This article is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0
The Prism is an old photographic exercise, an experiment I did with a piece of polished quartz, carved into a somewhat pyramidal irregular shape, under black light applied in the engraving of sensitized screens for silkscreen printing. Nothing more than an aesthetic or experimental curiosity, but that reminded me about The Karma of The Now book, by Martin Schulman – a psychologist who became a professor of Astrology, but according to an approach based on karma and past lives, thus becoming the founder of Karmic Astrology.
“An individual can spend his entire life searching for what he was in a former incarnation. He may be fortunate enough to find out, or may delude himself into thinking certain thoughts and then subconsciously creating the circumstances which prove those thoughts to be true to himself. In either case, he is not getting in touch with the real meaning of life unless he realizes that his ability to locate himself in the here and now moment is where his greatest functioning capacity develops. And through this development of his functioning capacity, his evolution unfolds.
It is extremely easy to blame one’s failures on past life Karma, or to put one’s inability to cope with every day life situations to chart inadequacies. But this never was, nor must it be allowed to become, either a byproduct of Astrological reasoning or one of the effects os Astrology as a predictive science. If it does, Astrology is doomed to failure; for its gift to humanity is to help man help himself, rather than give him excuses for why he cannot.” – In The Karma of The Now, by Martin Schulman.
This excerpt from the book leads me to the intention of this article, which, through the theme of the prism, seeks to reflect on the question of each person’s character. For character itself seems to be shaped by the diverse consequences of a succession of events – whether from experiences of past lives or from each individual’s present-day experiences. It all begins with an episode in which I am confronted with differing opinions about the same person, who, to me, had always been irreproachably correct, unlike how he had been for someone else I knew.
Each person’s perception of another may also be more complex, involving not only one’s personal and individual stage of development, but also this logic of karma, in the sense of reaping remnants of what was left unresolved from past lives and that needs to be atoned for or worked through in some way. Someone who may be generous toward us might not be so toward another person, without this meaning that we should judge them or interpret them in a linear or conventional way.
This prism with irregular faces could represent a person’s character, with each face embodying an aspect of their profile in a combination of psychic, affective, emotional, moral, and ethical dimensions, resulting from the continuous response to the myriad experiences and events that shape each individual’s existence.
However, as Schulman highlights in his Astrology, the prism of character is not meant to justify every flaw as a fair consequence devoid of personal responsibility. Far beyond any karma, events arise for no other purpose than to reveal each person’s character, whether on the negative or positive side. The same event can reveal an extraordinary hidden strength in someone who appears fragile, just as it can reveal an unexpected cowardice in someone known to be strong and bold. When a positive aspect is revealed, it is so that it may be maintained and developed; likewise, when a negative aspect is revealed, it is so that it may be recognized and corrected. Events thus constitute the only truly effective tool on the path to self-knowledge.
Ultimately, all the lives one lives have no other purpose than the transformation and progress of the Self – a constant and gradual polishing of the prism’s irregularities, softening its edges until it becomes a rolling sphere in harmony with the Universe.
The Pyramidal Prism
The Challenge
Create something under the The Prism title and reflect on this topic for yourself. It can be a photograph, an illustration, a video, text or poetry.
The photo in this post was first published in 2015 on my personal photo blog under the title Precious. The photo is also for sale in the Gallery.
