If you've studied Jung's work at all, you've probably heard of the Duende. This excellent 20-minute video, "Duende: A Work in Progress" by Patricia Llosa offers a great explanation (special thanks to Alliance member and Jungian analyst, Erel Shalit, for bringing it to my attention!)
You might also be interested in reading this article, "REFLECTIONS ON THE DUENDE: An examination of The Theory and Play of the Duende by Federico García Lorca" by the late Jungian analyst, Raphael López-Pedraza.
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Barbara, Randy, and all: The Bosnak Alchemy course is also listed here in the Events section. If you decide you're interested, please note that Alliance members get 15% off.
The instructions to receive the discount are at the bottom: http://www.depthpsychologyalliance.com/events/online-course-embodyi...
Thanks for the tip, Holly. I will look into this course.
http://www.jungplatform.com/
Come take the alchemy course with everyone in January!
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This is fantastic. The links are great as well. I've been playing guitar for 35 years now(it is my passion) and I am no stranger to the mysticism of music. This, however, is by far the most stimulating insight I've had on "The Duende". For me, the Duende represents the primal, rhythmic element of music. It is a beast, and I love the bullfighting analogy. I think that the matador must be skilled to defeat the bull, but a matador who has become a master at his art may have to start putting himself in harm's way at some point or else the contest will become a farce. Thus, the game is always dangerous. I'd say Apollo's contest versus Marsyas is the myth I'd use to explain this complex fusion. Thanks for sharing. That was time well spent, as always.
“For me, the Duende represents the primal, rhythmic element of music.”
This is another great example of the Duende concept and I share the same perspective, Christopher. I picked up the guitar 35 years ago, at the tender age of 15. These days I am exploring the tenor ukulele.
Wherever one sees emotion ignited by the power of music, I think the Duende lives there, too. In my opinion, it also lives in the modes, which convey the character of a piece (example: Phrygian mode, used in the power rock/metal genre to the delight of its fan base).
Athena had a similar dispute with Arachne in another art form (weaving), and you may know the result of that attempt on the part of humans to compete with divine powers: arachnids. But the deep desire to activate the divine in oneself has one promising myth in the tale of Psyche and Eros. I believe Psyche's soul-making journey began in her beauty being compared to that of Aphrodite who responded somewhat like Apollo and Athena, but who either wittingly or unwittingly set Psyche on the soul path. I think, too, of D. H. Lawrence's poem in which he asks, "What is the good of a man unless there's the glimpse of a god in him? And what's the good of a woman unless she's a glimpse of a goddess of some sort?" These are not specifically about music, as is the example you gave (and I think the duende IS about music perhaps more than the other arts), but the mystery of the duende can be anywhere, as Randy suggested, except, perhaps, in what is dead or unchanging or bodiless or bloodless or dull. I love what you said about the matador having to put himself in harm's way to keep the duende from departing and turning drama into farce.
I had looked at The Dream and the Underworld before and I now realize that I should have this book for reference. At the same time here, I got Dream Language: Self-Understanding Through Imagery and Color, by Dr. Robert Hoss, MS, one of the experts from my Dreams and Science course at Jung Platform.
One book I had read recently, which has helped me to gain some new insights into the dream world structure, was The Dream and Its Amplification from Fisher King Press, featuring several psychologists discussing these parameters we are talking about.
The dichotomy of the feeling of being trapped, or suspended at height, then the feeling of touching the grass in this dream remind me of all those alchemy pictures from those discussions in Jung, vol.’s 5, 12, 13 & 14. One guy points up, the other points down, among other examples. In these pictures it seems as if we are to be made aware of opposites so as to gain perspective of our situation, whether it is a literal or metaphorical context.
I think the spirit of the duende can be found wherever life is finding the new possibilities it must find to continue its existence.
Thanks for mentioning the books. What is Jung Platform? And see my reply to Christopher's response for a comment on your last line.
Bonnie, here is a link to a piece I wrote on DUENDE some time back: http://www.barbaraknott.net/Duende.html
I will be following the discussion with great interest.
Barbara, I read your article and I really liked it. I am focused on the relationship between depth and height at this time, in my study of dreams.
From the article:
“He (Lorca) presents an idea that is unusual in orthodox Western (and Eastern) religions: seeking transcendence in depth rather than height. Our direction is not upward and outward in gradually diminishing contact with body and earth, but downward and inward …”
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