What was your first experience after looking at the Tarot card to the left? When
I first looked at the card, the Devil, I was horrified by what I perceived as something
negative and evil. I said “get that thing away from me.” It was three years before
I understood what I saw in the card were shadow aspects of my personality, my
disowned self, mirrored back from the card. The disowned-self represents those
parts that for one reason or another are not acceptable to the super-ego and our
waking consciousness. Hence, they become compartmentalized, repressed and ever
more negatively charged.
The end result of this process, if allowed to go unchecked, may be that one or more
sub-personalities, at certain times block forward movement. The super-ego strives for
it’s perception of perfection. If it believes that not feeling is of survival value, then it
will numb you out through addictions. The super-ego will do anything it can to protect
you, including kill you! Dis-ease becomes disease!
Aspects created by the super-ego can take over the personality totally and determine
the ongoing process of your behavior. The culture and historical time of your
development strongly affect the nature of the identification and disowning process. An
essential aspect of personal growth and a successful life is the willingness and ability to
consistently be open to recognizing and facing the energy of these mythologies,
subpersonalities that are either too “powerful” or over identified with or “weak” and
disowned. You’ve seen these sub-personalities in yourself or others in the group. The
voice changes with the sub-personality. You may hear the voice modulate from the
little child or the deep male voice or the female voice, the judgmental voice etc.
Everyone has a primitive survival instinct, a genetic program that is all about the
survival of the DNA. The nature of this survival strategy varies with the personal
genetics. Over identifying with these primitive survival instincts is a self-destructive
aspect of the psyche, the purpose to block forward progress and shut us off from life.
It’s the great mystery of the human condition. We ignore the truth of who we are in
favor of suffering.
Metaphorically in this example the super-ego is represented by the devil energy of the
tarot card. Many so called problems come from this part of the personality—addictions,
fear, self-hate, laziness, rage, negativity and depression. The super-ego is dynamic. It
can make you miserable even when nothing bad is happening. It is universally present
in everyone because it has a spiritual function. What is traditionally labeled evil is
really the thought process the “super-ego.” It’s evil because it tries to keep us ignorant.
It demands that we ignore the truth of who we are; happy, free and limitless. The
authentic-self, our true nature, is happy, at peace, free and wise. The ego wants to stay
in business so it demands that we look outside the self for happiness and validation. It
demands that you remain unconscious and blocks your evolution. If you give in to it
you live a limited, unhappy, pain-filled life. However, when you turn on the observer
and notice the inflated ego states of addiction, face these excited states and penetrate the
deflated ego states, you develop higher powers. You rise above your primitive nature.
You become fully conscious. You experience your divinity.
Notice that the devil card depicts a scene with a character that looks like a monster. It is
a conglomeration of disparate parts. This card is a metaphor for the conglomeration,
the matrix of our disowned-selves. The devil sits on a block of stone, a representation of
the ego’s rigid view of the world. Our world view becomes cast in stone. The chains
connected to this block of stone appear to bind the man and woman, a metaphor for the
energetic binding of the intellect and intuition. They are unaware that they could
simply lift the chains that bind them off their necks. They are in a state of blind
resignation, bound to illusion. They are blinded and bound by their personal stories
and the belief in limitation and the way things are. The energy represented by this
symbol is what happens when you get reverse wired. Things aren’t really what they
seem. The card represents the power of illusion to bind creative energy, how ignorance
and reversal of thought create pain and suffering when you hold reversed beliefs. Life
is a challenge and it feels like your tail is on fire.
Just as in a computer game, when you face and conquer the energy guardian of each
level of awareness, you incorporate the energetic power of each guardian. In doing so
you gain new powers and tools. With the new tools you move to higher levels. It is the
same in life. There are specific tools to combat every dynamic each energty guardian on
the path causes. The various seminars offer tools to reveal the mythologies, energy
configuration and the characteristics of each energy guardian at each level. The more
you participate the more authentic power you’ll experience—in relationships, work,
creativity, etc. It is all about energy management. These mythologies and energy
guardians becomes your teacher in the process—that’s the real purpose of energy. You
learn and grow stronger from your struggles. When you grasp this, life becomes more
meaningful. Even the worst problem’s then have value.
The super-ego gets its power by creating a fantasy world, a realm of illusion and traps
you within. It tells you it’s possible to live in a place where you’re special and things
are easy—a perfect world. This fantasy life is a roller coaster ride, a series of inflated
ego states, excited states; emotional highs and a series of deflated or depressed ego
states; emotional lows. Your energy, your natural creativity becomes bound, limited
and contained within the fantasy world of the realm of illusion. Most pain is caused by
your failure to find and live in this realm of illusion, which you never can and never do
find.
However, as long as you narcissistically keep seeking the fantasy world, the super-ego
controls you. We all think there’s a group of others who do live in this fantasy
world—naturally we feel as if we are locked outside and inferior to them. The superego
inflates events in our lives—a job review, a date, a birthday party—hoping they’ll
put us in this magic world. The event becomes more important than you and then you
become terrified.
The search for the fantasy world of the realm of illusion makes us fixate on things
outside us. It causes an addictive relationship to the world. It says if we accomplish
this or buy that, then we can live inside that fantasy realm. This can take the form of
using alcohol, drugs, food, money, sex, etc. The super-ego tells us it is the next thing
that will make us feel whole. But it also makes us dependent on the validation of others
- then, if they reject or insult us, we feel like victims. The super-ego also teaches us to
use things outside ourselves for motivation. This causes the addiction to danger in
relationships or activities and the need to start conflicts, the devil made me do it. No
matter how alluring it appears the outer world is severely limited—it has no forces of
energetic flow or creativity. The true energetic flow comes from the unknown and all
knowing within. Once trapped in the illusion we’re overcome with dissatisfaction,
envy and fear. The super-ego lures us toward a perfect world and ends up putting us
in hell—that’s why it’s called the devil.
The key quality of the super-ego is that it repeats itself. It is cast in stone. You become
fixated and lose your self-respect. The universe keeps moving forward, constantly
changing. When you repeat a thought, feeling or behavior, you keep yourself in the
same place, resisting the universal flow of change. This keeps you separate from the
rest of the universe, trapping you in the fantasy world of the super-ego where it can
control you. You see this most easily when you repeat negative thoughts over and over.
Whatever it is you are repeating, you tend to do it with the sense that you’re right.
That’s a sure sign you’re bound by the super-ego.
The energy guardians whisper in your ear saying this is what you do to enter the realm
of illusion. I invite you to turn on your observer, notice the mental games and just stop!
