The Golden World
(Here is the rough version of one of the pieces I'm still in the process of writing about this powerful CD collection from Sounds True. My only complaint about it is that it ended. I hope there will be a Golden World Part II.)
In this CD collection, revered author and Jungian analyst, Robert Johnson, offers us wisdom from his life and his vast reservoir of psychological knowledge. At 85 years old, he seems at times to struggle for breath. He speaks slowly, thoughtfully and with depth.
He is surprisingly vulnerable and open about sharing his vulnerability. His books, such as He, She, and We are some of the best in the field. One might expect him to be more distant, personally covert and linear. He categorizes himself as an introverted feeler; that is, an inner-directed person who relates best through feeling.
A series of synchronicities led him to Zurich, (at age 26) where coincidence brought him to the Jung Institute and analysis with its then founder (not Carl Jung who neither believed in nor ever set foot inside the institute.)
However, Mrs. Jung taught a class there on the Grail Myth, and Johnson was able to secure a meeting with her in which he related what he considered an important dream that his own analyst refused to hear.
Soon after, he received a call from Dr. Jung.
"Come to my office," Dr. Jung told him in English. "I want to talk at you."
And talk at him, he did. Having heard Johnson’s dream, Jung was able to lay out a future for the young man that Johnson still believes saved him years of missteps.
He talked to me in my typology, Johnson says. He characterizes Jung as an extroverted thinker, that is, someone who sees life in a linear way and is energized by the presence of others.
Jung possessed such remarkable intellect and intuition that he could relate to Johnson, not only in English, but also in the language of feeling, which is where the young man was most at home.
"Quit the Institute," Jung told him. "The best way to learn my work is through a private tutor."
Further, he advised him to embrace his introverted nature. "Do not marry but lead a life that allows you to follow a more internal path."
He saved me years of trying to be something I’m not, Johnson tells us.
Jungian typology:
Jung broke personalities into basic types. (I’ve heard that he borrowed some of this from the language of astrology.)
Most cultures have concepts for air, water, fire and earth which also correspond to these typologies.
Categories:
Thinking, Feeling, Intuitive, and Sensate.
Jung also added introversion and extroversion as distinctions. A simple test to see whether you’re the former or the latter: as a generality, do you withdraw to replenish your energy or do you replenish your energy by being with people? Introverts tend to withdraw, extroverts seek company.
No one is all one type or all another but we tend to fall closer to one category than another. Thinkers are logical and linear; feelers relate through emotion and gut sense. Intuitives tend to know things without even knowing how or why they know. And sensates tune into the physical world and draw their conclusions from there.
To learn more: The four Ego Functions ...http://www.kheper.net/topics/Jung/typology.html
Like many Jungians, Johnson believes countries fall into types, as well. America, he says, is an extroverted thinkers’ world. We reward the person behind the microscope. But we’re impoverished in terms of feeling and our language reflects it.
As an example, he cites Sanskrit, which has 96 words for love compared to our vast lexicon of words for the mechanistic world. India, he tells us, is an introverted feeling nation with all the positives and negatives that entails.
One quirky positive: riding a bike in India, a complete stranger on another bike will hold your hand for a time and then let go as your paths diverge. No words need even been exchanged.
The negatives include: caste systems, treatment of women, lack of facilities for clean water.
Saturday, December 8, 2007
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Notes from Caroline Myss' Essential Guide for Healers Part II
"Intuition is not a visionary skill that makes sure nothing ever goes wrong in your life!" In fact, Myss believes that your intuition tells you how you mismanage power."
She claims that we are imploding from all the intuition we ignore. "Right now," she demands, "stop and list all the positive things your intuition is telling you to do that you ignore." Transformation can be achieved by risking the smallest changes.
Intuition is about bringing congruence between the heart and mind. Without it, she says, we're a mess!
Fear of success, she scoffs, is ridiculous. Instead she redirects the listener: Where are you not following your guidance? Where do you lack integrity?
If you hold yourself back so you won't upset others, rest assured that "Everyone's feelings are hurt if you change their plans for your life." Inevitably, as we change, those around us must re-evaluate and change, as well.
Can You Be Invisible?
Can you be a silent presence, simply observe, absorb, and if necessary, transmit? Can you work in anonymity, or is your ego engaged in seeking glory?
Seeking glory is different from appreciating a thank you.
Do you listen within and take the actions that are instructed for your own life? If not, then why should anyone listen to you? And why would you be given even higher voltage information for others?
