Awakening Narcissus

Awakening the good, Awakens the bad

No one ever seems to discuss the fact that awakening to the good also awakens the bad.

Seeing through the veil of lies (L-I-eyes) also invites in an opportunity to witness the veil of hidden archetypes rearing their head into modern times.

In that same vein, the Myth of Narcissus has never been more alive than NOW.

As a continuum to my article, UnMasking Truth, The Mirror of Awakening, there is something deeper to the facial recognition software that the tyrannical technocrats want to roll out…sort of a self-destruct gesture designed to ensure repetition of your face being reflected back to you on these scrying devices…everywhere…constantly. It’s definitely not about security or safety and I can’t help but have a hunch that it’s the egoic egregore ensuring it has a placeholder in the collective psyche.

I find it interesting the statement “as above, as below, as within as without” because the inversion we live in seems to show us the antidote is in its reverse.

Since the mirror reverses and distorts, then we can assume the truth would be more along the lines of as below, as above, as without, as within…. but that’s not as “catchy” and we know sometimes the catchiest language is just that…. a catch…a scripted facade…a story from the joker’s diary. Which reflects which, up or down? Inside or out? Maybe we need the distortion in the mirror to find our inner truth, to recognize what we should be reflecting on inwardly and how that shines out? We need the tangible outer, matter in the mirror, to even be able to begin the inner journey.

As below would be an indicator that the heart-hearth-earth-art for which we create upon and through can reflect back to the heavens what we reap, sew, grow, create…how we steward the land…. how we give care and attention with good intentions…. with love. When this is not present then we project out unto the firmament, the sky mirror ensconced with counterparts of beaming plasmatic stars, our collective shadow, our ugliness, and this is never more visible than in the degradation of modern culture, architecture, language and the arts.

The moral bankruptcy of society bleeds onto the roof of our realm like a flickering lampost short-circuiting and ready to blow a fuse at any moment.

As noted in my other article, the screens we stare at all day are indeed a mirror, even if your attention is directed to the imagery at hand, still alive in the subconscious is the underpinning of your reflection staring back at you.

Thus, is it any wonder that with these technological black screens (mirrors) that narcissism and narcissistic traits are growing, showing, and exploding. Though the labeling and terminology is over-used, I believe it is revealing to us the Archetype of Narcissus and the subconscious dangers shaping our self-centered, self-indulgent, self-importance and grandiosity.

Perhaps, like Narcissus, it’s not only the content that is hypnotizing, the addictive dopamine rushes and/or the many other advertising tactics used to persuade the minds of the masses on these devices, but the constant staring into the mirror seeing one’s own reflection as the real culprit.

As a Feng Shui consultant, I can assure you even if you are not consciously looking at your surroundings all day, your walls, AND especially your screens, are influencing your thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. Now imagine if a vast amount of that time is actually staring into the screen your own reflection. The apps, movies, YouTube videos or whatever you are watching, all invite the temptation of Narcissus to the table.

It's subtle. It’s very manipulative. I’ve never heard anyone talk about it and I’ve never talked about it until now…but if I minimize this screen, there I am? Every time you check the time, there you are. Every time you engage your image lurks in the shadows reflecting beneath the surface.

Some say narcissists lack the ability to self-REFLECT thus it seems they have stared at the image so long it has absorbed them fully..

We have to choose whether to sit at the altar or alt-her, watch the alteration sweep the nation, the synthetic, the hacked, the masked, the injected, the cut up, the enhanced, the surgical intervention…the normalization of these physical shifts are all made manifest from sales techniques that tell you that you are not good enough in your natural state, that your temple has been defiled so you must try to change it, purify it, freeze it, make it better….but you can’t make nature better and you don’t need to change you because society says so, pressures or induces chemicals to confuse that what you see is not as it should be… just work to make the best choices for you and uncover the authenticity of both your inner and outer make up without letting it consume and shift into the artificial-synthetic-Maybelline-may-be-lie façade that hides the exquisiteness of YOU!

One story of Narcissus speaks of the spark dying and he lost his will to live, is this not what is happening to many who have lost connection to the Divine and have become obsessed with these screens? Video games in a video world where connection is not felt by 2 or more gathering in real time but buying time through a microphone and a plot….but the twist is that there are 2 gathering, only one is the distorted version of you staring back in the black mirror.

In this digital age, all day, you and your shadow are communing through devices unspoken words, insecurities on display, face-to-face with yourself, even on days you just want to scroll the day away, there you are.

