Nature (18)

When Jonathan Rudow goes into a community to conduct research, he is highly conscious of the fact that he arrives with a particular lens—a lens we each develop individually over the course of our lives evolving from our personal experiences, family values, and cultural conditioning. That lens never allows for the full picture, Jonathan insisted when he sat down with me recently to discuss his work with the Navajo (or the Diné people, as they refer to themselves) at Back Mesa in Arizona. The term

Read more…

WATCH the INTERVIEW HERE (approx. 22 mins) or... 

LISTEN/Download the AUDIO HERE

DOWNLOAD a PDF of the written TRANSCRIPT

_________________________________________________________________________

9142457095?profile=original

9142457688?profile=originalDr. Jeffrey T. Kiehl has been a climate scientist for almost 40 years—but he has a unique take on the challenges we face on the climate front, because he is also a Jungian Analyst, focused on the study of the unconscious.

In this interview for Depth Insights™, Dr. Kiehl speaks with Bonnie Bright about his up

Read more…

9142455098?profile=originalMedicine person Wanbli Mato, (Frank) Eagle Bear, tended to the extraordinary healing of thousands of people in his lifetime with the ritual use of sacred stones. These stones, material embodiments of the Anima Mundi, or Soul of the World, he carried in various places inside his own body, and were the prima materia with which he channeled healing for the soul and body.The stones literally spoke to him and helped him see the ailment of the afflicted person then guided him to the appropriate medici

Read more…

Ritual: Making It Physical

9142451284?profile=original

It is often a great relief in the midst of our busy lives to create some ceremony and space for the larger and sometimes unseen questions we otherwise ignore, forget or stuff down into the unconscious. Ahh, at last, here is an hour, a day, a weekend to strip myself of the daily accumulation of demands, directions, distractions and disassociations, to allow the bare elements of meaning and value in my life to take center stage! Oh and look, right outside my door here as I step through the thresho

Read more…

I saw it from a distance: lavender buds shimmering in the misty Seattle rain. My heart felt warm, and light. How eager we are to emerge from the grey! Our longing for Spring is as ancient as humankind.

The Greeks conceived a myth to explain the reunion of soul that comes with new life bursting out of the soil. Persephone, maiden goddess of the Spring, is abducted by Hades, Lord of the Underworld. He carries her down to his dark realm, a prisoner-bride. Her mother, Demeter, goddess of the earth, i

Read more…
Education Institution

9142467661?profile=original

Announcing “Earth, Climate, Dreams”—the BOOK! 13 in-depth conversations with Depth Psychologists on how we address these critical topics in the Age of the Anthropocene.

Contributors include Jungian analyst Jerome Bernstein; climate scientist and Jungian, Jeffrey Kiehl; Jungian scholar, Susan Rowland; Depth educator/author Robert Romanyshyn; Depth educator Veronica Goodchild; plus other scholars, educators, or Jungian analysts including Steve Aizenstat, Sally Gillespie, Susannah Benson, Nancy F

Read more…

9142466494?profile=originalThe first thing Courtney McCubbin did when she landed in Cameroon for the Peace Corps was start a tree nursery, which then required her to build a fence around it to protect it from rodents. Once she began getting interest from farmers, she gave them seedlings to plant to help improve soil fertility and to prevent erosion on their lands. She also created a demonstration farm to show native farmers techniques they could use.

9142467069?profile=original

While a volunteer in the Peace Corps, McCubbin connected in profound ways

Read more…
Education Institution

We are pleased to announce that the new issue of Depth Insights™ Journal, the official peer-reviewed publication for Depth Psychology Alliance is out!

From the Editor, Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.:

9142467670?profile=original
When the world seems to be falling apart all around us, depth psychology provides perspectives and tools that can help us make some sense of things, even in some small way. Through the study of the unconscious, we can often get a glimpse of patterns at work, or underlying aspects that help us gain a new und
Read more…

9142465482?profile=originalPerhaps you’ve heard of a mysterious tribe of Native Indians who live high in the mountains of Colombia, speaking only their own original language, and having little contact with the outside world. These people, the Kogi Indians, have long referred to themselves as the “Elder Brothers,” as they carry the responsibility of being caretakers of the world, helping to maintain a balance of harmony and creativity in the world. (Photo at right courtesy of Lisa Maroski).

