There are two things that can occur in our interactions with others—reflection and projection. Reflection is when experiences reflect back to us from others that show us aspects of ourselves, and projection is where we externalize aspects of ourselves onto others that aren’t actually them. Projection can be anything that we avoid seeing in ourselves and instead only see in others, good or bad, whereas reflection is always occurring, even if we are too busy projecting out to notice the underlying messages that are reflecting back to us—about us. Even projection can be a reflection though, as what we are projecting out onto others tells us what we are failing to own about ourselves.
Once we become emotionally mature enough to stop projecting our baggage out onto others, we can invest our time in working through what life is reflecting back to us. Eventually, once we are emotionally balanced and whole, life will only be able to reflect back to us our wholeness and balance; and even if somebody does try to project their baggage onto us, it will not be a resonant match and we will be insulated from experiencing any emotional reactions or drama from it. If perchance something dramatic does reflect back to us from our external reality, we are already so adept at working with our feedback (our reflections and projections), that we are able to make course corrections, and continue our smooth sailing. Contrasts are an integral part of this reality, as they help us to clarify about what we do and do not want to create and experience, but how we perceive and work with them will change.
The Mirrors Principle of Reflection consists of five of the Seven Hermetic Principles:
- Correspondence – As above, so below, as below, so above. (We can know each realm, inner and outer, higher and lower, etc., through observation of where we are at here and now.)
- Vibration – Nothing rests; everything moves; everything vibrates. (We will interact with those who have a similar vibration, who are a match to reflecting back to us who we are, whether it is comfortable or uncomfortable truths.)
- Polarity – Everything is dual; everything has poles; everything has its pair of opposites. (the Source that views itself in the Mirror, and the Mirror that reflects the Source, are a polarity pair that interacts together.)
- Cause & Effect – Every Cause has its Effect; every Effect has its Cause. (when we observe the effects in our life, we can trace them back to their root perceptions that are the cause, so that we can make conscious changes and alter our vibration.)
- Gender – Gender is in everything; everything has its Masculine and Feminine Principles; Gender manifests on all planes. (Gender is an inverted Mirror that reflects back to us who we are, where the Masculine Principle’s heart pole is negative and genital pole is positive, and the Feminine Principles’s genital pole is negative and heart pole is positive. Carl Jung’s Anima and Animus process work uncovers the patterns within our gendered relationships.)
