of - Blogs - Depth Psychology Alliance2024-03-28T14:55:21Zhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/feed/tag/ofVisits from Sophia: A divine feminine presence.https://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/visits-from-sophia-a-divine-feminine-presence2017-01-12T16:46:03.000Z2017-01-12T16:46:03.000ZPamela Alexanderhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PamelaAlexander<div><p><img class="wp-image-64 aligncenter align-center" src="https://wisdomoftheswan.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/sophia.jpg?w=346&h=420" alt="sophia" width="346" height="420" /></p><p>I took a trip to Istanbul soon after I finished my coursework for grad school. The first thing on my list of things to do was to visit Hagia Sophia. All I knew about it was that it was that it was a church. I was thrilled that I was going to see a historical building associated with Sophia, who was a main character in my dissertation. I couldn’t wait to get inside the church to see all the symbolism around Her. Much to my surprise when the country was invaded they installed Islamic images, the Christian ones were minimal. Sophia wasn’t there the way I thought she would be.</p><p>Last winter we visited the San Antonio missions in Texas. We walked into the church across from the Alamo on the eve of Christmas Eve and the pipe organist was playing a soul-stirring version of <em>Christ is Born</em> that made my hair stand on end. We sat for a while listening to the music and watching the steady stream of people exploring the church with all of its holiday decorations. Eventually we got up to leave and exited through a side door. We walked toward the road that went behind the church and just as we prepared to cross the street I heard a man call from behind us, “Senorita, Senorita! Wait!” I turned around as he steered the woman behind me toward an opening in a high wall behind the church.</p><p>Something compelled me to follow them into the garden and without a thought I did. There on the outside of the church, concealed behind high walls, was a towering statue of what the Mexicans call the Virgin of Guadalupe.</p><p><img class="wp-image-65 aligncenter align-center" src="https://wisdomoftheswan.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/1036.jpg?w=260&h=347" alt="1036" width="260" height="347" /></p><p>I was astonished to see this huge statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe hidden behind the high walls of the garden and tucked away behind the church. Then I had another synchronistic experience with her the very next day.</p><p>It was Christmas Eve when we went to the Mission of the Immaculate Conception. The curator and park ranger walked up to us as we sat outside looking at the map to see how far the next mission was. They asked if we needed any help. We chatted amicably for a few moments and then I asked, “Who do you think the woman is on the altar?” It wasn’t the traditional Virgin Mary we see in typical Christian depictions, but the Virgin of Guadalupe image. The Mexican-American ranger responded, the Virgin of Guadalupe is the Virgin Mary.</p><p><img class="alignnone wp-image-74 aligncenter align-center" src="https://wisdomoftheswan.files.wordpress.com/2017/01/edited-virgin-of-guadalupe-painting.jpg?w=313&h=418" alt="edited-virgin-of-guadalupe-painting" width="313" height="418" /></p><p>I explained to them how Sophia was an aspect of my dissertation, but they had not heard of her. I shared how Sophia is Wisdom and that’s who I thought may be portrayed in the Virgin of Guadalupe image. The woman in Revelation is described in the way the Virgin of Guadalupe is shown. They were intrigued by the possibility.</p><p>In Revelation 12:2 it says<em>, “And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth. In anguish for the delivery.”</em></p><p>The woman in Revelation was pursued by a red dragon and God prepared a place for her in the wilderness and gave her wings to fly away from the dragon. She is to be nourished in the wilderness for a “time, and times, and half a time.” (Rev. 12:13)</p><p>A young girl of about eight walked up to us as I spoke with the curator and park ranger at the Concepcion Mission. She placed her hand on the curator’s back, moved her to the side, and walked right through the center of our group. We were standing outside and there wasn’t anyone else on the grounds except for us, this girl, and her family. As she walked through the center of our small circle, her mother called out to her, “Sophia! What are you doing?” Her mother walked up apologizing, until I explained to her that we had been talking about Sophia at the exact moment her daughter walked up. She was astonished to say the least. We all were.</p><p>The latest was the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul, which is the Mother church of the archdiocese of Philadelphia. A nun was inspired to have bronze statue of the Virgin of Guadalupe made as a site for prayer. It is located in the front of the church to the left of the altar.</p><p>I have typically seen these Virgin of Guadalupe statues in areas saturated with those of Mexican descent. This is the first time I have seen this statue in the northeast, which seems unusual. This is the prayer that is near the statue:</p><p><em>Know for certain that I am the perfect and perpetual Virgin Mary, Mother of the True God. …Here I will show and offer all my life, my compassion, my help and my protection to the people. I am your merciful Mother, the Mother of all those who have confidence in me. Here I will hear their weeping and their sorrows and will remedy and alleviate their suffering, necessities and misfortunes. …Listen and let it penetrate into your heart. …Do not be troubled or weighed down with grief. Do not fear any illness or vexation, anxiety or pain. Are you not under my shadow and protection? Am I not your fountain of life? Are you not in the folds of my mantle? In the crossing of my arms? What else do you need?</em></p><p>You cannot see the word “Mary” in the photo I took because it is where the camera flash reflected. This divine feminine asks in the prayer, “Am I not your fountain of life?” She is the source and all we need.</p><p>These types of experiences with Sophia, a divine feminine, have been in dreams and the world. She is and has been opening my awareness to her presence in many ways. I had a dream during the course of my dissertation that revealed a spiritual experience twenty years ago was an encounter with Jesus and her. Through the course of my studies I began to see her on-going re-appearances as an indication of her presence.</p><p>I was planning to write a paper in grad school on a common theme in fairy tales which was the sacrifice of the daughter by the father. Before I started writing, I received an intuitive message that it wasn’t a sacrifice by the father, but an initiation by the Mother. I realized in Amor and Psyche that’s exactly what happens. Aphrodite, the goddess of Love, initiates Psyche (Soul) to help her move from being a victim to knowing the divinity in herself. I saw that in subsequent fairy tales, which appeared to be retellings of that myth, that the goddesses had disappeared from the stories.</p><p>This is true of the Bible as well. The books not included in the Bible are found in the Nag Hammadi, which has stories of enlightened women, Sophia being one, who are strong and empowered. The women in the Bible are not often powerful in their own right and can be interpreted in a negative light losing the true meaning of their stories.</p><p>The manner in which the powerful divine feminine presence is no longer seen in the fairy tales or religion, is also true in my own life. I remember asking years ago where the divine feminine images were? Where the divine female presence was? And I now am left wondering how many times I didn’t see her trying to get my attention because I wasn’t looking, listening, or aware.</p><p>After writing my paper, I thought of going back and rewriting my own history to put the goddess back in it. The one who was taken out of the fairy tales, religion, and subsequently my own story. The thing is, once I knew she was taken out of the fairy tales, I could see little signs of her. The helpful animals and the fairy godmothers were a few of the vestiges of her presence. How would rewriting my story change my perception of my life knowing that a divine feminine presence has been with me all along? How would it change your story if you knew she had been there with you all along and you just didn’t see it?</p><p></p><p><a href="https://wisdomoftheswan.wordpress.com/">https://wisdomoftheswan.wordpress.com/</a></p></div>Halloween, Masks and Your Shadow: What’s Jung Got To Do With It?https://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/halloween-masks-and-your-shadow-what-s-jung-got-to-do-with-it-12015-10-15T14:05:07.000Z2015-10-15T14:05:07.000ZEffie Heotishttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/EffieHeotis<div><p><b><font size="4">Halloween, Masks and Your Shadow: What’s Jung Got To Do With It?<br /></font></b> by Effie Heotis, M.S.</p><p><b><i>"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious".</i></b></p><p>Like a haunted house in a good horror movie, shadow work can be scary. However, it holds a key which can unlock our unconscious minds, allowing us to become more at peace with ourselves and with others in the process. The shadow, if not called on, is that scary thing that...</p><p><a href="http://www.pathstothepsyche.com/blog/halloween-masks-and-your-shadow-whats-jung-got-to-do-with-it">http://www.pathstothepsyche.com/blog/halloween-masks-and-your-shadow-whats-jung-got-to-do-with-it</a></p></div>The Dream: The Vision of the Nighthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-dream-the-vision-of-the-night2015-07-24T21:19:42.000Z2015-07-24T21:19:42.000ZFisher King Presshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/FisherKingPress<div><p><img class="alignnone" src="//fisherkingpress.com/thumb/9781771690287.jpg" alt="front book cover image of The Dream by Max Zeller" width="162" height="240" /></p><p><em><strong><a href="https://fisherkingpress.com/n/product/the-dream" target="_blank">The Dream: The Vision of the Night</a></strong></em></p><p>by Max Zeller</p><p>A classic in the field of dream analysis, <em>The Dream: The Vision of the Night</em> is a collection of essays, lectures, and vignettes by Max Zeller whose career included a law degree, a brief imprisonment in a Nazi Concentration Camp, study at the Jung Institute in Zurich, Switzerland, and thirty years of in-depth work as a Jungian analyst.</p><p>In the eighteen pieces of this collection, Zeller intersperses theoretical writings, compassionate and incisive case studies, and powerful, almost haiku-like reminiscences of certain incidences in his life, from his meetings with C.G. Jung to his impressions of life in pre-war Nazi Germany.</p><p><em>The Dream: The Vision of the Night</em> is the best example of amplification of Jungian principles that can be found. Neither pure research nor pure memoir, the collection is an affective combination of both, and as such best portrays the spirit of its author: always restless and searching, always compassionate and open-minded, and above all, always fascinated by the mystery and power of our dreams.</p><p>About the Author<br /> A long-time pillar of the Jungian community in California, Max Zeller received his legal doctorate in Berlin. After completing his Jungian training in 1938, he and his family were soon forced to flee Nazi Germany. Zeller eventually settled in Los Angeles, where he was co-founder of the C.G. Jung Institute. A warm, witty, and insightful analyst, he continued learning, teaching, and practicing until his death in 1978.</p><p><em><strong><a href="https://fisherkingpress.com/n/product/the-dream" target="_blank">The Dream: The Vision of the Night</a></strong></em><br /> Author: Max Zeller<br /> Paperback: 202 pages<br /> Publisher: <a href="https://fisherkingpress.com/n/product/the-dream" target="_blank">Fisher King Press</a> (June 1, 2015)<br /> Language: English<br /> ISBN-10: 1771690283<br /> ISBN-13: 978-1771690287</p></div>Integrating the New Mythology: A Poet-Crash Vision for the Planethttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/integrating-the-new-mythology-a-poet-crash-vision-for-the-planet2012-05-25T14:30:00.000Z2012-05-25T14:30:00.000ZWilli Paulhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/WilliPaul<div><p><strong>Greetings -</strong></p><p></p><p>Thanks for the invite to join, Bonnie! I am currently working on a vision tentatively called: </p><p><strong>Integrating the New Mythology: A Poet-Crash Vision for the Planet </strong></p><p></p><p>As a primer, please enjoy my <strong><a href="http://planetshifter.com/node/1827" target="_blank">interview with Bonnie</a></strong></p><p></p><p>And these current pieces from <strong><a href="http://planetshifter.com/" target="_blank">PlanetShifter.com Magazine</a></strong> & <strong><a href="http://openmythsource.com/" target="_blank">openmythsource</a></strong>:</p><p></p><p><strong><a href="http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2019" target="_blank">Mythologists, Mystics & Magicians in Transition</a></strong>: 18 Interviews from the PlanetShifter.com Magazine Reservoir 2010 – 2011. Source Directory #3</p><p></p><p><strong><a href="http://wp.me/p14SHM-DU" target="_blank">sound symbols, archetypes & the power of myth</a></strong>: an alchemic journey with Nature begins</p><p></p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142441698,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="300" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142441698,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-full" alt="9142441698?profile=original" /></a></p><p></p><p><strong>Please suggest a group? Looking forward...</strong></p><p></p><p><b>Willi Paul: Publisher, Business Developer</b><br /> <font size="1">PermaculturExchange.com, PlanetShifter.com Magazine<br /> <a href="http://sacredpermaculture.net/" target="_blank">sacredpermaculture.net</a>, <a href="http://openmythsource.com/" target="_blank">openmythsource.com</a><br /> 415-407-4688 | <a href="mailto:pscompub@gmail.com" target="_blank">pscompub@gmail.com</a><br /> @planetshifter @openmythsource <br /> @permasacred @PermacultureXch</font></p><p></p><p></p></div>Emerging Archetypal Themes: The Hunger Games and the Hero with Hearthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/emerging-archetypal-themes-the-hunger-games-and-the-hero-with2012-04-03T03:00:00.000Z2012-04-03T03:00:00.000ZCathy Paganohttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/CathyPagano<div><p align="center"> </p><p> Since the patriarchy is giving way to a new sense of equality and partnership between men and women, I don’t want to give you the impression that <i>The Hunger Games</i> is only about the new feminine Hera. It is also about the new masculine Hero. Uranus in Aries is waking us all up to a new sense of identity, a new sense that we are all the heroes and heras of our own destiny. And that destiny involves being there for each other, with respect and ingenuity.</p><p> I was going to use the books and movies of <i>The Lord of the Rings</i> to talk about the image of the new masculine hero. Tolkien presents us with so many characters to choose from. There is Strider/Aragon, the hidden king who is protector and warrior, lover and king. There is Gandalf, the wizard who puts forth all his power to protect and defend his companions and Middle Earth. There is Gimli and Legolas, the dwarf and elf who become boon companions through their defense of the realm in its fight against the dark lord, Sauron. And of course, there’s Frodo and Sam, Merry and Pippin, small heroes who accomplish what the mighty ones cannot do. Tolkien’s characters exemplify all that is good and true in human beings when we are faced with ultimate evil. </p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142439477,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img class="align-center" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142439477,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="214" alt="9142439477?profile=original" /></a></p><p> Peeta, the hero in <i>The Hunger Games</i>, does not have the magical powers of Gandalf nor the endurance of the hobbits. What he does have is the determination to help and protect Katniss with his life until his death. Peeta is an example of who a new masculine hero might be and what a new masculine hero might do. And yet, this hero isn’t so new at all. Ancient warriors have fought to the death to protect those they love. Even a God was willing to give up his life so that we all could have eternal life. So in a way, Peeta represents a renewal of the archetype of the masculine hero. Like the dummling youngest son in fairy tales, he forges ahead into his adventure leading with his heart. That’s what helps him to win the day. He’s the hero with heart!</p><p> Peeta is a kind and caring young man, despite the harshness of his own life. He has compassion for Katniss when she’s hungry, even when he doesn’t have the courage to hand her the loaf of bread his mother would rather feed to the pigs. He takes delight in his work, decorating cakes, and uses his artistry to help him survive during the Games by blending into the background. He made his arm look like a tree trunk! How clever is that?</p><p>Continue at: <a href="http://thebardsgrove.blogspot.com" target="_blank">http://thebardsgrove.blogspot.com</a></p></div>The Anatomy of Alivenesshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-anatomy-of-aliveness2012-03-22T12:30:00.000Z2012-03-22T12:30:00.000ZBrigitte Hansmannhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/BrigitteHansmann<div><div style="text-align:center;" class="site-description"><strong><span class="font-size-6">Body Wisdom Congress</span></strong></div><div class="site-description"></div><div class="site-description"><strong><span class="font-size-6"><a class="widget_sp_image-image-link" href="http://www.bodywisdomspain.com/"><img src="http://www.bodywisdomspain.com/wp-content/uploads/CABECERAOK.png" style="max-width:290px;max-height:128px;" class="alignleft align-center" alt="CABECERAOK" /></a></span></strong></div><div class="site-description"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">During the Body Wisdom Congress this summer in Benicassim, Spain, among many other international speakers, I will offer two seminars: </span></div><div class="site-description"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="site-description"><strong><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Untangling Present Somatic Experience from Sensations Stored in Interfacial Water</span></strong></div><p></p><p style="font-size:14px;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Beliefs about who we are, what the world is like, and what we can aspire to in life, arise out of the continual flow of sensations in the body that are not reflections of present experience but of the initial conditions of our lives. Although these sensations seem to inform about the present moment, it is actually a present that is remembered. It is engraved in interfacial water through the habitual tension of muscles and encoded in the nervous system through selective coordination of neuronal groups. Recognizing the physical shapes which hold these beliefs in place, makes it possible to identify the different ways in which they lead our experience in life along particular pathways. The greater force fields of nature, namely the gravitational and archetypal fields, offer a highly specific frame of reference for reorientation towards experiencing the present as it is.