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SHAME VS GUILT (1)

While preparing some notes on the theme of Shakespeare’s King Lear and the theme of Shame, the life and works of Joseph Conrad literally assaulted my mind. This great Polish turned British writer occupied years of my life as a young adult, he became a sort of spiritual mentor in my youth; through his novels, novellas and short stories, I discovered exotic places at the end of the world, learned about maritime vocabulary, devastating storms and shipwrecks, I became enthralled by the tough lives of Conrad’s fascinating and dark characters, authentic outcasts in society (from a decent and civilised point of view, of course).



Most of all, through Conrad’s books I found out all about men who had to live in solitude in the middle of the crowd, rootless and exiled from their country and family; these men encountered some enemies throughout their perilous adventures, but they were themselves their own worst enemies. During those readings I had to digest one of the hardest facts of life: that we, ourselves, can be our own worst enemies. The most critical moment in Conrad’s tales happen when the hero recognizes his own shadow. Thence, I learned that when we gather the courage to face and accept our own shadow, we can transcend self hatred, fear, shame and guilt. This lesson has remained forever at the back of my mind, it has guided me throughout all these years as a counsellor.

Sure, in terms of Conrad’s characters, surpassing shame requires heart and fortitude, death is a direct consequence of this kind of confrontation; in practical life, however, we do not need to go that far to allow a serious transformation in ourselves, same when we get to know and express our identity. If after the classical Athenian times, tragedy, as a literary and artistic genre has only reappeared in the Western Early Modern World in England in the Elizabethan Age (Shakespeare, Marlow) or in France during the reign of Luis XIV (Racine), the tragic element has survived in some novelists of the XIX and XX centuries. In most of Conrad’s tales, the terror and the pity are the main themes and basic requirements, according to Aristotle, to provoke a catharsis (purge or purification of the passions) in the spectator (or reader).

While downloading some essays and biographies on Conrad to my kindle book, I discovered that there is in Japan a circle of studies about this unique writer, it is called the Tokyo and Kyoto Conrad Group. So I imagine that many Japanese writers and film makers, even manga artists, might have been influenced by Conrad’s taste for the mysterious intricacies of the human soul. There must be excellent translations of his works in Japanese too.

Joseph Conrad’s life is as fascinating as the characters in his books; he was a Sagittarius born in Berdicev, Urkaine, the 3rd of December, 1857; the themes of constant travel, troublesome rooting and exile, were present since he was born. Although he was a Pole, his country did not exist at the time of his birth; Poland, as a state, had been partitioned in three by Prussia, Austria and Russia; to start with, there is a paradox with his national identity, a very serious problem for a fiery sign.
SHAME VS GUILT (1)_e0182773_8504735.gif
Joseph Conrad
the 3rd of December, 1857
3:30pm
Berdicev, Urkaine

Since he was four years old, his father was exiled, for political reasons, to the Ural Mountains; under those severe weather conditions, his mother died when Conrad was seven years old, during his first Saturn square; then, when he was eleven (first Jupiter’s return) his father died. Saturn in Cancer accounts for orphanage, solitude and abandonment; it also shows the theme of extreme sadness and tuberculosis (the cause of his mother’s death). Jupiter in Conrad’s chart is incredibly interesting, a beautiful, though painful, expression of what this symbol means. It is retrograde in the 12th House in conjunction with Pluto; a retrograde planet in our natal chart means that we shall have to discover the deep nature of the planet, but first we shall have to experience the darkest aspect of it. So, if Jupiter stands for justice, prestige and enthusiasm, Conrad had to learn about injustice, shame and fear; all this, enhanced by Pluto; little Joseph must have been terrified in those regions where winter and darkness lasted nine months. Jupiter and Sagittarius are associated to long travels, Conrad travelled throughout all his life to the most remote places in the world.

Conrad was exposed to Shame since he was conscious of being himself, his earliest memory was having to visit his father to a sort of prison; the 12th House is associated to exile, prisons and hospitals, we can say that while living in exile in the Urals, the little boy spent his life in a sort of incarceration. But here the sense of Shame is utterly complex because the shame of having an outcast father is compensated by the fact of having to be proud of him because he is not a criminal, a mixture of hero and victim of injustice (the tsarist regime). Jupiter is the planet of moral perspective, and it is the regent of Sagittarius (Conrad’s Sun), the Pluto conjunction, however, leads the individual to open dimension of the human souls beyond good or bad. Thence, Conrad’s characters, such a Kurtz (Heart of Darkness) cannot be judged under conventional moral terms.(to be continued)

Heart of Darkness (Wordsworth Collection)

Joseph Conrad / Wordsworth Editions Ltd


In Japanese

by xavier_astro | 2012-09-01 00:00 | 心理  

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