MBTI: House Oak

"Babur Receives a Courtier," Farrukh Beg

[Image from Wikipedia]


“The Aristocrats”
Fi/Te + Se/Ni
(INTJ ENTJ ISFP ESFP)

Home: the Castle
Patron: Taranis
Socionics: Gamma
Vice: Vindictiveness
Virtue: Honor


Oak is the castle on the hill, home of the Aristocrats, gracious, honorable, and unconquerable; ESFP, ISFP, ENTJ, and INTJ. Leaders who understand that their charge, first and foremost, is to serve a noble purpose. They use their formidable power to build Heaven’s kingdom on earth for the well-being of all who rely on them.

Individuating attitude; tries to affirm a personal, subjective standard; Se/Ni is a black hole, synthesizing many disparate things into a singularity. Can lead to dogmatism, or a commitment to perspective. Name for this group is Royalty [Aristocrats]; the sure perspective/dogma of the Saints [Cenobites], but with an independent, individuating sense of judgment. Don’t want to be ruled by others but feel a strong sense of going their way as if they had blue blood, as well as a desire to fill some definite vision.

ESFP: Says “yes” to life; a hearty, energetic, lovable royal, full of spirit and love of life but also a definite sense of independence, a free spirit, that reminds us of their nobility.

ISFP: Similar to the ESFP but milder; presents an aura or style, giving the impression of a natural otherworldliness or separateness. Both of these types also have a directness and commitment of perspective, although it’s more focused on present reality but which adds to the sense of a royal figure in their self-assurance.

INTJ: A reserved strategist, able to navigate politics with the coldness necessary to maintain order.

ENTJ: More heavy-handed in their navigation, crushing their opposition with more obvious displays of power.

- Michael Pierce, “Function Axes Categories”  (YouTube)


Socionics: Gamma Quadra

Aristocrats have a tendency to prioritize long-term profitability over short-term; they look at the broader benefits rather than just those that affect them. They enjoy talking about where trends are leading as regards potential profitability, and prefer ideas that are firmly grounded in fact. They tend to take a hard-line approach to punishment, even resorting to revenge sometimes. In relationships they value personal loyalty. They tend to be skeptical that people can change for the better.

They tend to prefer productive groups to those that are just having fun. They reject the idea that one should avoid confrontations so as to not spoil the mood, and don’t really see the point in discussing and analyzing things they feel have no practical application. They’re far more likely to discuss possible developments of present circumstances or how they came about than to speculate on alternative scenarios or possibilities.

Aristocrats generally prefer smaller groups (3 is a good number), where there may not be a lot of boisterous laughter and obvious displays of emotion but there’s a lot of smiling, amusement, and ironic and witty comments. If serious or unhappy topics come up they are discussed with a serious demeanor. They prefer topics such as subjects of mutual interest, planning activities, or on personal experiences; the last isn’t for the purpose of making people laugh, or to boast, but to gain insight into the lessons to be drawn from them.

If they’re in a large group, such as a dinner party, they usually focus on those sitting closest to them, or simply remain silent. Once they form a group they tend to be wary of newcomers, being neither inclusive nor exclusive. Conversation tends to focus on career, investments, romantic prospects, or why past relationships failed. In more light-hearted moments such conversations can get a little bawdy with some light teasing.

Rituals are less important to Aristocrats than the feelings involved. Relationships develop from exchanges of information, ideas, meaningful personal experiences, mutual aid, and activities enjoyed together.


How Aristocrats see other houses:

Alpha (Ash): Initially Aristocrats find Philosophers to be friendly, creative, and well-meaning, pleasant people. Later, however, they tend to see them as unambitious and overly concerned with comfort and physical pleasure. They also find them to be oversensitive while, at the same time, failing to make an effort to focus on the deeper feelings involved.

Beta (Yew): Find Cenobites to be driven, ambitious people with a sense of purpose, and who get things done. Aristocrats often find the Cenobites’ strong views to be ideological and lacking factual support. They may also feel that they’re are overly concerned with social status and sometimes disingenuous when pursuing their goals.

Delta (Rowan): Find Explorers to be well meaning and creative but too present focused and lacking ambition. They also tend to feel that they’re too welcoming and forgiving of people the Aristocrats find undeserving.


How other houses see Aristocrats:

Ash: They tend to view Aristocrats as standoffish and cold, or even hostile, especially in work situations. They also dislike the Aristocrats tendency to play favorites, which is offensive to the fair-minded, egalitarian Philosophers. They can find Aristocrats to be overly harsh, unimaginative, boring, overly concerned about the future, as well as having a mean-streak of unforgivingness and vindictiveness.

Yew: Can find Aristocrats to be stand-offish, judgmental, morally stiff and emotionally hostile. They often feel that Aristocrats are unable to see the big picture, whether at work or in politics and society at large; kind of socially boring, unable to take a joke, and vindictive. They often don’t do well in groups: Cenobites enjoy making general jokes, while Aristocrats tend to make extremely sharp, personal jokes. Cenobites want to stay together, Aristocrats want everyone to take care of their own needs as they move from group to group, leading Cenobites to feel that the Aristocrats are trying to break up the fun group. On an individual level, however, they often get along very well; they both see general trends and enjoy comparing predictions.