<br /></span></p><p style="font-size:14px;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p><strong><span style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;" class="font-size-3">Breathing: The Archetypal Motion of Life</span></strong></p><div class="site-description"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;">Expanding out into the world and resting into the depth of one's being and of the world we belong to, these are motions we share with every living being, even the first unicellular being ever alive. With proper guidance, the motions of breath can restore the archetypal flow of life from its captivity in habitual patterns.<br /></span></div><p style="font-size:14px;"><span class="font-size-3" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="site-description"></div><div class="site-description"><span class="font-size-3">More information at:</span></div><p><span class="font-size-3"><a href="http://www.bodywisdomspain.com/">http://www.bodywisdomspain.com/</a></span></p><p><span class="font-size-3"> </span></p></div>A Treasure for Our Times: Enemy, Cripple, Beggarhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/a-treasure-for-our-times-enemy2011-03-17T07:49:54.000Z2011-03-17T07:49:54.000ZFisher King Presshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/FisherKingPress<div><div style="text-align:right;"><a href="http://fisherkingpress.com/"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292008102986097826" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/SXD9VNb5pKI/AAAAAAAAAHQ/ThVt98oWmK4/s200/ECB-Cvr20080528.jpg" style="float:left;height:200px;margin:0pt 10px 10px 0pt;width:130px;" border="0" name="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5292008102986097826" alt="ECB-Cvr20080528.jpg" /></a><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"> </span></div><div style="text-align:right;"></div><div style="text-align:right;"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">an in-depth review by Joe Madia, <i>New Mystics</i></span></div><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Enemy, Cripple, Beggar</span> is a treasure for our times. Vital and applicable to both lay people and experts, the book flows seamlessly and spirally from scholarship, to textual interpretation, to case studies, and the analysis of dreams. Shalit draws on an impressive breadth of scholarship and myths/fairy tales, looking at both history (e.g., the Crusades or Masada) and story.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">The book first discusses the key aspects of the Hero, considering Byron, the work of Robert Graves and Robert Bosnak, the Bible, and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, among many other sources.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">I take as my starting point the condition of mythlessness in the modern world, as expressed by Jung and reinforced by Campbell and how it is limiting our vision and ability to cure an ailing world rife with war and economic/environmental woes.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">If ever we needed to consider the role of the Hero, it is now.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">Consider the mistaken mythologizing of the death and wounding, respectively, of Pat Tillman and Jessica Lynch. While both are certainly heroes, the government’s and media’s manipulation of their circumstances (used to try and justify an unjustifiable war) bring to mind David Mamet’s Wag the Dog, the 1997 film adaptation of Larry Beinhart's novel, American Hero.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">The people love their heroes and their construction for societal consumption by the government and the media has become no less than a High Art.</span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">Shalit says, on p. 24: “In society, the hero may be the messenger of hope who lights the torch of democracy. Sometimes it is amazing how, at the right moment in history, the heroism of a nation, spurting forth through layers of oppression, creates dramatic changes and overthrows worn-out regimes.”</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">Might this apply to U.S. president-elect Barak Obama? Many people think so, and many more find themselves hoping so. Then again, there are many who see him as the shadow, using the term antichrist, and finding similarities between he and Nicolae Carpathia in the Left Behind series.</span> <span style="font-size:100%;">[This review was written in Nov 2008.]<br /><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;">If ever we needed to consider the role of the Hero, it is now.</span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><br />Consider the current fascination with Superheroes in the age of CGI and comic book cinema. Just last night I watched Christopher Nolan’s record-shattering The Dark Knight, which takes as its thesis the complicated interrelationship of the hero and the shadow. Given the death of Heath Ledger, who played the Joker, the notions of the Hero are expanded to the realm of the Artist and his or her relationship with Pain.<br /><br />When Shalit writes, on p. 95, “…life thrives in the shadow; in our detested weaknesses, complex inferiorities and repressed instincts there is more life and inspiration than in the well-adjusted compliance of the persona,” I think that his words bring Ledger’s death into sharp relief. As an acting teacher who works almost exclusively with teens, many of which see Ledger’s “dying for his art” as a form of heroism (an interpretation with which I disagree; it discounts the necessity of craft in preventing such tragedies), I think it is more important than ever to examine carefully the Hero’s role and relationship to the shadow.<br /><br />The shadow is Jung’s term for the unconscious, the “thing a person has no wish to be” (p. ix). His early experience of his own shadow is, to me, some of the most compelling and useful text in his Memories, Dreams, and Reflections.<br /><br />The hero must go into the shadow (the forest, the depth of the sea, the desert, the cave—Plato’s or the Celtic Bard’s) to retrieve his soul. The shadow is a place of misery, calling to mind Schopenhauer’s ideas about life being mostly pain and sorrow and Campbell’s advice to “follow your bliss” [sat chit ananda].<br /><br />Much of what Shalit centers on as aspects of the Hero are present in the shaman, who also has “one foot in divinity, one in the world of mortals” (p. 33). The journey into the netherworld (often to retrieve or heal the soul), the returning with precious gifts of knowledge, the responsibility of re-integration into the community (see Mircea Eliade’s comprehensive works on shamanism), all parallel the hero’s journey. The modes of the vision quest and the alchemical transformation are, further, symbolically manifested in the landscape of the fairy tale.<br /><br />Pursuing this idea, Shalit, in the tradition of Robert Bly’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Iron-John-Book-About-Men/dp/0306813769?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i>Iron John</i></a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0306813769" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0306813769" /> or Bruno Bettelheim’s <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Uses-Enchantment-Meaning-Importance-Vintage/dp/0307739635?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank"><i>Uses of Enchantment</i></a><i><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307739635" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0307739635" /></i>, ably presents and dissects a number of fairy tales, myths, and Biblical stories in the course of the book.<br /><br />“Nixie of the Millpond” is presented without commentary. The myth of Perseus, however, is told with commentary from a wide variety of sources mixed in. It would be valuable to watch Clash of the Titans (1981) after reading this section, as it brings Shalit’s analysis visually to life. Page 47 lists eight traits of the hero myth to guide the interpretation. I would add a ninth—the use of magical items (such as Athena’s shield, Hermes’ sword, and the three gifts of the Stygian nymphs, all of which are given to Perseus to defeat the Medusa).<br /><br />I have used these same basic elements of the hero myth for the past decade in my theatre workshops with youth and in my books on using drama in the classroom.<br /><br />If our youth are to break the limiting conventions of societal and governmental structures that have put the planet and its inhabitants in a place of crisis, they—and those who guide and educate them—must understand the Hero and Shadow both.<br /><br />On p. 65 Shalit writes, “Collective consciousness constitutes a threat by its demand on compliance with rules, roles and regulations.” The mythological fighting of dragons and monsters by the Hero is most clearly articulated to me by Joseph Campbell, when, in various books and interviews, he talked about Nietzsche describing the cycle of life as beginning as a camel loaded down with the requirements of parents and society. The camel then goes into the desert (one of the hero landscapes I mentioned earlier) to become the lion, who must slay the dragon whose scales all say "Thou Shalt." This dragonslaying, certainly a noble and necessary undertaking, situates the Hero as the classic warrior, akin to Michael the Archangel and St. George, but when the fighting is done, the warrior must put down the sword. Whether we speak of the Vulcans comprising the Bush administration (as author James Mann terms them) or an abused child who grows up to wage ongoing battles even on a landscape of peace in a more stable family situation, this is a notion well worth focusing on. I think of the Roman general Cincinnatus, who moved back and forth between sword and plow and the dwarves of the novels of Dan Parkinson, who switch the hammer from one hand to the other as necessary in times of peace and war.<br /><br />The hero struggling with the shadow often projects onto a demonized Other because, as Shalit reminds us, “Since shadows easily lend themselves to projection [see pgs. 97–101 for the three types identified by Jung], they are discovered so much more easily in the other than oneself” (p. 84). This is, of course, the source of most of the ugliness in the history of Humankind.<br /><br />The Biblical explorations/interpretations presented are a high point of the book (see, for example, p. 63 on the Virgin Mary) and begin in earnest with the section on the shadow. The etymology of both biblical and mythological names given throughout add much to the discussion.<br /><br />Shalit uses Oscar Wilde’s “doppelganger novel,” <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Picture-Dorian-Gray-Oscar-Wilde/dp/1936594390?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Picture of Dorian Gray</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1936594390" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1936594390" /><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1411415930" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1411415930" />, to explore the notion of shadow in terms of our duality, as Dorian is projecting his shadow onto the canvas. Duality—war/peace, animus/anima, masculine/feminine, dark/light—is prevalent throughout the book.<br /><br />The second half of the book deals with the Enemy, Cripple, and Beggar of the title. The Enemy (the projection onto the Other that is really the shadow in oneself) is explored through such Biblical figures as Amalek, Samson, Jacob, and the key figures in the trial of Jesus. The section on the Fathers and the Collective Consciousness, dealing with Caiaphas, the Sanhedrin, Barabbas, and Judas, is fascinating reading. The connection of the father and the son resounds on many levels, including the relationship of Jesus/Judas as being nearly inseparable.<br /><br />The Cripple (one’s weaknesses and inner wounds) is explored through mythological/fictional figures such as Hephaestus, Ptah, Oedipus, Quasimodo, and the child in Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Cripple.” There are case studies here that serve many of the same functions as the analyses of the myths and fairy tales, and will appeal to those interested in the dynamics of Jungian analysis. Certain aspects of the second case study reminded me of Don Juan DeMarco (1995), the film starring Marlon Brando and Johnny Depp, especially considering that love (Eros) is the means to heal the Cripple, as articulated so well in this book.<br /><br />The final section deals with the Beggar (the “door that leads to the passageway of the Self,” p. 225), which is the Inner Voice or Daemon. Shalit deals here with the notions of alchemy that so fascinated Jung. I was intrigued by the story of King Solomon as the wandering beggar and Shalit’s exploration of the life of the prophet Elijah.<br /><br />In closing, I want to mention the cover art, a painting titled “Emerging” by Susan Bostrom-Wong, an artist and Jungian analyst. Shalit asks the reader to examine the images embedded in the human figure. It is well worth the time to do so. Like the book itself, the longer you look, the more you will see.<br /><br />I urge educators, artists, and those in search of new paths toward a life well-lived to buy this book. I know that one of my own heroes, Joseph Campbell, certainly would.<br /></span><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><br /><div style="text-align:left;"><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><span style="font-style:italic;">Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path</span> is currently on sale for $15 at the Fisher King Press <a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/">Online Bookstore</a>, or phone Fisher King Press Toll Free at 1-800-228-9316 in Canada and the US, and for international orders phone +1-831-238-7799 or skype: fisher_king_press. </span> <span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><br /><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><br /></span></div><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-Cripple-Beggar-Shadows-Heros/dp/0977607674?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;" target="_blank"><img alt="Enemy, Cripple, & Beggar: Shadows in the Hero's Path" src="http://ws.amazon.com/widgets/q?MarketPlace=US&ServiceVersion=20070822&ID=AsinImage&WS=1&Format=_SL160_&ASIN=0977607674&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20" /></a><span style="font-size:100%;"> </span><br /><span style="font-size:100%;"><br /></span><span style="font-family:arial;font-size:100%;"><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0977607674" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=bil&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0977607674" />This review of Erel Shalit’s <span style="font-style:italic;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Enemy-Cripple-Beggar-Shadows-Heros/dp/0977607674?ie=UTF8&tag=wwwmalcolmclc-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Enemy, Cripple, Beggar</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0977607674" style="border:medium none;margin:0px;padding:0px;" border="0" height="1" width="1" alt="ir?t=wwwmalcolmclc-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=0977607674" />: Shadows in the Hero’s Path</span> was written by Joey Madia</span> <span style="font-size:100%;"><span style="font-family:arial;">of New Mystics.</span></span> <span class="text_white" style="font-size:100%;"><span class="text_white_bold" style="font-family:arial;">New Mystics</span> <span style="font-family:arial;">is an online Arts community founded in 2002 by Joey Madia, playwright, poet, novelist, actor, director, artist, musician, and teacher who promotes the work of a group of cutting edge writers and artists. To learn more about New Mystics, Joey Madia, and his most recent publication <span style="font-style:italic;">Jester-Knight</span> visit</span> <a href="http://www.newmystics.com/" style="font-family:arial;">www.newmystics.com</a><span style="font-family:arial;">.</span></span><br /><br /><br /><blockquote><a href="http://www.fisherkingpress.com/" style="clear:right;display:inline;float:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:1em;"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393483198773291202" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_66tG-ibjAoU/StmAZLTraMI/AAAAAAAAASs/kmBy84VNLJ8/s200/fkplogo110x100.jpg" style="display:block;height:100px;margin:0px auto 10px;width:110px;" border="0" name="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5393483198773291202" alt="fkplogo110x100.jpg" /></a>Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.</blockquote><ul><li>We Ship Worldwide.</li><li>Credit Cards Accepted.</li><li>Phone Orders Welcomed. Toll free in the US & Canada: 1-800-228-9316 International +1-831-238-7799 skype: fisher_king_press</li></ul></div>New Book: William James and C.G. Jung: Doorways to the Selfhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/new-book-william-james-and-c-g-jung-doorways-to-the-self2020-09-02T18:57:00.000Z2020-09-02T18:57:00.000ZSteven Herrmannhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/StevenHerrmann<div><p>Jungian analyst Murray Stein writes:</p><p>“Steven Herrmann is one of those rare individuals who can brilliantly bring intellectual prowess and visionary depth together in a graceful dance of prose and poetry. In this work he presents the many cross-overs and parallels between two similarly gifted thinkers, C.G. Jung and William James. A comparative study of these two giants of modernity is long overdue, and Steven Hermann is perfectly prepared to cover this match in all its splendor.”</p><p>Murray Stein, Ph.D., author of <em>Transformation: Emergence of the Self</em> (1998), president of the International School for Analytical Psychology (ISAP) in Zürich, and past president of the International Association for Analytical Psychology (IAAP).</p><p> </p><p>Steven Herrmann offers each reader an intriguing journey through an open and curious exploration of human nature by two of the most influential psychologists of our times: the philosopher William James, Harvard professor and founder of American psychology, and C. G. Jung, who expanded our view of the psyche and the nature of the unconscious. Based on historical research and a nuanced reading of their works, Steven Herrmann elucidates their reflections on the streams of consciousness, psychophysics, pragmatism, pluralism, yoga, spiritual democracy, vocational dreams, synchronicity, transmarginal fields, and the Self.</p><p>"Doorways to the Self" is not a mere metaphor but an invitation to recognize the living spiritual reality in every person. This book is an important contribution to the history of psychology in America and the influence of James on C.G. Jung as well as a fascinating exploration of what it means to be human.