The Archaeology of the Soul: Digging the Inner Life
Installment #1
Spiritual work should not be taken lightly; not only is it hard work, it can be dangerous. I define spiritual work as the exploration of the inner self. There is a tendency when an individual first begins this kind of work to look for the magical part of the process. The path is strewn with interactive opportunities and everyone is attracted to one or another of these “gateways”. It could be a deck of Tarot cards, the I Ching, Astrology or the Urantia Book all of which contain the energy to ignite the impulse to explore a different level of consciousness. While all these tools are valid it is when we judge one to be of more value than another that we can lose our way.As the Buddha so aptly pointed out: everything is dependent on everything else.
During my senior year in high school, which ran through September 1967 to June of 1968, I was part of a unique group of explorers. We had discovered a book shop on State St. in Chicago aptly named the Occult Book Store. The owner of the store, Russel, not only provided rich new reading material of other perspectives on the universe but he was one of the first individuals that I had met who held an alternative view on how the world operated. While he introduced me to the idea that there were things hidden everywhere and that life could be read as a text the most important piece of the journey rested in the adage “KNOW THYSELF” because it was the key to all understanding.
I had just turned 17…..and I had no idea what I was doing. I thought, like most adolescents, that I had a pretty good grasp of what it all meant. I had the information, I could see the truth and I could pull others along with me as we went forth in our quest. It was that romantic. I imagined myself all sorts of archetypes that I embodied but I couldn’t quite imagine myself as myself because it was too painful to be me.
The problem with being young, intelligent and ignored is that it can lead to all sorts of questionable decisions that have real world consequences. I didn’t understand that a spiritual quest on the planet Earth necessitated being embodied on the planet and learning how to live and work with other people. My take on it rested on one simple pursuit: how do I get off the planet Earth? How do I disembark from the karmic wheel of pain and sorrow I had been born into? In the late 1960s there were plenty of ways which were attractive because they promised instant enlightenment and gratification. What could be more freeing than that? What consequences could there possibly be? I had the information all I had to do was leap over and through the gateway. What could go wrong?
