Tag Archives: Jung

Embracing the Shadow: An Exploration of A Wizard of Earthsea

Posted on by under Grad School, Psychology, Words for Wednesday, Writing

“The shadow personifies everything that the subject refuses to acknowledge about himself and yet is always thrusting itself upon him directly or indirectly” (Jung 221). The shadow, an important concept Carl Jung explored throughout his career, exists individually as well as collectively (Bly 26). Societies used to confront and work through the shadow with rituals (Slater CL1). Now that those fundamental ceremonies for confronting it have all but vanished, the shadow has a stronger presence. According to Glen Slater, “Modern existence is inherently shadow making” (Slater CL3). Collectively and individually, the shadow needs to be recognized “so it doesn’t take over or jump out” (Slater CL2). When the shadow is ignored, then its “energies become destructive” (Bly 59).

One place where the shadow is acted out is in literature: “All literature, both of the primitive and the modern peoples, can be thought of as creations by the ‘dark side’ to enable it to rise up from earth and join the sunlit conscious again” (Bly 63). Dark shadow-figures, often in the form of a person’s double, are commonly depicted in film, literature, and television. In Ursula Le Guin’s novel A Wizard of Earthsea, the protagonist, the young wizard Ged, performs a spell that unleashes a literal shadow. Le Guin’s use of the shadow specifically as a physical shadow works stronger than metaphors in other works of fiction because she is using the language needed (by always calling it a “shadow”), and she is showing the psychological process of confronting the shadow. Ged’s interactions with his shadow resonate for readers as his movements parallel Robert Bly’s five stages in “exiling, hunting, and retrieving the shadow” (Bly 27). Through the novel, Le Guin develops Ged as a character that has generally good intentions, but still has that darker side, a duality that is present in all individuals. The novel demonstrates that the shadow side must be reconciled with, and Le Guin does this by implementing not just a shadow metaphor, but an actual physical shadow that is truly a part of the main character.

The shadow imagery begins in the very first chapter of A Wizard of Earthsea. When young Ged casts his first major spell to protect his home town, he does so with “a mess of shadows” (Le Guin 13). Shortly thereafter, when Ged leaves town with his first teacher, Ogion, he steps “through the leaves and shadows of bright autumn” (Le Guin 15, italics mine). The problem Ged is developing with his shadow is immediately apparent as he is primarily focused on learning “to gain power” and dismissing the importance of balance in the use of magic (18). In fact, it is his desire to demonstrate his power that leads him to the spell that will come to physically unleash his shadow. After a young girl in the woods challenges Ged’s ability to perform any useful spell, Ged looks at a forbidden spell book of Ogion’s. The first spell that catches his attention is one that summons the dead. As he reads this text, the appearance of his shadow is foreshadowed: “he saw that something was crouching beside the closed door, a shapeless lot of shadow darker than the darkness” (22). Ogion then enters, dispelling what he later calls only “the shadow of a shadow” (127). With concern, the master wizard questions young Ged: “Have you never thought how danger must surround power as shadow does light?” (23). Unfortunately, this does not resonate with the headstrong Ged. Recognizing Ged’s frustration in not learning more spells from him, Ogion gives Ged the choice between staying with him or advancing more quickly by attending Roke, a school for wizards. Ged chooses the latter.

The shadow imagery continues as Ged travels to Roke on a ship aptly named Shadow. Le Guin is not overusing the imagery, but building towards the inevitable confrontation Ged will have with his shadow. Ged’s shadow is present, as it is for all individuals, but he is refusing to see it. The readers need to see this growth of the shadow figure within Ged because, as Jung warns, “the less [the shadow] is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is” (88). Ged’s shadow is going to erupt, and because he has so heartily ignored it, it is going to be vicious. When Ged enters his new school, “it seem[s] to him though the light was behind him, a shadow followed him in at his heels” (Le Guin 34). While readers are starkly aware of the shadow imagery and sense the impending doom, Ged remains arrogant, eager to learn and impress others.

