2-FEBRUARY: Erel Shalit: The Cycle of Life – Themes and Tales of the Journey

Posted by Erel Shalit on January 19, 2012 at 12:35pm

Dear Depth Psychology Alliance book club participator,

I want to welcome you to the book club for the month of February. During this month we will discuss my book The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey, and I invite you to share your thoughts, comments and questions on this theme.

I write these lines from my home in Ra'anana, a small town north of Tel Aviv, at the eastern shores of the Mediterranean. This is the narrowest part of this small country, around 9 miles from the sea to Israel’s border with the Palestinian National Authority in the east (the local bus will take you cross-country).

This place in which I live, seems to eternally waver back and forth between profound creation and relentless destruction. Here, history fuses with mythology, and the heart of three monotheistic religions beats from within an area of a third of a square mile; a heartbeat that sends hurricanes of the spirit and floods of blood, across the face of the earth. From this same harsh earth arose, as well, some of humankind’s most powerful beliefs and influential individuals.

Hope and despair are common visitors in the souls of the peoples that dwell here, coloring their passions in dark red and their spirits in deep blue. You will find the terrors of war alternating at your doorstep with the dreams of reconciliation, reminding you how small we humans are, particularly when we have power and guns in our hands (on all sides). We are constantly reminded of the responsibility that rests on the shoulders of Psyche in each and every one. As Jung said, man’s psyche is the origin of all coming evil.

I have shared my thoughts about these issues in other books.* However, one further characteristic brings us to the cycle of life: the seasons. Here, at the eastern Mediterranean (which means “the sea in the middle of the earth”), the seasons don’t flow gently into each other. The seasons that soften the transition between summer and winter are very brief, sometimes barely noticeable. Likewise, the transitions along life’s journey, from the fires of adolescence to the gray ground of adulthood, for instance, may be sharp and painful. In some, this may evoke resistance and the desire to stay forever young, as in the puer aeternus or the puella aeterna, the eternal youth, who refuses to grow up. Others may prematurely, and sometimes unprepared, have to take on the burden of adult responsibilities, experiencing how the fire and the spirit of youth are extinguished.

My book focuses less on actual development through life’s stages, but rather on the archetypal core of the respective stages, or ages of life, from the perspective of their archetypal meaning. Consequently, the emphasis is not on the child’s development through the stages of childhood, but rather on the child as carrying the image of living in “the mysterious world of mythical images and magical relatedness,” as Gerhard Adler says.

I suggest that whoever wants to participate travels the journey of the book in whatever personal way you find suitable. The reading of the book’s 182 pages easily lends itself to be divided in four: first week we’ll concentrate on the journey, second week on the child, third week on adolescence and adulthood, and fourth week on old age. But find your own path! Sometimes, some of us, start reading a book from the end, or are drawn to a chapter of particular interest. I do suggest, however, that we share thoughts and comments according to this weekly schedule, to keep a certain structure in a world that too easily lends itself to chaos.

So this first week, let us focus on the journey. I have chosen the image of the river, from its source, and then the course the river of one’s life may take, until it finally dissolves in the sea. When Jung, in his essay on the stages of life, emphasizes the importance of ‘problem’ on life’s journey, his intention is clearly living the conscious life. What does that mean? How do we live consciously?

Please be free to relate in whatever individual way you choose, with comments and questions. I will respond regularly, and I hope it will be an enjoyable journey together.

If you are interested, you may listen to or watch an interview that Bonnie Bright conducted with me.

Furthermore, there will be two drawings, one on February 14th for The Hero and His Shadow, and one on the 28th for Enemy, Cripple & Beggar. The winner of the book will be announced the following day.

Looking forward to sharing thoughts and perspectives along the journey,

 

Erel Shalit

 

*Please see my The Hero and His Shadow (the most recent, revised edition of this book was published this January by Fisher King Press); and Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return (if you sign up for my newsletter, you will receive a free pdf eBook edition of the novella, but those of you who, like me, prefer the ‘real’ thing, can purchase it at Fisher King Press, Amazon or elsewhere).

