In our everyday life, we are consciously or unconsciously making a small world where we feel good to be. When we sit on an uncomfortable sofa, we may unmindfully move around cushions to make ourselves cozy. Such a simple act of adjusting cushions around us is the first step to make a pleasant ‘outer world’. As physical beings, we are much aware of the importance of our physiological and safety needs such as home, food and security to attain our sound outer worlds.
While our outer worlds have been progressively sought by ourselves and our society, we tend to neglect our ‘inner worlds’. Psychiatrist Carl G. Jung also claims our oblivion or insensitivity about our inner worlds as “Swamped by the knowledge of external objects, the subject of all knowledge has been temporarily eclipsed to the point of seeming non-existence” (1975, p. 357).
‘Inner world’ deals with ‘Matter of Heart’ (Jung’s term). We may discern something exists inside ourselves when we face some events which engender intense emotions like extreme anger, sadness, joy or something nameless (confusion), or some events which create a huge chasm between our outer and inner worlds. In such times, we suddenly realise the existence of our inner worlds.
In our modern society, we tend to consider that our inner worlds can be only understood and treated either by religion or psychology. Our inner worlds are more than religious dogmas or neurotransmitter’s imbalances. As much as our outer worlds vary, our inner worlds also diversify. We also tend to separate these two worlds apart as if there is no connection in-between.
Being a sustainable ethnologist, I do not separate our inner worlds from our outer worlds. I observe human beings as the way we are and a personhood overloaded with her/his history, tradition and culture, and surrounded by the social context and natural environment. Ethnologists know that even an individual’s emotions, seemingly subjective, are greatly influenced by our living circumstances.
My ideas and practices of inner world-making are mainly based on the ancient knowledge of astrology and shamanism which have existed long before the current millennia. These practical arts have been developed by human beings to live on earth by beautifully explaining entwining inter-connectedness of both worlds.
Specifically, my practices are ‘modern’ astrology and shamanism which have considerably evolved since the ancient times. Modern astrologers know that Earth orbits the Sun while modern shamans do not take any drugs or alcohol to hallucinate for their practices. Following the social changes, these practices have shed old superstitions and fatalistic attitudes for phenomena while keeping the magical core of the practices.
By sharing my knowledge and practices, I support you to build your own resilient inner worlds.
Reference: Jung, C.G. (1975). The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-09774-7
Photo by Bee Felten-Leidel on Unsplash
