JULY: Patricia Damery and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky: Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way.

“This life is the way, the long sought after way to the unfathomable which we call divine.” C.G. Jung, The Red Book        

Each of us has a story about how we found our way to Jung, or to Depth Psychology. Often it is a story about a life crisis: something or someone has died, the old structure falls apart, life as we knew it doesn’t work anymore.  We are disoriented, confused, depressed.  And then, something surprising happens, something new is born-- in a dream we discover a room in our house we never knew was there. These life altering experiences are our personal versions of Jung’s “confrontation with the unconscious” which he recorded in The Red Book. His courage has encouraged us all.

When Mel Mathews of Fisher King Press asked us to collaborate on an anthology, we knew we wanted a collection stories about the lived experience of the “Jungian Way.” We invited Jungian analysts and teachers to write personally about their own soulful paths, and how the fire marked them. The people we chose were able to do just that, following that trail of mystery Soul presents. Marked by Fire is the result. 

We are pleased to be able to converse with you who are members of the Depth Psychology Alliance’s Book Club about Marked by Fire.  It is our hope that you’ll feel inspired to reflect on your own life journey, and to share some of it with us.

Marked by Fire is divided into five sections.  During our four weeks together in July we plan to focus on each section.  We have four groups of questions for you which we will present at the beginning of each week. They correspond with the structure of the book. 

We’ll likely add more questions as our conversation sparks them.

First Week:

Please read the first three stories by Patricia Damery, Jerome Bernstein, and Claire Douglas, all of whose writings come under the Section Heading:  The Might of the Earth.  

The land is alive, sacred and essential in these stories. Patricia Damery awakened to soul on the farm where she was raised. Jerome Bernstein, a city boy, had an experience of merger with the land when he began working with the Navajo. Claire Douglas credits a farm she had in Oregon with saving her soul. That terrain nourished and cultivated her, and helped her find her circuitous way to Jung. 

Question: Has the Earth spoken to you on your own soulful path? Are there riddles you have been required to “live”? Have the ancestors of the land upon which you live influenced and/or helped you?  Do you have an early memory or dream that foreshadows your life’s concerns and passions?