The Soul that Soars
The Soul that Soars
Onions, the Mind, and How to rise up from creeping and crawling to soaring
Famous American Poet Edgar Allan Poe wrote a poem known as Eureka. In this widely regarded poem, we start with Poe recanting a letter that he found in a bottle "floating on the Mare Tenebrarum—an ocean well described by the Nubian geographer, Ptolemy Hephestion" (fun fact about Ptolemy at the end of this article).
Within this letter is a discussion about the different ways to "Truth," and we read the following
:"Now I do not quarrel with these ancients… so much on account of … their pompous and infatuate proscription of all other roads to Truth than the two narrow and crooked paths—the one of creeping and the other of crawling—to which, in their ignorant perversity, they have dared to confine the Soul—the Soul which loves nothing so well as to soar in those regions of illimitable intuition which are utterly incognizant of 'path.'"
In this article, we're going to discuss a different perspective on our souls and how to work with our minds. We'll also learn to evaluate our thoughts more effectively, so we can think clearer, better, and more insightful.
Separating the Soul and Mind
In our modern society, we see the soul and the mind as two separate entities. We're more familiar with the mind as the soul is regarded as more intimate. With all this focus on the mind, numerous books and resources have been released on improving your mind.
So much so that we can give our minds upgrades. This line of thinking, however, can be a dangerous one. This upgraded line of thinking led us down prescribing medications to treat the mind. New studies have shown that our antidepressants may not even be effective when "improving" the mind.
As we'll see, the mind is intrinsically intimate and should not be considered something that could be upgraded - like a computer.
Instead, we should view the mind as intimate and close as the soul because the two are similar.
Uniting the Soul and Mind
To see how the two are similar, we must refer to the works of the great pioneers in psychology. To start, we'll look at the work of Carl Jung. According to the Academy of Ideas, we read the following:
A key to appreciating Jung's vast contributions to the field of psychology is knowledge of how Jung conceived of the psyche. The word psyche originally meant 'soul' or 'spirit' but by the turn of the 20th century increasingly came to refer to 'mind.' In Jungian psychology, one's psyche can be seen as their total personality and encompasses all one's thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and emotions.
In other words, when we talk about terms such as the psyche, soul, spirit, and mind, we're talking about the same thing. Over time those words have become detached, which could be the problem. We're seeing something that's together as separate individual parts.
However, if we look at the psyche as containing both the soul and our mind, we see how our mind is a part of our soul. With this insight, it's time to examine the soul.
Rediscovering your Soul
Our soul is a very intimate place. As stated earlier, in our society, we talk about the mind all the time - but the soul? That's sacred. That's personal.
And it should be. Our soul is who we are at our very core. It's why we're here and what we intend to live as.
However, due to its intimacy, could this be the problem why it's not discussed as much within society? We never discuss "soul health," but we discuss mental health. But why discuss the mental if the soul is not at peace?
That's why today, we're focusing on rediscovering our souls.
Creeping, Crawling, or Soaring
In Poe's poem, there's a discussion about “the truth” and the possible ways to get to the truth. This discussion goes wayward back to Aristotle's days.
There's the methodological way, the way where we take no risk; everything must be thought out, one foot in front of the other way. This way is known as the creeper and crawler.
There's another way - this way is the way of the one who soars. In the paper, the author states that all great achievements have been through those who let their souls soar intuitively. He also mentions that creeping and crawling - being too detailed - can hold us back and blind us with too much detail.
If we apply that mode of thinking to our souls and what we do, we ask ourselves the following question: Is my soul soaring? Do I have this energy to approach life daily with the breath that comes with aspiring to new heights?
Probably not. Most of the time, we're creeping and crawling out of bed. This may be due to our minds.
Integrating the Mind and Soul
So now that we've examined our soul, let's go back to our mind. And to see the mind in a new light, we'll be referencing the Onion Brain from The Personal MBA by Josh Kaufman.
From Josh, we read the following:
Most of us identify with the voice inside our head that’s constantly commenting about the world around us. That voice is sometimes electric with excitement, but more often, it’s uncertain, concerned, or scared.
Fortunately, “you” are not that voice. “You” are only a small part of your brain.
The voice in your head is just a radio announcer, commenting on what your brain is doing automatically. It is not you-your consciousness is actually what your brain uses to solve problems it can’t handle on autopilot.
Since human behavior has its roots in the brain, it’s very useful to understand how your brain is actually constructed. Here’s a brief (and massively oversimplified) look at how your brain works.
Think of the Brain as an Onion-it has several layers, which sit on top of each other.
To look at this Onion Brain model from a more philosophical perspective, the image below helps us see the three aspects in one:
Our soul is who we are - our goals, drives, at our very core, that's why we are.
Our mind is information taken in from our experiences which our brain then processes. The key to note here is that your brain processes that information in words.
You thinking random thoughts isn't necessarily "YOU" - as in your soul. You aren't thinking those thoughts. That's just your brain thinking within your mind.
We can see this holy trinity work perfectly by thinking of the psyche containing both the soul and the mind.
Our psyche contains both our soul and our mind.
Our soul is who we came on this earth to be.
Our mind takes in information and helps us process our experiences.
Conclusion
Meditation (and the multiple ways to meditate) is vital because meditation puts us at peace with our thoughts and ourselves. While meditating, we allow the brain to process all the information it receives in the form of our thoughts - and we, our soul, calmly sit there while our mind processes it all.
Those things that resonate with our soul call out to us, and these drives fuel our soul when we pursue them because that's who we are. It is here we soar.
But we must be careful of our thoughts. As stated earlier, the mind receives information, and that information can serve as a kind of "programming" to the mind. This programming can have a negative impact because if the thoughts are negative, this tends to turn our soul negative.
Accepting negative thoughts from the mind is where our soul begins to approach life from a creeper and crawler aspect.
With our thoughts, we must examine them; discern for ourselves if we trust them to be true or not. As Poe's poem states, our soul loves to soar in the regions of limitless intuition. If we have thoughts that don't resonate with our soul, we should examine them.
Fun Fact: Edgar Allan Poe describes Ptolemy as the "Nubian geographer". From Wikipedia, we read:
Hephaestion, son of Amyntor, was an ancient Macedonian nobleman and a general in the army of Alexander the Great. He was "by far the dearest of all the king's friends; he had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets."
I found it interesting how Poe, back in 1848, recognized Hephaestion as Nubian (Sudanese), yet all images of Hephaestion depict him as a European. Could this be an attempted hijack of history by Europe or possibly the British Empire?
I explore topics similar to this in my new book, An Unorthodox Truth, which is coming soon. Subscribe to learn more.
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Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka:_A_Prose_Poem
Eureka: https://freeclassicebooks.com/Edgar%20Poe/Eureka.pdf