DIALOGUE

IT’S FATHER’S DAY

Perhaps a salute

No!

Better a kneel

A curtsy

A lacey veil 

For seeing through

My cynicism

To the remote

Rigid

Foreign

Faraway

Land of the Fathers

Judith Harte

6-13-14

I sit here on the day after Father’s Day, reading proofs from the soon to be published forthcoming book, Images of Soul: Reimagining Astrology, based in part, upon James Hillman’s notion of the acorn as carrier of our soul’s codes. This joint effort, was co-authored by myself and Marriage, Family Therapist, and outstanding Evolutionary astrologer, writer and poet, Hadley Fitzgerald. It seems fitting, on the day after Father’s day to acknowledge Hillman’s role in our book’s development. As a matter of fact Hillman’s ideas about an acorn-driven theory of fate and soul has in-part fathered our book’s thesis.    

“Why do I find myself grieving for Hillman today,” I ask out loud? 

I sit flooded with a fusion of loss and gratitude, to and for the world that has opened inside of and before me because of Hillman, those products of his once physical existence, his ground-breaking work.

Do I love Jung? Is he brilliant, eternally amazing? Of course.  Seeing through to psyche via The Collected Works and his Red Book art and text is an experience that I /we may not see the likes of ever again.

I’ve experienced Hillman’s physical presence, heard his lectures, read his books over and over constantly from 1979 to the present.  I’ve spoken with him, literally and imaginally, even been his dinner partner. Those things are important, and are events that will ever remain in my memory. So why the tears? I cannot quite describe what is missing now, but I’ll take a stab at it.  It must be the alchemy that his physical presence on this planet has engendered. That is what I so miss. The undercurrent within my psyche of his absence in our world just seems to bubble up and overflow every once in a while.

And on what better day, than the day after Father’s Day?

Astrologically, Hillman’s Chronos/Saturn (mythological father) conjoins my Hermes/ Mercury (writing, books, etc.)in the sign of Scorpio, a configuration that resides and has its genesis in Hades/Pluto’s realm.  What better dynamic then, to lead, inspire, teach and show me the ropes and ways in which to see through to the depths out of and from which images of soul emerge?  

I’ve been endlessly fathered by Hillman’s ideas, words, humor, and depth.  He was/is my ultimate, spiritual father figure and teacher. His ideas continue to ignite my endless excursions into and out of Hades’ realm of soul.  It is appropriate isn’t it, then, to cry?  Doesn’t it make sense that every once in a while, and most especially on Father’s Day, that this eternally, fatherless daughter, be entitled to experience an over-flow of feelings, carried on the wings of angels and sent from that dark, mysterious dream-laden underworld realm of Hades/Pluto? After all,  that is the place where images of soul have their origins and their being in psychic life!

Judith Harte

June 16, 2014