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

And within the terms I’ve been using in this book, soul is the ultimate expression of essence.

The attributes of ascendancy are largely regarded as male attributes and those of descendancy as female. Wisdom — ‘Sophia’ — of course is also feminine. It is in the economy of descendancy that wisdom is found. In previous chapters concerns with the dominant ascendant attributes in philosophy, religion, science and culture have been identified. Much of this can be attributed to an underlying male-domination in the way that Western thought has developed. The feminine has been suppressed and given no voice. As a result, both women and men have suffered.

Perhaps talk of spirituality and soulfulness is a bit off-putting for some readers. The Greek word, ‘eudaimonia’ or ‘flourishing’ is often used for that broader perspective on life and that people may aspire to. So if it helps, try thinking of the term eudaimonia instead, although of course, the word literally means satisfaction of the soul! Soulfulness might be described as to become ‘inner-directed’, or ‘self-authoring’. The essence of ‘freedom-to’ is the freedom to make our own story. The ancient Greeks, especially the Cynics and the Stoics, also used the word ‘autarkia’ (meaning, self-sufficiency) as the idea of independence from external events. They saw this as a key ingredient of eudaimonia.

Soulfulness could equally be described as being about having a bit of wisdom, of being settled with the world and settled with ourselves. This seems to hold whether one regards the soul as purely a descriptive term for the sub-conscious

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