We are often talking about the actual Moon position in the zodiac because it gives us a fast update of our potential emotional journey. How we feel is at the center of our being and it makes or breaks our day!

Being in tune and aware of the Moon waxing and waning throughout the month and moving through the different astrological signs can be of help to not take those feelings too personal and as a flexible and changing process. One thing is for sure, your emotions will change as well as the accompanying thoughts if you allow that to happen.

Because the Moon is symbolizing your emotional filter to the surrounding world knowing more about the Moon position can make us more self-conscious and give us choices because of that. The main advantage I see in using astrology is to raise consciousness and give you a more objective viewpoint. Using astrology is like stepping back and looking at yourself with more understanding, compassion and patience.

We are all together in this adventurous journey on this planet and astrology can deepen our understanding of who we are on different levels of our being.

Libra Moon Squares Cancer Sun

On Monday the airy Moon in Libra is pitted against the watery Cancer Sun and points towards some potential conflict between the more objective and mental tendencies of Libra and the more emotional and cautious approach to life of Cancer.

Moon’s Trines to Mercury, Neptune and Jupiter

Fresh thoughts and ideas are pouring in through Mercury on

How Inter- Connected are we?

I believe we are contributing to the whole all the time, with our thoughts, emotions and actions. Edgar Tolle in his book The Power of Now talks about the pain body as the sum of our collective feelings and how we are impacted and contributing to that entity. It makes you wonder if there is really something called your “own emotions”. Maybe we can look at it as being dialed into a specific frequency receiving specific emotions as well as thoughts because of that frequency.

Maybe our personal make-up, history and state of consciousness are creating our personal “radio receiver” and determine the quality of emotions and thoughts we are getting in? Have you ever thought about that?

What is the Nature of our Thoughts?

The founder of the Oneness Movement the Indian teacher Bhagavan often says: “Your mind is not your mind, your thoughts are not your thoughts”. He talks about “The Universal Mind” which is encompassing all the thoughts ever thought on this planet. Some people call it the Akasha Chronicles. One other way to look at it is within terms of the morphogenetic field.

The Morphogenetic Field

New scientists like the biologist Rupert Sheldrake have researched and established the term of the morphogenetic field. It is described as an invisible energy field containing the information available to specie. “Morphogenetic fields are defined by Sheldrake as the subset of morphic fields which influence, and are influenced by living things.”

I have met Rupert Sheldrake 20 years ago and was deeply impacted by his revolutionary thoughts. It has helped me throughout my life not to take my thoughts so personally, more like something passing through. It made me aware that maybe the thoughts I am thinking are not originating in my brain. Maybe my brain is the most amazing computer connected to this amazing field of potential and thoughts.

Also Carl Jung talked about the “collective unconsciousness” and established his theories about therapy and dreams as a way to tap into that data bank for the purpose of understanding the human psyche more deeply. he developed his therapeutic approach with using dreams as an entry way into that field.

As you can see there are many valid theories out there to explain that we truly are one in consciousness. We all are guided by similar emotions, thought patterns, desires and needs. Which are the ones we are primarily accessing is determined by our karma, our astrological blue print and our personal family history we have grown up in. And again the more aware we are of those mostly unconscious patterns guiding our life, so more freedom and joy we are able to experience.

Moon Moves into Scorpio on Tuesday

Scorpio can prove highly emotional in its potential for extremes and might expose us to our deepest desires and deeply seated fears or wishes. We might be more self – critical and critical of others, maybe more easily upset then usual. It is a day for soul searching and looking inwards instead of acting out and projecting your fears onto somebody else.

The chance is to find out more about your true soul’s purpose and if you are in alignment with that. Scorpio always extends an invitation to go deeper inside then usual. It would be beneficial to take some leisure time for yourself and to allow the mind to settle into a deeper peaceful state of consciousness.

Your assignment for Tuesday is to take a hot bath with a candle light, maybe some nice music and enjoy that time with yourself!

If you enjoyed this post, I invite you to come and visit my Astrological Signs Weather Report & Healing Gems Blog http://www.jewelryandgemsforselfdiscovery.com/blog/ where I discuss the universal, astrological forces and inspire you to use them wisely for a successful and joyful life.

Aloha and many blessings, Shakti.

Shakti Carola Navran, jeweler, astrologer and author

Shakti Carola Navran (from Maui, Hawaii), a professional jeweler, astrologer and author with a lifelong spiritual journey, has been crafting personalized Soul Jewelry since 1977.
Her book Jewelry & Gems for Self-Discovery is a treasure chest of ideas on how to select, purchase, and wear jewelry that will enhance your body, heart, mind, and soul. Find out more about it at:

http://www.JewelryandGemsforSelfdiscovery.com

http://jewelryandgemsforselfdiscovery.com/blog/

Related posts:

1. Moon Conjunction with Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune & Full Moon Floats into Pisces & Mercury Squaring Mars 9/3/2009
2. Moon Moves into Aquarius and Visits the Threesome: Chiron, Neptune and Jupiter (July 8, 2009)
3. Leo New Moon in Conjunction with the Sun with Opposition Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune (August 20, 2009)

By: Mary Martin
I was editing a passage in my novel CONDUCT IN QUESTION, the first in THE OSGOODE TRILOGY. The villainous Florist was about to march down the stairs to kill the young man, Donnie, hiding in the cloakroom. The boy had soaked the stair carpet with gasoline and was about to set it on fire. Would that, I debated, cause the impressive explosion of flames I had described? Who could give me advice on pyrotechnics? Moments later, when the doorbell rang, I was stunned to find two firemen on my doorstep. Once I had convinced them of my innocent intent, they told me the stairwell would certainly “blow up real good.”

And that is synchronicity! Which we’ve all experienced in our lives. Remember the time you were thinking for days of a long lost friend and then suddenly he appeared at your door? Such experiences take our breath away and make us think we are all connected in some warm cosmic soup!

But what is synchronicity? Of course, it’s a coincidence, which is meaningful to you, the person whose breath is stolen away. It can’t be explained by cause and effect. As far as anyone knows, you [or someone else] didn’t do anything to cause the event. What coincides? My psychic state [wondering how to test out the blaze without actually setting one] and the event [the arrival of the perfect people to answer my question].

Carl Jung [the Swiss psychiatrist] is the ‘father’ of synchronicity, in that he experienced, studied and developed theories about it. One of his female patients had a highly rationalistic attitude toward life and was consequently resistant to much psychotherapy. As she was recounting a strange dream about receiving a golden scarab [a costly piece of gold jewelry] there was a persistent tapping on the window behind Jung. Opening the window, the doctor reached out and brought in a large scarab beetle. The appearance of the ‘real’ beetle at the very moment she was recounting her dream punctured her rational, intellectual approach to life and permitted her to carry on successfully with her therapy.

Some people think synchronicity operates throughout the universe as a grand ‘cosmic force.’ Have you seen the new movie by Mel Gibson, Apocalypto? In the Mayan culture, it was understood that vast synchronistic forces governed the universe and were related to the motion of the planets, stars and galaxies. Does this seem far-fetched in our ‘modern’ times? Certainly not! In the book, Cosmos and Psyche, by Richard Tarnas, published in 2006, synchronicity and the influence of the planets are impressively linked.

My experience and fascination with synchronicity caused me to devise two stunningly ‘coincidental’ events in my novel, FINAL PARADOX, which is the second in THE OSGOODE TRILOGY. Harry Jenkins, the protagonist, is an estates lawyer in Toronto, Canada. For years, Harry and his father have been estranged. When his sister died at the age of twelve, Harry’s father, crippled with grief, withdrew almost completely from the family. And Harry, now in his late forties and childless, cannot understand how the loss of his sister could have so horribly affected his father. Now his father lies near death in hospital. Harry is in the Quiet Room of the hospital, mourning the lost years between them and wishing he knew how to pray. Suddenly a woman and her husband enter the room. Hysterical with grief over the murder of her son, the woman screams and curses until, finally, a doctor sedates her. Immediately, Harry understands the wrenching agony of the loss of a child. At the very moment of his asking, he has the answer. Harry is transformed by the sense of deep connection to forces he only dimly perceives.

So, how do such events actually happen? A study of quantum physics leads us to believe that our distinction between our inner and outer world is illusory and that we do, in fact, swim in a cosmic soup in which there is no distinction between the soup and us. And so, our psychic energy may really influence or ’cause’ events in the ‘outer’ world. Consequently, in a moment highly charged with concentrated emotion, Harry Jenkins asks for and receive his answer in a most dramatic fashion.

Mary Martin is a Canadian attorney with a penchant for writing the legal thriller. Visit http://www.authorsden.com/visit/author.asp?AuthorID=39266 to learn more about Final Paradox, the latest in the Osgoode Trilogy.

Related posts:

1. Beyond Jung
2. Where Did My Synchronicity Go?
3. Famous Psychologist – Carl Jung

Why “integrating” psychotherapy and spirituality?  This question seems silly to many people for one of two reasons.  Some would say it is silly because the two must necessarily be kept separate, like church and state.  Others would say it is silly because they are inherently intertwined and don’t require any effort on our part to be integrated.

