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Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

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News Release - Just Published: Jung and Ecopsychology

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 08:06:00 PST

Just Published!

The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe:
Volume 1, Jung and Ecopsychology
Paperback & eBook editions
Download a Free Preview

"Western man has no need of more superiority over nature, whether outside or inside. He has both in almost devilish perfection. What he lacks is conscious recognition of his inferiority to nature around him and within him. He must learn that he may not do exactly as he wills. If he does not learn this, his own nature will destroy him. He does not know that his own soul is rebelling against him in a suicidal way." — C.G. Jung

Carl Jung believed there had to be a major paradigm shift in Western culture if we were to avert many of the apocalyptic conditions described in the Book of Revelation. He coined the terms ‘New Age’ and ‘Age of Aquarius’ to describe a change in consciousness that would honor the feminine, our bodies, sexuality, the earth, animals, and indigenous cultures. Jung deplored the fast pace of modern life with its empty consumerism and the lack of a spiritual dimension.

Volume 1 of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe develops the framework and principles of Jungian ecopsychology and describes how they can be applied to our educational system and in the practice of psychotherapy. It offers a response to Jung’s challenge to unite our cultured side with the ‘two million-year-old man within’ thereby opening a bridge to the remaining indigenous cultures. Dreamwork, individuation, synchronicity, and the experience of the numinous are important elements in this conceptual system. The Dairy Farmer’s Guide provides a Jungian contribution to the developing field of ecopsychology, exploring values, attitudes and perceptions that impact our view of the natural world—nature within, nature without.

Download a Free Preview

About the Author
Dennis Merritt, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Merritt is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over twenty-five years of participation in Lakota Sioux ceremonies has strongly influenced his worldview.

"Scientific study, cognitive behavioral techniques, self-help books, and political action will not do the trick. We will not achieve the fundamental level of change and understanding that is called for unless the archetypal, transcendent, sacred and mythical dimension of the psyche is engaged. The sense of the sacred Carl Sagan saw as necessary to save the environment will not be developed. Our educational systems will not be able to teach from a deep, holistic, integrated perspective unless they embrace an ecopsychological framework. Without a mythic perspective, hubris and inflation with “our” powers and the religion of science will make John’s revelatory visions a reality." —Dairy Farmers Guide to the Universe Vol. 1

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

Re-Visioning our Relationship with Nature

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:28:00 PST

article by Dennis Merritt

Western man has no need of more superiority over nature, whether outside or inside. He has both in almost devilish perfection. What he lacks is conscious recognition of his inferiority to nature around him and within him. He must learn that he may not do exactly as he wills. If he does not learn this, his own nature will destroy him. He does not know that his own soul is rebelling against him in a suicidal way. —C.G. Jung, (CW 11, ¶ 870)

A radical revision of our worldview is in order and several encouraging voices have arisen. Carl Sagan, who as co-chair of A Joint Appeal by Science and Religion for the Environment, presented a petition in 1992 stating:

The environmental problem has religious as well as scientific dimensions…As scientists, many of us have had a profound experience of awe and reverence before the universe. We understand that what is regarded as sacred is more likely to be treated with care and respect. Our planetary home should be so regarded. Efforts to safeguard and cherish the environment need to be infused with a vision of the sacred. At the same time, a much wider and deeper understanding of science and technology is needed. If we do not understand the problem it is unlikely we will be able to fix it. Thus there is a vital role for both science and religion. (Sagan 1992, p. 10, 12)

The Forum on Religion and Ecology is a leader in developing the dialogue on spirituality and the environment http://environment.harvard.edu/religion. Joseph Campbell thought that if a new myth of any value were to emerge, it would be of a “society of the planet” living in relationship with the Earth. (Campbell 1988, p. 32) Ecotheology, creation spirituality and ecospirtuality have been developing over the past two decades with the writings of Matthew Fox and Thomas Berry being notable examples.

A growing number of philosophers, dubbed environmental philosophers or ecophilosophers, have been re-examining “the philosophical bases of our attitudes toward the natural world” with a “heightened interest in basic questions of values, of worldview, and of (environmental) ethics.” (Metzner 1991, p. 147) “Deep ecologists” challenge the dominant philosophical positions by making three main points. First, they assert the need to overthrow our human-centered focus by placing an emphasis on an ecological, or Earth-centered, approach. We must acknowledge “the complex web of human interdependence with all life-forms” and develop what Aldo Leopold called a “land ethic” and an “ecological conscience.” (Leopold 1948 referred to in Metzner 1993, p. 4)

Deep ecology’s core insight is that humankind is not radically distinct from other entities in nature to which we are internally related; “particular entities are but temporary knots in an interconnected cosmic web.” (Zimmerman 1991, p. 123) The nonhuman world should be considered valuable in and of itself and not simply for its human-use value. (Fox 1991a, p. 107) Michael Zimmerman stated the premise: “All things should be permitted, whenever possible, to pursue their own evolutionary destinies” and “people [are] to respect individual beings and the ecosystem in which they arise.” (Zimmerman 1991, p. 123) The second premise is that we should ask deeper questions about our ecological relationships, looking for root causes rather than simply focusing on symptoms. (Fox 1991a, p. 107) We must examine the human institutions and values that create environmental problems rather than focusing on narrow technological solutions. The goal is to gradually “adopt practices consistent with long-term enhancement of all life on the planet,” Zimmerman states. Humans will still intervene and take non-human lives, but this is to be done “with discrimination and not for trivial reasons.” We should satisfy only our vital material needs as we forego mindless consumerism. (Zimmerman 1991, p. 123, 124) The third idea as stated by ecophilosopher Warwick Fox is that “we are all capable of identifying far more widely and deeply with the world around us than is commonly recognized.” Such identification “leads us spontaneously to appreciate and defend the integrity of the world” (Fox 1991a, p. 107) with environmentally appropriate behaviors arising naturally out of a sense of love rather than an emphasis on self-sacrifice or self-denial.

There has been a similar evolution in the social sciences, including the works of William Catton in sociology, Herman Daly and Joshua Farley in economics (Daly and Farley 2003), and Christopher Stone in law (Stone 1972). Ecofeminists like Carolyn Merchant (1980, The Death of Nature) offer a fundamental critique of our Western worldview linking the attitudes and treatment of the feminine with our use and abuse of the earth. Neglected aspects of history and prehistory are being re-examined with renewed interest, particularly the pre-patriarchal Earth Goddess cultures. (n 14)

As late as 1991 Metzner proclaimed it was “glaring, scandalous” that psychology “has hitherto remained virtually untouched by any concern for the environment or the human-to-nature relationship in psychology.” (Metzner 1991, p. 147) Jungian analyst James Hillman and author Michael Ventura encapsulated this dilemma in the title of their book, We’ve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy and the World is Getting Worse. The problem is that we have appropriated the powers of gods without having their wisdom to wield the powers wisely. A significant share of our environmental problems, many say the most important factors, are rooted in perceptions, attitudes, thoughts, feelings and behaviors directly and indirectly related to the environment—the domain of psychology.

Each school of psychology has its own focus and orientation. Deborah Du Nann Winter’s excellent book, Ecological Psychology—Healing the Split Between Planet and Self, describes the different schools of psychology and what each can contribute towards understanding and addressing the psychological dimensions of the environmental crisis. (see Appendix A: Psychology and Ecology) She sees Gestalt and Transpersonal Psychology, under which she includes Jung, as providing “insights [that] are significant for building an ecologically based psychology,” a psychology “that offers a new integration of both scientific and spiritual understanding for the building of a sustainable culture.” (Winter 1996, p. 281) Winter’s definition of ecological psychology is the practice of seeing “humans as fundamentally dependent on a larger ecosystem.” (p. 230) Gestalt and Transpersonal Psychology emphasize the experience of relationship, wholeness, and embeddedness in the larger world, countering the Western worldview of ourselves as segmented and autonomous beings. (p. 229)

The Gestalt psychologist Wolfgang Kohler was one of the first psychologists to argue that the usual scientific experimental approach of simplifying and controlling variables in a laboratory didn’t reveal very much and it missed the complex dimensions of life. (Winter 1996, p. 241) Gestalt psychologist Ulrich Neisser observed that “we perceive…ourselves as embedded in the environment, and acting with respect to it” with perception and action being inseparably fused: “we perceive as we act and that we act.”(Neisser 1988, p. 36, 40 quoted in Winter 1996, p. 241) (n 15)

Winter and the transpersonal psychologists broaden Neisser’s meaning of an ecological self to include what Jung called the archetypes of the collective unconscious:

Transpersonal psychology focuses on the spiritual and mystical dimensions of human experience. Transpersonal psychology is the study of transcendent experiences, those that illuminate the parts of our being that lie beyond our individual, unique, or separate sense of self. (Winter 1996, p. 242)

Transpersonalists assume that our normal waking consciousness gives us only limited information about who we are. Our modern Western culture is unique among the world’s cultures in disregarding information from altered states of consciousness (ASCs) such as dreams, hypnosis, trance, prayer, meditation, or drug-induced states. (p. 244, 245)

Deep ecologists speak of a sense of self not unlike that described by transpersonal psychologists. (n 16) Our sense of self can be expanded by recognizing a commonality with another entity, such as the similar emotional reactions we share with dogs. (n 17) Winter describes her experience of identification during an intense meditation weekend:

Someone walked by on the lawn and I was filled with tenderness as I felt the blades of grass being crushed. It wasn’t that I felt those boots crushing me, but I could feel them crushing the grass. I felt the vulnerability and the fragility of the natural world…[It was] as if I could feel it happening to someone whom I deeply loved. (Winter 1996, p. 248)

The ecological self retains the sense of a separate physical self as it integrates the larger self that identifies with the ecosphere. (Winter 1996, p. 248) From an ecological, evolutionary perspective, entities have some degree of independent existence and are part of a web of interrelationships that intimately link them to others. (Fox 1991a, p. 116) For example, a hawk could not exist without prey it evolved to feed upon, and the habits and characteristics of the prey require certain types of behaviors, structures and physiologies in its predator. Evolution tells us that all life forms are linked over vast periods of time. In ecology and evolutionary theory there is “an emphasis on (degrees of) connectedness, likeness, similarity” and to “interaction stuff” that is “usually conceived of as energy” or viewed as “process philosophy or a systems view.” (p. 117) (see Appendix C: Self and Organism) (n 18)

Winter emphasizes that a deeper exploration of any subject, be it an individual, political, or psychological system, “demonstrates our interdependence and embeddedness within a larger social and ecological system.” Our sense of self changes “when we experience [embeddedness] in an emotionally meaningful way.” Winter notes, “Our environmental problems are not so much a crisis of technology as they are a crisis of insight.” If we have a sense of our ecological self, “our choices are naturally less intrusive, more sensitive, less toxic because we appreciate the larger context for our behavior.” (Winter 1996, p. 249)

Ecopsychology is an important development within the field of psychology that studies the attitudes, perceptions and behaviors that create our dysfunctional relationship with the environment and how these may be changed to create a sustainable lifestyle. Ecopsychology explores ways of helping people connect more deeply with the environment and how psychotherapy can facilitate the process.