Ged’s new instructor, The Master Hand, immediately explains to Ged that “[t]he world is in balance, in Equilibrium . . . To light a candle is to cast a shadow” (44). Nevertheless, this warning, like that from Ogion, falls on deaf ears: Ged believes that “surely a wizard . . . was powerful enough to do what he pleased, and balance the world as seemed best to him, and drive back darkness with his own light” (44). Like all youngsters, Ged must learn through experience. Jacobi indicates that “[i]n psychology, one possesses nothing unless one has experienced it in reality” (14). Essentially, Ged must face his own shadow, as everyone must. If he had heeded any of the warnings from his instructors, perhaps his shadow would not have become so dark, powerful and threatening. However, of course, “[W]e have to learn to discipline ourselves. And discipline rests on the ability to act in a manner that is contrary to our feelings when necessary. This is an eminently human prerogative as well as a necessity” (Whitmont 167). Self-discipline and shadow-work is vital for development, and because Ged has so deeply ignored his shadow, the work is going to be especially difficult for him.

One of the first subjects Ged studies at Roke is Summoning, which leads him to “certain phrases . . . that he did not like to say [that] made him think, for an instant, of shadows in a dark room, of a shut door and shadows reaching out to him from the corner by the door” (Le Guin 54). He reluctantly remembers the darkness when he was looking at the spell book at Ogion’s, but he tells himself these are “shadows merely of his ignorance” (54). Not only has he ignored the warnings from his masters, but now he is even ignoring his own intuition. As Bernardo and Murphy emphasize in their study on the novel, “Ged sees himself as an individual who should be able to act simply because he wishes to. He does not see connections between his actions and a widening circle of events.” By not seeing his shadow or acknowledging it, Ged is essentially possessed by it. His drive for power continues as he refuses to recognize the importance of balance. This continues to build his shadow.

In his book A Little Book on the Human Shadow, Robert Bly discusses how people continually fill their “bag” with shadow figures. In Part 3 of his text, Bly thoroughly breaks down the five stages of facing one’s shadow. He does stress that “[w]e don’t live wholly at any moment in . . . any stage; we are in all five stages simultaneously” (Bly 38). There is a development, though, that is apparent in the stages demonstrating how one can lead to the next. Of course, confronting the shadow is not easy work, so the individual does slip around the stages as he continues through this struggle, likely through his lifetime. In A Wizard of Earthsea, after Ged’s shadow physically manifests itself, his journey lies in learning to embrace it as a part of himself; this serves as a great example of moving through Bly’s five stages of facing the shadow.

One night, Ged’s pride is pushed so far that he uses the spell he read at Ogion’s and summons a spirit from the dead. Jungian Analyst Robert A. Johnson explains that when the shadow “accumulates more energy than our ego, it erupts . . . The shadow gone autonomous is a terrible monster in our psychic house” (5). Ged’s action unleashes an actual physical shadow, described by Le Guin as a shadow “the size of a young child [with] no head or face” (61). This is the moment when Ged encounters Bly’s first stage, wherein the shadow “comes to rest outside the owner’s psyche, and seems likely to remain out there somewhere” (31). At this moment, neither Ged nor the readers understand this shadow figure to actually be a part of Ged. It appears to be something that erupted from a dark spell. Because the shadow comes from Ged’s unconscious, he is unaware of its origins. As Jung notes, “[I]t is not the conscious subject but the unconscious which does the projecting” (92). The shadow, which has now been so long repressed, erupts aggressively and physically attacks Ged. According to Jung, “No one can overlook either the dynamism or the imagery of the instincts [including the shadow, which arises from the unconscious] without the gravest injury to himself” (Jung 389). In this confrontation, the shadow physically maims Ged, and when the Arch Mage saves the young wizard at the cost of his own life, the shadow flees.