</p><p>My new book is currently in Press at Analytical Psychology Press in 2020. </p><p><a href="https://www.analyticalpsychologypress.com/">https://www.analyticalpsychologypress.com/</a></p><p>My book will soon be available by the end of the Summer 2020 at Itasca Books: </p><p><a href="https://itascabooks.com/psychology/">https://itascabooks.com/psychology/</a></p></div>The Shape of Water: The Shape of Change?https://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-shape-of-water-the-shape-of-change2018-02-02T02:34:24.000Z2018-02-02T02:34:24.000ZJean Raffahttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/JeanRaffa<div><p></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> <a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142464666,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142464666,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="400" class="align-right" alt="9142464666?profile=original" /></a>Filmgoers may have laughingly dismissed Godzilla, the Teenage Werewolf, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon in the 1950’s, but nobody laughs at the real-life monsters we see on television every day in the form of terrorists, genocidal dictators, and political leaders who incite divisiveness and spout nuclear threats. We get it. Dystopia is us. Our problems are caused by humanity’s psychological and spiritual ignorance, and they will not be resolved until enough individuals acquire more mature and humane ways of thinking and behaving. What used to be the role of deities and religious authorities has now become everyone’s job.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> Fortunately, there are prophets among us to show us the way. They are the courageous and gifted artists who create books and films depicting ordinary people who evolve into heroic individuals. The Star Wars series, Avatar, Arrival, and The Shape of Water are examples. Their mythic themes and archetypal characters limn the shape of our own souls. Everyone enjoys a good story. But do we realize these stories are about us? Do we understand their metaphors and decipher their symbols? Do we apply their lessons to our own lives?</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> Each of us contains a possible hero like Luke Skywalker, an indomitable Amazon heroine like Princess Leia, a Wise Man like Yoda, a menacing Warrior like Darth Vader. You may relate to Avatar’s Jake Sully, a vulnerable wounded Warrior with the potential to be healed by love, but his counterpart—the dark side’s ruthless, power-hungry Colonel Miles Quaritch—also lives in you. Regardless of your gender you can activate the healing of an Earth Mother like the Na’vi’s Mo’at, a beautiful Beloved like princess Neytiri, or a benevolent Wise Woman like Dr. Grace Augustine. Archetypes are latent patterns of energy in everyone’s soul. They teach and empower us when we listen.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> Consider Arrival’s gentle Louse Banks, a linguist who’s tormented by intuitions and visions which fill her with confusion and dread. She’s the image of a person in whom the Mediatrix archetype is activated. When the U.S. Army recruits her to communicate with alien life forms hovering over the earth, she breaks the rules to gain their trust. In a blog post titled “Arrival: How the Feminine Saves the World,” depth psychology expert Carol S. Pearson notes this “reveals how traditional elements of the Lover archetype are morphing to meet new challenges.” The world leaders see the aliens as dangerous threats and are preparing to make war on them. But because Louise is motivated by love, not fear, she sees them as wondrous life forms to communicate with and befriend. This prompts us to ask ourselves: Do I respect people and species different from me? Do I listen to the subtle messages of my body? Do I befriend my thoughts and emotions or try to ignore them? </span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> In The Shape of Water, an even more vulnerable heroine saves the life of an amphibious monster. The year is 1962. Elisa is a mute, mousy janitor on the night shift of a top-secret government research lab desperate to get one-up on the Russians. One night a promising “asset” arrives in a portable tank in the form of a scaly green creature-from-the-Black-Lagoon lookalike from a Brazilian rainforest where he was worshiped as a god. Deeply drawn to this equally voiceless and powerless creature, Elisa initiates a fairy-tale romance with him by playing Benny Goodman on her portable record player, placing hard-boiled eggs on the lip of the tank in which he’s confined, and teaching him sign language when he emerges from the water to eat them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> As it turns out, the real monster in this story is Richard Strickland, a sadistic, square-jawed military officer who tortures the green man, sexually harasses Elisa, and makes racist comments to Zelda, her co-worker. Overhearing the scientists’ plans to kill and dissect her beloved in the name of science, a frantic and determined Elisa enlists the help of Zelda and her gay neighbor, Giles, to rescue him. The remainder of the film builds the tension amid a dreamy, watery green ambiance before reconciling it in a surprise ending that leaves us wondering: What just happened? Is he what he seems? Do I have it in me to do what she did? Does love really have a god-like power? How strong is my Lover archetype? Do I truly know how to love?</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> The characters in these films play out their roles against a backdrop of mythic themes:</span></p><ul><li><span style="font-size:12pt;">the destructiveness of our shadow Warriors</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;">the crises and suffering necessary for the making of a hero/ine</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;">the need to respect, communicate with, and accept help from other people and species</span></li><li><span style="font-size:12pt;">love’s victory over ignorance and hatred</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> But here’s a not-so subtle difference. It used to be that only men got to be heroes, but we’re seeing more heroines now. Although the first Star Wars film to appear centers primarily on Luke Skywalker, it is his heroic sister, Princess Leia, who turns him into a hero. The same is true of Avatar’s Jake Sully whose heroism is inspired by the equally heroic Princess Neytiri.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> The most recent of these—Arrival, The Shape of Water, and The Last Jedi—convey a theme new to our time which resonates with many souls today: the feminine as savior. Louise, Elisa, and Rey are not fantasy superheroines like Wonder Woman and Aquagirl. And they’re not sidekicks who help the main character accomplish his goals. They are ordinary women who initiate change and accomplish it with the respect and cooperation of healthy, caring men. Louise’s heroism is aided by Ian, a scientist. Giles helps Elisa save the green man. And in the newest Star Wars episode, Rey becomes the last Jedi with the help of Luke Skywalker. The main protagonists are females.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> This shift in the spirit of our times is reflected in recent statistics. The Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film reports that of the top 100 films in 2014, only 12% featured female protagonists. But then something happened. In 2015 the figure was 22% and in 2016 it jumped to 29%.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> Although the data are not in for 2017, we appear to be seeing the beginning of a trend. Water, like earth, has always been considered a feminine element, and in dreams, water and earth symbolize the unconscious self. Societies have unconscious selves too. Like the ocean, our collective unconscious contains monsters, but it also holds overlooked hidden treasures. Is the feminine as savior of the world the shape of change? Are you and I the shape of change?</span></p><h2><span style="font-size:12pt;"><em>Note: For more posts like this, please check out Jean Raffa's blog, <a href="https://jeanraffa.wordpress.com" target="_blank">Matrignosis,</a> and the blog of author <a href="http://www.carolspearson.com/blog/">Carol S. Pearson</a>, where this post first appeared.</em></span></h2><h3><em>Jean Raffa’s The Bridge to Wholeness and Dream Theatres of the Soul are at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Jean-Benedict-Raffa/e/B005K8MFNM">Amazon</a>. E-book versions are also at <a href="http://store.kobobooks.com/en-CA/ebook/the-bridge-to-wholeness-a-feminine-alternative-to-the-hero-myth">Kobo</a>, <a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bridge-to-wholeness-jean-benedict-raffa/1111449439?ean=2940045493901">Barnes And Noble</a> and <a href="https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/jeanraffa">Smashwords</a>. Healing the Sacred Divide can be found at <a href="http://www.amazon.com/author/jeanraffa">Amazon</a> and <a href="http://www.larsonpublications.com/">Larson Publications, Inc</a>.</em></h3><div id="jp-post-flair" class="sharedaddy sd-like-enabled sd-sharing-enabled"><div class="sharedaddy sd-sharing-enabled"></div></div><p><span style="font-size:12pt;"> </span></p></div>A Revolution of the Heart is at Handhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/a-revolution-of-the-heart-is-at-hand2016-12-01T21:06:48.000Z2016-12-01T21:06:48.000ZPamela Alexanderhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PamelaAlexander<div><div class="entry-meta"><span class="posted-on">On <a href="https://wisdomoftheswan.wordpress.com/2016/11/21/a-revolution-of-the-heart-is-at-hand/">November 21, 2016</a></span> <span class="byline">By <span class="author vcard">WisdomoftheSwan</span></span></div><p></p><p><img class="alignnone size-full wp-image-16" src="https://wisdomoftheswan.files.wordpress.com/2016/09/cropped-artwork1-026a.jpg?w=640" alt="cropped-artwork1-026a.jpg" /></p><p>We stand on the brink of an epochal shift in consciousness. Just as our forefathers stood on the steps of Independence Hall and proclaimed their independence from their Father, the King of England, we are on the cusp of a historically significant moment. Our forefathers sought freedom by the sword. Our freedom will not come by way of the warrior and fear, but by the cup of truth and love.</p><p>When the immigrants streamed by boat toward Ellis Island, they were greeted by a majestic woman who was lighting their way to a new life. She stood with a flaming torch in one hand and the Declaration of Independence in the other. There were broken chains at her feet and a halo around her head. She was in this world but not of this world.</p><p>The French gave us the Statue of Liberty because they felt a kinship with our revolutionary spirit, but they no longer felt war was the way to freedom. They had seen the result for themselves, how the oppressed had in turn became the oppressors. Lady Liberty’s artist made sure there were no traces of the warrior present in her image or countenance.</p><p>The inner structure of the statue is iron, the metal of Mars, the god of war. The outer surface of the statue is copper, the metal of Venus, the goddess of love. In mythology, the two unite and some stories suggest the product of that union was Eros, the god of love. The Statue is of a woman and although the structure that holds her up is associated with Mars, whom we know as the god of war, he was in fact originally known as the god the pagans worshiped in the spring when planting seeds.</p><p>The Romantics saw the results of the bloody French Revolution and turned to their pens to create a revolution. In the sixties, revolution was again the buzzword, with a desire to transform the warrior. Now the way is no longer through power at the point of a gun, but through the heart, which is reached through feminine consciousness, as the Statue of Liberty illustrates.</p><p>Fairy tales repeatedly show the feminine as evil or hidden, trapped and fearful. These cultural portraits of the collective symbolically represent what’s happening and how to rectify it. The masculine in these stories can be a Beast, frog, devil, or inept father who sacrifices his own daughter for gain. The Handless Maiden’s father, after cutting off her hands, tells her she can stay with him and he’ll always take care of her. She does not accept his offer and leaves her father’s house, as do many of the other heroines in fairy tales.</p><p>We need to leave the fear-based house of our forefathers. This house built on conflict must be replaced by one constructed on a foundation of peace and love. This house is created within. A revolution of the heart is at hand. We must set down our swords and walk a new path to freedom. The time of the warrior has passed. Now is the time for the Child of Love to be born.</p><p><a href="https://wisdomoftheswan.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">https://wisdomoftheswan.wordpress.com/</a></p></div>The Seasons of a Marriage by Mary Jane Hurley Branthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-seasons-of-a-marriage-by-mary-jane-hurley-brant2016-03-06T15:00:00.000Z2016-03-06T15:00:00.000ZMary Jane Hurley Branthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/MaryJaneHurleyBrant<div><div id="contentWrapper"><div id="content"><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:110%;"><strong>The Seasons of a Marriage <br /></strong></span></p><p style="text-align:center;"><span style="font-size:110%;"><strong>by Mary Jane Hurley Brant</strong></span></p><p> </p><p><span class="full-image-float-left ssNonEditable"><span><img src="http://maryjanebrant.squarespace.com/storage/Four%20Seasons%20of%20Marriage%20marc%20chagall%20Wedding.JPG?__SQUARESPACE_CACHEVERSION=1379439651478" alt="" height="207" width="275" /></span></span> I just celebrated a milestone in Italy – 45 years of being married to the same man. Not bad for a woman who still thinks of herself as being only 43 years old. This “looking back time” has left me sentimental and reflective about the state of marriage and how those years spent together can be comparable to the four “seasons” in a calendar year. Maybe my musings will capture some of your own experiences of the seasons of a marriage, too.<br /> <br /> <strong>The Spring of Marriage</strong> – We were young and intoxicated with desire and optimism that every expectation we ever dreamed of was possible. In hindsight, I also realize how we were overflowing with projections and blinded by the light of the mythological god and goddess. I actually thought of us as Eros and Aphrodite, the god and goddess of love! Yes, we were in love and playing house in the suburbs of Newark as my husband finished his MBA and I worked to support us. He told everyone he married me for my money. <br /> <br /> <strong>The Summer of Marriage</strong> – We brought our two children into the world. The kids filled our lives with love, fun and adult responsibility. Later, in this second season of the marriage cycle, our children flew away from their carefully constructed family nest and into their young college lives. And, just as I cried when I dropped them off at nursery school, I wept again after dropping them off at college. When we arrived home we went in and looked around. The silence, the stillness was deafening. No children opening the refrigerator door every 10 minutes. No children sleeping in until noon or at least until their father revved up the lawn mower under their bedroom windows to get their sorry butts out of bed! “Sunrise, sunset, swiftly flow the days” – now my husband and I morphed into Tevye and Golde from “Fiddler on the Roof.” No wonder that song makes so many parents sigh or cry.<br /> <br /> During this summer season I wanted my husband to “fix” things (like my lonely heart) and announced, authoritatively, “Something needs to change!” I thought the something was him. He understood that our children being gone was a hard adjustment for me but gently stressed that they needed to live their own lives and we needed to begin our next season. Yes, the flowers of summer had gone and we, like other middle-aged parents, learned to surrender to our “empty nest.”<br /> <br /> <strong>The Autumn of Marriage</strong> – We learned about the golden leaves of transition. We also watched our son, Richard, fall in love and marry the woman of his dreams. Little did we know that a college investment would turn into a family blessing. We learned, however, that our daughter Katie’s fate wouldn’t be as fortuitous when after her first year at college she was handed a cancer diagnosis. Our family clung together as the storm around us reached hurricane proportions and Katie’s surgeries and treatments continued on and off for 10 years.<br /> <br /> Despite her courageous efforts, our sweet daughter never did return to complete wellness because her brain tumor outsmarted all of us, including her doctors. We mournfully had to learn another painful lesson: life isn’t fair. That was when Katie, at 28 years old, left this world and ours. The autumn of our marriage presented us with a monumental challenge: We had to figure out how we would survive this ultimate loss.</p><p>Eight months after Katie’s death our first grandchild entered the world quickly followed by number two and three. We pitched in wherever we could, tried to act like we knew nothing about raising kids, and pretended to keep up with the little ones physically. The grandchildren’s joy and presence helped us accept what no parent wants to even think about, never mind accept. We credit our grandchildren for giving us back our lives.<br /> <br /> During the latter part of this autumn season we shared what we wanted to do with our life now. I still wanted the focus of work as a counselor and writer; my husband was nearing retirement but would keep up his volunteer work, and we both wanted the pleasure of play. We’re doing well and live our lives to the fullest, as Katie would have wanted us to.<br /> <br /> Standing on the hills of Assisi for our 45th wedding anniversary, I felt the rewards and peace St. Francis spoke about and the personal rewards of going the distance. Not every couple is as lucky.<br /> <br /> <strong>The Winter of Marriage</strong> – While we are not there yet, we realize old age will be the final season of marriage. My husband will be Odysseus, the Greek hero who fought the good fight, despite the perils and challenges he encountered during the previous three seasons. His wife will remain a combination of Aphrodite, Golde and the Artemis she really always was, the independent woman he fell in love with over four decades ago. <br /> <br /> If I project into the last season, I imagine we’ll live a bit more in our souls because our bodies, like the trees of winter, will have lost most of their leaves. We’ll also stay grateful and open to any final gifts of grace this winter season of marriage might provide. We’ll read Yeats. We’ll watch Netflix. We’ll laugh. We’ll smile. We’ll say thank you. We’ll pray.</p><p> </p><p style="text-align:center;">This article was published in <em>The SandPaper</em>, October 15, 2014</p><p style="text-align:center;">and Aronimink & Greene Countrie Living Magazine, March, 2016</p><p> </p></div></div><div id="pageFooterWrapper"><div id="pageFooter"></div></div></div>Depth Psychology and Climate Change - adaptation is the keyhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/depth-psychology-and-climate-change-adaptation-is-the-key2015-11-07T05:50:29.000Z2015-11-07T05:50:29.000ZGeoff Berryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/GeoffBerry<div><p>Hi All,</p><p>I'm making a documentary film about ecological adaptation and the transformation of modern myths from the limitless growth of free market economy to the archetype of loving home and taking care of the planet (which i frame as depth psychology in terms both ancient and postmodern).