Electric Archetypes: The Symbolic Charge of Revitalization in the Age of Chaos & Discord
By: A. W. Finnegan
The World card of the Nightshade Tarot by A. W. Finnegan
This article serves to guide those taking the brave steps to carry out the Great Work in this chaotic world. As I stated in my last several videos, the Great Work involves a long and arduous process of building and unfolding the Self, through inner and outer work, just like a flower bud, starting small and building itself internally to finally unfold outward. The pedals unfold outward and the flower radiates its beauty to the outside world, attracting bees and moths to stop by and pollinate it in the process.
The Great Work, is by definition, a lot of work. It only succeeds with dedication, Will-power, persistence, and perseverance. It is for this reason I turn to some important factors one should consider when beginning this noble path. It involves taking time to recharge, find spiritual strength and influence, meaningful aspects of life that allow one to keep going. There is very little use in undertaking the Great Work if one goes all in, only to burn themselves out rapidly like a meteor entering the Earth's atmosphere. For such taxing work, one needs to make time to recharge and draw vital energy from the spiritual realms of symbolism, archetypal magnetism, and Divine influence. Whether it is to you, a living consciousness, an energy, an archetype or symbol, whatever one wants to see it as, the important thing is that you can draw inspiration and vital energy from it, so that you can recharge and remain spiritually strong and maintain your well-being.
Recall my discussion of the excessive uses of the left- and right-brain, as overcompassion and selfish ego (see: Thorns of Compensation: When Evil Bleeds the Hearts of the Overly Compassionate & Nature of the Beast: Taming the Primal Energies & Egoic Mind). The takeaway was that both are unhealthy in excess, but the two are necessary aspects of our being when used correctly. The Great Work is no different. If you overwork yourself, go "too hard in the paint," you will burn yourself out. It is an important, very necessary part of this path, to take time for yourself and recharge your spiritual energy, to nurture the inner self and well-being. Take time to do what gives you vital energy and inspiration. Since I cannot create that for you, I will use examples from my journey to illustrate the ways in which I recharge and draw influence from my spiritual allies and influential archetypes.
What exactly are these? These are sources of energy which influence and revitalize my spiritual well-being. It is about drawing inspiration and strength to continue the fight, the epic battle of life and our place in carrying out the Great Work. The best example I can give you is music. Think about when going to the gym, music drives you and helps you conjure up the energy to blaze through the workout.
While we're on the topic of music, I must confess my love for heavy metal music. This music is a raw, powerful energy which helps me to push through and keep fighting when I'm down and out. It has been a force that helps me tune into that dark energy within me, not for evil purposes, but rather to overcome it. It helps me to tune into that war-like energy we need to level the playing field against the forces in the world that are working in opposition to us. Some of my favorite bands are groups like Sepultura, At the Gates, and Dissection. Dissection's Reinkaos is one of the best metal albums I've ever heard, from start to finish, the album is pure energy and flawless in the grace of dark, heavy metal music. The late singer, Jon Nödtveidt, left us with one of the most amazing metal masterpieces before his death.
Some have a religious influence, that is fine too. Prayer is an excellent way to inspire oneself and draw Divine energy to revitalize yourself at times of hardship or doubt. I do not have a set religion, but I am a very spiritual person and I do align with many energies from different religions in a synchronized manner. For example, I devote time each morning and night to praise the Hindu Goddess Kali, the Divine Mother, who called to me at a time when I felt alone and empty. She is also a good representation of time, the hand of karma and the Saturn influence, represented by the reaper, a God of Harvest.
Hindu Goddess Kali
Hindu Goddess Kali
Speaking of Saturn energies, I am intimately aligned with a family of plants in the Nightshade Family. This includes the plants Datura, Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet), Henbane, Belladonna (Deadly Nightshade), Mandrake, and Solandra (Chalice Vine). The story behind how I came to be acquainted with these plants was serendipitous and paradoxical. It was before I went to jail, when I was at my worst, I was looking for a way out, looking up poisonous plants I could off myself with. I know, its wild, but I've been doing a lot of the inner work since that time, so I can admit and even laugh to some degree, at how ridiculous that was. Fortunately, I did not get my hands on them at that time, but I found them very attractive plants. She had a seductive, alluring beauty.
Fast forward to when I was doing time, I found a book in the library that described them in greater depth. I would go down there and read about them often because I found them fascinating. I will leave a few pictures in this article that illustrates her magnificence. She has a dark feminine energy, not as in an evil nature, but rather she is dark and mysterious like the dark reaches of the subconscious mind. I began to have repetitive dreams at night in jail, that she would bring me to these fields of her plants. This kept happening, and I felt a calling to her plants. It was an influence that called me to her. I began to get books through Amazon and read as much as I could about her different plants.
Himalayan Datura
By the time I got out of jail in 2015, I was dying to grow the plants and see them for myself. Indeed, I grew them with a passion, and they were even more amazing, breathtaking, than they appeared in books. I have to confess, even when I take pictures of them, it doesn't quite capture the energy and majestic presence they hold in person. That element somehow avoids being captured on camera. At any rate, she became a great source of inspiration and beauty in my life. The ironic part of all this, is that originally, I sought these plants as way out of life, yet she became a very deep sense of meaning and spiritual inspiration, an aspect of my life that made me want to keep going, not give up on life, but instead put my Heart into it and give it my all.
I should state, however, that my inspiration and work with these plants does not rely on ingesting the plant. Unfortunately the plant has bad reputation as a deadly hallucinogen. Indeed, many unfortunate teenagers looking for a cheap, legal high or trip, ingested way too much of the plant without having any idea on dosage and the potency of the plants, and this often ended in intense hallucinations, organ failure, and death. She is a plant that needs to be respected, or she can be quite cruel. When she is respected, however, she can be a great source of power and energy. As my artwork shows, she is a very powerful spirit, one to be reckoned with.
The Nightshade Spirit
My garden is a very special place for me. The inspiration I draw from my plants is very deep and empowering. She taught me the power of the feminine energy, a power full of potential and greatness. It is this influence of empowerment that this website was influenced by in its symbolic representation, the Garden of Great Work. Because she can be a poison or medicine, depending on dosage, it was that dual quality that held importance, just like we have that dual quality in our own being. We need both ego and compassion. The balance of these energies is what brings us into alignment with Truth. As empowered human beings, the evils wrought upon humanity fall short of their effectiveness, because they rely on your ignorance and lack of spiritual empowerment.
In regards to the way we take the time to recharge our spiritual well-being, we need to be open to those things that call out to us. You pickup alliances and associations with different energies as a source of empowerment and spiritual revitalization. For instance, the Nightshade plants and Kali are not my only sources of spiritual inspiration, I also have a fondness for the archangel Raphael, the aspect of God that heals. Whether it is a real being or archetypal aspect of the Creator, the result is the same and the influence which I draw serves the same purpose either way.
The Lion & the Scorpion
In my devotion to Kali, I also found inspiration from the archetype of the black scorpion. This to me was a symbolic representation of Kali, and came to me in a dream, when I was struggling with life, but I had the drive to keep going. The scorpion represented my Will to spiritually die and be reborn anew, with Kali's influence, the black scorpion was a representation of her energy, and associated with the phoenix rising from the ashes. Because I'm a Leo, the lion is my archetype. The lion is also associated with the scorpion as the eagle, a form of Scorpio from the zodiac.
Another animal that is truly inspiring to me is the cardinal bird. The cardinal is my favorite bird and to me symbolizes several things. First off, the intense, fiery red color, symbolizes action, doing, while the name of the bird, cardinal, relates to direction and focus. For whatever reason I always come into encounters with the cardinal anytime I'm thinking about something very important, and the bird will often just sit there and look at me for a few minutes, then after some time, zips off into the trees. There is something special about that bird to me, and when I see it, I am inspired by its beauty and mysterious nature.
Aside from this, it is good to find things too that make you laugh. It is true that laughter is the best medicine. Remember to find time to laugh. I personally enjoy making comical memes that make fun of the public health authorities who have continuously ridiculed and disrespected people with chronic diseases, because these medical "authorities" are more or less incompetent. The stories I could tell you, from those I know, as well as my own experiences, have produced a rather intense disdain for public health and the American medical system. People see them as heroes, but ask anyone with a chronic debilitating disease like Lyme disease, tick encephalitis, or vaccine injuries, and the responses we have been given by these people are so despicable and disrespectful, that most would think this was talk of fiction. Anyway, laughter can be a good remedy for such detestable aspects of life, its better to laugh than cry. For instance, I made this meme about Anthony Fauci as Mr. Rogers' evil twin brother, both had blood on their shirts and the quote from Mr. Rogers read, "Little by little we human beings are confronted with situations that give us more and more clues that we are not perfect."
Dark Humor meme by A. W. Finnegan
Another source of comedy for me is that Canadian show Trailer Park Boys, about three degenerates who live in a trailer park in Nova Scotia, Ricky, Julian, and Bubbles. They constantly get themselves in trouble through continuous wars with the owners and supervisors of the Sunnyvale trailer park, the former cop, Officer Jim Lahey, and his cheeseburger-loving sidekick, Randy. While I don't watch any TV, there are occasions when I will seek out and watch shows like Trailer Park Boys, Reno 911, Larry David's Curb Your Enthusiasm, and things of that nature, for comedy. If you don't find at least some time to laugh, the primary angles of the Great Work will be all the more difficult.