So, a while back I posted about the polythetic nature of Paganism and mentioned the concept of 4 centers of Paganism... Recently, I'm been posting on my regular blog about the different ways that I "Connect With Spirit" (as described by Alaric Albertsson in his book To Walk A Pagan Path) as it relates to these four centers (which is different than the three ways Albertsson recognizes). I thought I'd share a bit about how a Self-centric works in my practice, or at least how I concieve the various aspects of the Self. These aspects are eclectic--some of the ideas are Jungian, some are Jungianish, as well as influences from the three aspects of the soul in the Feri tradition, and from chakra work. I work with my own Self in 7 aspects, certainly it could be divided into many more (or less), or the aspects could be viewed differently, with different names and carachteristics. This is just my personal preference, as the most useful way I've found to work with the different facets of my personality, as well as to help the kiddos work through different issues of their own. But regardless of what aspects of your Self you chose, the imporant thing to remember is that these aspects aren't something you have, its something you are.

1. Connecting with your Wild Child. In the Feri tradition, what I call the Wild Child is fairly analogous to the fetch. Your inner Wild Child is child-like, from a sensory perspective, but adult in his/her interests. S/he craves sensations and a little bit of mayhem--dance, play in the mud, play with play dough, swing on a swing, stomp in puddles...but (like a child) still needs structure and dicipline. The Wild Child is the part ourselves that is the most connected with nature and the Earth and, I would argue, the most embracing of its magics. If you are into chakra work, this part of yourself is most strongly connected with the root chakra; it craves security AND freedom. For some of us, our Wild Child may be overly repressed, and needs to be let out; for others it may be overly loud and need some reigning in.

2. Connecting with your Wounded Self. Almost no one escapes life without scars, physical, emotional, mental, spiritual, or all of the above. We all carry wounds somewhere on our soul, some of which have healed well, some that have healed poorly, some that have become infected, and some that remain open and gaping. When we connect with our Wounded Self, we become our own healer and identify those wounds, how they were made, and how we can facilitate their healing in a way that minimizes the impact of their scars on our daily lives. It is connected with the sacral chakra, for those that do chakra work. The wounded self, IMO, is also where our conscience starts--if something hurts you, you know it will hurt another; someone with a well-developed Wounded Self (and well-developed does not mean oft injured) generally has a strong sense of empathy. The kids call this their Jiminy Cricket.

3. Connecting with your Shadow. Our shadow is generally a part of ourselves that we don't like and try to bury. Basically, its the flip side or the hidden side of the Talking Self. In the interest of parsing words, I recommend one of John Halstead's posts on the Shadow Self. By connecting with our Shadow Self, we can come to terms with (and maybe even honor) those parts of ourself that we spend too much time denying. I have a hard time dealing with anger, because it was an emotion that I learned to repress very early on in life for fear of getting hit by my father...anger tends to leak from me in the form of sarcasm, or occasionally explode in a burst of temper because (and I'm certain I'm not alone here) I never learned to deal with it in a healthy way as a child, and was made to feel ashamed of being angry. As a parent, part of my shadow work is acknowleging my anger, accepting it, and finding a safe place to express it (because all parents know kids know how and when to push our buttons for maximum impact). For anyone doing chakra work, the Shadow can be connected with via the solar plexus chakra.

4. Connecting with your Mirrored-Self. The Ancient Greeks had six words for love. You are likely familiar with 5 of them, but its the sixth that is pertinent here--Philautia, or love of the self (something best done in moderation). The Mirrored-Self is connected to our social identity and our self-identity. When we connect with our Mirrored-Self, we need to learn to let go of how we think others view us and seek an objective self (an unblemished mirror) that is worthy of philautia (but not so much that we become narcissistic). Connecting with our Mirrored-Self is about acknowleging our flaws (because we are all flawed human beings) and both seeking to overcome or rectify them AND to forgive ourselves for having them or falling short on getting rid of them. For those that do chakra work, the Mirrored-Self is in the realm of the heart chakra, because you can't truly love another flawed human being, unless you accept and love yourself.

5. Connecting with your Talking Self. Jung would call this the Ego, but I prefer the Feri term for it... Realistically, most of us are nearly always connected to our Talking Self, so when I say "connecting" with it, I'm not suggesting we need to find it, but rather that we need to acknowledge it and define its edges so that we can release it for a while and move beyond it. Talking Self falls under the ageis of the throat chakra. When dealing with Talking Self, we first need to know the limitations of him/her:

6. Connecting with your Judging Self. Because I love watching Star Trek (but not enough to go to conventions), I like to call this my Inner Vulcan, because I tend to have a strong empirical streak. This is the aspect of ourself that is the most concerend with what we value, and is connected to the pineal chakra. It is the part of ourself that is capable of being reasonable and rational, sometimes even to the point of being unreasonable and irrational (pretty much like most of the Vulcans during the entire Enterprise series). It is also the part of ourself that can choose to reject the rational, in favor of the intuitive, sometimes to the point of denying reality and being flighty. When our Judging Self is balanced, we are able to look at both objective and subjective realities and value both as important to the human condition.7. Connecting to your Expansive Self. In the Feri tradition, this is known as the God-self or Deep Self (its also called this in the Reclaiming tradition). Another way that one can think of this aspect of ourself is as part of the Anima Mundi, or as part of a Universal Consciousness. Our Expansive self is connected to the Crown Chakra. This is the part of us that connect with divinity, in what ever form we concieve of it, and connection to our Expansive Self is highly personalized and dependent on the ways that we percieve sacredness and communicate with what we see as the Divine.