Moon: Rehabilitation Subconsciousness

[Jim Eshelman]

[This is a chapter, "Rehabilitating Subconsciousness" from my book Pearls of Wisdom, (C) 2013, James A. Eshelman, all rights reserved - but feel free to distribute this chapter to anyone who wants a copy. From an astrological perspective, this is all about the Moon!]


Perhaps there is no more valuable undertaking in the pursuit of occult studies, or for personal happiness and psychological health, than the rehabilitation of subconsciousness.

Most people have a general understanding of what we mean by “subconscious mind.” It talks to us in our dreams. It provides what we often call “intuition.” It plays little tricks on us when we are out of touch with our feelings or try to act untrue to ourselves. It supports us, feels good, and rewards us when we do otherwise.

Besides these few things, there is a lot more about subconsciousness worth knowing.

Subconsciousness is the part of our mind closest to the organic level. It does obvious, automatic, repetitive things, such as beating our heart. It keeps us breathing, even when we are not paying attention. It also oversees all of those other body functions that keep on happening and without conscious monitoring. For example, subconsciousness controls the digestive process. Think about this for a minute: You probably know that many steps are involved in the digestion of food, the extraction and distribution of nutrients, and the elimination of waste. Subconsciousness controls all of those. Think about each step of these processes in turn, to the best of your knowledge. You may get some real surprises!

Once we have nutrients extracted, how do we determine what goes where? There are a lot of molecules to keep track of! Chemical processes occur all the time in our bodies, breaking down materials to their basic components, reassembling these into new things we need, then deciding, on more or less a cell-by-cell basis, what goes where – and getting it there. How do we make this happen? Well, we certainly do not think it through consciously. Subconsciousness (the best personal assistant you ever will find) takes care of these little details for you.

Take this one step further: Subconsciousness controls every detail of blood chemistry that the body is capable of sensing. This is powerful stuff! Tiny variations in blood hormone levels have huge effects on mind, behavior, and health. Most of my readers will have had personal experience in the profound difference that a few micrograms of change in blood chemistry can have on their consciousness for many hours after.

You want subconsciousness to be your friend!

Unfortunately, in our society, we often are alienated from it. We need to change that.

As your “personal assistant,” subconsciousness keeps track of many things you then can forget about. It is very good at taking a hint – a suggestion from your actions, or an idea that you drop – and carrying it out to a conclusion. Most “intuition” (so-called) is the result of subconsciousness taking all of the facts of an issue, extrapolating them to all of their possible logical conclusions (like thinking through every possible set of moves in a chess game), then tossing its conclusion up into your conscious mind. Do you ever use the technique of “sleeping on” a question or problem? Subconsciousness “sleeps on it” – on everything! – all the time, even when you are awake. Want something to happen? Give subconsciousness the suggestion, make your actions consistent with the wish, and subconsciousness will probably pull it off for you!

Subconsciousness is also the field of instincts, organic reflexes, and habits. Perhaps most extraordinarily of all, it is the real “world wide web.” All organic life on this planet is connected at the level of subconsciousness. The interconnection of animals with each other (and, of course, with children!) is a sign of this. Subconsciousness is the basis of telepathy, and of our underlying and fundamental connection with each other: This is the means of such miracles as when someone (with no objective way of knowing what we need) suddenly appears on our doorstep, item in hand.

Furthermore, subconsciousness is awake all the time, 24 hours a day – unlike what we call our conscious mind. It is common to think of waking consciousness as comparable to the daytime sky filled with sunlight, and to analogize subconsciousness to the night sky and the state of sleep. However, the night sky is “out” during the daytime too! It’s just covered over with all that sunlight bouncing off the air molecules in our atmosphere. During a solar eclipse, when the covering Moon “quiets” the sunlight, the night sky pops out from behind – it’s always there! Similarly, subconsciousness is always awake. Meditation is a means of inducing a metaphorical solar eclipse – quieting the sunlight of conscious thought so you can get better at consciously listening to what subconsciousness sounds like when it talks.

However, subconsciousness does not “talk” in words. It is a preverbal part of our minds. Spoken and written words are the language of the conscious mind. Subconsciousness communicates through feelings (organic sensation) and, especially, through imagery. The language of subconsciousness is symbols. Symbols are to subconsciousness what words are to the intellect. The conscious mind does not have to know what a symbol means for subconsciousness to read it directly, with full understanding. To continually “translate” symbols into verbal meanings misses the point! You need, instead, to learn to “read” them directly with subconsciousness, rather than with your rational mind.

In the course of developing self-conscious ego-differentiation and a sophisticated intellect over the last few thousand years, humanity suppressed awareness of subconsciousness, sometimes brutally. As a species, we often do this sort of thing when fighting our way out of a limitation: we attack and suppress what we are trying to grow past or leave behind. Now, we need to move past this denial and heal the wound, rehabilitating our relationship with subconsciousness. Most fundamental occult practices do exactly that.