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Tags: analytical psychology, cycle of life, erel shalit, jungian, life span, stages of life
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    • Nance Harding, MAHS-LPC > Erel Shalit February 25, 2012 at 5:43am

      Dear Erel,

       

      9142880489?profile=originalWhen you write "to fully live our life by not letting it be inhibited by too much reflection, yet to reflect deeply enough about our life so that it becomes meaningful" it reminds me of the ouroboros.  The snake eating its tail is a common symbol for the cycles of life.  Like all archetypal symbols, it too has a positive and negative pole.  My current understanding and experience is that while it symbolizes 'All is One' it also can symbolize egoistic narcissism. 

      I encourage clients to 'datamine' the symbols in their dreams for information to help guide them through midlife and beyond, but to not concretize the symbol which drains it of it's meaning or 'juice.'   In my life dreams have been important and have guided my path personally and/or professionally since I was a child.  For those of us who have led lives marked by extreme circumstances, I see no other way to creatively 'make sense' of Life.

      I live in New Orleans. As you may know, about 80% of the city was destroyed in 2005 when the Levies broke during The Flood after Hurricane Katrina.  Here we use the Fluer de Lis as a symbol of the rebirth and/or the Holy Trinity since we are a Catholic City.  I get to witness every stage of the individuation process at work in peoples' lives.  I sense that the diaspora and the rebuilding has brought out everything in us!  There is the Child, the Puer, the Adult and the Senex all contributing in their own way.  And as I mentioned above, I also see the narcissism and solipsistic self involvement that does not allow one to have 'eyes that see' the suffering of others who can not rebirth or rebuild at any stage of Life.

      I have enjoyed reading your books and am now making my way through ' The Complex-Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego."  I just 'happened' upon your writings in an attempt to revitalize my practice and my personal life as I become more comfortable with the Senex aspect or the old woman within who has been taunting me since age 36.  I took up analytic training but it was stalled due to the Flood.  I think your writings have given me the courage to take it back up and not to worry that I will be 63 when finished.  So, thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for the opportunity to learn and grow beyond what I think I am capable of. 

       

      Take care, nance

    • Erel Shalit > Nance Harding, MAHS-LPC February 25, 2012 at 6:50am

      Dear Nance,

      Thank you for your touching comment! The terrors of traumatic events, whether nature catastrophes or man-made evil, may cause us to freeze, unable to overcome the disasters that preferably should remain at a symbolic level. Yet, sometimes we may be able, individually or collectively, to wrestle ourselves out of the horrors and manage to go on. All too often, the price may be a loss of the very symbolic dimension, as for instance among many Holocaust survivors. But as you say, sometimes the most in the human being may also come forth in such situations, when in lieu of an event of archetypal dimensions there is a call to activate one's innermost resources. While the Flood stopped the stream of Life, Noah, who was a tiller of the soil, planted the first vineyard (Genesis 9:20). I am so glad you're taking up the analytic training again, hoping it will bring both the growth and the spirit of the vineyard after the flood.

      Erel

  • Erel Shalit February 21, 2012 at 12:06pm

    Dear participants,

     

    We are now moving into the last week (well, this February does have 29 days, so we get a little bit extra), towards the end of our journey. I chose to divide the last chapter of The Cycle of Life into three, as an homage to old age, and to approach it in three different ways – one considering the archetypal essence, one to celebrate Sophocles' beautiful Oedipus at Colonus, and one of pertinent vignettes from a woman in analysis. I would like to suggest that you ponder upon Kafka's brief story "The Next Village," which reflects the different perspectives on life – the old man and the young one.