</p><p>Please watch the trailer at <a href="http://startsomegood.com/clnc" target="_blank">startsomegood.com/clnc</a></p><p>If this inspires you, please donate - pledges being at just $5 and every person that joins this community becomes part of the new story we are building together. What better way to take it mainstream that making a film? It's the myth-making machine of the modern era and we need to use our tools to co-create a better world for all.</p><p>If you have watched and pledged, please share, let people know you have donated and support the vision, and help it become realised.</p><p></p><p>Thanks for your time and consideration, Geoff.</p><p>(Dr Geoffrey Berry, researcher, writer and presenter; i'm like an Aussie cross between Professor Brian Cox, Neil de Grasse Tyson and Alain de Botton!)</p></div>Marie Louise Von Franz on meeting Carl Junghttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/marie-louise-von-franz-on-meeting-carl-jung2014-10-31T09:05:05.000Z2014-10-31T09:05:05.000ZLewis Lafontainehttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/LewisLafontaine<div><p>VON FRANZ: I met him when I was eighteen. And I began in the year later in ’34: I began analysis with him.</p><p>We went out there to the tower, and out of the bushes suddenly–we were standing around, kind of, you know awkwardly, as one does, not knowing what was going to happen–and then out of the bushes came a man, and I was deeply impressed by him.</p><p>I thought he naturally, he was a Methuselah because when you are eighteen you ‘think a 58 year old is ready for the cemetery.</p><p>He told that story which you can read in the Memories about this girl who was on the moon and had to fight a demon, and the black demon got her.</p><p>And he pretended, or he told it in a way as if she really had been on the moon and it had happened.</p><p>And I was very rationalistically trained from school so I said indignantly, “But she imagined to be on the moon, or she dreamt it, but she wasn’t on the moon.”</p><p>And he looked at me earnestly and said, “Yes she was on the moon.”</p><p>I still remember looking over the lake there and thinking, “Either this man is crazy, or I am too stupid to understand what he means.”</p><p>And then suddenly it dawned on me, “He means that what happens psychically is the real reality, and this other moon, this stony desert which goes round the earth, that’s illusion, or that’s only pseudo-reality.”</p><p>And that hit me tremendously deeply. When I crawled, rather drunk into bed because he gave us a lot of Burgundy that evening, I thought, “It will take you ten years to digest what you experienced today.” ~Marie Louise Von Franz; Excerpt from “A Matter of Heart.”</p></div>Jung, Steiner, and Evolution of Consciousnesshttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/jung-steiner-and-evolution-of-consciousness2014-10-27T15:43:19.000Z2014-10-27T15:43:19.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142448876,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="300" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142448876,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-right" alt="9142448876?profile=original" /></a>A recent seminar on Jung and Steiner and their contributions to an evolution of consciousness, held at the C. G. Jung Institute in San Francisco, was well attended by individuals schooled in both camps. This seems to be happening more and more: finding the common ground of these two men's great works.</p><p>Although contemporaries, Carl Jung and Rudolf Steiner never met. And although they did not have much good to say about the other, they shared a common philosophical ancestor, Wolfgang von Goethe. (Rumor has it that Jung may have shared more than a philosophical lineage as his grandfather may have been an illegitimate offspring of Goethe's!) Both men studied Goethe's book length poem <em>Faust</em> as teenagers, Jung at the suggestion of his mother, and Steiner encouraged by a teacher who was editing <em>Faust</em> at the time. Goethe's work presents an alternative approach to the natural world and the psyche, from the mechanistic way that has developed since Descartes. It reflects an approach that perceives the whole as <em>a living substance</em>, whether that be the human psyche or the flower growing along the roadside. Goethe developed techniques to communicate with <em>the living substance</em> of a plant, techniques which quiet the mind and require the use of imagination, love, and receptiveness.</p><p>Both Jung and Steiner developed their approaches based on this communication with <em>the living substance</em>, but for Jung, it was with the unconscious, and for Steiner, with the living Spirit, whether that be human or other spirits.</p><p>Is there a wisdom in these two men's teachings being kept separate for the most part these 100 years? Steiner was esoteric, being fiery and airy; Jung sought refuge from judgment in "the scientific" and was more earthy. Is it possible these last years have afforded a development of these men's ideas, and now we are in a time of purifying the good thinking of both men from the dogmatism that has also developed? Any philosophy is also a biography of a man's soul. To the extent that this is true for analytical psychology (Jung) and anthroposophy (Steiner), perhaps we are in a time critical for a distillation of their works, purifying them of the impurities of personalities and the aberration of dogmatism that comes from followers.</p><p>Is the common ground of these men's works a kind of feminine holding, of sorts, marrying an esoteric way of soul development back into a consciousness grounded in psychological development? To what end might this come? —dissolving back into the ethers fixed beliefs about our known disciplines and seeing what re-emerges? Will Goethe's respectful approach to <em>living substance</em>, a guiding force in both men's works, be a healing essence that remains?</p></div>Play and the Mystery of the Presenthttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/play-and-the-mystery-of-the-present2013-12-23T15:30:00.000Z2013-12-23T15:30:00.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><p><i style="color:#555555;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;">Play is the highest form of research.</i><i style="color:#555555;font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:14px;line-height:22px;">– Albert Einstein</i></p><p>If it is important even for our survival on the planet to relearn re-entering the Mystery of the Present, what serves this end?<br /> <br /> This question is one I contemplate this season as the dark comes before 5 in the evening and stays well past 7 in the morning. Mystery crackles in the fire I build in the wood stove, glows in the candlelight on the altar, sparkles in the Christmas tree bulbs we put on the little blue spruce we brought in for its second year. If only I <i>notice</i>!<br /> <br /> Do introverts have it little easier in these tasks? I am not sure. We so love the quiet, the time alone with a fire or a candle. Apprehending beauty always brings mystery for me, something it is so easy to <i>not see</i> when I am busy rushing around.<br /> <br /> But there is also the Mystery of the Other, Mystery that comes when I <i>don't know</i> and am open to <i>listening</i>. It is a discipline I exercise regularly in my analytic practice when I sit with someone whose pain is an enigma to us both and yet a guide into new territory. But at home it is so easy to assume I <i>know</i> my husband, my children and grandchildren, my friends, or, for that matter, the graceful old Valley Oaks in the meadow, or a dear goat. It is so easy to forget the Mystery of the Other in efficient, busy states of mind!<br /></p><table cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float:left;margin-right:1em;text-align:left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqpkwAPYhLs/UrBsBNqwumI/AAAAAAAACTE/ps7m5Zs1u68/s1600/SDC15268.jpg" style="clear:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RqpkwAPYhLs/UrBsBNqwumI/AAAAAAAACTE/ps7m5Zs1u68/s320/SDC15268.jpg" width="320" alt="SDC15268.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align:center;">One of my favorite Mysteries</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /> I have been wondering, do laughter and fun promote the apprehension of Mystery in the Other? I love lingering meals with friends and family, long walks with friends or goats, the meanderings of uncharted days with loved ones, experiences which render me <i>open</i>.<br /> <br /> I read where it is important to <i>do nothing</i> some part of every day. Is <i>doing nothing</i> play?<br /> <br /> Does play serve opening into mystery?<br /> <br /> Mysterious questions! Ones of the season? What opens the door of Mystery for you?</p></div>The Environmental Crisis: What We Can Dohttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-environmental-crisis-what-we-can-do2014-01-13T17:26:32.000Z2014-01-13T17:26:32.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><table align="center" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WaxsTU4D2Xo/UtQeR87R3CI/AAAAAAAACYM/3P-hhLH1Opc/s1600/naturesfirstgreenART_4967+(1).tiff" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WaxsTU4D2Xo/UtQeR87R3CI/AAAAAAAACYM/3P-hhLH1Opc/s1600/naturesfirstgreenART_4967+(1).tiff" height="188" width="400" alt="naturesfirstgreenART_4967+(1).tiff" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align:center;">Some of the reasons I am willing to suffer knowledge of my participation in climate change.</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br />When I think of the best approach to the issues we have created in our environment, I think of the old Buddhist adage: <i>Show up. Pay attention. Tell the truth. Detach from outcome.</i> The problem lies in being so overwhelmed that we cannot show up to pay attention. Then we deny the truth, effectively participating in a horrible outcome! It is critical that we are not paralyzed into denial by our fear.<br /><br />In the recently published <i>Sacred Agriculture: The Alchemy of Biodynamics</i> (Lindisfarne Books, 2013), Dennis Klocek emphasizes the importance of this "showing up." It is important that we acknowledge our vulnerability to the earth, he says, versus feeling in control and <i>above it</i>. "The only way I can turn my soul from existential guilt into the willingness to imagine my role in the Earth's destiny is through active imagination (110)."<br /><br />On February 22, 2014, the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco will offer the first of a series of eco-psychology seminars and workshops on the environment crisis. These workshops will be from differing perspectives but of one piece: the necessary crisis of consciousness in earth changes and what we can/must do. In this first workshop, <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/indwelling-our-human-participation-in-the-dream-of-the-earth-registration-7406756809">Indwelling: Our Human Participation in the Dream of the Earth</a>, analysts Carol McRae and Barbara Holifield will lead participants into active imagination states through drumming and authentic movement. "We will allow what emerges to build on Thomas Berry’s idea that hope for our future lies in our human participation in the dream of the earth."</p><div><br />This workshop will be followed by on October 18, 2014, by <i>The Spiritualized Earth and the Birth of the New Consciousness: Jung's Analytical Psychology and Steiner's Biodynamic Agriculture: What Might Save Us.</i> I will present the common root of both and what Biodynamic agriculture offers.</div><div><br />This will be followed by a workshop on November 15, 2014, with a writing workshop, <i>Wounded Earth, Wounded Psyche: On Solastagia and Nature Deficit Disorder,</i> in which participants will be encouraged to find language for what is unbearable and unfathomable. This will be lead by four of us, poets Naomi Lowinsky, Leah Shelleda, Francis Hatfield, and by me, Patricia. Again, more about this later. </div><div><br />These seminars are very reasonably priced ($35 for the first, $25 for graduate students) and are a really good way to gather with others in aligning to address what we <i>can</i> do.<br /><br /><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="line-height:115%;text-align:center;"></div></div></div>Goethe and the Art of Seeinghttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/goethe-and-the-art-of-seeing2014-04-15T16:30:11.000Z2014-04-15T16:30:11.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div><p><i>After the <a href="http://www.patriciadamery.com/2014/03/tucson-april-4-5-environmental-crisis.html">Tucson lecture and workshop, April 4-5, 2014, Friends of Jung, Tucson, Arizona </a>,</i><br /> <i>The Environmental Crisis: Birth of a New Consciousness?</i></p><table cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float:right;margin-left:1em;text-align:right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TI0WNEpjWno/U0LGZKHjnqI/AAAAAAAACnU/l6XVgzFO2Mc/s3200/Strasbourg_Cathedral_Exterior_-_Diliff.jpg" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-TI0WNEpjWno/U0LGZKHjnqI/AAAAAAAACnU/l6XVgzFO2Mc/s3200/Strasbourg_Cathedral_Exterior_-_Diliff.jpg" height="320" width="250" alt="Strasbourg_Cathedral_Exterior_-_Diliff.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption">Goethe:"sublimely towering, wide-spreading tree of God"<br /><div style="text-align:center;">Strasbourg Cathedral, from <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strasbourg_Cathedral">Wikipedia</a></div></td></tr></tbody></table><div><span style="font-style:italic;"> </span><i><br /></i>I am home after a weekend with a great group of people in Tucson. The members and participants are a varied, informed group with great hospitality and depth. Thank you! <br /> <br /> On Saturday one of the members asked a question that raised more questions. I had just related a story it is said Rudolf Steiner enjoyed telling, a story illustrating what Goethe called “disciplined imaginative observation.” <br /> <br /> As a young man Goethe had an important experience at the cathedral of Strasbourg, using what he called <i>art of seeing</i>. He used this method not only to study plants but, in this case, the cathedral as well. After several days of climbing its tower over and over (to rid himself of vertigo) and sketching the cathedral from every angle, Goethe announced that the cathedral was incomplete. His friends studied the plans, then questioned him about how he knew. Goethe replied that the cathedral itself had told him. “I observed it so long and so attentively and I bestowed on it so much affection that it decided in the end to reveal to me its manifest secret” (<i>Rudolf Steiner: An Introduction to His Life and Works</i>, by Gary Lachman, p. 43). <br /><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"></div><br /> The question in Tucson came from a man with a developed spiritual sense himself. Was Goethe communicating with the Spirit of the cathedral, or was he communicating with the Spirits of the designers and builders of this 800 year old cathedral? <br /> <br /> I continue to ponder this question. Certainly for Goethe, and then for both Rudolf Steiner and Carl Jung, the imagination was a most important tool, imagination in concert, of course, with a disciplined thinking. For Jung this involved the development of the tool of active imagination. Steiner too saw use of the imagination in the style of Goethe’s <i>art of seeing</i> as key to meeting the world in any lively fashion. Truth resides in the meeting of the inner world and the outer, that liminal zone, or even, perhaps, as Jung would state, the transcendent. Is this zone humanity's growing edge?<br /> <br /> Who told Goethe the cathedral was incomplete? He says the cathedral itself did, but is this personification of material that can only be reduced to the idea of individualized Spirit, given how mired in materiality we have become? What are your own thoughts here?</div></div>The Incest Taboo - in therapy and in lifehttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-incest-taboo-in-therapy-and-in-life2014-04-15T14:16:19.000Z2014-04-15T14:16:19.000ZJane Platkohttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/JanePlatko<div><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142447461,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="500" height="534" class="align-full" style="width:188px;height:269px;" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142447461,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9142447461?profile=original" /></a><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">In my story of how after nine months of some pretty intense psychotherapy my patient and I decided to end our therapeutic relationship for a more emotionally and spiritually honest coupling that leveled the playing field, even in its telling, I break a taboo. The publication of my account of what it has been like for my husband and me to live with this history for twenty-four years has elicited the predicted ire and scorn from parts of the psychological community.</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">The evolution of a therapy relationship into an intimate relationship is a highly charged topic. It unearths an archetype, threatening the cornerstone of psychotherapy from back in the day of Freud and Jung. The incest taboo. This taboo lies at the core of the transference phenomena, where the conscious and unconscious of both therapist and patient meet and mix in ways not dissimilar to the ways we all relate to one another, but with the exception that in therapy it is the therapist’s responsibility to do whatever she can do to bring consciousness into the resulting stew of projection and projective identification better known as human relationship. Which is a very long-winded way of saying the buck stops at the therapist’s door. And it is, I believe, every therapists' conscious desire to do no harm.</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">The bottom-line here points to what in psychotherapy is imaged as the inner or interior child of the patient. It is the patient’s child-self that must be protected at all cost. The two-year rule found in many psychological ethics codes, which mandates a two-year waiting period between the termination of therapy and the beginning of a sexually intimate relationship, is primarily designed to keep the former patient’s child-self safe from any sexual exploitation. An inarguable intention.</font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">Let me be perfectly clear. I am not, nor have I ever been, an advocate of converting therapy relationships into sexual relationships. Though I have dared to reveal intimate details of my history in an effort to show how the broken pieces of my psyche fit into the puzzle of my husband’s psyche in a way that brought us together, there is nothing cavalier in that telling.</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">I say in my memoir,</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">"To my mind the move from analysis to a romantic partnership was necessarily daunting and those who made it blithely were fools, or worse. But to declare that a union forged along the seam of transference was sure to fail would be a poor prognosis for most relationships—so much of attraction being borne of projection.