THE WORLD-AS-METAPHOR
Daniela Boccassini
In considering Russ’s question, i.e. “What is the spirit of the depths seeing
now?”, Paco was suddenly and spontaneously presented with the (mental)
image of “the monstrous, sub-seafloor earthquake-and-tsunami of 2004, in
Indonesia”. He then submitted to what was seemingly being asked of him,
namely, a re-membering of those cataclysmic events. Paco felt that the
magnitude of energy that “Nature”, aka the earth, harbors as a living planet,
and is capable of releasing, is, as such, humanly un-thinkable, yet nevertheless
understandable as a “resounding metaphor for the magnitude of what we
humans are most likely to undergo, one way or another, in this Age of
Consequences.”
Russ’s initial reaction to Paco’s recollection was in line with Paco’s
interpretive move: the tsunami offered “a potent metaphor for what the Spirit
of the Depths was seeing.” But then a dream came to Russ, not just to correct,
but seemingly to censor — not the seismic event as such, but rather our all-toohuman attempts to relocate it within the precinct of our “poetic or imaginative”
efforts at making sense of the unthinkable. “This is not a metaphor,” the dream
announced — thereby seeming to deny legitimacy to our age-old way of turning
the wildness of the more-than-human world into a series of orderly rhetorical
figures. In trying to cope with the dream’s brazen pronouncement, Russ was in
turn forced to admit that “perhaps the dream wants to call attention to some
aspect of reality that we are not tending to.” Hence, he surmised that “there is a
problem with reality, or, rather, a problem with how reality is being related to.”
In so far as reality keeps being degraded and drained of necessity, the dream
leaves Russ to conclude that, at our human scale, “the metaphoric function of
reality loses all vitality and potency for those caught up by the plague of denial.”
I was struck by this coming together of different aspects of “reality,” as
well as by our misguided essays at handling “them” through “metaphor.” Russ’s
dream raises the stakes to a staggering new level. If we welcome the dream’s
statement as a pronouncement by the Spirit of the Depths, what is this
paradoxical affirmation/negation of metaphor demanding of us now? In
sweeping aside our inane ways of metaphorizing reality, this affirmation
prompts instead the revitalizing of the metaphoric function of reality in all its
untamed power: as such, it carries as much explosive power as the 2004
tsunami did. Through this dream statement, the Spirit of the Depths conjures an
all-encompassing re-wilding: of the earth, and of our way of relating to it. As I
ponder the dream’s wreckage of our cognitive assumptions, and the
alternatives it may be foreshadowing, I find myself back at first principles,
asking: “what is a metaphor”?
Merriam Webster defines metaphor as “a figure of speech in which a word
or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another
to suggest a likeness or analogy between them”. As such, a metaphor is neither
a comparison nor a symbol. A comparison highlights similarities between
“things” that are deemed equally well-known within our cognitive system. A
symbol, on the other hand, aims at opening new cognitive horizons by
suggesting the possibility of a new relationship between a “thing” or level of
reality we believe we “know,” and something else that, while still unknown to
us, beckons from afar. Along with simile and symbol, metaphor aims at
promoting a unitive mode of cognition, but it does so through the specific act of
“carrying over” (meta-pherein, μεταφέρειν).
We can hear echoes of this “carrying over” (φέρειν) in the name of the
primordial bearer of light: Lucifer. On the mythical level of our accounting for
cosmic phenomena, Lucifer’s forgoing the “metaphorizing” he had been
entrusted with, turned him into the Great Separator (dia-bolon): severed from
light, the universe entered the age of darkness, and the tsunami-like
consequences of this fracture, of this denial of the metaphoric, enlightening
power of reality, are still with us.
