Blue Fox Shaman

Another Wacky Adventure in the Marriage of Heaven and Hell

Fox: Bärchen! Are you lying down?

Bärchen: I just thought I’d take a little nap.

Fox: But it’s time for bed soon! But, hey, since I have you there, I’m going to play Analyst with you. Stay right there while I get out my notepad and pencil.

Bärchen: Uh, oh! I get the feeling I’m in big trouble now.

Fox: Why? Afraid I’ll learn some secrets? Maybe use them against you?

Bärchen: You and I both know that it is actually impossible for me to hide anything from you.

Fox: I’m just seeing if you remembered. But this will be fun…

Bärchen: For you, maybe.

Fox: Party pooper! C’mon! Let’s start. Here! I’m going to put on your glasses too. Maybe that will make me look more scholarly. Okay, I’ll get the ball rolling by asking you a riddle.

Bärchen: A riddle?! What kind of Analyst are you playing, my dear?

Fox: A good one, I hope!… Ready? What does everybody have, nobody knows they have, but if they do know, they don’t know how to make it work for them?

Bärchen: Mmmm… oh, right! That would be their Guardian… or Guardians, depending on the person.

Fox: I’ll accept that. Excellent! 10 points!

Bärchen: I thought this was Psychoanalysis, not a game!

Fox: [looking puzzled] I really have no idea how you make a distinction between those…

Bärchen: Okay, right. But where is all this headed?

Fox: I’ll get there when I get there. Be patient, my husband!

Bärchen: You’re right, It’s that urge to get somewhere, do something, that is so strong…

Fox: Funny you should mention that. That’s exactly where I was heading.

Bärchen: Uh… you’re welcome?!

Fox: Yes, dear, that’s the aspect of the personality that we call ΒΡΟΝΤΗ (Thunder) in our Tarot/I Ching/Runes/Greek mashup.

Bärchen: Yeah, that thing that no one ever downloads and checks out… well, a few have. What’s up with that?

Fox: You very silly boy! You know that’s advanced studies… and not for the faint of heart, I might add. So, where were we? Oh, yes, ΒΡΟΝΤΗ. So, most people deal with this aspect of themselves according to societal norms, a combination of religious teaching, if present, parenting, and school. And most people, in fact, let ΒΡΟΝΤΗ, here meaning their desires, run their entire life while they passively watch. Well, okay, they sometimes notice they are watching, but this is very uncomfortable for them. If it’s really upsetting, they call it “dissociation” or even “depersonalization”.

Bärchen: Oh, right! The state I live in much of the time now. And a very comfy state, thanks to you. Just like this couch, which seems to be putting me to sleep…

Fox: Yes, Bärchen. That’s because you’re a Shaman.

Bärchen: Thanks to you!

Fox: I did indeed see to that. But don’t get off topic! Again, that’s advanced studies, open only to the psychologically stable. But stick with me here…

Bärchen: I am indeed stuck with you.

Fox: Focus! My goodness! So, most societies do their best to train dear old ΒΡΟΝΤΗ–maybe we should start calling him “Oldest Brother” as in the I Ching–and they use the “carrot and stick” approach. It actually works pretty well in any but Consumerist cultures, like pretty much everybody is now.

Bärchen: And everybody accuses me of re-stating the obvious. But, you’re right…and how do they say it?…”It is left to the reader to do the math”, which shouldn’t be that hard.

Fox: Don’t they have a website called “Desires Gone Wild”? Oh, wait…no, well it amounts to the same thing. The other approach, taken usually in monastic settings, is to cage Oldest Brother up… or put him to sleep… Bärchen! Pay attention!

Bärchen: Was I starting to snore?

Fox: Kind of. Anyway… third option– there’s the way of what we call, for lack of a better term, the “Initiate”, that is, basically somebody who has been let in on these secrets…

Bärchen: The ones you’re sharing with the world right now?

Fox: Hey! Only I can break the Fourth Wall…

Fox and Bärchen: …it’s in the nuptial agreements! [laughing]

Bärchen: So is Oldest Brother the Jungian “Shadow”?

Fox: Kinda, but not exactly. Oldest Brother has a split personality; he’s Dr. Jeckyll and Mr. Hyde. Mr. Hyde is the Jungian Shadow. And they’re right that our personal power comes from there, well, from Oldest Brother anyway, like it or not.

Bärchen: Oh! Sweetie! Hey! We’ve got to take a detour for a bit, don’t you think?! I mean, Stevenson’s story involved a drug that brought out Mr. Hyde. Of course! The drug differs for different people, but, hey, alcohol works for a lot of ’em! Right?!

Fox: “No reason to get excited” the thief she kindly spoke. “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we’ve been through that.”

Bärchen: “And this is not our fate.”

Fox: “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”

Bärchen: Am I supposed to play air guitar now?

Fox: Please don’t, Bärchen. Anyway, the hour is indeed getting late, so let’s rush forward and talk about Fate.

