12 Symptoms of Your Psyche's Immaturity
In the cosmic view of humanity’s history, our species is still in adolescence. Our collective egos are still fragile. Conventional wisdom encourages us to despise our flawed unworthiness and beg our gods to fix us instead of helping us understand and love ourselves.
The Couple Relationship Within and Without
We will never change completely and our shadow will always be with us, but we can recognize it sooner and make reparations faster. Moreover, accepting and integrating our fuller potential empowers us to break out of our prisons of conformity and blossom into our individuality. Gradually our resistance to, and fear of, others and the unknown lessens. We pretend less, react less habitually, feel less need to conceal our honest feelings or stifle our gifts.
Hillary Clinton and the Feminine Archetype: Part I
Those of us who were alive in the 50’s and 60’s—including Hillary Clinton—experienced the chaotic beginnings of this new vision. America struggled with Civil Rights demonstrations, protests against the Viet Nam War, and, with the introduction of the birth control pill, an unprecedented emancipation of women.
When Will I Be Loved?
Many of us cover them up quite well, but all of us, children and adults alike, suffer from secret wounds that make us feel unlovable. And unfortunately, the less lovable we believe we are, the less able we are to love.
How Self-Aware Are You? Epoch I: Physical Consciousness
Is it any wonder so many of us, like Peter Pan, continue to long for this lost world and struggle to stay young for as long as we can? In a child, this is a natural and charming way of being, but as we grow into adulthood it becomes increasingly dysfunctional.
Excavating A Wounded Child with a Mother Complex
Every child experiences anxiety when it becomes aware of its individuality and vulnerability, and mothers vary in their ability to assuage this, our earliest wound. Very good mothers are naturally gentle, patient, good-natured, reassuring and loving. They make their children feel confident, safe and secure.
Dream About A Mother Complex
While the imagery of this dream may be shocking to a waking ego which does not see itself as a raging killer of little old ladies, there’s a deeper metaphorical meaning. In my projection, the mean old lady represents her negative mother complex: the factors that have stood in the way of her individuation.
Insights from Ireland: Getting the Human Thing Down
I love the humanness of the dream I’ve been sharing. It’s so “lower chakra” with its symbolism of a possum and its excrement. Why do I love that? Andi sent me this quote in which Catholic priest Richard Rohr explains:
Memories of Childhood Dreams
Mama got a job working nights at the hospital. She slept during the day while Daddy was at work and Jimmy was at school, so I entertained myself. I got so accustomed to being alone that once when a little girl asked me to come out and play, I wouldn’t go. She bit my hand and ran away! I couldn’t imagine what her problem was.
The Power of Original Choice
Around 22 years ago I read a quote about original choice that instantly switched on some long-unused lights. I think Emerson wrote it. It was something like, “Nothing is so rare as an original choice.” I was just emerging from a lengthy dark night experience and knew that if I’d read it a decade earlier I would have blown right past it, uncomprehending.
