Update 1.01 — Adding “skepticism” and “alchemy”.

I would like to start from the place on the Mandala of Characters which for many readers can be the most controversial and intriguing. It is about the bottom right corner of the Mandala, where are such descriptions.

INTROVERSION
impact, magic, influence
cool, cold

Above set of words can be controversial, because of one word. I am thinking here about the word—“magic”.

I was writing why I used this word in “The Mandala of Characters—the creation history” in the chapter “Further development of the Mandala of Characters”. But now I would like to take it further.

At first glance, the word “magic” may not seem to be the right word for work dealing with human personalities. It is because, magic is often associated with people like fairy-tales writers, illusionist, magicians, fortune-tellers, alchemists, etc. However, it turns out that the skills and discoveries many of magicians have been useful in many areas of life. They even contributed a lot to the development of humanity. Among many magical fields, probably it is best seen in the example of alchemy. To present this, I will use a few quotes. Here is the first of them.

The last sentence from the above quotation tells us that alchemists, based on the concept proposed by Aristotle, believed that transmutation of materials is possible.

Probably the most known works of alchemists are their attempts to make gold. These attempts, as we know, ended in failure. So, alchemists are often seen as crazy scientists or even charlatans pronouncing magic formulas. Alchemists, however, did not only deal with making gold. It was just one area of their activity. In general, alchemy was a very complex and advanced knowledge and highly skilled profession. For example, we can read about it in the next quote:

One of the lectures of William Newman, mentioned in the above quote, we can also find on the internet. That is his lecture about one of the greatest alchemist. I think for people who don’t know this alchemist, it will be an astonishing fact because it is about… Issac Newton. Below it is a link to this lecture.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUhL1cli4ug
The title of this lecture—“William R. Newman on Why Did Issac Newton Believe in Alchemy”.

For this work, the most valuable is this, that alchemy was also very symbolic. Personally, I am fascinated by Jung’s work. And Jung, among others, was fascinated by alchemy. For example, we can hear this in an interview with Jung.
Source:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FfNKdI6iPJE

About Jung’s alchemy research we can also read in below quotation.

In this quote, there is a sentence—“According to Jung, the allegorical aspect of alchemy comes to the forefront”. I would like to pay special attention to the phrase “allegorical aspect”. It is now interesting because it is connected with the part of the Mandala of Characters that I am talking about in this chapter. And it is connected with the types of characters which are placed in this area. These types are Cool Water and Cool Earth.

These types in their Conscious State are often largely guided by allegorical, metaphorical and symbolic thinking. People from these types often easily get to know in various allegories, parabolas, poetry, fairy tales, proverbs, sayings, slang, etc. Also, they often demonstrate the ability to:

• a colorful narration about something,
• chatting about various matters,
• an interesting way of reporting some events,
• catching others' attention story-telling,
• etc.

They may also have comic abilities and the ability to parody different people. Many representatives of these types can also catch various funny and humorous situations in the surrounding environment. And often they have great fun with their fanny observations. They are also talented in using their comical and satirical abilities to entertain others.

In life, actually, everything has good and bad sides. For example, if we look at representatives of the two above mentioned types, that is, Cool Water and Cool Earth, they may do both:

1. Very easy to get sympathy and be well-liked by other people.
2. And also discourage people and push them away. For example, when these types are too playful and when they too much expose others faults, weaknesses, and problems.

Here we can also have another problem. Paradoxically, many representatives of these types often do not like, when somebody has the fun of them in a similar way like they have the fun of somebody. When somebody is joking and laughing at them. Besides, it can be hard to bear for them, when somebody is criticizing them. In these situations sometimes it can happen that they will be not able to see logically and rationally what is going on. And it can lead to this that they will be seriously angry and offended. Offended on somebody or others who did not treat them seriously…

People from the types Cool Water and Cool Earth are also often very “distinguished from the crowd”. Often they are easily noticeable among others, and it is difficult to “pass by them indifferently”. So, they are able, if they need, to make themselves visible to others. They can attract and focus others attention on them.

It can be said figuratively that representatives of these two types can use various magical or alchemical abilities to achieve their goals in life. For these types, magic and alchemy are daily bread. So, they are able to use various tricks, enchant others, make a magic atmosphere, have irresistible charm, capture attention, etc.

Generally speaking, people from these types are tending to use such things as magic, alchemy, tricks, fortune-telling, foretelling the future, fairy-tales, allegories, metaphors, etc. Also, often they have natural talent in these magical directions.

