Ponderings and merCurious illuMentations on Depression and Art

this creeping flesh
shall fade and fall as dust
from dust so made;
though carries in itself
the bloom of flower
the reach of tree,
the words a lover
once said
to me

 

I have seen many of my friends fall to the so called illness of depression. Many Artists of brilliance allured to the relinquishment of darkness. The once formidable and brilliant lost in the grey haze of nothingness. Why is there this flaw in us? I’ve looked into the dopamine and serotonin theories of creativity and brilliance. Many studies indicate a lack of these neurotransmitters or their inhibition as the crux of this Psychological flaw. There are practical Alchemies that have the affect of countering this plight, such as the Aromatherapy of Roses, the uplifting thrill of chocolate and the inspiration of imbibing a wholesome wine; all claiming to open brain centres and cascade the bliss’s of dopamine’s and serotonin pleasures. The mysteries of passion and the Tantra of realization go a long way to vilify the congresses of these neurotransmitters. Why even the Raptures of Enlightenment itself reflects this Brain Chemistry as a culmination of these chemically based biological bliss’s.

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Nevertheless, it has come to my attention of late that darkness is necessary to light and I am confident that behind this is the key to further realizations. The Psychology of Alchemy always alludes to darkness as a precipitate to the process of turning lead into Gold. An allusion to our Brain Chemistry perhaps. That in the darkness of night, in those tortuous anguishes of solitude, there is a fermenting, a decaying of the unincorporated Self to that which is newly born. We become as an Egg. A death from whence comes a life; you must die before you die to rise in Light!

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From the vestigial decay of our discarded and detached parts of our Psyche, from the retreat from outer life to the naked Soul searching within, there comes a breakthrough! These many separate parts of ourselves have somehow mutated into something newly Born. From the decay more biological Alchemies have transmuted into the needful neurotransmitters of dopamine and serotonin into the Light.

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We all need to rest and recuperate and gather ourselves anew in caves wrapped in lament and cloaked in anguish and dive deep into that unknown to become who we are to become … but we spend too much time surviving out of tune with the Natural rhythms of integration and holistic reintegrations which can raise us into the Light body.
What if the darkness is my friend and not my enemy? What if the darkness is our need to go within instead of chasing glimmers and reflections outside of ourselves feeling incomplete and without? What if we just need to go within and surrender into our great void of not knowing to create ourselves anew, to be reborn from this darkness into light. What if the vast Darkness of Space is also the Mother of all of our Gods?

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— the Heart is the basis for the quintessential transfiguration. The allusions of Alchemy hold many verities for those with eyes to see. This piece on depression is a whirlwind of views and ideas on the Darkness that invents the Light. In the Raga Yoga tradition they have demarcated 4 phases when moving through each one of the 33 Rings of Splendour of Sanskrit lineage. Upon entering one of the points is an elation, a bliss they call it which can last moments, days or years depending upon the Yogi. Ecstasy. After which there are two phases of depression. The agonizing phase which carries the anguishes and emergence of past painful impressions and the falling darknesses, the pit of despair. Then there is the dust and ashes phase which is the big grey nothing! The fog of emptiness. Either of these phases will have their alloted time. Then there is the breakthrough phase where one is vibrationally enraptured and the work continues to the next ring of splendour.

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These are Maps and not the Territories. My views are from observation and like the Quantum Field Theory, the observer is always intimately connected to the experiment thus changing it. Which means that each of our experiences will vary.

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The plot point of this piece is that the Darknesses is a relevant phase and you must find support for this phase shift in consciousness as the well may be infinitely deep.
The devil is in the details of your own wiring; merCurious lamentations in the Cathedral of satans synecdoche-bag of slippery tricks that is your mind.

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However, these are theories born of Art and not advice in any way —