For our final epiphany from Iron Pentacle class, we’re posting about a freakish hybrid of Iron Pentacle and Getting Things Done.
Class, please get out your day planners and your athames. (:
Getting Things Done
In David Allen’s book Getting Things Done, (which we’ve talked about before) he talks about the concept of open loops.
Open loops are things that keep popping up at inconvenient times and reminding you of their existence. “Remember the milk”, “Oh, I forgot to reply to that email”, or “I just had a brilliant idea, I’d better not forget it!”
They’re useful but distracting, and you can only hold so many of them in your head at one time. David Allen tells you to get them out of your head and into some trusted system. But that’s not what we’re talking about today. We’ll come back to open loops, but first, let’s take a little detour…
Witchcraft
The Feri tradition of neopaganism has a useful model of self called the Triple Soul.
The Primal Self, or Fetch, or Animal Self, consists of all our basic instincts, desires, and raw emotions. It’s like our inner child, but is also sexual. It’s kind of like the id in Freudian psychology.
The Talking Self, or Rational Self, or Human Self, is the part of us that thinks and reasons. It’s the part of ourselves that we’re conscious of being.
The Higher Self, or Divine Self, or Shining Dove, or Godself, is the part of us that’s larger than us. It’s our inspiration, our intuition, our spiritual connection to the universe and to others. In other words, our soul.
Now for the punchline.
Open loops happen at all levels.
Primal Self open loops are things like “I’m hungry”, “I’m lonely all the time”, or “I’m not getting enough physical touch”. They’re distracting to-do items that are physical, instinctual, emotional, or animal in nature.
Talking Self open loops are the kind that David Allen talks about, and we talked about earlier. “Remember the milk”, “Oh, I forgot to reply to that email”, or “I just had a brilliant idea, I’d better not forget it!”
Higher Self open loops are when you feel a vague unease in your soul. You can’t put your finger on it, but something is just wrong. Something is missing in your life, but you don’t know what. You blink, and when you open your eyes, just for an instant, you get the feeling that everything around you is wrong. Like you were dropped into the wrong movie, the wrong life.
Usually you just shrug it off as a passing fantasy or a random paranoia. But that’s not what it really is. It’s your soul’s way of telling you that you have something to do and you are not doing it.
You’re on the wrong path.
Something is not right.
Something is missing.
If you ignore that quiet voice in the stillness, you are ignoring your soul.
What would happen if — just once — you listened to it?
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{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Oh wow, what a concept! Especially the “Higher Self open loop” idea really resonated with me. Another one of those things that you only really become aware of when you find a name for them. Thank you, this was so cool!
Glad to hear it resonated with you, Sari! (:
I was charmed by this entry. :)
I noticed a couple of “food for thought” nuggets:
1. Describing Fetch’s desires as “distracting to-do items” sounds like Talking Self talking. If you tranced and/or dreamed and invited Fetch to describe its own desires, what would that be like? And does Fetch have “to do” items? My experience of Fetch is more instinctual and in-the-moment.
2. “Higher self open loops” come up as a “vague unease in your soul” and they also come up as patterns of choices (especially when you look back), of startling moments in ritual, flashes of insight, a “calling”, etc. Is there a Work that keeps calling you? Is there something in you that has been “out of step” with the overculture? Are there people (and/or people embodying an archetype) you keep encountering?
Could you call your path of gender discovery a “higher self open loop”?
Great love,
- elfin
1. Oh yes, talking self writes most of these blog posts. *grin* from fetch’s perspective, those sort of open loops would be… hmm. It’s hard to describe in words. but something like “a scent on the wind that stirs a hunger in you”.
2. Yes! All those things are Higher Self open loops too! Yes yes yes! As for my own gender stuff, hmm. Actually, upon reflection, it feels different. it feels… inner, instead of forward. Like the other Higher Self things are like a call, connecting with something that pulls me. And the gender thing was more like a centering, a seeking of alignment with something inside me than a seeking of alignment with a part of me that’s… above me? Obviously these are all parts of me, but they feel different somehow.
Good question, though. I don’t have a label for that part. (:
Maybe the best name for that last part _is_ “alignment”. (:
This is awesome stuff, I’ve been having these higher self open loops you describe as I’ve mostly been focusing on the needs of my other parts and relegating those needs to the future. Thanks!
@elfin: Maybe so. (:
@elphie: Awesome! (:
wow very excellent article but it stopped to soon