The War of Art (a kick in the ass)

The following is excerpted from The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles by Steven Pressfield. (Described by Esquire as “A vital gem…a kick in the ass.”)

The Ego, Jung tells us, is that part of the psyche that we think of as “I.” Our conscious intelligence. Our everyday brain that thinks, plans, and runs the show of our day-to-day life.

The Self, as Jung defined it, is a greater entity, which includes the Ego but also incorporates the Personal and Collective Unconscious. Dreams and intuitions come from the Self. The archetypes of the unconscious dwell there. It is, Jung believed, the sphere of the soul.

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Here’s what I think. I think angels make their home in the Self, while Resistance has its seat in the Ego.

The fight is between the two.

The Self wishes to create, to evolve. The Ego likes things just the way they are.

What is the Ego, anyway? Since this is my book I’ll define it my way.

The Ego is that part of the psyche that believes in material existence.

The Ego’s job is to take care of business in the real world. It’s an important job. We couldn’t last a day without it. But there are worlds other than the real world, and this is where the Ego runs into trouble.

Here’s what the Ego believes:

1 – Death is real. The Ego believes that our existence is defined by our physical flesh. When the body dies, we die. There is no life beyond life.

2 – Time and space are real. The Ego is analog. It believes that to get from A to Z we have to pass through B, C, and D.  To get from breakfast to supper we have to live the whole day.

3 – Every individual is different and separate from every other. The Ego believes that I am distinct from you. The twain cannot meet. I can hurt you and it won’t hurt me.

4 – The predominant impulse of life is self-preservation.  Because our existence is physical and thus vulnerable to innumerable evils, we live and act out of fear in all we do. It is wise, the Ego believes, to have children to carry on our line when we die, to achieve great things that will live after us, and to buckle our seat belts.

5 – There is no God. No sphere exists except the physical and no rules apply except those of the material world.

These are the principles the Ego lives by. They are sound solid principles.

Here’s what the Self believes:

1 – Death is an illusion. The soul endures and evolves through infinite manifestations.

2 – Time and space are illusions. Time and space operate only in the physical sphere, and even here, don’t apply to dreams, visions, transports. In other dimensions we move “swift as thought” and inhabit multiple planes simultaneously.

3 – All beings are one. If I hurt you, I hurt myself.

4 – The supreme emotion is love. Union and mutual assistance are the imperatives of life. We are all in this together.

5 – God is all there is. Everything that is, is God in one form or another. God, the divine ground, is that in which we live and move and have out being. Infinite planes of reality exist, all created by, sustained by and infused by the spirit of God.

Experiencing the Self

Have you ever wondered why the slang terms for intoxication are so demolition-oriented? Stoned, smashed, hammered. It’s because they’re talking about the Ego. It’s the Ego that gets blasted, waxed, plastered. We demolish the Ego to get to the Self.

The margins of Self touch upon the Divine Ground. Meaning the Mystery, the Void, the source of Infinite Wisdom and Consciousness.

Dreams come from the Self. Ideas come from the Self. When we meditate we access the Self. When we fast, when we pray, when we go on a vision quest, it’s the Self we’re seeking. When the dervish whirls, when the yogi chants, when the sadhu mutilates his flesh; when penitents crawl a hundred miles on their knees, when Native Americans pierce themselves in the Sun Dance, when suburban kids take Ecstasy and dance all night at a rave, they’re seeking the Self. When we deliberately alter our consciousness in any way, we’re trying to find the Self. When the alcoholic collapses in the gutter, that voice that tells him, “I’ll save you,” comes from the Self.

The Self is our deepest being.

The Self is united to God.

The Self is incapable of falsehood.

The Self, like the Divine Ground that permeates it, is ever-growing and ever-evolving.

The Self speaks for the future.

That’s why the Ego hates it.

The Ego hates the Self because when we seat our consciousness in the Self, we put the Ego out of business.

The Ego doesn’t want to evolve. The Ego runs the show right now. It likes things just the way they are.

The instinct that pulls us toward art is the impulse to evolve, to learn, to heighten and elevate our consciousness. The Ego hates this. Because the more awake we become, the less we need the Ego.

The Ego hates it when the aspiring painter sits down at the typewriter.

The Ego hates it when the aspiring painter steps up before the easel.

The Ego hates it because it knows that these souls are awakening to a call, and that that call comes from a plane nobler than the material one and from a source deeper and more powerful than the physical.

The Ego hates the prophet and the visionary because they propel the race upward. The Ego hated Socrates and Jesus, Luther and Galileo, Lincoln and JFK and Martin Luther King.

The Ego hates artists because they are the pathfinders and bearers of the future, because each one dares, in James Joyce’s phrase, to “forge in the smithy of my soul the uncreated conscience of my race.”

Such evolution is life-threatening to the Ego. It reacts accordingly. It summons its cunning, marshals its troops.

The Ego produces Resistance and attacks the awakening artist.