INTRODUCTION TO THE GRAVES’ LEVELS
Level 1 — Beige
L1-Beige is about beginnings. Infancy. Primitive man out fighting the elements. Scavenging alone with his mate and offspring like wild animals. It’s also about what happens when we are thrown backwards by catastrophe and the “beginning again” that happens under those conditions. It’s tempting to dismiss L1 as unimportant and uninteresting — not having much impact on our modern world. This is be a hasty conclusion, because the body’s adrenaline system treats every stress as a an L1 issue of physical survival. Health requires keeping the mind from treating every frustration as a fight or flight situation.
PROBLEMS OF EXISTENCE
The problems of existence at L1 are
as basic and simple as life itself. L1 is about
survival. Sleep. Water. Food. Shelter if possible. Warmth if possible. It is existence
without past or future. Will I survive this moment, right now? How do I do that?
L1 is reactive and totally self involved in maintaining
physical stability— because self is all there really is. If it is possible to put
into words a primary problem of existence at L1,
it would be isolation. Being completely on our own, with no obvious one (or
many) to rescue us, stand up for us, or come to our aide.
COPING MEANS
If the world is a state of nature, then you must act and survive like
other animals. Scrap, scrape, scream. We cope by taking care of ourselves at every
turn. We do whatever it takes, manage however we can, and never question our own
self-centered, self-referencing world.
MOTIVATORS AND DRIVERS
L1 is motivated by physical needs.
There is no such question as “what do I want for dinner?” — only, “will there
be anything to eat?” “will I find anything to eat today?”
RESULT OF SUCCESS / FAILURE AT L1
Being successful at L1 means you get
to live. It means you have the ability to survive the physical world: to acquire
food, shelter, and water. If L1 fails, the individual
dies or lives in constant desperation to survive; existence is extinguished.
GLOBAL EXAMPLE:
Our very distant human (or pre-human) ancestors existed at
L1. Each wandered, homeless and without ally. Following the seasons. Fending
for him- or herself in all regards. Eating what they could find on the move. Always
in fear of predators. Not necessarily the highest link on the food chain.
The stark image of roving bands of feral children, orphaned and displaced by war,
or by drought and other natural disasters can be seen as L1
at its primitive worst in the modern world. There is no loyalty or family between
these children, no thought for a future or a college education, no concept of their
place in the world — only the raw, naked drive to stay alive. They roam like wild
dogs; scavenging, stealing, even killing for food. They become L1
survivalists, fighting each other for every morsel and every moment of warmth or
stitch of clothing.
INDIVIDUAL EXAMPLE:
When someone is blinded or otherwise disabled as an adult by a catastrophic
event, they generally return to L1 for a short
period of time to relearn survival in light of this new problem of existence.
They must re-establish the boundaries of their world, learn to navigate, to feed
themselves, and how to be safe under these new conditions. Once the basics of survival
are in hand, they move on and begin their crawl back across the developmental map.
THE L1-Beige MEASURING STICK
1. Is there existence?
2. Is there isolation and self-attention?
3. Is there survival in trauma?
4. Is there eating, sleeping, etc...?
5. Is there reproduction?
THE CORE LEARNING OF L1-Beige
Even at this early stage of existence, there is a core learning which
must be realized to produce a healthy existence. Before L1
can progress to L2, there must be the universal
learning of how to need without shame. With this critical unconscious learning
well in place, L1 is well equipped to be a healthy
and contributing human individual at L2 and beyond.
An absence of this ability to need without shame will corrupt all future levels and
produce extremely unhealthy interactions with others.
ARCHETYPE:
The Tarot begins with the Fool, a lone person, but with an animal usually
a dog, interacting with him, though he is barely aware of it. This is the state of
the infant with teddy bear, the primitive with fetish or idol. Repressed social affects
surface through a transitional object that allows the individual to practice social
skills in a less threatening situation than contact with another human being. Thus
it prepares the way for the next stage.
Level 2 — Purple
“Sacrifice self now to the wishes of the chieftain, tribe, spirits...”
L2-Purple is about forming into the first social
structure. This is where we first learn to trust and relate to others, to value one
another, and to know that it is possible to survive what we fear — together.
All those things we learned in kindergarten are L2 lessons — absolutely necessary for continued healthy
development, and for healthy existence at any subsequent level.
Our cultural rituals — the ones that cross all the boundaries — like funerals, weddings,
wakes, seasonal celebrations, planting and harvest celebrations, and ceremonies celebrating
birth and entrance into adulthood — are L2 markers.
PROBLEMS OF EXISTENCE
At L2, the biggest problem of existence
is still achieving safety in a dangerous world. The dangers of nature, predators,
weather, illness, accidents, unseen spirits and ghosts, monsters, disappearances
and death must be fended off and protected against. An L2
world is a world of fear, but in contrast to the previous level it has a new resource:
the tribe.
COPING MEANS
In a world that is frightening and mysterious, once we have the necessary
social skills, we band together for safety and to placate the spirits that threaten
survival. We call on our ancestors who have gone before for assistance. We sacrifice
to gods, pray, and perform rituals; use totems, magic, taboo, superstition, and symbols;
and we enlist the aide of a shaman, witch doctor, medicine woman, oracle, chieftain,
or high priest. We do as we have always done because that is what works. It is what
our fathers and their fathers did — it is what we will do.
L1 was out there on his own, never getting a
good night’s sleep because he was always keeping an alert ear for noises in the night.
