The great Roman philosopher Cicero is know to have said: « not to know about one´s past means to remain a child
forever «. One could read this statement on several levels:
historically -knowing the past
of a country, its historical background
in order to understand its current politcal and social landscape,
psychological- being aware of the factors that shaped one´s
childhood, astrologically- understanding your karmic past, your
outdated software that is waiting to be replaced,
family-systemically- getting in touch with your genealogy, the
traumas and potentials of your for-mothers and for-fathers, etc..
No matter on which level one choses to
read the statement, it holds true. Not being aware, conscious,
mindfull of the forces that have brought you to where and who you
are, obstructs the future -and becoming an adult, in the most
positive sense of the word. Past and future are two sides of ONE
scale. When they are in balance, you arrive where all mystics claim
one needs to go, the eternal Here & Now, the place where neither
past nor future – and thus no time- exist. And the way to get
there, would be to bring the past and the future into an
equilibrium.
And as we always come from the past,
already «own it», one would have to start working from that end of
the scale. Being hooked to an unconscious past, would keep the scale
tipped into the direction of the past and bring the future into a
deficit. A future in deficit would translate into a future that keeps
reenacting itsself with the shadows of the past hanging over it. This
dark cloud would give the future an continous taste of feeling «under
the weather». To come back to Cicero´s quote- one would for example
psychologically continue to react to situations in the future out of
the psychological wounds of the past, thus spoiling the future. Well,
you get the picture.
Time for a jump into the lake (one hour
outside of Berlin in the eco-village of Brodowin).