Mining the Lead
It's striking how well this alchemical analogy fits the AA program.
The first three steps move from admitting powerlessness, to believing in a restorative power in the universe, to a daily reliance on that power for the journey toward individuation.
Step 4 turns inward: excavating shameful, base events, naming who, what, and why via the emotional driver — fear, shame, grandiosity — and one's own part in it.
The list compiled through Step 4 provides ample grist for the mill of alchemy.
Amends will be addressed in a future step. Amends don't mean release from, or a full cognitive appreciation of, one's own inner failings.
The list highlights events and reactions, but in most cases there's still alchemical lead to be mined.
Observation
This might seem a daunting, repetitive almost Masochistic descent into past events long repressed. But the journey isn't about uncovering some new, heretofore unknown truth — it's about mining the truth in the last place one would expect it.
Joy found in the darkness of these inner recesses is a far richer reward than joy that asks nothing of us.
No comments:
Post a Comment