In recent years, the Kogi have be

Read more…

Dr. Pat Katsky is a Jungian Analyst and core faculty at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and she has been a therapist for thirty years. When Pat sat down with me in a recent interview, our conversation focused on the idea that some of the most psychologically healing experiences come from the natural world, a theme derived from an upcoming certificate program, “Dreaming the Earth: Earthing the Dream” starting April 15, 2016.

dreaming_the_earth.jpg

Pat mused on how in the last million or so years of history, humans have alw

Read more…

Hi All,

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).

Please watch the trailer at startsomegood.com/clnc

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.

Read more…

What Kind of Men's Retreat?

9142450699?profile=original

The Heart Arrow Quest is a time and place for men to remember who they are on a deeper level: as a man, as a human, as a seed of this earth, here to flourish in our own unique manner for this lifetime, for our people, and for the many lands entrusted to us.

It is a time for reconciling the balance of my life: do I have enough of my soul, enough spirit, enough of me in my life to carry me forward, to carry me home?

It is a place for standing in our being and allowing all the branches, all the strea

Read more…

If the “outside,” as we in modern western cultures generally consider the physical world, is manifesting rather worrisome phenomena in the form of conflict, destruction of nature and home places, and racial and income inequality, we can draw a connection from what is occurring in the physical world to what must be occurring on an inner level, and therefore witness symptoms in the psychological realm as well.

The physical symptoms that are manifesting lie within a larger set of underlying issues,

Read more…

                      Our Modern Cultural Mindset and the Forward Thinking of Carl Jung

One of my favorite quotes is this from Carl Jung, which addresses the reality of nature and our loss of contact with it. It also identifies a deep and burgeoning issue for humankind:
“Man feels isolated in the cosmos. He is no longer involved in nature and has lost his emotional participation in natural events, which hitherto had symbolic meaning for him. Thunder is no longer the voice of a god, nor is lightnin
Read more…

9142445472?profile=originalSome would argue our contemporary consumer-based, productivity-oriented culture contributes to a collective loss of memory—done of being connected to something larger than our everyday selves. As a society, we have become dislocated in time and disconnected from place, leaving us rootless, transient, and opting for sensationalism instead of spirituality; superficiality instead of soul.

So much of this malady is due to our disconnect from nature, our bodies, and earth itself. We are no longer grou

Read more…

Nature Dreaming

I dream about foxes living on my property—a silver fox and a red fox.  In the dream, I do not see them, but I know that they are there—mysterious presences that come through the woods and occasionally make themselves known.  In the waking world, I have seen the red fox.  Once, in the dead of winter, I looked out my dining room window and saw it walking on the surface of our frozen pond.  The contrast of color was startling—its bushy rust colored coat framed by the white and gray tones of the ice

Read more…

Not long ago I was walking on a cliff trail in Santa Cruz overlooking the Monterey Bay.  It was a quiet Monday morning and I heard a strangely familiar sound from long ago.  I looked out over the bay and saw four Tundra swans flying over the bay heading west to an unknown location.  The Tundra swan has a low, whistling, plaintive song that is not easily mistaken.  What are they doing here, I thought?   I was born on the Northern prairies in the middle of the country, and these swans traditionall

Read more…


It's common to feel nostalgic during the holidays. “Nostalgia,” by modern definition, means a "wistful yearning for the past." Etymologically, the root "nostos" means "homecoming" and "algos" means "pain, grief, distress." Thus, nostalgia may be translated as "severe homesickness.” But what we're actually yearning for may not be family or literal home. It might just be a longing for something more archetypally profound, a longing for the earth herself, and the way she once was, and the way the m

Read more…