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The broad answer to that seems to be that I will behave first as all human beings
(and sometimes many higher animals) behave; second, like others with a similar cultural
background; third, like others of my psychological type and finally, like no-one
else on Earth. With Rainring, we can go all the way from a card like Desire or Form,
which are constituents of the psyche of every being alive, through one such as inhibition,
which may be particularly characteristic of certain individuals, to a detailed psychological
profile which I will share with no-one else on the planet.
To recapitulate: the unconscious influences which affect my behaviour are partly
the items of my personal history which I have repressed, so that I act, or fail
to act in certain ways, without knowing why, or having any control over those actions.
Aside from these personal influences, there are the collective ones – those psychic
elements prevalent in my culture, and still more, those which are universal. In
the latter case, I am influenced, as are all human beings, by the impact of certain
motifs whose nature can be discovered from myths, fairy stories, literature, art
and so on. These motifs typically make their presence felt through symbols. Such
symbols, that is, have an emotional effect upon us, whether or not we notice or
are aware of it.
I have been attempting to support the contention that what we know and can control
– conscious behaviour – represents no more than a fragment of the total psyche of
each individual, or indeed of the collectivity. What is beyond that constitutes
the immense majority of psychic life. If our world is in such a state, it is because
we are able to call on no more than a minute fraction of ourselves. Our calamity
is related to the extreme paucity of our self-awareness. Rainring is an attempt
to address this limitation, because the cards are designed to reveal us to ourselves:
to be not only a map but a mirror.
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Heart/theatre: a product of the ‘strange state of mind’ period |
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Play of love/Conjugation; rejected illustration from Vikki
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