Everyone at Roke, especially Ged, believes the shadow is something nameless and evil. Jung asserts that the shadow is not something evil: “If . . . the shadow . . . were obviously evil, there would be no problem whatever. But the shadow is merely somewhat inferior, primitive, unadapted, and awkward; not wholly bad. It even contains childish or primitive qualities which would in a way vitalize and embellish human existence” (90). The size of Ged’s shadow is a physical representation of its childish quality, while its violent instinct demonstrates its primitive quality. If Ged had recognized the shadow as himself in that moment, he could have prevented what becomes an arduous journey. However, that journey is necessary. Jung reveals the difficulties of facing the shadow:

To become conscious of [the shadow] involves recognizing the dark aspects of the personality as present and real. This act is the essential condition for any kind of self-knowledge, and it therefore, as a rule, meets with considerable resistance. Indeed, self-knowledge as a psychotherapeutic measure frequently requires much painstaking work extending over a long period. (91)

Appropriately, it takes years after this incident for Ged to successfully confront and join himself with his shadow. It is a difficult path met with a lot of resistance, but also with the great reward, in the end, of psychological wholeness.

After this dark confrontation, which has left Ged physically maimed and psychologically weakened, he stays at Roke to study quietly and “undo…the evil” (Le Guin 65). The new archmage identifies the monstrosity Ged released as an “evil shadow” and knows it will “possess” Ged if he leaves Roke immediately (65). The characters refer to the entity as a shadow because of its dark, characterless appearance. Le Guin is using the term aptly, as the psychological shadow is precisely what Ged is fighting against. The archmage appropriately describes it to Ged as “the shadow of [his] arrogance [and] ignorance,” though no one can really identify what it is (66). These comments bare more truth than Ged, his masters, or the reader can yet recognize.

Ged stays to study in silence, essentially ostracizing himself from the other students. According to Bly, Jung’s reports illustrate that “when the shadow is successfully repressed, the person doing it finds it very difficult to talk to other people about feelings” (Bly 50-51). Though the shadow is out in the world now, it is still something repressed because Ged cannot recognize it as a part of himself and does not even wish to discuss the incident with anyone. In Bly’s second stage, there is some type of rattle or disturbance wherein “something doesn’t quite fit anymore” (31). Though Ged is safe from the shadow at Roke, after completing his studies he is ready to go out into the world. On a subconscious level, Ged is aware that “to be cured it is necessary to find a way in which his conscious personality and his shadow can live together” (Jung 89). He knows the shadow is waiting for him, but becomes unsettled and uneasy at Roke. His focused training after the unleashing of the shadow has inspired him to help people instead of impress them, and Ged moves to the small town Pendor to protect the citizens from dragons.

Ged befriends Pechvarry, and when his new friend’s son is dying, Ged tries to save him with a spell. When he enters the liminal space between life and death, he sees the shadow for the first time since the night it was unleashed. Ged will later understand the relevance of meeting the shadow in the realm of death, for it is in fact the shadow of his own death that he unleashed. Through this spell, Ged barely survives, and the child is lost. At this time, Ged moves into Bly’s third stage “in which the distressed person calls on the moral intelligence to repair the rattle” (34). Ged wants to flee from the shadow, but he first wants to complete the task that brought him to Pendor.

Rather than waiting for the dragons to attack Pendor, Ged takes the fight to them. The eldest dragon tries to bargain with Ged, offering to name the shadow that hunts him. True names have a great power in Earthsea, and by knowing the shadow’s name, Ged would know it as himself. Of course, the psychological process cannot be achieved if one does not personally recognize the dark part as self. Importantly, Ged refuses the dragon’s offer and kills him and his offspring. At this point, Ged is more determined to save the Pendor people than himself. The wizard who was initially driven by power and glory has undergone great development.