I am inclined toward the view that the two are inherently intertwined, but believe that they have been artificially separated by psychology, the discipline that most clearly undergirds most of what we practice in psychotherapy, in its zeal to be scientific.  Freud’s disdain for religion didn’t help either.  Of course there have always been those, like Carl Jung, who have kept alive the perspective that psychology and psychotherapy have an intrinsic relationship to spirituality.  However, this perspective has only moved toward widespread acceptance among psychotherapists in the last few decades, thanks in part to the Journal of Humanistic Psychology, and the Journal of Transpersonal Psychology.  Such acceptance in mainstream psychology, as reflected in the American Psychological Association, has only been noticeable in the last few years.

I seek to midwife the rebirthing of the awareness of the inherent interconnectedness between psychotherapy and spirituality.  My attitude is one of seeking to support a process that is already taking place quite naturally, rather than trying to force or create something new.

I assume that psychotherapy does more than correct psychopathologies of individual

John Rhead, Ph.D., is a psychotherapist in private practice in Columbia. His work, whether with individuals, couples, families, or organizations, is to facilitate such intimacy. John can be reached here Good Therapy and at this url also Therapist Santa Rosa

Related posts:

1. Integrating Online and Offline Marketing
2. Children and Spirituality
3. Creative Spirituality

What goes around comes around! But, some things go around a lot slower and we may not be around when it comes around. Are you hanging in there with me? Cycles are a part of life. We can go from a twenty four hour cycle in a day all the way to a 26,000 year or 100,000 year cycle; however our chances are much better at seeing the sun rise tomorrow and a full moon every 28 days than any of the other cycles. And? 

There’s an ancient symbol that represents such cycles and it’s called the Ouroboros!

This ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon swallowing its own tail and forming a circle often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end. In the case of the galactic crossing with the coming of the winter solstice on December 21, 2012, it’s not about a day but more like a couple of DECADES!

We are NOW in the galactic crossing that many feel began around 1986-87 and will end around 2016-17 with the 12.21.2012 date just the symbolic number. Because of the vastness of the universe, there isn’t a one day, one year, or one decade passing.

We, mankind, humanhood are spirit-vibration-energy. We don’t END. Yes, we shed this current body but then we take on another form of energy-spirit. Thus, ouroboros also represents the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting from the beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be ext

Carl Jung interpreted the ouroboros as being an archetype which brought out some of the significance of the human psyche. Erich Neumann writes of it as a representation of the pre-ego “dawn state”, depicting the undifferentiated infancy experience of both mankind and the individual child. I’m not sure about that; however, I do feel secure in seeing 2012 not as an END, but a NEW BEGINNING: a heightened awareness of who we really are. I say that with a degree of certainty because I AM experiencing it. The transition(s) is real!

As a spiritual-futurist, I have a BA degree majoring in history. One cannot know the future without knowing the past which holds clues to what is on the horizon. The world is in such a rapid expansion of knowledge that we are close to entering a tipping point that will forever change earth as we know it.

Related posts:

1. The Mystery of 2012 – Learn The Mystery of 2012
2. The 2012 Harmonic Convergence Window
3. 2012 Chaordic Progress

By: Paul Budding
BEYOND JUNG

AUTHOR: Paul Budding

Introduction

This essay is personal to me as it tries to take the reader through my journey through the Jungian world. And when I say “through” I mean through. I believe that I have been imprisoned in the Jung Cult but am now free from it. The word ‘cult’ maybe a bit strong here. The point is, as this essay will demonstrate, that it is easy for the Jungian to get bogged down with the feeling that there is something in this work of Jung’s. But much of that feeling is just an attachment to that which sounds esoteric. Once one accepts that fact they are out of the cult and see more clearly.

In Chapter 1 we will look at the historical context of Jungian psychology. Jung attached in a self-imposed way to his contextual influences and froze them in his invented unconscious. This is Wolfgang Giegerich’s view which is outlined and supported in chapter 2 of this essay. The esoteric contents that Jung froze in the unconscious were to be looked at and psychologically felt, but not to be subjected to the critical intellect. It is in that sense that Jung protected the esoteric contents from life and froze them.

The overall conclusion of this essay isn’t anti Jungian as-such. The overall conclusion favors myth that is alive as opposed to Jung’s favoring of dead pre-modern myths. Then one approaches their myth openly, not hiding it away from the intellect and life.

Chapter 1

The historical context of Jungian analytical psychology1

Claire Douglas’ chapter titled ‘The historical context of analytical psychology’ (in ‘The Cambridge Companion to Jung’2) and Sonu Shamdasani’s Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology: The Dream of a Science3 are the two main sourced used in chapter one of this essay. These sources enable us to effectively sketch the historical context of Jung’s psychology.

Douglas rightly touches upon a multitude of influences on Jung. She starts off by saying that Jung himself referred to two aspects of his psyche, one that is empirical, rational, practical and so on, and another that is romantic and “at home with the unconscious, the mysterious, and the hidden whether in hermetic science and religion, in the occult, or in fantasies and dreams.”4 Already a key Jungian belief about the psyche is implied here. And that is that the human psyche has evolved (in the western world) to the point where it can think and rationalize (hence at its height it creates scientific and mathematical models, philosophies and the technology that we see around us) whilst the psyche is also fantasy prone, it dreams, is emotional and so forth.  Despite Jung’s belief that this description of the psyche is true, Douglas correctly writes that “Analytical psychology still struggles to hold the tension of these opposites with different schools, or leanings, or even schisms, veering first to one side of the pole, then to the other.”5 However, Jung’s perspective is supported in this work because both rationality and fantasy are psychological realities.

Before developing on the phenomena that equates to the historical context of Jung’s psychology it would suit our purpose to merely list some of them and then to expand. The

following list is not exhaustive by any means, remember Jung was an erudite. Nevertheless, the following were amongst the major contextual influences. Romanticism was an influence, as was Positivism, Kant, Schopenhauer, Goethe, Schelling, Carus, Nietzsche, Shamanism,Janet, Freud, Flournoy, parapsychology, Swedenborg, James, Eastern spirituality, Gnosticism and Alchemy. We will discuss Romanticism and Positivism first.

Romanticism and Positivism

Jung always insisted that he was scientific.6 Douglas explains that “Jung’s university teachers held an almost religious belief in the possibilities of positivistic science and faith in the scientific method. Positivism […] focused on the power of reason, experimental science, and the study of general laws and hard facts. It gave a linear, forwardly progressing, and optimistic slant to history […] Positivism gave Jung invaluable training in and respect for empirical science. Jung’s medical-psychiatric background is clearly revealed in his empirical research, his careful clinical observation and case histories, his skill in diagnosis, and his formulation of projective tests.”7 Hence, Jung was influenced by the enlightenment and scientific revolution like other great names of his day. However the rationalist scientist in Jung would often be organizing irrational data in an attempt to understand it. (e.g. fantasies, dreams, myths, and even the disorganized, dissociated ramblings of psychotics). This leads us nicely to Romanticism. The Romantics sought a unity with nature whose connection had been lost. The Romantics also focused on irrational phenomena and inner reality. Here of course, Jung and the Romantics sought meaning. For Jung, meaning was found in the inner world hence it would be most beneficial, he thought, to apply science towards this realm. Douglas writes that the Romantics had a “fascination with studies of possession, multiple personalities, seers, mediums, and trancers, as well as with shamans, exorcists, magnetizers, and hypnotic healers [… and that…] they all employed altered states of consciousness that linked one psyche to another and made use of the various ways healer and healed enter this vast, omnipresent, yet still mysterious collective world.”8    

Douglas traces Romanticism “from the pre-Socratic philosophers Pythagoras, Heraclitus,

and Parmenides, through Plato, to the Romanticism of the early nineteenth century and its revival at the end of that century.”9 In Jung’s autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, he writes that he was “attracted to the thought of Pythagoras, Heraclitus,

Empedocles, and Plato, despite their long-windedness of Socratic argumentation.”10

It is well-known that by the end of the 19th century Romantic themes were expressed in much of the most famous literary works. Douglas points to the following as having been

inspired by Romanticism: “Hugo, Balzac, Dickens, Poe, Dostoevsky, Maupassant, Nietzsche, Wilde, R. L. Stevenson, George du Maurier, and Proust.”11 Douglas continues:

“As a Swiss student, Jung spoke and read German, French, and English and so had access to these writers as well as to his own nation’s popular literature.”12

It is fair to point out that Jung, whilst on the one hand declaring his work, ‘scientific’, on the other hand, declared his work as cultural: “whatever happens in a given moment has inevitably the quality peculiar to that moment.”13 This apparent contradiction is explained as Jung viewing his work as an evolving science. Even in physics the discipline doesn’t stand still. And in psychology Jung often said that ideas require updating in order to express and be conducive with the specific time and place.14 However, as we will see, Jung’s favored myths tended to be pre-modern thus distancing him from contemporary life.

