Pisces season . . . the sign of dreams, compassion, idealism, unconditional love, spirituality . . . and on the shadow side: obsession, delusion, fantasy, and addiction. How is it that spirituality can be on one end of the spectrum and addiction on the other? Because things that appear as opposites are in fact two extremes of the very same thing. Take heat and cold, for example. Anyone who has been burned by dry ice knows those extremes are expressions of the same thing at varying degrees. The same applies to love and hate, good and evil, dark and light, peace and war, etc.
I think that society has stereotyped an “addict” as the person on the street with a heroin needle, or the homeless man in the park sipping a bottle of liquor from morning ‘til night. But these are extreme examples. I’m sure we all know (or perhaps are) very successful people who also deal with addiction issues. Yes, addiction can take one to “rock-bottom,” no matter who you are, because when you are addicted, you are at the mercy of the substance, and are truly not in control. There isn’t a choice when it comes to using—until there is a surrender to the fact that one is in fact “powerless” when it comes to whatever you’re addicted to, whether it’s drugs or alcohol, sex, work, money, food, exercise, television, relationships, etc. We can get addicted to pretty much anything, and the reason for this is that we are trying to avoid the dark or painful thoughts and feelings that we can’t bear to deal with. By relying on or attaching to something external (like alcohol or drugs), we try to avoid the contents of our minds and hearts—to numb ourselves. Addiction occurs when we consistently seek something outside of ourselves to get some relief. But of course this relief is only temporary, and is not the cure we really need. To put it simply, addiction is a symptom of a deeper issue: a soul-level dilemma.
Addiction is a widely misunderstood condition, even by many addicts themselves. Swiss psychologist Alice Miller defines addiction as, “a sign, a signal, a symptom of distress. It is a language that tells us about a plight that must be understood.” Newer research has shown that those who become addicted are biologically predisposed or born physiologically more vulnerable, for example by having fewer dopamine receptors. To put it bluntly and use some AA jargon while we’re at it, addicts have very different brains than “normies.” This reason alone should elicit more compassion from those of us who don’t have such predisposed brains. Of course, to look only at the medical-model to understand addiction would undermine its complexity and the complexity of addicts themselves. Addiction, at its core, is a spiritual malady.
Just as addiction exists on one end of the spectrum, spirituality lies on the other. As Carl Jung stated in his letter to AA founder, Bill Wilson more than 60 years ago: “’alcohol’ in Latin is spiritus, and you use the same word for the highest religious experience as well as for the most depraving poison. The helpful formula therefore is: spiritus contra spiritum.” Spiritus contra spiritum translates to “spirit against spirit,” meaning that it takes a spiritual experience to counter an addiction to spirits. In 1961 when this letter was written, Dr. Jung used these words with caution: And I share his trepidation. I fear that many are still resistant to accept that at the center of addiction issues is an emptiness that only spiritual awareness can alleviate.
“While often expressed as a rational rejection of traditional religious belief, much of people’s resistance to the higher power concept is really the ego’s resistance to conscience and to spiritual awareness, to the part of us that recognizes truth and wants to honor it. The grasping ego fears its own annihilation in bowing to something greater, whether to “God” or to the needs of others or even to one’s own higher needs.” –Gabor Mate
When one suggests spirituality as the antidote for substance abuse issues, many are resistant. I have experienced this resistance first-hand. (Not everyone is unwilling, however, but it is very common. Sometimes, especially with the younger generation, the suggestion of spirituality is met with curiosity). When folks are resistant, I find that most often it is based on their assumption that spirituality is synonymous with traditional religion. But spirituality and religion, in our time, are not one in the same. In fact, many religions have lost the magic and soul they once had because of the corruption, greed, and power that man has abused them for. Religion has too often been used to instill fear in people, and that fear has prevented us from connecting to the spirit that is at the core of all mystical branches of religion. What is meant by living a spiritual life is to be connected to your soul and to be in harmony with your authentic self, your values, and your inner truth. Through this process you will feel connected to something greater and live a life augmented by depth and meaning. But to do that, a great deal of work is required. And the required work is of course also met with much struggle. So many of us want to avoid hard work, not just those suffering from an addiction. And let’s face it, that’s understandable, because coming to terms with the truth and facing one’s shadow can be a very painful and arduous experience.
