We are wired for stability. Homeostasis is our central principle; the earliest Western psychologists from Fechner to Freud tell us that constancy is our foundation. What we call ‘I’ is made of habits that keep us intact. Originality is a disruptive event frequently experienced first as destructive. It is the emergence of some sliver of authenticity that seems to be baked into us but covered over by a sauce of conventions.
Returning to one’s origin is the birth of vision, it is a longing described in various visionary traditions. Paradoxically our original spark is said to long for us as well, desiring to spark a wildfire of originality. It shatters what was built before and is an insult to our foundation of constancy.
The inner process of originality is frequently experienced as adversarial and threatening to habitual consciousness, our guardian of stability. This course will investigate how originality is often felt as alien and can be found in threatening (called ego-dystonic) forces in dreams and memories; marauding alien presences entering directly from the wilds of our origins. Connecting to the wild forces of true originality is no easy matter; we hide from them, desiring not to be disrupted. We experience them as our undoing.
Originality is different from being unique. We are all unique, our fingerprints tell us so. Being unique is no accomplishment, it’s a given. Visionary traditions show us that true originality is shattering and the work is to bring the original shattered sparks back into awareness. That’s why they call it an opus: it’s a piece of work (also in the sense of ‘you’re quite a piece of work!’) But if we find those sparks of origin and let ourselves be found by what makes us tick from the get-go, we may become this weird character called ‘a true original.’
This is an eminently practical course, because originality wants to be put to practical use. We will look to ancient history, philosophy, ritual, dreaming and the art of re-membering, to find clues how to start a conflagration that burns off the stale exterior of our encrusted existence. Bacchus will be the guardian spirit to these revels.