December 20-B, 2022

**Cedar Island Ferry 10/23/2011 Oil Paint Rendered — Outer Banks, Pamlico Sound, Cape Hatteras National Seashore, Ocracoke Island, North Carolina**

Joseph Campbell said, "In the end,
psychotherapy is about 
aligning the head with the heart
so that the transcendent energies
can come through.
Only when this occurs
can you be 'transparent to transcendence.'
This implies yielding to nature,
putting yourself in accord with nature--
which is the main aim of most of the
mythologies of the world.

Nature is regarded as a manifestation
of something that is basically
divine and marvelous and miraculous,
and by putting yourself in accord with it,
you participate in that glory."

The old Taoists referred to this as
"being aligned with the Tao."

It is telling that Christianity
and Western civilization
see nature as something 
that is to be "subdued."

The snake is evil,
the Devil, 
and must be trod under,
whereas, in the east, the snake
sheds its skin as the moon sheds
its shadow,
and is a symbol of eternal life.

Good is evil, 
evil is good
just by the way we see things,
by the way we are taught to see things,
and has nothing to do 
with the things themselves.

It is a long way
from where we have been
to where we need to be.

We better get started!

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Published by jimwdollar

I'm retired, and still finding my way--but now, I don't have to pretend that I know what I'm doing. I retired after 40.5 years as a minister in the Presbyterian Church USA, serving churches in Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina. I graduated from Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas, and Northwestern State University in Natchitoches, Louisiana. My wife, Judy, and I have three daughters and five granddaughters within about twenty minutes from where we live--and are enjoying our retirement as much as we have ever enjoyed anything. View more posts