     

    It was written between 1917 and 1923. On the one hand, it means Kafka was somewhere in his mid-thirties, in fact, a young and still unmarried man, but on the other hand, it was written by a very old man, near his death (at the all too young age of forty-one). This is Kafka’s story:

     

    My grandfather used to say: “Life is astoundingly short. To me, looking back over it, life seems so foreshortened that I scarcely understand, for instance, how a young man can decide to ride over to the next village without being afraid that -- not to mention accidents -- even the span of a normal happy life may fall far short of the time needed for such a journey.”

     Enjoy this brief story - and your reflections!

    Erel Shalit

  • Nance Harding, MAHS-LPC February 21, 2012 at 5:10am

    Feel free to paste in FB.  You can find my page at Nance Harding, LPC.  Take care, nance

  • Carita Fogde February 20, 2012 at 11:36pm

    Dear Erel 

    I always loved that poem, and this was the first time I saw the whole poem, Great

    Carita

    .

  • Carita Fogde February 20, 2012 at 11:31pm

    Dear Nance. Thank you for the poem ! You really succeeded  to describe the human condition in so beautiful, yet realistic , poetical language. Your poem really struck an accord in me. Hope you don't mind me pasting this on my FB

    Thanks again Carita

  • Erel Shalit February 20, 2012 at 12:24pm

    Thank you Carita for noticing my choice of names for the persons who appear in the book and have contributed dreams and clinical vignettes! Since Hebrew names often have definite and quite clear implications, I decided to bring this to the readers.

    Erel

  • Erel Shalit February 20, 2012 at 10:30am

    Thank you Carita and Nance for sharing pertinent poetry!

    In Cycle of Life I quote Robert Frost's “The Road Not Taken,” written in 1916. To me, the movement from the road not taken, to the road less traveled, signifies the path we may traverse over an entire life time:

    Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,           
    And sorry I could not travel both      
    And be one traveler, long I stood       
    And looked down one as far as I could          
    To where it bent in the undergrowth;
       
    Then took the other, as just as fair, 
    And having perhaps the better claim, 
    Because it was grassy and wanted wear;        
    Though as for that the passing there  
    Had worn them really about the same,
       
    And both that morning equally lay 
    In leaves no step had trodden black.  
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!   
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,         
    I doubted if I should ever come back.
       
    I shall be telling this with a sigh      
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:       
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—         
    I took the one less traveled by,           
    And that has made all the difference.
     
    Erel

     

  • Nance Harding, MAHS-LPC February 20, 2012 at 9:30am

    Dear Carita.  Thank you for giving me the opportunity to share part of a poem I'm working on.  I love reading theory, etc., but find the Arts in general to be far better in capturing my deep feelings regarding the human condition and the journey through the stages as we make our way to a common end..:)

    Far From Beautiful

    Can I lop off that which is far from beautiful,

    to remake myself at this stage of the drama?

    Are the aches, the pains and the passing beauty evidence of my failure?

    Can I use these things to somehow tease out of my soul a better me?

    All is within.  The messages are within that help to translate the hieroglyphics of the Soul.

    Like an archeologist I will brush off all loose dirt that does not belong there

    Then carefully take the messages back home where I will live them.

     

  • Erel Shalit February 18, 2012 at 11:15am

     

    Dear Carita,

    Thank you for sharing this. We often do observe the issues that require our attention in relation to others, often in close relationships. The arena of intimate relations is where so much archetypal energy is being enacted, because close relationships are – close, nearby, near to both our shadow and our desires, to acceptance and rejection, near to ourselves, in attraction as well as possible negative projections of our shadow. The wake-up call may often be harsh, for ourselves and/or for our partners, but wake-up calls and what we usually refer to as symptoms, are calls to depart on the hero's journey, the "call for adventure," as Campbell says. And the turning point at midlife (again, not dependent on chronological age), carries the essence of going deeper, living more fully, giving up much of what was valid until this moment, changing perspectives, and attaching to profound values and a deep sense of meaning – if not, we missed the point.

    Erel

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