</font></span></p><div><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">I do agree there must be rules to protect the vulnerable. But there will be exceptions to any rule. And those stories have a right to be heard."</font></span></p></div><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">And the forbidden, I believe, must be continually revisioned and renamed. What exactly are we talking about? What anathema? What map locates love, need, desire, and abuse? And where are the wise counselors able to fine tune the mapmaking?</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">There needs to be clarity in language, certainly in psychology. Is there really no difference between incest committed between adults and children in families and the incestuous pulls in therapy and in life?</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">From the start, my husband maintained that I reminded him of his mother. Only in the best sense, he would say. His mother, who had her demons, was one of the most generous, funny, salt of the earth, intelligent women I’d ever met. In fact, I experienced her in many ways as the mother I’d never had, and my mother-in-law and I became close friends. Sweet, some might say.</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">Others could argue my vulnerable husband was seduced by his therapist mother, and make a case against our relationship, a relationship in which we have been mostly happy together for twenty-four years, calling it pathological, exploitive, inappropriate, and some do.</font></font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">My memoirs are my reflections on the mysteries of my life. My story is my personal truth. I have not offered it as a collective model.</font></span></p><p><span class="font-size-2" style="font-family:georgia, palatino;"><font face="Georgia, "Times New Roman", serif">Deeper conversations about psychological ethics and codes of conduct, about the transferences and countertransferences in therapy, about morality, and the regulation of love and the regulation of sex, and the rational and irrational forces that affect individuation, and about whether those countless couples who live in hiding because their love for each other began in a therapy relationship should be judged as criminal or immoral or insane, these conversations, it seems to me, are waiting to be had.</font></span></p></div>Winter Night Reading: Spirit and Matterhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/winter-night-reading-spirit-and-matter2013-01-02T17:30:00.000Z2013-01-02T17:30:00.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><p>The vineyards are quiet; the nights, cold; the goats, rowdy with too much rest. This is the time to sink into the sofa and seed yourself with Spirit, whether that be from meditation, dreaming, or from reading. These books are some of my own reading that I have gotten a great deal from this season, books which relate to Biodynamic farming and spiritual development.</p><div class="separator" style="clear:both;text-align:center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5SktD9HplL8/UsGiYh265RI/AAAAAAAACVk/2n-_jKX_NnU/s1600/41mUGTKl25L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" style="clear:left;float:left;margin-bottom:1em;margin-right:1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-5SktD9HplL8/UsGiYh265RI/AAAAAAAACVk/2n-_jKX_NnU/s200/41mUGTKl25L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" width="129" alt="41mUGTKl25L._SY344_PJlook-inside-v2,TopRight,1,0_SH20_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg" /></a></div><p><br />My friend Katherine Presley recommended Tanis Helliwell's <i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Summer-Leprechauns-Story-Tanis-Helliwell/dp/1577330013/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388421508&sr=1-1&keywords=summer+with+the+leprechauns" target="_blank">Summer with the Leprechauns:A True Story.</a></i> When I started reading the book, I thought the book was entertaining. The more I read, however, I realized its beefiness. I strongly recommend it in this day and age that we need to learn differentiated ways of viewing energies of the earth and how to interact with them. It reads like a novel, yet offers concrete suggestions on learning to listen to presences that are non-human. In fact, I got so much from the book, I ordered the sequel.<br /><br /><i><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Pilgrimage-Leprechauns-story-mystical-Ireland/dp/0980903327/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1388421997&sr=1-1&keywords=tanis+helliwell" target="_blank">Pilgrimage with the Leprechauns: A True Story of a Mystical Tour of Ireland</a> </i>is an account of one of those tours-from-hell that we all embark upon in some way from time to time, when everything goes against our plans! The mishaps of this particular tour Helliwell organized were engineered by the leprechaun "Lloyd" (not his true name.) By the second book the reader is well aware of Tanis' relationship with Lloyd and Lloyd's fun-loving yet deadly serious mission to help humans with their evolution. Lloyd says that he was originally solicited a hundred years ago by Rudolf Steiner to become a part of an evolving group of elementals who would develop some of the human traits to become conscious creators. They in turn were to help human evolution.</p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142446297,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img width="150" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142446297,original{{/staticFileLink}}" class="align-right" height="261" alt="9142446297?profile=original" /></a></p><p>Both of these books provide wonderful teaching through a kind of storytelling and are an important seeding of purpose for those of us working with the Earth. Whether or not these particular ways of Helliwell's are yours, her descriptions nevertheless are distinct, are grounded in universal truths and practices, and invite you to develop your own relationship to the tree outside your window, the grass in the cracks, the path that sometimes is not what you planned.</p><p>Do you have your own discipline/methods of communicating with the non-human, whether that be of the earth, animals, plants, cosmos? What have you learned is most important for such communication to happen?</p></div>Review: Platko's In the Tracks of the Unseenhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/review-platko-s-in-the-tracks-of-the-unseen2013-12-03T16:00:00.000Z2013-12-03T16:00:00.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><p>Some topics are so controversial we cannot discuss them. Jane Davenport Platko’s <em>In the Tracks of the Unseen: Memoirs of a Jungian Analyst</em> brings one of those topics into full view: when the doctor and patient fall in love.</p><p>While we psychoanalysts and psychotherapists have thorough discussions as to why these kinds of relationships are problematic, we seldom have open discussions about what happens when they seem to work. Those who have entered such relationships rightfully fear judgement.</p><p>I will be honest. I have a bias. Having barely survived the 1970’s in psychology after early experiences with therapists and teachers who did not know the power of the tool of the transference, I developed a healthy respect of the need for “boundaries,” as we put it in the talk of our trade. As a result, I often have had a hair trigger reaction when these boundaries are transgressed. For the most part, I think my stance has merit.</p><p>But Platko’s story demonstrates it is not so simple. What happens when the analytic vessel cannot contain the feeling within a transference format, when the Self has something different in mind? Are there times the therapeutic meeting is a springboard into the soul connection of friendship or romantic love and this is not exploitive of the patient?</p><p>With great integrity, honesty, and courage, Platko lays out her vulnerabilities and history, antecedents to both a friendship with her first analyst and then marriage to a man who had been her patient. Her decisions are not impulsive. In fact, she deeply and openly suffers them with her then current analyst and with her then husband.</p><p>In the preface she quotes Jung, “My story is my truth.” This story is Platko’s truth, and one can only feel compassion, awe and concern for a woman reveals herself so openly in order for us to understand the decisions she has made. There will be judgement!</p><p>When I began reading <em>In the Tracks of the Unseen</em>, I did not want to put it down. Platko is a good storyteller, and I have not read a book like it. It is well written, albeit disturbing, submerging the reader in the rawness of human attachment and the lonely quest of a woman who followed her heart. This is an important book in that it questions some suppositions of the last decades, taking the structure of love in analytical relationships down to the studs. There are no answers here, only a kind of <em>solutio</em>. Perhaps it is only now that we can follow “the tracks of the unseen,” to a larger playing field that may redefine ethics and the challenges of the human connection in the vessel of analytic work.</p></div>Interview with Jungian Analyst Barbara Holifield: Moving in Depth and Dream of the Earthhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/interview-with-jungian-analyst-barbara-holifield-moving-in-depth2014-02-08T15:00:00.000Z2014-02-08T15:00:00.000ZPatricia Dameryhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/PatriciaDamery<div><table cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;text-align:center;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qrnzhgJ-Eu4/UvMMsEdzZiI/AAAAAAAACcU/eADvm0__0h4/s1600/Bholifield,+photo.jpg" style="clear:right;margin-bottom:1em;margin-left:auto;margin-right:auto;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qrnzhgJ-Eu4/UvMMsEdzZiI/AAAAAAAACcU/eADvm0__0h4/s1600/Bholifield,+photo.jpg" alt="Bholifield,+photo.jpg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align:center;">Barbara Holifield</td></tr></tbody></table><p><br /> <i>On February 22, 2014, the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco will offer the first of a series of eco-psychology seminars and workshops on the environment crisis. These workshops will be from differing perspectives but of one piece: the necessary crisis of consciousness in earth changes and what we can/must do. In this first workshop, <a href="http://www.eventbrite.com/e/indwelling-our-human-participation-in-the-dream-of-the-earth-registration-7406756809">Indwelling: Our Human Participation in the Dream of the Earth</a>, analysts Barbara Holifield and Carol McRae will lead participants into active imagination states through drumming and authentic movement. Following is an interview with one of the seminar leaders, analyst Barbara Holifield. </i></p><div><br /> <b>Barbara, could you explain what authentic movement is? How did you get in to it? Does it serve your own connection with the earth and if so, in what ways?</b><br /> <br /> I began working with Authentic Movement, also known as Moving in Depth, in the mid 70’s. I was a member of a learning community at Prescott College in which we were exploring ways of bringing conscious awareness to the body, and to the psychological dimensions of body-based experience. During that time emersion in wilderness was the ground of much of our exploration.<br /> <br /> Moving in Depth is a profoundly simple process in which one, in the presence of a witness, closes one’s eyes, and turning his or her attention inward, listens for felt sensation, emotion and the stirrings of imagination, allowing one’s self to move and be moved. One may move into deep stillness, very subtle or active movements of the experienced body. This approach, rooted in Jungian active imagination, is like a meditation based in the feminine principle: self-guided and aligned with one’s own inner knowing.<br /> <br /> Whether one is moving or witnessing, a foundational aspect of the practice is a rigorous tracking of inner experience such that one becomes aware of the process of projection and re-integration of projection. This work, so integral to Jung’s Individuation process is also essential in clarifying the intersubjective field whether between persons or between persons and the natural world.<br /> <br /> For me it is a practice in which I access the depth of my innermost, direct experience of s/Self and self in relation to other, including the more-than-human others of the earth community.<br /> <br /> <b>Could you talk about the split between humans and the earth and how indigenous peoples connected through stories and land?</b><br /> <br /> There are many perspectives one could take to understand our culture’s disconnection with the earth: philosophical attitudes embedded in monotheistic religions, the way we have adopted our approach to science, the industrial revolution. However, as a Jungian analyst, I want to try and understand this dilemma from a psychological perspective.<br /> <br /> When things go well enough developmentally, with the aid of a resonant caretaker/ mother we learn to lean into our joys, struggles and pains of living, we learn to embody life. In this there is an inner quickening as psyche indwells the soma, a process the poet John Keats’s described as soul making. From a developmental perspective we know this starts as life begins and goes on throughout the life cycle. The infant needs a resonant, compassionate witness to facilitate, what later becomes internalized and practiced, in the person, less a disconnect between body and psyche occurs when a person is faced with overwhelming affect.<br /> <br /> It seems that people also need that resonant other, which is exemplified by the culture of Native Americans, to mediate the insistent power of the natural world, that union of what is beautiful and what is terrifying. It seems we need this to live in congruence with the reality of the land as it is given, less we disconnect or split from the earth when faced with the overwhelming forces of the land by withdrawing or alternately exerting our will to change it into something else. It is a developmental task. Native American and other indigenous cultures, through their stories, myths, rituals and ceremonies mediate between the person and our bigger body, the earth, connecting and reconnecting the person, their peoples, to the land. Our culture promotes an attitude of “getting away” or “rising above” or “defending against” or “winning the battle” with the natural forces in both our inner and outer worlds.<br /> <br /> When recognized the land in turns reciprocates offering unimpeachable wisdom on living a life of dignity. And something is quickened between the person and the land in this kind of meeting…our stories en-soul the land. A bond is formed and there is an ongoing exchange of recognition and reciprocity between us and the land, and the land and us.<br /> <br /> <b>Can you say what you mean with the phrase: human participation in the dream of the earth?</b><br /> <br /> Thomas Berry, a theologian dedicated to earth-human relations, poses that our hope for the future lies in our human participation with the dream of the earth. In this he points to an urgent need for revelatory experience that is accessed through our senses when we open to the sacred grandeur of Earth processes. He lets us know that this is ancient, rooted in shamanic times. This is the kind of space that opens when one is quiet, attuned to the breathing earth and earth community, listening, dancing, drumming. It is the mytho-poetic realm that is within us and between us and the natural world, quickened by dropping down into a realm of relating that is not solely rational.<br /> <br /> <b>Do you have a story of your own about how you have connected/reconnected with nature and land through story and myth? </b><br /> <br /> Recently, when I allow myself to be seen by a certain tree that lives on the ridge near me, I experience my humanness in a very distinct way. I become acutely aware of co-inhabiting this earth with many other species. I feel aware of the particular gifts and responsibilities of being a human other. I feel seen as having an intrinsic dignity and desire to be aware and responsive to co-inhabiting this earth with so many living others.<br /> <br /> The stories told by the voices of contemporary Native American women poets carry me through the journey. For example this poem by the Chickasaw poet, Linda Hogan:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq"><br /> <b>Skin Dreaming</b></blockquote><blockquote><br /> Skin is the closest thing to god,<br /> touching oil, clay, intimate with the foreign land of air<br /> and other bodies,<br /> places not in light,<br /> lonely for its own image. </blockquote><blockquote><br /> It is awash in its own light.<br /> It wants to swim and surface<br /> from the red curve of the sea,<br /> open all its eyes. </blockquote><blockquote><br /> Skin is the oldest thing.<br /> It remembers when it was the cold<br /> builder of fire,<br /> when darkness was the circle around it,<br /> when there were eyes shining in the night,<br /> a breaking twig, and it rises<br /> in fear, a primitive lord on new bones. </blockquote><blockquote><br /> I tell you it is old,<br /> it heals and is sometimes merciful.<br /> It is water.<br /> It has fallen through ancestral hands.<br /> It is the bearer of vanished forest<br /> fallen through teeth and jaws of earth<br /> where we were once other<br /> visions and creations.</blockquote><br /> <span style="font-size:x-small;">From the <i>Book of Medicines, </i><span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Coffee House Press, Minneapolis</span></span><span style="font-size:14px;"><span style="font-family:Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. </span></span><span style="font-family:TimesNewRomanPSMT;font-size:14px;">1993.</span></div></div>The Coming of Winterhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-coming-of-winter2013-12-01T18:50:25.000Z2013-12-01T18:50:25.000ZJane Platkohttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/JanePlatko<div><p></p><div><p></p></div><p></p><div><p><font face="Georgia"> </font></p></div><p></p><div><p></p><p><br /><span class="font-size-1"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142446262,original{{/staticFileLink}}" alt="9142446262?profile=original" /></span></p><p> </p><p><font face="Georgia">Most writers of memoir need not expect the chill and silence that has followed in the wake of my publication of <span style="font-family:'Times New Roman';font-size:12pt;"><a href="http://www.amazon.com/In-Tracks-Unseen-Memoirs-Psychoanalyst/dp/1492251135/ref=zg_bs_2427_54">In<br />the Tracks of the Unseen; Memoirs of a Jungian Psychoanalyst</a></span>. My story touches upon the history of a psychoanalytic community, and while mine is not a narrative about the New England Society of Jungian Analysts, it references, in part, my experiences within it. Over a period of thirty-some years this institution and ever-changing collection of analysts have played a major role in my life.