I just returned from attending the first evening of the James Hillman memorial at Pacifica. Lying in bed, unable to sleep, my head is filled with images of photos, writing, notes that have been randomly yet consciously collected and placed in what could be described as a small Hillman museum. And what images they are. There is no way to begin to take them all in. His tap shoes placed lovingly behind plexiglass. Bits, pieces, of his thoughts -- his letters, his writings. At times I felt as if I were a phantom peeking over his shoulder while he sat at his desk struggling to convey all those exquisitely beautiful thoughts. These were gifts to all of us that thank g-d will keep on giving.
And there was that photo, perhaps the last photo taken of him from behind, as he walked down a picturesque road, perhaps toward eternity. He looked small, dependent upon a cane, vulnerable, yet yielding in his last days. I recalled a similar view of him that captured myself and my friend one day, years ago, as we approached Pacifica to attend one of his seminars. As we looked for a place to park I noticed a tallish, rather ordinary looking, elderly man walking in front of us on the sidewalk to our right. He'd held two suitcase-like objects, one in each hand and was kind of trudging along good-naturedly toward what was most likely the place where he would carry on his day's work. At first I paid him little attention, then as we parked the car I took a second look at this, tallish, plodding, aging stranger. I turned to my friend when I realized who it was, and said, "Oh my God that's Hillman..."
Tonight I saw that man with the stuffed brief cases in both hands, again. He was James Hillman, the man with the cane, in that photo of him taken from behind, as he walked down the path toward eternity. To me that photo said so clearly that his work, at least in this incarnation, was finally done.
And now I find myself, metaphorically at least, once again at death's door, and musing about this thread of death and the anxiety that does or does not surround it. Is there an afterlife? Do we go somewhere?Anywhere? What do we each carry in our suitcases. Do we carry it and/or take it with us to birth it anew in another life?
Or, is death merely a sacred, black, quiet, containing space, that if we're lucky, honors us with a graceful warning by letting us know it's on the way and offers to us the precious gift of living in the now?
Replies
Just seeing your note, Judith. I too was at the Hillman memorial and also touched by the photo of him walking away from us. The photo evoked in me an image of Hillman as Oedipus at Colonnus: having given all he could, and all he had, returning to rest in the eternity of nature's embrace. Truly the end of an era. I will really miss him and our field will miss him. He was something: a force.
The planting of an oak tree and acorns, so that one day there will be a Hillman forest at Pacifica, was perfect.
I don't know how to respond to your reverie on death. I have had a large cluster of deaths recently. I am not privy to what comes next but I loved Jung's image, after having a heart attack, that we take everything we have learned and become with us on that journey back.
Thank-you for writing about the memorial.
Hello Deborah. I'm so glad you wrote to us all about the Hillman memorial. I only wish we'd been able to meet while there. I tried to look for anyone from DPA but there was no way to find others, short of making an announcement and I didn't feel that it was somehow OK to do that. I'm not familiar with much of Shakespeare but your description about Hillman walking that road, along with being beautifully written, so echoed my sentiments. And I too, just loved the idea of a Hillman forest one day. If that doesn't titillate the daimons then I don't know what will! Hope to stay in touch and even meet person to person one day. Judie
Thank-you for your touching reply, Judie. I appreciate hearing from you. I am new to DPA--just getting the hang of it. It is wonderful to be in touch with others who grieve the loss of Hillman--to share those feelings. Are you a Pacifica student? Should I ask personal questions by emailing you off the Hillman page--probably so....
warmly,
Deborah
Oh, Judie! Thank you so much for this incredible imagery. The picture of Hillman with his suitcases is so apropos. I am sitting in a conference right now--it's lunch time. John Peck, one of the three translators of the Red Book, just took us through nearly three hours of Red Book images at breakneck speed. My mind is exploding!--and as I turned on my computer to check in on the community and saw your post, I could only make the connection of how much of the unconscious these brilliant minds managed to tap into, stuff into some sort of information, and then to convey it through image. Hillman was certainly a continuation of that tradition that started long ago with cave paintings, then hieroglyphs, then alchemy through (many others) to Jung and then onward. I feel lucky to be a conscious part of this delicious tradition...
Bonnie, I am curious, were you at the Assisi Institute training and receiving a "field or form" assessment of the 'incontrovertible laws' that lay within the Red Book images? (This is a reference to your invitation/review of Michael Conforti's book club title, and very intriguing...) How are you dealing with all that psychic activation via a tour of Jung's images, created over much time and feeling space?
I wonder what James Hillman would have to say about this work with images, and I also wonder what the intersection of the images that emerge in Crop Circles may have with Michael's work. I will be in on the book club reading of Field, Form and Fate! Maybe Michael can address the crop circle phenomenon a bit...
Also, I just listened to your interview with Gary Bobroff - thank you for bringing the book club authors and interviews to us. Lots of work!
Jung, Crop Circles, and the Re-emergence of the Archetypal Feminine--Bonnie Bright with Gary Bobroff, author & presenter at the first local Depth Psychology Chapter meeting in the San Francisco Bay Area, March 23. 2-21-12
Julie and Judith--I so appreciate your comments on James Hillman and wanted to introduce a short paragraph from Tom Singer which I just read in this month's ARAS newsletter:
"Hillman spent a lifetime pointing to the primacy of image in soul, psychology, spirit and imagination. In that sense, ARAS should recognize Hillman as one of our honorary "patron saints" as all of our efforts for the past seventy-five years have been focused on image as a source of energy, inspiration, soul and meaning from the beginning of humankind to the present. For Hillman, image is our psychology."
On my part, I've been reading Yoram Kaufmann's "The Way of the Image" (pretty much the number one recemmended book for Michael Conforti's work) and totally based on the primacy of the image in Jungian psychology (and in life)--which equally stimulates my psychic activation even though it's in the form of words. Jung may have had his flaws (as did Hillman, of course) but the way in which they both had an integral understanding of the power fo images (particularly when you begin to look at and understand what's really going on in the Red Book!-- is more than profound. I'll try to write more about that at some point in the near future.
As for the crop circles, it's a deep mystery to me. I'm looking forward to hearing more from Gary when he speaks at the Alliance local meeting near San Francisco in a couple of weeks!