Healer As A Calling
Callings require transformation. That doesn't take the place of healing training. Start anywhere, she tells us. You need the discipline to be schooled.
Decide what is appropriate for you and don't compromise. For example, she doesn't heal children and no amount of cajoling will induce her to shirk that personal boundary.
You can never promise an outcome. Healing only has a capacity not a promise. Don't mix friendship with clients or you're mixing your agendas.
Money
Where did we get the idea that "to serve God" we must be poor? Healers need to break through this myth and create a template of abundance for ourselves and future generations.
She claims that we are imploding from all the intuition we ignore. "Right now," she demands, "stop and list all the positive things your intuition is telling you to do that you ignore." Transformation can be achieved by risking the smallest changes.
Intuition is about bringing congruence between the heart and mind. Without it, she says, we're a mess!
Fear of success, she scoffs, is ridiculous. Instead she redirects the listener: Where are you not following your guidance? Where do you lack integrity?
If you hold yourself back so you won't upset others, rest assured that "Everyone's feelings are hurt if you change their plans for your life." Inevitably, as we change, those around us must re-evaluate and change, as well.
Can You Be Invisible?
Can you be a silent presence, simply observe, absorb, and if necessary, transmit? Can you work in anonymity, or is your ego engaged in seeking glory?
Seeking glory is different from appreciating a thank you.
Do you listen within and take the actions that are instructed for your own life? If not, then why should anyone listen to you? And why would you be given even higher voltage information for others?
Healer As A Calling
Callings require transformation. That doesn't take the place of healing training. Start anywhere, she tells us. You need the discipline to be schooled.
Decide what is appropriate for you and don't compromise. For example, she doesn't heal children and no amount of cajoling will induce her to shirk that personal boundary.
You can never promise an outcome. Healing only has a capacity not a promise. Don't mix friendship with clients or you're mixing your agendas.
Money
Where did we get the idea that "to serve God" we must be poor? Healers need to break through this myth and create a template of abundance for ourselves and future generations.
Hugging
Don't hug Caroline Myss unless you're a close friend or relative. "You don't see bank managers hugging their clients," she says, so who created this idea that healers have to hug people?
It's like having three hundred people (her audience) lay hands on you. Why would anyone want to be left with all that unconscious energy?
Healer Not Mother
She cautions us to clarify the difference between the mother and healer archetypes. While the mother may be all loving and willing to take on your aches and pains, the healer is a conduit for the ineffable.
This requires incredible stamina and an ability to channel energy that moves faster than a disease. The healer may not be a soft and fuzzy kind of person, there to hold your hand.
In fact, the healer is most likely a flawed human being, someone with his or her own issues to work on. As stated in earlier, one can be a flawed human being and still be fully empowered as a healer.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Notes from Caroline Myss' Essential Guide for Healers
"Get a back bone, not a wish bone." Caroline Myss
Myss explores the healer archetype, and breaks through the myths that have clustered around it. All the literature she found for healers talked about how to heal others, and here she wants to instruct us about healing ourselves.
Her intention is that healers see and evaluate themselves realistically. Further, she wants healers to benefit from their own compassion, the very healing energy they share so freely with others and often fail to lavish upon themselves.
Luminaries as diverse as Shakespeare and the Oracle at Delphi commanded us to "Know thyself." Myss asserts that the healer must know the who what and why of herself in order to become and remain a powerful vessel.
We cannot respect our limits or work faithfully through our limitations if we are blind to them. We will be unable or unwilling to set boundaries for ourselves and inevitably overstep the boundaries of others.
You need to know yourself well enough to know what you can and cannot do. Therefore, you have the ability to say no to situations and people that are inappropriate for you. For instance, she will not heal children, though she doesn't tell us why.
There is a myth, she says, that healers are mystics. Her years of study and years in the field tell her this is untrue. However, she believes all mystics are healers and she cites biblical passages to support her contention.
You can be a 9-5 healer, i.e., someone who practices a skill, such as massage, and goes home at the end of the day feeling you have helped clients without having gone core deep.
She calls this the "eau de toilette" version and considers it completely legitimate.
Her definition of healer extends past the healing practitioner. If you are a healer you will transform your environment whether you're flipping burgers, or teaching school. It's simply who you are.
Eleanor Roosevelt was a profound healer for our country, and a role model for women. Her courage and her ability to contribute made a difference in the world.
