The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us
~(excerpt from A Little Book on the Human Shadow, Robert Bly, HarperCollins 1988)
“When we were one or two years old, most of us had 360-degree personalities. We were literally balls of energy radiating from all parts of our body and psyche. But as time went on, we noticed that our parents didn’t like certain parts of that ball. “Can’t you sit still?” Or, “It isn’t nice to hit and bite.”
“To keep our parents love, we started an invisible bag, and we put in that bag the parts of us our parents didn’t like. By the time we got to school, our bag was quite large. There, we added our teachers’ comments. “Play nice with others, don’t be bossy, don’t be so self-centered, and don’t get angry.” So we take our anger, our sense of self-importance, and put it in the bag.
“As teens, we do an extraordinary amount of bag-stuffing in high school. This time it’s no longer the evil grownup that pressures us, but people our own age...
“I so maintain that out of that round globe of energy the twenty-year-old ends up with a slice...
We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again...”
“When we were one or two years old, most of us had 360-degree personalities. We were literally balls of energy radiating from all parts of our body and psyche. But as time went on, we noticed that our parents didn’t like certain parts of that ball. “Can’t you sit still?” Or, “It isn’t nice to hit and bite.”
“To keep our parents love, we started an invisible bag, and we put in that bag the parts of us our parents didn’t like. By the time we got to school, our bag was quite large. There, we added our teachers’ comments. “Play nice with others, don’t be bossy, don’t be so self-centered, and don’t get angry.” So we take our anger, our sense of self-importance, and put it in the bag.
“As teens, we do an extraordinary amount of bag-stuffing in high school. This time it’s no longer the evil grownup that pressures us, but people our own age...
“I so maintain that out of that round globe of energy the twenty-year-old ends up with a slice...
We spend our life until we’re twenty deciding what parts of ourselves to put into the bag, and we spend the rest of our lives trying to get them out again...”
Re-membering
The ancient Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris (Aset/throne and Usir/power in Egyptian) has always fascinated us and - in terms of its healing potential - we believe that it has been deeply underestimated, misunderstood and taken out of context. As time has gone by, we have come to believe that the myth was not only deeply connected to the healing paradigm of their ancient mystery schools, but that it could also have a profound effect on our modern healing paradigm of "parts work."
Essentially, the myth unfolds as follows: Isis and Osiris are king and queen of Egypt in a remote golden age, and all is right with the world. Yet their brother Set murders and dismembers Osiris into 14 'parts' and scatters his 'parts' throughout Egypt. Isis and her sister then search for and find all of his 'parts,' and Isis then "magically" resurrects Osiris.
We believe that the deeper meaning of the myth is that the opposite of remembering is not forgetting - it is dis-membering - figuratively 'slicing off' or excluding 'parts' of others or ourselves, or being victimized in that way. So healing deepens with a willingness to look for the parts that have split off and a willingness to re-member. And it is much easier to re-member with help!
We believe that the body parts associated with the six pairs of signs of the zodiac naturally play a part in this drama. The movements that we created for each sign were inspired by the sign's characteristics, body parts, element and mode elegantly embody this paradigm. To perform the 12 movements and unique dances is figuratively to re-member, and to perform the opposite/complement pairs with a partner invites you to re-member deeper still.
Hmmm...12 parts plus 2 partners = 14. Hmmm...it might just be a coincidence. Or is it?
So from this point of view, we believe that life is an invitation to delve into how we play out the Isis/Osiris myth in our life in the role of Isis the healer, Set the wounder and Osiris the woundee/healee. For in this healing paradigm, we are all three.
When we consciously choose to focus on the healer/healee aspect, once we are on that path we can eventually awaken, take our power and life force back and return to a life of magnificence, peace, power, joy and sovereignty, i.e. The Return of the King.
Essentially, the myth unfolds as follows: Isis and Osiris are king and queen of Egypt in a remote golden age, and all is right with the world. Yet their brother Set murders and dismembers Osiris into 14 'parts' and scatters his 'parts' throughout Egypt. Isis and her sister then search for and find all of his 'parts,' and Isis then "magically" resurrects Osiris.
We believe that the deeper meaning of the myth is that the opposite of remembering is not forgetting - it is dis-membering - figuratively 'slicing off' or excluding 'parts' of others or ourselves, or being victimized in that way. So healing deepens with a willingness to look for the parts that have split off and a willingness to re-member. And it is much easier to re-member with help!
We believe that the body parts associated with the six pairs of signs of the zodiac naturally play a part in this drama. The movements that we created for each sign were inspired by the sign's characteristics, body parts, element and mode elegantly embody this paradigm. To perform the 12 movements and unique dances is figuratively to re-member, and to perform the opposite/complement pairs with a partner invites you to re-member deeper still.
