Rick Jarow: Opening to Our Fire

How are we to channel our energy, our vital force, into the world? According to Rick Jarow, professor of religious studies at Vassar and anti-career expert, we can enshrine our energy through appropriate roles. By finding such channels for our energy, we can even make use of aspects of ourselves that we may not like—transmuting our preoccupations or hang-ups instead of avoiding or disliking them. In this way, we creatively use the vital forces within us and contribute to the world rather than experiencing those forces as unhelpful and potentially destructive.