The center of the Crucible is the crosspoint of our aligned multidimensional Self with our conception, inception, perception and reception of the “outer” world. This toroidal flow of consciousness intricately in-forms our internal posturing and external understanding, both positive and negative.
The alchemy of the Crucible maintains a perspective of being at center, the Crucible vantage point. In the first three Crucible gatherings, we focused mostly on how this in-forms the Self. Now we turn toward our interaction with our world, to understand what is our relationship in it.
What influences how we/I conceive of the world? What do we/I assume is true and wholesome? What do we/I avoid, deny or falsify? And perhaps most tellingly, why?
Memes are elements, ideas and behaviors of a culture that are passed from one individual to another. Memes propagate in societies through imitation. Humans use imitation to foster relationships. Imitation gives reflection and allows us to identify with different possibilities. Memes, however, become assumed patterns of thought and behavior that can distort our authentic response. They fixate our thought forms and lead to static conditioning, rather than Ecstatic flow with the Unknown.
Memes can be positive or negative, edgy or wholesome, “dank” or “normie” (meme culture memes. For the definition of these terms go to memecompass.com).
As an example, there is a large genre online of “edgy, dank” memes that are cutting and bizarre. For our study in the Crucible, we would find the motivation for propagating such memes, such as people’s need to recognize this kind of element in society, or even identify with it in order to fit into a culture that is perceived as cool. For individuals, or particularly for you personally, do you find a need to assume a posture, either embracing or rejecting, toward this kind of social meme that protects something that you value, inner or outer? Our vertical alignment with a loving universe would be able to witness this without judgment, while simultaneously holding a willingness to be in the fire of all our responses and let a new maturity emerge. That is the alchemy that is in the Crucible.
Social memes can be current and trendy, but are also carried over long periods of time. Any “-ism” could be considered a meme, so religions, political movements, economic systems, etc. are also memetic. And there are family memes, belief systems that a family line will uphold, with its individual members (I started to type “memebers” !!) either confirming or denying them with supportive or obstructive behavior.
From the center of our world in the alignment of the Crucible, we are able to see (Revelation) clearly (Clarification) the memes that are influencing our behavior. With the support of vertical loving presence we can feel fully the emotional responses that have been resisted in the past and relax with their metabolization (Transformation). Perspective from higher, more coherent points of view becomes available and new choices can be made (Activation).
This is the alchemical functioning of the Crucible.
