Upper Wisdom and Lower Wisdom
I've been doing a lot more contemplating on the idea of the 6 cardinal directions; the og four (east, south, west, and north) as well as above and below. I think they're more pervasive than I thought. I reference the four directions a lot in my practice, letting them represent the four elements we each have to nurture and balance within us to life a fulfilling life. But I'm wondering where the above and below fit into this paradigm.
This is something I use a lot in my tarot readings. Reading cards, we move left to right like a sentence. If we place a card behind our focus, it symbolizes the past, and vice versa with the future. I often feel called to place cards above or below a card to uncover more upper wisdom or lower wisdom.
I found my favorite definitions not even in a "witchy," book, but from psychologist Bill Plotkin in Nature and the Human Soul. He has several passages devoted to each, but here's the highlight reel;
"Upperworld denotes transpersonal states of consciousness identified with spirit and characterized by unity, grace, bliss, transcendence, emptiness, light, enlightenment, the celestial realm, and pure awareness. During upperworld experiences, consciousness communes with or merges with spirit, in this way disidentifying from all personal and cultural beliefs, goals, desires, and attachments. Here the conscious self is transcended.
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Underworld signifies transpersonal states of consciousness and identity associated with soul and character ized ny depth, darkness, demons, that daemon, the subconscious, sacred woundings, dreams, the unknown or not-yet-known,shadow, death, and visions of personal and cultural destiny. This is Hades, the domain of soul encounter, the realm in which the conscious self is deepened and matured."
We all have the four elements within us which on their own can also be polarized into yin and yang. We each have a balance of yin (the synergy of water and earth) and yang (the conjunction of fire and air) that needs maintained. Upper and lower wisdom feels like something outside of ourselves.
Upper wisdom is what calls us to connect to each other. It's our collective empathy with Palestine. It's giving a dollar to a homeless person. It's baking a birthday cake for a child you don't really know. It's that toy that reminds you of that one time with your sister. It's what drives you out of your house even after you've had a really really bad day because you promised your best buddy you'd go to the club.
Even though lower wisdom and the underworld can also be conceptualized as our innermost souls, our darkest depth of shadow, our wild human nature is something that is only bestowed upon us. We have no control over it, we have no say in what it does. Our emotions are natural. Every time I go on a vision quest I find incredible things, images and pictures I never expected my brain to be able to dream up. I'm always blown away by my own psyche. I don't understand it, but we don't need to because the beauty is in the journey. Lower wisdom is our destiny calling to us through the fog and folds of time and space.