Ecopsychologists recognize the importance of non-cognitive, direct experiencing of nature to establish a deeper spiritual understanding and connection to it. Theodore Roszak, who coined the term ecopsychology in The Voice of the Earth (1992), called for a type of therapy that recovers the child’s “enchanted sense of the world” and brings to consciousness our “ecological unconscious.” (p. 320) Winter refers to “naturalist Terry Tempest Williams [who] claims that wilderness experience is required for us to make appropriate environmental decisions because such experience opens us to our feelings, to a deeper sense of caring, to matters of the heart.” (Winter 1996, p. 264, 265) Some of the difficulty “stems from our limited experiences of the complexity, beauty, magic, and awesome power of the natural world.” It takes more than driving through a national park in an air-conditioned car with our radios on to have an emotional experience and generate an aesthetic appreciation of the natural world. (p. 265) We need direct experiences in order to become cognizant of our larger ecological selves, and rituals can be designed to increase awareness. A Council for All Beings workshop, for example, creates a deep connection to an ecosystem by having participants role play different creatures and “expressing for the creature its unspoken reaction to human impact on their habitat.” (p. 267) Other activities include full moon, equinox and solstice celebrations and symbolic appreciation and expression of the “natural bases” of the American holidays. (see volume 4, chapter 2). We can expand activities like gardening, going for walks, and taking time to appreciate clouds, smells, rainstorms, sunrises, etc. (p. 267, 268) Artists and writers can help evoke “a sense of reverence and respect for the natural world…through evoking a feeling of our connection with [it].” (p. 266) Practicing silence is helpful in this regard because it blocks the “chatter” in our heads, sharpening our senses and perceptions so “we become aware of the subtleties and richness of the natural world.” (p. 267)

Ecopsychologists encourage people to be active in solving environmental problems. As our ecological self grows, we will commit ourselves to activism and environmentally appropriate actions out of a sense of love and devotion instead of a position of guilt or a moral ideology. (Winter 1996, p. 268) One of the basic causes of environmental degradation is over-consumption. Winter’s suggestions for overcoming this addiction are to achieve the fulfillment that comes with simplicity, quiet awareness, “practicing the principle and value of sufficiency,” and “rejoic[ing] in the incredible beauty of the ecosystem and our role in it.” This counters the spiritual void of “our driven, materialist society [that] runs on a core experience of emptiness…[using] consumer products to try to satiate that inner vacuum.” Winter believes a spiritual awakening with a more expansive worldview will sensitize us to “the social injustice and environmental deterioration that afflicts our planet.” It will bond us with our social milieu including “that which appears to us as ‘the enemy’—the unconscious guzzling consumer, the advertising executive, the ‘wise use’ advocate.” (p. 268, 269)

In Ecological Psychology Winter defines the field “as the study of human experience and behavior, in its physical, political, and spiritual context, in order to build a sustainable world.” (Winter 1996, p. 283) In 1866 Haeckel coined the term ecology to mean “that branch of science which attempts to define and explain the relationship between living organisms and their environment.” (Holdgate 1994, p. 201, 202 quoted in Winter 1996, p. 283) Winter advocates an even broader goal for ecological psychology, saying we must take

a serious and difficult look at the planet’s distribution of wealth, power, and environmentally damaging patterns, and [make] a personal commitment to changing these dangerous patterns, no matter how difficult such a goal may seem. It also means that in order to heal the split between planet and self, we will need to work on personal and policy dimensions simultaneously. (p. 286)

Psychology generally ignores political and spiritual systems that help construct our knowledge and vitally affect our relationship to the environment. In the political world, for example, Winter notices how psychology is good at “conserving the social order and reinforcing features of capitalist economic organization.” (Winter 1996, p. 291) She reminds us, “psychology has a difficult time addressing such questions because of its solid footing in the modernist tradition.” This is seen in “its focus on the individual; its devotion to the scientific method; and its application for the ‘improvement’ of human welfare.” (p. 272) (see end of Appendix A)

Winter sees our goal in a postmodern culture as seeking “’a new unity of scientific, ethical, aesthetic, and religious intuitions,’” (Griffin 1988, p. x, xi quoted in Winter 1996, p. 295) recognizing science as a powerful tool but only one way of knowing. (p. 295) It is difficult to conceptualize a constructive postmodern position because “modern institutional structures mitigate against realizing integrative knowledge.” (p. 296) Universities are fragmented into different departments fighting turf battles over their domains.

To reverse this trend, ecopsychologists will need a strong background in the natural sciences, humanities and social sciences, working at several different levels in an interdisciplinary and integrative manner. In Winter’s words:

[Ecological psychology] should be pluralistic in its methodology and creative in its conduct. Sophisticated about the limits of objective knowledge, ecological psychologists will need to be rigorously attuned to the distorting effects of their own political, emotional, and intellectual blinders. As we become more conscious of our limitations, so will we become more empowered to transcend them. (p. 298)

The size and complexity of environmental problems can easily be overwhelming. “We know that our environmental deterioration is driven by poverty, by sexism, by overpopulation, and by consumerism,” Winter remarks. (Winter 1996, p. 299) She suggests we start by imagining a sustainable world. The Worldwatch Institute defines a sustainable society as one that “’satisfies its needs without jeopardizing the prospects of future generations.’” (L. R. Brown et al 1990, p. 173 quoted in Winter 1996, p. 299) We have to build such a culture within the next 20 years, some say the next 10, before the environment is pushed past tipping points that lead to irreversible and disastrous consequences. It is estimated that the world could support 8 billion people living comfortably, not at the life style of current-day Americans, but about that of Western Europeans:

Modest but comfortable homes, refrigeration for food, and ready access to public transit, augmented by limited auto use. [Goldemberg et al 1987] For most of us, what this would require is purposive down-scaling, conscious choices to consume less, reuse more, and recycle everything possible. It would also mean working less, spending less, enjoying more time, more creative community activities, and more personal and interpersonal meaning. (p. 300, 301)

Sustainability should be our goal, not just for humans but for all life forms. Our technology needs to be re-directed toward the repair of damaged ecosystems and Lester Brown (2008) in Plan B 3.0 offers many models for developing and using an ecologically sensitive technology.

Notes and Bibliography

The article you just read is an excerpt from Dennis Merritt's:

The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe
Jung, Hermes and Ecopsychology in Four Volumes

We keep forgetting that we are primates and that we have to make allowances for these primitive layers in our psyche. The farmer is still closer to these layers. In tilling the earth he moves around within a very narrow radius, but he moves on his own land. —C.G. Jung

Volume I: Jung and Ecopsychology presents the main premises of Jungian ecopsychology,offers some of Jung’s best ecopsychological quotes, and provides a brief overview of the evolution of our dysfunctional Western relationship with the environment.

—ISBN 9781926715421

Dennis Merritt, Ph.D., LCSW, is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Merritt is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, B.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over twenty years of participation in Lakota Sioux ceremonies have strongly influenced his worldview.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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The Red Book and a Word from the Sister

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 06:23:00 PST

Marked By Fire

Stories of the Jungian Way

"This life is the way, the long sought after way to the unfathomable which we call divine"

—C.G. Jung, The Red Book

Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way is a soulful collection of essays that illuminate the inner life.

When Soul appeared to C.G. Jung and demanded he change his life, he opened himself to the powerful forces of the unconscious. He recorded his inner journey, his conversations with figures that appeared to him in vision and in dream in The Red Book. Although it would be years before The Red Book was published, much of what we now know as Jungian psychology began in those pages, when Jung allowed the irrational to assault him. That was a century ago.

How do those of us who dedicate ourselves to Jung’s psychology as analysts, teachers, writers respond to Soul’s demands in our own lives? If we believe, with Jung, in “the reality of the psyche,” how does that shape us? The articles in Marked By Fire portray direct experiences of the unconscious; they tell life stories about the fiery process of becoming ourselves.

A Word from the Sister

The publication of “Marked by Fire” is exciting. I want to share a portion of Naomi's essay in the collection, especially the part where I show up and play a pivotal role. I hope you’ll want to read more....

Drunk with Fire
How The Red Book Transformed My Jung

Support me for I stagger, drunk with fire. . . . I climbed down through the centuries and plunged into the sun far at the bottom. And I rose up drunk from the sun . . . The Red Book

There has been a breach between C. G. Jung and me. How could that happen? I had no idea who I was until I met Jung, nor had I had a decent conversation with my soul. Jungian analysis showed me my way into the world, and into my inner life—it opened the door to the poet I'd left behind in my childhood. But when I encountered Jung's suspicious attitude toward artists—so like a Swiss burgher—the poet in me was offended.

Enter The Red Book. When I sat down with that enormous tome on my lap and leafed through its gloriously illuminated pages, its visionary poetry, its astounding paintings and mandalas, my heart opened to my illustrious ancestor—all was forgiven. I felt vindicated. Jung, as I'd always suspected, was a closeted poet.

What is this Red Book? During a difficult time in his life, after his break with Freud, Jung was deluged with powerful images and visions. He wrote them down and painted them. He created a strange and beautiful book—bound in red leather—to hold them. It looks like a medieval illuminated manuscript. The Red Book was not published, even after his death, because of concerns that its wild, prophetic tone would cause people to dismiss Jung as a mystic or a madman. When it finally came out in 2009, it surprised the Jungian world by creating a media sensation and selling out its first printing

With the publication of The Red Book my Jung has been transformed. He is "outed" as a poet and a painter. He writes directly out of his vulnerability, working out his relationship with his soul in the depths of the mythopoetic imagination, just as I do. In The Red Book Jung reclaims his soul—or rather she reclaims him. She appears to him and becomes his guide. She is an inner figure with a mind of her own. This honoring of the voice from within, which Jung would later call active imagination, is one of his greatest gifts to me. Instead of ignoring or dismissing voices that speak to me from within, Jung taught me to listen and to engage in dialogue with them. When "The Sister from Below" began speaking to me, telling me she was my muse, my soul, my writing life took off....

When Jung implores, "Support me for I stagger drunk with fire," I feel a tug and am deeply moved. Why is this? They are wildly poetic words—in the Dionysian mode. They take me down to that primal level of religious feeling—worship of the sun, our source. I know the states he describes. To be drunk with fire tells it all—the creative ecstasy—at once wildly enlivening and demonic—fire as Dionysus, fire as Shiva, fire as Pele. Certainly being a poet can mean being drunk with the sun from the bottom of time. One finds oneself climbing "down through the centuries" pursuing a word, an image, a phrase of goat song.

It has been essential for me to write directly out of the experience of being in other realities, rather than describing such states from a safe distance. In The Red Book Jung contains his intense and overwhelming experiences by writing them down, by painting them. I recognize that urge. I have shelves and shelves of journals in which I've worked to contain my own fire, to follow inner figures, to work with poems and with dreams, to dive below the surface of the times to what is moving in the depths. And I always feel better, more grounded, more real to myself after I do.

Enter, the Sister from Below. She's got an idea:

Why don't you take your own advice? Do an active imagination with Jung, now that you feel this warm glow of kinships libido for him? Imagine you two are sitting by the primordial fire, as he puts it in The Red Book:

An old secret fire burns between us. . . . The words uttered at the fire are ambiguous and deep and show life the right way. . . .
[We] will respect the holy fire again, as well as the shades sitting at the hearth, and the words that encircle the flames.

This makes me nervous. Jung is the master of active imagination. Is it hubris to invoke him? But I have learned to listen to the Sister. So I sit down, with my notebook. Jung, I discover, is reluctant. He is not at all sure he wants to engage in this exercise...

Marked By Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way
Volume 1 - Inaugural Edition, Edited by Patricia Damery and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky. Available Spring 2012

Contributors to Marked by Fire: Jerome Bernstein, Claire Douglas, Gilda Frantz, Jacqueline Gerson, Jean Kirsch, Chie Lee, Karlyn Ward, Henry Abramovitch, Sharon Heath, Dennis Patrick Slattery, Robert Romanyshyn, Patricia Damery, and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky.

Paperback & eBook editions - Advance Orders Welcomed

Product Details
Paperback & eBook editions: 150 pages (estimate)
Large Page Size Format 9.25" x 7.5"
Publisher: Fisher King Press; 1st edition (April 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1-926715-68-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-926715-68-1

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

Concerning The Cycle of Life

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:06:00 PST

by Erel Shalit

from the The Cycle of Life

The Grimm Brothers tell the story of how God decided about the duration of life, and the dire consequences of man’s demands:

When God created the world and was about to determine the duration of life for all the creatures, the donkey came and asked, “Lord, how long am I to live?”

“Thirty years,” replied God. “Does that content you?”

“Ah! Lord,” answered the ass, “that is a long time. Think of my painful existence! To carry heavy burdens from morning until night, to drag bags of corn to the mill so that others might eat bread, only to be cheered along and refreshed with nothing but kicks and blows! Spare me a portion of this long time.”

So God had mercy and gave him eighteen years. The donkey went away satisfied, and the dog made his appearance.

“How long would you want to live?” said God to him; “thirty years are too many for the donkey, but you will be satisfied with that long.”

“Lord,” answered the dog, “is that thy will? Just think how I shall have to run. My feet will never hold out so long. And what can I do but growl and run from one corner to another after I have lost my voice for barking and my teeth for biting?”

God saw that he was right, and settled for twelve years.

Then came the monkey. “You will certainly like to live thirty years,” said the Lord to him; “you need not work like the donkey and the dog, and will always enjoy yourself.”

“Ah! Lord,” he answered, “it may seem as if that were the case, but it is quite different. When it rains porridge, I have no spoon. I am always to play merry tricks and make faces for people to laugh, but when they give me an apple and I bite into it, why, it is sour! How often is sorrow hidden behind a joke. I shall never be able to hold out with all that for thirty years!”

God had mercy and gave him ten years.

At last man appeared, joyous, healthy, and vigorous, and begged God to determine the duration of his life.

“Thirty years you shall live,” spoke the Lord. “Is that enough for you?”

“What a short time!” cried man, “when I have built my house and my fire burns on my own hearth; when I have planted trees that blossom and bear fruit, and am just beginning to enjoy my life, then I am to die! Oh, Lord, lengthen my time.”

“I will add to it the ass’s eighteen years,” said God.

“That is not enough,” replied man.

“You shall also have the dog’s twelve years.”

“Still too little!”

“Well, then,” said God, “I will give you the monkey’s ten years as well, but you shall have no more.”

Man went away, but was not satisfied.