Rowan: Explorers tend to see Aristocrats as driven and reliable but lacking in the ability to understand that people have their own ideas about what they want out of their lives. They feel that Aristocrats can be excessively demanding, and dislike what they see as their vindictive streak, which keeps them from accepting and forgiving others.


Oak

Strength, Stability, Nobility

Honored for it’s endurance, strength, and noblility, Oak has a regal presence that many throughout the ages have recognized and admired. The “King of the Forest” is known for providing protection, strength, success, and stability. It’s dense foliage provides a home for countless small creatures to live and thrive, the tree’s nutritious acorns providing food and sustenance. In nature the Oak is one of the most important trees for the creatures of the forest.

Oak brings courage and a stout heart - endurance and the protective power of faith - as it boosts energy and helps us achieve our goals. “Bearing strength from the heart of the earth, oak fairy can bring steadiness and a deep joy that endures through all.”

Of all the trees in Britain and Ireland the oak is considered king. Famed for its endurance and longevity, even today it is synonymous with strength and steadfastness.

Mara Freeman, "Tree Lore: Oak," (Druidry.org)


The oak is associated with Taranis, the god of thunder. Though not much is known about him he shares a common ancestor with other Indo-European sky gods, including Zeus and Jupiter, who were also connected with the oak. Taranis was also associated with the wheel, generally thought to be the solar wheel. Zeus and Jupiter’s bird, the eagle, is also associated with the oak in Celtic mythology; when the hero-king Lleu was betrayed and wounded he turned into an eagle and took shelter in the top of a large oak tree, reminiscent of the god king Odin hanging from another world tree. Eagle, sky, lighting, and the majestic oak; all are symbols of the warrior king gods of Indo Europe. Even though we don’t know much about Taranis we do know about his formidable relatives; we can assume that he shares their traits of endurance, fearlessness, and vision.

Let’s look at the eagle to get a better sense of this god; in Celtic stories this bird is usually associated with wisdom and a long life. It represents swiftness, strength, and keen sight. In the lists of the oldest creatures, the eagle is only superseded by the wise salmon. In cultures around the world the eagle is a symbol of strength, leadership, and vision. The eagle is the king of the birds, flying higher than its winged brethren. It teaches us to have stamina and the resilience to endure; to have the courage to look to the future and strike out toward our destiny; and the strength to stand for one's principles.

When an eagle appears, you are on notice to be courageous and stretch your limits. Do not accept the status quo, but rather reach higher and become more than you believe you are capable of. Look at things from a new, higher perspective. Be patient with the present; know that the future holds possibilities that you may not yet be able to see. You are about to take flight.

Trish Phillips, "Fly Like the Eagle," (Pure Spirit)


The sacred task of House Oak is to create a prosperous, peaceful, flourishing kingdom, for the benefit of all. Each of the types accomplishes this in a different way: ISFP, to express the deepest truths through beauty; ESFP, to bring grace and the love that moves the world; INTJ, to serve their vision of a better future; and ENTJ, as the protector of their people.

The oak is a living legend representing all that is true, wholesome, stable, and noble… There is a reason the oak is considered the king of green realm. The oak is generous with its gifts – and just as any good ruler would, shares its bounty amongst the kingdom.

"Oak Tree: Symbolism, Information and Planting Instructions" (Bios Urn)

In the castle: the ESFP, hearty and brave, fun-loving but driven, the charming leader of Camelot; the ISFP walks mildly through the court, like an Elven dignitary, praised for their artistic talent and very presence; the INTJ philosopher-king, a good friend and honest, willing to follow after the SFPs in having a good time, but still a somewhat severe character, concerned with strategy and maintaining power; the ENTJ is the head of the army, famous for crushing their opposition and enjoying clear manifestations of the state’s power in discouraging enemies of the state, but also enjoying life with a boisterous smile and energetic drive.

- Michael Pierce, “Function Axes Categories”  (YouTube)



Posts

The Houses
House Ash
House Yew
House Rowan
Jungian MBTI


For further reading

Avia Venefica, "Celtic Meaning Oak Tree," (What's Your Sign)
"Oak" (The Goddess Tree)

Reference: Cat hate = misogyny?

So, I just ran across this on Facebook:

roach-works

hey so, as a man who works with other men, here's a quick relationship tip: if he doesn't much like cats, that might just be a personal preference. if he hates cats, if he tells you he hates cats as soon as he hears that you have a cat and love your cat, he's an asshole. he's telling on himself.

every guy i've ever worked with that makes a point of telling me how much he hates cats as soon as i mention that i have a cat and love my cat, is always someone who is regularly cruel for fun and who laughs in the breakroom about the mean things they do for fun to their girlfriends and children

--------------------

luscious-theomorphic

I wish I could articulate all the ways this makes sense and why it makes sense and stuff but it's just like... something something misogyny something something resentment of creatures that don't need you and don't hang on your attention and approval all their lives.

As Marie-Louise von Franz says:

The cat, in contrast to the dog, has never sold its soul to man. It has a kind of egocentric reserve. The cat says, ‘You may stroke me and you may serve me,’ but it never becomes your slave. And if you annoy it, it just walks out on you. In women's dreams, therefore, the cat often is an image of something feminine, independent and sure of itself, just what modern women so often lack. That's why the cat goddess comes up in women's dreams as a positive model of feminine behavior. It is not brutal; it does not display any masculine features. It is feminine and, at the same time, very firm, very identical with itself. The cat is not very amiable, but very true to itself.

