SMARTS - Another Parable for Our Times

Here's another piece from Dr. David K. Reynolds' book Pools of Lodging for the Moon, from which I quoted last Thursday.

This one isn't hard to interpret and relate to personally, on a few levels. Astrology-literate passers-by will be able to see connections to .......let's see.....Saturn cycles, Pluto conjunct a personal planet. For Chiron fanciers, there's something there too. There might well be much more to find. Thoughts welcome.

SMARTS

Once upon a wishful time pocket-sized dragons roamed the land. They attacked humans at will. They attacked anything in sight. Their bites rarely killed, but they were painful and took time to heal. People walked about with scars.

A philosopher arose who claimed that getting to know the dragons would cause them to cease their attacks. He and his followers made great efforts to understand and communicate with the miniature dragons. As a result, they suffered many bites, but they gathered much information about the dragons' habits.

Unfortunately the philosopher was wrong. Knowing a lot about dragons didn't stop them from attacking. The people felt despair. Some tried to appease the dragons with every kind of personal gift and sacrifice imaginable. But giving in to the dragons seemed to be ineffective, also. In fact sacrificing their material possessions to try to keep the dragons at bay proved more costly than enduring the occasional bite. What could they do? The people were at a loss.

All sorts of methods proved unworkable. Heavy armor restricted the wearer's movements. Flight to the mountains and beachs demonstrated only that dragons existed in those places, too. Prayers didn't destroy the dragon demons.

In time people learned to live with occasional pain. They avoided areas heavily infested with dragons. They kept their eyes open to avoid stepping into the path of a dragon. But they learned to go about their daily lives wearing a bandage here and there. Often, they were so involved in their work or play that they forgot about the pain, the bandages, the dragons. Such was the nature of the country.

Psychological insight doesn't erase pain or prevent its reoccurrence. It may help us spot potential trouble areas. Though we avoid what is avoidable, we cannot escape from hurt altogether. We live alongside it; we live within it; we live it. And the way we live in spite of our pain is a measure of our character.

I am told that in the dragon-infested country introduced above some people actually befriended and even married particularly large dragons. And, despite differences in their temperaments, they seem to have gotten along together pretty well.

Water World: A parable for our times

Self-help books are the ones I usually ignore when scanning shelves of used books in junk/antique stores, but one lying alone on a table caught my eye because of its title: Pools of Lodging for the Moon by David K. Reynolds, Ph.D.

I half suspected it would be a poetry book. It isn't. Some of the book's contents are quite poetic though.

Dr. Reynolds has written several books describing his principles of "Constructive Living, a positive life-style that is a synthesis of two forms of Japanese psychotherapy: Morita and Naikan. The combination of Morita, with its emphasis on doing what needs to be done, and Naikan therapy, which stresses recognising our debt to the world around us, form a the basis for appealing solutions to our daily problems."(From the book's back cover).

I think there must be an astrological connection or equivalent to Naikan and Morita -perhaps something akin to what was discussed in yesterday's post and comments touching on the topic of higher consciousness.....Back to the astrological elements, and their balance within the personality then? Or perhaps there's similarity in considering the balancing "effect" of opposing signs eg: Leo/Aquarius, Cancer/Capricorn.

Anyway, what persuaded me to part with my $1 was this little "parable" which happened to be the first I saw when, standing in the store, I opened the book :

Water World

Once upon a fragile time people lived on the surface of a huge body of water. They walked on a thin film that covered the water's great depths. Sometimes the surface tension weakened in spots and someone began to sink. Those around the sinking person risked breeching the surface tension in order to rescue him or her. It was the custom. Such self-sacrifice was necessary in that world. When the rescuers were in danger they, too, could expect help.

Sometimes the tear in the surface film spread, there were whole chains of people lending a hand to their fellows. In that risky world it was good to know that supporting hands were ready to help when needed.

Nearby, another group of people lived on a small island. They were proud that each of them walked by the individual's own strength with no help or support from others. In other ways they were a very bright people. Yet because of their pride they were confined to their island. And they knew a chilly loneliness that their water-borne cousins never felt.

One of the part-truths in American culture is the part-myth of the self-made individual. That notion has both stimulated us and limited us. The other side of that truth is that we are all dependent on others for our successes and for our moment-by-moment existence.

My politically slanted brain read that wee tale as an analogy for socialism and conservatism/capitalism. Others might read it differently....if so it would be interesting to hear about it.