Hmmm...12 parts plus 2 partners = 14. Hmmm...it might just be a coincidence. Or is it?
So from this point of view, we believe that life is an invitation to delve into how we play out the Isis/Osiris myth in our life in the role of Isis the healer, Set the wounder and Osiris the woundee/healee. For in this healing paradigm, we are all three.
When we consciously choose to focus on the healer/healee aspect, once we are on that path we can eventually awaken, take our power and life force back and return to a life of magnificence, peace, power, joy and sovereignty, i.e. The Return of the King.
Other Beliefs & Assumptions
* Our unique holistic processes can help free up energy from what Robert Bly called "the long bag we drag behind us."
* You can learn more about astrology with the body - from the ground up - than just the head and the neck up.
* The body has a wisdom and memory all its own.
* The body is the "side door" to the deeper self.
* Our world has a left brain, intellectual "hare" bias, and typically neglects our slower, deeper feeling/sensation "tortoise" right brain.
* People are generally starved for right-brain phenomena.
* The inner life is just as important as the outer.
* In a safe environment, relaxation, breath, slow fluid movement and a willingness to feel can reconnect left brain and right brain, mind and body.
* In this fast-paced-digital age, slowing down and tuning into the body is needed more than ever.
* There are rhythms and other subtle forces in life, and catching the wave at the opportune moment can make all the difference.
* Most people aren't low on energy, it's primarily constricted.
* Safety first. And better safe than sorry.
* There are a hundred steps down the ladder of consciousness, and we commonly only access the top few.
* Mindfulness; non-violence; spirit-mind-body holism; unity, organicity, loving presence. - Hakomi principles and practices
* Relaxation, breath, slowing down and a willingness to turn inward and feel - my personal principles
* Peace and personal growth can be fun ☺️
* You can learn more about astrology with the body - from the ground up - than just the head and the neck up.
* The body has a wisdom and memory all its own.
* The body is the "side door" to the deeper self.
* Our world has a left brain, intellectual "hare" bias, and typically neglects our slower, deeper feeling/sensation "tortoise" right brain.
* People are generally starved for right-brain phenomena.
* The inner life is just as important as the outer.
* In a safe environment, relaxation, breath, slow fluid movement and a willingness to feel can reconnect left brain and right brain, mind and body.
* In this fast-paced-digital age, slowing down and tuning into the body is needed more than ever.
* There are rhythms and other subtle forces in life, and catching the wave at the opportune moment can make all the difference.
* Most people aren't low on energy, it's primarily constricted.
* Safety first. And better safe than sorry.
* There are a hundred steps down the ladder of consciousness, and we commonly only access the top few.
* Mindfulness; non-violence; spirit-mind-body holism; unity, organicity, loving presence. - Hakomi principles and practices
* Relaxation, breath, slowing down and a willingness to turn inward and feel - my personal principles
* Peace and personal growth can be fun ☺️
Beloved Quotes
I can't see you but I know you're here. I feel it. - Peter Falk in Wings of Desire
* What does your heart tell you? - Aragorn, The Lord of the Rings
* The rush and pressure of modern life are a form...perhaps the most common form...of its innate violence. - Thomas Merton
* Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. - Joseph Campbell
* I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau
* The heart's deepest purpose is to balance. - James Burgess
* The heart's memory is stronger than death; the mind's memory is not. - Steven Forrest
* The body is the unconscious mind. - Candace Pert MD
* All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you. - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
* Any extreme suggests the opposite. - John Heider, The Tao of Leadership
* Better games would empty entire wings of (our) mental hospitals. - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
* Why worry? What is meant for you is always meant to find you. - Lalleshwari
* Run my dear from anyone and anything that does not strengthen your precious budding wings. - Hafiz
* Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flame. - Mevlana Rumi
* So far no one has succeeded in singing an epic of peace. What is it about peace that keeps its inspiration from enduring? - Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire
* Just keep going. No feeling is final. - Rainer Maria Rilke
* ...devoted discipline and grace will bring ye knowin's and powers everywhere, in all your life, in all your works if they're good works, in all your loves if they're good loves. - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
* To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. - Ecclesiastes 3:1
* The wind of God's grace is incessantly blowing. - Sri Ramakrishna Math
* Stand at the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way lies, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. - Jeremiah 6:16
* At the end of his life, Sigmund Freud said "Thank God I'm not a Freudian." - (a willingness to grow, evolve and change)
* Try once, try twice, then yield. - John Heider
* "It's worth a nickel if I say it, a dime if YOU do." - John Heider (meaning insights we discover about ourselves from within are almost always more potent than when pointed out to us by others.)
