How will the trader be transformed? In important ways. The trader will see his failed trading experiences from a larger perspective, through the eyes of God. The trader wasn’t being punished by his losses; he was being asked to expand his consciousness, to live beyond his ego.
A Higher, Larger Perspective
I am paraphrasing Carl Jung who suggested that psychological problems are never solved from our narrow, current perspective. Jung elaborates using the image of a spiral. It is only when a person’s consciousness spirals upward and circles back to a point exactly above the previous point in the spiral, does the person view the previous, lower point (the problem) from a higher, larger perspective. Then, it is no longer viewed as a problem. Thus, the trader’s repeated losses (the problem) were an invitation to discover the Self.
Ashes are alchemically equivalent to salt. In The Mysterium Lectures: A Journey through C.G. Jung’s Mysterium Coniunctionis, Edward Edinger states,
“At the end of the calcinatio everything that can burn is burnt away and only ashes are left. And ashes belong to the symbolism of bitterness: defeat, failure and the sackcloth and ashes of mourning all belong to that experience of bitterness…. [Ash] corresponds to the ‘glorified body’ which is immortal—the indestructible residue that’s left over from the calcinatio. So it’s an image of the immortal Self that is refined and can endure the fire” (p. 139).
Wisdom
Since parts of the egocentric ego are burnt away, mainly the Self remains to enliven the trader with renewed meaning and wisdom. The trader experiences his or her life as a spiritual journey directed by a higher power (the Self). Losing is no longer perceived as a problem and therefore is depotentiated of its power to negatively influence a trader’s trading. Now winning can occur as naturally as the sun rising in the morning.
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