Ladder of Transformation

Sometimes reality will express itself in imagery that Jung would call archetypal—resonating so deeply as to be almost instinctually recognizable to all of us. The spiritual metaphor of Jacob’s Ladder from Genesis is an example of such a gripping metaphor:

Jacob left Beersheba and set out for Harran.  When he reached a certain place, he stopped for the night because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones there, he put it under his headand lay down to sleep.  He had a dream in which he saw a stairway resting on the earth, with its top reaching to heaven, and the angels of God were ascending and descending on it.  There above it stood the Lord, and he said: “I am the Lord, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac. I will give you and your descendants the land on which you are lying.  Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring. I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.”  He was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God; this is the gate of heaven.”

Out of this dream came the divine promises that Judaism has used to define its identity, to sustain itself over centuries of hardship, and to justify its aggression. Dreams can script us for life; they can script cultures and entire peoples, creating the reality within which they live. All of us are born into one or another cultural dream; all of us are supported yet limited by the assumptions of that dream in countless ways.  If we are to ever be free of such chains of gold we must learn how to write our own script, but that is not enough; it needs to reflect the priorities of our inner compass.

The following is one seeker’s amazing account of doing just that.

First comes my interpretive comments on the interview, designed to help you understand what you will read in the interview itself, which follows.

Mermaid has not the usual three, but one over-riding, simple life issue: To love and be loved. This issue is almost like a prayer. Sometimes the power of an IDL interview is a product of the quality and intensity of the intent that one brings to it. That certainly seems to be the case here.

The feeling of love brought up the color blue for Mermaid, which congealed into the form of a ladder, which viewed the world, and the good and bad, love and war within it, with complete acceptance. Mermaid imagined that she became the ladder and as it, answered the series of questions you will find in the full interview below. The ladder said that its function is to show Mermaid the way to the Sky.

Now this is an interesting destination for a ladder. A ladder to nowhere? What will prop up the ladder? This is a ladder to nowhere in particular and, on the other hand, to everywhere. This is a ladder to potentials so expansive that they transcend life on earth, with all of its forms and meanings, completely. This is a ladder that holds itself up without effort, without question, in a way that would be seen as either irrational, absurd, or scary to the rational mind of a human.

Its function is non-discriminatory, meaning nowhere does the ladder say that it is for Mermaid’s use. Instead it says its strength is “helping people  to go up.” It helps anyone who wishes to use it to transcend their present level of stuckness, their present conditions, if they so desire.

The ladder states that its weakness is that it wishes that it could be long enough to reach the sky. So it shows Mermaid the way to the Sky, the way to transcend not only her stuckness but the stuckness of anyone, but does not reach all the way to the Sky; it only points the way to it. If it could change it would be longer; it would actually reach its destination; it would take one all the way out of their stuckness. As love, it would take anyone into a love-filled life.

This is a very high scoring ladder. It doesn’t mind being stepped on. It doesn’t mind being “used,” in fact, that’s why it exists. Can you and I say the same? Don’t we hate being stepped on by others? Don’t we hate feeling “used?” From the ladder’s perspective, those are not problems. It exists to be stepped on! It exists to be used! How would your life be different if you looked at your function in such a way? Does that mean that you would be a subservient, submissive, passive, spineless person without rights and without permission to speak up for yourself? Does it mean that you would be choosing to be a self-martyring rescuer within the Drama Triangle?

Is that how the ladder see itself? Hardly. It doesn’t fear anything. It loves itself and those people who step on it. It knows what it is, its job, what it is here to do, and that is to do two things: 1) keep pointed at the sky, not the horizon or the ground! 2) be strong enough to support climbers! 3) not care about who climbs, how heavy they are, or if they have dirty feet! Are you as clear and focused? This ladder to the sky accepts everyone. It doesn’t allow its great peace to be disturbed, whether it is used or it is not used by people. It doesn’t do drama. Instead it observes life. It observes people going up toward the sky.

