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76. Formation: group – form (4 orange) [stage 4]
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Formation/76.aspx
The Image
The scene is set in a hot, dry landscape, perhaps in the heat of the afternoon. An older man, naked except for a simple blue cloth at his waist, and painted on face and chest with white markings, is showing some paw prints to an adolescent boy. The boy wears a similar loin-cloth in green and has red hair, but no body paint. He holds a blue stick in his hand with a curved top, presumably belonging to the man, and is following the instruction intently.
The place of Formation in the Process Cycle
Stages one to three of the cycle are concerned with the psychific conditions required in order for the project to take form and be realised in material terms. Stage 4, Formation, describes the beginning of this materialisation. This stage is unusual, in that it involves two components, or sub-stages. The kind of impetus given by the three preceding stages is, as we have seen, quite male-sided: it is biased towards Spirit, with its planning and rationality. The effect of this is that, at a certain moment, the impetus of Formation is going to grind to a halt. One of two things can then happen: the project falls apart - Dispersion[6]; or it receives new female-side input from the Unconscious (stage 5).
The meaning
Formation: possibility actualised in form; project becomes fact; eventual stasis through lack of inspirational renewal
If Projection (stage 1) is a matter of theory, Formation by contrast requires you to be concerned with practice. Equally, whereas the beginning of a project necessitates that you gather impressions, which become in a sense the raw material out of which ideas are formed, Formation leaves all that behind and takes you into action - the whole buzz of theories and ideas needs to stop, the actual must trump the theoretical. Formation also involves you in education or training, so that this process of materialising ideas, plans and projects is one of learning as you go along. Your inner focus is therefore very much towards the future, since you will later feed back into the project what you are now learning.
Practical activity, building something up, contains an element of mystery – the feeling of never quite knowing where each new phase of the work will take you. This kind of absorbing work on a project tends to create a strong sense of identification, so that there comes a point where you feel that the way the work appears to the public sends them a message about you yourself. You see yourself as a pioneer, as the originator of this construction or scheme. As for your relationships, they have a very practical aspect: you are drawn to people who are ready and willing to support, even more to contribute to the work. All this combines to produce two results: first, you become passionately involved in the project, and this passion is maintained over time. Second, you acquire, as time goes on, an inflated idea of yourself: you feel increasingly what a special and valuable person you are.
One consequence of this is that you slip gradually into a state of inner rigidity and blindness, where you become insensitive to the warning signs that all is not well. Your concern for the future can become a failure to deal with what is right under your nose, to take the proper time and care needed at every point. What began as an adventure, full of passion and excitement, becomes a routine, a boring, unglamorous repetition, bogged down in endless small details. Your motivation falls away: You imagined a rapid and brilliant outcome, yet here you are – all that investment of time and effort, and what have you got to show for it? – An unfinished piece of work. Your inflated idea of your own ability and worth blinds you to the signs of impending trouble, deafens you to the warnings of others. You get impatient for results, begin to take short cuts: one too many and you are in trouble.
The qualities you require to launch a project, to drive it forward against all the odds, are not the same as those you need to carry it through the period of delays and setbacks, frustration and disillusionment. When the latter phase kicks in, you must bring something radically new to the table. The project will either collapse at this point and not be completed, or you must find inspiration, in order to progress to stage five. If these two situations represent one single stage, it is because the seeds of eventual stasis are present right from the outset: the materialisation stage was always going to run into trouble. This mirrors what happens in your inner world: there is always a moment at which the initial charge of enthusiasm, energy and drive runs out, and a ‘second wind’ is needed to renew impetus and carry you to a successful conclusion.
Divination summary
1) Work; progress, development; learning, training, education; leaving theory behind; materialising ideas; the passion and mystery of practical advances in work; identification with a project; sense of self-worth through achievement; work-related contacts. 2) Delays, setbacks, unexpected difficulties; frustration, disillusion, impatience, boredom, getting bogged down; taking short-cuts, lack of thoroughness, unwillingness to listen to feedback. 3) Collapse of project; either its abortion, or a re-launch from the ground up (e.g. under new management).