The Romantic Philosophers who influenced the ideas of analytical psychology include “Kant, Goethe, Schiller, Hegel and Nietzsche.”15 Jung wrote that “mentally my greatest adventure had been the study of Kant and Schopenhauer.”16 For example, there is similarity between Jung’s archetypes hypothesis and Kant’s categories. Shamdasani writes that in 1918 Jung “defined the primordial images as a priori conditions for fantasy-production, and likened the primordial image to Kantian categories. […] In Psychological Types, he refined his understanding of the relation between ideas, images and archetypes. In his use, idea had a close connection with image. Images could be personal or impersonal. These impersonal images, distinguished by their mythological quality, were the primordial images. When these lacked this mythological character and perceptible images, he referred to them as ideas. The idea was the meaning of the primordial image. Thus ideas were originally derived from primordial images.”17 Jung concurred with Kant, who for Jung, “had shown that the mind was not tabulsa rasa.”18 as “certain categories of thinking are given a priori.19 Meanwhile Marilyn Nagy points out that for both Jung and Kant “there is something inside the individual which knows what to do and how to act. Knowledge which is of crucial importance for the human individual is won at the moment when we acknowledge a priori inner experience, experience which is not dictated by the perceptual and sensual power of the outer object. For Kant this was the experience of the categorical imperative. For Jung it was the experience of the Self.”20

Arthur Schopenhauer was another favorite of Jung’s. Jung praised “the centrality accorded to suffering by Schopenhauer and Von Hartmann, whom he described as the formers intellectual heir. [Moreover Jung said] To Schopenhauer I owe the dynamic view of the psyche; the ‘will’ is the libido that is back of everything.”21 Shamdasani then writes that this passage (and others by Jung) “suggest[s] that [Jung’s] initial concept of psychic energy was derived from Schopenhauer’s concept of the will.”22 The blindness of the Schopenhaurian will is clear in the following quote by the philosopher quoted in Shamdasani: “the works of animal instinct, the spiders web, the honeycomb of bees, the structure of termites, and so on, are all of them constituted as if they had originated in consequence of an intentional conception, far-reaching and rational deliberation, whereas they are obviously the work of a blind impulse, that is, of a will which is not guided by knowledge.”23 However, Shamdasani says that Jung “followed Hartmann […] adopting von Hartmann’s reformulations of Schopenhauer’s philosophy [such as that] found in his lecture “Thoughts on the nature and value of speculative inquiry” [where Jung endorses Hartmann’s view and adds] the absolutely essential element of purposeful intention”24 to the will/psychic energy.

Finally it should be noted that whilst Jung approved of Schopenhauer’s attention given to suffering in life, Jung (of course) regarded suffering as only one important area of life and also gave a great deal of attention to the meaning of life. As we shall see in chapter 2 Jung’s commitment to ancient myth, alchemy, religion and so forth was all about pre modern meaning.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was admired greatly by Jung. Jung often referred to Goethe’s masterpiece ‘Faust’ whereby Faust struggles with inner conflict.25

Further inspirations were F. W. von Schelling and Carl Gustav Carus. The latter should strike the reader as having remarkably similar ideas to Jung. “Carus depicted the creative, autonomous, and healing function present in the unconscious. He saw the life of the psyche as a dynamic process in which consciousness and the unconscious are mutually

compensatory and where dreams play a restorative role in psychic equilibrium. Carus

also outlined a tripartite model of the unconscious – the general absolute, the partial absolute, and the relative – that prefigured Jung’s concepts of archetypal, collective, and personal unconscious.”26 Why then is Carus notgiven more credit in analytical psychology? One Jungian thinker says that it is simply because Carus didn’t offer treatment.27 Nevertheless Jung himself valued Carus’ work. Shamdasani writes “Jung stated that his own conceptions were “much more like Carus than Freud…”28 On the other hand Jung writes (in Memories, Dreams, Reflections) that Carus (and Hartmann) both failed to empirically ground their theories of the unconscious. Hence they remained philosophically speculative. Jung writes that it was Freud who first “demonstrated empirically the presence of an unconscious psyche.”29 Shamdasani writes that Jung regarded the unconscious as an idea “introduced into philosophy by Lebinz, and that Kant and Schelling had expressed views on it. It had subsequently been elaborated into a system by Carus, and then by von Hartmann, who had been significantly influenced by Carus 30 In 1940 he [i.e. Jung] wrote that though philosophers such as Lebinz, Kant, and

Schelling had drawn attention to the “problem of the dark soul”, it was Carus, a physician who had been impelled “to point to the unconscious as the essential ground of the soul.”31 In 1945, he went so far as to say of Carus that if he had been living today, he would have been a psychotherapist. Indeed, the psychology of the unconscious began with Carus, who did not realize that he had built the “philosophical bridge to a future empirical psychology.”32 However, Carus and Hartmann’s philosophical conceptions of the unconscious “had gone down under the overwhelming wave of materialism and empiricism.” It was only after this that the concept of the unconscious reappeared “in the scientifically orientated medical psychology.”33

Jung lectured on Nietzsche34 observing various affinities with his own psychology especially the going beyond black and white good and evil. Douglas also rightly points especially to “the way negativity and resentment shadowed behavior.”35 Shamdasani notes that “For Jung, Nietzsche had correctly recognized the general significance of the drives.”36 Shamdasani continues, “In 1917 in The Psychology of the Unconscious Processes, posing the question of whether anyone knew what it meant to affirm the drives, Jung noted that this was what Nietzsche desired and taught. This made the ‘case’ of Nietzsche especially critical, as “he who thus taught saying yes to the life drive, must have his own life looked at critically in order to discover the effects of this teaching upon him who gave the teaching.”37 Hence Jung was especially interested in studying Nietzsche.

Shamdasani highlights the importance of William James and Theodore Flournoy on Jung whilst qualifying this by admitting that he is nominating them as “but two of a plethora of other figures.”38 Shamdasani says that Jung described them “as the only two outstanding minds with whom he was able to conduct uncomplicated conversations.”39 Shamdasani continues “For Jung, as forFlournoy and James before him, a necessary condition for the possibility of a psychology was that it should consider all human phenomena.”40 The main source that Jungian researchers can attain for evidence of the influence of Flournoy and James on Jung’s thinking is from an “unpublished draft (now in the Jung Archives at the Countway Library in Boston). [There] Jung writes […] extensively of his debt to Flournoy and William James.”41

Jung’s interest in the paranormal (or parapsychological) is well-documented. A good example of this is his reading of Emmanuel Swedenborg. Jung discusses some of Swedenborg’s visions in his Collected Works. And in Memories, Dreams, Reflections Jung writes that (in his student years) he “read seven volumes of Swedenborg.”42

Douglas rightly says on this area, “Jung’s interest in and knowledge about parapsychology adds a rich though suspect edge to analytical psychology which demands attention congruent with the extended scope of scientific knowledge today.”43

A major influence on the more clinically-minded Jung is that of the French dissociationist psychiatrist, Pierre Janet. Jung studied under Janet and the latter pioneered theories of dissociation and fixed ideas, which Jung termed ‘complexes’. Jung agreed with a great 

deal of what Janet pioneered but Jung also embraced the artistic and creative side of life. Hence Jung went beyond Janet who was “clearly no Romantic.”44 The work of John R Haule is scholarly and studies the link between analytical psychology and Janet’s dissociationist psychology.45 Janet is more relevant than Freud as an influence on Jung, as Jung valued the principle of dissociation as sovereign over repression although he recognized both of those principles. And, as said, Jung recognized Freud as a pioneer of the unconscious.46

Interested thinkers often point out that Jung himself was a childhood neurotic. This may be seen as a slight digression because this establishes a personal context for analytical psychology as opposed to the multitude of impersonal historical contextual influences. However, it is the other key factor in establishing a sketch of the context of analytical psychology, therefore it needs saying. Jung had a father complex. Carl Jung’s father is portrayed as an authoritarian and dogmatic Christian who had repressed doubts about his faith. And Jung is regarded as having been a childhood neurotic in both Jungian and psychoanalytical literature. For example in the latter, Winnicott reads Memories, Dreams, Reflections as evidence of Jung as a childhood schizophrenic, a divided-self in search of a self-identity.47 In the Jungian literature, Michael Fordham, who helped compile Jung’s Collected Works,also regards Jung as having been a childhood schizophrenic. Following reading the first draft of the childhood chapters of Memories, Dreams, Reflections Jung asked Fordham for his views. Fordham replied that he regarded Jung as having been “a schizophrenic child” with strong obsessional defenses, and that had he been brought to me I should have said the prognosis was good, but that I should have recommended analysis – He did not consent my blunt statement.”48 Anthony Stevens meanwhile, arguably takes up the conventional position on Jung as a childhood neurotic who creatively compensated for his lack of emotional connection to the outer social world.

