Union of Polarities
Basic inner conflict and self-realization In the aesthetic creative quest of the avant-garde, a search for the new, the primordial image of the union of the polarities underlies all other archaic figurations of the ‘return to the absolute beginning’. The primordial image of the union of the polarities, or conjunction of the opposites, conjugates two main aspects: it synthesizes the basic inner conflict between raw organic instinctuality and the counterposing drive that ‘elevates’ to dimensions beyond the intellect; it prefigures the empirical embodied process that allows for self-realization.
Divine reality In addition to these aspects, the primordial image of the union of the polarities reveals the dynamics of polarity that presides every cosmic creation, and which is expressed by the polarity between the feminine principle and the masculine principle. It is the most primitive way of expressing the paradox of divine reality, which is ‘at the same time actual and potential’ (Eliade, 1971, Patterns in Comparative Religion, London: Sheed and Ward, p. 419).
Subtle physiological process The union of the polarities is also a subtle psycho-physiological process, that involves the whole body but is centred on the axis of the vertebral column, along its energetic centres and conduits, in which the prána, or bio-energy, that flows through the two main nadís, the positive, solar, idá, and the negative, lunar, pingalá, is arrested, igniting the kundaliní energy, that ascends from the bottom of the vertebral column, through the sushumná, a subtle conduit inside the spine, up to the brain, providing the state of hiper-consciousness or self-knowledge. Any pair of opposites may represent this syndrome.
.....
.....