The Harried Mystic

The Delphic Oracle is a truly remarkable institution of Ancient Greece. The Priestess, according to recent evidence, officiated in an aerosolized psychedelic haze that resulted in a drug-induced hypnogogic state. Those seeking the Oracle’s counsel would approach her temple, and be ushered into a room fogged by gases that welled up from sources underneath the temple. A question would be posed to the Priestess, and she would offer a prophesy. Odds are that whatever she said was mesmerizingly vague, but the surround of the imposing Temple, the fog of gases, its short-term effects on the aspirant, and the mystique, history, folklore and tradition would soon induce a mental state likely to imbue a cryptic puzzle with the qualities of profound wisdom, and trigger many days of joyful deciphering.

The love of the Oracle is certainly not unique to the Greeks. The passion for crystal-ball gazing of one kind or another is almost as old as civilization, and persists in all societies today. One need only do a casual scan of the literature on oracles to see the power they have held over imagination. Among those with a long and colorful history, there are the:  I Ching, Tarot, psychics ( and now their networks online), the Tibetan Nechung Oracle, still consulted by the Dali Lama, the Sibylline Oracles, the Akhashwani of Ancient India, the chillanes of the Yucatec Mayas, the Runes of Norse Mythology, and so many more.

A few weeks ago, the family got together and, before long, the kids brought out an old Ouija Board. The Board has a wild history that engenders fear and dread. It is a platform for unleashing unconscious forces and, as is the case with all oracular media, should be approached with care. Recreational use is a problem if the one recreating is at risk of  decompensating, is psychically fragile, impressionable, or otherwise obsessional in ways that can feed an underlying neurosis, or an as yet undiagnosed pre-psychotic thought disorder. In any event, in no time, a dialogue was ostensibly going on with the deceased. So many pedestrian queries later, all predictable, what was revealed were the fears, worries and ruminations of those using the board notwithstanding the belief that the messages came from the beyond. The messages came from the beneath.

We are creatures of rich imagination and projection. We are incarnate complex interweavings of archetypal forces, and all of these oracular media have power and merit in serving as a blue screen on which we can place our hopes, dreams, fears and idiosyncratic imagery. In using an oracle, it is how we would interpret images that says everything, or, how we react to and re-interpret the soothsaying offered by someone else.

All the world in which we act is a canvas for our imaginations and we use many colors, brushes and styles over the course of a lifetime. There will be oracles as long as there are men and women. The love of oracles is a testament to the soul’s life in the past, in the future, and in the moment, all at once. Now, that’s a quantum psychology worth studying and musing about.

I love ambiguous forms, and the use of photos as projective tools in my practice. I have also used the Voyager Tarot. What I like about it is that the cards are montages of many images, and it is up to the person I am meeting with to choose any three, and relate to them in their own terms in telling the story of where they’ve been, who they are today, and where they think they are heading.

It is always an awe-inspiring demonstration of the imaginal faculty of the soul, and the role it plays in deep healing and self-discovery.

© Brother Anton and The Harried Mystic, 2009. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited.