As individuals, we are comprised of two primary “machines” that often function in a separate manner. These machines relate to the the conscious mind, which is surface level and apparent (and can be linked to Rahu, the head of the snake), and the unconscious & intuitive mind (which can be linked to Ketu, the snake’s body). The body of the snake is much stronger and larger, capable of thrashing and moving, and yet is wordless & soaked in a kind of endless silence and darkness, void of sense organs and so moved fully by instinct. It basks in ignorance and chaos when it is not given “eyes” to see and “ears” to hear. It feeds off of being able to attach to sense organs that “eat” experiences that it can digest and integrate. The head without the body is weak & ungrounded, possessing all sense organs & a gaping mouth, yet with no connection to the intuition, soaking in its own leaking poisons. There is no body to “digest” and process the head’s sensorial experiences and integrate those into its being, and so it grows further from truth & deeper into egoic delusion. It forms false, rigid identities around it like walls to protect its weak nature (living in a glass-house of only theory & projections that have little to no root in experience or objective reality), and any instinctual element that arises from the body that doesn’t match the ego’s idea of “self” gets repressed or masked, hidden from our awareness, swallowed by the mouth, before we even acknowledge it. When these machines/shadow planets function separately (the body lashing in ignorance and the head groveling in egoic delusion) the space and disparity between them becomes the “Shadow” and all light that we would be capable of radiating (if they were to unite & work together) is lost and scattered. We “decide” who we are based on whims and fears, instead of uncovering our nature and working with it. Then, we fight against our true nature incessantly. The tendrils of our animal nature pull us one direction that we keep secret, while our head, in reaction to the “secret” parts it rejects, walks us the exact opposite way & we shout that to the world. In that way, we embody contradiction instead of unity.
The less integrated that your unconscious tendencies are, the more each of your actions are done as a kind of equilibrium— directly contradicting your repressed internal state & more negative traits. For example, when you are internally full of rage and your instinctual nature is cold but your egoic identity rejects those traits, you will obsess externally over huge displays of compassion, crying for others, etc. When you are internally full of jealousy or insecurity that is veiled from your conscious awareness, you will compliment the things you find ugly or useless and speak badly about the things you find appealing or inspiring (as the people who embody the things you desire are the ones who most strongly reflect your own inadequacies). Each word becomes a tribute to your own inability to tap into and utilize your own personal power— your rejection of responsibility for yourself & your true reactions. The less you acknowledge the complexity of the arts or skills you pursue, the more confident you will be that you can master them— and therefore your pride seeks to mask your ignorance. You function from a place of division, and each act is actually an attempt at a false kind of equilibrium that doesn’t penetrate through the surface of your being, or as a form of escapism to deny your own tendencies rather than allow them to express through you in authenticity & work through them until they integrate into your conscious identity in some manner. Each action is like a puff of steam propelling you back and forth between the pillars of compassion and severity, the binaries of hate and love— as your unconscious directs you fully like a wild horse, running wherever it pleases, and your rational mind is only a weak, feeble machine, uncontrollably denying, reacting to, & rebelling against these unconscious manifestations that are insidious when they aren’t brought to the surface. Only when all tendencies are brought to the surface of your awareness— when you turn your conscious attention towards your intuition & “symbolic process”— can you begin to organize through them in order to function only from a place of light by illuminating the darkness of your shadow. The more aligned with your internal processes you become, the more you act from a place of singularity rather than dualism & contradiction. Once you have reached this inner and outer union, the machines function together effectively and move on a clear path towards truth & the beauty that is innately bound to it.