Stevens writes that Jung “resembled other intellectual pioneers [… such as …] Issac Newton and Rene Descartes.”49 Like them “he did not feel at home in the [outer] world” and hence compensated by becoming pioneering and “intellectually objective about it.”50

Stevens continues by arguing that Jung’s ideas “of the collective unconscious, his theory of archetypes, his psychological typology and his description of the structure and function of the psyche were at once consequences of his emotional isolation and brilliant attempts to compensate for it. It was no accident that the principle of compensation between inner and outer realms of experience became the cornerstone of analytical psychology.”51 In chapter 2 we will see, following Giegerich, how Jung over-compensated for what he and many of his influences regarded as loss of meaning.

The same desire to compensate for childhood neurosis is, as Stevens says, evident in Issac Newton’s work, see footnote.52

Jung inevitably cast an eye on Eastern spirituality. Whilst cautious of the westerner grasping at Eastern texts, symbols and so forth, he nevertheless understood that the East tended to seek a way beyond conflicts, striving for “balance and harmony”53 through paths of “self-discipline and self-realization [and] through the withdrawal of projections and through yoga, meditation, and introspection, paths that were similar to a deep analytic process.”54 These Eastern traditions (e.g. Hinduism, Taoism, Buddhism) are of course, ancient and very meaning-minded which is all most conducive, seductive even, to Jung and similar pre-modern mindsets.

Finally, the influence of Gnosticism and especially Alchemy on Jungian psychology is (at least in the latter) obvious, as Jung writes on alchemy in three volumes of his collected works. And in Memories, Dreams, Reflections Jung makes the connection between alchemy and his psychology, clear himself. He writes “I had very soon seen that analytical psychology coincided in a most curious way with alchemy. The experiences of the alchemists were, in a sense, my experiences, and their world was my world. This was, of course, a momentous discovery: I had stumbled upon the historical counterpart of my psychology of the unconscious. The possibility of a comparison with alchemy, and the uninterrupted intellectual chain back to Gnosticism, gave substance to my psychology. When I pored over these old texts everything fell into place: the fantasy-images, the empirical material I had gathered in my practice, and theconclusions I had drawn from it. I now began to understand what these psychic contents meant when seen in historical perspective.”55

Chapter 1 Conclusion

This chapter has outlined the historical context of Jung’s analytical psychology. Sonu Shamdasani claims that Jung favored an interdisciplinary approach and that therefore Jung never believed in going alone56, nor that his work was complete. However, in his interdisciplinary approach, Jung looked for those that would validate his invention of the collective unconscious. (I deliberately use the word invention following Giegerich, see chapter 2). Given that Jung approached his work and other thinkers this way; I am entirely in agreement with Marilyn Nagy who writing within the context of discussing Jung’s “hero of the Mind” says that he ultimately favored “any myriad of scholars and philosophers, mystics and alchemical physicians who offered support for his point of view.”58 And as we will see in chapter 2, Jung froze much of what he took from his influences. He froze their psychological feeling in the invented unconscious container.

Chapter 2

Introduction

Let’s be clear. Jung was passionate about the contextual influences referred to in chapter 1. No-one would spend so much time and energy going over and over the texts that he did if they were not passionate about them. Jung writes in Memories, Dreams, Reflections that when he realized that the alchemists were talking in symbolic language he thought to himself… “Why, this is fantastic […] I simply must learn to decipher all this.”1 And Jung describes his attitude towards these texts as one of being “completely fascinated, […] I buried myself in the texts as often as I had the time.”2  Jung immersed himself in these texts. He immersed himself in large, collective spiritual, mythic and religious collective literature such as that of the alchemists, Gnostics, and a whole range of other esoteric mystics, philosophers, thinkers, schools. As will become clearer and clearer, this was all to freeze the type of meaningful feeling that Jung believed many of the pre-modern alchemists, mystics and so forth, actually experienced. Hence for Jung, esoterics and esotericism of the pre-moderns had to become felt but not thought about in modern man and woman.

Jung encouraged and lived a life of attachment to collective esoteric dogmas. Wolfgang Giegerich points this out, again with reference to alchemy: “Jung excluded from his psychological reception of alchemy the fact that the telos of alchemy had been the overcoming of itself. He froze it, and psychology along with it, in an earlier phase.”3  “In short, for Giegerich, the task of alchemy was to deconstruct itself, or at least, to surpass itself as a movement of the historical expression of the soul.”4

Going Beyond Jung’s dead pre-modern meaning

People who are suggestible will fall for someone else’s words and thoughts besides Jung’s. But Jung is still (constructively) criticized in this chapter because as a famous psychologist he should have stuck to encouraging personal myth and personal responsibility and had nothing to do with encouraging others to immerse themselves into the vast world of the esoteric. Yet he never discouraged the latter. He encouraged it.

Now let’s say that one has approached Jung and his work because they are psychologically weak, suggestible, etc. Jung himself said that the neurotic is attracted to psychology like a moth to light.5 Then Jung grabs them because he throws a mountain of esoteric psychology at them. They are caught. Jung does not set them free.

This is because he was imprisoned himself. Hence, there is a Jung cult.6 Jung preached against a Jung-cult7 but trapped his followers in one, i.e., in a psychological prison that he too was jailed in. (self-imposed in Jung’s case)

Jung’s work on the personal unconscious is of value in the market of ideas. His pioneering work on complexes is important. But if someone is a sensitive, dissociable neurotic choc-a-block with complexes, then the important thing to do is to get them to be an individual. The last thing that one should do is immerse them in esoteric traditions. Most people have grown out of Middle Ages superstition. Jung acts as if we are still immersed in alchemy and fairy-tale, and that we still think that the forest comes alive with non-human entities at night. If someone is still at say, the late Middle Ages level of consciousness then fine. However, it is remarkably wreckless medicine to actually immerse a neurotic in the pre-modern psychological world without critical intellectual questioning of that world.

Attachment can be to anything. So I need to remind the reader that the problems are not all about the esoteric. Modern man is often too attached to other people, consumerism, and celebrity (etc) i.e. in a non-questioning way. But a medically and clinically orientated psychologist should help cure such a problem. Jung makes a significant contribution towards solution only to then contribute to the problem.

In part 1 we saw how Jung worked towards an interdisciplinary universal psychology. At the same time the universal psychology that he strove for was to be one that cemented the esoteric side of life in the psyche. Jung therefore was working both for and against the direction that knowledge was moving in. It is the attempt to freeze esoteric attachments (not allowing them to be touched with the intellect) that result in the failure of the establishment of a universal psychology instigated by Jung.  

We will now turn to the work of Wolfgang Giegerich. Giegerich demonstrates in his essay titled The End of Meaning and the Birth of Man, that Jung was pre-modern8 and imprisoned in the pre-modern world due to his attachments. Giegerich agues that this was self-imposed on Jung’s part. He argues that Jung tried to cement the psychology of the pre-modern mythical world into the unconscious psyche of contemporary man. Giegerich criticizes Jung for doing this because for the pre-modern person he or she was born into such a world a- priori9.For the contemporary person this kind of psychology belongs to the past. Thus, for Giegerich, Jung fails to free up his psyche. There is no way that he can break free from his psychological imprisonment because it is self-imposed.

On pages 3, 4 and 5 of Giegerich’s essay titled The End of Meaning and the Birth of Man Giegerich discussesthe a-priori in-ness of the pre-modern man. Then on page 6 he approvingly quotes Jung who writes:

“So long as a symbol is a living thing, it is an expression for something that cannot be characterized in any other or better way. The symbol is alive only so long as it is pregnant with meaning. But once its meaning has been born out of it, once that expression is found which formulates the thing sought, expected, or divined even better than the hitherto accepted symbol, then the symbol is dead, i.e., it possesses only an historical significance. We may still go on speaking of it as a symbol, on the tacit assumption that we are speaking of it as it was before the better expression was born out of it. […] For every esoteric interpretation the symbol is dead, because esotericism has already given it (at least ostensibly) a better expression, whereupon it becomes merely a conventional sign for associations that are more completely and better known elsewhere. Only for the exoteric standpoint is the symbol a living thing.”10

Giegerich is arguing that the human mind has moved on from the mythic past that Jung was trying to put in a strait-jacket. And Giegerich is also making the point that in the above quote Jung (for once) was showing that he understood such logic as Giegerich was espousing. But normally, Giegerich points out, Jung cannot accept this logic. However, Giegerich points out that the progress outweighs the loss.

“The death of a symbol, inasmuch as it amounts to the birth of the better formulation of what it is about, is […] by no means to be viewed as an intolerable catastrophe. It is a transformation that, to be sure, goes along with a loss, but is ultimately a gain, a progress, just as in the case of the transition from biological pregnancy to birth.”11

Giegerich goes onto say that macro mythical, grand narrative, traditional religion meaning-based phenomena is now dead for a great many people.