</font></p><p></p></div><p><font face="Georgia">Because of my love for the man who is my husband, who was initially for a period of nine months my patient, I have lived under the threat of professional excommunication for twenty-three years. For the most part mine was not an unknown story because from the start I turned to many of my colleagues for help and because of the surefire spread of gossip. In the early 90’s there was no ethics code that spelled out “A member shall not engage in physical contact of a sexual nature with a former analysand for at least two years after cessation or termination of the professional relationship.” But there was the written expectation that the analysts of this society “shall conduct themselves in their work according to the highest ethical standards and shall act in the best therapeutic interest of their analysands.”</font></p><p> </p><p><font face="Georgia">It was clear to me from the start that I was stepping across a line that involved wearing a scarlet letter. I was also told from the start that to tell my story would be professional suicide.</font></p><p> </p><p><font face="Georgia">Everyone should be free to love who they love, President Obama said in a recent speech referring to the LGBT community. Albeit for complex reasons, this is not true in the psychological community. Yet no one speaks of that.</font></p><p> </p><p><font face="Georgia">I have colleagues and friends who support me in the telling of this story, even those who may not be in agreement with my beliefs, and I am forever grateful to them. And then there are those whom I have known for decades who receive the announcement of my book without a word.</font></p><p> </p><p><font face="Georgia">Carl Jung based his psychology on the principle of individuation, becoming true to a higher Self that contains the opposites and I believe strives ultimately for the good. I have written a memoir that includes the breaking of silence as part of my individuation process.</font></p><p> </p><p><font face="Georgia">What does it take to hold the tension of the opposites, between silence and speech, between your truth and my truth, to hold the still point and the talking point in a dialogue that moves us ever closer to the center and heart of our humanity?<font> </font></font></p></div>When a Vacation Isn't Enough: Recreation or Re-creation?https://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/when-a-vacation-isn-t-enough-recreation-or-re-creation2013-10-24T17:23:59.000Z2013-10-24T17:23:59.000ZMark Sipowiczhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/MarkSipowicz<div><p><i>I only went out for a walk and finally concluded to stay out till sundown, for going out, I found, was really going in</i>. –John Muir (Scottish-born American naturalist 1838-1914)</p><p>The impulse to go out, get out, hit the road, take a vacation, nearly always holds within its volitional energy the urge to re-create or re-vision one’s life. We think of these common, even mundane responses to life’s regularity, schedule and regimen as almost a mechanical release valve, and although it is certainly that, our urge to retreat can also be a deeper message from the unconscious soliciting or signaling a call to ritual and its symbolic cycles of death and rebirth. We may be happy with the vacation, hike or bike ride we promised ourselves for too long to take and finally succeeded at pulling off. But we may also return home with just a twinge of dis-ease and longing still floating around the periphery of our consciousness if we don’t address the deeper call and hope for some new life or new vision.</p><p>The deeper call to head out is a plea from psyche to loosen the confines of an overly literalized and hardening of the structure and story of our lives. By shifting the context of our life we give ourselves an opportunity to reflect on the re-visions that might be available to us. The more imagination, intention, and stripping away of those calcified literalisms that we live with day in and day out, the more authentic restoration and new life we can access and bring back to the life we left behind. Ancient rites of passage, the pan-cultural tradition of fasting from food, shelter and companionship—or the vision quest--and Carl Jung’s inner journey of individuation are both traditions that answer this deeper call to symbolically leave what is known and lived for the sake of harvesting something more sustainable, energized, and meaningful, from the unseen and unlived life.</p><p>As James Hollis (depth psychological author of great guides to this deeper human journey like <i>The Middle Passage, What Matters Most,</i> and <i>Finding Meaning in the Second Half of Life</i>) is quick to remind us, we are all summoned to a larger life; in fact life asks more of us than we are usually willing to admit. Standard modes of escapism (vacationing, a binge on drinking, sex or consumerism, to name a few) seen through the lens of rites, quests, and depth psychology appear as small and feeble relief the morning after and surface as repressed and unfulfilled longings waiting for some greater re-creation or re-vision of the one life we have to live: more often than not a burying of our true connection to psyche and its unconscious gifts waiting to be enacted and lived. Those old standards of distraction and escape eventually become stale and hollow when psyche recognizes and awakens in our consciousness how empty the calories it is being fed really are. “…And then the knowledge comes to me that I have space within me for a second, timeless, larger life,” says Rilke in his poem “I Love My Being’s Dark Hours.”</p><p>It may not be convenient for you or me to go to a desert and fast for four days and nights to wait, cry or pray for a vision that will change our lives. It may in fact not be convenient, comfortable, or pleasant to even think about abandoning our common assumptions and habits in order to approach the Mystery on bended knee for some morsel of a more meaningful or fulfilling life, but it also might not be sustainable to go on living this half-life—a “divided life” in the words of Quaker author Parker Palmer--or one that never really addresses our longing for deep change, wholeness, and fulfillment. Our individual-ness, in fact at its root is “in” plus “dividere,” not divided or whole.</p><p>The work of living a deeper and more meaningful life, the seeds of the impulse to head out in order to see better what is within, asks of us again and again, in the words of the School of Lost Borders director, Joseph Lazarus: What is life asking of me now and what may I need to let go of to participate in my own unfolding?</p><p>Archetypal psychologist Carol Pearson cuts to the chase, “Those times of depression tell you that it’s either time to get out of the story you’re in and move into a new story or that you’re in the right story but there’s some piece of it you are not living out.”</p><p>Going out for the hell of it is always fun and a perfectly healthy, normal and human outlet. But when we recognize the impulse as part of a larger archetypal and mythical impulse to change and deepen our lives, we give ourselves the gift of creativity and consciousness to aid our evolution as individuals and species. Going out in order to go in takes some courage and mindfulness, but the payback is in new life energy that may better sustain and enliven not only us but also the people we serve and surround ourselves with. Going out to go in is an opportunity for whole making and soul making: bringing together the wholeness of ourselves and of the world.</p></div>The Star of David and the Divine Femininehttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-star-of-david-and-the-divine-feminine2013-07-29T21:37:19.000Z2013-07-29T21:37:19.000ZEsther Waldronhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/EstherWaldron<div><p>Today sees a rare aspect that some astrologers are calling 'horoscope history': a Grand Sextile Merkaba six-pointed star pattern or Star of David.</p><p>According to <a href="http://www.astrograph.com/horoscopes/configurations/2013/July/29" target="_blank">astrograph.com</a>, "the Moon trines Venus to complete a grand sextile with Saturn, Neptune, Jupiter and Pluto. This inscribed six-pointed star within the circle of the Zodiac is a pattern also known as a Star of David. It is understandably rare and magical, and it actually consists of two interlocking grand trines, in Earth and in Water. Within these graceful flowing aspects it holds great promise for healing and peaceful energy."</p><p><a href="http://www.astrostyle.com/Blog/grand-sextile-july-29-2013/" target="_blank">Astrostyle.com</a> explains it as '<span>a six-pointed star, or hexagram, comprised of seven planets that form harmonious angles (trines and sextiles) to each other. This synergistic seven are all in “feminine” (earth or water) signs, emphasizing stability, gentleness, love and harmony. Many astrologers view this as the moment our culture will take a step toward embracing “feminine” principles.'</span></p><p>Robert Wilkinson at the always-excellent <a href="http://www.aquariuspapers.com/astrology/2013/07/the-great-sextile-star-of-david-merkaba-of-late-july-2013.html" target="_blank">Aquariuspapers.com</a> advises: "All should clearly understand in fairly simple terms some part of the past that must be left behind to open the door to self-renewal."</p><p>Eric Francis of <a href="http://planetwaves.net/news/astro-daily/about-that-grand-sextile/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%253A+PlanetWavesDaily+(2012+Astrology%252C+Astrology+Blog%252C+Weekly+%2526+Monthly+Horoscopes%252C+Daily+Astrology+by+Eric+Francis" target="_blank">Planet Waves</a> notes of the T-square in today's skies: "<span>That T-square is as significant as the grand sextile - its message is ‘don’t take forever to do what you’re here to do. Time is of the essence’.</span></p><p>Astrologer Susan Miller who tweets <a href="https://twitter.com/astrologyzone" target="_blank">@astrologyzone</a> is keen to hear our experiences of the Grand Sextile - use the hashtag #July29 to tell her how it was for you. </p><p><a href="{{#staticFileLink}}9142446082,original{{/staticFileLink}}"><img src="{{#staticFileLink}}9142446082,original{{/staticFileLink}}" width="480" class="align-full" alt="9142446082?profile=original" /></a>Image courtesy of <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DivineFeminineReawakening?group_id=0" target="_blank">Divine Feminine Reawakening Group</a>.</p><p></p></div>From Turmoil to Transcendence: The Book of Job and the Will to Wisdomhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/from-turmoil-to-transcendence-the-book-of-job-and-the-will-to2013-07-20T17:18:59.000Z2013-07-20T17:18:59.000ZMarshall H. Lewishttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/MarshallHLewis<div><p>On June 21, 2013 I had the privilege of presenting a portion of my doctoral research at World Congress XIX on Viktor Frankl's Logotherapy in Dallas, Texas. The audio portion of that lecture is available below. Please note that the full video of the lecture was not captured. What you see is a composite of the video, followed by the remaining audio with images from the presentation handout and still shots inserted.</p><p><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lfp3aJBd8mU&feature=player_embedded" target="_blank">Please follow this link to hear the presentation on YouTube.</a><br /><br /><a href="http://academia.edu/3759468/From_Turmoil_to_Transcendence_The_Book_of_Job_and_the_Will_to_Wisdom">Please follow this link to view or to download the presentation handout.</a></p></div>Shadows & Light. Interview with Bonnie Bright, Founder of depthpsychologyalliance.com by Willi Paul, newmythologist.comhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/shadows-light-interview-with-bonnie-bright-founder-of2012-12-28T16:30:00.000Z2012-12-28T16:30:00.000ZWilli Paulhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/WilliPaul<div><p></p><p>Our instruments have no way of measuring this feeling<br /> Can never cut below the floor, or penetrate the ceiling.<br /> In the space between our houses, some bones have been discovered,<br /> But our procession lurches on, as if we had recovered.</p><p>Draconian winter unforetold.<br /> One solar day, suddenly you’re old.<br /> Your little envelope just makes me cold,<br /> Makes destination start to unfold.</p><p>Our documents are useless, or forged beyond believing.<br /> Page forty-seven is unsigned, I need it by this evening.<br /> In the space between our cities, a storm is slowly forming.<br /> Something eating up our days, I feel it every morning.<br /> Destination, destination.</p><p>It’s not a religion, it’s just a technique.<br /> It’s just a way of making you speak.<br /> Distance and speed have left us too weak,<br /> And destination looks kind of bleak.</p><p>Our elements are burned out, our beasts have been mistreated.<br /> I tell you it’s the only way we’ll get this road completed.<br /> In the space between our bodies, the air has grown small fingers.<br /> Just one caress, you’re powerless, like all those clapped-out swingers.<br /> Destination, destination.</p><p></p><p>“<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_IIOEdcOe7o">Destination</a>” by <b>The Church</b></p><p></p><p>* * * * * * *</p><p><a href="http://newmythologist.com/2012/12/28/shadows-light-interview-with-bonnie-bright-founder-of-depthpsychologyalliance-com-by-willi-paul-newmythologist-com/bb-final/#main"><img alt="BB-Final" src="http://newmythologist.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/bb-final.jpg?w=224&h=300" width="224" height="300" /></a></p><p></p><p>Interview with Bonnie by Willi</p><p><b>How is depth psychology related to the new mythology?</b></p><p>C.G. Jung, widely credited as one of the founders of depth psychology around the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, regarded the field as an aggregate of all the sciences, including philosophy, medicine, anthropology, physics, and more. As one common description of depth psychology is that it is “the study of the unconscious,” it lends itself to inquiry into any topic by looking below the surface level and reflecting in order to ascertain what is hidden, invisible, or marginalized. In some ways I believe we could consider depth psychology IS the new mythology because it provides a way for new narratives to emerge.</p><p>With the gradual development of our corresponding capacity for logical thinking in humans (that is, to “think about our ability to think”), we have both increased opportunities for consciousness but also increased challenges in the sense that we categorically seek to analyze, label, and put into buckets the things we don’t understand, sometimes becoming reductive and trapped in limited thinking. In order for us to transcend our current mythology and come to new creative awareness, we need to be able to look beyond established boundaries and facades to see what new and emergent concepts await.</p><p>One good example of this is the current debate about gun control in America in the wake of the Sandy Hook school shooting and so many other recent tragic violence with guns. On one level it’s quite common to look at it as whether or not we need to ban public access to guns (and it certainly is worth the debate), but if you use a depth psychological lens, you look beyond that simple black-and-white question to see what the undercurrent is in our society that is enabling or even driving certain individuals to use guns to commit such horrible atrocities.</p><p>Part of the study of depth psychology includes regarding the shadow, that invisible aspect of ourselves that is a blind spot for us (even though those close to us can usually see it clearly). The negative, repressed parts of us that we are unable to deal with have often become split off from our awareness but continue existing (and acting out)–albeit under the radar so to speak. For example, one individual may be highly critical or even become derogatory toward parents who allow their children to run wild in public, but in the end it may be stemming from individual’s own deeply ingrained memory of her own experience with parents who punished her for doing the same, insisting she was “bad” for doing so. Gradually the details of the reason for negative feelings disperse, but the negative feeling remains—simply no longer connected to any rational reason that one could point to that triggers it.</p><p>Like individuals, society also had its shadow. Going back to the issue of the growing number of mass shootings, I recently read a very good article that offers a symbolic and depth psychological take on the matter. In “Mythology of Bullets” (Spring 81: The Psychology of Violence), Jungian analyst and professor Glen Slater reflects on one of the most fundamental beliefs of the American culture at large. He suggests our inherent belief in the American dream, that anyone can achieve success if he works hard enough may be partially at fault.</p><p>In conjunction with the Second Amendment our forefathers bestowed the right for every individual to bear arms, and the rather black-and-white mandate that stipulates failure in America is not an option and we must do whatever it takes to succeed, those who are moving at a pace that is not sustainable and still find themselves failing, marginalized, and teetering on the brink of defeat simply fall prey to a power complex in which they grasp onto the one enduring symbol that lives in the very biology of our cells. Passed down from the pioneers who subdued (and colonized) the Wild West in order to establish the United States of America, the access to and utilization of guns and bullets to finally and forcefully remove all objects in the way seems an inherent right.</p><p>More, by placing a finger on the trigger of such a device that can kill at a distance, it makes us remote–removing ourselves from the human connection. Slater refers to connection between bullets as projectiles and the psychological projections we easily make in blaming others for our failures. The shadow we can’t possibly see rises up, projecting fault and simultaneously seeking to obliterate any thing that might be perceived to be linked to our failure, lack of ability to connect, and our corresponding exile to edges of acceptability in a society so focused on success. Additionally, Slater points out, the tendency of our narrative –our cultural myth, if you will—is that the hero always wins, is shiny bright and successful, and has no shadow side. There is no room for failure, and at the same time, we tend to move so fast and expect so much that we fail to allow for a slowing down, a reflection on the reality of life’s ups and downs, and a container for just being in the grips of difficulty, sadness, anger, and depression.</p><p>Jungian James Hillman, founder of archetypal psychology and one of the greatest depth psychologists in contemporary times (he just died last year in 2011), points out how absolutely critical it is that we engage in the journey to the “underworld.” Traditional rites of initiation—now essentially absent in our culture—require the initiate to travel on what is essentially an underworld journey to go into the depths, encounter obstacles, overcome trials, and return bearing gifts for the society. If we are not willing to experience the depths, the despair, and the trials, we can’t possibly experience positive growth—what Jung called “individuation”–in the same way. Equally, it’s critical that we participate in what depth psychologists Mary Watkins and Helene Schulman refer to as “engaged witnessing” to honor and validate the suffering and sacrifice of those who have lost loved ones to these terrible eruptions of shadow in the cultural landscape. If we fail to “feel” and honor the feelings of grief, despair, anger, and loss that naturally arise in situations such as this, we remain only “passive bystanders” who are far more likely to participate only as onlookers that experience only the shock value or entertainment-related aspects of such dramatic and traumatic events.