Spiritual Narratives in Psychological Therapies NOT USED Through darkness to light: On suffering and authenticity in the psycho-spiritual journey B. Les Lancaster Professor of Transpersonal Psychology, Co-Director CTP Research Unit, School of Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, UK Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Jewish Studies, University of Manchester, UK. John Moores University, Henry Cotton Campus, Webster Street, Liverpool L3 2ET, UK. Tel: +44 (0)151-231-4036 Fax: 0151-231-4033 e-mail: B.L.Lancaster@ljmu.ac.uk
From Darkness to Light Meaning of Passover From To Historical Slavery Freedom Seasonal Winter Spring Ritually leavened (risen) unleavened (‘unrisen’) Mystical Darkness Light conscious / unconscious Psycho-spiritual unification Kabbalistic outer form of letters / words inner light of letters
From Darkness to Light Judaism-Christianity relationship Jerusalem Temple - sacrifice - Rabbinic Judaism Christianity • centrality of the text • centrality of incarnation • study/prayer re. sacrifice • Jesus as sacrifice • body as sacred (table = altar) • rejection of body • monism (panentheism) • dualism Re-integration? - psychotherapy -
“On the evening [Heb/Aram. Aur] of the fourteenth [of Nisan] a search is made for leaven by the light of a lamp. What is Aur? — R. Huna said: Light [naghe]; while R. Judah said: Night [lele]. Now it was assumed [that] he who says light means literally light; while he who says night means literally night…..” Talmud, Pesachim 2a
“Come and see. The fourteenth is when the moon is in perfect intercourse with the sun … When the intercourse of the moon takes place in the full light of the sun, they are all gathered into one place, and the holy powers of the King are aroused. Then it is written ‘A night [sing.] to be kept/guarded [pl.] for the Lord’ (Exodus 12:42), for sacred intercourse takes place then and it is ‘kept’ literally… What is the meaning of ‘kept’? It indicates two, the union of the moon with the sun.” Zohar 3:95b
From Darkness to Light Passover: “a night to be guarded” Darkness, guarding … Writing lines ליל night … the light within the darkness
“At the beginning of the will of the King, the spark of darkness [botsina de- kardinuta] engraved a hollow in the supernal luminescence, such that there emerged within the concealed of the concealed, from the head of En Sof [infinite transcendent essence], a vaporous mass…. Within the inmost part of the spark emerged an effervescent spring from which colours are derived below.” Zohar 1:15a
“These twenty-two points and notes [paralleling 22 letters] are the secret of the spark of darkness, the measure of everything. In this mystery is every measure in length, width, depth and height. There is no measure that departs from this dimension, from the secret of the nine vowels and thirteen notes. Upon this secret the Torah exists in all its aspects, and all the secrets and deep mysteries of the Torah do not go out from this secret” Zohar Hadash 105a
“This spark of darkness emerges from the En Sof [infinite transcendent essence], suggesting that something of the infinite light of En Sof was restricted, giving rise to a creative spark that is dark by comparison with the infinite light. The notion that the divine source of emanation should constitute a relative darkness is perhaps the root of all paradoxes. It implies that we must enter into a darkness in order to receive the light of God” Lancaster (2005), p. 128
“The central mystical experience of enlightenment is aptly symbolized by Light in most of the numerous forms of mysticism. It is a curious paradox that the approach to a region which seems to us the way into utter darkness should yield the light of illumination as its fruit.” Jung, C. G. CW 11, par. 828.
“It is known that the word ‘desire’ is numerically equivalent to ‘the essence of light’, ‘the essence of splendour’ and ‘the essence of speech’. The desire and yearning for something is the cause of the intelligible light coming forth in the intellect, for this is the light that illumines, the light that is the internal light that shines.” Abulafia, Otsar Eden Ganuz 127b (p. 280) [Ha-ta’avah = etsem ha-orah = etsem ha-zohar = etsem ha-dibbur = 417]
“It is known that the letters of the Torah have the aspect of inner lights …. The boundary of the white that encompasses the letters possesses the aspect of the encompassing lights, which are not revealed but are found in hiddenness.” Rabbi Levi Yitzhak
From Darkness to Light ‘Black fire on white fire’: primordial roots Peh – ‘mouth’ Bet – ‘house’ writing line in Torah scroll
“He contracted Himself within the letters of the Torah, by means of which He has created the world … and the righteous person, who studies the Torah for its own sake in holiness, draws the Creator, blessed be He, downward within the letters of the Torah as in the moment of the creation.” Maggid of Mezeritch
“The word zohar means literally radiance…. The radiance of the Torah’s divine light is reflected in the mysteries of this book. But when these mysteries are shrouded in the literal meaning, their light is darkened. The literal meaning is darkness, but the Kabbalistic meaning, the mystery, is the zohar that shines in every line of Scripture.” Scholem (1965), p. 63
From Darkness to Light Summary of the kabbalistic ‘myth’ The ‘higher’ enters the ‘lower’ by limitation – tsimtsum ; botsina de-kardinuta God in exile from His essence. Fragmentation. Suffering. Man as microcosm. Creation is the paradigm of all. Human suffering is reflection of divine suffering Reality/mind is fundamentally linguistic Concealed/revealed paradigm of inner-outer. Authenticity Man promotes unification by engaging the inner linguistic process of creation – imitatio Dei Conscious – unconscious fulfils purpose. Tikkun
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