“For the “symbol” that we are talking about now is meaning as such, Meaning with a capital M; it is myth, the symbolic life, the imaginal, religion, the grand narratives – not this myth or religion or grand narrative nor this meaning, but myth or religion pure and simple, Meaning altogether.”12

Giegerich points out that Jung, like Nietzsche before him, and like “other thinkers of the 19th century” tried to overcome the loss of the pre-modern meaning. Giegerich argues (and this work accepts Giegerich’s assessment) that Jung divided his mind in two… a No1 consciousness that was rational, empirical and scientific. (Giegerich refers to this as Jung’s Kusnacht consciousness)14 and a No 2 mind that stores the mythical images and  then refuses to ever question them or reflect on them… hence they equate to Jung’s unconscious which Giegerich accuses Jung of (therefore) inventing.15 Giegerich refers to Jung’s No 2 mind as his “Bollingen” mind.16

“By virtue of having  been swallowed and thus deprived of the possibility to participate in the practice of the job of consciousness (reflection, rational examination, which is essentially public), the swallowed consciousness is ipso facto unconscious, while the swallowing mind, is, to be sure, consciousness in the narrower sense, but only an empty form, totally divorced from the contents it might entertain and on principle released from any intellectual responsibility for the unconscious images. The conscious mind is only the passive recipient of images from the unconscious.”17

Giegerich articulates the image of glass in a museum separating consciousness from the historical unconscious. We are not allowed to touch the treasures that lay out of our reach.18

“…the imaginal contents have already been released from religion and metaphysics; but by confining them in the unconscious, they are once and for all prevented from “growing up”: getting out and taking part in public intellectual life and being in turn affected by its transformations. Instead [Jung demands] the intellect has to take them as indisputable facts of nature, not as its own property and productions […] nor as something it is fully accountable for…

[…] Kronas as father creates a secondary, unnatural womb for his already-born children. The invention of the unconscious is likewise the device how modern consciousness as abstract form can be used for the purpose of serving as a protective womb for traditional knowledge and imitating a sense of in-ness.”19

Giegerich aptly describes Jung’s invention of the collective unconscious as a psychological process of “splitting and swallowing.”20

Giegerich expresses what Jung did excellently in the following passage. Referring to the contents of the invented Jungian collective unconscious Giegerich quotes Jung as saying “You must not allow your reason to play with” them.”21 Giegerich continues by saying that such a statement “betrays the total immunization of these contents from the point of view of the other, the intellect’s, side, because the intellect is devalued as “our playful intellect” and thus as per definitonem incompetent in matters of higher meaning:22 “Our intellect is absolutely incapable of understanding these things”23 [writes Jung]. […] But why does Jung restrict himself to this narrow-minded sense of “intellect”? This would by no means be necessary. It is his choice. Therefore, despite the form in which his statement is presented, one must not mistake it for an innocent statement of fact, a mere observation. It is rather a refusal or prohibition: “do not touch symbols with the intellect! The intellect shall be excluded on principle!”24

Given that “The intellect must not enter them [i.e. the contents of the collective unconscious] thinkingly […] This means that ultimately consciousness has to be in itself unconscious: both sides of the pair of opposites, consciousness and the unconscious, are together the unconscious.”25

“Thus the notion of the “unconscious” does not really mean a realm, region or agency in the psyche. It primarily is a label that declares the contents to which it is applied as fundamentally taboo, untouchable: inaccessible to conscious knowing and intellectual penetration. This label putsthem into a particular logical status, the status of irrevocable un-consciousness. It erects an unsurmountable, namely logical barrier [whereby…] consciousness is [merely] permitted to look at the “contents of the unconscious” through the glass pane…”26

So Jung often attached himself to the No 2 non-thinking imprisonment of the unconscious. Giegerich writes that he “could not break out into the open”27. He could not break out into the world where the action is: “the realm[s] of thought, culture, art, science, economics, etc.”28 Why was this? “Because then it would necessarily have become obvious (and he would have had to let himself in for the insight) that meaning, in-ness, myth are once and for all over. He would have had to enter modernity without reserve and allow man to be born […] But of course, the very purpose of his psychology project was to seal the spirit again in the bottle after its escape and to swallow the already born children…”29    

Giegerich says that “What at Bollingen are revelations from the unconscious […are] for the intellect of the Kusnacht Jung, simply proveable observed facts, facts sealed in “unconsciousness”, that is, in mindless factuality, in the prohibition to think them: the prohibition to allow the mind to be “infected” by them…”30

Giegerich takes issue with Jung’s claim that consciousness is a tiny island surrounded on all sides by a great sea of unconsciousness. Giegerich points out that this “had only become possible because Jung had systematically excluded major conscious and public

areas of modern reality”31 Jung couldn’t engage with the current and contemporary. He regarded much of that as “utterly banal”32 Hence, Giegerich rightly defines Jung as having created for himself “a decidedly pre-modern level of consciousness.”33

Chapter 2 Conclusion

In this work the emphasis is different from Jung’s. It is to seek out the new idea, to freshen up in order to widen and enrich consciousness, not allowing psychological energy to become suffocating and trapped. The point is to discover new areas where the psychological energy can flow into. This is done by a search for meaning. But not yesterdays meaning like Jung’s pre-modernism but for tomorrows meaning, palatable for the contemporary person. Because dead symbols are dead. One must look in areas consisting of symbols that are very much alive. And then one must get stuck in as opposed to treating the material as untouchable as Jung does with his main concepts. This maybe difficult but its rewarding.

Overall Conclusion

One has to have personal myth in life. Actors and actresses have this and they tend to love their work. They feel a participation mystique with their characters and the plots they are involved in/ It’s about non-literal script that is orientating yet never dangerous because of its non-literalism… its fictional nature. 

But of course, the material must be alive. Jung’s problem is that he dealt with dead symbols which put contemporary man and woman off because contemporary man and woman is not pre-modern and therefore is disinterested in alchemy, Gnosticism and other ancient institutions.

The contemporary person also has to live their personal myth. In other words the person mustn’t hide it away behind locked doors as Jung did with his pre-modern myths. 

Bibliography

Bishop, P, (1999) Jung in Contexts: A Reader (Routledge)

Eisendrath, P. Y, and Dawson, T, (1997) The Cambridge Companion to Jung (Cambridge University Press)

Farndon, J, et al, (2005) The Great Scientists (Arcturus Publishing Ltd)

Giegerich, W, The End of Meaning and the Birth of Man: An Essay about the state reached in the history of consciousness and an analysis of C. G. Jung’s psychology project (Website)

Jung, C, (1977) CW: Vol 18: The Symbolic Life: Miscellaneous Writings (Routledge)

Jung, C, (1992) CW: Vol 7: Two Essays on Analytical Psychology (Routledge)

Jung, C, (1995) Memories, Dreams, Reflections (Recorded and Edited by Aniela Jaffe) (Fontana Press)

Jung, C & Jarret, J. L, (1988) Nietzsche’s Zarathustra: Notes of the Seminar given in 1934 – 1939 (Princeton University Press)

Lavin, T, (2005) Professor C. A. Meier: Scientist and Healer of Souls – Part 2 (Website)

Nagy, M, (1991) Philosophical Issues in the Psychology of C. G. Jung (State University of New York Press)

Noll, R, (1997) The Jung Cult: Origins of a Charismatic Movement (Touchstone)

Papadopoulos, R, (1992) CarlGustav Jung: Critical Assessments (Routledge)

Papadopoulos, R, (2006) The Handbook of Jungian Psychology: Theory, Practice and Applications (Psychology Press)

Shamdasani, S, (1998) Cult Fictions: C. G. Jung and the Founding of Analytical Psychology (Routledge)

Shamdasani, S, (1999) Is Analytical Psychology a Religion? In statu nascendi (Journal of Analytical Psychology)

Shamdasani, S, (2003) Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology: The Dream of a Science (Cambridge University Press)

Smith, R. C, (1996) The Wounded Jung: Effects of Jung’s Relationships on his Life and Work (Northwestern University Press)

Stevens, A, (1999) On Jung (Penguin Books)

Footnotes

Chapter 1

1: Lavin, T, 2005, points out that Jung originally referred to his work as Complex Psychology and that a very close colleague of Jung’s, Professor C. A. Meier continued to do so even after Jung’s other close colleagues began to refer to his work as Analytical Psychology.