As a consequence of the effort it takes to truly examine ourselves, many people end up doing it only in response to some sort of crisis—in other words, we wait until we are FORCED to do it. It’s certainly never something we WANT to do. We all have a shadow, a dark side, and we are all full of thoughts and feelings we really don’t want to confront, trauma that we don’t want to deal with, or fantasies we don’t want to admit. And a lot of times we are unconscious of how deeply we have been affected by something . . . whether it’s a break-up, an emotionally immature parent, or a childhood in which we weren’t seen. But by remaining unaware of how these things affect us, we avoid doing the inner work that is necessary to grow and evolve and become more self-aware.
All that being said, there does seem to be a certain personality type or brain chemistry that is predisposed to addiction. The addicts I have had the privilege of working with over the years are highly sensitive, highly intelligent, complex people. Let me clarify what I mean by “highly sensitive,” because I don’t mean a person who takes everything personally or who’s crying all the time (although that can certainly be part of a sensitive person’s makeup). What I mean is a person who is sensitive to their surroundings and to other human beings because they came into life with fewer boundaries and a more open sense of self. In fact, a connection to some sort of psychic phenomena seems to be common with alcoholics and addicts. I treated many psychics and mediums when I was working at rehabs (most of them there for treatment of past traumas), and some of them blew me away with the accuracy of their insights.
Astrologically speaking, I have also noticed many addicts seem to have a lot of Neptune/Uranus aspects. These mystical planets, as detailed in this issue and the previous Aquarius issue, are considered the “transpersonal” planets, whose purpose is to connect man to the Universe and something greater. When you have intense Neptune aspects, Neptune conjunct the Moon, for example, you feel a deep sensitivity and empathy for others because you have fewer psychic boundaries and your psyche and body are more open. On the positive side, this openness can connect you to the spiritual or psychic realm. But on the negative side, you can feel things so deeply that you experience not only your own pain, but the collective suffering of others as well. This can be: a) really confusing; b) a total disaster if you’re not connected to your feelings or your body, which is very common in our society; or c) a catalyst for you to wall off this part of your authentic self, for example because being a sensitive person wasn’t acceptable in the family you were born into. Thus, all these things are operating at an unconscious level and can become too much and create an internal mess. So what do we do? Use alcohol or drugs just to numb it out or turn it off? Our society certainly hasn’t been very accepting or encouraging of sensitivity or high levels of empathy because those attributes have been stereotyped as weaknesses or feminine personality traits. But just think, if we put a premium instead on witnessing and fostering these personality traits as they manifest in children, we could cultivate some really incredible, empathetic people. But first we’d have to as a society shift from seeing sensitivity as something to hide and be ashamed of, to appreciating it as a strength and something to be developed.
We also don’t live in a time (in the Western world) in which we have a lot of spiritual guidance unless we are brought up religious, and as I said before that can foster a lot of fear and judgment which are the opposites of what spirituality should do. Programs like AA, which aim to foster spiritual growth, through doing shadow work and being of service to others, promise spiritual awakening as the result of completing the twelve steps. But this doesn’t mean that an angel is going to come visit you or that you’ll feel an overwhelming euphoria all the time, it means that you will have come home to yourself and have a deep sense of inner knowing and values and a connection to your soul. As Gabor Mate writes in his profound book on addiction, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts,
“Spiritual awakening is no more and no less than a human being claiming his or her own full humanity. People who find themselves have no need to turn to addiction, or to stay with it. Armed with compassion, we recognize that addiction was the answer—the best answer we could find at one time in our lives—to the problem of isolation from our true selves and from the rest of creation.”
To sum it up, addicts are really angels in disguise. That being said, the goal shouldn’t be to become one or the other, but to find a middle point on the spectrum in which the opposites can balance and a sense of wholeness and humanness can be found. Coincidentia oppositorum means a “coincidence of opposites,” or a synonym in alchemy: conionctio, which is the goal of the alchemical work: the union of opposites (think yin/yang symbol). This union of opposites creates the completeness that the soul seeks, and a sense of peace and connection that isn’t found any other way.