Thus man lives for seventy years. The first thirty are his human years, which are soon gone; that is when he is healthy and happy; works with pleasure, and is glad of his life. Then follow the donkey’s eighteen years, when one burden after another is laid on him; he carries the corn that feeds others, and kicks and blows are the reward of his faithful services. Then come the dog’s twelve years, when he lies in the corner growling, and has no longer any teeth with which to bite. And when this time is past, the monkey’s ten years bring man to the end. Now man is weak headed and foolish, does silly things and becomes the laughingstock for children. (1)

This grim(m) story tells a fundamental, though not absolute truth of life. It provides a healthy and bittersweet compensation for our common belief in and virtual worship of seemingly eternal, or at least life-long youth, with the concomitant repression of life’s darker sides and the denial of death. In fact, Ernest Becker claimed that man’s hope and belief is that the things created in society shall be “of lasting worth and meaning, that they outlive or outshine death and decay.” That is, Becker considers the very basis of civilization to be a defense against human mortality. (2)

When cosmetics and plastic surgery mold a stiff and unyielding mask of youth, or rather of fictitious youthful appearance, old age cannot wear its true face of wisdom. By flattening out the valleys of our wrinkles, we erase the imprints of our character. Fixation in a narcissistic condition of an outworn mask silences the inner voice of meaning in our life.

Jung defines life as the “story of the self-realization of the unconscious. Everything in the unconscious seeks outward manifestation, and the personality too desires to evolve out of its unconscious conditions to experience itself as a whole.”(3) The purpose of this book is to describe some of the principal archetypal images at play as we navigate our journey through the cycle of life. In each stage of life, there is an image, or rather a cluster of psychological themes that pertain to that particular period, such as the divine child and the orphan child.

Usually, these themes and images do not correspond to actual events or traumata, but reflect internal, archetypal experiences. The feelings related to being an orphan are universal, and a vital facet of growing out of certain states of childhood; sometimes, however, the archetypal image of the orphan may devastatingly strike a child by the traumatic loss of a parent. Traumatic experiences often cause fixation; the archetypal image becomes frozen in the psyche of the traumatized person, rather than serving as a transitory psychic constellation, eventually integrating into the fullness of the personality.

Furthermore, sometimes we are struck by the disparity between a predominant archetypal image and the prevailing developmental stage, as for instance like when we see a senex-child, that is, a child who seems to speak the old person’s tongue, rather than to be dwelling in the world of childhood play. Or, for example, a mother of four teenage children, all of whom thought of her as a ‘child-mother,’ immature and childish. Even when they were small, they felt that she wanted them to be parental children taking care of her.

The archetypal idea of a journey through life is outlined in Chapter I, in which Jung’s theory of the stages of life, as well as other perspectives, will be reviewed.

A focus on the river of life as an image of the journey will help illustrate the process of transformation from predetermined fate to individual destiny. Hermes, god of thieves and merchants, souls and roads, will guide us toward the Hermetic aspect of life’s journey, infusing the experience of life with meaning, when graced with those soulful gifts that alter life’s course.

The first actual stage we encounter on the journey is unavoidably The Child, whom we tenderly receive in chapter II. Archetypally, childhood is the idea and the image of the child rather than the concrete experience. The divine child, such as the child-god Eros, dwells in the vicinity of the gods, while ego-reality still seems far away, in a future that shall all too soon whirl up at the horizon. The ego germ dwells as but a prospective seed in the waters of the self. However, even at the archetypal level childhood is not pure splendor; behind existence in paradisiacal divinity lies the deep, dark and threatening abyss of chaos, of tohu-va-vohu, as it is called in the Bible.(4) Moreover, after reclining on the blissful couch of paradisiacal innocence, the necessary feelings of abandonment creep up upon us, as the fleeting moments of divine existence escape us, finding ourselves in the misery of life’s orphanage.

In this chapter, as in those that follow, dreams and tales will illustrate the archetypal images of life’s stages, considering as well the pathology of the cycle of life, and the meaning that abides in it.

The Puer and the Puella, the young man and the maiden, rush into the pages of the book in chapter III. They hold the fire and the spirit of the gods, trying like Prometheus to bring it to the use of man—man, sometimes being the threatened father who tries to wrestle the fire out of his son’s hand, extinguishing the flame and strangling the spirit, and sometimes in the image of the protective mother, carefully harnessing it by keeping the hearth’s fire burning.

As hero, the young person brings the fire of the self to the use and benefit of the ego, and exposes in the light of consciousness that which lingers in the dark. The task of the puer is to bring the Promethean fire and the spirit to combine with earth. However, the young ones are always in danger of tripping off into unfocused associations, or falling recklessly to the ground, onto the harsh earth, drunk by the wine, burned by passion or overtaken by the spirit.

In chapter IV, we shall stand on the firm ground of The Adult. The King in the fairytales is the ruler on earth, the dominant principle of collective consciousness, powerful in a man-made world. While ours is a world of limits and limitations, borders and boundaries, kings tend to get inflated with their hubris, disregarding the fact of their supposed appointment by divine decree. Kings often forget that they merely represent the unfolding of an archetypal image in the human realm. In the fairy tales of our psyche, the king is the ruler of ego and consciousness, of the self’s constellation in the ego, in the adult world of science, cities and organizations. The ego’s rule on earth may be a mirror image of the self, the terrestrial replication of the celestial city, and of nature’s order and organization, as we find it in a multitude of wonders, e.g. the bee-hive or the planets’ course in the universe. However, inflation is often the insignia of royal rule, whereby the spirit is lost, the earth dries up, and hunger and starvation transpire, since the softness and transparency of the soul are not nourished by material wealth. When inflation possesses power over the king, the feminine soul leaves his fairy tale, escaping like a grasshopper to avoid being squeezed between the pages, as the angry king slams shut the annals of his royal book. But alas the king himself dies—the ink of his pen has dried, the remainder of his page in history remains unwritten. When the waters of childhood are dry, and the fiery spirit of youth is obsolete, the collective consciousness of norms and rules often becomes repressive and oppressive.

In chapter V. i, we shall look for, and hopefully catch sight of the Senex, the old man or woman (5), who moves toward corporal invisibility, who leaves ego behind to melt into that greater Self, the world soul, that we can only intuit in the wind. He or she stands at the ultimate crossroads of corporal dis-integration and meaninglessness on the one hand, and a sense of humble participation in the unfolding of a greater scheme that relies on the way man shapes his consciousness and carries his destiny, on the other.

In chapter V. ii, we pay homage to Sophocles and his masterful play Oedipus at Colonus. We shall ponder upon the perhaps never fully resolved or resolvable conflict between meaninglessness, stagnation and disintegration versus a sense of purpose, meaning and transcendent connection.

We need to balance all these ages of individual development along the life cycle. The proportions change, however, and for instance a too earth-bound young person may set too severe limitations on his spirit, too soon. In the concluding chapter V. iii, we shall see how the puzzle may come together in a meaningful way, as the ego turns toward the Self.

As concerns psychology, we find that Freudian psychology is based primarily on the child archetype, as unfolding in childhood, in spite of, or perhaps because of the fact that Freud himself was quite a neurotic adult. The Jungian approach is more of a senex-psychology, in the sense that central importance is placed on the quest for meaning. While Jung remained quite a playful child throughout his entire life, building towers and castles at the shores of the lake, he plunged into his introverted mind in search for meaning.

In so far as there is a nucleus of archetypal images at the center of each stage of life, the archetypal essence of each age is present in us all, throughout life, even if in various proportions and changing manifestations.

Jung spoke about the need for a modern myth based not only on ego-consciousness but individuation, which we may define as a vital, dynamic and meaningful relationship between ego and self (or Self)(6), an ever-changing relationship through life, which we shall explore as it unfolds through the seasons of our life. As Thomas Mann says, “Myth is the foundation of life; it is the timeless schema, the pious formula into which life flows when it reproduces its traits out of the unconscious.”(7)

1 Grimm Brothers, The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, pp. 716-718.
2 Ernest Becker, The Denial of Death, p. 5.
3 Carl Gustav Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 3.
4 The term ‘tohu-va-vohu’ can be understood as ‘waste and wild, wonder and bewilderment.’
5 While senex principally is the old, not necessarily wise man, it is here applied regardless of gender, just as senior, seniority and senility pertain to and affect men as well as women.
6 Jung did not capitalize the Self as archetype. It is, however, useful to capitalize the Self as archetype of wholeness and center, in distinction from the self as representation in the ego.
7 Thomas Mann, ‘Freud and the Future,’ Daedalus, p. 374.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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Shalit Lectures

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 18:00:00 PST

Erel Shalit Lecture Dates are as follows

January 28, 2012, Ramat Hashron - The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey

February 2012: The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey, Book Club, Depth Psychology Alliance, including internet interview with Bonnie Bright. Here's a link to the February Cycle of Life Book Club. Here’s a link for an overview and the entire line-up of Depth Psychology Authors for 2012,

March 1-4 2012, Denver, Colorado -The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey

March 9-10 2012, Santa Fe, New Mexico - Self, Meaning and the Transient Personality

August 2012, St. Petersburg - Recollection and Recollectivization

November 2012, Warsaw - tba

October 2012, Sofia - tba

Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra'anana, Israel, and the Director of the Jungian Psychotherapy Program at Bar Ilan University. He is past president of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology. He is the author of several publications, including The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey; Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return; Enemy, Cripple; Beggar; The Hero and His Shadow; and The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego. Articles of his have have appeared in many journals, among others Quadrant, The Jung Journal, Spring, and Midstream. He has entries in The Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion. 'Silence is the center of feeling,' an interview with Erel Shalit, appears in Robert and Janis Henderson's "Living with Jung" volume 3. He has contributed the chapter on Jerusalem in Thomas Singer's book Psyche and the City: A Soul's Guide to the Modern Metropolis. Dr. Shalit lectures at professional institutes, universities and cultural forums in Israel, Europe and the United States.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,
and a growing list of alternative titles.
www.fisherkingpress.com

Environmental Crisis - Abrams and Damery Dialogue

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 17:49:00 PST

February 10, 2012:

The Environmental Crisis and the Living Quest of the Embodied Psyche

An Evening of Dialogue: David Abram in Conversation with Patricia Damery

Friday, February 10, 2012, 7-9:30 pm, The Brower Center, 2150 Allston Way, Berkeley.

An event of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.

Tickets available at www.sfjung.org Availability limited. $15 students; $25 general public.

The morning I was to meet David Abram in preparation for the February dialogue with him, strong winds shook the chimney in the Truchas, New Mexico adobe in which we had been staying over the past week, playing songs whose words only the heart knows. A storm was coming. By the time we were packing up the car to return to the airport (David and I were to meet briefly in Santa Fe on our way), the snow was blowing horizontally. We feared for our safety on the drive down the winding mountain road. When we reached Santa Fe, unseasonably heavy snow had accumulated and the electricity was out citywide.

If Air has the capacity “to provide awareness, thought, and speech,” as Abram asserts the Navajo hold, then that morning Air began the dialogue! “For the Navajo… the Air has the properties that European, alphabetical civilization has traditionally ascribed to an interior, individual human ‘mind’ or 'psyche,’” Abram writes. As humans created the alphabet, moving from oral traditions toward written word, our relationship with the natural world changed. Whereas once we knew the at-oneness of dialogue with the landscape, now the written page and its words intervened, effectively removing us from the liveliness of communication with the natural world. In the hubris of apparently harnessing outer forces for our comfort or sustenance, we have become inflated. Being in relationship-with the not-human world no longer feels necessary. We no longer consider the rights of Nature. But Nature has not lost Her voice!

If Air began the dialogue, with Snow and Electricity chiming in, then where will this dialogue proceed? What awareness might come, what corrective action? What is the impact on our embodied selves of such disconnection from our environment?

Please enter this dialogue with your presence! Never has it been so important to renew our conversations with the not-human and the natural world. David is a lively and thoughtful speaker, and we are very fortunate to have him this evening in the Bay Area.

David Abram, is a cultural ecologist whose lyrical evocations in his books, The Spell of the Sensuous and Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology, have captivated a generation of readers. Patricia Damery, an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute and a Biodynamic farmer, explores the interconnected fabric of consciousness through her books, Farming Soul:A Tale of Initiation, and novel, Snakes. She and David Abram will discuss the challenges as well as the evolutionary potential to the current ecological crisis.

Also, listen to Gray Scott’s radio interview of Patricia Damery on

Serious Wonder Radio www.seriouswonder.com.

BIODYNAMIC FARMING

What is biodynamic farming? Can we heal our bodies, the earth and raise our awareness by using this method? Gray Scott talks with Jungian analyst and author Patricia Damery about her book FARMING SOUL

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,
and a growing list of alternative titles.
www.fisherkingpress.com

Animus, O Animus!

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:02:00 PST

by Deldon Anne McNeely

Animus, O Animus, wherefore art thou, Animus? Please step forward out of the shadows, out from behind the dark foliage which camouflages you, into the moonlight, and show yourself to be a true, substantial bridegroom.

Or must I play this scene alone, foolish in my belief that this soliloquy finds an audience? Alas, who speaks? Is it I or you? Aren’t you the Word? The one who insists on clarity? So why am l out here alone on this balcony and you invisible? True, I’m the one who wants togetherness; perhaps by withholding yourself you flush me out so you can see me clearly. How do I get what I need from you? How do I even know what I need from you? You’re supposed to be the assertive one. Am I at your mercy, waiting to be overtaken? And if you come, who in me stands up to you? Can you bear to look me in the eye, or must I feign indifference? Do you respond to honesty, or only to coyness, or, worse yet, must I treat you sadistically to reassure you that you’re dispensable, in order to keep your attention?

