From Shadow Work to Soul Craft

by Grow Up Conference | Nov 28, 2023 | Media Partners, The New Agora

www.self-inflictedphilosophy.com

From Shadow Work to Soul Craft

By Gary Z. McGee

“In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order.” ~Jung

Shadow work is soul work. Anyone who says otherwise is selling something. All soul work must begin in shadow work, otherwise there is no depth, no roots, no core experience, no wholeness.

As the old Zen proverb states, “Before enlightenment, chop wood. After enlightenment, chop wood.” Likewise: before lightwork, shadow work. After lightwork, shadow work. Before carpe diem (seize the day), carpe noctem (seize the night). After carpe diem, carpe noctem.

What does it mean to seize the night? It means getting down and dirty with shadow work. It means facing your inner darkness, baptizing your inner beast, and assimilating your demons. It means leveraging a Dark Night of the Soul. It’s realizing that life is less about getting what you want and more about making the best of what you get.

As Shakespeare said, “You are an alchemist; make gold of that.” Make pearls out of your grit. Forge diamonds out of the coal. Create sharpness out of your dullness. Grow sacred wounds out of your pain. Transform shadow work into soul craft.

When you integrate your shadow, depth, rootedness, and stability are born. You become grounded, courageous, self-reliant, and more secure in your skin. A kind of antifragility emerges.

The ability to transform a negative into a positive manifests. Best of all, shadow work gives you purpose, and having a purpose quells fear. You become capable of using fear as fuel for living your most authentic life.

When you emerge from the cocoon of shadow reconciliation, you discover that you are no longer limited by boundaries, you are liberated by horizons.

Transform wounds into wisdom:

“The cure for the pain is in the pain.” ~Rumi

We are mortal mammals outflanked by entropy. We will die. This fact creates endless amounts of anxiety, angst, and existential pain. But these are not ailments. These are fundamental ingredients of the human condition. To be anxious is to be alive. To have angst is to be aware. To experience pain is to be human.

How could we not be anxious? How could we not feel angst and pain? Life is a sequence of impossible decisions veiled by uncertainty. We are fallible creatures cast out upon an infallible cosmic ocean without a boat, or even floaties.

As Colin Wilson said, “Death reveals to us that our lives have been one long miscalculation based on triviality.”

So, what do we do in the face of these gross miscalculations, these egregious trivialities? We should integrate the pain. We should reel in the angst and transform it into grace. We should honor the anxiety by employing it as a catalyst that can launch us into artistry and mastery. Pain is the medium of catharsis.

There is more wisdom in an inch of hard-earned scar than in a mile of easily gained knowledge.

We should practice existential masochism. Existential masochism is the pleasurable experience of transforming pain into strength. It’s seeing the obstacle as the path. It’s the empowering process of transforming our wounds into sacred wounds.

The wound becomes a sacred wound only when we allow it to sharpen us. We must move past self-pity. We must stiff-arm woe-is-me weakness. It’s our responsibility alone to rearrange the nightmare. We must become the wound in order to heal. We must make use of our suffering, or it will devour us.

The wound of yesterday has the potential to be the wisdom of tomorrow, but it must be reconciled in the present. This is soul craft.

Transform setbacks into steppingstones:

“A life spent making mistakes is not only more honorable, but more useful than a life spent doing nothing.” ~George Bernard Shaw

The greatest art is created from the greatest mistakes. The pebble is a mistake to the oyster but a pearl to the master. The diamond in the rough is forged by the rough. Quality comes from quantity, and the quantity is almost always a plethora of mistakes that became steppingstones that led to quality.

As the old African proverb states, “Through mistakes one becomes wise.” Indeed.

The worst mistake of all is to stop making mistakes. The worst wrong of all is nonaction due to the fear of being wrong. This is a mistake of laziness. The best mistakes are mistakes of ambition. The courage to be wrong is daring to make mistakes that could lead to deeper curiosity, healthier action, more profound art, and a higher perspective that has the potential to broaden the view of humanity.

As Robert Greene said, “Timidity is dangerous. Better to enter with boldness. Any mistakes you commit through audacity are easily corrected with more audacity.”

We should never be afraid of being wrong or making mistakes. We should be afraid of never trying. We should be afraid of laziness. We should be afraid of procrastination.

The courage to be wrong keeps the human leitmotif open-ended. It transforms periods into question marks. It switches out one profound truth for another profound truth. It keeps things in perspective by allowing fallibilism to trump all other isms.

As Neil Gaiman said, “Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before.” Then transform those mistakes into high art. This is soul craft.

Transform victimhood into a Hero’s Journey:

“It is not death that a man should fear, but he should fear never beginning to live.” ~Marcus Aurelius

We live in unhealthy cultures that tend to create victims. We have become abstract abstractions. Our cultural conditioning has us chasing our own tails, clogging up the clockwork, and forgetting that Nature and the huma soul are one. It’s all connected and yet we are disconnected from it all. We have become twice removed from cosmos and interconnectedness.