Healers are expected to be all things to all people all the time. If you, as a healer, do not know yourself as a flawed person who has particular talents, you will be taken by the ego.
You can be a flawed person, she tells us, and a fully empowered healer. "I specialize in it," she says, in one of her few revelatory remarks.
What I don't like about her style is the angry, arrogant tone. She doesn't say we are this or that; it's always you. And her assumptions about you aren't good.
You aren't doing your inner work, eating right, exercising. And if you neglect your inner voice, why should anyone else trust you?
She abhors the burned out healer. In what other profession, she asks, do you find such a massive burn-out from what is considered someone's goodness?
Being a healer does not make you inherently good. Everyone has a shadow and it's the healer's job to integrate her own.
Otherwise, you will have a private agenda, such as being needed, or being superior; and your private agenda will compromise your work and cross everyone's boundaries.
Don't get too full of yourself, she instructs. If the gods want someone to be healed, they can send them to the corner store for a can of cat food and that cat food will heal them.
You are merely a channel. Strengthen yourself so you can be a clear channel and ready to take on what's given to you.
The Wounded Healer:
Can one be an elegant healer without experiencing a call? Can you provide a healing presence without seeking credit?
The psychic wound will bring you to your knees. It will convince you that you are completely alone, causing everything you depended on to fail you. This "gutting," as she calls it, removes all the old perceptual wiring.
The up side: once you've surrendered and let go your attachments, you can become a sturdy vessel. You will trust inner guidance over the chatter from the world.
You will not compromise what you know in order to win temporary favor or companionship. If you endure this kind of wound, you will have the capacity to maintain your center no matter what temptations arise.
The pain of the wound has to be so great that you would willingly let your old world dissolve. And with it dissolves all the beliefs about what can and cannot be healed.
This journey, she tells us, will require you to tolerate a light that would implode a body that was unprepared. Mystics have always had experiences of seeing the light before transformation, even at times being blinded by it.
Myth of the Wounded Healer:
Myss makes a distinction I hadn't heard in this way before:
All wounds are not the psychic wounds of the healer. Some are simply the lessons of earth school. From our earthly perspective, life's issues look insoluble. From the soul's perspective, we are simply learning and growing.
For instance, a divorce can be traumatic, but it doesn't necessarily gut one to the core and demand complete rewiring of perceptions.
Feeling lonely is different from feeling as if you have no place in this world. The psychic wound convinces you that your world is gone and no amount of tinkering could restore it.
Self-Esteem is the Access to Love:
Here she makes another unique distinction. Self-esteem is more powerful than love. Without self-esteem all you have is connivance to get somewhere.
You can only reach love through self-esteem. Everything else is ego and agenda.
She defines self-esteem as the ability to hold yourself in enough respect not to compromise who you are for affection or survival.
(End of Part 1. More to follow...)
Myss explores the healer archetype, and breaks through the myths that have clustered around it. All the literature she found for healers talked about how to heal others, and here she wants to instruct us about healing ourselves.
Her intention is that healers see and evaluate themselves realistically. Further, she wants healers to benefit from their own compassion, the very healing energy they share so freely with others and often fail to lavish upon themselves.
Luminaries as diverse as Shakespeare and the Oracle at Delphi commanded us to "Know thyself." Myss asserts that the healer must know the who what and why of herself in order to become and remain a powerful vessel.
We cannot respect our limits or work faithfully through our limitations if we are blind to them. We will be unable or unwilling to set boundaries for ourselves and inevitably overstep the boundaries of others.
You need to know yourself well enough to know what you can and cannot do. Therefore, you have the ability to say no to situations and people that are inappropriate for you. For instance, she will not heal children, though she doesn't tell us why.
There is a myth, she says, that healers are mystics. Her years of study and years in the field tell her this is untrue. However, she believes all mystics are healers and she cites biblical passages to support her contention.
You can be a 9-5 healer, i.e., someone who practices a skill, such as massage, and goes home at the end of the day feeling you have helped clients without having gone core deep.
She calls this the "eau de toilette" version and considers it completely legitimate.
Her definition of healer extends past the healing practitioner. If you are a healer you will transform your environment whether you're flipping burgers, or teaching school. It's simply who you are.
Eleanor Roosevelt was a profound healer for our country, and a role model for women. Her courage and her ability to contribute made a difference in the world.
Healers are expected to be all things to all people all the time. If you, as a healer, do not know yourself as a flawed person who has particular talents, you will be taken by the ego.