We can also hear echoes of this “carrying over” in the name of the vessel
that ferries goods, humans and vehicles across waters, from one shore to
another. Even if we discount our millennia-long misunderstanding of “meta” as
“higher,” the point is that a relaying needs to take place between a “here” and a
“yonder,” such that a transformation of sorts also has to occur in the process,
for reality to be the wild, living and enlivening process it is. Hence, the
transformative power of metaphor may well be the “aspect of reality we have
not been attending to,” or have been attending to in such a way as to strip it of
“its vitality and potency”: in our aim to corral reality and make it subservient to
our colonizing impulse, just like Lucifer turned into Satan, we keep preventing
the “ferrying over” of untamed goods from beyond, so that what we are left
with is a shuffling of inanimate, meaningless, stuff: we live in the deprived,
deadening world of severed entities, where we cringe at the possibility of
comparison — abhor metaphor, and obdurately disprove symbol, as the
delusional fabrications of a deviant mind. As civilized humans, we take pride in
severing ourselves from the very possibility of a unitive mode of cognition. And
the more we persist in our technologically-warranted stance of literalizing
reality by dissecting and desiccating it, the less capable we become of tapping
into the regenerative power of reality as metaphor.
Merriam Webster’s approach to the question is revealing: “when we use
metaphor, we make a leap beyond rational, ho-hum comparison to an
identification or fusion of two objects, resulting in a new entity that has
characteristics of both: the voice isn’t like silk; it is silk. Many critics regard the
making of metaphors as a system of thought antedating or bypassing logic.
Metaphor is the fundamental language of poetry, although it is common on all
levels and in all kinds of language. Lots of common words were originally vivid
images, although they exist now as dead metaphors whose original aptness has
been lost.”
If metaphor antedates or bypasses logic, is foundational to language as
poetry, and its once enlivening presence can still be traced in our mummified
speech, clearly the problem lies in the deadly severing of metaphor from reality
that we operate, by reducing metaphor to nothing but a figure of human
speech. What offends us is the unthinkable fact that in the more-than-human
world reality is metaphor, and metaphor is reality. Hence, when the dream says:
“This is not a metaphor,” what the Spirit of the Depths is “ferrying over” to us is
the apocalyptic, tsunami-like revelation of the all-pervasiveness of reality as
metaphor. From all quarters, life conspires against our deadly fixation on
literalism: everything, in its poetic becoming, is and reveals itself as metaphor.
Approaching reality in these terms entails sitting on this shore, watchfully
waiting for the gifts from the other side. It also entails understanding that as
living beings, we too, like everything else, are metaphor: conveyors of a mystery
that in transcending us, can only ascend into existence through us. We, along
with everything else, are metaphor.
What would happen, should we become capable of remembering our
primordial, Luciferian task — should we wish to embrace the transformational
power of reality-as-metaphor? Only a re-wilding of this magnitude, it seems,
might have the power to carry us back to the shore of our senses, and bring the
more-than-human world back to life.
Metaphor understood in this rewilded way “ferries over” words, and
beings, as images: that is to say, as symbols. Thus, I am reminded of another of
Russ’s dreams: “words as eggs”. Re-membering how to approach words, and
images and things as eggs — as symbols, as living archetypes — is a truly
luciferian task. The cosmos has been waiting for us to embrace and carry
through this light, for us to re-enter life as the primordial experience of the
alam* al-Mithal: the world as metaphor.
*[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alam]

Response to Spirit of the Depths

There is no doubt that the current upheaval in the world is vast and
deep. Somehow, I remember the Boxing Day disaster more specifically from
the destructive tsunami that hit Thailand. It seemed to be the primary
disaster covered by the news media, but this event was just one part of the
catastrophic destruction that occurred over a significant area of the world. I
did not know how vast and destructive it was until I read Paco’s description of
what occurred both above and below the Earth’s surface that day. The news
media did not fully cover the incredible force of what came up from the depths
of the Earth that resulted in the subsequent earthquake and tsunamis.