But as Albert Camus said, “The greatness of man lies in his decision to be stronger than his condition.”

What does it mean to become stronger than our condition? It means overcoming cultural conditioning. It means reconditioning our conditioning. It means, most of all, taking our own unique hero’s journey.

Civilization has made us soft. Domestication has transformed our wolf heart into a preened puppy. Adventure, challenge, and adversity is the cure.

Taking the hero’s journey is a way to break the cycle. It’s a way to transform our boring life. It’s a way to come alive despite a culture that seems to want to keep us half-dead.

We break the spell by looking at our life as a journey rather than a grind. We take the leash off our victimhood and replace it with the crown of a hero’s journey.

Taking the hero’s journey is daring to take the grit of our current self and test it against the rub of the universe. It’s taking the coal of our ego and testing it against the pressure of a challenging world. It’s taking the dullness of our life and sharpening it against the whetstone of adversity.

If we survive, then we’ll have become a pearl for the rub. We’ll have become a diamond for the pressure. We’ll have become sharper from the honing. But without the rub, the pressure, and the sharpening, all we would have is grit, coal, and dullness. All we’d have is a wasted life.

The Hero’s Journey is a whetstone. It’s a way of sharpening our character. It’s a way of testing our mettle against the crucible of a life well-lived. It’s a way of strengthening the muscle of the soul.

As Joseph Campbell wisely surmised, “The modern hero must not wait for his community to cast off its slough of pride, fear, rationalized avarice, and sanctified misunderstanding. ‘Live,’ Nietzsche says, ‘as though the day were here.’”

We must not wait to overcome our own threshold guardians, shadows, and dragons. We should live as though the day were here. We should pluck the strings of destiny, discover the magic elixir of competence, and then gift it back to the “tribe.”

Life is too short to remain a victim. And there are too many victims in need of a hero who can lead by example. The hero’s journey is that example. It’s a mighty beacon in the dark. It’s a beacon of darkness in the blinding light. It’s a psychosocial symbol for next-level transformation, individuation, self-actualization, and enlightenment. It’s soul craft in its purest form.

Image source: Compassion God by Sarper Baran

About the Author:

Gary Z McGee, a former Navy Intelligence Specialist turned philosopher, is the author of Birthday Suit of God and The Looking Glass Man. His works are inspired by the great philosophers of the ages and his wide-awake view of the modern world.

This article (From Shadow Work to Soul Craft) was originally created and published by Self-inflicted Philosophy and is printed here under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Gary Z McGee and self-inflictedphilosophy.com. It may be re-posted freely with proper attribution, author bio, and this statement of copyright.

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The Seven Principles of Success

by Grow Up Conference | Nov 28, 2023 | Media Partners, The New Agora

The Seven Principles of Success

A Practical Guide to Using People, Self, and Time to Your Advantage

by Franklin O’Kanu

The other day, browsing Threads, I came across a video titled “7 Rules to Become a multi-millionaire.” The speaker, Chris Choi, shared seven tips that helped them become a millionaire.

Becoming a millionaire may seem like an unattainable goal, but by breaking it down into these seven achievable steps and applying them regularly, it’s possible.

In this article, I have summarized the seven steps required to become a millionaire. To simplify the information, I used mental frameworks or first principles.

The seven steps outlined in this guide are categorized into three distinct areas: people, self, and time. By adhering to these steps, you will conduct yourself productively throughout your life and potentially achieve great success — and possibly — even becoming a millionaire.

• These steps are designed to help you develop the skills and habits necessary to succeed personally and professionally.
• By building strong relationships, developing a growth mindset, and managing your time effectively, you can position yourself for success and achieve your goals.
• With dedication and hard work, you can use these steps to create a fulfilling and prosperous life.

Let’s start with people. This is the first area that you need to focus on.

• The first principle of people is to be careful who you share your dreams with.
• The second principle is to watch for your circle and ensure you are not the biggest fish in your pond.

Your network determines your net worth, and you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Therefore, you need to evaluate the people you hang out with to grow and improve.

Your environment makes up who you are. From a spiritual and esoteric perspective, you are constantly surrounded by the energies and auras of the people you interact with.

• If you are on a journey of self-awareness, the five people in your circle may not be on the same path.
• When you share your goals with them, their lack of self-awareness may cause them to shut down your ideas without malice.

If you want to level up and your environment is full of people who are not growing, it will be difficult for you to achieve your goals. You need a new network of individuals who have been through the same problems and challenges you face. They can provide wisdom and guidance based on their experiences, making it easier for you to level up. Your literal and energetic environment has a significant impact on your net worth.

To sum up, be careful who you tell your dreams to and watch out for your circle. Your environment affects you in more ways than you know, so you must constantly evaluate and change it to ensure you are surrounded by individuals who help you grow.

• Firstly, we need to adopt new habits and rituals.
• Secondly, we need to get familiar with being uncomfortable.

The next aspect that we need to consider here is related to ourselves. There are two things that we need to keep in mind when it comes to ourselves. Firstly, we need to adopt new habits and rituals.

The habits and rituals that we have followed so far have brought us to where we are today. However, if we aspire to reach the next level of our lives, we need to do something new that can take us there.

Secondly, we need to get familiar with being uncomfortable. If we want to create new rituals and habits, our bodies will likely resist them, as we tend to resist change. Therefore, we need to be comfortable with feeling uncomfortable.

• What happens is that we realize this pain is a good thing.
• This uncomfortability is a good thing.
• This new habit that I am trying to implement is a good thing.

I follow a page called “After School” on Instagram and also watch their YouTube videos. They provide a lot of valuable insights. Recently, they shared a post about how every individual faces pain with every choice they make.

You have to choose between the pain of regret or the pain of discipline.

• If you do something you’re not supposed to, you’ll regret it later and feel the pain. But if you do something you’re supposed to, even if it’s not easy, you’ll feel the pain of discipline because you’re pushing against the resistance.
• Getting uncomfortable in life and finding peace in that discomfort is important. When you become comfortable with being uncomfortable, you become comfortable with the pain of discipline.

Knowing this is helpful when you’re trying to establish new habits and rituals. You must understand that there will be some pain involved, but you need to push through it.

If we can do this for ourselves, we start to do things that take us out of our comfort zone. And as the old saying goes, fortune favors the bold. You can only be brave when you step out of your comfort zone.

• The first principle of time is that we should give up things that are not remunerative.
• The second principle of time is making money in our sleep, which is about creating a system that doesn’t necessarily need our presence.

In the following aspects of the video, the speaker discusses the two principles of time that we need to be mindful of as we take on tasks or projects. The first principle of time is that we should give up things that are not remunerative.

• If we invest our attention in things that will give us a return, it is a better use of our time than investing our attention in things that do not provide us any value. We need to understand the value of our attention.
• The speaker uses the analogy of Netflix, social media, and all such activities that waste our time and suggests that we should give them up because the time we spend on them is not remunerative.

The second principle of time is making money in our sleep, which is about creating a system that doesn’t necessarily need our presence.

• This means we must invest our time in things that will give us value even when we are not physically present.
• The speaker suggests the idea of sacrifice, where giving up something like drinking or social media can serve as a reminder to stay focused and work towards something.

One of the major issues with our current society is that we often trade our time for money, leading to the never-ending rat race. This is due to our indoctrination through education, which taught us to follow this path.

Recommended Reading: The Origins Of Education

Recommended Reading: How Millennials Were Set Up To Fail

However, most successful people have realized that by taking back control of their time and attention, they could focus on what they desired, which eventually manifested for them.

This highlights the power of time and attention, and it makes us wonder if the creators of our society intentionally designed systems that consume our time and attention to serve their corporate goals.

Recommended Reading: The Cost of Paying Attention

Recommended Reading: The Secret Behind The Secret

It’s important to note that we’re not suggesting that one should quit their job immediately. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. Money is a valuable resource that can help us make positive changes in our lives, so it’s important to respect and be mindful of it.

However, we should look closer at how we spend our time and whether we’re investing it in activities that pay us back spiritually, physically, and mentally.

To close on the topic of time, we need to understand the importance of knowing the objective whenever we take on a task or a project. We need to be clear about what we expect to get done and why we are doing it.

This clarity helps us make the most of our time and ensures that we invest it in things that will give us value. I plan to discuss this idea further in their upcoming article on productivity.

To Close, The Principle That Connects All

We’ve discussed three essential aspects of success: people, personal habits, and time. If you can manage these six things effectively, you’re on your way to becoming successful and even a millionaire.

However, the seventh principle is crucial. It’s living within your means. Even if you’ve succeeded, you must keep the principles that brought you here. You might tweak them to improve yourself, but the last rule is that you don’t splurge or become gluttonous. That’s breaking the very principles that got you here in the first place.

Your goal should be to live under your means to stay level-headed, aware, and in control of your success. This is the awareness piece, where self-awareness plays a crucial role.

When you’ve achieved success, the ego might want to take over and indulge in splurging, but there’s a time and place for everything.

You can have a good time, but only if you’ve made time for it and understand the value of it. Don’t trade off productive work that needs to be done for temporary gain or fun.

So, these are the seven principles of success that are worth considering. Your thoughts and feedback on these would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a productive day.

Unorthodoxy is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

Before we delve into this chapter, let’s consider two important questions: Why do we love our government? Why do we tolerate our rulers? One might argue that we don’t actually love them, we simply tolerate them. However, this explanation fails to address why we accept burdensome policies imposed on us.

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