I recently learned about this very interesting thing while reading Starhawk's "Spiral Dance" it explained that in the Faery tradition of Witchcraft, the unconscious mind is called the Younger Self; and the conscious mind is called the Talking Self. Because they function through different modes of awareness (different things stimulate them) communication between the two is difficult.
The Younger self is stimulated through experiences, like a small child. It understands not what is said verbally, but what is shown, heard, dreampt, and felt, along with others. It communicates through images, emotions, sensations, dreams, visions and physical symptoms. Witchcraft teaches one how to speak back to our Younger Selves.
Talking Self organizes impressions made on Younger Self, giving them names and classifying them. It functions through the verbal, analytic awareness of the left hemisphere. It also includes the set of verbally understood precepts that encourage us to make judgements about right and wrong. Talking self speaks through, words, numbers, and concepts.
So, Younger self must be shown something in order to really understand it. It is this reason we give items symbolic meaning. Everyone knows the Goddess isn't really the moon, but it pleases our Younger Selves into thinking that this is true, so we get goosebumps when we see a full moon on a clear night. It triggers us into a certain mode, as one might put it.
Again, a basic description, but one that I find very interesting, and truthful. This information, at least bits and pieces, came from Starhawk's "The Spiral Dance:10th Anniversary Edition".
OR go back to my Shadows Learned page or my BoS main page