So, in normal life, Cool Water and Cool Earth in their Conscious State often have the magical and charming influence on others. And they are able to get it through the specific way of being, thinking and behaving. For example, through this: how they speak, move, gesticulate, express thoughts and emotions, etc. Actually, as for every type of character, they are doing everything in a specific way. The specific way for Cool Water and Cool Earth is this that they are able to have a strong influence on people, or they can make various kinds of pressure or impact on them. And here we have really big magic. It is because others often not notice this impact of Cool Water or Cool Earth. Or if they notice it, they are often not able to defend themselves from their magical impact.

I think that words: influence, pressure, and impact well reflect in the psychological sense what they can do types from the “magical” part of the Mandala of Characters. That is Cool Water and Cool Earth.

Symbolically, here the following distinction can also be made between these two types. It means, the “influence” will be more related to the Cool Water, while the word “impact” will be more related to the Cool Earth. This association here is quite simple. Cool Water can “influence” others. It is because, Cool Water like a fluid can inflow, that is, can influence somebody or something. Figuratively, Cool Water influences in new various areas, if there is an appropriate place or occasion to get there. Cool Earth, on the other hand, has characteristics similar to Earth, that is, Earth can make an impact on everything around. So, it can make an impact on others. Similar to the words “impact” and “influence” are also words like “pressure” or “emphasis”. These words in the context of Water and Earth are similar. It means, pressure or emphasis can make both types: Cool Water and Cool Earth.

In sum, I think I can say that the word “influence” is characteristic for Cool Water, while for Cool Earth characteristic is the word “impact”. Words “influence” and “impact” I already put on the Mandala of Characters. And I think, it is a good choice to keep it further.

In addition, I think that it is worth introducing the word “alchemy”, which is characteristic for the way of acting types Cool Water and Cool Earth. Like alchemists, they are penetrating and researching various new areas of knowledge and life.

I think it is worth paying attention to one aspect of this place of the Mandala of Characters. I am thinking now about appositeness. That is, about the relation between the opposite side of the Mandala. So, on the opposite side of Mandala, among the set of words which are there, we can find the word “believe”.

I think that it is worth to find a word which will be opposite to the word “believe”. At the moment, there is no word, which can emphasize opposition to “believe”.

So, let’s find this word.

About people who do not believe in something, we often say that:

• they are overwhelmed by doubts,
• they consider different contingencies,
• they consider different pros and cons,
• they don’t want to support some truths, dogmas or commandments,
• etc.

I think that from the above list to the fore comes the word—“doubt”. So, I think we can assume that “doubt” is the opposite of “believe”. For some time, I was convinced that the word “doubt” would be a good word to add to the Mandala of Characters. However, over time I decided to use the fact that “doubt” has a very long tradition. This tradition connected with the word “doubt” last from antiquity. I mean here—“skepticism”. Skepticism comes from Greek (σκεπτικός, skeptikos, in Latin. sceptici—doubtful, reflective). And skepticism is associated with the philosophical schools of ancient Greece. Skepticism has been constantly developed since ancient times. There are many variations and trends. It would be difficult even to describe and embrace all varieties of skepticism briefly. Therefore, I will only mention the definition from the PWN—Polish language dictionary.

Below I quote also definition from American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language.

So, I think that the word “skepticism” I can add to the Mandala of Characters. All the more so that the types from this part of the Mandala of Characters can be characterized by skepticism. It is also interesting that on the Mandala the word “skepticism” will be among such words as “magic” and “alchemy”. Personally, I did not think before about it that skepticism could be related to magic and alchemy. However, now during the development of the Mandala of Characters, such conclusion appeared. In this case, I think, it is worth get deeper into it, and research it further.

All in all, the new set of words on the Mandala of Characters in the bottom right corner will look like this:

INTROVERSION
  impact, magic, skepticism, alchemy, influence
cool, cold

Then, I will also place the above set of words on the Mandala of Characters. Please look at the diagram below.

In the above diagram, the word “impact” is closer to the Cool Earth, because this type is more “sticking to the earthly matters”. That is, this type is counting for results which will be more concrete, tangible, material, pragmatic, etc. This type can also be tough and persistent in aiming his goals. This is one of the types that is the most resistant to various hardship, troubles, and adversities. It is hard to persuade Cool Earth to change his mind even when for others some goals look too hard to achieve. Cool Earth, if he has goals and purposes that he likes, he sacrifices or dedicates himself to them with all his heart, without regretting his effort, time and abilities.

The words “alchemy” and “influence” are closer to the Cool Water, because the representatives of this type are more subtle and refined in their activities. They try to be sophisticated, finessed, accurate, precise, etc. Often they want to make a good impression and have a strong influence on the events, on what is happening, and in general on what is going on around. Cool Waters also likes, similarly to alchemists, to explore new things which are interesting for them. They are attracted by various types of experimentation and systematic development of their skills.

Cool Water and Cool Earth are able to exert a different type of influence and impact on their surroundings. Thanks to this they can trigger various changes or take control over different events.

References: