THE POWER OF A METAPHOR

The Modern Mystic is highly aware of the power of metaphor, analogy, parable, and indirect statements. The primary reason these things are so powerful is that they compensate for the current limits of language. When something is indescribable, the only way to get it across to another person is to trigger the thought-feeling in their mind by way of one of these mechanisms. This is why all spiritually revered figures of history speak in roundabout, vague, or indirect ways. They are not trying to be coy, or secretive, or sound like a smarty pants. They are communicating with your unconscious, such that it may bubble up to the surface on its own, a thought, and you might understand something that could not possibly be transferred by words alone. The secondary reason these mechanisms are powerful is that they are the simplest way to get answers to life’s deepest questions. Wouldn’t it be nice to be able to ask the Universe any question and receive a direct answer? Well, unfortunately if you’re thinking of a voice in the sky that says. “Well, the answer is thus…” you’re outta luck. Fortunately, the Universe has installed a fail-safe for this discrepancy, and that fail-safe is that anything you could possibly observe in the universe is a metaphor for something else. Take for example, Tree branches and lightning strikes. Galaxies and whirlpools. Neurons in the Brain, and the Network of Galaxies in the universe. Atoms and solar systems. Everything big, is like everything small. Whatever your question is, keep this idea in your mind, and look to something that is not the thing you are asking about. There you will find the answer.