Reflection Me, Shadow Me, Sea Me (Expanding Consciousness with CG Jung & His Alchemical Stone)

DAILY ENLIGHTENMENT

Shadow self-portrait in flowering seaside succulents.

Here are two self-portraits that are of me but not of me. I am not a shadow nor a reflection, nor even a photo of those things and yet they fall into the broader category of "something to do with a representation of Morgan”.

In a Mirror with the Sea, Bordighera, Italy

We are more than our bodies, or even how we see ourselves. We could also be said to be comprised of how others see us and how the environment responds to our movement through it.

When considering who we are: a bundle of thoughts and feelings? a physical form? a chaotic cluster of energies? it's worth considering the similarities we have with any single part of our environment.

Am I the sea? Or not the sea? These are low value questions. If you say you are the sea then you are delusional because clearly you are not a vast body of tidal water. If you say you are not then have adopted an identity that sets you apart from the sea. It's over there swishing about and here you are, somewhere else, without any connection.

Better to ask: How am I the sea?

Similarities:

I am composed mostly of water (60%).

The moon's gravitational pull effects the tides of the sea as well as the water molecules inside my body (admittedly to little noticeable effect, but superstition aside, it may influence reproduction and sleep)

My body is partly made up of salt (250mg)

My evolutionary home is the sea (A tiny sea creature identified from fossils found in China may be the earliest known step on an evolutionary path that eventually led to the emergence of humans).

I am a living sea to the microorganisms that swim within my body

Now the sea and I have overlap, we have a relationship. It is not me but also not not me. Perhaps, now that we have identified some things in common we can strike up a conversation.

You can extend the exercise and contemplate- How much am I any other human being? How much am I a plant? How much am I an armchair?

Even seemingly silly questions will yield rewards if you spend the time to contemplate them properly and just maybe you will start to dissolve the sense that you are your body and the thoughts and feelings caught up in it.

Practice this contemplation exercise and you will realize that you are not only an overlapping part of everything in creation, you are also powered by and connected to the same creative force that animates everything. What an amazing realization that is!

Expand into everything, contract into everything, nothing but everything.

Happy Tuesday!

Bonus Content: CG Jung & The Philosopher's Stone