User:Thumper55

pothos (psychology)-

Just as Pothos is shown pulling Aphrodite's chariot pothos is the divine figure within, which pulls us onward, especially as the spiritual component of love. It is the "longing toward the unattainable, the ungraspable, the incomprehensible, that idealization with is attendant upon all love and which is always beyond capture." Pothos is probably related to the centaur as the teacher of humans and to the pair of horses or sphinxes which pull the chariot in Tarot card 7. In Pilgrim's Progress Christian continues towards the goal, while those who lack pothos turn back or are halted by sloth.

In Jungian analytical psychology or Hillman's archetypal psychology the restlessness is a stirring of the unconscious. If it grips a person strongly, he will leave the security of society and family and make the journey of the inner drama, as did Christian, even though one knows that the goal, as it is for the vision quest of the would-be shaman, is dismemberment, with no guarantee of completing the task with sanity or body intact.

Pothos represents the animal within us which leads us to our destiny as the soul which is the mythic support of pure spirit. Eros, whose father is usually given as Ares, is a diety, and is Aphrodite’s son, but his love for Psyche suggests that he is tending towards human feelings. The Eros-Psyche myth is used to reveal the dynamics of love's torment as both earthy and spiritual. In psychology eros is the libidinal which is opposed to thanatos, death; eventually thanatos and eros are complementary, not opposites. Eros is the desire for wholeness and psychic relatedness. This desire is the 'drive', the creative urge of cyclically-flowing Nature, while mortal Psyche is the mythic, that which becomes a symbol in the mind in form. The mythic is that which persists 'after death', ever repeating itself (see Harding ???). In the successful human life, Eros and Psyche are separated and in opposition, but are reunited as complements after the necessary suffering which life uses to develop the soul.

Pothos, as the drive of Eros, is equivalent to life-breath, Hebrew Ruach, Latin Spiritus, Greek Pneuma, and Sanskrit Prana. In the mystery teaching of the inner journey as outlined on the Trumps Major of the Tarot cards, this energy is that of the ox or bull, Aleph, in Key 0, The Fool. This is the all-pervading cosmic energy which cycles endlessly through all forms. Just as a sunflower grows upward towards the sun, yet was built of this energy descending from the sun, pothos is the drive from the inner nature, from Mother Nature. He is the son of Aphrodite, while he pulls her in the chariot with the (sun)wheel representing the eternal cycling of the two forms of the same energy. Thr growing sunflower is equivalent to the rise of the energy of kundalini up the spine. In the centaur, the horse is the animal 'human', the source of the drive, while the inner Self is represented by the human head of the centaur as that which teaches and disciplines the animal urges. This compares to the symbol for Sagittarius, the centaur advancing by shooting his arrow and then going forward to pick it up. The sides of the Great Pyramid are arrow shaped, and each year the shadow of the Pyramid forms an arrow on the ground, which grows towards the north, representing the location of the inner Self.

Mary Esther Harding states that the ego is the center of the personality, while the Self is the center of the psyche. . Because "death is pure psyche", the drive or inner pull of pothos is to turn towards the inner Self 'in the midst of life' around age 35. While the journey is dangerous and can lead to death or insanity, it is also likely that ignoring the drive, or continuing to focus it outward onto some form of materialism will also lead to insanity or stronger urges from pothos in the form of chronic illness or some unexpected (self-)destruction of one's career.

In progress, to be continued, editing and footnote help is appreciatedThumper55 (talk) 21:36, 29 January 2009 (UTC)thumper55