</p><p><b>Tell us about your PhD dissertation. What is your “point?!”</b></p><p>Writing a dissertation is, for me, truly a gift. It’s hard, but it’s an opportunity to engage deeply by delving into topics that are not necessarily easy on any level but seem so critical to humanity at this time and juncture. In my case, I have been profoundly impacted by the loss of home and home places–particularly as a result of ecocide and environmental disaster. What happens when people are displaced from their homes, especially due to acts of “nature”? In recent years, we have seen increasing nature-related catastrophes and human-caused ecocide—the destruction of home places—whether it’s due to pollution, oil spills, developmental projects like dams, highways and shopping malls, or massive deforestation. Climate change in an increasing factor, leading to massive drought, flooding, food shortages and increasing instances of “superstorms” like huge hurricanes, clusters of tornadoes, or intense blizzards—all disastrous to people who have lived for generations in certain places who now find their home places severely threatened. The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), predict we will have as many as 50 million environmental refugees worldwide as soon as 2020, an estimate that is backed up by the UN Institute for Environment and Human Security</p><p>Environmental refugees, described as ‘persons who no longer gain a secure livelihood in their traditional homelands because of what are primarily environmental factors of unusual scope’ are also predicted to number upwards of 150 million by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by 2050. In the face of such tragedy that is already occurring, one wonders where all these individuals will go to find new home places and how they will survive the trauma of losing all they have—a core factor of their identities.</p><p>It is already imperative to regard the sense of exile and refugee-ism for individuals who suffer the loss of home due to earth-related disaster, but it becomes ever more meaningful to look at the significance of psychological exile in the face of all we have lost. In western culture, heavily based on the Biblical myth of our exile from the Garden of Eden, we begin to realize we have suffered tremendous loss by feeling we have been evicted from our birthright and have no place to call home. Perhaps this has also led to the capacity of some of us to colonize first peoples in their existing home places the world over. Over millennia, we have divorced ourselves from a sense of belonging that existed in early human societies and are increasingly feeling separate, isolated, and abandoned—psychological refugees who have no recourse to the difficulties of modern day save numbing, dissociation, and percepticide—the cutting off of our capacity to truly see the devastating circumstances that occur in our culture (like the Sandy Hook shooting of so many innocent children). Because—if we were to truly allow ourselves to look and “see” what we have allowed our culture to come to and how we are increasingly destroying ourselves, each other and Earth—the only home place we know, it would be too horrible to bear.</p><p>In the end, this exploration is critical for all of us to understand where we are seeking refuge for ourselves from the horrors of ecocide, devastation, poverty, hunger, and crimes against humanity. How do we each as an individual as well as a culture collectively numb, detach, or turn to addictive behaviors or consumerism to deal with the nearly unbearable challenges we face?</p><p>These questions drive me on a daily basis, and make me realize all the more strongly how important it is to be able to take a depth psychological look at these challenging issues and try to make some sense of them.</p><p><b>The Depth Psychology Alliance is welcoming new members like crazy. Who are these people and what are they looking for?</b></p><p>I’m really grateful for the increasing number of people who are finding and joining the Alliance. Even though it’s free to join, there is some effort to be made in signing up for yet another social media network—so I think those who are joining are really motivated to connect and to understand on a larger scale. The Alliance is dedicated to expanding the reach of depth psychology and people who are coming together are in search of something bigger than the every day selves most of us are familiar with and live with everyday. We all seek to understand how we are interconnected and I think the Alliance offers that perspective and opportunity. As of this writing, we have over 1800 members from all over the world and we’re growing. I think most of us would agree it’s a dynamic group of like-minded people who are all deeply drawn by the field of depth psychology. While there are many Jungian analysts and clinical psychologists who participate, our members come from various walks of life including artists, writers, doctors, scientists, healing professionals, counselors, students, business people, and so many more–so there is much cross-disciplinary knowledge and experience to be shared. It’s truly a testament to Jung’s desire to make depth psychology a multi-disciplinary field, and I think it’s also a “home place” for many of us who are looking for a place to feel rooted and a sense of belonging in a culture that’s increasingly chaotic and disturbing.</p><p><b>How is the new </b><a href="http://www.depthpsychologylist.com/"><b>Depth List</b></a><b> listing service progressing? Is this about revenue?</b></p><p>Honestly, the discovery of depth psychology and its principles have had such a profound effect on my own life, I feel somehow driven to help bring it to others. I think the creation of a database of depth psychology oriented practitioners—from Jungian analysts to psychotherapists to astrologers and somatic therapists is critical at this stage. I don’t know how these skilled practitioners who have dedicated their lives to this kind of work are currently promoting their skills and their practices, but certainly there’s a huge amount of educating that usually has to happen to help everyday individuals understand what depth psychology is and the value of a depth psychological approach to self-improvement and coping.</p><p>If I, with a background in marketing in the corporate world for 15 years, can do something to help these individuals get the word out about their offerings, I’ll do it. I won’t say I don’t wish I could figure out how to make a living out of it—or even initially break even for the cost of developing, hosting, and promoting DepthPsychologyList.com, but I’m committed for the foreseeable future to just work out the marketing piece so we can all—both providers and clients—benefit from what’s available. The service is free to enlist through the end of December so I invite everyone who offers depth psychology oriented service to sign up now. It’s also free for anyone to search and find practitioners by location, zip code, or type of services offered.</p><p><b>Who is your competition?</b></p><p>Beg your pardon? I can’t even fathom the concept of “competition” in this context. I realize more than ever how strongly my own desire is to get the word out to the general population about depth psychology. Carl Jung is a huge piece of that—and Jungian analysts have done a good job of marketing themselves for decades—but there’s so much more that can do good for the human race if we all just increase our consciousness that there’s more to life—and our human potential—than meets the eye. If nothing else, I would wish “depth psychology” would become a household term so that everyone—whether they choose to engage or not—at least would know that it stands for the opportunity to understand ourselves and each other better and to increasingly improve our ability to love each other, to feel connected, to engage those who are struggling, and to make meaning of this thing called “life”—through wisdom that comes from dreams, symbols, archetypes, nature, wisdom traditions of indigenous societies and mythology—and to truly allow ourselves to renew ourselves on every level at every moment to make the world a better place.</p><p>ANY organization that is working toward this goal and finding ways to share depth psychology in the world is doing something so significant and important. I am happy to do anything in my power to help them succeed as well and invite them to contact me to form a partnership so I can help spread the word. It was only a few years ago that I, myself, had never heard the term “depth psychology.” In this scenario, there is not such thing as “competition” but only increasing awareness and amplified efforts to get the word out to those whose lives will surely be changed if they only have the chance to encounter and engage.</p><p>* * * * * * *</p><p><b><i>Bio – Bonnie Bright</i></b><i> is the founder of </i><a href="http://www.depthpsychologyalliance.com/"><i>Depth Psychology Alliance</i></a><i>, the world’s first comprehensive online community for depth psychology and hosts a regular podcast, </i><a href="http://www.depthinsights.com/pages/radio.htm"><i>Depth Insights</i></a><i>, as well as editing the semi-annual </i><a href="http://www.depthinsights.com/Depth-Insights-scholarly-ezine/"><i>scholarly e-zine</i></a><i> of the same name.</i> <i>She recently founded <a href="http://www.depthpsychologylist.com/" target="_blank">www.DepthPsychologyList.com</a>, a free online database to find or list depth psychology oriented therapists and practitioners. She holds Masters degrees in Psychology and Depth Psychology and is a Ph.D. candidate at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, CA.</i></p><p></p></div>Sustainable Living & The New Mythology - Interview with Willi Paulhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/sustainable-living-the-new-mythology-interview-with-willi-paul2012-08-18T14:00:00.000Z2012-08-18T14:00:00.000ZWilli Paulhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/WilliPaul<div><h1>Sustainable Living & The New Mythology</h1><div><p><strong><a href="http://juliannevictoria.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/willitales2.jpg"><img title="willitales" src="http://juliannevictoria.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/willitales2.jpg?w=300&h=217&h=217" alt="" width="300" height="217" class="align-center" /></a></strong></p><p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>Interview with Willi Paul of </strong><strong><a href="http://planetshifter.com/" target="_blank">PlanetShifter</a> Magazine and <a href="http://openmythsource.com/" target="_blank">Open Myth Source.</a></strong></span></p><p><span class="font-size-4"><strong>by Julianne Victoria, <a title="Sustainable Living & The New Mythology: Interview with Willi Paul of PlanetShifter Magazine and Open Myth Source." href="http://juliannevictoria.com/sustainable-living-the-new-mythology/" target="_blank">Through the Peacock’s Eyes</a></strong></span></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Willi Paul is a Green certified business and sustainability consultant. Willi is the founder of the San Mateo Permaculture Guild and Planet Shifter Magazine, a collection of interviews and articles about sustainable living, mythology, and the mystical arts. He is also designer of Open Myth Source, a website where he is building a New Global Mythology<em>, </em>where he combines new myths and a new alchemy into sacred maps for the Sustainability Age.</p><p></p><p><strong>What inspired you to develop Open Myth Source? That is, what inspired you to create new myths as maps and guides for the permaculture movement and sustainable living?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In 2009, when I launched <a href="http://planetshifter.com/" target="_blank">Planetshifter.com Magazine</a>, I was building an artistic community based on green values. Then writer David Metcalfe and I started<a href="http://openmythsource.com/" target="_blank">openmythsource.com</a> to explore alchemy and the sacred. When I produced a video called<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WABppYdAAZY&list=PL0FAEA97D12725FB0&index=2&feature=plpp_video" target="_blank">“Inner & Outer System of the Sacred”</a>, the work took on deeper meanings and implications, working from countless interviews that challenged the notion that sustainability could be a new religion.</p><p>At the time I didn’t realize that the mash-up of science and spirit would evolve into <a href="http://www.planetshifter.com/node/1855" target="_blank">26 New Myths</a>, nine eBooks and an invitation to present at the <em><a href="http://www.studyofmyth.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=20&Itemid=3" target="_blank">Study of Myth Symposium</a> </em>in Santa Barbara later this month.</p><p><a href="http://openmythsource.com/" target="_blank">Openmythsource.com</a> is a bridge and a reservoir for connecting us through the <a href="http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2038" target="_blank">Chaos Era to the Post-Transition Era</a>. It is an attempt to use systems theory to support a new global consciousness.</p><p></p><p><strong>You combine Alchemy with your mythology. What is the alchemical process that you see that will lead us to an Age of Sustainability?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>I have identified the following new alchemies since I published <em><a href="http://www.jcf.org/new/index.php?categoryid=37&blogid=24" target="_blank">Mother, Sun and the Compost Pile</a></em><em> </em>for the Joseph Campbell Foundation Web Site last year:</p><p>By alchemy, I mean the transmutation of ideas and spirit into action. By recharging and sharing a new set of alchemies, we can support collaboration, visioning and planning for the Permaculture Age. Each new alchemy guides us at various tasks and emotional levels: from the individual to group to the planet. I feel that there is a recognizable spirit-charge or alchemy supporting permaculture principles across all cultures. Many experience the process of alchemy through sound and visual art. Look for new songs, dances and rituals based on permaculture practices.</p><p>There is no new mythology without alchemy. As our consciousness is raised and the elements connected, transmutation is possible. Alchemy can be mediated, voice activated, and Nature-fueled. It is love in action, the glue that makes myth universal. Powerful myths are shared fights and common solutions to the Big Challenges. Myths are also road maps or clues (examples) for the seekers and visionaries. We need to understand the power of the five alchemies in the new myths before “hearing” them. This Journey to Cascadia or back to Oakland is precisely what Campbell advocated and is the hard work that we cannot afford to shun. It is dangerous to decry a Hero before the sweat is spilled and the information tested and shared. Here are the five ingredients of this New Alchemy:</p><p></p><p><strong>[1] Sound: Rock Music</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>As for rock music, we hear and see symbols through rock music and art. Band names and titles of records and songs contain important cues, many political or humorous, but some for “mythic punch.” Album art work is the first to be interpreted and often carries the same meaning all over the world. When musicians combine song lyrics with complimentary symbols, mythic meanings are reinforced and deepened. Symbols and metaphors are the seeds, our invitation to the feast. And many symbols, like numbers and colors, have ancient meanings and universal power. Joseph Campbell might have asked at this point: Do we know the power of these symbols? Have we lost our connections to the mythic reservoir?</p><p>I now wish to build upon the powerful ideas of Joseph Campbell with the New Global Mythology Model that allows us to create, sing and share new myths that support the post-apocalypse.</p><p></p><p><strong>[2] Landscape: Permaculture</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Permaculture draws from several disciplines including organic farming, agroforestry, integrated farming, sustainable development, and applied ecology. The primary agenda of the movement has been to assist people to become more self-reliant. Permaculture is both an emerging global social building tool and alchemic augur for the new Cascadian myths. I earned my PDC or permaculture design certificate in San Francisco during the summer of 2011.</p><p>The following core principles of permaculture also weave a scared thread in Nature for many adopters:</p><p><strong>- Care of the Earth</strong>: Provision for all life systems to continue and multiply.</p><p><strong>- Care of People</strong>: Provision for people to access those resources necessary for their existence.</p><p><strong>- Setting Limits to Population and Consumption</strong>: By governing our own needs, we can set resources aside to further the above principles.</p><p></p><p><strong>[3] Spirit: Transition Movement</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>The Transition Movement is a vibrant, grassroots movement that seeks to build community resilience in the face of such challenges as peak oil, climate change and the economic crisis. Transition alchemy represents one of the most promising ways to engage people in strengthening their communities against the effects of these challenges, resulting in a life that is more abundant, fulfilling, equitable and socially connected.</p><p>Recently several key themes have emerged from Transition:</p><p><strong>- Seriousness and urgency</strong>. There is a growing and indisputable recognition that our collective predicament is far more serious and more urgent than many of us had been willing to actively contemplate.</p><p><strong>- Emergence</strong>, or what Christopher Alexander calls “<strong>Unfolding</strong>,” the evolutionary process by which the universe itself self-organizes, finding profound and practical lessons in how to catalyze Transition Alchemy in our communities. I am in the process of learning about what is emerging in the Transition movement itself. In my community and groups, we’re discovering what is emerging in – and through – us.</p><p><strong>- Self-organization</strong>. I am also beginning to learn the meaning of “self-organization,” which is actually a core principle of Transition, though little discussed. I am discovering that catalyzing self-organization of a community around re-localization or Transition is entirely different from community organizing!</p><p><strong>- Permaculture principles and Ethics</strong>. We’re also beginning to understand how essential the principles and ethics of permaculture alchemy are to the Transition process. This alchemic translation will become increasingly important over time, because Permaculture is based on a very deep understanding of how life works.