(The Way of the Dream)

Also, drawing a connection to serial killers and cult leaders; these brutes hate nothing more than independence in those they're trying to control. For centuries, during the middle ages, women were accused of witchcraft and murdered if they showed affection to animals. This same time saw some of the most horrific torture and murder of cats, and a fear and hatred of them. If someone doesn't like cats that's one thing, but if they hate cats, maybe you should GTFO of there.

Maintaining a relationship with the animal body

Reference for an upcoming post on shame:

Here is a question by Dr. Harding: “Can you take up in further detail the section in the chapter on the Compassionate Ones where Nietzsche speaks of man as the animal with red cheeks? The interpretation given at the last seminar that he was ashamed on account of the unconsciousness of his fellow man does not seem adequate to me. Is there not an analogy with the story of Eden where we are told that when Adam and Eve had eaten of the tree of knowledge they were ashamed before God of their nakedness, which had never bothered them before? And perhaps – who knows? – they may have been ashamed of their clothes before the other animals? In fact, does not consciousness itself carry its own burden of guilt because the discerning one can no longer act with the complete rightness of unconscious instinct?”

Well, you have answered your question yourself, practically. That shame is of course a very typical reaction; it is a primitive reaction which clearly shows the distance that exists between the ego consciousness and the original unconsciousness of mere instinct. As long as man is in a merely instinctive animal condition, there is absolutely no ground for shame, no possibility of shame even, but with the coming of ego consciousness, he feels apart from the animal kingdom and the original paradise of unconsciousness, and then naturally he is inclined to have feelings of inferiority. The beginning of consciousness is characterized by feelings of inferiority, and also by megalomania. The old prophets and philosophers say nothing is greater than man, but on the other side nothing is more miserable than man, for the ego consciousness is only a little spark of light in an immense darkness. Yet it is the light, and if you pile up a thousand darknesses you don’t get a spark of light, you don’t make consciousness. Consciousness is the sun in the great darkness of the world. Man is just a little lantern in the world of darkness, and as soon as you have a certain amount of ego consciousness naturally you are isolated and become self-conscious – you can’t help it – and naturally you no longer possess the absolute simplicity of nature: you are no longer naïve. It is a great art and a great difficulty to become like unto a child again – or better still, like unto an animal; to become like an animal is then the supreme ideal.

When you have built up your consciousness to a decent degree, you become so separated from nature that you feel it to be a disadvantage; you feel that you have fallen from grace. This is of course the expulsion from paradise. Then life becomes ego misery and lawlessness and you must create artificial laws in order to develop a feeling of obedience. Having ego consciousness means that you have a certain amount of disposable willpower, which of course means arbitrary feelings and decisions, disobedience of natural laws and so on; and that gives you a terrible feeling of being lost, cursed, isolated, and wrong altogether. And of course this causes feelings of shame. Compare your state of innocence with the innocence of a little child and you have ground for shame; and compared with an animal you are nowhere. So the dawn of consciousness was naturally a tremendous problem to man; he had to invent a new law-abiding world of obedience, the careful observance of rules; instead of the herd or the natural animal state, he had to invent an artificial state. He has now succeeded in making of the state a tremendous monster, such as nature probably never would have tolerated, but he had to do it in order to compensate that sentiment d’incompletude, d’insuffisance. For we should not live instinctively any longer. We had to invent machines and law books and morals in order to give mankind a feeling of being in order, of being in a decent condition – something similar to paradise where the animals knew how to behave with each other. You see, the great world seems to be a self-regulating orderliness, an organism that moves and lives in a more or less decent way. The catastrophes are not too great or too many. There are not too many diseases – only a decent amount to kill off enough animals. But we know that we can break out at any time and destroy as no volcano and no epidemic ever destroyed, and we chiefly injure our own species; we would not dream of making an international war against flies or microbes or against whales or elephants – it isn’t worthwhile – but it is worthwhile when it is against man. That is so much against nature that on the other side, man seeks to protect himself by complicated machines, states, and contracts which he cannot observe. So this first reaction of shame symbolizes the moment when man felt his tragic difference from paradise, his original condition.

Yet that original condition was also not a very happy one. The primitive man did not feel his unconscious to be very satisfactory. He tried to get away from it. Of course, we have the idea that the original condition was a wonderful paradise, but as a matter of actual fact man has always tried to move away from that unconsciousness. All his many ceremonies were attempts to create a more conscious condition, and any new positive acquisition in the field of consciousness was praised as a great asset, a great accomplishment. Prometheus stealing the fire from the immortal gods has become a savior of mankind, and man’s greatest triumph was that God himself incarnated in man in order to illumine the world; that was a tremendous increase of consciousness. But every increase of consciousness means a further separation from the original animal-like condition, and I don’t know where it will end: it is really a tragic problem. We have to discover more consciousness, to extend consciousness, and the more it is extended the more we get away from the original condition.