You can be a flawed person, she tells us, and a fully empowered healer. "I specialize in it," she says, in one of her few revelatory remarks.
What I don't like about her style is the angry, arrogant tone. She doesn't say we are this or that; it's always you. And her assumptions about you aren't good.
You aren't doing your inner work, eating right, exercising. And if you neglect your inner voice, why should anyone else trust you?
She abhors the burned out healer. In what other profession, she asks, do you find such a massive burn-out from what is considered someone's goodness?
Being a healer does not make you inherently good. Everyone has a shadow and it's the healer's job to integrate her own.
Otherwise, you will have a private agenda, such as being needed, or being superior; and your private agenda will compromise your work and cross everyone's boundaries.
Don't get too full of yourself, she instructs. If the gods want someone to be healed, they can send them to the corner store for a can of cat food and that cat food will heal them.
You are merely a channel. Strengthen yourself so you can be a clear channel and ready to take on what's given to you.
The Wounded Healer:
Can one be an elegant healer without experiencing a call? Can you provide a healing presence without seeking credit?
The psychic wound will bring you to your knees. It will convince you that you are completely alone, causing everything you depended on to fail you. This "gutting," as she calls it, removes all the old perceptual wiring.
The up side: once you've surrendered and let go your attachments, you can become a sturdy vessel. You will trust inner guidance over the chatter from the world.
You will not compromise what you know in order to win temporary favor or companionship. If you endure this kind of wound, you will have the capacity to maintain your center no matter what temptations arise.
The pain of the wound has to be so great that you would willingly let your old world dissolve. And with it dissolves all the beliefs about what can and cannot be healed.
This journey, she tells us, will require you to tolerate a light that would implode a body that was unprepared. Mystics have always had experiences of seeing the light before transformation, even at times being blinded by it.
Myth of the Wounded Healer:
Myss makes a distinction I hadn't heard in this way before:
All wounds are not the psychic wounds of the healer. Some are simply the lessons of earth school. From our earthly perspective, life's issues look insoluble. From the soul's perspective, we are simply learning and growing.
For instance, a divorce can be traumatic, but it doesn't necessarily gut one to the core and demand complete rewiring of perceptions.
Feeling lonely is different from feeling as if you have no place in this world. The psychic wound convinces you that your world is gone and no amount of tinkering could restore it.
Self-Esteem is the Access to Love:
Here she makes another unique distinction. Self-esteem is more powerful than love. Without self-esteem all you have is connivance to get somewhere.
You can only reach love through self-esteem. Everything else is ego and agenda.
She defines self-esteem as the ability to hold yourself in enough respect not to compromise who you are for affection or survival.
(End of Part 1. More to follow...)
Friday, July 27, 2007
Sunday, July 22, 2007
The Way of the Heart
Jung In Ireland: Andrew Harvey was set to give a lecture entitled "The Way of the Heart" but became ill and had to cancel.
Instead, each of the presenters expressed a take on the topic. Here are some of my notes.
Jan Bauer:
Connect through the shadow. If we try to be perfect, we're invulnerable, not touchable. We become humanized through our errors and imperfections. When there is a chink in the wall our friends fly in to help us.
We connect through light as well as paradox of light and shadow in our sometimes silly and sacred humanity.
It would be wonderful to be able to accept our whole shadow, all the faux pas, and own them, even if someone were to recite them.
Dr. Tom Lavin:
Listen within. His dreams revealed he needed a heart bypass. He was able to have that done in time to save his life.
All the archetypes are within. We need the tension of opposites, such as comedy and tragedy. Full life is able to embrace what the self gives today.
You can own the fact that you live and live deeply.
Dr. Maureen Concannon: The Irish way of the heart. Neart is divine energy that pervades everything.
(I googled neart and it also listed it as strength, strength in unity.)
Sowen (Irish for spirits) are in costume, not speaking. Can't be recognized. You could be dancing with a spirit.
"Only when we are alone can we find the other present in us." She mentioned or recited the Prayer of St. Francis.
Rumi: "There is a light beyond..."
Dr. Aryeh Maidenbaum:
"Who looks outside dreams,
Who looks within, awakens.
~Jung
Sometimes the only thing worse than changing is not changing. (Brendan Kenneally)
"Only that which changes is true." ~Jung
You have to be open to change to have a real life.
Death and the midlife crisis. Aryeh gave a fascinating talk that was personal as well as psychological but like much of this conference, you truly had to be there for the experience.
