The Philosopher Plato taught an allegory about a Charioteer pulled by two powerful steeds, one a white horse and one a black one.
The allegory described the journey of the soul towards heaven and different pulls we experience within ourselves, perhaps most comically seen in children’s cartoons, where an angel and a devil each take a shoulder, left and right, of the character being torn in different directions.
We all have these internal conflicts. You may even notice how often you say to yourself or out loud, Part of me wants to do this but part of me wants to do that. Sometimes we can reconcile these internal conflicts and sometimes they reside in the recesses of the unconscious like demons derailing us from the fullness of our lives.
It is rare that we experience a clear cut decision in life where we can align these great steeds towards heaven, but there are paths in many, if not most traditions of the world, for identifying and casting out these demons, which in modern psychotherapy we have rationalized into the language of psychological complexes, schisms, complex traumas and neurotic tendencies.
In some traditions it is understood that aligning the forces within us towards our soul’s purpose unlocks mystical powers and the ability to perform healing on others and many other miracles.
In the Hindu Tradition, these acts are called Acts of Truth and we arrive at them by embracing our Dharma fully and completely to align ourselves with the lives we were born into.
Nietzsche reminded us of the Latin phrase, Amor Fati: The Love of Fate
Chasing Quicksilver - Episode 3 - Alchemy and the Hollow Bone