Fantasy is another word for imagination, for the world of dreams and illusions. C. S. Lewis’ Narnia is such a place, where animals and mythological creatures speak our language. We understand their nonverbal communication. We hear them and understand their speech. Their words are intelligible. The scene is that of war between the forces of [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Balancing the Opposites’
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Posted in Dreams, Movie Reviews, psyche, Spirituality, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Indwelling Spirit, Myths, Self, Synchronicity, trickster on December 3, 2011 | Leave a Comment »
Therapy: Healing the Psyche
Posted in Carl Jung, Mentoring, Psychology, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Spirituality, Wisdom on September 2, 2011 | 3 Comments »
Edward C. Whitmont gives an excellent account of the nature of the healing process. The guide and the seeker wander through the labyrinth-like twists and turns offered by the Self (God) Who is within both the guide and the seeker. The Self is also outside and independent of the guide/seeker dyad and this aspect of the process Whitmont calls (following Jung’s later writings) the objective psyche. It is by definition “unconscious”, because It is not something we can consciously know, but Its effects can be experienced in the form of dreams, fantasies, synchronicities, and mystical visions. The Self is guiding the process and both the guide and the seeker are transformed by It. This is a paradox. But that is the way it is and we must learn to accept it, if we wish to be transformed by It.
Father John R. Cole: Spirit Guide
Posted in Carl Jung, Mentoring, Psychology, tagged Adult Children of Alcoholics, alcohol abuse, Balancing the Opposites, Shadow, Spirituality, Wisdom on September 2, 2011 | 1 Comment »
Throughout our lives we meet people who seem to have magical, numinous qualities. When I was eighteen years old I met such a person, John R. Cole, a Presbyterian Missionary to Northern India, who was also an ordained Episcopal priest. “India has only one Christian Church”, he told our Youth Group in 1961. Imagine that, [...]
Is Daddy ever coming back?
Posted in Mental Health, Mentoring, sacred ceremonies, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Coyote, Divine Intelligence, Grandmothers and Aunties, Healing, Shadow on October 7, 2010 | 1 Comment »
I was four years old, standing at the screen door, looking out at the road. There were no cars to be seen. My mom, who was sitting in a chair behind me, burst into tears saying, “Mikey you know so much more than we think.” I had put her feelings into words. We both felt [...]
Papa’s Heart
Posted in Mentoring, Peyote Ceremony, sacred ceremonies, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Grandmothers and Aunties, Indigenous, Native American Church on September 16, 2010 | 2 Comments »
During the Ceremony my nephew asked me to pray with the Cedar, the Sacred Evergreen, and bless the midnight water. When he handed me the Cedar Bag, I spoke about the sponsor’s father and how proud he would be of his daughter for bringing us all together in celebration of her 54th birthday. I have [...]
Please Understand Me
Posted in Carl Jung, Psychology, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Shadow, Theory of Types on September 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
My lineage as a psychologist goes back to Carl Jung, the Swiss Psychiatrist. Freud and Jung were colleagues at the turn of the 20th century. Jung finally broke with his friend and teacher because Freud reduced psychoanalysis to one myth, the Oedipus/Electra desire for the parent of the opposite sex. Jung’s experience with severely ill [...]
It’s alright to keep on living
Posted in Carl Jung, Peyote Ceremony, psyche, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Family systems on August 22, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
When I was studying to be a counselor, we hit a land mine in Murray Bowen’s family systems theory. Just as Carl Jung regarded the person as an interconnected collection of conscious and unconscious psychic patterns seeking balance, Bowen similarly regarded the family. One of the maxims of the medieval alchemists was “so above, so [...]
“Psyche”, that’s what she said.
Posted in Dreams, psyche, Psychology, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Spirituality on July 2, 2010 | Leave a Comment »
“And what do you teach?” she asked me, looking at my card. “How to balance the opposites within ourselves,” I responded. She looked at me quizzically, and since I am a teacher, felt she wanted more of an explanation, so I continued. “The soul is feminine. The Greeks called her Psyche. Her ways speak in [...]
The Shadow Side of Reality
Posted in Burning Man, Carl Jung, entheogens, Erotic love, gnostic wisdom, Mental Health, Mentoring, sexual conduct, tagged Balancing the Opposites, Shadow, Spirituality on May 28, 2010 | 1 Comment »
Before leaving academia and conservative Orange County, California, I tried to integrate the discoveries of Depth Psychology into the Ethics course at the Community College. That was before John A. Sanford wrote about it in Evil The Shadow Side of Reality (1981). So it was with delight I hermeneutically found the sections on integrating the Shadow and the benefits of this work when I was cleaning my bookshelf today.
Balancing Our Needs: Interconnectedness with Independence
Posted in I Ching: Book of Changes, tagged Balancing the Opposites on December 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Linguist Deborah Tannen suggested many years ago that humans use indirect communication to meet mutually exclusive needs spontaneously. Sound paradoxical? We need our space, our privacy, our freedom to choose, to be independent. And at the same time we need to feel connected, included, cared about, wanted, loved, dependent upon relationship. Balancing these needs is [...]