Imagine a small child that no one ever talks to or listens to; or, if they do talk to the child, it is to shut it up, or to brutalize it just for being there; and they never speak in the child’s own language. Imagine further that this child is kept locked away all of the time. What do you suppose this child would be like? The answer is obvious. It would be heavily pathologized. The worst of its behavior would come out. It would be dysfunctional in numerous ways. It would also look for opportunities to get back at its abuser in self-protective, deceptive, and incredibly clever ways.

Is it obvious to you that this is what happens to the subconscious mind when you treat it the same? Subconsciousness is not pathological per se, though many people’s subconscious minds have become pathological. Ever wonder where your little self-destructive traits came from? Hmm?

The solution, of course, is to begin changing your habits. Stop dissing subconsciousness. Set aside quality time with subconsciousness every day. (It responds very well to regularity, repetition, and rhythm. Make use of this fact.) Speak to it in its own language – the language of symbols. Just sit and listen to it. Set aside the special time to be with subconsciousness every day, no matter what, preferably at the same time and place.

How do you speak to it in its own language? Quietly meditate on a Tarot card – take the 22 trumps in sequence, spending a week on each one, and just quietly look at the card for 5-10 minutes. Subconsciousness will “read” it for you – you do not have to do anything else. If subconsciousness figures something out and tells you, listen carefully and write it down. Also, as you may already have realized, magick ritual speaks in the language of symbols. Meditation practices train us to listen to subconsciousness. Keeping track of our dreams and seeking to understand them in the semi-conscious just-waking state can be a powerful dialogue within the mind. (Dreams are not confusing when you are having them – only when you try to translate the dream language into rational thought later.) Observe your psychological projections throughout the day (commonly signaled by a surge of reactive emotion), and track them in a diary – these are examples of “dreams” in your waking state; that is, of how the subconscious and conscious minds interact over the course of the day.

As you continue your occult studies, look at each new practice through this lens. Ask what it is doing to help you build a new, healthy, loving, cooperative relationship with a renewed, healthy, loving subconscious mind. In only a few weeks or months, you may be astonished at the changes this makes in your life!

[Venus_Daily]

[This is a chapter, "Rehabilitating Subconsciousness" from my book Pearls of Wisdom, (C) 2013, James A. Eshelman, all rights reserved - but feel free to distribute this chapter to anyone who wants a copy. From an astrological perspective, this is all about the Moon!]


Perhaps there is no more valuable undertaking in the pursuit of occult studies, or for personal happiness and psychological health, than the rehabilitation of subconsciousness.

Most people have a general understanding of what we mean by “subconscious mind.” It talks to us in our dreams. It provides what we often call “intuition.” It plays little tricks on us when we are out of touch with our feelings or try to act untrue to ourselves. It supports us, feels good, and rewards us when we do otherwise.

Besides these few things, there is a lot more about subconsciousness worth knowing.

Subconsciousness is the part of our mind closest to the organic level. It does obvious, automatic, repetitive things, such as beating our heart. It keeps us breathing, even when we are not paying attention. It also oversees all of those other body functions that keep on happening and without conscious monitoring. For example, subconsciousness controls the digestive process. Think about this for a minute: You probably know that many steps are involved in the digestion of food, the extraction and distribution of nutrients, and the elimination of waste. Subconsciousness controls all of those. Think about each step of these processes in turn, to the best of your knowledge. You may get some real surprises!

Once we have nutrients extracted, how do we determine what goes where? There are a lot of molecules to keep track of! Chemical processes occur all the time in our bodies, breaking down materials to their basic components, reassembling these into new things we need, then deciding, on more or less a cell-by-cell basis, what goes where – and getting it there. How do we make this happen? Well, we certainly do not think it through consciously. Subconsciousness (the best personal assistant you ever will find) takes care of these little details for you.

Take this one step further: Subconsciousness controls every detail of blood chemistry that the body is capable of sensing. This is powerful stuff! Tiny variations in blood hormone levels have huge effects on mind, behavior, and health. Most of my readers will have had personal experience in the profound difference that a few micrograms of change in blood chemistry can have on their consciousness for many hours after.

You want subconsciousness to be your friend!

Unfortunately, in our society, we often are alienated from it. We need to change that.

As your “personal assistant,” subconsciousness keeps track of many things you then can forget about. It is very good at taking a hint – a suggestion from your actions, or an idea that you drop – and carrying it out to a conclusion. Most “intuition” (so-called) is the result of subconsciousness taking all of the facts of an issue, extrapolating them to all of their possible logical conclusions (like thinking through every possible set of moves in a chess game), then tossing its conclusion up into your conscious mind. Do you ever use the technique of “sleeping on” a question or problem? Subconsciousness “sleeps on it” – on everything! – all the time, even when you are awake. Want something to happen? Give subconsciousness the suggestion, make your actions consistent with the wish, and subconsciousness will probably pull it off for you!

Subconsciousness is also the field of instincts, organic reflexes, and habits. Perhaps most extraordinarily of all, it is the real “world wide web.” All organic life on this planet is connected at the level of subconsciousness. The interconnection of animals with each other (and, of course, with children!) is a sign of this. Subconsciousness is the basis of telepathy, and of our underlying and fundamental connection with each other: This is the means of such miracles as when someone (with no objective way of knowing what we need) suddenly appears on our doorstep, item in hand.

