Abraham's journey is a call to adventure, where he must make sacrifices and undergo deaths and rebirths to move closer to the ideal.
Listening and aiming high aligns oneself with God and brings a sense of awe and purpose.
Embarking on the journey towards the ideal requires starting with small steps and embracing imperfection.
Being willing to make mistakes and take risks is essential for personal development.
Maintaining faith in the structure of existence helps navigate the ups and downs of life's punctuated experiences.
Deep dives
The Call to Adventure and Sacrificial Transformation
Abraham receives a call to go into the unknown, leaving his country, kin, and father's house. This call is a call to adventure, to venture into a land unseen. It is a sacrificial transformation where he must make sacrifices and undergo a series of deaths and rebirths to move closer to the ideal.
Listening to the Transcendent and Aiming High
Abraham's journey is guided by the still small voice, the transcendent ideal that calls him forward. It is symbolized by the nativity star and the blue fairy in Pinocchio. By listening and aiming high, Abraham aligns himself with God, and in doing so, achieves a sense of awe and purpose.
The Importance of Autonomy and Consciousness
Jepetto in Pinocchio desires an autonomous individual as a son. This reflects the mythological notion of a third determining force, autonomous consciousness, which guides the destiny of the individual. The biblical stories emphasize the development of autonomous consciousness and the allegiance to the conscious power that brings being into existence.
Taking Small Steps and Embracing Imperfection
To embark on the journey towards the ideal, one must begin with small steps and be willing to embrace imperfection. Just like writing a bad first draft, it is through taking imperfect action that progress is made. It is important to not be deterred by fear or the need for perfection, but to move forward and iterate along the way.
Abraham's Willingness to Be a Fool
Abraham learns from Jung that being willing to be a fool is the precursor to transformation and humility. Taking the risk to start something new and being willing to make mistakes is essential for personal development.
The Importance of Moving Forward
Staying in stasis or wandering in circles is detrimental to personal growth. It is important to have the courage to pursue something that grips one's interest, even if it may be a mistake. Making mistakes allows for learning and moving forward, preventing backward movement.
The Need for Sacrifice and Commitment
Abraham's willingness to sacrifice and not benefit inappropriately from his actions shows his commitment and ethical purity. Making sacrifices is an important aspect of maintaining one's covenant with God and aligning actions with one's values.
The Journey of Abraham and the Hero's Journey
The story of Abraham follows a familiar pattern of adventure, success, sacrifice, and contemplation. Life is punctuated by these experiences, and maintaining faith in the structure of existence helps navigate the ups and downs of the journey.
Cultivating a Conscience
The podcast explores the idea of cultivating a conscience and the role it plays in personal development. It highlights the concept of an internal voice of culture that is imperfect and requires continuous dialogue with others to refine and shape it. The analogy of carving a block of wood into a sphere is used to illustrate the iterative nature of this development. The importance of engaging in free speech and actively seeking feedback from others is emphasized as a means to challenge and correct one's understanding. Additionally, the question of psychopathy is briefly touched upon, questioning the determinism associated with the absence of conscience and proposing the possibility of redemption.
Distribution in Capitalism and Policy Critiques
The podcast discusses the distribution problem inherent in capitalism and critiques of economic policies, specifically the Greek debt crisis and the role of the EU, ECB, and IMF. While acknowledging the concentration of wealth as an issue, the podcast challenges the notion that capitalism is uniquely prone to this problem, highlighting the turnover of wealth and the self-destructive nature of capitalism when not interfered with. The episode questions the feasibility of alternative systems, noting the lack of evidence supporting their effectiveness. It concludes by mentioning the potential extension of the lecture series in the future, pending the availability of the theater.
Lecture 9 in my Psychological Significance of the Biblical Stories series. In this lecture, I tell the story of Abraham, who heeds the call of God to leave what was familiar behind and to journey into unknown lands. The man portrayed in the Bible as the father of nations moves forward into the world. He encounters the worst of nature (famine), society (the tyranny of Egypt) and the envy of the powerful, who desire his wife.
Get the Snipd podcast app
Unlock the knowledge in podcasts with the podcast player of the future.
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
Save any moment
Hear something you like? Tap your headphones to save it with AI-generated key takeaways
Share & Export
Send highlights to Twitter, WhatsApp or export them to Notion, Readwise & more
AI-powered podcast player
Listen to all your favourite podcasts with AI-powered features
Discover highlights
Listen to the best highlights from the podcasts you love and dive into the full episode
