Part One: The Middle Pillar - iPage

The Two Pillars of the Temple 11
Horus-he who, while partaking necessarily of the nature of both the
Father and the Mother, is simultaneously an entirely different and
unique being. Through the result of the union of opposing forces, his
nature tends to a new viewpoint in the conquest of life. For the Father
and Mother are "those forces whose reconciliation is the key of life."l6
To illustrate in another way the import of ths concept, let us
describe it from a practical and physical point of view. One of the
major inconveniences which afflicts a large portion of mankind is
constipation. In many instances of this disorder, no organic distur-
bance exists at .all; the trouble being principally a functional one.
(Though it must be here interpolated that even if it were organic,
there is sufficient psychological evidence to indicate that this like-
wise may ensue from an identical series of causes.) Very often, this
malady does not respond to any kind of medical treatment. It is not
uncommon for patients to testify that they have been recom-
mended massage, surgical operations, drugs, nature cure, and all
the other types of cures. In spite of these the illness persists
unchanged. Enquiry elicits that there is, frequently a conscious
conflict between two courses of conduct. More often than not, how-
ever, the real seat of the conflict is not in consciousness at all, but
exists in a far deeper level of mind, in the unconscious. It was prob-
ably around puberty that an already existent conflict developed
such acuteness and severity as to require for the psychic safety of
the ego to be repressed completely out of sight.
From this, we might conclude-and there is some psychologi-
cal evidence to ths end-that the conflict is one between the
instincts and social dictates. That is, because of parental training
there is a blind refusal to recognize the necessity for the proper and
legitimate expression of the instincts. It is a denial of one side of the
personality, a denial without justification or reason. It is as though,
while admiring the beauty and form of the lotus, we wished not to
be reminded of the slimy source where grow the roots of the plant,
and therefore cut the stalk right through, severing the flower from
its necessary root. This cutting of the lotus stalk has its counterpart
in human minds, many of us having been cut off from our roots.
For this denial of the instinctual life, in whch the conscious exis-
tence after all has its roots, and this persistent repression, cause