06-01-2020, 12:31 PM
(05-31-2020, 04:04 PM)888 Wrote: I have a giant upside down tree of life tattooed on my left ribcage. It symbolized my drive to become an Ipsissimus.
Interestingly enough, the symbol in itself is ambiguous and rather open-ended in meaning. You have a choice in what to "make of it" being there.
The upside-down tree of life is a standard Kabbalistic symbol, sometimes used to refer to how souls "grow down" into manifesting their roles or plans in life. Jungian psychologist James Hillman, in the book The Soul's Code, covers that in general and in various examples.
Patterns relating to the life plan and "aims" of what to turn life into appear early on, and symbolic reflections usually echo backwards through time.
I would add a big thing to that, relating to forks in the road. While Hillman looks at the lives of people as wholes over time, he does not explore lives centering around open-ended change processes at other levels. If several possible futures exist, then several patterns may be reflected back into the past. If there's a drama of which path will be taken, then two conflicting patterns may overlap somewhat chaotically throughout life. (I base that on my own observations.)
You've described one prominent pattern related to negative involvement. There may or may not be a clear pattern relating to an alternative to that. It's a question for you, along with the rest, to examine such things if you do, which may become significant when considering the larger sense or context of your life.
When focusing on symbolic patterns, it is easy to tune into one big pattern at a time, becoming blind to other patterns for the time. Finding inner balance, and a more detached and larger inner vantage point, goes hand in hand with moving beyond whatever inner tunnel-vision there may be, seeing not only one, but ultimately all significant patterns which may be there at the same time. This may greatly change the picture of available choices and the meanings of things.