Furthermore, subconsciousness is awake all the time, 24 hours a day – unlike what we call our conscious mind. It is common to think of waking consciousness as comparable to the daytime sky filled with sunlight, and to analogize subconsciousness to the night sky and the state of sleep. However, the night sky is “out” during the daytime too! It’s just covered over with all that sunlight bouncing off the air molecules in our atmosphere. During a solar eclipse, when the covering Moon “quiets” the sunlight, the night sky pops out from behind – it’s always there! Similarly, subconsciousness is always awake. Meditation is a means of inducing a metaphorical solar eclipse – quieting the sunlight of conscious thought so you can get better at consciously listening to what subconsciousness sounds like when it talks.

However, subconsciousness does not “talk” in words. It is a preverbal part of our minds. Spoken and written words are the language of the conscious mind. Subconsciousness communicates through feelings (organic sensation) and, especially, through imagery. The language of subconsciousness is symbols. Symbols are to subconsciousness what words are to the intellect. The conscious mind does not have to know what a symbol means for subconsciousness to read it directly, with full understanding. To continually “translate” symbols into verbal meanings misses the point! You need, instead, to learn to “read” them directly with subconsciousness, rather than with your rational mind.

In the course of developing self-conscious ego-differentiation and a sophisticated intellect over the last few thousand years, humanity suppressed awareness of subconsciousness, sometimes brutally. As a species, we often do this sort of thing when fighting our way out of a limitation: we attack and suppress what we are trying to grow past or leave behind. Now, we need to move past this denial and heal the wound, rehabilitating our relationship with subconsciousness. Most fundamental occult practices do exactly that.

Imagine a small child that no one ever talks to or listens to; or, if they do talk to the child, it is to shut it up, or to brutalize it just for being there; and they never speak in the child’s own language. Imagine further that this child is kept locked away all of the time. What do you suppose this child would be like? The answer is obvious. It would be heavily pathologized. The worst of its behavior would come out. It would be dysfunctional in numerous ways. It would also look for opportunities to get back at its abuser in self-protective, deceptive, and incredibly clever ways.

Is it obvious to you that this is what happens to the subconscious mind when you treat it the same? Subconsciousness is not pathological per se, though many people’s subconscious minds have become pathological. Ever wonder where your little self-destructive traits came from? Hmm?

The solution, of course, is to begin changing your habits. Stop dissing subconsciousness. Set aside quality time with subconsciousness every day. (It responds very well to regularity, repetition, and rhythm. Make use of this fact.) Speak to it in its own language – the language of symbols. Just sit and listen to it. Set aside the special time to be with subconsciousness every day, no matter what, preferably at the same time and place.

How do you speak to it in its own language? Quietly meditate on a Tarot card – take the 22 trumps in sequence, spending a week on each one, and just quietly look at the card for 5-10 minutes. Subconsciousness will “read” it for you – you do not have to do anything else. If subconsciousness figures something out and tells you, listen carefully and write it down. Also, as you may already have realized, magick ritual speaks in the language of symbols. Meditation practices train us to listen to subconsciousness. Keeping track of our dreams and seeking to understand them in the semi-conscious just-waking state can be a powerful dialogue within the mind. (Dreams are not confusing when you are having them – only when you try to translate the dream language into rational thought later.) Observe your psychological projections throughout the day (commonly signaled by a surge of reactive emotion), and track them in a diary – these are examples of “dreams” in your waking state; that is, of how the subconscious and conscious minds interact over the course of the day.

As you continue your occult studies, look at each new practice through this lens. Ask what it is doing to help you build a new, healthy, loving, cooperative relationship with a renewed, healthy, loving subconscious mind. In only a few weeks or months, you may be astonished at the changes this makes in your life!

This is amazing, Jim. A friend I made at work and I kind of talk about shared trauma and manifesting our ideal lives. She is currently using the law of attraction to manifest a better life. Instantly, I thought about the moon, and the law of attraction and how both the moon and Neptune act as attractive forces in different ways. The Moon seems to be a lot more personalized in the way we attract things whereas Neptune attracts things in a more sensational way hypnotizing others and sometimeslarge groups. A great example is the life lived by Marylin Monroe. Close friends often told stories of magnetism within her public and private life. In fact, she's often used as an example for people prominent in the law of attraction circles.

At first, I had problems understanding the principle of the moon, and maybe it's because I wasn't looking at it in a non lunar perspective.

I also love the moon's influence over instinct and how that shows up in lunar returns acutely or long term. The Moon really represents past or more recent seeds we've sown out of instinct, which show up in SLRs and leave us thinking, "How in the hell did that happen?!" Sometimes, as you mentioned, this can show up out of pure telepathy/attractive forces without acting on instinct in the physical realm. I see how the act of releasing and letting go in the budhist sense can actually attract things to you just because you're giving your subconscious room to breathe and take over.