A friend pondering Jungian concepts of our dark sides developed an analogy of the black hole in our astronomical universe and its parallels with the black holes that can exist in our personal environments. Both have the destructive capacity to suck in everything in their path.
Not long ago, I wrote a paper on the Problem of Evil, and this black hole analogy brought to mind the ancient Sumerian/Babylonian mythology. This mythology saw chaos as the primary evil. Hesiod, around 700 BC, wrote that “Chaos was the oldest of the Gods—a shapeless mass who could not be described as there was no light by which it could be seen.” Offspring of Chaos and wife Nyx were Erebus (Darkness), Aether (Light) and Hemera (Day). From Ather and Hemera came Gaea (Earth) who created Uranus (Heaven). So Earth created Heaven--does that mean that Earth also created Hell?
This black hole, this shapeless devouring mass, is an interesting concept, probably because it ties in with the shadow side of our being, which we find difficult to acknowledge until it rises up and bites us. Winston Churchhill's description of depression as the "black dog" comes to mind.
One view from the field of addictions is that addiction, particularly the use of numbing drugs such as alcohol, cocaine, heroin,and food, can be seen as the driving hunger to fill the black hole within us, whether that black hole is seen as the need for love and acceptance, hunger for a spiritual ground, or the more macro view that addiction is a symptom of a culture that has lost its way. Alfred Adler would say that the answer is in “Social Interest.” Get out and be of use in the community, and stop with the navel gazing.
Negative space in art, is, in a sense, a black hole, a “nothingness” but it’s what defines the work. An artist once noted that, if you work from the negative space, you have to remain very focussed, that it is much harder than working from the positive objects. Music and sculpture both have their empty spaces, which are defining elements.
Where am I going with this? I don’t know—I'm still finding my way. One of the vital things is to become aware of the black holes, to find them by means of the behavior of objects around them. In other words, in order to locate the emptiness, one needs to study the “solids.” My friend discussed black holes as a vortex, sucking out energies, but the whole concept took on a larger life.
As I think about it, if I go back to the addictions model, addictions are the black hole, sucking out the life, so the vortex model fits there. The behavior of objects around is pretty easy--loss of family, friends, and self-respect as the whirlpool becomes tighter and deeper and the user's world consists of nothing but getting and using the anaesthetic.
The one big difference between black holes and addictions is that I have never heard of a black hole reversing, whereas it is possible to break free from addictions. An interesting visual is to see the whirlpool spitting out the good things!
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