Solstice & the symbols of nature

“As far as we can discern, the sole purpose of human existence is to kindle a light in the darkness of mere being.” - Carl Jung

Day and night. The yearly seasons. The forms of life. For the idealist, nature can become a book of symbols that hints at hidden meaning, and ritual can be a way to align our inner world with what they represent. Bernardo even argues that ritual may be crucial for true psychological health.

"Under analytic idealism rituals are not futile. They are not a mere theatrical play for an audience. They are a way to attune our own internal mental processes through sympathetic resonance with the mental processes flowing out through the world in which we live and in which we are immersed in all times."

Deciphering what nature symbolises is a matter of speculation. The only way to access what is beyond our dashboard is via intuition and altered states, and both are notoriously unreliable. Anything objective, is by definition, only about the dashboard. Nevertheless, Bernardo was happy to share his intuition about the significance of solstice; In the same way the earth rotates towards and away from light, conscious beings need times to introvert and times to express.

The winter solstice is an opportunity to attune to this rhythm of pause and reflection, and welcome the coming light.

“One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious.” - Carl Jung

Pre-literate societies may have been more easily attuned with these rhythms. With less conceptual frameworks to distract them, instinct remains intact.

To bring nature into metacognitive awareness requires distance. The immediacy of unthinking instinct is lost, but something is gained: a new and vibrant awareness of the wonder, a crystalised appreciation for the miracle in its context.

"There is something about taking explicit account, as an adult, of the wonders of existence, that brings the world into a new act of creation. In that sense we have the divine power of creation, because we bring what is latent up to a different level of existence, that is not merely instinctive." - Bernardo

The discussion today hinted at some distant future time in which our culture may mature towards a synthesis of these two ways of knowing, the literal and poetic.

Iain McGilchrist has charted the move from the wholistic and intimate perspective of the right brain to the analytic distance of the left, then back. The synthesis requires subsuming metacognitive insights into the relational and intimate knowing of the right hemisphere.

For now, our culture seems trapped in abstractions and analysis, mistrusting the mytho-poetic. As such, Bernard is happy to "fight the battles of today" and champion our understanding of reality as mind.

Along with many others, I was inspired by this discussion to revive rituals that harmonise my inner and outer worlds. It would be a pleasure to hear your reflections and intentions in the comments below, on Telegram or by email.

Wishing you all a festive, reflective and connecting time of the year.

Amir

Speakers

Bernardo Kastrup

Analytic idealism

Bernardo Kastrup is the Executive Director of Essentia Foundation and Founder/CEO at AI systems company Euclyd BV. His work has set off the modern renaissance of metaphysical idealism. He has a Ph.D. in philosophy (ontology, philosophy of mind) and another in computer engineering (reconfigurable computing, artificial intelligence).

As a scientist, he has worked for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Philips Research Laboratories (where the ‘Casimir Effect’ of Quantum Field Theory was discovered). He has also been creatively active in the high-tech industry for almost 30 years, having founded parallel processor company Silicon Hive (acquired by Intel in 2011) and worked as a technology strategist for the geopolitically significant company ASML. Most recently, he has founded AI company Euclyd BV.

Formulated in detail in many academic papers and books, his ideas have been featured in Scientific American, the magazine of The Institute of Art and Ideas, the Blog of the American Philosophical Association and Big Think, among others. His most defining book is Analytic Idealism in a Nutshell: A straightforward summary of the 21st-century’s only plausible metaphysics.

Explore Bernardo’s work →