Are you loyal? Will you lead me to the true center, or mislead me into folly? Will you fructify me or leave me alone and barren? How can I know your voice? Will I find you in the world, or only through renouncing the world? What, of me, are you? Where, in me, are you? Do you exist outside of the imaginative schemas of nineteenthcentury men?

My confusion about you stems partly from the fact that your functions, as supposed by analytical psychology, sound mightily like “ego,” as we have generally come to define it in heroic terms. Come to think of it, you sound quite a bit like “God,” when It is Whom the patriarchal worlds describe as He. If you are Logos, whose voice speaks you? The voice of reason? The voice of conscience? The voice of the Holy Spirit? The voice of We, the People? The voice of one crying in the desert, “Prepare ye the way of the Lord”? All of the above? Does the heroine exist who is not under your spell? How can you connect me to my Deity, the One who is both male and female, creator and destroyer, now and forever, indivisible?

In trying to understand where the animus lives in the psyche of a woman, it may be helpful first of all to place it in relationship to ego. In Jung’s schema, the ego consists of all we are conscious of being. That which we exclude is defined as shadow. Anima and animus are subsumed under the shadow in early life, and are gradually brought into conscious focus through experience and introspection. At first we cannot differentiate these structures of the psyche, nor can we tell which is functioning through our outward behavior.
A generation ago this sexist little rhyme didn’t raise an eyebrow:

What are little girls made of? What are little girls made of?

Sugar and spice and everything nice, that’s what little girls aremade of.

What are little boys made of? What are little boys made of?

Snakes and snails and puppy dog tails, that’s what little boys are made of.

Many children today would consider it strange. As one thoughtful child said to me, “It sounds very stereotypical.” It is an extreme form of stereotyping, but subtle variations of this sort of thing continue to subliminally teach that “boys will be boys” and girls will not. By such conditioning girls and boys gradually form egos that accept certain characteristics as their own and eliminate others. At first what is deemed unacceptable is not only different, but bad. Only with experience do the qualities of the opposite sex which we find within become tolerable as something potentially valuable.

Animus is the archetypal masculine principle as it exists in a woman. When Jung conceived the term, the stereotyping of females and males into consistent gender roles and characteristics made the masculine principle as it exists in a woman easier to define than it is today. Jung assumed that the consciousness of a woman is identified by her biological sexual being; having the external genitalia of a female automatically meant having the ego of a female. Anima was who you were, and animus was who you eliminated from your self-definition. In that case, the experience of the unconscious would be perceived by the female in terms of otherness, and this otherness would be masculine.

The animus, an archetype unknowable in itself, manifests in three ways: through cultural expression, through biological influence, and through recurrent events in the history of the individual. While the biological influences on maleness and femaleness have not changed to any obvious degree since Jung’s time, enormous cultural changes are occurring in the perception of the sexes.

Think about how our culture has presented the concept of what is “masculine” over the past hundred years. Many of our notions of masculine values remain unchanged. We admire strength of character and physical prowess in men. Yet many men today are not afraid of appearing vulnerable, of cultivating emotional intimacy in relationships with both men and women, of being present to birth and nurture children, of questioning traditional macho social forms, of grooming and dressing themselves in ways once reserved for women. Occupations formerly considered masculine-senior management, the judiciary, clergy and military, to name but a few-are no longer the prerogative of men.

Think about the great differences in the personal history of many women today, compared to women of a hundred years ago: exposure to many more men, and to different types of men; greater intimacy and communications with men; greater access to education and jobs; many more opportunities fostering independence; more support for self-assertion and creative expression.

Cultural changes in the past century have led to further differentiation of the issues surrounding sexual identity. It is now popularly held that biological sexual identity consists of factors beyond those that produce the external genitalia, that hormonal influences of both sexes exist in all humans, and that the external genitalia do not in every instance mirror the dominance of the sexual hormones. It is possible to be male or female genitally while having a range of contrasexual physiological characteristics (breast size, facial hair, voice timbre, muscular apportionment, etc.).

Complicating this is the fact that cultural conditioning has a strong influence on how biological males and females experience their masculinity and femininity. A hundred years ago the cultural factors were so strong that biological preferences were overridden by gender expectations. Choices that we have come to take for granted in the expression of gender roles were not possible. Jane Wheelwright, taught and analyzed by Jung, commented on this cultural change:

Women of the educated younger generations on the whole are independent, energetic, up-front, experimental. They handle their legitimate anger, assert their honest opinions and make necessary objections. In my day, a woman behaving in this way would have been condemned as an animus hound and indeed would have been acting and speaking out of society’s collective animus. When caught by that collective pressure, ie., when she expressed female potential that society had arbitrarily dumped into the animus category, woman would be forced to function from out of the animus complex, doing its bidding, instead of doing the bidding of her own biological ego. Her good qualities, when commandeered and distorted by the animus complex would have made her unrelated instead of independent; compulsive instead of energetic. She would have been devious, not upfront, fearful instead of experimental, hostile but not legitimately angry, opinionated rather than presenting her viewpoint. To put it bluntly she would have been objectionable instead of objecting. The primary business of the animus is to be a creative tool. Its secondary role is to give the necessary stamina to all endeavors. When the animus is overloaded with what does not belong to it, it takes on a negative stance, spilling over and destroying relationships. For this reason I feel knowledge of the animus is important today for women of all ages. (For Women Growing Older, pp. 52-53.)

Previously men strived to live up to society’s expectation that they become husbands, fathers, aggressors, even though they might have no inclination or ability to do so. Women with no desire for motherhood were forced to live out their lives feeling like failures or withdrawing, usually in some noncreative way. There were courageous or accidental exceptions, but few people of either sex could find realistic models for nonconventional identities. There are always people with a seemingly innate talent for individuation who are able to go their own staunch way without obvious models or support, although on close examination there usually exists in their history a very strong, supportive parent who imbues a healthy spirit of conviction and high self-esteem. Such individuals live by their dreams and instincts without collective encouragement, and they forge new routes for all of us.

There were, therefore, women who not only survived but excelled in masculine fields of interest during Jung’s day, even though they probably met with disapproval or animosity; and there were men who lived productive lives out of the anima. But on the whole, most men and women at least put forth the appearance of living up to the expectations set upon them by society, or they withdrew. This meant that Jung was accurate in observing that the unconscious personality of a woman was represented by the masculine principle, which combined all those qualities we associate with yang and Logos.

Today, many of those qualities—assertiveness, clarity of ideation, logical intellect, articulateness of mental processes, drive, etc.—are modeled for women by individuals of either sex. These psychological capacities include mental and emotional factors that were once ascribed to males exclusively, and when these ego-strengths became obvious in women, women often denied or hid them. Men, meanwhile, denied or hid their capacities for fantasy, receptivity, contemplation and other qualities which in some circles were considered sissified, but which today we see as particular strengths of the yin ego, whether in man or woman.

These cultural changes complicate the task of understanding what the female biological ego really is, and what the animus, as “other,” is. Theoretically, the animus is a psychological function mediating between a woman’s ego and the unconscious. In Jung’s model of the psyche, the persona mediates between the ego and the outer world, while the contrasexual archetypes, anima and animus, are essentially guides to the inner world. On the journey of individuation, one must come to terms with the shadow before being able to relate in a conscious way to the anima and animus.

As archetypal feminine and masculine principles, anima and animus have a timeless place in every human psyche. The dominant archetype does not always match a person’s biological sex. Anima values usually dominate the conscious psyche of a woman, but not in every woman, and not in every life situation. To illustrate the complexity of this, here is a description of three women, all in their twenties, who do not fit the usual picture.

Becky, a young woman from a large family, has had problems relating to her alcoholic mother all her life. Her father is a likable but ineffectual man. When Becky entered therapy she was depressed and anxious. She worked as a teacher and had just been through her first relationship with a man, which had ended in her being rejected.

Becky repeatedly dreamed of herself as a male, usually in the role of rescuing a female. The recurrence of the masculine dream ego suggested that Becky identified with men, and indeed, she had been a tomboy, had not dated at all until recently and had never had a satisfying sexual relationship. The recurrent theme of rescue suggested a repressed feminine side that called out for recognition.

She had not been in therapy for long when she met and fell in love with a young man. They were immediately compatible sexually and in every other way, and after a year of courtship they married and moved away. I do not have information about her dreams since then. I do know that after several years she was still happily married. Her identification on some level with men did not prevent Becky from making a conventional adjustment as a woman. She had not been in therapy long enough to assume that this was due to therapy. One can only surmise that when the conditions were favorable and she felt supported and safe, her feminine ego was accessible for a mature relationship.

Dana, in contrast, always a tomboy also, remembered having excited feelings about girls from the time she began school. She adamantly refused to wear dresses from an early age, and after a few years of high school dating which she found distasteful, declared herself a lesbian.

Dana’s dreams in the early stage of therapy often presented her as a person harassed and persecuted by unsavory women. It seemed as if her conscious ego was male, so that even though her dream ego pictured her in a female body, she saw the “other” as women aggressors. The opposite sex, still fused with a persecutory shadow, was female. Dana’s relationship with her mother appeared to be positive; however, her early life was fraught with chaotic changes through divorces, marriages, moves, and animosity between her several sets of parents.

Marie, like Becky, was one of many children of a domineering mother. She earned attention from her powerful and often absent father by excelling in sports. Although she was very attracted to men and boys as a young girl, she fell in love with a female celebrity and entered into a long-term relationship with her. Defining herself as lesbian, she was later surprised to find herself attracted to strong men and frequently propositioned by authority figures. She entered therapy, confused and anxious, after several relationships with men had come close to being consummated. She repeatedly dreamed about figures entering her bedroom, which frightened her and woke her before they could be identified. She found herself attracted to both men and women; she was afraid of being intimate with men, though in fantasy this excited her.

These examples, typical of issues raised by patients today, reflect changing roles and values, and changing images of the structure of the psyche. Psychology does not dictate normality, it studies the data presented by life. Today’s women are vibrant though confused, open and questioning, unwilling to have answers foisted upon them.

It has been the special talent of women historically to follow and discriminate between the nuances and important details of relatedness. Forced into positions of waiting, of observing cyclical patterns of nature in their own physiological and emotional movements, and of remaining centered in the face of demands of children and men, women have had opportunities to observe these nuances for ages. Now they have more opportunities to express those observations.

Rachel Eliza Mann, for instance, a bright and creative graduate student in her twenties, struggles for integrity and awareness in her relationships with family, friends and romantic partners. The following poem explores aspects of dream figures and herself, including her masculine side. The kind of differentiation in fantasy represented here pays off in encounters in the outer world by preparing the ego for the tasks of sorting, unraveling, spinning and weaving that take place in the psyche during the course of a relationship.

The lynx paces within its cage,
The lunatic waits outside the door.
Who is kept outside, who kept in?
The second man makes love to one woman.
Hands and lips wander like a meandering ant,
an answering, a needing, a waiting.

The first man’s right hand opens up the door.
So invited, the lunatic comes in.
The lynx leaps, quivering and ready.
She is opened up, the second man enters in.
She dives alone into the Blue Hole,
only her left hand keeping hold.

The lynx dissolves into leaves.
The lunatic crosses the river into the hall.
The first man serves him porcupine stew.
The second man plunges to her roots.
The ant finds its queen.
She takes hold and enters him.

“Two Loves, an Ant, a Lynx, and a Lunatic” (unpublished).

Confusion about what is animus and what is ego occurs because ego-functions as defined by psychologists are subject to the bias of male dominance. I have come to use the terms “yin-ego” and “yang-ego” to emphasize the fact that because the ego has struggled to differentiate itself from the unconscious does not mean that all ego functions must be heroic. In fact, such an ego would be maladaptive and self-destructive over time.

Energy itself cannot be identified as masculine. The uroboros may seem feminine to the male, but as the Great Spirit/Matter, it is androgynous, the organizing Self that drives the ego, as Dylan Thomas’s “force that through the green fuse drives the flower.” To view the ego’s creation from the unconscious as an image of birth from a mother, one would have to note that the creative phallus of the father was an essential aspect of the unconscious fruition, and that the fetus not only initiates but also passively receives the process. Ego is not, then, necessarily yang; it has feminine characteristics from the beginning. Though the yin-ego is by definition passive, passivity is not without energy. Yin qualities enable the ego to reflect, image, contain, generalize and empathize, and to embrace one’s frailty.

So entwined have the characteristics of animus and ego become that many psychologists define ego strength entirely in terms of masculine adjectives. What women perceive as strength has at times been considered weakness when judged by male values. Indeed, people of both sexes have been hospitalized as severely disturbed for behavior that could be judged as heroic from the standpoint of the yin-ego. A contemplative lifestyle, for instance, unless practiced under the aegis of a religious institution, would be considered abnormal by some psychologists’ standards. A religious attitude in itself has been criticized as a form of weakness, a delusional system to avoid the pain of mortality, according to those who define “normality” as extroverted and rational. Yin ego-consciousness seems to be imaginal and synthesizing, and yang ego-consciousness factual and analytical.

