It seems to me that our 'talents' are primarily for soul-making, for accessing the living archetypes, or what the ancients called God, or the *gods and goddesses, through our various so called gifts. One person writes, one draws, one dances, one carves wood, one raises children, one cooks, one plays football, etc.....so many "arts" or ways to access the resources and raw materials of our souls. What Howard Gardner calls the various intelligences, it seems to me, are ways to access soul.
The Great Unconscious is always moving in us to carve out the unique psychological pumpkin each of us is, to make an individual face and place a light inside. Jung called this individuation, The Bible calls it being made in the image and likeness of God.
Sadly, I think, we have largely lost that primary function of our talents and turned them into only social functions or personal esteem functions. We 'do' art for recognition or money rather than allowing art to do us. There are social and personal aspects to our talents, but most fundamentally our talents and gifts are our connections to the *gods, or God, as they commune with us, and make us unique individuals.
Footnote:
*By using the plural 'gods' I don' mean to question or undermine monotheism. I am just recognizing that humans have expressed their soul-making experiences in different ways in each culture. Even Christian monotheists have a Trinity; Jews and Muslims speak of the One True God as "We" or "Us," and polytheists like the Greeks have Zeus as the chief deity, or speak of The Unknown God. Don't allow your theological correctness to miss the point, namely, our talents and gifts are primarily ways and means to become conscious and move into our completed souls.
The Great Unconscious is always moving in us to carve out the unique psychological pumpkin each of us is, to make an individual face and place a light inside. Jung called this individuation, The Bible calls it being made in the image and likeness of God.
Sadly, I think, we have largely lost that primary function of our talents and turned them into only social functions or personal esteem functions. We 'do' art for recognition or money rather than allowing art to do us. There are social and personal aspects to our talents, but most fundamentally our talents and gifts are our connections to the *gods, or God, as they commune with us, and make us unique individuals.
Footnote:
*By using the plural 'gods' I don' mean to question or undermine monotheism. I am just recognizing that humans have expressed their soul-making experiences in different ways in each culture. Even Christian monotheists have a Trinity; Jews and Muslims speak of the One True God as "We" or "Us," and polytheists like the Greeks have Zeus as the chief deity, or speak of The Unknown God. Don't allow your theological correctness to miss the point, namely, our talents and gifts are primarily ways and means to become conscious and move into our completed souls.
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