The Chapel Trees

The trees in the Chapel during Kate’s and William’s Most Excellent Day were beautiful. They radiated purity and joy, and peace. You could see the radiance of good energy emanating from them, which was calming and uplifting. Even if in the mind of man they were placed to serve the ends of man (captives in the house of Man’s God, so to speak), this was not a concern for them.  In their ultimate humility, they were above all that. While rooted in the earth, trees live in heaven. They are (as a human should also be) their own temple — a temple unto one’s self is each tree, sacredly honoring the great truth that God’s Kingdom is within each one.

Like many, I imagine, I found myself contemplating the significance of William’s and Kate’s event. It was a marvelous affair, in terms of visual imagery and good feelings. I, like many, enjoyed that very much. Every thing, as Jung helped show, has its shadow, though. It can’t be denied.  I’m going to talk about that shadow a little so that I can get to the greater truth it cloaks. Every shadow is just a curtain before the gate to a deeper understanding. One need but walk through.

Few who are not wealthy can afford the luxury of politics. Keeping a home and family consume most of one’s vitality and will, leaving little for causes and revolution. Politics are almost exclusively the domain of the wealthy, and in that sense all others are at their mercy. Law is written and practiced for the wealthy and powerful (the fact that it costs money to obtain justice is the surest sign).  Taxes are paid by the poor who have no voice, for the rich buy their politicians to ensure there’ll always be a way for them to avoid taxes without alienating the poor too much (unrest and disorder are always kept to a minimum). Commerce is ruled by the wealthy and constantly directed by them, through their power and their purchased public officials. The aim of commerce is to gain control over the property and means of the earth, primarily from the poor, for the ends of those with power.

This is the natural condition of human society on earth and it has always been this way. No one who isn’t a beneficiary of it likes it. There is always unrest somewhere because of it. But it never changes.  Other views which don’t see it are the illusions fostered by relentless blind idealism or by the constant drip-drip of the propaganda of the powerful, which they ever pour down upon their subjects like a sedative and an hallucinogen, like a drug one might administer to cattle so that they work on inured to their own pain and suffering, keeping the farm in constant operation to secure further wealth to the keepers. Security to the oligarchs and leaders is keeping the rabble in line and in order, which keeps their coffers and their wine glasses filled. To them, the somnambulation unto death is the lot of the lesser classes of humanity.

This is harsh, and most don’t see it and live a kind of hypnotized alternative reality, but it is an essential fact of human society. Like the subjects of Descartes’s Evil Genius, it is possible to live in the bliss of ignorance, to feel free and joyful, though one isn’t.  And who would violently strip away that right?  I would not. Passing through the shadow’s veil is only for the stout hearted who cannot but desire only the ultimate freedom that truth provides. You have to be a little like Robin Hood, willing to live in the dark forest, and be classified a thief by polite society, a refuge from the Sheriff’s ill will, until the Sheriff becomes one’s servant.

The real kicker is this.  This situation of Man’s servitude to man has nothing whatever to do with happiness.  The true power lies not in earthly authority or wealth, but in the individual’s own authority to choose his or her own state of consciousness despite all material conditions.   Happiness isn’t a state of mind, or body, it’s an inherent reality of true consciousness that one may choose to live in or not.  If worldly and personal external conditions dominate one’s awareness, they keep one from being aware of and living in that inherent joy of the soul.

The challenge is for the individual to put above all other goals the one goal of realizing the true self, the soul, and choosing then to live firmly and unconditionally within it’s flawless bliss and perfect comprehension of all things, no matter the external conditions of the body or mind.

The tragedy of the wealthy and powerful is they rarely are empowered to recognize the true source of joy and are content pursuing the game of acquisition and conquest in the vain belief in their own superiority and whatever kind of illusionary contentment such unchallenged arrogance and worldly comforts afford.

The real power in the world is not in the state or in one’s worldly status.  It’s in the individual, within his or her own consciousness, where all that’s true, good and beautiful abounds in personal glory.

I very much enjoyed the Royal Wedding of William and Catherine.  It was beautifully, tastefully, artistically done, with generosity and with some lovely messages delivered by clergy and by the happy couple.  It was the paragon of Royal Weddings.  I feel it bodes well for the future, in a world of many compromises.

Much of the fascination I think is that we all want to be them.  They, and Royalty in general, represent an archetypal sense of the highest worldly attainment, offering a sense of the greatest opportunity to do good, enjoy life’s pleasures, be free and happy in worldly success, and to be powerful in the world.  We want to be like that.

But the more important, truer aspect of this archetype is what it represents within the individual.  It represents taking charge of one’s own inner kingdom in consciousness, ruling instead of being subject to the push and pull (duality) of mind, thoughts, emotions, and by what we think we know and what we don’t even realize remains unknown to us.  Ruling over one’s own personal inner kingdom and all its creative wealth and potential power is the summum bonum of life.  The regal imagery of earthly royalty represent this attainment to us, model it as an archetype and a metaphor to remind one where the true glory lies.

I’m certain it is this deeper truth that draws us to such things outwardly in the world. It is a bit of inspiration to one to see it, how it plays out, to see it’s challenges and its rewards, as an echo of how it is to be one’s own master.

Self-mastery is the ultimate goal and attainment.  Regal imagery helps us remember, either consciously or subconsciously, that this self-mastery is our individual purpose on earth and the meaning of living here.