Bärchen: You drive me crazy with how you do that, how you make connections like that.

Fox: That’s my job, sailor! Oh, hah! Sorry! Old phrase from Succubus school comin’ out there. So, Fate. Right. In Faery Tales they call her the Faery Godmother, but I’m playing Analyst tonight, so gotta stick with the… oh, Hell! Nobody will understand that anyway. To most people their Unconscious is Grendel’s Mother’s Mere. Hmmm, and only fans of Anglo Saxon will get that one too. I give up, Let’s just call her the Faery Godmother. She determines one’s Fate, but she does it with one hand tied behind her back, as it were. Her part is to dress up the right Cinderella, not one of the Ugly Stepsisters. The Greeks called her…Cinderella that is… Can you name her?

Bärchen: The Heavenly Aphrodite?

Fox: Another ten points for Bärchen.

Bärchen: Yes! Got it.

Fox: So the other hand’s job is taken by…

Bärchen: Oldest Brother? No! Actually, by Youngest Brother. The CEO, AKA Executive Function.

Fox: Right! Racking up the points, my love. It’s that part of the Psyche that notices what’s going on and at least tries to make a coherent story out of it. And if he can manage to tackle Oldest Brother, he might whisper “Hey, bud, take a look at Cinderella over there. Isn’t she so much nicer than that Ugly Stepsister with her fake boobs…”

Bärchen: Fake…?!

Fox: You know what I mean. Anyway. So the Prince picks Cinderella and he’s a Happy Prince, ever after. That’s Fate right there, rolled up into a nice little ball of yarn. So, what did I tell you?! It’s all in the Faery Tales, advanced Psychology, and nobody notices. Didn’t they read Clotho’s dissertation?

Bärchen: That was published by Hell University Press, my love.

Fox: Oh, right.

Bärchen: We do have something, of course–Repentance, leading to Hope and a change of course (of course!), all cemented in one’s life by Ritual. Works wonders. That’s the 12 Step Program when it’s done right.

Fox: And! Don’t forget what game we’re playing…

Bärchen: Psychoanalysis. Yes?

Fox: I fear the only way to do it right apart from a religious conversion is for the Analyst to pose the right questions to get the Patient to stop for a bit and ask themselves…

Bärchen: Tackled!

Fox: No first down! Yeah! Or as the Coach (not the Couch) would say “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Of course, they shouldn’t say it that way… but they should think it.

Bärchen: Oh, but I know why they dare not even think it. There’s one very big problem here now I see. There’s got to be a Cinderella at the Ball for that part of the Psyche, Youngest Brother, to point to.

Fox: Uh huh. The tackle is just the first part of the job.

Bärchen: Where is Heavenly Aphrodite hangin’ out these days?

Fox: Not in the Mall, I’m afraid.

Bärchen: Consumerist culture strikes again.

Fox: “Curses, Consumerist culture, you’ve foiled us again!”

Bärchen: Slipped through our fingers like Moriarty. “But you and I, we’ve been through that…”

Fox: “And this is not our fate”

Bärchen: “So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” I think I’ll just fall asleep here on this comfy couch…

Fox: Not if I come over there and tickle you, you won’t. [comes over and tickles him]

Bärchen: [breathlessly] Ack! You’re… the World’s… Best Tickler… and that is not… a compliment.

Fox: It’s not?! Oh yeah?! Take that!

Bärchen: Uncle!

Fox: I’m afraid you’re just going to have to lie with the Heavenly Woman, ala Robert Johnson, tonight.

Bärchen: I’m your prisoner, my dear. Yet another case of Anima Possession.

Fox: Uh huh.

Bärchen: By the way, I haven’t seen Dr. Johnson at the Cathedral in ages. Used to see him all the time…

Fox: He passed beyond the Veil just before we were married, my love.

Bärchen: Oh.

Fox: “While the king was on his couch, my nard gave forth its fragrance. My beloved is to me a bag of myrrh, that lies between my breasts. My beloved is to me a cluster of henna blossoms in the vineyards of En-ge′di.”

Bärchen: “Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves… Our couch is green; the beams of our house are cedar, our rafters are pine.”

Fox: I think you need to get up into those rafters and clean those cobwebs out.

Bärchen: Hmmm?… oh, yeah. The spiders like it here.

Fox: Of course!

Bärchen: Hey! What about Philemon?

Fox: Jung’s… whatever…guru?

Bärchen: Uh huh. I mean, what do you think that says about his sexual orientation?

Fox: “Who art thou that judgest another man’s servant? to his own master he standeth or falleth. Yea, he shall be holden up: for God is able to make him stand.”

Bärchen: Okay, I’ll shut up now.

Fox: Come to bed, my love.

[…With special thanks to Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Carl Jung, Robert A. Johnson, the Apostle Paul, King Solomon (probably)… and Sigmund Freud? Nah. He can go fuck himself; he wouldn’t know his Anima from a hole in the ground…]