I had been wanting old Chinese coins for my I-Ching study and practice. I know you can get them on the streets of Colaba. But I wasn’t sure. I did go and was taken to a lady who sells. She sits in front of the Museum in Colaba.
At first glance she was an average old Maharashtrian lady, complete with a half-moon tattoo on her forehead, and. A few more on her arms. Wearing the traditional nine-yard saree and an accent to go with it. With heaps of old coins for sale. I bent down; I knew what I wanted. I wanted the Chinese coins with holes, the kind I have seen in I-Ching videos.
She asked me, in Marathi, what do you want. I didn’t answer. I kept rummaging. She asked again, I did not want to embarrass her with specifics. I assumed she would not know. The third time, she asked, I politely told her I wanted Chinese coins, but with holes. She promptly, in an unassuming tone told me all Chinese coins had holes. My hands stopped rummaging.
As soon as I picked a coin, with a quick glance she told me the country and almost always the year. Now I was really in and more than a little embarrassed at my assumptions.
I was still intrigued, as she started to show me other neatly framed old coins, and also some history lessons. She good naturedly told me “I don’t charge for showing”. I asked her name, pause
Mrs. Sheetala tai Paruskhar. She said her name with such dignity and poise.
When I got tired of bending she asked for a small stool and I sat down with her. She then showed me her collection with pride. Large bronze age ones, small thick ones from the time of Shivaji, hand pounded coins from Mughal dynasty. I have never been so enthralled by coins and its make, what was happening during that time, why copper, or silver or bronze, what did the symbol indicate… Sheetala tai could go on and on…
I have to admit I was having a hard time aligning my perception of how Sheetala tai looked and talked and What and how she was talking about. I was aware of my judgement as it burned my cheeks and I struggled with it.
At one point, she suddenly stopped and asked me Why was I after Chinese coins. I was about to defer telling her about I-Ching, but I learn quickly. So I told her. Concluding I-Ching was about – Change.
We both stopped and looked at each other-the pause was palpable and long and deliberate – I did not assume she did not get the irony – Each was letting the moment sink. And then just as suddenly we burst out laughing.
I had just had a moment of – Peripetia.
Sigh !!!!!!
Something moved deeply within me. Like the coins in front of me, the old the new, the shiny the rusty, the modern the traditional all were in the same heap.
Peripeteia (pronounced as peri-pa-ta-ya) comes from Greek, in which the verb peripiptein means “to fall around or “to change suddenly.” It usually indicates a turning point in a drama after which the plot moves steadily to its denouement. In his Poetics, Aristotle describes peripeteia as the shift of the protagonist’s fortune
In simple terms – It is meeting your Shadow.
It’s quite a trip to come face to face with something that puts you out of place. Suddenly. Its’ like matter and anti-matter meeting- It has Potential for “Completion” and Silence. There is a suspension of “identity” – It’s the equivalent of White Noise
But it can also be frightening and intimidating, if we go down the path of shame and deceit from self, if we try to “look good” – then it can be devastating. It has the potential to break you down. Because you are then caught in your lie. And it can go down the path of thinking my whole life has been a lie.
“What you can’t be won’t let you be.”
The shadow, according to psychiatrist Carl Jung, consists of those parts of ourselves we choose to repress or hide that we don’t like. It’s always standing right behind us, just out of view. In any direct light, we cast a shadow. The shadow is a psychological term for everything we can’t see in ourselves.
Most of us go to great lengths to protect our self-image from anything unflattering or unfamiliar. And so it’s easier to observe another’s shadow before acknowledging one’s own. I have found this a great hack in knowing myself- I may be who I think I am -But I am certainly who I think other is or isn’t. It’s easier to see outside. I find it funny how we think we are not revealed in our judgement of others.
I remember when I was little, in church we were told, tell God what you are most ashamed of telling even yourself. I never saw that as an act of giving your shadow a voice
“Denying our shadow side, it only leads to more pain, suffering regret and resignation” – Debbie Ford.(from Dark side of light chasers)
The corollary may also be true. When there is pain suffering and resignation – We may be avoiding Peripetia.
Perhaps a practice of Peripetia, can help us with Integration. We are who we say we are AND who we say we are not. Perhaps we need to take what Shakespeare said literally, and “Stage Peripetia”. Because if we don’t – we will keep creating the “Other” as the enemy. And continue pain and suffering.
The trajectory of tragedy is in our hands.
We encounter everything only to learn the lesson of kindness and love
LOVE AFTER LOVE
by Derek WalcottThe time will come
when, with elation,
you will greet yourself arriving
at your own door, in your own mirror,
and each will smile at the other’s welcome,
and say, sit here. Eat.
You will love again the stranger who was your self.
Give wine. Give bread. Give back your heart
to itself, to the stranger who has loved youall your life, whom you ignored
for another, who knows you by heart.
Take down the love letters from the bookshelf,the photographs, the desperate notes,
peel your own image from the mirror.
Sit. Feast on your life.
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