TricksterRise
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0. The Trickster
1. Beginnings
Everything began with a dream.
The gentle swell of sleep rocked me back and forth on the soft, foaming crests of its waves. Ahhh, how wonderful! I was out like a light. But at about six o’clock in the morning, that came to an unexpected and not very welcome end.
An invisible hatch gave way beneath my feet and I dropped…falling and falling, deeper and deeper through an inky tunnel. A million eyes loomed in the darkness and observed my free fall. I squinted back. Why the hell were they staring at me like that? Turn around already! Then my feet touched down on solid ground. A scene unfolded: I found myself standing in my apartment. Everything appeared normal. Sunlight spilled in through the window facing the main road. I pivoted, taking in the scene. Hmm…was that it? Maybe I had stopped too early. Possible, possible… Well, only one way to find out: I had to go further. But how? Hang on—one of the paintings on the wall was hanging askew. I took it down and was sucked straight through the canvas into the painting. Again, I dropped.
A new scene unfolded. I was flying! What an ecstatic feeling. Below me stretched a gigantic gothic castle; green question marks clung to the iron-wrought entrance gates and more shone brightly in the sky. What was inside the castle, I wondered. I never found out, because a moment later I woke up.
2. Descent into the Unconscious
How irritating! Why had the dream thrown me out before I could explore the castle from the inside? Maybe the Unconscious was luring me with an appetizer. Probably… The Unconscious is annoying like that. Weeks passed and more dreams presented themselves, but none answered my question. If anything, they only posed more.
I had to go back—and I had to go consciously. Hmm…what if I took an hour a day to darken the room, sit in my armchair, close my eyes and wait for the Unconscious to give a sign? Maybe that would yield a response...
Come ooon! Do something, Unconscious.
And finally, after a few days, it did. A flight of stairs appeared before me, leading downward. Good! That was something I knew how to use. Well, not quite…
I stepped forward and in the blink of an eye the scene expanded a hundredfold. Suddenly I found myself gazing down the square gap running through the center of a seemingly infinite, red-carpeted spiral staircase. Oh well—nothing else for it but to take it step by step. And so I descended.
3. A meeting with Time and Wisdom
A few days later, while brushing my teeth, I closed my eyes and descended the staircase again. Bodiless voices echoed through the stairwell and faces loomed in the dim corridors. And then—finally! A door. It gave way at my touch and before me stretched a mystical jungle of animals and humans alike. Gladiators, clowns, spiders, snakes—Batman?!—Voldemort?!...pretty cool. I let my gaze wander, and among a cluster of bushes and green leaves a particularly striking snake glided forward. Next thing I knew, it was rearing up before my inner eye against a black background; all else vanished. It looked me straight in the eye but didn’t speak at first. Hmm…maybe I should ask it something. A really spiritual and mystical question was probably the way forward here. So I asked,
“How do I proceed?”
“Dance, dance with destiny,” the snake’s deep voice boomed, reverberating in my head. Then it vanished.
Is that right? Dance with destiny…sure…I can do that!
4. Meeting my Anima
Days passed and other beings appeared, but none as mighty as the snake. What was going to happen next, I wondered. Surely this wasn’t the end of it. And indeed, a while later I glimpsed the face of a woman. How curious…she didn’t seem to want to reveal herself. She stayed half-hidden in the shadows, smiling secretively. Then she, too, vanished. I pondered this for a few days and concluded she was the female part of me. In order to continue on my spiritual journey, I had to integrate her properly. And once this notion had penetrated my conscious awareness, a dream presented itself.
The very same woman appeared again and stepped out of the shadows, smiling, her eyes twinkling. She led me to yet another door. I walked through and—huh?! Only blackness.
5. Planting the Seed
Blackness, emptiness, nothingness. So it was, and so it continued for several weeks. What was going on here? My patience was wearing thin. Did I have to perform some kind of ritual? Was there a code word or something needed to proceed? Then I had an idea—or rather, an idea fluttered in through the back of my head. I guessed I might have to illuminate the darkness myself. I decided to plant a flower by drawing it, using a simple set of colored pencils and a sheet of paper. And the next day—indeed!—I could see a flower bloom in the darkness every time I closed my eyes. Fascinating!