The body is the original animal condition; we are all animals in the body, and so we should have animal psychology in order to be able to live in it. Yes, if we had no body then we could live with contracts and marvelous laws which everybody could observe and a marvelous morality which everybody could easily fulfil. But since we have a body it is indispensable that we exist also as an animal, and each time we invent a new increase of consciousness we have to put a new link in the chain that binds us to the animal, till finally it will become so long that complications will surely ensure. For when the chain between man and animal has grown so long that we lose sight of the animal, anything can happen in between, and the chain will snarl up somewhere. That has happened already and therefore we doctors have to find in a conscious individual the place where the chain begins; we have to go back and find out where it has been caught or what has happened to the animal at the other end of the line. Then we have to shorten it perhaps, or disentangle it, in order to improve the relationship between the consciousness that went too far ahead and the animal left behind.

- CG Jung, from Jung's Seminar on Nietzsche's Zarathustra

Symbolism: Wolf

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

The vulgarity of eating

Symbolism: Flying

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

The vulgarity of eating

Symbolism: Earth

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

The vulgarity of eating

Symbolism: Body

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

Symbolism: Eyebrows
The vulgarity of eating

Symbolism: Food/eating

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

The vulgarity of eating

Reference: The vulgarity of eating

Because wolves are the personification of hunger – one is hungry as a wolf. So when he protects the corpse from the wolves, he [Nietzsche] is protecting it from being eaten by the appetite in himself which he tries to forget. You will remember he says of his hunger before, “And all day it hath failed to come: where hath it been?” This means that he did not realize his hunger for his body; he forgot his body altogether. Therefore, the body died; he overcame it. But the hunger ought to convince him that he should eat his body; then he would return to his humanity and become an ordinary human being. If you want to be an extraordinary human being, don’t eat: people who eat become vulgar. Therefore, many people make a point of not eating before others.

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Sipphas [followers of a religious sect] believe that it is indecent to feed before each other, so they turn their backs when they eat, or find a place where nobody sees them. To them it is just as indecent as the opposite functions of the body. Eating before others is understood by many people as a sort of taboo; there is mana in it which can easily turn into its own opposite. And here Zarathustra protects his body against the wolves because he tries to make sure that his sanctity or his superiority shall not become injured through the vulgarity of eating, which would put him down to the level of common humanity. To fill himself with physical matter would make him heavy and he could not dance any longer. He could not fly, he would be fettered to the earth. Therefore, in ascetic forms of religion people refrain from eating in order to attain spirituality; in a certain season of the year, or on certain day of the week, they make themselves light by not filling the stomach. They assume that in eating they consume all the dirt of the earth and are fettered by the earth by the heaviness of the belly. So eating is a sort of symbolism…

- C.G. Jung, Nietzsche's Zarathustra



Symbols:
Food/eating
Body
Earth
Flying
Wolf

See also:
Anorexia Mirabilis

Symbolism: Diagonal lines

Diagonal lines give a feeling of dynamism, as well as a lack of balance. By comparison, vertical lines are associated with righteousness and moral rectitude; they are “upright.” From the post on the symbolism of the plumb line, which measures the vertical line:

Plumb-lines are reliable and objective, and offer the user a true vertical reference. They’re also a measure of an “upright” life, and helps us judge our actions based on objective standards.

"Isaiah 28:16-17: In verse 17, the plumb-line is defined as justice and righteousness. We have seen that already in our word “upright,” a synonym of “vertical.” What is upright is righteous, and God will judge according to that standard. He will set us up so that we can see—and He can see—how close we are adhering to godly judgment and right doing. He and we will see how much we are living by the standard.

"Amos 7:7-9: In construction, the plumb-line tests whether what was erected is perpendicular to the square, that is, if it is straight up and down, if it is upright. It provides a standard against which one can measure what he has built. Metaphorically, when God draws near with the plumb-line, He is looking for those people who are living and abiding in His grace and His law. The Israelites' moral standards had degenerated, so their religious profession was not verified by the right kind of works. They were not upright; they failed the test."

John W. Ritenbaugh, “Prepare to Meet Your God!”

"The 'Plumb' admonishes us to walk uprightly in our several stations before God and man, squaring our actions by the Square of Virtue, ever remembering that we are traveling upon the Level of Time, toward 'that undiscovered country from whose bourne no traveler returns.'  The divine requirement for uprightness and rectitude in all walks of life."

Symbolism: Plumb-bob


Diagonal lines also suggest motion:

Diagonal lines are unbalanced. They are filled with restless and uncontrolled energy. They can appear to be either rising or falling and convey action and motion. Their kinetic energy and apparent movement create tension and excitement. Diagonal lines are more dramatic than either horizontal or vertical lines.

Diagonal lines can also appear solid and unmoving if they are holding something up or at rest against a vertical line or plane.

Compared with vertical lines:

Vertical lines are perpendicular to the horizon. They are filled with potential energy that could be released if they were to fall over. Vertical lines are strong and rigid. They can suggest stability, especially when thicker. Vertical lines accentuate height and convey a lack of movement, which is usually seen as horizontal.

They stretch from the earth to the heavens and are often connected with religious feelings. Their tallness and formality may give the impression of dignity.