He spoke about similarities documented between death and the midlife crisis. My notes weren't clear so I took this from andropause.org/uk/articles:
by Jean Coleman, MSc Consultant Clinical Psychologist
In 1965 Elliot Jacques, coined the phrase "midlife crisis," in his article: Death and the Midlife Crisis. Journal of Psycho-Analysis 46.
Jacques maintained that the pattern of midlife crisis is often seen in the lives of writers, composers and artists. Their early work flows easily from pen, brush, chisel or whatever. In the second half of life, things progress more slowly and with more of a struggle; but the results are more meaningful, stronger, in many peoples eyes, they are greater works of art.
Shakespeare’s earlier works had a lighter, often more comedic style; but it is his later works of tragedy that have the deeper messages. So also with musicians and other artists. Jaques would maintain that the great work of Bach, Constable and Goya emerged in mid-life.
Jacques studied ‘some 310 painters, composers, poets, writers and sculptors of undoubted greatness or genius’. In this study, he found a tendency for creativity either to cease, sometimes the person actually died, or subsequent works were changed in nature. The quality of work is no longer a spontaneous expression but becomes a ‘sculpted creativity’.
There is no longer a need for obsessional attempts at perfection, because inevitable imperfection is no longer felt as bitter persecuting failure. Out of this mature resignation comes the serenity in the work of genius, true serenity, serenity which transcends imperfection by accepting it.’
Levinson (1976) also comments on the link between resolution of the crisis and continuing effective creativity, ‘Men such as Freud, Jung, Eugene O’Neill, Frank Lloyd Wright, Goya and Ghandi went through a profound crisis at around 40 and made tremendous creative gains through it. There are also men like Dylan Thomas and F. Scott Fitzgerald who could not manage this crisis and who destroyed themselves in it.
A study of 310 important creative people (Mozart, Rodin, etc.) indicated that they had a marked tendency toward crisis in midlife.
Aryeh ended with a quote from the Talmud:
If I am not for myself, who will be?
If I am only for myself, who am I?
If not now, when?
Guy Corneau:
Led a powerful heart meditation. You had to be there!
Noirin Ni Riain:
My notes aren't clear. Brigit: The Happy Heart is True
The Developing Mind, by Dan Siegal, power of relationships to heal.
Sunset: Take a moment for consciousness. Sun rise is the new day. Make your own ritual and make time for it every day.
Instead, each of the presenters expressed a take on the topic. Here are some of my notes.
Jan Bauer:
Connect through the shadow. If we try to be perfect, we're invulnerable, not touchable. We become humanized through our errors and imperfections. When there is a chink in the wall our friends fly in to help us.
We connect through light as well as paradox of light and shadow in our sometimes silly and sacred humanity.
It would be wonderful to be able to accept our whole shadow, all the faux pas, and own them, even if someone were to recite them.
Dr. Tom Lavin:
Listen within. His dreams revealed he needed a heart bypass. He was able to have that done in time to save his life.
All the archetypes are within. We need the tension of opposites, such as comedy and tragedy. Full life is able to embrace what the self gives today.
You can own the fact that you live and live deeply.
Dr. Maureen Concannon: The Irish way of the heart. Neart is divine energy that pervades everything.
(I googled neart and it also listed it as strength, strength in unity.)
Sowen (Irish for spirits) are in costume, not speaking. Can't be recognized. You could be dancing with a spirit.
"Only when we are alone can we find the other present in us." She mentioned or recited the Prayer of St. Francis.
Rumi: "There is a light beyond..."
Dr. Aryeh Maidenbaum:
"Who looks outside dreams,
Who looks within, awakens.
~Jung
Sometimes the only thing worse than changing is not changing. (Brendan Kenneally)
"Only that which changes is true." ~Jung
You have to be open to change to have a real life.
Death and the midlife crisis. Aryeh gave a fascinating talk that was personal as well as psychological but like much of this conference, you truly had to be there for the experience.
He spoke about similarities documented between death and the midlife crisis. My notes weren't clear so I took this from andropause.org/uk/articles:
by Jean Coleman, MSc Consultant Clinical Psychologist
In 1965 Elliot Jacques, coined the phrase "midlife crisis," in his article: Death and the Midlife Crisis. Journal of Psycho-Analysis 46.