</p><p><strong>- New Cosmology/Universe Story</strong>. Many of us are also diving deep into the story of the evolution of the Universe, of the Earth, and of life itself. As Thomas Berry explains, this New Cosmology “explores the contemporary, scientific story of the origin, nature and function of the Universe from its beginning, through its galactic phase, its supernova events, the shaping of the solar system, Earth, life, human life and self-reflective consciousness as a single, unbroken series of events.” Alchemic transmutation on a grand scale. New Cosmology is helping us to recover our sense of the sacredness of life itself, and our fundamental connectedness with the processes that make life possible.</p><p><strong>- Pattern Language</strong>. As an important adjunct to the New Cosmology, we’re beginning to discover the importance of the patterns of evolution itself – the alchemy and patterns of wholeness and healing.</p><p><strong>- Inner Transition/Heart & Soul</strong>. Finally, I appreciate the alchemy of Inner Transition, what is frequently called “Heart & Soul”, the recognition that Transition in the outer world cannot occur without an Inner Transition.</p><p></p><p><strong>[4] Community: Localization</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Key ideas in the localization of community include:</p><p><strong>- Healthy Food</strong>. This is all about my backyard and working with other urban gardeners! Our food needs to be fresh, healthy, and locally produced and marketed.</p><p><strong>- Personal Responsibility</strong>. Localization mandates increasing levels of self-sufficiency, to the betterment of my family, neighborhood and town. It is now our challenge to support local ventures and local talent.</p><p><strong>- Shifting Politics and Capital</strong>. I can now exert some influence on my local schools and businesses. This produces a significant portion of the goods, services, food, and energy they consume from its own local endowment of financial, natural, and human capital. Regional and local funders must loan more to area businesses, keeping the community and feedback in mind. Localization alchemy hopes to restore an efficient balance between local production and imports.</p><p><strong>- Environmental Impacts</strong>. I need to focus on local and community vs. larger, national efforts and projects. Not just about reducing greenhouse gas emissions, but how the human and natural eco systems support each other on a daily basis.</p><p></p><p><strong>[5] Religion: Dark Green Religion</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>“Since the publication of Rachael Carson’s <em>Silent Spring</em> in 1962, environmental alarm has intensified and become increasingly apocalyptic. Meanwhile, nature-related religion has been rekindled, invented, spread, and ecologized. A great deal of this religious creativity has been dark green, flowing from a deep sense of belonging to and connectedness in nature, while perceiving the earth and its living systems to be sacred and interconnected. Dark green religion is generally deep ecological, bio-centric, or eco-centric, considering all species to be intrinsically valuable, that is, valuable apart from their usefulness to human beings.</p><p>“This (dark green) value system is generally:</p><p>(1) based on a felt kinship with the rest of life, often derived from a Darwinian understanding that all forms of life have evolved from a common ancestor and are therefore related;</p><p>(2) accompanied by feelings of humility and a corresponding critique of human moral superiority, often inspired or reinforced by a science-based cosmology that reveals how tiny human beings are in the universe; and</p><p>(3) reinforced by metaphysics of interconnection and the idea of interdependence (mutual influence and reciprocality).”</p><p>(Excerpt from <em>Dark Green Religion</em> by Bron Taylor, p. 13)</p><p>Source: <a href="http://openmythsource.com/2012/07/15/2584/">http://openmythsource.com/2012/07/15/2584/</a></p><p>These alchemies combine to fuel the spirit engine in the transmutation of the mythic land called Cascadia.</p><p></p><p><strong>Do you see Alchemy and transmutation as a spiritual process?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>First, alchemy is transmutation. These forces can be deployed for the good or for the negative. If there is a sacred purpose for their use, then yes a spiritual plane can be integrated with the change(s). Obviously turning the soil in your backyard may not be a sacred act for many!</p><p></p><p><strong>Have you studied mythologies from many different cultures, and if so, how have they influenced you as you “dream forward” and create the New Global Mythology?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>To a moderate degree, I have investigated myths both classic and non-western. Joseph Campbell’s initiation, journey and hero have helped frame the common struggles and symbols in this reservoir but I try not to get side-tracked in places and tales that do not resonate with my values and experience. I grew up with Paul Bunyan and the great Wisconsin north woods. My emerging mythology was Nature-based and a perfect augur for the permaculture-charged alchemies and archetypes that would come later in Northern California.</p><p></p><p><strong>Have you come across any ancient myths/mythologies that also teach about sustainable living in some way?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>I am sure that they are out there! Sustainability has been around for eons. My attention is on the next 50 – 75 years. I hope that my New Myths can be forecasters and lessons plans, especially for our children. Have the old myths served us well?</p><p></p><p><strong>Have any religious or spiritual practices, teachings, or leaders influenced or inspired you both on your own journey and in this work?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Besides Campbell, there are countess rock musicians that continue to propel my vision. Please see my interviews with Robyn Hitchcock, Steve Kilbey, and others. My Father’s insistence on integrity and common sense still ring true. I still have a deep resonance for the Quakers. My recent interview with <a href="http://planetshifter.com/node/2040" target="_blank">Dr. Maila Davenport</a> is a must read.</p><p></p><p><strong>Tell us the symbols that support your new myths?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p><a href="http://openmythsource.com/2012/07/15/2584/" target="_blank">“In Journey to Cascadia: Building a New Global Mythology,”</a> animals and plants are re-engineered to symbolize alchemical processes, work, and ritual. We need new symbols to spark our imaginations, to build Gaia, and survive. It’s worth noting that sanctioned permaculture programs must leave out things sacred and spiritual; this “black hole of avoidance” could derail the promise of permaculture in the near future.</p><p></p><p><strong>As Open Myth Source grows, what do you hope to accomplish through it?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>Maybe a media production house or a TV channel? A cartoon show? Or an institute? A space ship? As the name suggests, I am hoping to discover The Code.</p><p></p><p><strong>What do you see for the future of our planet? More specifically, do you see us following the paths in your myths, becoming Myth in Practice?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>In “Journey to Cascadia,” I envision a Chaos Era that we may survive. If the rising oceans don’t get us then GMOs will! Whether folks follow my new myths to any degree is unknown! When the doors at Safeway are shuttered and the gas stations are closed, we will see how practices like mythology and the transition values can support us!</p><p></p><p><strong>Finally, in what ways do you incorporate permaculture design and sustainable living into your own life?</strong></p><p><strong> </strong></p><p>One of the biggest ironies of my post PDC (permaculture design certificate) world is my dire lack of land. No land, no soil, nor food.</p><p>Indeed I am now dangling between the old world, the current crisis, and my “new mythic order vision.”</p><p>Can you give me any greenie points for pissing twice in the toilet before flushing?</p></div></div>WHAT YOU CAN WIN BY LOSINGhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/what-you-can-win-by-losing2012-06-01T19:29:49.000Z2012-06-01T19:29:49.000ZSandy Nathanhttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/SandyNathan<div><p>Hi, everyone! I'm Sandy Nathan. I led the Book Club back in January with my book <em>Numenon.</em> I was just having fun reading the posts and articles on this site and thought you might enjoy an article I recently posted in my blog for writers, <a href="http://yourshelflife.com" target="_blank">Your Shelf Life.</a> </p><p>Like many in our culture, I am obsessed with winning. I carried my obsession into my life as an author, entering book contests galore, and winning many of them. (I've got 22 national awards at this point.) Terrific, until I lost. That's when I really won by examining my experience.</p><p>This link will take you to <a href="http://www.yourshelflife.com/?p=1646" target="_blank">What You Can Win by Losing</a> It's written for my fellow writers, but every person working on his or her conscious awareness should find it valuable. The blog post contains an amazing, though incredibly embarrassing to me, true horse story about a time I lost big in the horse show arena. It's fun and funny. I found it very valuable. If painful.</p><p><br />All the best,</p><p><a href="http://sandynathan.com" target="_blank">Sandy Nathan</a></p><p></p></div>The End?https://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/the-end2012-03-19T04:32:55.000Z2012-03-19T04:32:55.000ZColin Amatohttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/ColinAmato<div><p>Every major stage in our life’s journey can lead us to not only have feelings of wonder and joy, but can also lead to feelings of despair and confusion. We must make decisions that could affect our wellbeing and our mental health. One major change for seniors is the idea of living in a retirement community or living at home. We cliché have this image of elderly people getting shipped away to nursing homes and yet this is not the case. “Approximately 70 percent of the elderly live in a family setting…20 percent live alone…the remaining number live in institutions such as nursing homes.”(Cox pg.119). Thus we must ask what makes seniors decide to stay at home as they age or enter into a nursing home? What conscious and unconscious factors play a role in the living arraignments of seniors in our community?</p><p></p><p>Independence is something we value very highly on a personal level. Psychologically speaking we are always moving towards a place of individualism within a collective social environment. This being the case, the elderly are faced with a tough decision regarding their choice of living. Do they stay at home or do they move into a nursing home? “Because most older Americans would prefer to live independently in their own homes for as long as possible, their relocation…is often accompanied by a considerable amount of trauma and unrest.”(Cox, pg.119). As a result, many elderly people or the baby boomer generation are developing “’a naturally occurring retirement community,’ or NORC.”(Buntin, pg. 124). These communities are made up of seniors who, due to spouses dying or children have left, have come together and formed close nit almost dorm like apartment complexes. “Demographics estimate that 90 percent of baby boomers will age in place.”(Buntin, pg. 124). This recognition that so many seniors wish to stay at home, and age in place, is being supported by many state wide organizations who wish to aid the elderly in the process of not having to live in nursing homes. Why is the idea of living in one’s own home so important, beyond the conscious idea of wanting to age in place? Carl Jung held that the house is symbol of the totality of the psyche. He personally had two experiences that reflected this notion. In a dream before his break with Freud he saw himself in a house with many levels. Each level as he went down became older and more ancient until the sublevel below the basement was prehistoric. This lead Jung to understand the concept of the Collective Unconscious and the symbol of the psyche reflected in a house. (Jung, pg.). After his break with Freud, Jung had another image of house. He saw a large castle-like structure being built and he instantly recognized that this was a symbol of his entire psyche. In his conscious life he actually built the house he saw in his dream, and explained that all of the elements inside and out represented him.(Jung, pg.) If this symbol of the house having a total connection to the individual psyche can be applied in a collective level, then this would help us understand why seniors, and people in general, feel the strong urge to stay at their home throughout their lives.</p><p></p><p>Moving into a nursing home can be incredibly hard for many who have spent the majority of their lives in the same place. Memories that cannot be replaced and a distinct familiarity is something that many seniors do not wish to give up by moving. However, can locations be found that can attempt to replicate the feeling of a safe and homely environment? This is being attempted by Dr. Bill Thomas and his Green House project.(Fine pg. 122). In these Green Houses senior are treated with respect and dignity and not like prisoners as one fine in many mainstream nursing homes. “Residents are called “elders” not “patients”. Unlike in most nursing homes, residents can have pets, and instead of mandated mealtimes, they can choose when to eat…it is quieter…the elders are less agitated.”(Fine pg. 122). With the success of incorporating a loving and supportive living environment, The Green House Project is allowing seniors to move into communal living without compromising their physical and mental wellbeing.<br />When seniors are faced with the fear of having to move out of their home and into a nursing home, we find that it is for good reason. The place that represents their entire stability in life is being threatened. Therefore, if the federal and state governments can support elders living at home, or implement such styles of nursing homes as the Green House Project, then this fear can be abided and not materialize for the elderly in our communities. The home is a valuable projection of a symbol from the unconscious. It is important on a personal and collective level. We cannot force seniors to make decisions that will prove to be detrimental to their wellbeing. Through support and care can we aid them in the last stage of their lives.</p></div>Archetypes of Aginghttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/profiles/blogs/archetypes-of-aging2012-02-24T05:26:02.000Z2012-02-24T05:26:02.000ZColin Amatohttps://depthpsychologyalliance.com/members/ColinAmato<div><p>Hey everyone I wanted to share some of my blog posts from another blog I had to set up while taking a Psychology of Aging course where I attend school. The professor wanted us to post our papers as blog posts so we could have experience blogging and also making it academic in nature. I was the only student in class that had any serious interest in Depth Psychology and Jung in particular, so my professor allowed me to write on the topic of aging from a "Jungian" point of view. I began to doubt if anyone would actually stumble across my blog that I made for the class, and felt that perhaps members of this community would get a kick out of reading some of my thoughts. So the next couple posts will be reposts from my other blog. Please feel free to comment and let me know what you think. I want to be clear that my knowledge of depth psychology is only that of a undergraduate majoring in psychology who reads Jung outside of class a lot, so please feel free to let me know what you think of my application of Jung's theories with regards to aging and the elderly. Thank you! </p><p></p><p><strong>Becoming Like Children<br />In the documentary “Aging in America: the years ahead” one member of an RV group at the age of 70 articulated that she felt as if she was “becoming a child again.” This was in response to her being asked what it was like for her to have reached such an age and still be active. This idea of elderly people regressing to childlike behavior, both physically and mentally, is something that was depicted in the film in the RV group and in the Alabaman prison system. The former appeared to be healthy, their regression adding an extra spark to their lives. The latter was seen as miserable, the elderly inmates becoming nothing more than shells of their former selves, totally regressed to infancy.<br />Jungian Analytical psychology might be able to shed light on the subject of the inner child, psychologically speaking, and the concept of mental regression. One of the archetypes in the psyche is the Child. This archetype is the reasons for childhood recollections and emotions that stay with us as we mature. Embracing this archetype or completely ignoring it is one of the many experiences of the psyche.(Jung pg. 167)<br />Embracing the child archetype in an healthy context, as one can see int he RV members in the film, can be observed in two places. First, in the gospel of Matthew Jesus Christ states: “I tell you the truth, you must be as children to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” Another place is Wendy, one of the main characters in the novel “Peter Pan.” The psychological value of these two examples, is that even though one knows we are growing old, we must never forget the inner child within us, the source of bliss of wonder. Wendy knows that she cannot remain in Neverland with Peter, she recognizes that she must return home and grow old, even though she never forgets her childhood experiences. The healthy individual thus matures, but does not repress the child archetype.(Jung, Barrie)<br />The elderly prison inmates in Alabama, as depicted in the film, are dealing with an unhealthy embrace with childlike regression. Carl Jung described the natural “womb-like” mental experience that occurs when one is going through a mental transformation. It is almost regressive in nature, but the outcome is healthy and progressive. This is not the case with the inmates, who are being cut off from their inner child and stripped of individuality. This is an abnormal experience of the “Jonah in the whale-complex”. They are being submerged in the regression, not being allowed to progress. They become elderly infants, not even being able to care for themselves. The symbol of Captain Hook, attempting to kill Peter Pan (the child) who finally is eaten by the Crocodile, represents this mental regressive state.(Jung pg. 419)<br />What the film and the symbols make clear to us, is the idea that if we keep embracing our inner child, allowing wonder and joy to enhance our lives, we need not become empty shells. However when we ourselves, very much like Mr. Darling, Wendy’s father, believes we just need “to grow up and stop playing” we lose a huge part of our psyche. Individuals maintain an healthy connections with themselves, all the way to death. Being cut off from the child archetype can be have negative affects upon the psyche and result in being captured in the belly of the beast. Embracing the child, can lead us to the kingdom, the place of continual mental bliss.</strong></p><p>Work Cited<br />Barrie, Sir James M. (1987). Peter Pan. New York: Random House<br />Jung, C.G. (1956). Symbols of Transformation. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press.<br />Jung, C.G. (1959). The Archetypes of the Collective Unconscious. New Jersey: Princeton University Press.</p></div>