In the beginning, there is the you. It is not the all of you. It is that part of you that emerges out of the circumstance of your birth, in which you had no say.
Where did you find yourself then? How random your life began, how specific you then became. Emerging through placement, accumulation of life experience. Determination, interaction, outcome.
Are you happy? Are you successful? Do you fit in, or is it mostly disaster? Pain and sorrow? Shame? Hurt? Confused? So much going on, so little understanding.
Inspired by the concept of 'Aspect Emperor', in the R. Scott Bakker Second Apocalypse series, 'Aspect Emperor' refers to both a unique imperial title, and to the metaphysical and philosophical underpinnings that define the character who holds it.
This title signals that the protagonist Anasûrimbor Kellhus is seen as the living 'Aspect' (or incarnation) of their God, a being whose soul is believed to possess the very shape of the Ur-Soul, the divine archetype from which all souls are derived.
In our case, 'Aspect Self' refers to the essential 'Aspect' of you that is your higher self emerging. The being you are here to become, revealing yourself to be, while experiencing the travails of your very unique and specific life.
We are on a journey of self revelation, from before the moment of birth, to the very edge of the end of the last exhalation we make as our physicality again becomes the inanimate clay of Mother Earth and releases our soul essence back to source.
Our very life, is our ultimate lesson, to learn from and emerge out of at the end, with a sense of accomplishment, not of the material, which is only the container, but of the essence, the self realised you, adding to the whole of existence, your truth, beauty and goodness.
The real possibility that we are overwhelmed by this process is evident in the experience of 'The Dark Night of The Soul', when either a mid-life crises or an existential disaster, destroys the expected outcome we have endeavoured until then.
The most shocking and disturbing realisation on reflection, is how much we contributed to our eventual breakdown, via the reactive behaviours that became part of our identity as a way of coping with the reality around us.
The opportunity here is the understanding that we are able to interrupt the automatic reactions we offer up to challenges. The challenge is that this is can be a very isolating and painful process, dealing with deep seated destructive habits and the negative self image that accompanies them.
Aspect Self offers an opportunity for individuals to access a way through the crisis. A process of self discovery, the release of that which limits our agency, emerging from stuckness into harmonious inner peace and true self expression.