Jean
Benedict
Raffa

Matrignosis

A BLOG ABOUT INNER WISDOM

Alice, the Anima, and Anorexia

I was pondering two questions this morning as we drove to the airport after a long family weekend away: What should I write about for this post? and How should I answer a recent e-mail from an Iranian student? She’s writing a thesis about the anima and animus archetypes in two of Virginia Woolfe’s books and wonders how to approach her task. Should she just look for images represented by the writer or should she study the characters or events as a Jungian analyst would?

February 21, 2012 No Comments

Feminism's Political Momentum and the Bond Girls

Now I realize that at first glance, one might not automatically associate the Bond Girls with an advance in consciousness! After all, they were uniformly young, slender, beautiful, and sexy. (Mrs. Moneypenny and Bond’s boss, M, are not Bond Girls!) Aaaarrrggghhhh! We might as well call them Bond Barbie Dolls. But bear with me here. There were some subtle differences.

February 17, 2012 No Comments

The Idea of Love

As I write this I’ve just finished unwrapping, trimming, and arranging the three dozen red roses I received from my husband for Valentine’s Day. This set me to musing about love. As is my habit, I immediately went for the symbolism of flowers and recalled a comment my internet friend, William Horden, made in response to an early post. I had written that my goal in writing this blog is to raise psychological and spiritual consciousness and here’s what he said:

February 14, 2012 No Comments

Why Should Society Promote Self-Knowledge?

“To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves or to bring about a modified change through revolution, either of the left or of the right. It is important to understand that this is our responsibility, yours and mine…”

February 10, 2012 No Comments

Compulsive Computing: The Perils and Pleasures of Writing 600 Words

It’s noon on Monday and I have five hours to write and schedule a post before I have to stop (we’re attending a Magic basketball game this evening). My posts come out twice a week, at 12:01 a..m. every Tuesday and Friday morning. I’ve been doing this for almost two years and am kind of obsessed about staying on schedule. Last week was unusually busy so I’m under the gun today. Only five hours to come up with a topic and 600 words. Holy crap!

February 7, 2012 No Comments

Freedom to Feel

As a young married woman I was utterly captivated by the film, Blume in Love, for reasons I didn’t understand. The same thing had happened three years earlier when I read my all-time favorite book: The Magus, by John Fowles. Why did I find it so incredibly fascinating? Did it have anything in common with Blume in Love, or were these just random coincidences? I didn’t know then. Forty years later, I do.

February 3, 2012 No Comments

How Love Emerges

While the plot details weren’t the same, this romantic comedy portrayed our theme and the theme of every couple in an intimate partnership. As a shockingly innocent and ignorant product of 1950’s conditioning, I was finally getting it that marriage is not a happily-ever-after instant fix involving two separate individuals whose roles and feelings will never change, but a crucible for soul-making.

January 31, 2012 No Comments

Three Perspectives on Dream Symbols

My dragon dream took place in a house that felt just like the one my husband grew up in. I knew that house well as it was only a few miles from my own house. When Fred and I started dating in college I was invited there for many meals, and after our marriage it was the setting of numerous family gatherings and celebrations.

January 27, 2012 No Comments

Seeing With A Different Perspective

Looking for the psychological meanings of public myths and private dreams is an extremely powerful way to train your intuition and add to your store of wisdom. You may not always like what you see, but then how many of us liked Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West?

January 24, 2012 No Comments

Ruling the Inner Chamber

Dreamwork has been my most rewarding and consistent spiritual practice for 22 years. You might not think of dreams as having anything to do with spirituality but they absolutely do. Carl Jung demonstrated this with exquisite beauty in his recently published The Red Book in which he recorded some of his most meaningful waking and sleeping dreams.

January 20, 2012 No Comments

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“Where wisdom reigns, there is no conflict between thinking and feeling. ” -Carl Jung

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