* "My Brownies (Scottish name for nature spirits who work only for the joy of it), God bless them! who do one-half my work for me while I am fast asleep, and in all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well, when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do it for myself. That part which is done while I am sleeping is the Brownies’ part beyond contention; but that which is done when I am up and about is by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies have a hand in it even then. Here is a doubt that much concerns my conscience. For myself—what I call I, my conscious ego, the denizen of the pineal gland unless he has changed his residence since Descartes, the man with the conscience and the variable bank-account, the man with the hat and the boots, and the privilege of voting and not carrying his candidate at the general elections—I am sometimes tempted to suppose is no story-teller at all, but a creature as matter of fact as any cheesemonger or any cheese, and a realist bemired up to the ears in actuality; so that, by that account, the whole of my published fiction should be the single-handed product of some Brownie, some Familiar, some unseen collaborator, whom I keep locked in a back garret, while I get all the praise and he but a share (which I cannot prevent him getting) of the pudding. I am an excellent adviser, something like Molière’s servant. I pull back and I cut down; and I dress the whole in the best words and sentences that I can find and make; I hold the pen, too; and I do the sitting at the table, which is about the worst of it; and when all is done, I make up the manuscript and pay for the registration; so that, on the whole, I have some claim to share, though not so largely as I do, in the profits of our common enterprise. - Robert Louis Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams
* The rush and pressure of modern life are a form...perhaps the most common form...of its innate violence. - Thomas Merton
* Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls. - Joseph Campbell
* I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. - Henry David Thoreau
* The heart's deepest purpose is to balance. - James Burgess
* The heart's memory is stronger than death; the mind's memory is not. - Steven Forrest
* The body is the unconscious mind. - Candace Pert MD
* All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you. - Gandalf, The Lord of the Rings
* Any extreme suggests the opposite. - John Heider, The Tao of Leadership
* Better games would empty entire wings of (our) mental hospitals. - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
* Why worry? What is meant for you is always meant to find you. - Lalleshwari
* Run my dear from anyone and anything that does not strengthen your precious budding wings. - Hafiz
* Set your life on fire. Seek those who fan your flame. - Mevlana Rumi
* So far no one has succeeded in singing an epic of peace. What is it about peace that keeps its inspiration from enduring? - Wim Wenders, Wings of Desire
* Just keep going. No feeling is final. - Rainer Maria Rilke
* ...devoted discipline and grace will bring ye knowin's and powers everywhere, in all your life, in all your works if they're good works, in all your loves if they're good loves. - Michael Murphy, Golf in the Kingdom
* To everything there is a season and a time for every purpose under heaven. - Ecclesiastes 3:1
* The wind of God's grace is incessantly blowing. - Sri Ramakrishna Math
* Stand at the crossroads and look, and ask for the ancient paths where the good way lies, and walk therein, and you shall find rest for your souls. - Jeremiah 6:16
* At the end of his life, Sigmund Freud said "Thank God I'm not a Freudian." - (a willingness to grow, evolve and change)
* Try once, try twice, then yield. - John Heider
* "It's worth a nickel if I say it, a dime if YOU do." - John Heider (meaning insights we discover about ourselves from within are almost always more potent than when pointed out to us by others.)
* "My Brownies (Scottish name for nature spirits who work only for the joy of it), God bless them! who do one-half my work for me while I am fast asleep, and in all human likelihood, do the rest for me as well, when I am wide awake and fondly suppose I do it for myself. That part which is done while I am sleeping is the Brownies’ part beyond contention; but that which is done when I am up and about is by no means necessarily mine, since all goes to show the Brownies have a hand in it even then. Here is a doubt that much concerns my conscience. For myself—what I call I, my conscious ego, the denizen of the pineal gland unless he has changed his residence since Descartes, the man with the conscience and the variable bank-account, the man with the hat and the boots, and the privilege of voting and not carrying his candidate at the general elections—I am sometimes tempted to suppose is no story-teller at all, but a creature as matter of fact as any cheesemonger or any cheese, and a realist bemired up to the ears in actuality; so that, by that account, the whole of my published fiction should be the single-handed product of some Brownie, some Familiar, some unseen collaborator, whom I keep locked in a back garret, while I get all the praise and he but a share (which I cannot prevent him getting) of the pudding. I am an excellent adviser, something like Molière’s servant. I pull back and I cut down; and I dress the whole in the best words and sentences that I can find and make; I hold the pen, too; and I do the sitting at the table, which is about the worst of it; and when all is done, I make up the manuscript and pay for the registration; so that, on the whole, I have some claim to share, though not so largely as I do, in the profits of our common enterprise. - Robert Louis Stevenson, A Chapter on Dreams