2: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T, 1997,  p17-35

3: Shamdasani, S, 2003

4: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T,  1997, p17

5: ibid

6: In his book, “Jung and the Making of Modern Psychology: The Dream of a Science” Jung historian, Sonu Shamdasani, discusses a debate between Jung and E. A. Bennet. The debate is about the scientific credentials of Jung’s psychology. Jung claims that his psychology is scientific because of its applicability. Jung could not see any more applicable theories anywhere else. What Jung meant by applicability was “its application as a principle of understanding and a heuristic means to an end as it is characteristic of each scientific theory.” (Jung C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p98)

Jung’s view was that a theory had to offer a satisfactory explanation that makes sense of life. That, for Jung, is the true quality of a theory. And it had to have a heuristic value in order to be whole. If it failed to be heuristic it would be one-sided. And for Jung, no matter how true a one-sided viewpoint is, it remains incomplete. Furthermore in the same debate with Bennet, Jung argued that it isn’t good enough to argue that psychic facts should be analogous to chemical or physical proof. How one proves something has to take into account the discipline that they are dealing with. Hence Jung argued “the question ought to be formulated: what is physical, biological, psychological, legal and philosophical evidence?” (Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p99). So Jung argued that there was an Anglo-Saxon bias on what was deemed to be scientific, again referring to physics and chemistry. Moreover, “psyche is the mother of all our attempts to understand Nature, but in contradistinction to all others it tries to understand itself by itself, a great disadvantage in one way and an equally great prerogative in the other!” (ibid)

7: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y, & Dawson, T, 1997, p19

8: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T, 1997, p27

9: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T, 1997, p19

10: Jung, C, 1995, p87

11: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T, 1997, p21

12: ibid

13: ibid

14: Jung said this about all ideas, fearingthat otherwise they would become dogmatic. For example, he said it about Christianity; see Jung, C, 1977, p736, par. 1665 & 1666

15: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T, 1997, p22

16: Jung, C, 1977, p213, par. 485

17: Shamdasani, S,  2003, p235

18: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p236

19:  Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p236

20: Nagy, M, 1991, p37

21: Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p198

22: ibid

23: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p199

24: ibid

25: Jung, C, 1995, p107, 123, 232

26: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y, & Dawson, T, 1997, p23

27: Hauke, C, in Papadopoulos, R, 2006, p71

28: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p164 & 165

29: Jung, C, 1995, p193

30: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p165

31: Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p165

32: Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p165 & 166

33: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p166

34: Jung, C, & Jarret, J. L, 1988

35: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y, & Dawson, T, 1997, p 25

36: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p251

37: Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 2003, p251

38: Shamdasani, S, 1999, p540

39: ibid

40: ibid

41: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y, & Dawson, T, 1997, p27 & 28

42: Jung, C, 1995, p120

43: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y, & Dawson, T, 1997, p28

44: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y, & Dawson, T, 1997, p26

45: See for example his essay titled From Somnambulism to the Archetypes: The French Roots of Jung’s split with Freud:  Haule, J. R, in Bishop, P, 1999, p242–264

46: Jung, C,  1995, p192 & 193

47: Winnicott, D, in Papadopoulos, R, 1992, p320

48: Fordham, M, in Smith, R. C, 1996, p22

49: Stevens, A, 1999, p111

50: Stevens, A, 1999, p112

51: ibid

52: The following is extracted from Farndon, J, et al (2005) The Great Scientists (Arcturus Publishing Ltd) and is quoted here because it demonstrates through an example, the Jungian principle of compensation: Issac Newton’s “father was already dead by the time Newton was born. When he was just 18 months old, his poor widowed mother married a wealthy old local minister […] but left the infant Issac with his grandparents. It may be that Issac never recovered from his early abandonment. Even though his mother returned home to her son when her new husband died seven years later, Issac later confessed that he remembered ‘threatening my (step) father and mother to burn them and their house over them.’ Throughout his life, Newton carried a terrible suppressed anger and sense of resentment that made him a very difficult man to deal with.

The introverted Issac went to school at the age of 12 but showed no signs of any intellectual prowess until he was bullied one day at school. In a towering rage the young Newton fought back until his larger opponent was a quivering wreck. But Newton did not stop there. He was determined to humiliate his opponent in the classroom too. Soon Newton became deeply involved in his academic pursuits, especially science, and amazed the locals with such things as handmade water clocks and flying lanterns.”  (Farndon, J, et al, 2005, p59 & 60). Newton went on to make his great “discoveries” of “the law of gravity and the laws of motion.” (Farndon, J, et al, 2005, p61)

53: Douglas, C, in Eisendrath, P. Y & Dawson, T, 1997, p29

54: ibid

55: Jung, C, 1995, p231

56: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p27

57: Shamdasani, S, 2003, p17

58: Nagy, M,  1991 p22

Chapter 2

1: Jung, C, 1995, p231

2: ibid

3: Giegerich, W, quoted by Marlan, S, in Papadopoulos, R, 2006, p287

4: Marlan, S, on Giegerich, W, in Papadopoulos, R, 2006, p287

5: Jung, C, 1992, par 192, p114

6: Noll, R, 1997

7: Jung, C, in Shamdasani, S, 1998, p10

8: Giegerich, W, p58

9: Giegerich, W, p2

10: Giegerich, W, p11

11: ibid

12: Giegerich, W, p12

13: Giegerich, W, p32

14: Giegerich, W, p46

15: Giegerich, W,  p34

16: Giegerich, W, p46

17: Giegerich, W, p33 & 34

18: Giegerich, W, p34

19: ibid

20: ibid

21: Jung, C, in Giegerich, W, p35

22: Giegerich, W, p35

23: Jung, C, in Giegerich, W, p35

24: Giegerich, W, p35

25: ibid

26: Giegerich, W, p36

27: Giegerich, W, p42

28: ibid

29: ibid

30: Giegerich, W, p30

31: Giegerich, W, p52

32: Jung, C, in Giegerich, W, p58

33: Giegerich, W, p58

Related posts:

1. Famous Psychologist – Carl Jung
2. How Synchronicity And Jung Appear In The Creative Process
3. BEYOND WORDS

By: Mary E. Martin
Do you think that creative writing can be taught?

First, let me say that I have taken only one creative writing course in my life. And so, my experience is not extensive. But, having written for many years, I can tell you what I’ve observed.

Teachers can help you hone your craft. They can even teach you tricks to overcome obstacles to the creative flow. But I doubt they can teach you to be creative.

If I worked very hard with a good teacher, I might gain respectable proficiency at the piano. I might even learn musical theory and composition and pass every course with honors. And yet, I’ll never compose a piano sonata, which stirs us to the depths, without that amazing ingredient creativity. It can’t be taught.

Why not? Because creativity is a gift. It comes from within, and is personal to the individual. You either find it within yourself and work with it or you don’t. It’s much the same with writing or painting. Only a tiny handful will ever write a novel, which is truly original or creative.

If a writer does manage such a feat, he or she likely created it only after many years of hard, lonely struggle. It’s a private task, which doesn’t much benefit from exposure in the classroom. After all, don’t you do your very best work in a quiet spot, late at night when the daily minutiae have faded to a dull roar? And then, consider if you have ever read a novel written by a committee?

Carl Jung, the Swiss psychiatrist and father of psychoanalysis, speaks of the creative instinct along with other instincts, such as the urge to activity and reflection. These are innate instincts, which cause human beings to strive, build and create. So, if it’s a human instinct, isn’t it available to all human beings? Apparently not. If it were, all of us would all be able to write that sonata or novel which speaks to untold generations.

Jung also says that the creative artist is one who has unusual access to the subconscious.

If so, maybe there’s a way to access that mother lode. I’ve been reading a fascinating book, The Tao of Photography. With many beautiful photographs, it’s written by Dr. Philippe Gross and Dr. S.I. Shapiro, both psychologists and photographers. Sometimes, I really enjoy camera work as it helps me concentrate on my surroundings, which I find helpful in capturing a mood for writing.

The book applies the teachings of the Chuang-tzu, a collection of writings from the fourth, third and second centuries B.C.E. to the art of photography. It speaks of Little Understanding and Great Understanding. I love how those states of being are described:

Great understanding is broad and unhurried;

Little understanding is cramped and busy.

Chuang-tzu

It seems to me that our daily lives are filled up with ‘little understanding.’ Just look at my daily list of errands and things to do! Here we are running around with our heads down [cramped and busy] concentrating on the little inconsequential stuff. What if we look up and around ourselves and even inside ourselves? Great understanding is broad and unhurried. Just think what we might see and what doors we might open.

When we slow down and shift our focus not only to observing everything about life, but also looking inside ourselves, that’s when we have a chance of tapping into the creative spirit. Unless we do, no amount of concentration on technique [which can be taught] will ever help us listen to our inner voice. After all, aren’t writers always told they must find their own voice? I say to do that, we have to learn to listen and pay attention to the outer life surrounding us as well as our own inner life.

Suppose you do actually get past that cramped and busy stage. [The Tao of Photography has numerous excellent suggestions as to how to accomplish that.] What will you find? Maybe nothing special. But if a writer is lucky, he might just tap into something wonderful…his true creative spirit. If we can get out of our conscious way and let the images, words, music, ideas and emotions flow, then we just might have something to work with.

In writing, I think that’s what the first draft is all about. Then the more rational, analytical part of the brain takes charge and refines what has been created. Then a teacher can help you by showing you the techniques of your craft. Maybe a first draft of a novel should be a prerequisite for entry into a creative writing course. What do you think?

