hear my songs and my cries and my silences, And none but you shall speak to me of the beating of wings, And urging of seas, And of mountains that burn in the night, And you alone shall climb my steep and rocky soul. Defeat, my Defeat, my deathless courage, You and I shall laugh together with the storm, And together we shall dig graves for all that die in us, And we shall stand in the sun with a will, And we shall be dangerous. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUlpqkVGTAc

Alchemy. Individuation. The fool. Jung. Tarot. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz-nYjNfh7k

Humanifest Destiny Alchemy and Archetype Maybe…just maybe, we might be..the heroes of our own mythology. Humanifest Destiny. Joseph Campbell’s work A Hero with a Thousand Faces was based on this monomyth. A story found in every place, no matter the time. An adventure worth writing about. Here, we can define a hero or heroine as someone who has found or done something beyond the normal range of belief. Unbelievable achievements or experiences. Dangerous ideas and daring deeds. There are primarily two types of tests in which the hero may face. The first is a physical one, a courageous act in which one may defeat a dragon for a damsel in distress. The second quest is an inward journey. A spiritual search for novel meaning. Finding lost knowledge or gaining new insights. Before our recent descent into this digital dystopia, our movies and televisions stories and symbols still mirrored mythology. Now, its nothing but reality tv, streamed memes and talent to critique. The Cultural Melting Pot of America has boiled over. Now the only way to integrate the information hidden within art and media is through introspection. Reflection and meditation. Knowledge of self leads to knowledge about the universal symbols and archetypes in the collective unconscious. The spontaneous spiritual messages that bring chaos, causing psychological change. This is experienced and interpreted by all great artists and mystics throughout the ages. For the Alchemist, every experience in our life serves as this Prima Materia. Every time we break, we bleed this base material. Then the burden lies with us, to transform these troubles to gold. The gift of being able to trade guilt for grace, and worry to wonder. May we all be martyrs. No one gets out of this game alive. The Koran says “ Do you think that you shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed before you?” And so Jesus also said in the gospel of Matthew “ Great is the gate and narrow is the way which leads to life, and few there be who find it.” So don’t think it’s just you or me. The hero theme is one of eternity. A timeless tale of psychological transformation. A monomythic theme. This is everyday alchemy. The Illumination of the imagination is the psychological equivalent to the philosophers stone. The holy grail of wholeness. Changing the line drawn between the self and the shadow, into a circle. That is the revolutionary wheel reality revolves around. Time after time. Echoed across the ages. Told in every tongue, written in every word, the universal hero’s journey, inward and outward, always onward, acting out each archetype along the way. The Major Arcana of Tarot tap into each archetypal aspect of this psychological transformation. Each card correlates to a particular persona or character we must play along the way to individuation. Whether it’s coming of age, or finding ourselves ready to exit the stage, we all play our parts. So let us start by learning our lines. How can you expect to see the synchronicities surrounding you without learning to see the symbols as signposts. Signals sent from the subconscious to the psyche. The first step we must all be willing to take, is a foolish one. Card 0 or “the fool” in tarot. The zero is the numerological symbol of infinite potential. The circle of life with no beginning or end. Sometimes though, this circle of safety can become a cage. A safe enclosure of isolation and limitation. Only a fool would take the risk and escape. This is the risk we must take. Answering the call to adventure and experience. Entering the arena of the unknown, whether externally or internally, willingly. For anything is possible if we will it to be. ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7inTSFU--W4

Chapter regarding WWII from the Psy-Fi book “INTELLECTUAL ANARCHY” written by Jake Parsons ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dZSqwyUgztw