Blogs

Depth Psychology is often associated with “soul.” Many great thinkers in the field have shared some important thoughts on the topic, and perhaps none more so than psychologist and author, Thomas Moore, whose best-selling book, Care of the Soul, is one of the most recognized and appreciated works on the topic. Thomas Moore is speaking at the upcoming Climates of Change conference in celebration of Pacifica’s 40th anniversary in April 2016.

When I sat down recently with Thomas to discuss the topic

Great article by  Amanda Butler:

"Sometimes it is through loving another, including their shadow aspects, that we learn to accept and even love those same shadow aspects in ourselves. “If one’s partner is ‘truly loved,’ then that human being becomes a ‘representative of the unconscious.’ Love is a mediator, circulating energy both outwardly and inwardly.”

This type of love, which breaks through “the illusory maya of unconscious projections,” could be considered “a process of mutual individuation.”

Neurosis cripples joy. It’s felt as the urge to control, get tight, squeeze the life out of things so that everything works as we want it to. We end up having everything just so, then it busts loose. That’s how neurosis works. It’s about too much control.

Depth psychologist, Michael Eigen, wrote, “To serve jouissance is to break free, for no two moments ask the same thing. Where jouissance is concerned, there is only learning on the job, the surprise of jouissancewhere one least expects it.”

A p

I’m sure you could offer all kinds of counter-arguments to what I’ve been saying from your own grading perspective. And you should; we all need to step back occasionally and consider what motivates our strong opinions. And I’m suggesting that our position within the myth of American innocence is a strong motivator. From outside the myth, others may see us more objectively.

Perhaps Obama really has tried but been unable to reform a dreadfully wasteful and brutal militarism that has remained remark

Happiness is a Warm Gun:
A Community Conversation on Gun Violence in America

Last June the Depth Psychology Alliance hosted its first community conversation. The topic of this event was “What is Depth Psychology?” However, a few days before the event a young white man entered the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in downtown Charleston, South Carolina and murdered nine innocent African American worshippers in the middle of their worship service. This tragic act of violence, like so m

Dear Depth Psychology Friends,

We are pleased to let you know that Going Bugs - an audio program with James Hillman, is available for the first time on  MP3.

I originally produced this title for Spring Publishing and James 20 years ago. We are now indeed proud to offer it in digital format for the first time. It is great stuff and we are excited we have found the Depth Psychology Alliance!

If you know of any other high quality audios or content in need of publishing or distribution, please email me

“Taking the Food Forest to City Hall” - International Permaculture Awareness Week. New Myth #78. Vision by Willi Paul, Planetshifter.com Media

http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2341

In the years since my book was published I’ve written many blogs about Barack Obama. How could I not? He has been anointed King in this version of our national myth. In each essay I attempted to temper my own expectations – I actually think that I had very few – as well as my continuing anger and growing grief, with a broader, mythological perspective and more questions than answers. What story are we in? What story calls to us? I invite interested readers to review them:

Blog # 9: The Presidenti

When I met Chris Hedges online for our recent interview together, I could see why Pacifica Graduate Institute invited him to speak at their milestone 40^th anniversary celebration conference, Climates of Change and the Therapy of Ideas, which takes place April 21-24, 2016, in Santa Barbara, CA.

As a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Hedges carries with him nearly two decades of experience reporting from war-torn countries like Yugoslavia, El Salvador, and also Gaza and South Sudan. In this capaci

“Sound Archetypes and the Four Seasons”

Children’s Video and Documentation 

by Willi Paul, Planetshifter.com Media (+PDF)

http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2340
fter.com/node/2340

For those who have experienced it first hand, the connection between racism and trauma is all too real. In previous posts we’ve discussed at length the horrific history of racism in America, specifically the history of the racist oppression of people of African descent in the Americas, and the genocidal treatment of the native peoples of the Americas. Unfortunately, as we see daily in the news and postings across diverse media, racism is not simply an historical event. It is ever present in o

“The Clothes Line Garden Club” 

A Permaculture Fable for Children

by Willi Paul, Planetshifter.com

http://www.planetshifter.com/node/2339

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”  -- Genesis

This post concludes the main themes of A Mid-Life Perspective: Conversations With The Unconscious. Jung noted the above quote as a reference to the original bisexuality of the matrix of consciousness.

"Religious Images

Because it consists of a living history of our mental functioning, Jung wrote that any serious inquiry into the unconscious leads straight into the religious proble

Part One of this essay listed four perspectives from which we grade the president, beginning with the most idealistic (that is, our most idealistic – and innocent – projections) and moving toward what some might call more cynical, or realistic. Here is number five:

5 – No intentions whatsoever, except to survive. In this scenario, Obama is simply another in a very long line of narcissists of overweening ambition who long ago sold their souls to serve as spokespersons and salesmen for major power

I’ve been reading the gospels and thinking about Jesus’s teaching to “judge not that you be not judged” in the context of depth psychological teachings about withdrawing the projections that make us see others in the light of our own stories, rather than as they are. Many have warned of the Warrior archetype tendency to view those who think differently from us as enemies. Right now, our country seems locked in a Warrior story, which results in politicians, even of the same political party, havin

 Our first responsibility as mythological thinkers is to cultivate discrimination, to take a step back and attempt to perceive the stories that are being played out in our culture, before we can begin to offer new ones. We must understand how we participate in those stories by our own willing – generally unconscious – acceptance of their primary themes.

I recently noticed a newspaper review (Grading the President) of yet another book about Barack Obama, and realized how much we all do this: give

An interesting question to me is the chicken or egg question. I get distracted by this question. What comes first, cognition or affect, thought or emotion? Do I choose to feel what I feel at some level, or does it just happen to me? How autonomous am I in determining the quality of my own life? Do I have emotions, or do they have me?

Historically, as we know, Plato thought that emotions were just one component of the mind, along with desire and intellect. Aristotle on the other hand, made emotion