Mary E. Martin is the author of the Osgoode Trilogy [Conduct in Question, Final Paradox and A Trial of One.] Please visit her website www.maryemartin and <a href="http://www.authorsden.com/maryemartin" title="http://www.authorsden.com/maryemartin" target="_blank">http://www.authorsden.com/maryemartin</a> to sample her creative efforts.

Related posts:

1. Famous Psychologist – Carl Jung
2. Beyond Jung
3. How Synchronicity And Jung Appear In The Creative Process

By: Dean A. Banks, MCIWD, DD
Carl Jung, a famous psychologist and associate of Sigmund Freud once said, “Whatever you resist, persists.” What exactly does that mean? If you give attention to that which you don’t want in your life you are magnetically attracting it and repeatedly experiencing it. If you continue to focus on why you can’t do something, or making excuses ad infinitum as to why you can’t do something, then you are creating a situation where it becomes true by the power of the emotions you attach to the thoughts you DWELL upon. This is the key. If you don’t want a certain situation or circumstance in your life then don’t accept it as true always, accept it as true in the past. That’s why it is happening to you right now.

Right now you can begin to commit your attention to the things you want in your life and energize them with passionate emotion. It’s not just believing in what you want, but daily THINKING about what you want with passion that brings it into your experience. Recently, many of you have heard about “The Secret”, which is the Law of Attraction. You might say, “If there is a Law of Attraction, shouldn’t there be a Law of Repulsion as well?” Shouldn’t you be able to passionately think about what you don’t want in your life and it be driven away from you? It turns out that the Law being referred to acts in the same way. Whatever you give your passionate attention to is what materializes in your life.

In the movie “The Secret”, Mother Theresa is referred to as willing to go to a Peace Rally, but not willing to go to an Anti-War Rally. In her wisdom she knew that whatever you give passionate attention to manifests in your life. Day after day people all over the world give their attention to things and situations they don’t want in their life and accept “what is”, based on their lack of faith in their power to re-create their life the way they want it to be. Over a period of years they acclimate themselves to the way it is and don’t realize that in any given moment they could change their future by dwelling on thoughts of success and prosperity in the desires of their hearts.

Claiming to believe and believing in these principles of change and growth are the first part in changing your life. Many people stop here and lose their belief when their desires aren’t manifested. Belief comes from a place of stillness. It is accepting a thought or a pattern of thought as true. Acting on your beliefs is the second part.  Daily creating thoughts about the fulfillment of your desires and emotionally charging those thoughts will manifest your desires.

Make the time daily to relax and meditate at least twice a day. Empty your mind and become still. Accept the belief that you have the power to change your life. After your meditation engage in visualization. See the end results of your desires. Feel the happiness from the experience of accomplishing your desires. Say, “I’ve done it!” I remember this statement everyday and have made the letters of the first word represent the following:

Internalize- read about others accomplishing their desires and make the time to relax and meditate.

Visualize- see the end result of your desires and create a picture in your mind of fulfillment.

Emotionalize- release your passion and feel the joy of accomplishing your desires.

If you can commit yourself to carrying out the above steps, you will begin the process of positive change in your life. You will move up from just meeting your needs, daydreaming about your wants, and not fulfilling your desires to expecting the best results in your life. The Law of Attraction (or Repulsion) will be working in your favor. Attract and expect the best in your life!

For more info: “Life is a gift. Be thankful for it and it will be replete with abundance. Encourage others to express creativity, release negativity and embrace pro-activity.” ©2009 Dean A. Banks. All Rights Reserved. Dean A. Banks, MCIWD, DD can be reached at webproducer@hotmail.com or banksnet.com. Download my free eBook on Articles 1-10 here.

Dean A. Banks, MCIWD, DD has been a touring musician, recording artist, recording engineer and producer during the course of his 40 plus year career. He earned his D.D. degree (Theology) from UCS in 1985. After college Dean taught audio engineering technology at the University of Sound Arts (USA) in Hollywood, CA. Dean’s song “Feel The Wind In Your Sails” received high acclaim when the song was played in the L.A. radio market during the ‘80’s. Branching out, Dean appeared on the Los Angeles market (Channel 9) television show “There Is A Way” and performed at the Shrine Auditorium in L.A in 1982 to promote the single release of his song “People Are Wanting Your Love.” He spoke on pursuing your dreams at The Mind, Body & Spirit Festival in San Diego, CA. in 1985. Currently, Dean produces multimedia marketing, advertising campaigns, commercials, and is the webmaster for his company, banksnet.com. He has developed the non-profit Web TV station Channel CCC in Wilmington, DE. and also writes for Examiner.com as the Wilmington Spirituality Examiner.

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By: Brian Alan Burhoe
“There is a psychological technique which makes it possible to interpret dreams, and that…every dream reveals itself as a psychical structure which has meaning…” -Sigmund Freud THE INTERPRETATION OF DREAMS

Here, with the input of Kate Falken of  YOUR DREAM TEAM, are the 12 Most Common Dreams and their meanings:

ANIMALS** Wild animals denote troubles or fears, even misfortune. Domestic animals, especially pets, usually mean good fortune. Their demeaner is significant. A fierce animal is a warning. A calm one indicates happy times. Animals often represent the primal side of our makeup and the dreamer’s relationship with the animal tells how much control they have over that part of themselves. The most common animals in our dreams are:

….BIRDS* depending on the kind of bird, this is usually a sign of prosperity and unexpected happiness for you. Large birds are the symbol of Freedom. Singing birds, of happiness.

….CATS* an age-old symbol of the Feminine; the elegant and mysterious elements of our lives. To dream of a friendly cat, means you are developing your intuitive powers. If you are attacked by a cat, beware of an enemy pretending to be a friend. If you hear a cat screeching, beware of gossip. A purring cat promises happiness.

….DOGS* #1 dreamed animal! Traditional symbol of the Masculine; courage and loyalty. A friendly dog denotes coming domestic happiness. A vicious dog warns you of financial or health concerns. A howling dog warns of separation from loved ones.

 ….HORSES* a symbol of animal power, strength and energy. To be riding a beautiful horse denotes you will achieve much power in life. A wild horse, out of control, is a warning to curb your own passions. A sick horse cautions you of ill health.

….INSECTS* usually represent small, nagging worries. Things that “bug” you. Traditionally, they can represent relatives. How you handle the insects in your dream, tells you how to handle these worries.

….RATS* beware of deception! Especially from someone close to you. The dream-meaning of killing a rat is one of success.

….SNAKES* lead us not into temptation. A symbol of betrayals and enemies. If a snake bites you, beware of a quarrel with a friend. Your dream will show you who your enemy is.

….SPIDERS* traditionally a sign of good fortune. Money, and much of it!

….WOLVES* a balance of the Dog’s loyalty and courage with Nature’s ferocity. Be prepared to face a disastrous turn of events. You can overcome if you have powerful allies.

AUTOMOBILE** The great modern symbol of power, status, vitality, sexuality. Life itself. Automobile dreams are very common and have many meanings in dream analysis. It depends on factors like — who is driving? Is it a pleasant journey or a treacherous one? An old clunker or a luxurious new car? Beginning a drive in an automobile generally means that you are in the beginning stages of a new life-plan. Where the car takes you metaphorically shows you where your life should be going. If your car breaks down, you could be placing your trust in someone not worth it.

CELEBRITIES** Meeting a famous person can indicate a profitable new offer will be made. There will be a change for good in your life. A goal can finally be obtained. Celebrities are our cultural heroes, and to dream of them can mean that it is time for you to join their ranks.

CHASE** To dream of being chased by some frightening being can mean that it is time for you to set out on your destined path. But you are refusing to let go of elements in your life that are hindering your quest. If you are caught by that being, you have much work ahead of you. If you escape, you are almost free — your life-quest is taking a new road.

DEATH** This dream’s analysis depends on the emotional content — if you awoke with a dreadful sense of real death, it could be a true death-dream and you have sensed someone’s passing. This happens to sensitive people. The elderly may have dreams that prepare them for their passing. If, however, you dream of death without having dark emotions, it has the meaning of release from current worries and actually signifies its opposite: a recovery, a rebirth is about to occur in your life.

FALLING** The most common dream of all. It can mean the dreamer is in fear of losing respect or status; or of financial difficulties; or fading physical vitality; or losing someone’s love. If you land and awaken suddenly, it is literally a “wake-up call” to attend to matters in the physical world. If you land but the dream continues, then the answer to your dilemma is being given to you in that dream

FLYING** The great Mythical symbol of Freedom. The meaning of flying dreams is one of good omens. You instinctively know the goals in life and how to seek them. Whether it’s love you seek, or a place in life, or fame and fortune, you will fly over earthly obstacles and find your happiness. Recurrent flying dreams indicate great fortune. All Traditions explain flying dreams in the same way. If you are in your own human form, you will find happiness in an ordinary but successful life. If you are a bird in your dream, you will be most fortunate in life and attract good luck. If you are a Winged Human (Greek: ORNITHANTHROPUS), you are bound for a highly creative and fulfilled life.