Jacques maintained that the pattern of midlife crisis is often seen in the lives of writers, composers and artists. Their early work flows easily from pen, brush, chisel or whatever. In the second half of life, things progress more slowly and with more of a struggle; but the results are more meaningful, stronger, in many peoples eyes, they are greater works of art.
Shakespeare’s earlier works had a lighter, often more comedic style; but it is his later works of tragedy that have the deeper messages. So also with musicians and other artists. Jaques would maintain that the great work of Bach, Constable and Goya emerged in mid-life.
Jacques studied ‘some 310 painters, composers, poets, writers and sculptors of undoubted greatness or genius’. In this study, he found a tendency for creativity either to cease, sometimes the person actually died, or subsequent works were changed in nature. The quality of work is no longer a spontaneous expression but becomes a ‘sculpted creativity’.
There is no longer a need for obsessional attempts at perfection, because inevitable imperfection is no longer felt as bitter persecuting failure. Out of this mature resignation comes the serenity in the work of genius, true serenity, serenity which transcends imperfection by accepting it.’
Levinson (1976) also comments on the link between resolution of the crisis and continuing effective creativity, ‘Men such as Freud, Jung, Eugene O’Neill, Frank Lloyd Wright, Goya and Ghandi went through a profound crisis at around 40 and made tremendous creative gains through it. There are also men like Dylan Thomas and F. Scott Fitzgerald who could not manage this crisis and who destroyed themselves in it.
A study of 310 important creative people (Mozart, Rodin, etc.) indicated that they had a marked tendency toward crisis in midlife.
Aryeh ended with a quote from the Talmud:
If I am not for myself, who will be?
If I am only for myself, who am I?
If not now, when?
Guy Corneau:
Led a powerful heart meditation. You had to be there!
Noirin Ni Riain:
My notes aren't clear. Brigit: The Happy Heart is True
The Developing Mind, by Dan Siegal, power of relationships to heal.
Sunset: Take a moment for consciousness. Sun rise is the new day. Make your own ritual and make time for it every day.
Astrological Psychology
Jung took many of his innovative ideas from astrology (typology, for instance). Archetypal figures are the planets. Venus has been the Goddess of Love since the ancients.
Jung's daughter Grette said that her father put her in the role of home/mother. At 15 she became gravely ill. Jung came to see her and actually saw her and listened to her.
Out of that meeting, she was freed of the mothering role and became an astrologer.
Grette also mentioned that the children did not like Toni Wolf. They wrecked her hat. (related in a private interview with Dr. Maureen Concannon.)
Dr. Concannon insists that we are terrified of the powerful feminine. She does not refer to leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, whom she characterized as a man in drag.
Horrific murders and wars, she said, are the result of having lost contact with the feminine archetype of the great mother.
Currently we're experiencing the manifestation of the dark goddess. (My notes from this lecture are spotty.
Dr. Concannon's flow was a bit hard to follow. She seemed to be in the midst of her own transformation and admitted that she could not follow her usual highly prepared and rational style.
Regarding the dark night of the soul, she quotes Scott Fitzgerald: "It's 3:00 in the morning 24 hours a day."
Christianity in Ireland: The druids became priests (so there was no war) but they kept the idea of a feminine deity. The white deer is the druid.
Three branches of Irish Christianity. (A bit spotty here) Bridit's kept ancient traditions of Ireland. Druids involve nature rituals. (Brigit's day is February 1st.
How the Irish Saved Civilization (during the dark ages, peace reigned in Ireland) Druids created a Christianity of peace and druidic knowledge.
Early Irish Christianity is based on the Coptic Christians and connected strongly with the land.
From Noirin ni Riaian:
Brigit is the patron of healing, poetry and smiths craft. Imbolc is her season.
Where is the center of the world? Where you stand.
February 1 is Brigid's day
February 2 is Christian Fest of Mary (Candle mass)
February 3rd - Blaise - (?) Feast for blessings of your throat?
Brigid was born on the threshold - The threshold is a place of possibility.
The Crone was once the lover to all the Kings of Ireland. Hills are rocks that fell from her apron.
Jung's daughter Grette said that her father put her in the role of home/mother. At 15 she became gravely ill. Jung came to see her and actually saw her and listened to her.
Out of that meeting, she was freed of the mothering role and became an astrologer.
Grette also mentioned that the children did not like Toni Wolf. They wrecked her hat. (related in a private interview with Dr. Maureen Concannon.)