What is this ladder’s secret for staying out of drama? It knows what it is and what its job is.  Do you? It’s job is “a passage for people and letting them put their feet on me…I should be under their feet…I should tolerate their weight…I should help the people who don’t care (about)  my steps (but) only use me. I would let anyone and everyone use me, even those who can hurt me the most. I need to not take myself seriously. I am only a ladder…a leader ladder.”

If the ladder scored all tens in confidence, compassion, wisdom, acceptance, inner peace, and witnessing, it would become aware of how strong a ladder it is. How strong do you feel? And is your strength based on contact with who you really are and what you are here to do or is it based on what other people think about you? Is it based on what you possess? Is it based merely on what you have been taught should give you strength?

If Mermaid lived her life as this ladder, she would be happy. She “would forgive all people who …lie to her, who ignore her wishes, who try to impose their intent(ions) and fears (on) her shoulder(s). (She) would try to live like B (an inspirational friend) and close (her) eyes on their mistakes.” She would focus on loving in all life situations.

Why did this ladder come up for Mermaid instead of the sky or a porcupine or a postman? It says that it is in her life to tell her that she is very important to God because she is a ladder for truth, a channel for His love and truth. In order to fulfill this role she needs to recognize her own value and not fear the criticisms of others, their threats, and to tolerate all pains because God wants her to. Her role is to be a messenger, a ladder, a channel for His love and truth, like St. Francis of Assisi. Once Mermaid recognizes and accepts her role, her job is to trust it and do it. As she puts it, “You are His messenger…so leave yourself in His arm right now.”

Mermaid now has not merely an image, but an experience of her role of personal connection to the infinite to sustain her and communicate to others. This makes her more authentic in who she is and what she does. This is extremely important, because almost everyone thinks they are doing God’s will; most everyone who is a leader, company owner, head of an NGO, or a religious authority, believes that they are a force for good and representative of what is right and just. German soldiers in both world wars one and two went to war wearing belt buckles that said, “Gott mit uns,” or “God is with us.” So what keeps Mermaid’s experience from being just a self-validating grandiose fantasy? The answer is easy. It is the continued use of Integral Deep Listening.

Interviewing, when combined with a willingness to test the recommendations within the interviews, acts as a cybernetic,  or self-correcting, governor for your growth. Your emerging potentials will tell you when you are getting grandiose and narcissistic. They supply “subjective objectivity” from sources that know you better than you know yourself, better than your friends and family know you. When the guidance of your emerging potentials is combined with the perspectives of others who also strive to access their emerging potentials, you are not only relying on the subjective objectivity of your inner compass. You are also listening to how respected others see how you are performing in the world. The third tool is to filter both sources through your common sense. What’s working? What isn’t? What makes sense? What doesn’t? When you combine all three of these sources you do something IDL calls “triangulation:” you make better decisions about your life because you have an ongoing system of self-government based on checks and balances.

Like Mermaid, you too can get clear about your life direction. Like Mermaid, you can place your fears and doubts in an authentic context that weaves them into the beautiful unfolding tapestry of your life. Like the dark threads in a tapestry, like the dark colors in a glowing masterpiece, like the dark moods of the weather, your fears and doubts can find acceptance and function as important parts of the greater whole of all of who and what you are.

On a global, political, religious, and cultural level that involves war and peace, the lives and deaths of millions, and the destiny of the anthropocene, this interview points a way beyond exclusivity and a unique destiny and mission to a universal role as servant to others.

Mermaid’s native language is not English, as you will see in her interview, and her cultural traditions are not Western, but the universality of humanity shines through. This interview is part of an ongoing process. It is hardly enough to bring lasting developmental transformation by itself. What it can do is access perceptual frameworks that are relatively free; what it can do is access experiential states which, if revisited regularly, can turn into an ongoing, permanent higher, more inclusive stage of development.