According to Etymoline:

narcissus (n.)type of bulbous flowering plant, 1540s, from Latin narcissus, from Greek narkissos, a plant name, not the modern narcissus, possibly a type of iris or lily, associated with Greek narkē "numbness" (see narcotic (n.)) because of the sedative effect of the alkaloids in the plant, but Beekes considers this folk-etymology and writes that "The suffix clearly points to a Pre-Greek word."

I find this interesting as numbness is definitely what is happening as the world normalizes barbaric behaviors and seems not to care that tyranny is at the doorstep knocking fervently.

narcissism (n.)1905, from German Narzissismus, coined 1899 (in "Die sexuellen Perversitäten"), by German psychiatrist Paul Näcke (1851-1913), on a comparison suggested 1898 by Havelock Ellis, from Greek Narkissos, name of a beautiful youth in mythology (Ovid, "Metamorphoses," iii.370) who fell in love with his own reflection in a spring and was turned to the flower narcissus (q.v.). Narcissus himself as a figure of self-love is attested by 1767. Coleridge used the word in a letter from 1822.

Are we not in a new age era where self-love is glamorized above connection, above being a valuable and useful member of society, above sacrifice and giving?

echo (n.)mid-14c., "sound repeated by reflection," from Latin echo, from Greek ēkhō, personified in classical mythology as a mountain nymph who pined away for love of Narcissus until nothing was left of her but her voice, from or related to ēkhē "sound," ēkhein "to resound," from PIE *wagh-io-, extended form of root *(s)wagh- "to resound" (source also of Sanskrit vagnuh "sound," Latin vagire "to cry," Old English swogan "to resound"). Related: Echoes. Echo chamber is attested from 1937.

I’m no mythological scholar, but if you’ve spent any time at all in the realm of technology, it’s easy to see this archetype has vast reach, even enveloped many inside the black box of making an easy buck, quick fix, hack, formula and a loss of true individuality, as well as a balance between genuine self-care and connection with others beyond the digital “space.”

In a way it seems like the tale of Narcissus is the ultimate trickster on humanity, unaware their reflection stares back on iPads, phones, computers, TVs and now smart cameras at every turn…. something feels very sinister indeed.

Do not let your spark die out, nor compare yourself to the highlight reels that plague our screens far worse than any other false “perceived” threat marketed as dangerous….the real threat is always in the other direction we’re told to look….and sometimes maybe it’s the looking that’s the problem, for one should look with the 3^rd eye (or 1^st eye depending on your perspective) in order to truly see clearly.

The narcotic of Narcissus is the mirror.  The greater we fall into self-obsession and anti-aging the more the “face” of the earth needs to be cleansed again just as we cleanse our masks in private in the evening before getting up and doing it all over again….let us remember that true beauty comes from removing the layers that are not congruent with who you really are…let us remember to behold beauty from a place of Divinity where art is a creation sprung from inspiration and not as a means of control and greed, for we cannot control the natural world, we can only steward it….and be a counter measure for those who destroy it for the sake of power and prestige.

Awakening the good makes the bad show up like its pesky sibling, so make sure you use technology wisely and do not let it use you…take breaks from these screens and do not fall into the void of spirits knocking from the other side tempting you to keep gazing, luring your essence in to feed the archetype of Narcissus and the narcissistic egregore wreaking havoc on humanity.

Just as Narcissus was enthralled with himself and couldn’t back away from the image before him, so too is society walking around bent over staring into another kind of abyss that is difficult to escape.

Use it for good, call a friend, write something, create, then put it down and go outside, rest your mind, rest your soul, rest your gaze, rest your sight…for you need not fit into any algorithm, any picture screen, any facial recognition or any narcisstic beliefs that tell you that you are all there is….do not let it swallow your pupil into its black morgue, but deflect your gaze upon the earth, the sun, the moon and let the haze clear away.

Remember, Source does not bring confusion, but clarity….the nemesis, Narcissus, steals that away by capturing your essence in your gaze, your attention, but I know you can look away and into inner reflection or put it down and bask at the wondrous world around you, ever present.

The myth of Narcissus serves as a warning in this obsessive digital age filled with influencers, selfies and advertisements. Love yourself, but let your gaze wander, for your eyes are meant to meet another, not stare into their own upon the technological mantle where productive undertones squint back in shadowy black…inside a phone…alone.

Blessings,

Angela