For some time now, since the 1980’s, I have been watching the natural
disasters that have been occurring around the world, as well as the changing
climate conditions that have led to these events. I have considered these
events, as well as other natural disasters that are increasing and intensifying
around the world, as a sign of the toxicity that is on and in the planet due to
the exploitative and neglectful nature of our relationship with the Earth and
life itself. These occurrences indicate how the natural world is reflecting the
collective psyche and particularly its shadow side.
Russ, you state that the dream you had in response to Paco’s
metaphorical perspective of the Boxing Day disaster indicated that what was
at issue was that it “called attention to some aspect of reality that we are not
tending to.” You say that there is a problem with how we are relating to reality.
This set me off to thinking about the nature of reality and how we experience
it in general. In Buddhist philosophy, reality is seen in two ways: Ultimate
Reality and Relative Reality. Ultimate Reality is the true reality that underlies
all other realities, that is, Relative Reality. As time has gone on we have
essentially split ourselves off from Ultimate Reality, the source of our being,
thinking that we can know and therefore control the natural world we live in
and thus created realities that reflect our ego desire to gain power over it. So
instead of taking care of the natural world, we have neglected and exploited it
in pursuit of resources that enable us to live in ways that are predominantly
commodified rather than natural and sustainable. Of course, it is not only the
natural world that is subject to these ego desires.
When you say that we are not tending reality in some way, I “see” the
garden of our home (Earth) not being nurtured in a way that promotes
generative growth that is sustainable. (This goes back to the etymological root
of the word “coalesce” that you refer to in the words “synchronic coalescence,”
which means “to grow, to nourish”.) Part of the process of tending the garden
also includes tending the dream world in order to connect with the SOTD and
receive guidance on how to relate to the “living energy.” It is an important
relationship to tend in order to maintain the vitality of life itself.
The garden as metaphor, as well as symbol for the unconscious, is one
that provides a context within which to cultivate a mindset along with
attitudes that allow engagement with the “living energy” in a positive and
generative way. With all the destruction around us in the world at this time, it
is a daunting task to take on. The transformation of the darkness and
suffering that is occurring now is an enormous undertaking that requires
developing the ability to cherish all life and caring for it in a loving way, while
confronting the shadow. The garden as a microcosm of life provides an
example of the interrelated connections that sustain it as a whole. The
question now, I believe, is can we and how do we open ourselves up to the
necessary task at hand in a heartfelt way that restores our connection to life.
Without this basic connection, humanity as a species is doomed and the Earth
is in peril. Even though there are many who are aware of the gravity of what is
occurring and are working to turn the tide around, as you and Paco say, it may
well be too late.
NOTE: Russ, I have been mentally and emotionally grappling with the
question you have posed for the last two weeks. It has led to several intense
conversations in our household about the nature of what is occurring in the
world today. I am sure that my brain synapses are all tangled up as a result of
all this reflection and conversation.
When I first read the SOTD, there were some aspects that struck me as
first impressions. As I began to write about these impressions, the words
came together as thoughts trying to respond in an organized and coherent
manner. But then something happened when I began to “see” into the
question. I saw the garden image and that led the words in a different
direction. After writing about the garden image, what I wrote seemed too
simplistic a notion for addressing the dark complexity of what is occurring in
the world now. Yet, the metaphor seemed to plant itself in me, so I followed
up with some preliminary research.
I began by reading a couple of articles in a Parabola issue that is
focussed on the garden theme. One article was about alchemy and the garden,
while another is focussed on the imaginal world and the garden. There are
several more articles to read with varied perspectives on the garden in
spiritual traditions. I also found some information on the Internet regarding
books on the garden and soul, and the garden and individuation, on the L.A.
Jung Institute site. It seems that the garden is connected to the great
archetype of life. So there is great potency in this image on various levels.
I had been working on a response to your post on “synchronic
coalescence” when I received the SOTD writing. Because of its strong impact
on me, I decided to respond to it first. So I will be back tracking to the first
post and most likely connecting it to what I have written here.
Estela