Dr. Concannon insists that we are terrified of the powerful feminine. She does not refer to leaders such as Margaret Thatcher, whom she characterized as a man in drag.
Horrific murders and wars, she said, are the result of having lost contact with the feminine archetype of the great mother.
Currently we're experiencing the manifestation of the dark goddess. (My notes from this lecture are spotty.
Dr. Concannon's flow was a bit hard to follow. She seemed to be in the midst of her own transformation and admitted that she could not follow her usual highly prepared and rational style.
Regarding the dark night of the soul, she quotes Scott Fitzgerald: "It's 3:00 in the morning 24 hours a day."
Christianity in Ireland: The druids became priests (so there was no war) but they kept the idea of a feminine deity. The white deer is the druid.
Three branches of Irish Christianity. (A bit spotty here) Bridit's kept ancient traditions of Ireland. Druids involve nature rituals. (Brigit's day is February 1st.
How the Irish Saved Civilization (during the dark ages, peace reigned in Ireland) Druids created a Christianity of peace and druidic knowledge.
Early Irish Christianity is based on the Coptic Christians and connected strongly with the land.
From Noirin ni Riaian:
Brigit is the patron of healing, poetry and smiths craft. Imbolc is her season.
Where is the center of the world? Where you stand.
February 1 is Brigid's day
February 2 is Christian Fest of Mary (Candle mass)
February 3rd - Blaise - (?) Feast for blessings of your throat?
Brigid was born on the threshold - The threshold is a place of possibility.
The Crone was once the lover to all the Kings of Ireland. Hills are rocks that fell from her apron.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Growing Into Real Power
Growing Into Real Power: When Living Itself Becomes A Friend
Notes from Dr. Maureen Concannon's lecture - 2007 Jung In Ireland Conference
When an archetype (such as the goddess) is withdrawn from the collective consciousness, it becomes hidden in our unconscious and we become afraid of it.
The goddess stood for things we're now afraid of. For instance, she rules over death (death is generally a tabu subject.)
4,500 B.C.: Horse-riding warriors (Kurgens) from the Russian Steppes moved west. Unlike their intrusion into the rest of Europe, they didn't enter Ireland until 600 B.C. This gave Ireland 4,000 years longer than the rest of Europe to remain a nature and matriarchal society.
The Law of Nature: Respect and honor what you have or it will be taken from you. Ireland has a pact with the goddess. If Ireland wars, or disrespects the land, the goddess divorces him and pestilence falls. This has been true throughout Irish history.
Disease in the earth is in us too. (This is also the shamanic viewpoint that Alberto Villoldo discusses in his books, and in the lecture I attended in New Mexico. If we stay in balance with nature, we ultimately remain in balance within.)
Ireland is currently highly prosperous and the agreement with the goddess is being forgotten.
Fairies and little people: in 600 B.C. they took everything underground. But now everything underground is coming back up. Leprechauns were not formerly considered small.
At one time children used to be birthed in the open, in stone circles under the sky so they could connect with the sky.
So much we can't do until midlife because we're not at that point of integration.
(Part II to follow)
Notes from Dr. Maureen Concannon's lecture - 2007 Jung In Ireland Conference
When an archetype (such as the goddess) is withdrawn from the collective consciousness, it becomes hidden in our unconscious and we become afraid of it.
The goddess stood for things we're now afraid of. For instance, she rules over death (death is generally a tabu subject.)
4,500 B.C.: Horse-riding warriors (Kurgens) from the Russian Steppes moved west. Unlike their intrusion into the rest of Europe, they didn't enter Ireland until 600 B.C. This gave Ireland 4,000 years longer than the rest of Europe to remain a nature and matriarchal society.
The Law of Nature: Respect and honor what you have or it will be taken from you. Ireland has a pact with the goddess. If Ireland wars, or disrespects the land, the goddess divorces him and pestilence falls. This has been true throughout Irish history.
Disease in the earth is in us too. (This is also the shamanic viewpoint that Alberto Villoldo discusses in his books, and in the lecture I attended in New Mexico. If we stay in balance with nature, we ultimately remain in balance within.)
Ireland is currently highly prosperous and the agreement with the goddess is being forgotten.
Fairies and little people: in 600 B.C. they took everything underground. But now everything underground is coming back up. Leprechauns were not formerly considered small.
At one time children used to be birthed in the open, in stone circles under the sky so they could connect with the sky.
So much we can't do until midlife because we're not at that point of integration.
(Part II to follow)
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