Blogs

I had to understand that I was unable to make the people see what I am after. I am practically alone.

There are a few who understand this and that, but almost nobody sees the whole….

I have failed in my foremost task: to open people’s eyes to the fact that man has a soul and there is a buried treasure in the field and that our religion and philosophy are in a lamentable state. ~Quoted by Gerhard Adler in “Aspects of Jung’s Personality,” in Psychological Perspectives 6/1 (Spring 1975), p. 14.

http:/

The Weeping Woman — Part One

“Don’t go near the water, don’t go out at night,” mothers caution their children near the Rio Grande. They are protecting their children from a different threat than accidentally falling in; they’re talking about being snatched up or sucked in by La Llorona. She is the threatened punishment, the Hispanic boogeyman, of naughty, disobedient children. But she is more. She comes in the dark, on the wind, seeking that which is forever lost to her, crying for her lost child

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.

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. (R

My encounter with the ideas of Japanese architect Kiko Mozuna in 1987 (described in my previous blog) elevated my attention to the personality of place, and occurred at the time when I got my first city planning job, in Saint Paul, MN - 250 miles northwest of my graduate school home of Madison, WI.  

Mozuna's concept for educational plazas in Kawasaki included the idea that both the city and the plaza neighborhoods had personalities.  From a city perspective, his proposed plazas would be seven ch

The Chickpea

                        Rumi

            Sometimes, I feel like the chickpea and sometimes I f

"Doubt is creative if it is answered by deeds, and so is neurosis if it exonerates itself as having been a phase-a crisis which is pathological only when chronic. Neurosis is a protracted crisis degenerated into a habit, the daily catastrophe ready for use." ( C.G. Jung Letter to Arnold Kunzli March 16, 1943)

Daily catastrophe ready for use is an alarming term. Yet, we are confronted by situations each day that threaten us with anxiety, the hallmark of neurosis. If we go rigid and don't respond c

In last week's post I recounted my 1983 decision to develop the skills of an urban social scientist while seeking opportunities to apply the "Van Allen Method" of relying on dreams, intuition and synchronicity as a way to engage more fully the souls of cities.  By 1986 I had some evidence that both strategies were succeeding.

My graduate work in urban planning concentrated on economic and fiscal analysis - the most quantitative of the social science approaches to urban issues.  With my M.S. in th

When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found. — West Africa

Modern people have long been aware of lacking something that neither our ideologies, nor our addictions, nor our consumerist frenzies can satisfy. Searching for it, millions have sampled Asian spirituality and discovered contemplative practices that ground their lives in authentic values, while others have rediscovered their Christian or Jewish roots. The choice is personal, mysterious, and utterly u

Water hydrating the tissues of our bodies is exquisitely sensitive and responsive to the orientation of our attention. Most adults habitually function in an incisive mode that overrides perception of sensory information about their relationship to their inner and outer environment. An instantaneous shift in tissues responsiveness involving the whole body takes place, when attention enters a receptive mode that allows conscious experience of this relationship and enables individuals to modulate t

In a letter of Jolande Jacobi (October 27, 1936) C.G. Jung commented, "...a dream has always to be understood under two aspects. On the one hand the historical root,  on the other the freshness of the tree. The tree is what grows in time....a look behind the scenes into the age-old processes of the human mind, which might explain your special feeling of happiness."

I recently became a grandfather. Memories of dreams for the past two years told of my transition into this stage of life. A new birth

In my first post I revealed that I am a professional city planner and an amateur terrapsychologist.  City planning is a second career for me, however.  And my first career - as a college humanities professor - gave me some of the tools that I could later use to shape my planning work along terrapsychological lines.

I prepared for my first career by earning a Ph.D. in religious studies at the University of Iowa in 1979.  It was there that I learned a valuable life lesson from a most unlikely sourc

When I was interviewing Napa therapist and water activist Charlie Toledo, Executive Director of the Suscol Intertribal Counsel, this week, we had a conversation not directly related to the drought and water that I found particularly healing. She told me that in pantheistic times, people had more fun.

"When I speak to elementary school kids, I always ask them, 'How do you think the California people used to pick their chief?'  And most little kids will say, Oh, the meanest one, or the toughest war

http://nabcommunities.com/2014/10/09/walt-whitmans-vision-of-same-sex-marriage-by-steven-herrmaNew Blog at NABnn/

Each night that we dream, we're gifted. Actually, we dream multiple times nightly but only remember a few. I'm never troubled by, and encourage patients to not be worried about not recalling every specific dream. It's impossible and unnecessary.

After over thirty years of doing dreamwork I'm convinced that dreams that are meant for us to remember, we remember. The rest do their work within like psychic housekeepers that come in after hours and take care of things without being noticed. Often, it'

All along the U.S. / Mexico border, government agents and armed vigilantes mobilize to stop the invasion of dirty (diseased), or lazy (go on welfare), or persistent (take our jobs away), or dangerous (bad hombres) “illegal aliens.” But mostly, we build walls to keep out the Other (unless we need him or her to work in our fields, construct our buildings, watch our children and elderly, mow our lawns, cook our food, and wash our dishes).

Trump was hardly the first politician to stir up anti-immigra

With this post I am launching what I hope will be a regular blog exploring the intersection between the field of terrapsychology, and an approach to urban improvement known as "creative placemaking." 

My perspective is that of a professional city planner (30 years experience) and an amateur terrapsychologist.  Within the field of city planning, creative placemaking is new trend.  The term refers to the involvement of community-based arts and cultural activities to shape the form and socioeconomic

I I pay attention to how I feel around people. Sometime's there's a sense of well being, peace. Other times, there's confusion, chaos. People bring energy with them. As we are conscious, we can feel the energy within and surrounding others.

I came across the following quote by the American poet Charles Bukowski: "The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it - basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them." 

When I enter my consultation office I clear my mind.

The fears about Illegal immigration are a classic expression of the myth of madness at the gates of the city. Seen from the inside, the mad god Dionysus threatens to invade and destroy everything of value. From the outside, however – that is, from outside the bubble of literalized thinking – we can observe a rigid cultural identity in utter denial of both its own madness as well as the possibilities of healing.

The anxiety, as always, stems primarily from the Puritan fear of pollution by those va

I recently met someone who is an international expert on social change movements. Over breakfast at my favorite café we talked about how successful social protests open up space in places where we think there isn’t any space. The conversation fascinated me because I’ve spent the past two years writing a book about metaphor and the creative process… But what I’m really writing about is space. Creative change happens when a certain kind of Space is opened. That’s what I do in Doorway sessions---my