The Meaning of Lines: Developing A Visual Grammar (Vanseo Design)

The diagonal line is one of my favorites. Unlike the steady vertical or placid horizontal, it’s the line of dynamic energy and motion. It's the relationship of the diagonal line to the frame edges of the image that gives it energy. Something is going up, or coming down. It’s a rocket shot into the air and the fall of a roller coaster.

A diagonal line tends to create triangular shapes as it interacts with the frame, thereby creating the sensation of  “three’s.” The number 3 is psychologically powerful, sometimes even mystical. Think of parents and child, the love triangle, the Pyramids, the Holy Trinity. Think of the Three Stooges and the Three Little Pigs.

Diagonals are most interesting when they interact with horizontal lines and an opposing diagonal, which creates complex sets of triangles that may converge on an element in the image, lead the eye in different directions, or create an intricate mosaic and constellation of facets, like crystals. Long diagonals may create big triangles that act as arrows that lead the eye to the corners of the image, which may or may not be a good thing.

Although some people think that strong diagonal lines can be too obvious and a bit contrived, they do catch the eye and drive home a point. More subtle diagonals created by delicate lines, background patterns, or psychological connections among elements (like a person’s line of sight), can lend a subliminal feeling of energy to the image.

The Diagonal Line (True Center Publishing)

Diagonal lines are lines of movement; compared to vertical or horizontal lines, they are dynamic, either going up or sliding down. They also suggest a certain moral flexibility, compared to the “upright” vertical line, or the lackadaisical horizontal line.


(Image from True Center Publishing)

Symbolism: Eyebrows

Eyebrows seem to express one's personality - sharp, angular eyebrows, or softly rounded ones; high eyebrows or low - when one thinks of a face, their eyebrows tell a story about that person's character.

In Chinese physiognomy eyebrows are one way to determine a person's temperament[1]:

• People with long eyebrows are righteous, helpful, and friendly. those with short eyebrows are restrained and have few friends.
• Thick (as in width) eyebrows are masculine, active, impulsive, and focused on the big picture. Narrow eyebrows are feminine, passive, indecisive, and detail oriented.
• Dense eyebrows are sweet-tempered and active, although if overly bushy they're cunning and self-centered. Sparse eyebrows are cool and unemotional.
• High eyebrows are sweet-tempered and family oriented. Low eyebrows are realistic and consider immediate rather than long term interests.

From an excerpt of Lauren Valenti's article "What Your Eyebrows Say About You,":

1. Curved: "A creative person." 2. Straight: "A confident and assertive person — if a woman has straight brows she can be quite masculine." 3. Angled: "Sensitive and private, but women with apex eyebrows can also be stubborn." 

1. Bushy: "Masculinity and an excess of male hormones in a woman's body. If the hair is shiny, it reflects an individual with high sexual energy." 2. Thin: "A feminine, gentle personality."

1. High: "If they are too high, they are dreamers." 2. Low: "They look too carefully at everything and often don't have time for others."

"What Your Eyebrows Say About You," Lauren Valenti (Marie Claire, November 2014)


In style identity (David Kibbe's system is popular but there are many), examining one's features tells us what fashion style helps us look our best. Although our actual personality may be different, each style identity is definitely associated with a certain kind of temperament. The styles are:

Dramatic: These people appear to be intense and theatrical

Grace Jones

Natural: Laid back and friendly


Jennifer Anniston

Gamine: Playful and boyish


Audrey Hepburn

Classic: Proper and reserved


Zhang Ziyi

Ingenue: Sweet and girlish

Elle Fanning


Romantic: Sexy and confident


Christina Hendricks

Ethereal: Spiritual and otherwordly


Cate Blanchett

(From "Style Identities," (Truth is Beauty))

Of course, while one's style identity can be different from one's actual personality, it definitely does give a certain impression to others. Someone who's dramatic will be judged to be unconventional and perhaps over-the-top, while an ingénue will probably be assumed to be sweet and adorable (even if these things aren't true). Eyebrows are an important part of this perceived personality typing.

The only thing about eyebrows in mythology or religion that I could find was the proscription against plucking eyebrows in Islam:

Hair which we are forbidden to remove, which includes the eyebrows. The action of removing the hair of the eyebrows is called al-namas. It is also forbidden to remove the hair of the beard.

The evidence for that is the hadeeth of ‘Abd-Allaah ibn Mas’ood (may Allaah be pleased with him) who said: I heard the Messenger of Allaah (peace and blessings of Allaah be upon him) say: “Allaah has cursed the woman who does tattoos and the one who has them done, the woman who plucks eyebrows (al-naamisah) and the one who has it done (al-mutanammisah), and the one who files her teeth for the purpose of beauty, altering the creation of Allaah.”

(Narrated by al-Bukhaari, 5931; Muslim, 2125)

- Islam Question and Answer

Here eyebrows, or altering them, is seen as a way to heighten a woman's sexual appeal. This seems to go along with the Muslim practice of women covering themselves. These are both seen as ways for a woman to preserve her modesty.[2]

There's another element to the proscription; it can also be interpreted as encouraging people to be natural, be oneself, the self that God gave you. It is rejecting what society tells you. Others may say that something about you is a flaw, but that thing comes from the Self and is, therefore, a part of the authentic you. To try to change that is an offense against the Self, and your truth. Look at Cara Delevigne, or how important Frida Kahlo's unusual eyebrows were to her art, and her self-expression. Painting herself with her thick, unconventional eyebrows was a statement to the world, that she'd rather be herself than fit society's idea of what was beautiful... and that arguably made her even more beautiful.

