Up: [[Compulsion]] Created: 2024-08-29 There are [[Archetype]] energies at work in the psyche of addicts. They’re important because when I understand what’s going on inside, I know what spiritual meaning my soul is craving that is getting buried by the addiction, and I can live the creative life I’m meant to live. This is the high of addiction, the rush of energy from sugar, and the surge of pleasure from creative, relentless work. It’s such a great feeling that the desire is to have it again and again. So it’s a loan, a debt we incur that puts us in bondage and then we feel guilty that we’re under the thumb of the MoneyLender. The MoneyLender is soulless. It has us believing that it’s possible to achieve perfection and the desire for that lets us escape the real guilt that comes from living imperfectly in an imperfect world. In my case, the moneylender is actually extending me the promise of perfection on the other side of my addiction to sugar. Since perfection is impossible to achieve, and I don’t want to face that fact, it’s little wonder that I keep procrastinating at ending the addiction. > [!User] Linda Leonard in *Witness to the Fire: Creativity and the Veil of Addiction*