6. Access Denied
In the weeks that followed, many more entities and symbols appeared but, more interestingly, brief scenes of what was obviously a city began to crop up, punctuating the main thread of beings and symbols. At that point, I had no idea I was already glimpsing Atlantis. I thought I was looking at live snippets from nearby towns and cities. But as was bound to happen sooner or later, once again the Unconscious prohibited me from proceeding—this time more adamantly. For days, even weeks, a heavy steel chain blocked my way forward. How annoying…
Well…(sigh)…patience is the highest virtue, no?
7. Boarding a train to get on
It is certainly noteworthy how much exploration of the Unconscious is about waiting…waiting for something, anything really, to happen. And so it was at this stage too. But after a while, much to my happy surprise, a train appeared before my inner eye. I boarded it and it journeyed for about a week until it reached its destination.
Gradually, I felt I was getting closer to whatever awaited me at the end of this unique voyage.
8. Final Barrier
I stepped off the train and into a large, bustling crowd of beings—a lot of them I had met before. I left the train station and a new core image rose up from the Unconscious: an infinite glass wall. Something was moving beyond it, but I couldn’t make out anything definitive. One thing felt certain though…my destination lay beyond the pane of glass. What should I do, I wondered. Punch through the glass? Possible, I suppose… I tried—and failed.
“Paaatience,” a disembodied, teasing voice sang into my ear.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Fine. I’ll be patient.”
Gradually, the form beyond became more sharply outlined, more detailed, and then it began to move closer. Interestingly, it had never been about breaking the wall, but about readying myself for what would come to me once it broke of its own accord.
And at last, it did, and the rushing of a great, bloody sea greeted me.
9. Bloody Sea
It was only at this point, months and months after my initiation into the Unconscious, that I began to see a story. Different characters for whom I had no name as of yet began to speak up in my mind, images of scenes and sequences flashed up before my inner eye. But there was no plan yet, no actual prospect of what the story might look like, only loose and far-fetched strings and connections. So, there was no choice but to go a little further. I had to cross the sea to see with my own eyes what lay beyond the horizon.
Ship ahoy!
10. Atlantis
And finally, here I was. From here on, things began to move very rapidly. A clearly outlined plan of events developed over as few as eight weeks, together with a large cast of intriguing characters; images from the preceding months finally made sense. An order emerged and I started writing—but wait.
Who is that dancing on the rooftop of the highest building, beneath a dark sky rolling with thunder, amid bright strokes of lightning, splashing through a sea of rainbows?
The Trickster...
1. Beginnings
Everything began with a dream.
The gentle swell of sleep rocked me back and forth on the soft, foaming crests of its waves. Ahhh, how wonderful! I was out like a light. But at about six o’clock in the morning, that came to an unexpected and not very welcome end.
An invisible hatch gave way beneath my feet and I dropped…falling and falling, deeper and deeper through an inky tunnel. A million eyes loomed in the darkness and observed my free fall. I squinted back. Why the hell were they staring at me like that? Turn around already! Then my feet touched down on solid ground. A scene unfolded: I found myself standing in my apartment. Everything appeared normal. Sunlight spilled in through the window facing the main road. I pivoted, taking in the scene. Hmm…was that it? Maybe I had stopped too early. Possible, possible… Well, only one way to find out: I had to go further. But how? Hang on—one of the paintings on the wall was hanging askew. I took it down and was sucked straight through the canvas into the painting. Again, I dropped.
A new scene unfolded. I was flying! What an ecstatic feeling. Below me stretched a gigantic gothic castle; green question marks clung to the iron-wrought entrance gates and more shone brightly in the sky. What was inside the castle, I wondered. I never found out, because a moment later I woke up.
2. Descent into the Unconscious
How irritating! Why had the dream thrown me out before I could explore the castle from the inside? Maybe the Unconscious was luring me with an appetizer. Probably… The Unconscious is annoying like that. Weeks passed and more dreams presented themselves, but none answered my question. If anything, they only posed more.
I had to go back—and I had to go consciously. Hmm…what if I took an hour a day to darken the room, sit in my armchair, close my eyes and wait for the Unconscious to give a sign? Maybe that would yield a response...
Come ooon! Do something, Unconscious.
And finally, after a few days, it did. A flight of stairs appeared before me, leading downward. Good! That was something I knew how to use. Well, not quite…
I stepped forward and in the blink of an eye the scene expanded a hundredfold. Suddenly I found myself gazing down the square gap running through the center of a seemingly infinite, red-carpeted spiral staircase. Oh well—nothing else for it but to take it step by step. And so I descended.