Good parenting requires much yin energy. Young children need waiting for, not hurrying; to have all their feelings held, not judged; to be contained, not driven. Yang-consciousness, oriented toward the future and efficiency, has difficulty here. I have found it easiest to catch my negative animus when I have been hurrying--then I have been most unkind and unconnected to my children. Our schools often reward only the yang ego, and the child who reflects yin experience is misplaced. A bright, introverted child of ten told me she found school going too quickly for her. “When the teacher says something that reminds me of something else, my mind wants to think of it; but if I do, then I find the rest of the class goes on to something else and I am lost.” That is how the creative thought process becomes discouraged. Parents often judge themselves harshly for lacking patience. It is understandable, for yin-consciousness has been poorly modeled and unsupported, except in rare subcultures.

A brilliant woman told me she was considered retarded by her early teachers, not an unusual situation. Neglected, unkempt, the child of alcoholic parents, she was noticed, tested (IQ, 70), tolernted, but never touched until her second-grade teacher bothered to sit close to her and teach her to read with their fingers touching the book. This was all it took for the awakening to happen. Because that teacher shared a moment of grace with her, enabling her to feel received and not judged, her intellect was able to flourish.

I have learned to fail. And I have had my say.
Yet shall I sing until my voice crack (this being my leisure, this my holiday)
That man was a special thing and no commodity, a thing improper to be sold.

Edna St. Vincent Millay, from “Lines Written in Recapitulation,” Collected Poems, p. 384.

The confusion caused by the defining of ego in predominantly masculine terms has led some psychologists to wonder whether the term “ego” is useful at all, and whether the psyche can be conceived of as egoless, without a “monotheism of consciousness.” (See James Hillman, Anima: An Anatomy of a Personified Notion, pp. 177-181.)

My own practice is to think of ego as representing yin/yang features, because phenomenologically we are so accustomed to the experience of a central, organized aspect of the personality which can contain awareness of many parts, that it is difficult to imagine an egoless personality structure maneuvering its way between polarities.

Every woman contains within her psyche the masculine principle, though it may be very repressed. The better the relationship to the masculine principle, the more the woman is able to use animus qualities in appropriate ways throughout her life, and the less conflict she has about doing so. This means that in most women the masculine principle will be experienced as “other,” but the relationship to that “other” may be quite positive.

When the principle of the opposite sex is dominant and unconscious, it obliterates the functioning of the ego and results in problems, especially in close relationships. But the more experience the ego has in dialogue with the contrasexual principle, the more egosyntonic the relationship with the contrasexual partner becomes and the more choices one has in one’s repertoire of conscious behavior. This is why male-female relationships in the outer world promote the blending of yin-yang qualities in the personalities of both men and women. Without the opportunity for positive outer experiences, one has to work harder to come to good terms with the inner partner.

It is still possible, however, to have a good relationship with the contrasexual archetype without much contact with outer-world partners, if one is aware of the capacity to use information from the unconscious to understand this powerful inner partner.

It has been said of Emily Dickinson that she, with Walt Whitman, “all but invented American poetry.” (Ellman and O’Clair, Norton Anthology, p. 33.) She was, in her “strange, explosive ponderings,” prolific, but during her lifetime of reticence and obscurity, only eight of her 1800 poems were published. She said of her awesome father—a lawyer, congressman, treasurer of Amherst College—”His heart was pure and terrible, and I think no other like it exists.” She could not bear to attend his funeral; she listened to it alone in an upstairs bedroom. Her mother, kind, patient, pious and sickly, evoked condescension and even contempt from Emily, who hated the social duties of housekeeping and sewing imposed on women.

Dickinson left home at seventeen to attend Mt. Holyoke, a few miles away, but returned home, never to leave, before the year was up.

We know of two men with whom Emily Dickenson corresponded, but, like her sister, she never married. Some cataclysm occurred in her inner life around 1861, an event only indirectly referred to in her poetry but probably having to do with an experience of unrequited love. From that time on, her poetry changed. She seemed to have been transformed from girl to woman. In spite of a seemingly uneventful life on the surface, she left a treasure of inner riches. . .

You have just read an excerpt from Animus Aeternus by Deldon Anne McNeely

Using some of the more enigmatic poems of the 20th century as guideposts, Deldon Anne McNeely explores the poetry of Sylvia Plath, Adrienne Rich, Teresa of Avila, Emily Dickinson, Mary Oliver, Edna St. Vincent Millay, Anna Akhmatova, and others whose works have had an indelible impact on the evolving world soul. This is literary criticism taken to another level--the level of psyche. Once again, with her hard-won wisdom deeply rooted in soul, Jungian analyst Deldon Anne McNeely delivers -- embedded within the stories of this finely crafted book, one finds redemption and liberation. Some will mirror your own story--other tales will be about those you love. Animus Aeternus is a worthy companion for any modern-day woman.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

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If You’ve Got “The Blues,” Play 'em

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:36:00 PST

Review of Mark Winborn's Deep Blues
by Laura Sentineri Harness

Mythopoetry Scholar Annual eZine vol. 3. Stephanie Pope, Editor. Fountain Hills: mythopoetry.com, January 2, 2012 (© 2012)

Deep Blues: Human Soundscapes for the Archetypal Journey
Publisher: Fisher King Press
September 1, 2011 1st edition
140 pages, Illustrations, Index, Bibliography
ISBN-10: 1926715527
ISBN-13: 978-1926715520

In the midnight hours, long ‘fore the break of day
When the blues creep on you and carry your mind away
-Leroy Carr, Midnight Blues1

What Is It About “The Blues” That So Deeply Stirs The Soul?

In Deep Blues: Human Soundscapes for the Archetypal Journey, Jungian psychoanalyst, Mark Winborn brings the astute lens of depth psychology to this question, exploring “Blues” music as a psychological, archetypal and cultural phenomenon. The strength of this book is its ability to cross between two vastly different worlds juxtaposing the gritty emotions and simple earthy lyrics of the Blues with the expansive intellectual framework of Jungian Psychology.

Winborn’s brilliant analytical skills and personal passion for the subject is evident and this book often reads like a love story to the muse of the Blues. Although the genre of Blues music is his focus, there is a breadth to his writing that distills many valuable insights into human nature. Winborn applies a variety of Jungian analytic theories as well as elaborates upon the interface of creativity and alchemy, the shamanic role of a “Blues” performer and Neumann’s theory of Unitary Reality.2 Deep Blues is a poignant testimony to the power of Blues music to heal and redeem the “midnight hour” sufferings of the soul.

Tracing the origins of the Blues to slavery and the African-American experience of devastating loss, tragedy, trauma and personal pain, Winborn calls the Blues “survival music.” He then gives a brilliant in-depth analysis of the healing, medicinal qualities inherent in Blues music which contribute to emotional resilience, redemption and restoration of wholeness.

Music has long been used to help people deal with their emotions. In the 17th century the scholar, Robert Burton's The Anatomy of Melancholy3 argued that music was critical in treating mental illness especially melancholia. He noted that music has an "excellent power ...to expel many other diseases" and he called it "a sovereign remedy against despair and melancholy."4 Back before Prozac and Zoloft music was prescriptive, often used as a homeopathic remedy as “like cures like.”

Simply Stated, If You’ve Got “The Blues,” Play Them

I merely took the energy it takes to pout and wrote some Blues.
-Duke Ellington5, US jazz bandleader, musician, & songwriter (1899 - 1974)

Listening to, singing, writing and playing the Blues facilitates a release and deepening into the murky emotional aspects of life and helps us to integrate the dark, split off, unconscious aspects of the archetypal shadow in both the personal and collective psyche. As Winborn illustrates, Blues music is an excellent depictation of the alchemical process of psychological transmutation. Through the telling of one’s personal story, the narrative of life’s tragic aspects and the cathartic action of putting strong feelings into song “the prima materia of everyday life becomes the gold of unitary reality.”6 The experience of unitary reality is “a reciprocal coordination between world and psyche”7 and Winborn illustrates how music and the Arts have the power to invoke this expanded consciousness of oneness which transcends polarities, divisions and limitations of time and space. As we listen to the Blues we have the opportunity to emotionally empathize and resonate with archetypal themes of longing, grief, hope, and abandonment, connecting us to what’s universal and meaningful in our common struggles.

Because Blues music often deals with shadow themes it can help us to develop non-polarized attitudes towards human suffering, bringing acceptance and transcendence. In Winborn’s words, “Ultimately, the blues has an innate healing potential: it is a form of therapy which incorporates elements of humor, alchemical imagination, personification and the narrative impulse.”8 As a music therapist I’ve witnessed firsthand how music, specifically the Blues, can provide healing support to people who are vulnerable, disempowered or socially marginalized.

In psychiatric hospitals, nursing homes, pediatric cancer wards, or programs for the developmentally disabled this music has a powerful way of meeting people in the trenches of the deepest, darkest experiences that life brings. Blues music is direct, emotional, and above all, accessible. To write a Blues song we can simply start with the question “What’s bothering you today?” Raw, heartfelt lyrics flow easily into the reassuring form of the 12 bar blues where even the most challenging and overwhelming emotions are contained, accepted, validated and transformed.

In the final chapter “Imaging the Blues,” Winborn encourages us to listen with an active imagination approach, allowing the music to evoke feelings, images, and memories which emerge from the unconscious. At this point it would have been helpful to clarify the role of Music Therapy in the prescribed use of music as a therapeutic catalyst vs. music as therapy, the awareness that music is intrinsically therapeutic. There is great potential for interface with the field of Music Therapy since Blues music is widely used in clinical settings with great therapeutic success. Winborn’s depth psychological perspective lends itself to further inquiry into practical applications in the field of Music Therapy as well as the interface between Depth Psychology and the Creative Arts Therapies.

An Antidote For Rationalism?

Is Blues music an antidote to Western society’s tendency to intellectualize, compartmentalize and defend against emotions? Winborn makes a good argument for this and illustrates how the Blues can deepen and expand our emotional vocabulary via universal acoustic images that speak to the heart. The musical elements of rhythm, timbre, and vocal tone create a physiological response which overrides the mental and ego defenses and gets underneath our skin. The instinctual, visceral, emotional energy of the Blues is the shadow of Western classical music idioms and provides a means for reckoning with both our collective and personal shadow.9

Paradoxically the Blues helps us to both accept and transcend painful emotions since Blues lyrics are often laced with humor, wisdom, signification and elements of the trickster archetype. Winborn provides an excellent analysis of how the Blues-man performer can play a shamanic role as a catalyst for transformation in the listener, encouraging us to accept the reality of human misery and hear the Blues as a “joyful participation in the sorrows of the world.”10

Deep Blues is well crafted with research in the areas of music history, aesthetics, philosophy, and depth psychology. Got the blues? Deep Blues infuses the midnight hour with meaning and provides the reader with a homeopathic remedy for what ails the soul.
notes

1 American “blues” singer, songwriter, pianist, see http://www.elijahwald.com/carrtimes.html

2 Neumann states, “The archetype always refers to a unitary reality embracing world and psyche.” See The Journal of Analytic Psychology, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 1959, p.126.

3 Burton, Robert and Gass, William H., New York: NYBR, 2001.

4 Ibid. p.117.

5 For more on Duke Ellington see http://ellingtonweb.ca/ and Duke Ellington

6 p. 66.

7 Neumann states, “The archetype always refers to a unitary reality embracing world and psyche.” See The Journal of Analytic Psychology, Vol. 4, Issue 2, 1959, p.126.

8 p.7

9 p. 11. Shadow- “Hidden or unconscious aspects of oneself, both good and bad, which the ego has repressed or never recognized.” (Sharp, Jung Lexicon)

10 p.21.

Reviewer Bio

Laura Sentineri Harness, MA, MT-BC has a Masters degree in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Music Therapy from Arizona State University. She has worked as a Board Certified Music Therapist for over 25 years, using music and expressive arts therapies in a variety of clinical settings. She is currently a Jungian oriented therapist in private practice and is the director of Sedona Music Therapy Services, a state funded agency which provides Music Therapy services to the developmentally disabled throughout northern Arizona. Laura plays the guitar, piano, harp and harmonium and writes songs and poems, many of them inspired by her dreams and inner work. She lives in Sedona, Arizona where she and her husband are co-directors of Temenos Healing Arts Center and they lead personalized, mythic retreats in the majestic beauty of Sedona’s red rock cathedrals.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including
Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,
and a growing list of alternative titles.
www.fisherkingpress.com

The Cycle of Life Book Club

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 00:01:00 PST

Erel Shalit will be tending the free Depth Psychology Alliance online book club which will be featuring The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey in the month of February 2012.

Each month, the group is "tended" by a different author who takes charge of the group on the first day of the designated month to introduce the book, assign selected readings, and pose study questions, so Erel will be on call to monitor progress, field questions online, point out themes, comment on select passages, draw out correlations with current events, and he will be available for questions, comments and discussions.