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[6] Dispersion is the north mention on Formation in the 4-mention version of Rainring
http://www.rainring.co.uk/Cards/Formation/76.aspx
The Image
The scene is set in a hot, dry landscape, perhaps in the heat of the afternoon. An older man, naked except for a simple blue cloth at his waist, and painted on face and chest with white markings, is showing some paw prints to an adolescent boy. The boy wears a similar loin-cloth in green and has red hair, but no body paint. He holds a blue stick in his hand with a curved top, presumably belonging to the man, and is following the instruction intently.
The place of Formation in the Process Cycle
Stages one to three of the cycle are concerned with the psychific conditions required in order for the project to take form and be realised in material terms. Stage 4, Formation, describes the beginning of this materialisation. This stage is unusual, in that it involves two components, or sub-stages. The kind of impetus given by the three preceding stages is, as we have seen, quite male-sided: it is biased towards Spirit, with its planning and rationality. The effect of this is that, at a certain moment, the impetus of Formation is going to grind to a halt. One of two things can then happen: the project falls apart - Dispersion[6]; or it receives new female-side input from the Unconscious (stage 5).
The meaning
Formation: possibility actualised in form; project becomes fact; eventual stasis through lack of inspirational renewal
If Projection (stage 1) is a matter of theory, Formation by contrast requires you to be concerned with practice. Equally, whereas the beginning of a project necessitates that you gather impressions, which become in a sense the raw material out of which ideas are formed, Formation leaves all that behind and takes you into action - the whole buzz of theories and ideas needs to stop, the actual must trump the theoretical. Formation also involves you in education or training, so that this process of materialising ideas, plans and projects is one of learning as you go along. Your inner focus is therefore very much towards the future, since you will later feed back into the project what you are now learning.
Practical activity, building something up, contains an element of mystery – the feeling of never quite knowing where each new phase of the work will take you. This kind of absorbing work on a project tends to create a strong sense of identification, so that there comes a point where you feel that the way the work appears to the public sends them a message about you yourself. You see yourself as a pioneer, as the originator of this construction or scheme. As for your relationships, they have a very practical aspect: you are drawn to people who are ready and willing to support, even more to contribute to the work. All this combines to produce two results: first, you become passionately involved in the project, and this passion is maintained over time. Second, you acquire, as time goes on, an inflated idea of yourself: you feel increasingly what a special and valuable person you are.
One consequence of this is that you slip gradually into a state of inner rigidity and blindness, where you become insensitive to the warning signs that all is not well. Your concern for the future can become a failure to deal with what is right under your nose, to take the proper time and care needed at every point. What began as an adventure, full of passion and excitement, becomes a routine, a boring, unglamorous repetition, bogged down in endless small details. Your motivation falls away: You imagined a rapid and brilliant outcome, yet here you are – all that investment of time and effort, and what have you got to show for it? – An unfinished piece of work. Your inflated idea of your own ability and worth blinds you to the signs of impending trouble, deafens you to the warnings of others. You get impatient for results, begin to take short cuts: one too many and you are in trouble.
The qualities you require to launch a project, to drive it forward against all the odds, are not the same as those you need to carry it through the period of delays and setbacks, frustration and disillusionment. When the latter phase kicks in, you must bring something radically new to the table. The project will either collapse at this point and not be completed, or you must find inspiration, in order to progress to stage five. If these two situations represent one single stage, it is because the seeds of eventual stasis are present right from the outset: the materialisation stage was always going to run into trouble. This mirrors what happens in your inner world: there is always a moment at which the initial charge of enthusiasm, energy and drive runs out, and a ‘second wind’ is needed to renew impetus and carry you to a successful conclusion.
Divination summary
1) Work; progress, development; learning, training, education; leaving theory behind; materialising ideas; the passion and mystery of practical advances in work; identification with a project; sense of self-worth through achievement; work-related contacts. 2) Delays, setbacks, unexpected difficulties; frustration, disillusion, impatience, boredom, getting bogged down; taking short-cuts, lack of thoroughness, unwillingness to listen to feedback. 3) Collapse of project; either its abortion, or a re-launch from the ground up (e.g. under new management).
____________________________________________________
[6] Dispersion is the north mention on Formation in the 4-mention version of Rainring