3. A meeting with Time and Wisdom
A few days later, while brushing my teeth, I closed my eyes and descended the staircase again. Bodiless voices echoed through the stairwell and faces loomed in the dim corridors. And then—finally! A door. It gave way at my touch and before me stretched a mystical jungle of animals and humans alike. Gladiators, clowns, spiders, snakes—Batman?!—Voldemort?!...pretty cool. I let my gaze wander, and among a cluster of bushes and green leaves a particularly striking snake glided forward. Next thing I knew, it was rearing up before my inner eye against a black background; all else vanished. It looked me straight in the eye but didn’t speak at first. Hmm…maybe I should ask it something. A really spiritual and mystical question was probably the way forward here. So I asked,
“How do I proceed?”
“Dance, dance with destiny,” the snake’s deep voice boomed, reverberating in my head. Then it vanished.
Is that right? Dance with destiny…sure…I can do that!
4. Meeting my Anima
Days passed and other beings appeared, but none as mighty as the snake. What was going to happen next, I wondered. Surely this wasn’t the end of it. And indeed, a while later I glimpsed the face of a woman. How curious…she didn’t seem to want to reveal herself. She stayed half-hidden in the shadows, smiling secretively. Then she, too, vanished. I pondered this for a few days and concluded she was the female part of me. In order to continue on my spiritual journey, I had to integrate her properly. And once this notion had penetrated my conscious awareness, a dream presented itself.
The very same woman appeared again and stepped out of the shadows, smiling, her eyes twinkling. She led me to yet another door. I walked through and—huh?! Only blackness.
5. Planting the Seed
Blackness, emptiness, nothingness. So it was, and so it continued for several weeks. What was going on here? My patience was wearing thin. Did I have to perform some kind of ritual? Was there a code word or something needed to proceed? Then I had an idea—or rather, an idea fluttered in through the back of my head. I guessed I might have to illuminate the darkness myself. I decided to plant a flower by drawing it, using a simple set of colored pencils and a sheet of paper. And the next day—indeed!—I could see a flower bloom in the darkness every time I closed my eyes. Fascinating!
6. Access Denied
In the weeks that followed, many more entities and symbols appeared but, more interestingly, brief scenes of what was obviously a city began to crop up, punctuating the main thread of beings and symbols. At that point, I had no idea I was already glimpsing Atlantis. I thought I was looking at live snippets from nearby towns and cities. But as was bound to happen sooner or later, once again the Unconscious prohibited me from proceeding—this time more adamantly. For days, even weeks, a heavy steel chain blocked my way forward. How annoying…
Well…(sigh)…patience is the highest virtue, no?
7. Boarding a train to get on
It is certainly noteworthy how much exploration of the Unconscious is about waiting…waiting for something, anything really, to happen. And so it was at this stage too. But after a while, much to my happy surprise, a train appeared before my inner eye. I boarded it and it journeyed for about a week until it reached its destination.
Gradually, I felt I was getting closer to whatever awaited me at the end of this unique voyage.
8. Final Barrier
I stepped off the train and into a large, bustling crowd of beings—a lot of them I had met before. I left the train station and a new core image rose up from the Unconscious: an infinite glass wall. Something was moving beyond it, but I couldn’t make out anything definitive. One thing felt certain though…my destination lay beyond the pane of glass. What should I do, I wondered. Punch through the glass? Possible, I suppose… I tried—and failed.
“Paaatience,” a disembodied, teasing voice sang into my ear.
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Fine. I’ll be patient.”
Gradually, the form beyond became more sharply outlined, more detailed, and then it began to move closer. Interestingly, it had never been about breaking the wall, but about readying myself for what would come to me once it broke of its own accord.
And at last, it did, and the rushing of a great, bloody sea greeted me.
9. Bloody Sea
It was only at this point, months and months after my initiation into the Unconscious, that I began to see a story. Different characters for whom I had no name as of yet began to speak up in my mind, images of scenes and sequences flashed up before my inner eye. But there was no plan yet, no actual prospect of what the story might look like, only loose and far-fetched strings and connections. So, there was no choice but to go a little further. I had to cross the sea to see with my own eyes what lay beyond the horizon.
Ship ahoy!
10. Atlantis
And finally, here I was. From here on, things began to move very rapidly. A clearly outlined plan of events developed over as few as eight weeks, together with a large cast of intriguing characters; images from the preceding months finally made sense. An order emerged and I started writing—but wait.
Who is that dancing on the rooftop of the highest building, beneath a dark sky rolling with thunder, amid bright strokes of lightning, splashing through a sea of rainbows?
The Trickster...