Blog By Comment Post Inspired by

Elizabeth Rose Psychic and Tarot. This post with the image of the painting with Echo and Narcissus + Liz’s mention of the Phoenix catalyzed me to forget the story for getting the gift of telling it differently. Visit her site for the Astrology, though don’t be surprised when you receive a larger takeaway than just that. I received a re-telling from myself of a story that brought it into a different light, and may soon apply to modern discussions of Narcissism… as Psychopaths are (most likely) born (and/or experience trauma from Day 1 as their only context?), though what about Sociopaths? Common work in the Psych community often indicates that Sociopaths are made rather than born. From what are they made? Typically, it is my understanding that Sociopaths are made by trauma over decades that goes unresolved, unreleased such that it that lives deep within and in miscellaneous places that often hide in plain sight. Personally, the tell that I notice — and this is anecdotal from multiple experiences rather than from scientific study or professional Psych community papers — the tell I notice is most often a combination of shaming behavior that couples with a more insidious trait. The latter is that when they ask you a question, and you answer from your perspective as we are want to do… as, well… you asked me a question. Then, in the latter tell, they launch into triggered tirades, of, yes, shaming behavior as if their question came from a professional Angler fish that baits people in with questions. The evolution of that, though, comes from an Empathic Silence I began to notice myself experience in this type of interaction. I would notice, and yes it was a bit manipulative and not truth in an air of truthfulness on my part, that if I answered something more from a place of their perspective, all was well. Well, all was not well, as then I was simply playing the marionettes counterpart of their projection, and in some cases actual Projective Identity.

What I came to is this. Rather than judgment, I chose discernment, and again, Empathic listening, carefully and thoughtfully watch the triggered behavior AS it began to unfold. How did it feel to me? Well, it felt like this. It felt that when forces and influences and responses came from outside of them, it was danger they experienced. It made sense. Their intense traumas mostly all came from external forces. People. Experiences. And, when I did what people do under interrogative circumstances, a different way of saying ‘when asked a question,’ and I responded wholeheartedly from my perspective, out came the psyche-knives with ground fire blazing. Vicious is a word, though I have to say. Don’t get me wrong. I found it not only empathic and compassionate to understand that they then operate from a place of pain. I found it simply considerate to respect that that is the case, and to do my part to get that even in their dosed up and potent nightshade belladonna venom and vitriol, they may be the person who needs to be heard the most. And as well, I am not Saint Jordan of Naïveté. Nor, am I a Psych professional. So, there is only so far that can go, unless they are willing to at least attempt to check the ordinance at the door in the understanding that I will view them as shooting blanks in regards to me.

Now, under those circumstances, I find it more compassionate all around when I discern and groc that this is that kind of scenario, to first respond to the question with a clarification question to at least quell the hair trigger sawed off shotgun that is unsnapped and with the safety off that leans in to point in my general direction. How it goes from there? Ask me again tomorrow. I simply offer the above from a laymen’s perspective from someone who has worked openly outside and within his own psyche with the hood open while active in the creative process. So, on to the article, Part 1 of 2. And, as it goes in theatre and fighting, the above warm-up is substantially shorter than the one-act performance below. Plus, There’s a link to Part 2 below… Comments welcome.

Trees with strong roots laugh at storms.

~ Malay Proverb

J: Excellent image for this post today. Echo hears herself, and that hearing comes from echoes outside in response to her voice from within. Chords are struck to resonate. She begins to connect. Narcissus sees himself, is hypnotized from within, magnetized and pulled inside to orbit only in that world where the external more and more falls away. He gets lost in there, chases false horizons in his unconscious isolation. She gets found. She finds herself connecting. Echo is the potential spark that lights his Phoenix to fire back up within and push his head out of his heart and resurrect out here, most likely with epic experiences from traumas he tilled that then unfold.

E: fantastic insight, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

J: You’re very welcome. Thank you for the resonance in your accolade. Much appreciated. I had not thought of it this way before, though the image and your mention of the Phoenix made a perfect catalyst to pair, where the painting began to re-tell the story for me from another perspective… mine now… and, in an informed, intuitive reading format… could be called Beginner’s Mind fueled by a bank of experience… which I could pen as simply expectations inspected and left at the door to evaporate blind spots and see and experience what actually is, right in front of us, for more robust clarity and connections. I received the gift to teach myself a new self-created version of the story of Echo and Narcissus today catalyzed by your post. It brought me to forget the story of Echo and Narcissus as I knew it. It brought me to forget in that way of forgetting is for getting… makes more room for the good stuff. Thank you. Thank me. Thanks much. This feels to apply to the larger sociological and psychological landscape of today. We talk about and hear much about Narcissus and Narcissists and trauma and sociopathy and Psychological Projection and Projective Identity. Though, how many of us do the work to find and develop our Inner Nature as did Echo To connect, with ourselves and others and Nature itself?

See Part 2 of Echo & Narcissus Compose the Phoenix Here