With Pendor safe, Ged flees to both escape the shadow, which he fears facing again, and to spare Pendor from the shadow creature. While Ged retreats from the shadow, another confrontation drives him back to his true master, Ogion. He is now prepared to hear and heed his master’s advice: “Now turn clear round, and seek the very source . . . There lies your hope of strength” (Le Guin 128). Encouraged by his master, Ged bravely switches from the role of the hunted to that of the hunter, perhaps another indication the two are the same. Once Ged begins to hunt the shadow, it assumes Ged’s physical appearance. As Johnson indicates, “whether we know it or not our psychic twin follows us like a mirror image” (Johnson 16). Though there are reports from others of a man looking just like him, Ged still does not recognize himself in the shadow.

In the next meeting with the shadow, Ged tries to grab the shadow by force and fails. In The Symbolic Quest, psychotherapist Edward C. Whitmont explains that the “energy [of the shadow] cannot simply be stopped by an act of will. What is needed is rechanneling or transformation. However, this task requires both an awareness and an acceptance of the shadow as something which cannot simply be gotten rid of” (Whitmont 166). Ged thinks he needs to overcome the shadow, to kill it. Of course, this is not possible since the shadow is a part of his “unconscious personality” (Jung 87). Ultimately, after Ged tries to attack the shadow, it flees. Until he can recognize the shadow as himself, he cannot unite with it or achieve wholeness. Ged does begin to recognize that his “acts have their echo in it; it is [his] creature” (Le Guin 160). He is starting to accept ownership, but still sees the shadow as something monstrous he created, not as something that is a part of him.

Ged does not know how to defeat his shadow monster. In Bly’s fourth stage, “one gives up for a moment. . . we suddenly look into ourselves and see our own diminishment” (Bly 36). In hunting it and failing to so much as grasp it, Ged feels a momentary defeat. He continues to hunt the shadow, but does not know what he will do when he finds it. In a fortuitous moment, Ged runs into his old friend Estarriol from Roke. This is a key step in moving towards his final confrontation with the shadow because even though one must personally recognize his own shadow, the task does not require solitude: “Our friends play crucial roles in what we call the fourth stage” (37). The friend’s role is not to offer empty platitudes and insist things will be okay. In fact, Bly indicates such congeniality is useless. Instead, the true friend brings steady, moral support on the quest.

As a concerned friend, Estarriol insists upon accompanying Ged as he sets out across the ocean to search for his shadow. During this time, Ged comes closer to understanding that the shadow is an aspect of himself. He acknowledges to Estarriol, without yet understanding the full meaning of his words, “If I lose it, I am lost” (Le Guin 173). Earthsea, which is composed mostly of islands, is mapped only to a certain distance. Where the land disappears and the ocean becomes expansive, it is believed the world drops off. Ged is now willing to move into these uncharted waters, which are representative of the unconscious, the home of the shadow. This is the place Ged must go. Furthermore, not only is the ocean representative of the unconscious, but “[w]ater has often been used as a symbol for the deepest spiritual nourishment of humanity” (Johnson ix). This nourishment is exactly what Ged needs to complete his psychological wholeness and achieve the quest of the novel.

This hunt brings Ged into Bly’s fifth and final stage of “eating the shadow” (Bly 38). As Ged travels silently with his companion, he begins to recognize the shadow for what it truly is. He finally understands that the shadow is not something he created or unleashed, but that it is an unrecognized part of himself. His original way of thinking, to confront or overcome the shadow, was incorrect. He needs to identify and accept it, and he will do this by calling the shadow its true name: Ged. Not only do true names hold an important power in Earthsea, but “[u]sing language consciously seems to be the most fruitful method of retrieving shadow substance scattered out in the world. Energy we have sent out is floating around beyond the psyche; and one way to pull it back into the psyche is the rope of language” (42-43). This language, this naming of the shadow, of the self, is the final step for Ged in owning his shadow.