Some people are beautiful in appearance and some are not; that’s just how it is and the entire matter is entirely in the hand of Allaah. Therefore, it is essential that you be patient and seek reward with Allaah, and not transgress His sacred limits for the sake of your looks. Just think….even if the whole world were to tell you that you look beautiful with your eyebrows shaped, would it even be worth a dot or an atom, if in Allaah’s eyes you were ugly? And if the whole world were to tell you that you are ugly, would it really matter as long as you were beautiful in front of Allaah????

- "Plucking Eyebrows: A topic we pretend does not exist," by Asma bint Shameem


So, eyebrows reveal (or seem to reveal) one's temperament and personality. In addition, highly groomed eyebrows are associated with sexuality, while natural ones are modest, further adding to the association of eyebrows with personality. What a person does with their eyebrows is a reflection of how they present themselves; do they "shape" their eyebrows/personality to fit societal values? Or do they present themselves in a natural, authentic way?

1. Meanings of Eyebrows in Physiognomy
2. "What is the Hijab and Why do Women Wear it?," (Arabs In America)



Outside link:
Face the Truth - What Can You Tell Just by Looking at Someone?
Narcissists have thicker, denser, more distinct eyebrows, according to a new study
Whom do we fear or trust? Faces instantly guide us, scientists say

The anima of the animus

Whenever you have a Bluebeard, you have a witch standing behind him, and whenever you have a witch, you have a Bluebeard. A woman who is possessed by the witch, either in her persona or in her shadow, is the prisoner of the man eating troll or the evil magician, and vice versa.

It's fairly clear if a woman is possessed by the witch because of her aggressive, power-hungry behavior, but if the woman doesn’t normally express the witch (except when she “acts out of character"... but in character for the anima behind the animus), then the witch is her shadow. The man who is possessed by Bluebeard, either in his persona or in his shadow, is the captive of the evil witch. And standing behind the troll or the witch is the witch or the troll. The four characters - passive Kore/evil Witch, ineffectual Son/brutalizing Bluebeard - form a prison. So long as we simply take up one role or another, we do nothing more than send back the other half of the syzygy into the shadows of the unconscious. We remain imprisoned.

The Bluebeard animus is as much a captive of the witch as the woman is of the animus, and vice versa. That’s why women act out the witch; they’re possessed by the power-driven animus. That’s why it’s important for women to admit this about themselves - both when it starts criticizing the woman as well as making nasty judgments about others - and just let it go. But the animus wants to hold onto his grievances and his anger, just as the anima wallows in a man's black mood of self-hatred.

Maybe what Eckhart Tolle says about the pain body applies here; Tolle says the pain body, the thing that tortures us, wants to live, and since it feeds off pain it does everything it can to cause us suffering. Maybe the negative animus (and negative anima) are the similar; the animus feeds off anger, so it’s always finding things to rage about. For men, the anima cuts them down, tells them they will never amount to anything so they might as well give up. It seems as if the negative animus and anima, like Tolle’s pain body, feeds on us to perpetuate its own existence.

Women can escape the Bluebeard animus by agreeing with the animus and then leaving emotionally, just as we often humor and then deflect the Bluebeard men in our outer lives. “Yes, yes, you are absolutely right. Yes, that’s awful. I’m awful. You are absolutely right.” And then leave, let go.

The negative anima is a poisoning witch. If a man’s anima is masculine, he’s leaving to Her to act assertive, and has nothing left for himself. If a woman is aggressive, she’s leaving to the men in her life to live out her inner passivity (the negative of the anima). By refusing to feed the negative anima or animus, we free ourselves to get in touch with our strengths as women and as men. I suspect that we also free our significant others to find their strength, as well.

The Animus can torture a woman, feeding her ruminations and thoughts about failure. To step out of this internal conflict, the best way is to say to the Animus, “Ah, you are right, it is too late, I am a failure, so let’s not speak about it anymore”. This allows the energy to move forward and not to dissipate in the internal conflict and the woman is left alone to try her hand at whatever she is doing anyway.

When the Animus is arguing and criticizing, the right approach to deal with this, is to say to the Animus, “Since you are so opinionated about what is wrong with others, let’s look at my shadow”. These two opposing forces, the shadow and the Animus, results in consciousness. This consciousness allows her to discern what her own ideas and opinions really are, and the difference between her feminine ego and masculine Animus.

Animus Possession: Are you a ball busting bitch?

When the man finds himself lost in ambiguity and at a loss on what to do, he needs to act. The Anima is an expert on implanting doubt. He must step into life to get out of this trap. He needs to act in some way. He must escape the repetitive pattern of getting excited about ideas and then discussing it to death until he is totally uninspired. He needs to develop a disciplined consciousness for solutions and directions. The correct attitude is to accept that it may not work, or that it is possibly not the right thing to do, but taking action anyway. One must take action based on the knowledge and understanding available at that point in time. Overcoming the Anima is through experiencing reality and the unknown, not talking about it.

