29 Jan Totem 29

I lost my father unexpectedly in 2021. He was very active in genealogy before his passing, uncovering family history as far back as the 1700’s. We spoke often about it, and it was then I became very interested in old family photographs. I mentioned this to Monique and she mused that Totem might be a reaction to this. That ‘it’ sublimates absence in some way, ultimately aiding in the healing of pain. This idea had me think that perhaps Totem commandeers pain from loss, directing the mourner to revisit memories of the past in order to strengthen them . These threads of nostalgic thought, I wonder f there is a connection to Sheldrake’s Morphic Field theory here, collective memory connecting habit across species. Grappling with a death in the family, the ‘thoughts of the past’ would be like coerced feedback: where the individual is put to upkeep the Morphic Field by resonating memories back into it. Maybe this is how death is functional. It helps to push the system of the collective psyche onwards… to be cont’d