If he ate, it was because he found his own food. If he was clothed, it was in garments
of his own fashioning. By L2, however, the individual
takes his learned survival skills and contributes them to the well being of the group.
If he doesn’t catch a fish today, he will still eat because someone else will catch
a fish. He can rest and sleep, secure that someone else is watching the camp, and
tomorrow he will watch and they will sleep.
L2 clings together, interdependent, sharing everything.
A tribe, a family, a brotherhood. This is where we learn faith and trust.
MOTIVATORS AND DRIVERS
The primary L2 motivator is towards
safety and security, and away from fear. The sacred is also a clear motivator,
because of the presupposition of deities running in this system.
Success at L2 is marked by the ability to
trust others and to be trustworthy, and the ability to form relationships with others.
L2 is a place where classical conditioning is
the most effective way to teach and learn. Consider what it means to live a life
of ritual: when I sacrificed the fattest goat last year, it rained for two weeks.
If we need rain now, what do I do? I sacrifice the fattest goat I’ve got. The goat
burns — there’s the rain. If it doesn’t rain, I must’ve sacrificed either an inappropriate
goat; performed the sacrifice in an incorrect way; or be at the mercy of a fickle
and merciless god. Nonetheless, at L2 we are
motivated to learn and to repeat what has worked before. This is a culture of sameness.
TEACHING / LEARNING STYLE
L2 learns by repetition, as described
above, but more accurately, by observation of what goes on around them. They observe
success, then imitate that success. They observe failure, and so avoid those things
which lead to failure and harm. This is where we get fully develop our ability to
learn by experience. All of life becomes a classroom, and everyone becomes both a
teacher and a student.
RESULTS OF SUCCESS / FAILURE AT L2
Failure or absence of a complete and well-formed L2
leaves individuals unable to trust, unable to form lasting and healthy relationships,
unable to satisfactorily meet expectations of the family/tribe (or have reasonable
expectations), and forever looking over their shoulder in fear of the unseen.
Success at L2 results in an ability to relate
to the family or tribe, and to carry out successful interpersonal relationships throughout
life. It provides the personal resources to allow your own needs to be met by others,
and to allow you to meet the needs of others. It gives you the skills for communication,
interaction and cooperation, and thereby guarantees the continuation of the life
of the tribe/family through mating and births. A successful L2
provides a sturdy relationship with deity and with the sacred: the groundwork for
success at all subsequent levels.
If L2 is missing, incomplete, or damaged, the
individual will be isolated from community and family and unable to succeed at personal
relationships, or become an integral part of “the group.” There may be an incomplete
understanding of the relationship between life and death, or a profoundly stilted
development of wonder, and a lack of respect for rite, ritual, and symbol. The sense
of what is sacred may be missing or distorted, and thus the relationship with deity
may be equally missing or distorted.
GLOBAL EXAMPLE:
There are very few L2 cultures left
on the planet, and they are primarily in South America, Africa, Oceana, and the Arctic.
Historically, any tribal or clannish culture which takes care of itself without aggression
toward other tribes would be living at L2. These
societies are pre-literate, but often creative and artistic, especially in their
worship and ritual.
ORGANIZATIONAL EXAMPLE:
L2 organizational structure is a circular
tribal structure led by elders, shaman or chief who makes decisions. The ways of
the tribe are sacred and rigidly preserved. If there is a work product, it belongs
to everybody, and everybody benefits from it.
INDIVIDUAL EXAMPLE:
In our modern world, an individual with a strong L2
is one who enjoys an extended family, or a family of any size that is heavily soaked
in traditions and interdependence. Children/babies reach L2
as soon as they are able to recognized that they exist as part of the group and that
the group takes care of itself and of them. Once that security is known, the monsters
under the bed and the dragons of story can be survived and even tolerated, because
the tribe will protect.
Organized religion offers strong L2 for many
people because of its family structure and its link to the spiritual and the unknown.
In fact, it is often said that God lives at L2.
In the Judeo-Christian Bible, it is when the Jews ask to leave L2
behind and move on to L3 by receiving a king
their God says they are abandoning Him.
In most modern cultures, societies, brotherhoods, unions, and other close-knit “clubs”
supply us with some structural L2. We cling to
holidays, decorations, costumes, parades, festivals, masks, parties, cycles, feasts,
superstitions, and other traditional activities because of the “home again”
feelings they arouse in us.
L2 gives us our groundwork and our past. Without
it, we are adrift and alone in a scary world.
THE L2-PURPLE MEASURING STICK
1. Is the family/tribe in tact?
2. Is there respect/fear for gods, ancestors...?
3. Is there a sense of belonging, safety and trust?
4. Is there easy interaction within the group?
ARCHETYPE:What, though, if everyone in a family or tribe were entirely
trusting? What if all failures of tradition or personal betrayals were repressed?
What if a group continued in denial like the followers of Reverend Jones, who went
faithfully to suicide? Preserving healthy L2 from fanatical credulity is the emergence of the repressed
in the form of its archetype, the Trickster. In Ancient Greece, he was Hermes; for
Native Americans of the Southwest, Coyote. S/he manifests as the mischievous child
in the family or shaman in the tribe. In the Trickster’s selfishness and willingness
to violate tribal norms, s/he does instinctively what becomes the next stage’s conscious
way of life.
CONTINUE TO Graves & Jung Level 3
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