Dr. Shalit will soon be featured in an audio interview for Depth Insights Radio.

Here's a link to the February Cycle of Life Book Club

Here’s a link for an overview and the entire line-up of Depth Psychology Authors for 2012,

There will be a drawing for a free copy of Erel's book Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path and one of The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel, among the attendees during the month of February.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction,

Poetry, and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

Fisher King Review Free Newsletter

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 20:55:00 PST

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Gathering the Light - Digitally

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:57:00 PST

Another Fisher King Press Jungian Classic

Gathering the Light now available as a

PDF eBook and can be download to any

country in the world!

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction,

Poetry, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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Scientific Study, Self-help Books, and Political Action will not do the Trick!

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:27:00 PST

Publication Date Jan 27, 2012
Jung and Ecopsychology

"Scientific study, cognitive behavioral techniques, self-help books, and political action will not do the trick. We will not achieve the fundamental level of change and understanding that is called for unless the archetypal, transcendent, sacred and mythical dimension of the psyche is engaged. The sense of the sacred Carl Sagan saw as necessary to save the environment will not be developed. Our educational systems will not be able to teach from a deep, holistic, integrated perspective unless they embrace an ecopsychological framework. Without a mythic perspective, hubris and inflation with “our” powers and the religion of science will make John’s revelatory visions a reality."
--Dairy Farmers Guide to the Universe Vol. 1

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

Why the Guilt Cure?

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 12:53:00 PST

As work on our first book Guilt with a Twist unfolded, we began to notice that the importance of guilt extended far beyond its moral purposes and functions. We began to see that guilt’s place in the maintenance of the moral and legal order was far less important than guilt’s role in psychic self-regulation and in the creation and maintenance of human consciousness. Near the end of Guilt With A Twist we realized we had hit upon some ground breaking ideas that advanced a new theory of guilt. We touched on these broader and more important ideas of guilt but didn’t explore them in any depth. Because of the limited treatment, they ran the risk of being lost or overlooked in the swarm of other themes and materials. The fear of losing these ideas among less important material prompted us to write The Guilt Cure.

In Guilt with a Twist, we focused on the necessity to incur guilt in order to live life fully. We explored in depth the ways guilt, in its conventional role of maintaining the legal and moral order, could interfere with psychological development. In The Guilt Cure, we focus on the necessity to incur guilt if we are to live at all.

In our more than 25 years of practice, we have accumulated an enormous amount of material that is relevant to dealing with guilt in a clinical setting. Because of guilt’s paradoxical and contradictory nature, the clinical material did not fit as well in Guilt With A Twist as it does The Guilt Cure. Guilt has a profound effect on our mental health and wellbeing and we were glad that this very important and interesting material lent itself to integration with the other contents of The Guilt Cure.

Download a Free Sample of The Guilt Cure

Nancy Carter Pennington received her MSW from The University of Maryland. For more than 30 years, Nancy has had the privilege of working with clients on a range of issues: phobias, OCD, grief, depression, obsessive thinking, guilt, and relationships. Lawrence H. Staples is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, DC. Dr. Staples has an MBA from Harvard, and a Ph.D. in psychology; his special areas of interest are the problems of midlife, guilt, and creativity. He is the author of Guilt with a Twist: The Promethean Way and The Creative Soul: Art and the Quest for Wholeness.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

International eBookstore - Kindle, Apple, Nook, and more

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 11:15:00 PST

KINDLE - MOBI - NOOK - IPAD - IPHONE - SONY - KOBO - MAC OS and WINDOWS PC COMPUTERS . . .

Fisher King titles are available in a variety of eBook formats for $9.99 each, including Kindle/Mobi - ePub - PDF and are compatible for reading in any country of the world when purchased directly from the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore

Order paperback or eBooks directly from respective title pages on the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore.
FKP eBook editions are available in the following file formats:

KINDLE MOBI - compatible with Amazon Kindle and Mobi eReaders, and can also be read on your Windows PC or Mac OS computer by downloading the Free Kindle Reading Apps.

EPUB - compatible with variety of tablets and eReaders, including Apple iPad, iPhone, Nook, Sony, Kobo. . . can also be read on your Windows PC or Mac OS computer.

PDF - best for larger tablets and your Windows PC or Mac OS computer. Original Pages and Indexing is preserved.

FKP ebooks are also available from a variety of eBook retailers, including:

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

The Definitive Journey

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 19:00:00 PST

From Enemy, Cripple, Beggar

The hero who searches for new paths in his heart and soul often lets hints and hunches guide him forward. Yet, he also needs to be equipped with courage to search beyond the boundaries of common ground and with humbleness towards the unknown that lies ahead of him. He must also carry a bagful of questions and concerns, curiosity and conflict, doubt and fear; “Every man hath the right to doubt his task, and to forsake it from time to time; but what he must not do is forget it.” Paulo Coelho, The Fifth Mountain, p. 53.

Erel Shalit titles are on Sale now at the Fisher King Press online bookstore.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

Healing Today

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:56:00 PST

by Steven A. Galipeau

Modern medicine comes down to us from Galen and Hippocrates, Greek physicians who were part of the ancient cult of Asklepios, the god of healing. According to myth, Asklepios, the son of Apollo, learned the healing arts from the centaur Chiron. He learned easily and became more skilled than his mentor, even succeeding in raising the dead. But this stirred the wrath of Hades, who complained to Zeus about the encroachment on his domain. Zeus responded by killing Asklepios. But after death Asklepios was given a place among the gods, from which, it was said, he affected even greater cures than before.

From Greece, the worship of Asklepios spread throughout the ancient world. More than four hundred temples were built from Egypt to Rome, with the most famous at Epidauros. The temples existed for one thousand years. Their disappearance coincided with the development of the healing shrines of the various saints—the most recent example being that at Lourdes.

Clearly, then, modern medical science has religious roots. Today’s surgery and pharmacology dominate a healing discipline that evolved from direct experience—usually through dreams—of the god of healing. Along with other aspects of ancient religions, the sacred practices of Asklepios were incorporated into Christianity. People began making pilgrimages to the gravesites of saints and martyrs associated with healing. As with Asklepios, the reports of healing became significantly more dramatic after the saints’ death—when, presumably, they became channels of God’s healing power.

Coincidentally, Christ’s death and resurrection bear parallels to the story of Asklepios. Jesus also raised the dead, and in John’s gospel he meets his own death after the raising of Lazarus. Afterward he ascends to heaven, taking his place with God. Then he emerges to dispense divine grace and healing.

In the absence of a gravesite for Christ, the graves of certain saints became the precincts where one could seek healing from God. As such sites proliferated and Christianity came to dominate the Mediterranean world, the temples of Asklepios yielded their place. Medieval physicians continued the medical science begun by Galen and Hippocrates and originally inspired by the Greek god of healing.

During the renaissance and the age of enlightenment, the scientific side of medicine began to grow, while the spiritual side declined. Healing was seen more and more in concrete, biological terms: illness was physiologically caused and could be remedied through medicine or surgery. By the end of the nineteenth century this became the exclusive view.

Early in the twentieth century, significant challenges to this approach began to emerge. As physicians studied certain cases more closely, they realized that some physical symptoms had emotional and psychological causes. Such cases gave impetus to Freud, Jung, and other early depth psychologists. A purely biological view of illness, they saw, was not enough—psychological and spiritual factors were also significant. With depth psychology and psychosomatic medicine, medical practice has been returning to its origins in the cult of Asklepios.(1)

According to Greek myth, Asklepios had two sons, Machaon and Podaleirios. Machaon was the first surgeon, while Podaleirios healed “invisible” ills, including those of the soul.(2) The work of Machaon has developed into today’s medical practice. That of Podaleirios was absorbed into the healing cults of the saints and has gradually died out. It has so thoroughly disappeared from our religious institutions that the quest for meaning and the religious nature of the psyche frequently turn up in the psychotherapist’s office. The loss from our churches of what Podaleirios represented is felt both inside and outside organized religion.

Depth psychology allows the forgotten side of the Greek god of healing to be recovered. Inner experiences crucial to healing become available once more. However, it offers more than a recovery of the healing of Asklepios; it opens the door for a recovery of the healing work of Jesus. Like the cult of Asklepios, Jesus’s healing reflects the profound importance of spiritual and psychological elements. But while Asklepios, and the Christian cults that followed him, focused on the divine physician or god of healing, Jesus also stressed human interaction and human feeling. He carried on aspects of the ancient traditions of the shamans, human beings with healing personalities.(3) While linked to shamanism, Jesus also prefigures depth psychology. In a sense he was the first depth psychologist, preceding Freud and Jung by nineteen hundred years.

As we have seen, the healing that Jesus practiced and tried to pass on became lost as his divinity was proclaimed. Legends grew up around him after his death—the healing cult of the proclaimed divinity—but the fully human healer disappeared. Depth psychology allows us to renew not only the ancient religious roots of the physician, but also the shamanistic style of healing—in which the psyche lives fully in the interaction between two people.

The future of the church hinges on its capacity to integrate such healing into its life. The growing numbers who journey to the psychotherapist’s office nowadays demonstrate the desire and need for this. The church’s recovery of healing in the decades ahead will go a long way in determining whether it answers Jesus’s call, or whether the task will be left to others.

You've just read an article from Steven A. Galipeau's Transforming Body and Soul: Therapeutic Wisdom in the Gospel Healing Stories

Steven Galipeau is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Calabasas, California and President and Executive Director of Coldwater Counseling Center in Studio City. A member of the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, he teaches in the analyst training program and lectures regularly in public programs on a wide variety of topics related to Jungian psychology. In addition to Transforming Body & Soul, Steve is also the author of The Journey of Luke Skywalker: An Analysis of Modern Myth and Symbol.

1. C.A. Meier, Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy.
2. C. Kerenyi, Asklepios: Archetypal Image of the Physician’s Existence.
3. John A. Sanford, Healing and Wholeness. Chapter 3, “The Divine Physician,” and Chapter 4, “The Ecstatic Healer,” amplify some of the differences between the inner divine healer and the shamanistic healer.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including

Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, Poetry,

and a growing list of alternative titles.

www.fisherkingpress.com

Transcendent Traditions: A New Myth

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 21:20:00 PST

by Deldon Anne McNeely

The day will come when, after harnessing space, the winds, the tides and gravitation, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And on that day, for the second time in the history of the world, we shall have discovered fire.

–Teilhard de Chardin, quoted in Michael Reagan's The Hand of God

There are many schools of psychological and/or spiritual development. One essential feature that distinguishes Jung’s way of individuation from other ways is “shadow work.” Let us look at what that entails.

Jung belongs to a large number of visionaries who realized that humanity in the modern world needed psychological and spiritual renewal. Not that Jung claimed to start a spiritual group movement. He tried to show a way for individuals to step back from a darkly materialistic age and find solace in their own gifts from the unconscious. But he also realized that the fear that seizes us when faced with the unknown keeps us from wanting to know the unconscious and irrational factors in ourselves, even our spiritual dimensions.

When I was a child I heard that Jesus and Mary sometimes appeared to people in visions, as happened to Bernadette of Lourdes. The thought of being visited by a divine being terrified me so, that I prayed to Jesus and Mary to please not choose to come to me. I suppose I knew intuitively that my ego could not withstand such an infusion of psychic energy. Many people experience a similar terror in the presence of a psychotic person, or the first time they attend a religious ceremony at which some people give in to spiritual ecstasy and lose consciousness. It is hard to give up ego-control.

Jung’s special contribution to the effort to renew spiritual life was his insight into the unconscious complexes that interfere with our most sincere plans and intentions. The most devout and altruistic of us are not exempt from being undermined and deceived from within. Jung was insistent that our first responsibility was to clear up any one-sided fixations of our own unexamined evils onto others of different beliefs, traditions, ethnicities, and personality types. In Jungian terms we call this working on becoming aware of our “Shadow.”

Many spiritual movements ignore the importance of this psychological fact and end in power struggles, divisive squabbles over details, and split-loyalties between members. This is why Jungians place so much importance on clearly individual psychological work while searching for spiritual nourishment. Unless we deal with our inner conflicts, we thrust them into any group efforts we attempt. They color and pollute our religious institutions.

It is possible for a person to acquire a dominant spiritual life and still remain emotionally infantile, unable to negotiate psychological pitfalls. Jung’s efforts were to help us secure a solid relationship with physical and social reality as well as spiritual reality. Power-hungry gurus, abusive priests, charlatan preachers, extravagant church funds, censors of books and information-sources by which institutions protect their authority are ways people’s personal complexes poison their spirituality.

Edward Edinger wrote that Jung’s work, which Edinger calls a “new myth,” has the capacity to unite all the religions of the world. It is not one more religious myth in competition with all the others; rather, it elucidates every other religion:

The new myth can be understood and lived within one of the great religious communities such as Catholic Christianity, Protestant Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, etc., or in some new community yet to be created, or by individuals without specific community connections…. For the first time in history we now have an understanding of man so comprehensive and fundamental that it can be the basis for a unification of the world — first religiously and culturally and, in time, politically. When enough individuals are carriers of the “consciousness of wholeness,” the world itself will become whole. (Edinger, The Creation of Consciousness, p. 32.)

