[espenijij]

quote:
"another way it can be seen is non-resistance to the sacrifice [the hanged man] and loss of our ego or individuality [death] which allows us to be nothing [the universe] and ultimately everything."

i thought i'd better come back and explain this as it may sound freaky to anyone who doesn't understand what i mean.

i was referring to the tarot card archetypes: the hanged man, death and the universe/the world. i was using these metaphorically and not literally of course.

one of the greatest obstacles to understanding or experiencing oneness [as much as this can be done] is our ego.

the fool [the seeker] arrives at a point on his journey where he becomes aware of his existence between the material and spiritual worlds. he desires to connect his mundane material existence with the divine - he wants to connect to oneness. the fool is portrayed as the hanged man[card12] with his conciousness anchored in this materiality.

oneness is portrayed as the world/the universe [card21]. note that we are going from 12 to 21 - that's a long distance with lots of space to traverse between the two and lots of inner work still to be done.

the first and most difficult inner work to be done is surrendering the ego. the fool decides to sacrifice his ego as his desire to experience oneness becomes overwhelming. this is where the death archetype comes into the picture and starts working on breaking down or killing off the ego. during the process, the fool has glimpses of oneness but he must undergo further stages of transformation or transmutation before oneness can become a permanent state of consciousness.

hope this helps!

love
ds