21 levels of Self-Deception: THIRD EDITION by Tom Wallace - HTML preview

T W E N T Y - O N E L E V E L S

would cease to be a paradox.

And who knows, perhaps the universe just wants or needs crazy humans who will always do the opposite of all the things that they say they believe in! I need to accept this possibility — really sit with it and accept it — before I can say any more.

I finish now with a quote from Thomas Moore, which takes up this thought:

‘We think that the ego is the dominant self, and we educate ourselves to have good ego boundaries, strong identity and self-esteem. But more enchanted philosophies recognise that we are made from the depths, from beyond consciousness. We are more original than we can imagine. We are driven from a place beneath awareness, and what drives us — it has been called angel, daimon, animus, duende — hurls us toward our identity and our place in time and space.

‘W.B. Yeats saw that the daimon, the inner presence that is full of power and the ultimate source of our real creativity, is an antithetical self, an opposite, a spirit that is brought to a host precisely and utterly different from itself so that we often feel both conflict and resource in relation to the spirit that makes us passionate.’

Thomas Moore — Original Self (my emphases).

So, it is a conflict that will never be resolved. But that’s okay. No resolution is needed. Live with the doubt. Live with the mystery.

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