Shadow work is the leveler of all factions. Marvin Spiegelman, an analyst who has written autobiographical accounts of his relationship to Jung and religion, had a dream as a youth which pertains to this possibility of unity as expressed by Edinger as well as by others, such as the philosopher, Teilhard de Chardin. The dream was that three wise men, a Jewish rabbi, a Catholic priest, and a Buddhist priest, were coming to visit a new divine child. The dream led him to believe that some new way of approaching the God-image is emerging in the psyche. He might have taken it to mean that this was happening in him as a single, personal experience, but he later learned that Jung was having the same idea. Here is what Spiegelman says about his dream:

This newer experience of the divine is to be found in a reconciliation among the religions of the world and their ability to worship and connect with a new content. I think that this content, which independently emerged both in Jung and others, is a kind of psycho-religious attitude, if one can use such a word. The qualities of this attitude are: the divine transcends us all; there are many paths to it, all of which have truth or are part of a whole; all paths are worthy, none better than others; none need be transcended; all religions find their origin in the nature of the soul itself and how the divine manifests therein. This is surely a Hindu view, a Buddhist view, a Jewish view, a Christian view, but only for some sects or branches of each one…. There seems to be more expectation or desire that the new divine child, “savior,” is to appear outside ourselves rather than inside. Thus there is the awaited Messiah, Second Coming, the fulfillment of prophecy, and in a more modern vein, the sense that our earth will encounter consciousness from other planets or stars. They are probably right, but it is Jung’s—and Buddhism’s—gift to us to look for that emergence from within our own souls. So we all will have a lot to do with ourselves until that outer Buddha, Christ, Messiah, appears. God willing, it will be synchronistic. It is noted in Jewish lore, that when every Jew observes Shabbat, the Messiah will appear. To extrapolate, when all of us are in tune with the Divine Presence, HE / SHE / IT will manifest among us all. (Spiegelman and Miyuki, Buddhism and Jungian Psychology, pp. 188-189.)

This optimistic picture seems far from possible in this age of religious strife, holy wars, and philosophical attacks on a principle of unity. But throughout history there have been men like Jung, Edinger, and Spiegelman who stand for the power of the uniting principle to transform what often appears doomed: life in the universe, and at least, the life of the soul.

Jung was not in the business of starting a new religion. Born into a Christian worldview, he was inquiring into why religion, particularly Christianity, his tradition, was not meaningful to many who called themselves Christian in name only. Their connection to their religion seemed dead, but they carried on as if they still believed what they were doing. In his research into the problem, he discovered that the religious component of psyche is deep and universal. Beneath layers of conscious material is a center, like a fountain of psychic energy, which enlivens the mind and heart and asks to be honored. It makes itself known to us through symbols which attract us and touch us emotionally. He called it the Self and realized that our notions of God spring from that center of energy.

When we are in touch with that center, we understand the religious experience. It comes alive with awe, but it may or may not resonate to the usual religious symbols; it gives us a personal relationship with a divinity or divinities that may or may not include our known institutional symbols, pictures, stories or formal rituals to which we are accustomed. The new myth has appeal to atheists and all who experience a need for integrity without a specific god-image.

For Jung the way that we express religious wonder was not the point. The point is to experience the deepest layers of the unconscious, or Self, where our divinity makes itself known. This is dangerous, however, because we can transfer the energy from the source to our own aggrandizement. Without humility, humankind can become so selfish that we can destroy our civilization and planet. Atheism is not in itself destructive. Many atheists are humanists who put the dignity of man above their own needs and achieve a lifestyle that is respectful and compassionate. But without the leaven of humility and gratitude toward something beyond the personal, Jung feared we would become victims of power hunger, with the power that belonged to the Self transferred to our egos. This raises the issue of the basic goodness of human beings. Was Jung right? Do we need a deep relationship to the transcendent layer of psyche to evolve morally, or can we do it from a purely human perspective and from the layer of conscious ego?

Philosopher Simone Weil thought that without a concept of the supernatural, human relationships would be dominated by the powerful, not by mutual consent. What is natural is for humans to assert themselves whenever possible, and if our conception of God is of a commanding being who favors one side over another and uses his power to cause events, then any atrocity can be committed in the name of such a god. Weil calls such religions false. A true religion is one which holds supernatural values and inspires one to practice supernatural degrees of justice, friendship, and so on. For example, one treats as equals those who are below him in strength and status and does not take advantage to accumulate power. (Morgan, Weaving the World: Simone Weil on Science, Mathematics, and Love.)

Spiritual leaders as well as atheists risk assuming the power of the Self for their own aggrandizement. The power exuded by a charismatic leader attracts followers who need the charge, so the inflation of the leader continues to be fed. Jung’s injunction to continually look at our shadow prevents inflation and encourages humility.

Jung suggested that the way humankind can honor the religious instinct without being pulled apart and destroyed by it is to maintain a dialogue with that inner source from which all religions spring:

This is a thought that goes beyond the Christian world of ideas and involves a mystery consummated in and through man. It is as though the drama of Christ’s life were, from now on, located in man as its living carrier. As a result of this shift, the events formulated in dogma are brought within range of psychological experience and become recognizable in the process of individuation. (“Mysterium Coniunctionis,” CW 14, par. 650.)

How do we carry this particularly Christian drama in a way that feels alive? Christian mystics live out Jung’s thought that the birth of God in the human soul is a constantly repeated event, an ongoing act of creation. Jungian psychoanalyst John Dourley says:

The soul which is in some sense the creature of God is needed by God to mediate God’s energies to consciousness… God’s birth in the soul… Mary’s virgin birth is a symbol for processes of psychological and spiritual maturation which are universal and true of both genders… God seeks to be born again and again in the soul. (Dourley, A Strategy for a Loss of Faith, p. 125.)

Such an attitude does not apply only to Christians. As Edinger explains: “We are in a position to begin to understand scientifically, and generally, the psychological entities that generate religions.” (Edinger, Science of the Soul, p. 58.) Because we are on such an edge of self-destruction, Jung called this time in human development “a moment of deadliest peril.” (“The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious,” CW 9i, par. 217.) Jung’s hope was that enough people would encounter the Greater Personality to effectively inoculate the culture against inflation as atheism and inflation as religious fanaticism.

“The universe begins to look more like a great thought than a great machine,” said Sir James Jeans. (Jeans, quoted in Wilbur, Quantum Questions, p. 133.)

You have just read an article from Deldon Anne McNeely's Becoming: An Introduction to Jung's Concept of Individuation

Deldon Anne McNeely received her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Louisiana State University and is a member of the International Association for Analytical Psychology. A senior analyst of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, she is a training analyst for their New Orleans Jungian Seminar. Publications include Touching: Body Therapy and Depth Psychology; Animus Aeternus: Exploring the Inner Masculine; and Mercury Rising: Women, Evil, and the Trickster Gods.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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Myth and Reality in Israel

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:17:00 PST

Just Published by Fisher King Press

The Hero and His Shadow:
Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel
Revised Edition - ISBN 9781926715698
By Erel Shalit

In an era in which all seemed to dwell in the self-imposed solitary confinement of virtual reality, life in vitro behind the screen, the young take to the streets and gather in the squares. Attempting to break the bonds of oppressive regimes and cold-hearted mammonism, they have raised their voice across the globe, demanding freedom, solidarity, and justice. Will these voices persevere to withstand the strong, silencing forces of darkness, of ruthlessness and oppression? Will the Voice of Wisdom be listened to, so that we may “dwell safely, without fear of evil.” (Prov. 1:33)

The Hero and His Shadow: Psychopolitical Aspects of Myth and Reality in Israel introduces a psychological perspective on the history, development, and myths of modern Israel.

The realization of Zionism relied on the pioneer, who revolted against the Way of the Father and sought spiritual redemption through the revival of Mother Earth in the ancient land. Myth and history, psyche and matter are constantly intertwined in the birth and development of Israel, for example when in the Declaration of Independence we are told that pioneers make deserts bloom, the text actually says they make spirits blossom.

Pioneer, guardsman and then warrior were admired hero-ideals. However, in the shadow of the hero and the guiding myths of revolt, redemption, strength and identity-change, are feelings of despair, doubt, weakness and fear. Within renewal, lurks the threat of annihilation.

Suppressed aspects of past and present myths, which linger in the shadow, are exposed. Psychological consequences of Israel’s wars, from independence to the present war of terror, are explored on a personal note and from a psychoanalytic perspective. Shadow aspects of the conflicting guiding myths Peace and Greater Israel are examined, as well as mythical connections, such as between Jerusalem and the respective archetypal images of Wholeness and Satan.

Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra’anana, Israel. He is the author of several publications, including Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path, The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey, The Complex: Path of Transformation from Archetype to Ego, and Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return. Dr. Shalit lectures at professional institutes, universities, and cultural forums in Israel, Europe, and the United States.

Product Details
Paperback: 208 pages
Publisher: Fisher King Press; Revised edition (January 1, 2012)
Language: English
ISBN: 978-1926715698

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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Annunciation and Mythos

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 07:41:00 PST

by Mariann Burke

In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man named Joseph, of the House of David; and the virgin’s name was Mary. He went in and said to her, “Rejoice, so highly favored! The Lord is with you.” She was deeply disturbed by these words and asked herself what this greeting could mean, but the angel said to her, “Mary, do not be afraid; you have won God’s favor. Listen! You are to conceive and bear a son, and you must name him Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.” (Luke:1:26-38)

I had read this passage many times but it was soon to take on richer meaning.

Since we know nothing of Jesus’ conception and birth, legend and myth “fill in.” The word ‘myth’ comes from the ancient Greek word ‘mythos’ meaning ‘word.’ Both ‘logos’ and ‘mythos’ mean ‘word.’ While ‘logos’ refers to rational thinking, ‘mythos’ describes poetic or intuitive thinking. “Biblical accounts of Jesus’ birth and resurrection are ‘mythos.’ Biblical historical facts of his life are ‘logos.’ Both are true.”(1) Myths or mythos express truth closer to life’s meaning than facts. Myths resonate in the soul. For example, stories about the quest for the Grail resonate with all “searchers.” We long to experience the Holy, the numinous. The Annunciation, the birth in the stable, the shepherds’ adoration, and the journey to Egypt, all of these give valuable insights into our personal spiritual journey. And the artists who have painted these scenes have provided us with “windows” into depths unknown perhaps even to them.

Some of these “windows” would eventually open for me into other images of Mary, as Virgin Mother, Black Madonna, and Wisdom Sophia. But, at that moment down in my basement study, I was captivated only by the Annunciation. I longed to see other artists’ versions of the scene. In Milan, Arezzo or Florence, I sat in churches just looking at sculptures and frescoes. In museums, I marveled at the number of artists who had painted the scene with such depth, delicacy and power. Now these images of Mary, masterpieces from another age, stirred something vital within me. Writing these pages helped awaken me to their personal and symbolic meaning.

Over many years of paying attention to images from my unconscious in dreams and in artistic works, I was beginning to “see” a connection between the image and myself. I had known that through the history of Christianity there have been two ways of interpreting images or symbols: the historical and the poetic or imaginative. I had been exposed to the historical or literal. Now I began to realize that the two are not mutually exclusive. Early Christians honored both approaches but the historical and literal gradually took precedence. In this view the Annunciation is something that happened in the past. In the poetic or mythic approach, we are not so much viewing an image as experiencing it. My personal experience and my study of Jung would open me to see the Annunciation not as history, but as something happening now.(2) Taken in this way, the image reflects something within me. Like a dream, the image is happening within.

Certainly this is not new, for mystics of every religious tradition are “seers.” And the early Christian Gnostics valued the inner knowledge of God, but they were regarded as heretics. The thirteenth century Dominican Meister Eckhart suffered a similar fate for expressing his beliefs that God and the soul are somehow united. One of Eckhart’s favorite sayings found in his sermons is that the Divine Birth is always happening. If it does not happen within our soul, of what value is it? This insight we find echoed in the writings of Angelus Silesius, a seventeenth century mystic, speaking of the Annunciation:

If by God’s Holy Ghost thou art beguiled,
There will be born in thee the Eternal Child.
If it’s like Mary, virginal and pure
Then God will impregnate your soul for sure.
God make me pregnant, and his Spirit shadow me,
That God may rise up in my soul and shatter me.
What good does Gabriel’s ‘Ave, Mary’ do
Unless he give me that same greeting too?(3)

1. Seminar notes by Dr. Richard Naegle, Guild for Psychological Studies, San Francisco, 1995. In St. John’s Gospel “Logos” refers to the eternal existence of the Word. See also Karen Armstrong, A Short History of Myth, p. 31.
2. Joseph Campbell, The Mythic Image, p. 58.
3. C.G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW, Vol. 14, p. 319.