Anima Possession: Are you a spineless wimp?



Links:

When the Pain-Body Awakens, Eckhart Tolle

The Tall Man

I’m working on another symbolism post – this time on the Parrot – but I’ve had some interesting dreams relating to the animus lately so I wanted to write a quick post about it.

I had an incident at work, where I felt a great deal of shame, and like I was a failure. My usual way of dealing with negative feelings is to sit with them and move into them. First off, this allows the emotion to slowly dissipate. But I’ve also found it to be a great method of “firing up” the furnace that burns away the ego. But then, a few days ago, I had the following dream:

Something about a hard world (post-apocalyptic? or just a hard, dangerous world?); it’s a barren wasteland. I wash/rinse myself with water running down a wall or hill or something outside. The water is actually really dirty; it’s toxic, and if the residue stays on me it will make me sick. I think to myself that I need to find some clean water to wash myself with, to rinse off the black, toxic particles but there’s no water anywhere. I try to think of other solutions, maybe find the water in other things (like plants?)

Interpretation:

I think this fragment in particular was speaking to what I’m going through, but I don’t know what else to do other than sit with my feelings. It seems to be saying to try to find the water in other things, but where???

So maybe not all emotions are good, all the time. Right now my dream seems to be saying that there’s good “water” (water that cleanses) and bad water (water that just makes you sick). This may be related to my repeated dreams of bathrooms, urine, and feces. But I don’t know what to do, or where to look. I’ve spent years – decades really – learning these techniques of staying in my emotions. But it seems to be making me sick.

This sounds like the disease of extroverted feeling: excessive judgment. We extroverted feeling types (even though EF is my inferior function) are extremely judgmental, but we're never more judgmental of others than we are of ourselves. Maybe this dream is saying that this aspect of extroverted feeling is harmful and is making me sick. But what is the cure? Does it have to do with the head (the bit about my nice hair, and the fragment about the cat’s head sticking out of the cage)? Maybe what it’s saying is that I need to use my strength (my mind) when I fall into these emotional quagmires?

After a lot of musing the last few days, agonizing even, over this question I had these dreams last night:

A very tall man asks somewhat judgmental, demanding questions. My impression now that I’m awake is that he’s pale and cold. He’s very, very tall, like almost twice as tall as I am. I kind of fob him off, answering with a deflecting answer. I walk away from him. I don’t think he follows, I think my answer was good enough.

And:

I’m with a bunch of women at an exhibition or a counter of some kind. They all have these tiny keys on their key rings and ask me why I don’t have mine. I say I don’t even know what they are. They explain that they’re something that they got from the authorities or the train station or something. All women get them but I don’t have one. The keys are used by women to get into safe rooms when they’re attacked by men. I think I go and try to get a key.

I interpreted these dreams in the following way:

Tall man: Definitely an animus figure. I immediately felt that he was a) related to the negative animus/brute (he seems to be a development of this figure); and b) related to the dirty water from last night’s dream. He’s very judgmental – very lofty – and cold (unemotional). What is the difference between me/J (my aunt) and Grandma (my Italian-American paternal grandmother and J’s mother)? It’s the judgmental, German animus. It’s definitely from Grandpa... or at least his side of the family (probably Great Grandma, from all the stories I’ve heard). Also, this figure may have something to do with giants, particularly frost giants (which are also Germanic!). Giants have no hearts; they kill mercilessly. You have to destroy them by finding and crushing their hearts. It looks like, by not accepting his dirty water judgment, I've escaped him, although this may only be temporary.

Safe room keys: I didn’t think I could get a lot out of this fragment but now that I've re-read it after doing the interpretation I think this may actually be a KEY part of the dream (lol). A large part of this (and last night’s) dream is about dealing with cold, brutal, dangerous men (the Tall Man). This dream is telling me how to do it: go to the safe room. The key to the safe room is received from an authority through... a spiritual authority? It’s related to the train (travel/ journey). Could this be the Self? The Self is the journey’s guide, the (train) conductor so to speak. There are two authorities: the Tall Man, and the train authority. There are two kinds of water: the dirty, toxic water, and the clean water, the water that comes from plants (that I was looking for at the end of the dirty water dream last night). The first authority is the brutal, rigid, righteous, but cruel and destructive (he reminds me of the torturer priest in Berserk). The other authority is quiet, still, natural, dispassionate. I think this may be the train authority. I can get the key to the safe room from him; this is the key that women have to protect themselves from the brutal animus, the Tall Man.

Safe house

(Image from: Frog Machine (Deviant Art)



The images in this post are from the Japanese manga Berserk. I'd like to do an interpretation of this story - there's a lot of deep symbolism in it - but at the very least I'm going to do a couple of posts on the man (who reminds me of The Tall Man), the priest Mozgus, and the master of the green house in the image above, the nature witch Flora. They shed a lot of light on the themes of this post. In addition, I will be posting an excerpt from Marie Louise von Franz's interpretation of the Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body, which is also related.


See also:
The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
Mozgus
Flora

Symbolism: Madness

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]



Posts:
 The Green Lion

Symbolism: Fire

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

Pact of fire
Rukaba, guardian of fire
 

Symbolism: Lion

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

The Green Lion

Anorexia Mirabilis

The head of St. Catherine of Siena

We’ve been taught so effectively to loathe fat people, and especially women who refuse to make themselves small and convenient, that not even the endless drive for profit can convince some of the world’s most enthusiastic capitalists to consider them a priority.

