We Are Artisans of Our Own Souls



We are artisans.
Artisans of our own souls.
We are root makers.
We are rooted to the ground.
Rooted — for elevation.

We are so rooted.
We are rooted to the ground.
With entangled roots.
So umbilically tied;
To our nourisher— the Earth.

Rooted to the ground.
By Earth’s gravity so bound;
Everything alive.
Plants, animals, and others.
With Spirit — yet so rooted.

We are entangled.
Entangled in our roots.
Entangled in Self;
The Self — allied with our roots.
Our subterranean ground.

Our roots support us.
Our roots give us sustenance.
They keep us grounded.
Grounded — while sprouting upwards;
For union with the Self.

That is ironic.
In order to reach Spirit;
To be uplifted,
We must sublimate ourselves;
But our roots keep us anchored.

Alchemical task:
To be purely Spirit.
But we are Matter.
Spirit — is alchemical;
The soul in transformation.

We seek ascension.
Ascension from our own roots.
Our sublimation.
Requires transformation;
Our own metamorphosis.

Irony of roots.
That keep us all so anchored.
But with desire to soar.
Beyond our outer image.
Deep roots —  for our ascension.

Rooted — reaching up.
Collective human effort.
That engages us;
To attain some higher state;
Union with the Spirit.

Turning inwardly.
We are metaphysicians.
Brewing herbal roots.
Bearers of the antidote;
To heal our own distempers.

Distempers of roots.
Entangled by their grounding.
Entangled in the Self.
Seeking our elevation;
From being deeply rooted.

Irony of roots.
Digging deep — for ascension.
By Spirit within.
From Descent to Ascension;
Ever so interweaving.

Alchemy of roots.
Metaphysical cauldron.
Entangled in Self.
Our roots conjuring potions;
To restore us to wholeness.

We are artisans.
Metaphysical healers.
Seeking our wholeness.
To repair our broken selves.
The goal of the Inner Work.

Alchemy of Roots.
The work is never finished.
We are artisans.
Artisans of our own souls;
In the service of Spirit.

About this poem

We are existential artisans of our own souls. Observing how, in the teleological effort to attain individuation, psychological completion or wholeness, mankind always falls short, misses the mark of perfection, Swiss psychiatrist Carl G. Jung (1875-1961), once declared: In the effort to be artisans of our own souls, “We are entangled in the roots, and we ourselves are the roots. We make roots, we cause roots to be, we are rooted in the soil, and there is no getting away from us, because we must be there as long as we live. That idea, that we can sublimate ourselves and become entirely spiritual and no hair left, is an inflation…” (Carl Jung in “The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga: Notes of the Seminar,” 19 October, 1932, p. 29). This metaphysical tanka poem is composed to highlight the existential predicament of man’s entanglement in his own roots where, like the biblical faithful Job, he finds and enjoys physical sustenance for a period of time, only to recognize and acknowledge, by moral fortitude and conviction, that his very physical vigor and deportment, his cognitive powers, his abilities to ponder and to reflect, are beyond his own will power: that these physical and mental attributes are provided by the impetus of the Spirit that, while indwelling, is ironically beyond and requires no physical rooting or grounding. For materially-minded mankind, that must certainly be the existential irony of ironies for all of us to ponder: the existential ironic phenomenon of mankind being “in this world,” but “not of this world.” 

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Written on December 15, 2022

Submitted by karlcfolkes on December 15, 2022

Modified on March 23, 2023

2:02 min read
256

Quick analysis:

Scheme ABcDe fDgxx ddxcf xgHgd ixfxh xjfkl xjxme egeei Glxxe xxixj magxa gnhef Gexen GeHao Acokx GxABj
Closest metre Iambic trimeter
Characters 1,944
Words 408
Stanzas 16
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5, 5

Karl Constantine FOLKES

Retired educator of Jamaican ancestry with a lifelong interest in composing poetry dealing particularly with the metaphysics of self-reflection; completed a dissertation in Children’s Literature in 1991 at New York University entitled: An Analysis of Wilhelm Grimm’s ‘Liebe Mili’ (translated into English as “Dear Mili”), Employing Von Franzian Methodological Processes of Analytical Psychology. The subject of the dissertation concerned the process of Individuation. more…

All Karl Constantine FOLKES poems | Karl Constantine FOLKES Books

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