hi there digdug...

thanks for the tip on Neoplatonism... mostly ive been working with mandalas lately... its a long and adventuresome story that i'll need to write about sometime.. basically the mandalas give me healing that ive been incapable of finding any other way, but it follows the sacred geometry of the pre-modern philosophies and relates to a center of the universe prototype... here's a link to a past thread here at PC with a little more info:

http://forums.psychcentral.com/showt...highlight=jung

to each his own i spose but if you get a chance, google it sometime..

i think your recount of the night you went in search of something not so good for yourself has very significant spiritual value, especially for you! its these seemingly random situations that turn out for good that we should pay more attention to i think... i do believe in a grand design and there is no doubt in my mind that it affects us all each day..

as far as one group or another having advantages, it may be true.. we are often the beneficiary of our social limitations and boundaries... its very damaging to our inner soul if we are disallowed freedom of spiritual expression.. rejection does massive damage to the inner spirit... through understanding we can open up inner worlds that may be quite helpful and yet to be discovered..