HOUSE** A symbol of many meanings! If Falling is the most common dream, then a House or Apartment is the second most common. In a dream, a house usually represents You. ROOMS represent different aspects of yourself. DOORS are opportunities. If it is your own home, you are on a solid spiritual foundation. If you dream that you are in a strange new house, it indicates your future, what you must do. The BEDROOM has many obvious meanings…the BED is the most common dream object of all. The BATHROOM…from bathing to using the toilet, are common situations.

LOST** The meaning of this dream is literal. You are lost in your life, adrift. Something is gone from your life — Love, Career, Spirituality. The SETTING of your dream, where you are lost, holds the answers to your salvation….LOSING SOMETHING PRECIOUS is a variation of the LOST dream; the object lost being the key to the dream.

NAKED** Most often, this is not a sexual dream. Usually this common dream is a dream of inadequacy: you don’t feel prepared for some event, or for life itself. This dream may have an element of comedy — lighten up! Don’t worry. Traditionally, this has been a dream of money luck. Buy a lottery ticket.

SEXUAL DREAMS** The meaning of sexuality in dreams depends on the emotional element. If you wake up sexually aroused, that is common. Sexuality is a fundamental part of living and sexual dreams express part of your being. Only if the content is disturbing or if your arrousal is more intense from dreams than from waking experience, do you need to explore your dream’s meaning. If you dream of sexual experience but are not sexually aroused, the traditional meaning is one of general happiness. Your love relationship is deepening or about to be renewed. The most common sexual dreams are:

….ADULTERY

….LOVE WITH AN ACQUAINTANCE

….MASKED or FACELESS LOVER

….PASSIONATE ENCOUNTER WITH EX-SPOUSE

….RAPE

….SEX IN PUBLIC PLACE

Curiously, a more recent sexual dream is….SEX CHANGE.

WATER** Traditionally, calm water means good times ahead, clear sailing. Rough waters: caution, reconsider your actions. To drown can be a warning — but also indicate your need for more spiritual examination.

….BATHING* warm water fortells of increased love in your life or of spiritual rebirth.

….DRINKING WATER* if the water is clear, the dream augurs financial security, prosperity. If it is cloudy; financial problems.

….SWIMMING* a complex dream, where meaning depends on all the details: conditions of water, weather… Generally, to be swimming is a sign of current good health. If you are swimming naked, you feel energized and ready for the successes of life that are arriving.

+++A Dream Dictionary: Other Common Dreams+++

FOOD**preparing or eating food in a dream, means coming happiness in your life, domestic contentment. Being hungry or thirsty indicates a dissatisfaction in your life, often spiritual.

In this irreligious age, GOD and the DEVIL appear less in our dreams, than in our grandparent’s time. When they do appear, however, the meaning is much more imperative than in by-gone times.

Dreaming about SCHOOL, TEACHERS or an important exam are usual for adolescents (definitely falling into their “most common dreams” category) — but have a more critical meaning for adults long out of school.

PEOPLE in our dreams can be extensions of ourselves or represent external forces — they represent the most complex element of your dreams, requiring an in-depth analysis. The most common people are: PARENTS, PARTNER, FRIENDS, EX-LOVER, STRANGERS, a BABY…

Dream Interpretation — a field in which YOUR DREAM TEAM has been called “The Net’s Premier Dream Readers!” — has grown to become a Key Element in what is now unfolding around us. Dream Interpretation, drawing on Traditional and Jungian psychology and dream study and on an intuitive insight of its new practitioners, is unlocking insights into our personal lives. But also, Dream Interpretation — following the lead of Carl Jung — has linked psychic study with the symbols and story-lines of Myth, Legend and Religion.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON MODERN DREAM INTERPRETATION and “Your Dream Team” — Go to MODERN DREAM INTERPRETATIONS by YOUR DREAM TEAM – and to read more articles by Kate Falken, founder of YOUR DREAM TEAM, go to the popular new site WUVING.com

 - Brian Alan Burhoe

A Graduate of the Holland College Culinary Course, Brian Alan Burhoe has cooked in Atlantic Coast restaurants for over 30 years. He is a member of the Canadian Culinary Federation. Brian’s articles reflect his interests in food service, dreamstudy, imaginative literature and our best friends — our dogs. His Home Page is A CULINARY MYSTERY TOUR – A Literary Chef

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Where is The Oracle Within? If we are created in the “image and likeness of God,” then where is this all-knowing or omniscient place within us? Carl Jung was able to identify and give a mystic-psychological answer to such questions. Carl Jung stated in his work “The Transcendent Function” that the Oracle Within, an all-knowing place within us was located, “below the threshold of consciousness and, when intensified, are the most likely to erupt spontaneously into the conscious mind.” In fact, Jung found this so fascinating; he developed a therapeutic technique called Active Imagination in order to “intensify” this function of the mind.

With this take, we can see that The Oracle Within is a place within us to which we are often unconscious, but when we intensify it, it erupts or sends information spontaneously to the conscious mind. This eruption of information is wisdom and creative energy that can be utilized for growth and enlightenment.

As we take a closer look at The Oracle Within from a spiritual perspective, we realize it is a gift which can be used for enlightenment and edification. The Oracle Within gives us the ability to channel wisdom and creative energy from this omniscient place within us.

In fact, many who study Esoteric wisdom would say that The Oracle Within is an impartation of the Oneness Blessing or the Holy Spirit (the Spirit of Wholeness and Oneness). The method by which we channel wisdom and creative energy is determined by the spiritual gifts working within us as willing v

And just what is a “Willing Vessel?” Willing Vessel has a two-fold function…

1) We must be willing to allow energy to flow to us and through us in our individuality and as our true and authentic self. This is the only way that we can contain it in order to “will” it.

2) “Willing it.” This is the second meaning of a Willing Vessel. We must utilize the power of the Law of Purpose and Intentions in order to “Will” or mold this energy and thus manifesting aspects of its infinite possibilities.

Those of us who have chosen to allow this wonderful energy and wisdom from The Oracle Within to be channeled through us for the edification of those on the path of enlightenment are often referred to as Lightworkers. When you awaken to this gift (and this gift is in all of us) your first inclination is to help others. However, there are specific groups of collective consciousness who are ready to receive this wisdom. Some just are not ready because fear and complacency has clouded their ability to receive spiritual liberation. Some have allowed fear to trap them into limited thinking. And those of us who have awakened on the path of enlightenment know that once you limit your mind, you have limited your reality.

The willingness to listen to divine wisdom as it is channeled from a Lightworker is just as important as being the channel through which the message flows. The importance in all of this is the message itself.

Yes, there are those who are often resistant to channelings from The Oracle Within, but we must realize that every witty idea, every artwork, every poem, every truly profound business idea is channeled from Divine Intelligence. Every unique thing we have ever witness is the result of someone opening their hearts and minds to Divine Intelligence.

To this end, we would find it prudent and wise to be opened to The Oracle Within and be ready and prepared to receive instructions as it is given. It would be wise and prudent because the mind you empower just may be your own.

Carmellita Brown, the Creative Director for Blue Lotus Living is sharing a channeling from The Oracle Within. In this message, The Oracle Within reveals how the creative energy of prosperity is flowing right now for those on the path of enlightenment. To make your connection with this flow, visit The Oracle Within – The Scepter of Prosperity today.

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What does Carl Jung have to do with December 21, 2012 or what do spiders and web bot have to do with ancient Mayan traditions and projections? Does any of this connect, or is it real all one? Mankind uses computers to come up with all sorts of information but can a computer tap into the collective unconsciousness: the spirit of the universe? 

The Princeton Global Consciousness Project and what’s known as the Web Bot project are two of the latest uses of computers to mine the depths of the rabbit hole and give us insights to the future, which is known now. It’s one of those Eccl. 3:15 paradigms wherein that which WAS is NOW and that which is NOT YET, already IS. Our Zen brothers would love such talk.

Say what? 

Let me just focus on the Web bot project. Barely ten years old, the concept where “spiders” crawl the internet, much like a search engine, looking for particular kinds of words. Whenever these spiders find key words (how they determine that only a secret recipe can reveal) it’s deposited in a secret mayonnaise jar. As internet chatter goes on non-stop 24/7 ideas are crisscrossed and words are matched with potential events until “something from the unconsciousness” is mined much like Carl Jung taught.

There is a KNOWING that is UNKNOWN- consciously.

In just a short time the Web Bot project predicted the American Airline flight 587 crash, elements of the D.C. sniper

Studies done by Dean Radin, of the Institute of Noetic Sciences, has done numerous studies that tend to indicate that the body, soul, or spirit can anticipate things at least six seconds before they happen. For me, I need more time to get ready. How about you?

As a spiritual-futurist, I have a BA degree majoring in history. One cannot know the future without knowing the past which holds clues to what is on the horizon. The world is in such a rapid expansion of knowledge that we are close to entering a tipping point that will forever change earth as we know it.

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