Egypt

I was thinking about Egypt. How you said we must not return. Yet… it was a Donkey that carried Mary and the Baby Jesus into Egypt, in order to escape genocide. Here we have another Joseph—whose dreams are connected with seeking refuge and safety in Egypt. It is a necessary regression in the service of the ego, looking to reconnect with something valuable that was left behind or was lost in the religion of Israel.

“For Israel, Egypt is alternately a place of security and nourishment and a place of bondage. The pattern repeats itself in the life of Christ. No sooner is the Christ-child born than he must seek refuge in Egypt, later to return and fulfill the pre-established pattern, “out of Egypt have I called my son.” (Hosea 11:1; Matthew 2:15) The symbolism of Egypt also plays a prominent role in Gnosticism:

Egypt as a symbol for the material world is very common in Gnosticism (and beyond it). The biblical story of Israel’s bondage and liberation lent itself admirably to spiritual interpretation of the type the Gnostics liked. But the biblical story is not the only association which qualified Egypt for its allegorical role. From ancient times Egypt had been regarded as the home of the cult of the dead, and therefore the kingdom of Death; this and other features of Egyptian religion, such as its beast-headed gods and the great role of sorcery, inspired the Hebrews and later the Persians with a particular abhorrence and made them see in “Egypt” the embodiment of a demonic principle. The Gnostics then turned this evaluation into their use of Egypt as a symbol for “this world,” that is, the world of matter, of ignorance, and of perverse religion: “All ignorant ones (i.e., those lacking gnosis) are ‘Egyptians,'” states a Peratic dictum quoted by Hippolytus (V.16.5). . . . Generally the symbols for world can serve also as symbols for the body and vice versa. . . . Regarding ”Egypt” the Peratae, to whom it is otherwise “the world,” also said that “the body is a little Egypt” (Hippol. V.16.5; similarly the Naassenes, ibid. 7.41). As the “body” or “world,” descent into Egypt signifies incarnation or coagulatio, a necessary step in realization of the psyche. At an early stage of development Egypt serves as a nourishing, protective mother. Later she becomes bondage and tyranny from which to escape.”’— Edward Edinger, The Bible and the Psyche.

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Published by Professor P

My name is Paityn Masters, my friends call me P. I am queer, Pisces, & an ENFP. I am trained as a psychotherapist, and my roots were as a youth pastor. As a psychotherapist, my specialty is in trauma and complex PTSD. I met my best friend and my cosmic partner, Jenni McCullum in graduate school. Together, we began discovering the spiritual world and the psychic gifts that had laid dormant in our psyche. We both went through a wild initiatory process that joyfully and sometimes even painfully expanded our capacity to both SEE and to HEAR, beyond the limits of the five senses. We are both intuitives, and Jenni is also a medium. As traditional psychotherapy frowns on the mystical modality, we had to start our own practice, and sacrifice licensing in order to answer the Call. Fortunately, we found our theoretical home in a branch of psychology known as Depth Psychology, that has its roots in the discoveries made by C. G. Jung, and seeks to study the soul rather than behavior, and sees the whole person on a spiritual level first—then works down to personality, family influence, upbringing, biology, heredity, physicality, status, image, and complexes. We see symptoms as more than something to eliminate, we see them as messages from the Soul. Psyche means Soul, but not many people know this, because our culture can’t seem to get beyond its dependence on the “safety” of the logical/rational mind. “Whenever you are in the realm of Soul, things will always go over your head. The statements of the conscious mind may easily be snares and delusions, lies, or arbitrary opinions, but this is certainly not true of the statements of the soul: to begin with they always go over our heads because they point to realities that transcend consciousness.” (C.G. Jung, Answer to Job). Healing means “making whole,” and many either think they are already whole, or fear they’re broken beyond repair. Healing involves the courage to look at the wounds that caused the brokenness to begin with. Symptoms are a huge help in identifying not only the injury but also the gifts one possesses. Marion Woodman said, “the wound is where the God enters.” So, we look at pain and trauma from the standpoint of Soul Making. I speak of God in my writing quite frequently, and like Soul, God is something that transcends our ability to conceptualize what that means. When I say God… I mean the God that I have discovered within… the same one that is within you. Folded up within each of us is the entirety of the cosmos. How we relate to our inner world determines how we will relate to everything. Our primary wounds and our deepest wounds are in the realm of relationship—beginning with the way we relate to our own inner selves. We are wounded in relationship and so we must be healed in relationship. That’s one of the things that we hope to do in our work here in this earth school. We hope to hold up a mirror so you can see your true nature, the image of your soul; reflection brings about insight, knowledge, and Wisdom.

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