Spirit Patron And Godparents

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The person in question is a rare guest, but his appearance is always experienced as something very significant. Let's call him the Patron Spirit or the Inner Savior

According to the analyst J. Hollis, the signs of the appearance of the Spirit of the Patron are three qualities of experience: resonance, depth and mystery (numinosity).

1. Since spiritual energy is fleeting and invisible, we can only notice it in images. Religious traditions certainly give us a huge number of majestic images, with the touch of which the soul begins to resonate.
2. The manifestation of the Spirit of a helper is caught at the deepest level of experience, where there are no traditions, historical and cultural frameworks, and where there is a completely clear understanding that everything that is visible is spiritualized by the invisible.
3. The third sign is a sense of mystery, which can never be fully solved, and it remains only to admit its existence.

Even in relation to the Spirit of the Patron, they speak of light, a spiritual glow that deeply changes the mind, soul and body and makes you experience delight. If you are not a visionary, but an ordinary person (by the way, unusual things happen to ordinary people), then with the Patron Spirit, most likely, you are familiar only indirectly thanks to hints existing in culture and images inscribed in mythology.

The most common representatives of the Spirit of the Patron are the godfather or godmother - the spiritual complementary biological parents. While the latter are busy with the upbringing and socialization of the child, the duty of the godparents is to take care of the child's soul and help in the development of the personal spirit. In this case, the godparent of the same sex with the child is recognized as the main godfather.

Even if a person lives in a different cultural tradition or does not have a godfather (godmother), this does not mean that he is deprived of this important figure for development. It's just that it is not embodied in the physical presence and is invisibly installed in the psyche.

The feeling of dual parenting is an insight for children and is associated with the lack of a sense of security that could be given by real parents. The violence that the child encounters in the parental family awakens in unconscious experiences the majestic image of the Heavenly Divine Parent, who gives vitality and stability. The godfather is not only an image inspired by culture, but also vague childhood fantasies that in this family I am an adopted child, and my real father and mother are different, have a higher status. It is also important that this is not a demonic protector described by Donald Kalshed, but a lighter figure of a selfless helper.

The wide representation in culture of the theme of heavenly parents is direct evidence of the universality and importance of this motive for the psychological development of a person. The elusiveness of these inner patrons is overcome by turning to cultural patterns in which they find visible expression. There are infinitely many examples, we will dwell only on a few.

The spiritual father and mother are represented in particular in the images of the Tarot cards:

High priestess - the embodiment of knowledge, intuition and wisdom. The card testifies that what is sought is within us, in the unconscious. The priestess does not personify power, but an understanding of the structure of the world, clairvoyance, patience,

kindness, the ability to forgive, the makings of altruism, a source of healing. Obviously, the complementary meaning of this spiritual parent to the real mother, who does not always possess such exalted qualities.

High priest - personifies the world of faith based on the unshakability of the chosen values. He is a spiritual master who acts as a mediator between the human and the divine.

The topic of double parenting does not go unnoticed in artistic creation. Spiritual and earthly mothers are represented in the painting by Leonardo da Vinci

"Saint Anna with the Madonna and the Christ Child." The two female figures depicted on it, united by a common outline, are the heavenly and earthly mother of Christ. Mary, when she leans forward to take the child, represents the maternal, elemental character of the feminine; Saint Anna dwells in the spiritual, transforming kingdom of Sophia”(E. Neumann).

According to Freud's interpretation, this work reflects Leonardo's childhood memories of his mother, the peasant Katherine, from whom he was separated at an early age. He was an illegitimate child and was brought up from the age of three in his father's family. Freud believes that the Virgin Mary and her mother Anna in this picture reflect the "two mothers" of the artist - his stepmother and his own mother.

The prototype of the godfather in the Gospel is John the Baptist … Embodying conscience

man, he is the first Savior living in each of us. Christ Himself said about him: "There was no man above the women who were born above."

Metropolitan Anthony of Sourozh says the following about John the Baptist:

According to the testimony of the Lord, no one born on earth was as great as Saint John the Forerunner. And when you think about the testimony of the Gospel about him, it really takes your breath away … And now, before each of us stands this image of the Baptist. Each of us to each other, to each other, is sent as a Forerunner to say a word so pure, so free from ourselves, from selfishness, from vanity, from everything that makes our every word small, empty, insignificant, rotten, - Do we do this with a readiness to come to naught, if only a living person would grow out of this person …? Here we will often, often peer into this majestic, but human image of the Baptist, and we will learn how a real, whole person lives, and we will try to live like this at least in a small way, with all our strength, even if there are not many of them …

In pre-Christian times, in the mythology of different peoples, the connecting role with the Almighty, the function of patronage and the discovery of spirituality were performed by messengers and mediators:

• 

  That(Ancient Egypt),

• Hermes (Ancient Greece),
• Mercury (Ancient Rome),
• Veles (Slavs),
• One (Scandinavians), etc.

Despite the fact that all intermediaries are represented by male images in the private life of an individual, and in personal mentoring they are divided into godfathers and mothers. Even a patriarchal culture pays tribute to women, especially when it comes to motherhood.

At any time and in different clothes, godparents serve the spiritualization of nature and the connection with them is experienced spiritually. The appearance of the Patron is accompanied by an experience of uplift and spiritual trepidation, subtle anxiety and delight from touching something good, big and majestic. The Patron Spirit has a liberating and saving effect - it leads to inner integrity, especially in moments of disintegration.

This is also the spiritual healing mission of godparents, whose role becomes especially significant if ordinary parents do not have sufficient resources of love and wisdom.

A large number of modern men and women, even from prosperous families, recall with special warmth the experience of communicating with their grandmother or grandfather. And this also has a motive

spiritual protection:

"For the first time in my life, I openly admitted that until the age of 23 I" talked "with my grandmother, although I never knew her live … that I was afraid that they would be mocked, declared a fool and I would become even more outcast. At the university, in another city, my connection with them strengthened, I just “caught a wave.” I could play tricks until the exam, skip, “score”, and then come and pass at "5." Do not think that I did not study at all, it was just that it was given to me so easily and simply that it aroused the envy of others. I was always told: "How can you do that, you're lucky." "You need to be able to do it!" - I said and mentally thanked grandfather and grandmother."

Feeling the support of their ancestors, people receive from them something inexplicably important and pacifying.

This works under the condition that the vector of life is directed from the past to the future, while maintaining the hierarchy and order of care. It is not children who give themselves up to serve their parents, but adults who care for and protect children, see them as their continuation after death. A child who grew up in such conditions, even when faced with serious difficulties in life, finds the strength to cope with them on their own. He is blessed to live.

In almost all cases of seeking psychological help from a specialist, there is a violation of the natural transmission of love from generation to generation. In such cases, a professional should become a mentor, something resembling a godfather. At the time of the meeting, his office turns into a yaranga with a hearth, a village hut with a stove, a sanctuary with an altar - into a sacred space, inside which the animating power of dialogue operates, where there is no habitual division into bad and good, and at the same time there is no condemnation; a place in which time changes, where past, present and future are united in one semantic field, where one can foresee and restore the lost integrity.