Most of us think we are running away from the government, our parents, politics, toxic *, G-d, and that's a thing, for sure. Beyond that, maybe most of us are running from our whole beautiful, ugly, kind, toxic, helping, hindering selves. And we can't abandon portions of ourselves without abandoning our whole selves. Religions and philosophies, political or even scientific theory that would kept us fragmented and compartmentalized (without us recognizing it, which deprives us of informed consent or "free will") benefit from us denying ugly or beautiful parts of ourselves, but we are definitely harmed by it.
Every mythos has some version of the fall from innocence (naïveté) to knowledge of good and evil and this is where "sin" or "ignorance" or "kama / karma" or whatever you call it originates. This is like being kicked out of the Garden (PaRDeS) and archangels guarding the entrances with flaming swords. Joni Mitchell wrote:
We are stardust, we are golden
We are billion-year-old carbon
And we've got to get ourselves
Back to the garden
Well, then can I walk beside you?
I have come to lose the smog
And I feel myself a cog
In somethin' turning
And maybe it's the time of year
Yes, and maybe it's the time of man
And I don't know who I am
But life is for learning
Acceptance of our dark sides, and integrating it so that we become whole again gets us past the flaming swords (swords representing thoughts, words/truth, depending on context, that are painful ti encounter, let alone sit with and examine... A place of fire and brimstone, of wailing and gnashing of teeth).
The thumbnail image is the Vetruvian Man, a pentacle, representing our feelings (cups or hearts) lead to our ideas lead to the stories we tell ourselves, and they're ill-informed, educated guesses, at best (remember how scientific theory changes as the data changes), and fairy tales and horror stories about people, places, and things we make up to tell ourselves as a still extremely primitive way of making sense of things we don't understand, at worst. There's no shame in it, it's a very natural thing to do, but the stories may not be normal, as in healthy, despite whether they are or not normative. This all culminates into the manifestation of what our lives look like, pentacles, representing materiality, the earthly realm. The fifth point, "spirit" or "Äthers" is our passion /drive/willpower, depending on context.
What we can do about it that leads us back to the garden is embracing ourselves, reparenting ourselves, when necessary. But to change our materiality for the better, we first need "better" ideas, to lead us to "better stories" that lead to "better" (not necessarily "fun" or "pleasant") feelings, that eventually lead to practice in the material world, which leads to better results, which lead to better stories, which lead to better ideas, ad infinitum. That is the mystical meaning of this symbol. ♾️ This symbol 🌀 means we start with an extremely egocentric view as babies (we haven't learned differentiation yet, neverminding "seeing the whole world as self," in a healthy, positive way), and keep encountering a set of ideas or feelings, but as we mature, we have different vantage points (Zen story of three blind men and an elephant), so while we are still in childlike or adolescent thinking, they look very different, but it's still the same thing, until we mature enough, and we realize, "I've been here before. This, that, and the third did not yield the effects I'd hoped, here is something different to try that may or not yield the results I want, so let's see what happens." Remember, "insanity is trying the same things over and over again, expecting different results" (rightly or wrongly attributed to Einstein). But we still have to try and fail enough times, sometimes, for something to actually work, like riding a bike or practicing a slam dunk, or drawing hands or feet or noses, before we realize, "Hey this isn't working for me. Does it matter, or am I doing this for fun?“ Perhaps as importantly, can I laugh at, accept, and love myself, whether it matters or not?" The paradoxes of being human, amirite?
Anyway, world religions and philosophies are all endeavoring to point to this, with a lot more words, at least the honest ones. The dishonest ones amend, edit, abridge and keep you at the milk (literal meanings) of babies, rather than the meat of the esoteric meanings ( From my religious tradition: Matthew 13: 10 The disciples came up and asked, “Why do you tell stories?”
11-15 He replied, “You’ve been given insight into God’s kingdom. You know how it works. Not everybody has this gift, this insight; it hasn’t been given to them. Whenever someone has a ready heart for this, the insights and understandings flow freely. But if there is no readiness, any trace of receptivity soon disappears. That’s why I tell stories: to create readiness, to nudge the people toward a welcome awakening. In their present state they can stare till doomsday and not see it, listen till they’re blue in the face and not get it. I don’t want Isaiah’s forecast repeated all over again:
Your ears are open but you don’t hear a thing.
Your eyes are awake but you don’t see a thing.
The people are stupid!
They stick their fingers in their ears
so they won’t have to listen;
They screw their eyes shut
so they won’t have to look,
so they won’t have to deal with me face-to-face
and let me heal them.
And 1 Corinthians 3, 1-3: Brothers, I could not speak to you as to spiritual men, but as to worldly, even as to babes in Christ. 2 I have fed you with milk and not with solid food. For to this day you were not able to endure it. Nor are you able now, 3 for you are still worldly. Since there is envy, strife, and divisions among you, are you not worldly and behaving as mere men?)
Anyway, take what you need, leave the rest. Some things aren't for us, yet, and sometimes never.
"Do what you will shall be the whole of the law. Love is law, love under will."