You're just read an excerpt from Mariann Burke's:
Re-Imagining Mary: A Journey Through
Art to the Feminine Self

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Marked By Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:45:00 PST

Marked By Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way
The Fisher King Review, Volume 1 - Inaugural Edition
Edited by Patricia Damery and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky

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

Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way is a soulful collection of essays that illuminate the inner life.

When Soul appeared to C.G. Jung and demanded he change his life, he opened himself to the powerful forces of the unconscious. He recorded his inner journey, his conversations with figures that appeared to him in vision and in dream in The Red Book. Although it would be years before The Red Book was published, much of what we now know as Jungian psychology began in those pages, when Jung allowed the irrational to assault him. That was a century ago.

How do those of us who dedicate ourselves to Jung’s psychology as analysts, teachers, writers respond to Soul’s demands in our own lives? If we believe, with Jung, in “the reality of the psyche,” how does that shape us? The articles in Marked By Fire portray direct experiences of the unconscious; they tell life stories about the fiery process of becoming ourselves.

Contributors to this edition of the Fisher King Review include: Jerome Bernstein, Claire Douglas, Gilda Frantz, Jacqueline Gerson, Jean Kirsch, Chie Lee, Karlyn Ward, Henry Abramovitch, Sharon Heath, Dennis Patrick Slattery, Robert Romanyshyn, Patricia Damery, and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky.

Product Details
Paperback & eBook editions: 150 pages (estimate)
Trim Size 9.25" x 7.5"
Publisher: Fisher King Press; 1st edition (April 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1-926715-68-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-926715-68-1

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A Cyclic Perspective

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 23:59:00 PST

In his “Commentary on The Secret of the Golden Flower,” Jung writes, “Everything of which we are conscious is an image, and that image is psyche.” He then continues, “the psyche is a world in which the ego is contained.”

This statement reflects Jung’s cyclic perspective, as well as the centrality of the image in Analytical Psychology. It is not an ego-psychology; the world of the psyche does not reside in the ego; rather, what we call ego is contained in a world we call psyche. The Jungian approach to man’s psyche is situated at the edge between consciousness and the unconscious—never fully established on the empirical ground of ego-reality, its natural habitat is on mountainous myths, or wandering off into fairy tale forests.

For the same reason, Jungian psychoanalysis has many names, reflecting Hermetic movement rather than Apollonian authority, and the elusive images of the soul take the place of the well-defined mechanisms of the mind.

The hero serves as an image of that aspect of our ego that ventures into the unknown land of shadows, for instance in our dreams at night, to trace its treasures and bring them home to consciousness.

The images of enemy, cripple, and beggar, convey three essential layers of the shadow–the image that Jung chose to describe the unconscious, repressed or unrecognized aspects of the personality, or, as he distinctly defined the shadow, “the thing a person has no wish to be.”

These images are primarily intended to reflect the matter and fluidity of soul, rather than providing empirical structures and systematic definitions; I hope they facilitate weaving the story of the hero’s journey into the soul and the shadow.

As we follow in the footsteps of the hero on his (or her) path or way, we shall meet the shadows that the hero (whether in masculine or feminine dress) necessarily encounters.(1)

Were the hero to believe he already knows all there is to know, and if he would insist on standing on the firm ground of principles and conventions, he would seldom bother to respond to the call to adventure.(2) Our hero would remain at home, seated like Archie Bunker in the confined and drowsy embrace of the armchair-ego. He would stay away from the unknown, unaware of moonlit nights, and intolerant of the shadow-carrying Other. “The usual person is more than content, he is even proud, to remain within the indicated bounds…,” says Campbell.(3) “The hero,” says Jung beautifully, “is the symbolical exponent of the movement of libido.”(4)

The hero who searches for new paths in his heart and soul often lets hints and hunches guide him forward. Yet, he also needs to be equipped with courage to search beyond the boundaries of common ground and with humbleness towards the unknown that lies ahead of him. He must also carry a bagful of questions and concerns, curiosity and conflict, doubt and fear; “Every man hath the right to doubt his task, and to forsake it from time to time; but what he must not do is forget it.”(5)

The hero ventures into the shadow-land, far away from home, beyond the familiar security of ego-boundaries. Or perhaps the shadow is not a land, but an entire continent, with many different landscapes—fields and valleys, seas and forests, some quite recognizable, others remote and mysterious, some seemingly friendly and embracing, others hostile and intimidating. The forests may become increasingly dense and dark, the sea so wild and stormy that it carries one away, “far from native lands,” to the point where one may contemplate “whether to cast myself out of the ship into the sea and perish there, or ... to endure and bide among the living.”(6) Some of those in shadow-land are easily recognized as foes we loathe. Yet, often envy, pride, greed, anger, and lust are found in friends whom we’d never believe could possess such qualities—or even more, we discover these universal patterns, those “deadly sins” within ourselves. There are also warriors and cripples, the homeless and vagabonds, and some of awe-inspiring stature.

The land of shadows holds both the chains and the treasure-house of our ancestors, as well as the prospects and the promises, the fears, anxieties and uncertainty about our offspring. It pertains to the shadows we cast onto our enemy so that we may fight him—yes, usually him—in order to gain a sense of a free and secure personal identity. And it is the crippling sense of complexes that we may try to dump on the dunghill, outside and away from the central city square and the walls of our ‘ego-state,’ only to be terrified as they stare back at us when we try to gain a moment’s rest. And there, further down the murky path, stands the beggar as if faceless, without the social mask of the persona, lurking in the misty shadow at the gateway to the Self.

This articles is from the introduction Enemy, Cripple, Beggar by Erel Shalit

In addition to Erel Shalit's most recent publication: The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey, his popular book Enemy, Cripple, Beggar: Shadows in the Hero’s Path, are available in both printed and eBook editions and can be ordered from the Fisher King Press Online Bookstore and from a host of international booksellers, including Amazon (.com, .ca, co.uk, .fr, .de) in printed and kindle editions), Barnes & Noble (printed and nook editions), and all international Apple iBookstores.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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Treating Guilt - Click Here!

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sun, 20 Nov 2011 20:04:00 PST

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Thomas Moore on Gathering the Light

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 16:37:00 PST

Gathering the Light A Jungian View of Meditation

by V. Walter Odajnyk

The following is Thomas Moore's Foreword to Gathering the Light:

In its basic forms meditation is simply something that human beings do. We stop before a beautiful sunset and take it in as a deep aesthetic experience. We hear bad news and stop and think through all its implications and feel its impact on our emotions. We walk in a forest and can’t help but get quiet to be part of the natural world around us. We think through our problems and wonder about our future and consider the past.

Spiritual traditions offer ways to make these simple, primal ways of meditating more formal and more effective. More sophisticated ways of meditating take us deep and have an even greater impact on our emotions, worldview and sense of self. They calm us not just by quieting the body and the mind, but by cleansing the impurities of our psychological and spiritual condition, a point made by that well-known champion of meditation and the dark night of the soul, John of the Cross.

If you have read C. G. Jung’s memoir Memories, Dreams, Reflections, you will have eavesdropped on a remarkable man who, perhaps more than any other 20th century person, used many methods, internal and external, to explore his soul. Many readers are surprised to find what they thought was an autobiography to be slight on facts and heavy with internal images and experiences. Jung explored and mapped and named the inhabitants of the inner world with a ferocity of imagination rarely seen. All the while, he connected his discoveries and inventions to the discipline of psychology and to the religious, occult and spiritual traditions of the world.

So it makes sense to relate our efforts to meditate with Jung’s writings, especially with his notions of Self, his alchemical studies and his special method of active imagination. Having not worked this idea through for myself, after studying Jung intensely for many years, I was surprised and happy to see it done so enthusiastically and intelligently in this remarkable book by Walter Odajnyk.

When contemporary psychology confronts meditation, it often moves in a reductive direction, like telling us that certain parts of the brain are lighting up when a person enters deep focus. But Jung was not your typical psychologist. He had a vast and detailed interest in religious and spiritual issues and for the most part didn’t reduce the spiritual to the psychological. Or, if he did come close to it on occasion, generally he tried to elevate psychology through an enthusiastic appreciation of religion and opened up the meaning of religious rites and imagery with his own rich brand of psychologizing. As a former member of a Catholic religious order, I found his writings on the Mass and on the Virgin Mary enlightening and enriching.

This book also makes interesting comparisons between psychotherapy and transcendent forms of meditation. There is much to learn here about the two processes, one sorting out the psyche and the other reaching into transpersonal realms. In my own favored language, I would say that there is a spiritual form of meditating that takes us beyond ourselves and a soul meditating that remains close to life and personality, using art, images, ritual and nature as aids to contemplation.

Jung tells a fascinating story of his discovery of alchemy and its usefulness to his own life and to his work. In the first relevant dream he found himself in a wing of his house he didn’t know existed. It contained a library of esoteric books. Then he found himself locked up in the 17th century, the time when European alchemy flourished. I find it an exciting and fruitful idea to use alchemy as the basis for a special kind of meditation, and you have the fundamentals in this book.

Alchemy provides us with particular images for the materials, processes, and phases of soul work. Jung began with the Secret of the Golden Flower, and so it’s appropriate that it is the focus of this book. Today especially, a time of thorough materialism in science and psychology, we have to extract the soul from the many literal and purely physical ideas we have about human life. You might say that a primary purpose of meditation is to recover our souls from being lost and stuck and covered over with ideas that are too thick for the subtleties of soul work.

Most people who know a little about Jung are familiar with the notion of the psychological complex and the archetype. These are essential elements in a Jungian therapy that helps a person get freed from the dominance of a particular complex or archetype. Professor Odajnyk makes the important point that meditation is an effective way to contact the complexes and to reach the archetypal level of experience. I can imagine it having a useful role in the therapeutic analysis of the psyche. I might even go so far as to say that at times therapy itself is a kind of meditation. Dream work, for instance, takes you deep into reflection on images that are full of interest and relevance because they shed so much light on the underworld of our daily experience.

I welcome the re-appearance of this book because generally people focus on the technical aspects of meditating and not so much on the processes and fantasies of the psyche that are involved. I wouldn’t recommend a purely Jungian style of meditating, but Jungian ideas can enrich the experience and importantly bring the deep psyche into the picture. Sometimes people become so focused on their spiritual progress that they neglect the deep soul.
As you read this subtle, carefully thought-out book, you might draw simple lessons for yourself that you can apply to your meditations. You might expand your very notion of what meditation is and how to go about it. In a more general sense, you might begin to reconcile soul and spirit in your life, achieving one of the primary goals of alchemy. Imagine this book lying open in a warm, shadowy and mysterious laboratory of the soul. It offers you guidance and a few recipes for becoming a deeper and more soulful person.

You have just read Thomas Moore's Foreword to V. Walter Odajnyk's
Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditation.

About the Author
V. Walter Odajnyk, Ph.D. is a Jungian analyst, and serves as a Core Faculty member and is the Research Coordinator for Pacifica Graduate Institute's Mythological Studies Program.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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Lecture Series / Book Tour - Eros and the Shattering Gaze

fisherking@fisherkingpress.com — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 15:36:00 PST

Planning is underway for a 2012 book tour for Jungian Analyst, Ken Kimmel, author of Eros and the Shattering Gaze: Transcending Narcissism.

This timely book reveals the pervasiveness of a culturally and historically embedded narcissism underlying contemporary men's erotic and romantic fantasies, that distorts their understanding of what it really means to love. The book is filled with tales of love and loss, from ancient myth, medieval legend, Western classical literature, and contemporary film. Its template derives from "The Tale of Psyche and Amor", and poignant clinical vignettes and dreams from Ken's thirty years of practice bring to life the major themes of narcissism and its transcendence.

Ken has developed a number of lectures and seminars based on chapters in Eros and the Shattering Gaze, focusing on such topics as:

"The Burn-Wound of Eros - Transcending Narcissism"
"Predator Beneath the Lover"
"The Grail Wound"
"Men's 'Split-Feminine' - Mother, Lover, Virgin, Whore"
"Saturn's Wounded Eros"
"The Capacity To Love: Transcending the 'Heat-Death' of Eros

Here are what distinguished Jungian authors are saying about Eros and the Shattering Gaze:

". . . Attempting the rescue of authentic eros from its fear-driven shadow of predation is a work that will engage most of us at some point in our relational lives. We should be grateful for the insights with which this book is studded, for they can enlighten the labors of learning to love."

—John Beebe, author of Integrity in Depth

"A skillful and articulate interweave of the best of traditional views on 'relationality' and more contemporary critique. The vivid clinical vignettes bring the arguments alive and the result is a stimulating and fresh take on this ever-timely topic. . . ."

—Andrew Samuels, author of The Plural Psyche

". . . The contemplative and self-reflective reader who seeks to grasp the full measure of this rich manuscript can expect to gain substantially in both knowledge and inner maturation."

—Mario Jacoby, author of Individuation and Narcissism:

The Psychology of Self in Jung and Kohut

If your society or institute is interested in planning a program over the next two years, contact Ken at kenkimmel@comcast.net for a formal proposal and resume.

Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives, Cutting-Edge Fiction, and a growing list of alternative titles.

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