My Season of Surrender
“Rebellious leaves going out in a blaze of glory, setting trees aflame in riotous color. Reluctant surrender to rumors of coming winter.” ~John Mark Green “Dreams and myths take us into the dark world of our personal and cultural unconscious, where the roots of the continuing oppression and the spiritual imprisonment of lives lie. If […]
A Lesson Learned from Mother Nature
“Wisdom begins only when one takes things as they are . . . So it is a healing attitude when one can agree with the facts as they are . . . only then can we thrive.” C.G. Jung, Visions, Notes from the Seminar given in 1930-34, Vol. I As a long-time student and teacher, […]
Ego and God-Image: Part VII
Intellectually the Self is no more than a psychological concept, a construct that serves to express an unknowable essence which we cannot grasp as such, since by definition it transcends our power of comprehension, It might equally well be called the “God within us.” The beginnings of our whole psychic life seem to be inextricably […]
The Hidden Meaning of Christmas
Imagine our surprise when, on our recent trip to Indochina, our group of travelers arrived in Saigon to find it decorated for Christmas! Windows of one major department store were topped with thick mounds of carved styrofoam snow. Our hotel lobby held a giant blue Christmas tree and a life-sized Santa Claus who swiveled his hips while he sang “Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.”
Sacred Laws of the Psyche: The Law of Synchronicity
“Since psyche and matter are contained in one and the same world, and moreover are in continuous contact with one another and ultimately rest on irrepresentable, transcendental factors, it is not only possible but fairly probable even, that psyche and matter are two different aspects of the same thing.” C.G. Jung, On the Nature of […]
Sacred Laws of Psyche: The Law of Entropy
We know that the mask of the unconscious is not rigid—it reflects the face we turn towards it. Hostility lends it a threatening aspect, friendliness softens its features. Carl Jung. Psychology and Alchemy, CW 12, par. 29. For not knowing about the unconsciousness means that one has deviated, one is not in harmony with it, […]
The Sacred Law of Correspondence
The first sacred law of psyche, the Law of Correspondence, says that the outer universe is a reflection of the realities of our inner universe. This intuition gave rise to the ancient adages, “As above, so below,” and “As without, so within.” Humanity has expressed this relationship in diverse symbol systems like mythology, religion, tarot, alchemy, […]
The Sacred Laws of Psyche
Jung scientifically compared his inner life and that of his clients with the myths and symbols of various wisdom traditions. Campbell developed some of Jung’s themes. Their imaginative work shed much-needed light into the darkness of our contemporary collective unconscious. Following are some natural laws they midwifed into our awareness.
Coming Home to Feminine Spirituality
I cannot overstate the importance of this dream. I knew “I” didn’t create it; it came from a profound source of wisdom deep within me. I think of this inner wisdom as Sophia, the Divine Mother.
Whispering Symbols: Dot and Circle
Both logos and mythos contribute to our spiritual development. Children use mythos thinking automatically. This is why they respond to life with spontaneity, enthusiasm, joy and wonder. But once the “masculine” phase of external striving begins, logos and the ego tend to dominate our thinking and spirituality and life begins to lose its savor.
