Spirituality for Living

Metaphor is how we create a new thing. How we can imagine something entirely new is by metaphor. They give us images to form brand new insights. All metaphysical practices as well as paranormal and spiritual experience includes it and every artist will say this; That their art is inspired by experience. Is it not truth that we can experience a very great deal that doesn’t seem to be literally material?

No idea… no responsive action. This is why there are so many metaphysical practices and religion. That drive not only to see what is or could be, but the desire to do something about it. But can we do any such thing without metaphor?

“The metaphor is perhaps one of man’s most fruitful potentialities. Its efficacy verges on magic, and it seems a tool for creation which God forgot inside one of His creatures when He made him.” Jose Ortega y Gasset (Spanish philosopher and humanist , 1883-1955)

“A world ends when its metaphor has died” Archibald MacLeish (American Poet and Critic. 1892-1982)

“Science is all metaphor.” Timothy Leary (American Psychologist and Author. 1920-1996)

“Language is memory and metaphor” Storm Jameson

Use Of Metaphor

I chose the topic of metaphor, because all metaphysical practices as well as paranormal and spiritual experience includes it. It has nothing directly to do with the truth or falsehood of any experience. This is part of why some people are so dismissive of those things in the first place, because often the experiences have no “literal” explanation. The same is true for just our own consciousness. If we have to describe feeling love, can we directly? Dreams? Dreams are mostly long streams of metaphor. St. Patrick is metaphor. The pot of gold, etc.? The pot of gold isn’t connected… Seek More

What It’s Like

Archetypes are like Plato’s pure forms. Like super metaphors that have a force of their own and no single cultural drive. The tarot is all archetypes, as are most divinatory systems, though those are very often poorly understood these days and badly interpreted. The “death” card from the tarot. Death is a universal archetype, but there is a lot of awareness around that idea of death. Liberation is linked to death, as well as loss. The Hang Man (hanging from his foot) as a symbol for transition. Odin’s crucifixion on the world tree. The connection Jesus has with the dogwood… Seek More

Seeing The Unseen

Paradise is a metaphor for a perfect place with only goodness and love? Philosophy is like art. It imitates it in conceptualization, and attempts to address intellectually the elements of meaning in life like “paradise”. The yearning for paradise. An artist wants to express paradise, show or make it. A philosopher wants to understand the idea of paradise. And some of us want to create it in our lives. And maybe by understanding be personally equipped to create it or support its creation, but if you would take any action at all, you have to have some form of ideation.… Seek More

Ego As Metaphor

Our metaphors teach us a lot of spiritual truth, and not only that. They give us images to form brand new insights. My own spiritual practices are metaphor heavy. I haven’t found an older path that was a fit, so I have explored many metaphors to identify and come to understand what I am actually experiencing. Such as the metaphor of a journey being on a path? Yes, this is itself a metaphor. Like the poetry in “The Road Not Taken“? Yes. That is really the purpose of many spiritual paths/religions. To give people a selection of metaphor so they… Seek More

In The Mystery

When it becomes habit to throw off the “Who I thought I was” then ego just becomes a cramp that you shrug off without effort. Just a sensation, and no longer any limitation. For me, I have a neural quirk there. I can’t form the patterns that congeal into “habits” very well. So to have any sense of self at all, I have to keep rigid routines. I have learned the art of keeping my habits very loose and flowing. But it makes people think me very weird, because I often can’t “self” for them when they expect it. This… Seek More