The Archetype of Adjustment is Explored through Painting Circle

From ATONEMENT to           AT-ONE-MENT

The Archetype of Justice is explored through Painting Circle

It is intriguing that the Justice card on the Qabalah Tree of Life is the pathway between Geburah, the destroyer, one who ruins or makes non-existent and Tiferet, love and beauty. The ultimate duality is brought forth in the classic image of Justice standing with the scales to balance what is right/wrong, true/false, worthy or not. Sound familiar? It is very much the common image of God as a proper noun in Western culture. 

We are for the first time as humans on this planet a force of nature that could destroy the balance of life as we know it. The attitude of conquer and utilize is no longer sustainable. The attitudes behind this stance are called into examination. The parent/child relationship to nature or to God is being upgraded to co-creative. We can no longer be naughty or rebellious. We are responsible for what is manifesting in our world. The causes of the trauma on our planet which we are experiencing directly reflect of our inner attitudes.

In the Painting Circle exploring the archetype of JUSTICE conversation came around to our failing institutions. The example of our judicial system arose to expose communal values and beliefs in need of a deep-seated over-haul. It is a retributive system, literally from the Latin to pay back. It does not change criminal behavior but fosters it. This is a mirror of our inner constructs and the shadow we project. Somewhere we have internalized a similar reward/punishment model that I suspect relates to our subtle and not so subtle beliefs from religious structures.

Aleister Crowley, creator of the Thoth Tarot makes a shift from calling the Judgment card Adjustment, suggesting that the essence of this card is to bring polarities into balance. But how is that balance achieved is the question. If duality is not addressed it is simply rearranging the furniture in  prison. When we transcend the place in which conflict is created by witnessing rather than identifying with the polarities we begin to sense our innate wholeness.

The separation is maintained by inner negative and positive judgments of the external. When we shift the internal dynamic, the outer world which we created will also shift. Even by choosing the positive side of the opposites we are tied into acting out polarity, for when we identify with one, the other gets projected. When we make the commitment to shift into awareness of our innate wholeness we cannot continue to sweep the negative under the rug. It will not stay there and though temporarily it is out of sight our rugs get higher, lumpier and dirtier. Like the proverbial ignored elephant, it turns up in our courts, schools and government. We need to surrender both sides to ascend to the bridging principle that has the perspective of wholeness.

No matter what these times are bringing to us, most of us would agree we are all a part of an extremely privileged collective in the world. We are in a place to challenge the archetypes of the organizing principle of our civilization that no longer serve us or the well being of the planet.

It was a delight to observe and personally experience the transition from judgment to adjustment and then to atonement, which a painter pointed out was at-one-ment. Painting intuitively is a way of allowing an image to develop which is very different from thinking it through. This kind of processing is poetic, creative, imaginative and adventurous because it takes one into unchartered territory. It is also very personal, but also most often relates to the collective.