- Amanda Mull, "Why Aren’t Fashion ‘Disruptors’ Serving Plus-Size Customers?"



First, blog news: It’s been pretty quiet here at 2Biat, and that is because I’ve been studying for my final exam. And there's also all the holiday madness that happens every year at this time, so there’s a short hiatus happening. However, I had a little brainwave today that I wanted to share to this blog.

One of the things I’m studying about is eating disorders. This is something I have a very personal relationship with. It’s been a long time but for years I hated myself, and hated my body in particular. It took a long time to heal all those wounds. And this is, sadly, a very common problem.

We have a history of starving the body, everything from sages in the desert to the tradition of girls fasting to show how close to God they are. Modern anorexia is basically the same thing as this religious anorexia. Both are hateful towards the body, carnality, desire, and anything perceived of as “weakness,” especially moral weakness. Both are attempts to destroy the feminine within the body.

To love a large, curving, ample female body is to love the flesh. To hate the flesh is to hate the feminine Goddess that lives within the flesh, in our body. This is sharpest in anorexia but the societal obsession with small, spare, hungry bodies – bodies from which all the soft, warm animal comfort has been carved away – is in itself hatred toward the feminine because the body, the animal, is the feminine principle.

The way out of the pit of self-hatred is self-love. When we can finally acknowledge the tremendous work our bodies do, keeping us alive and bearing the burden of our abuse and contempt, then we can finally become friends with ourselves. And more, we can finally literally start to embody the missing sacred feminine back into the world, through our soft, fragile, but amazing and resilient bodies.

… And now you see more what the jewels behind the meat are. Our hero wanted the flesh and instead he fell into the jewels, the eternal or the divine. He has to realize that divine aspect of the flesh. It is not enough for instance, for a Christian who has up until now despised the flesh, to say, “now I’m going to throw my prudish prejudices overboard. I’m going to have juicy sex and enjoy it.” That would be eating the flesh. That’s nothing. If he does that he doesn’t move one inch out of the old kingdom, he’s still caught in it. He only adds the dimension of so-called sin to it. But nothing has happened. He has to realize that the flesh is a form of the divine, a divine revelation, and that sexuality is divine.

That’s what Jung fought with Freud about. He agreed completely with Freud that sex should be liberated and should be lived, not treated with prudish repression, but he wanted to say that sex is a religious experience as in Tantra. And if you live it, therefore, only with the idea, “That’s very healthy for my hormones and makes me physically better,” then you have missed the whole point. Then you have eaten dead meat, rotten meat. The redemption of the feminine means not the redemption of the flesh; it means the redemption of the divinity of the flesh, of the divine, archetypal, godlike aspect of the flesh…

- The Cat: The Virgin's shadow



Further reading:

Anorexia Mirabilis and the Fasting Girls (Megan, cvltnation.com)
The Cat: Redeeming the feminine


[Image from Anorexia Mirabilis and the Fasting Girls]

Symbolism: Apocalypse

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

False promise of a Golden Age
Life Without the Sacred
"What a Shaman Sees in a Mental Hospital"
"What Would C.G. Jung Say about Donald Trump"

"Baba Yaga and the Challenge of Darkness. Or, I Love the Smell of Manflesh in the Morning"

A little late for Halloween, but here's something interesting:

She is more than a witch. She is a great nature goddess, possessing the power of both life and death like nature herself. She is an image of the Divine Feminine, that which is capable of ruthless destruction and loving nurturing. She is the folklore equivalent of other bivalent goddesses such as Kali. In this sense, it isn’t correct to categorize Baba Yaga as evil, any more than it would be to describe nature itself with this word. Nature is amoral, sometimes fantastically destructive and cruel, and other times just as life-giving and nurturing. Jung explores this theme in his famous essay “Answer to Job.” In it, he makes the case that Yahweh is unconscious, and therefore amoral. “This is I, the creator of all the ungovernable, ruthless forces of Nature, which are not subject to any ethical laws. I, too, am an amoral force of Nature, a purely phenomenal personality that cannot see its own back.” Evil can only exist where there is consciousness.

Baba Yaga’s grotesqueness and power are illustrative of the problem of dealing with these dark, primordial psychic contents. All of us contain this kernel of darkness. We manage to hide it away from ourselves for the most part, remaining naïve to our own capacity for evil and destruction. What happens when we do confront it? Sometimes, it can destroy us, overwhelming us and turning us into the very monster we sought to overcome. This is a story of the ego’s hubris, the imperial belief that it can colonize and rule over the contents of the unconscious. When consciousness does not approach the archetypal energies within the collective unconscious with sufficient humility, it will be vulnerable to being devoured or corrupted by the darkness therein.

- "Baba Yaga and the Challenge of Darkness. Or, I Love the Smell of Manflesh in the Morning", Lisa Marchiano (The Jung Soul")


Links:
Vasilisa the Beautiful


See also:
Crone
Death

Symbolism: Ravine

[An overview will be written at some point in the future.]

 

Posts:

"A Journey from Where to Where"