James Hillman

"Plato called it "daimon," the Romans "genius," the Christians "guardian angel"; today we use such terms as "heart," "spirit," and "soul." While philosophers and psychologists from Plato to Jung have studied and debated the fundamental essence of our individuality, our modern culture refuses to accept that a unique soul guides each of us from birth, shaping the course of our lives. In this extraordinary bestseller, James Hillman presents a brilliant vision of our selves, and an exciting approach to the mystery at the center of every life that asks, "What is it, in my heart, that I must do, be, and have? And why?" Drawing on the biographies of figures such as Ella Fitzgerald and Mohandas K. Gandhi, Hillman argues that character is fate, that there is more to each individual than can be explained by genetics and environment. The result is a reasoned and powerful road map to understanding our true nature and discovering an eye-opening array of choices--from the way we raise our children to our career paths to our social and personal commitments to achieving excellence in our time."--

In Search of Character and Calling

The Soul's Code

Laura Mei

Fatalism bestows a feeling that what happens in my life is intended toward a distant misty goal. Something is "meant" for me. I am meant to have success, or be cursed and wronged and luckless. The image I am born with not only pushes from the beginning; it also pulled toward an end. "Teleology" is the term for this belief that events are pulled by a purpose toward a definite end.

Teleology gives logic to life. It provides a rational account of life's long-range purpose. And teleology reads whatever happens in life as confirming this long-range vision. If we drop the "-ology" and just stick with telos, we can get back to its first and original meaning (formulated by Aristotle): "that for the sake of which".

The pull of purpose comes with force; you may feel full of purpose. But just what it is and how to get there remains undetermined. The telos may even be double or triple and confused about whether to sing or dance, write or paint. Purpose does not usually appear as a clearly framed goal, but more likely as a troubling, unclear urge coupled with a sense of indubitable importance. 

The soul of each of us is given a unique daimon before we are born, and it has selected an image or pattern that we live on earth. This soul-companion, the daimon, guides us here; in the process of arrival, however, we forget all that took place and believe we come empty into this world. The daimon remembers what is in your image and belongs to your pattern, and therefore your daimon is the carrier of your destiny. We must attend very carefully to childhood to catch early glimpses of the daimon in action, to grasp its intentions and not block its way. A calling may be postponed, avoided, intermittently missed. It may also possess you completely. Whatever; eventually it will out. It makes its claim. The daimon does not go away.

To be alive is also to feel lonely. Loneliness comes and goes apart from the measures we take. It does not depend on literally being alone, for pangs of loneliness can strike in the midst of friends, in bed with a love, at the microphone before a cheering crowd. When we look - or rather, 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 - closely into the sense of loneliness we find it is composed of several elements: nostalgia, sadness, silence, and a yearning imagining for "something else" not here, not now. For these elements and images to show, we first have to focus on them rather than on remedies for being left literally alone. Desperation grows worse when we seek ways out of despair. 

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