Crossing the River Styx Joachim Patinir 1521 Transitions as Liminal and Archetypal Situations From a lecture delivered by Jean Shinoda Bolen, M.D. at the Mythic Journeys Conference June 2004, Atlanta, Georgia The fourth step is the first time that Psyche will end up accomplishing the task herself. As her very last task, Aphrodite commands that…
Pablo Picasso The Dream 1932 Mark Harris: C.G. Jung and Picasso In 1932, Carl Gustav Jung wrote a perceptive analysis of Picasso’s psychology after seeing an exhibition of his paintings at the Zürich Kunsthaus. The analysis was published in the Neue Züricher Zeitung. The article offended many of Picasso’s admirers in the artworld. In it…
Indeed, it is becoming ever more obvious that it is not famine, not earthquakes, not microbes, not cancer but man himself who is man’s greatest danger to man, for the simple reason that there is no adequate protection against psychic epidemics, which are infinitely more devastating than the worst of natural catastrophes. The supreme danger…
The shadow is a moral problem that challenges the whole ego-personality, for no one can become conscious of the shadow without considerable moral effort. To become conscious of it involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge. Aion (1951). CW…
“Freud & Jung posing for a photo during an ill-fated arctic expedition ca. 1912. One man and three dogs met their deaths during this endeavor. This traumatic episode put a great deal of strain on the two mens’ relationship.” (Source) I must say, when I first came across the photos at this website, it was…
(excerpt) After they had lived like this for a few years, it happened one day that a Prince was riding through the wood and passed by the tower. As he drew near it he heard someone singing so sweetly that he stood still spell-bound, and listened. It was Rapunzel in her loneliness trying to while…
(Continuing on the theme that “The way out is through“, that depression after a trauma is not something that can be easily denied or medicated away…) Ravens from Heart Attack and Soul On the mythological level, nigredo signifies the difficulties man has to overcome on his journey through the underworld. Nigredo is sometimes called…
A friend forwarded me a link “A psychiatrists view of of Poetry and Poets”. which got me thinking about Theodore Roethke (who struggled with manic-depression) and his poem “In a Dark Time.” The third stanza opens with a description of synchronicity like state – “a steady stream of correspondences”, that would also match Joyce’s…
from Mysterium Coniunctionis There was a great drought where [Richard] Wilhelm lived; for months there had not been a drop of rain and the situation became catastrophic. The Catholics made processions, the Protestants made prayers, and the Chinese burned joss-sticks and shot off guns to frighten away the demons of the drought, but with no…