In the final confrontation, before Ged vocally names his shadow, it appears to him as shapeless. Then it goes through a series of transformations, taking on the following successive appearances: Ged’s father (who Ged left behind to study wizardy), Jasper (the wizard Ged was showing off to when he unleashed the shadow), Pechvarry (the friend whose son Ged failed to save), and Skiorh (a man who the shadow temporarily took hold of when chasing Ged). All these individuals represent different parts of Ged’s journey against his shadow: respectively, his inability to see the shadow, his arrogance in unleashing it, his fear of it, and his inability to see it for what it is. After this display, the shadow turns back “into black emptiness” (Le Guin 178). Once the shadow drops its guises, Ged recognizes the shadow as himself. Ged “took hold of his shadow, of the black self that reached out to him. Light and darkness met, and joined, and were one” (179). The wizard now holds a balance within himself. He has learned responsibility the responsibility of wizardry and reconciled the good and the bad within himself.

In naming his shadow, Ged recognizes what comprises his shadow. Le Guin describes, “Ged had neither lost nor won but, naming the shadow of his death with his own name, had made himself whole” (180). The spell to summon the dead and his own confrontation with death at the hands of his own shadow demonstrates what Ged had really poured into his shadow: his own mortality. In his arrogant youth, Ged felt invincible. Because he saw no harm falling upon himself because of his ability to alter the world through his powers of magic, he buried his own vulnerability deep in his shadow. Ged could not have contributed much to the world with his original attitude. In fact, if he had continued in his reckless ways, he surely would have done more harm than good. His progress here represents Johnson’s important recognition: “To own one’s shadow is to reach a holy place – an inner center – not attainable in any other way. To fail this is to fail one’s own sainthood and to miss the purpose of life” (Johnson 17). The following Earthsea books reveal the purpose of Ged’s life as a great and masterful wizard.

After his final confrontation with the shadow, Ged explains to Estarriol that his wound is “healed” and he is now “whole” and “free” (Le Guin 180). Ged has incorporated his shadow self and achieved what Jung identified as individuation, which Glen Slater describes as both “growing more into your uniqueness and character [and] feeling more connected to the human story as a whole” (CL1). By achieving individuation and incorporating his shadow, Ged can venture into the world as a psychological whole prepared to aid others on their journeys. This shadow hunt has been a great psychological journey for Ged, and it was necessary in his formation as a powerful and responsible wizard. As Jung indicates, “anyone who has insight into his own actions, and has thus found access to the unconscious, involuntarily exercises an influence on his environment” (Jung 401). With his magical abilities united with a sense of balance, Ged now has much to contribute to the world.

Through this novel, Le Guin has successfully demonstrated Bly’s steps of working with, confronting, and eating the shadow. The details and actions she writes demonstrate that this is not an easy process, but definitely a necessary one. By calling the shadow what it is, a shadow, the metaphor of the unleashed creature is strong and resonant for readers. Le Guin makes the process of the facing the shadow, one that must be recognized individually and collectively, identifiable and opens the ground for discussions amongst readers and scholars. The novel, written for children, is accessible to all ages and has a profound resonance even if one is not familiar with Jung’s terms and definitions.

 

 

Works Cited

Bernardo, Susan M. and Graham J. Murphy. Ursula K. Le Guin: A Critical Companion. Westport: Greenwood, 2006. N. pag. Kindle Edition.

Bly, Robert. A Little Book on the Human Shadow. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1988. Print.

Jacobi, Jolande S. Complex/Archetype/Symbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1959. Print.

Johnson, Robert A. Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche. New York: Harper and Row, 1991. Print.

Jung, C. G. and Anthony Storr. The Essential Jung. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1983. Print.

Le Guin, Ursula. A Wizard of Earthsea. New York: Bantam Books, 1968. Print.

Slater, Glen. “Class Lecture 1.” Jungian Depth Psychology. Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria. 13 Apr. 2011. Lecture.

– “Class Lecture 2.” Jungian Depth Psychology. Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria. 19 May 2009. Lecture.

– Class Lecture 3.” Jungian Depth Psychology. Pacifica Graduate Institute, Carpinteria. 23 June 2011. Lecture.

Whitmont, Edward C. The Symbolic Quest. New York: H Wolf Book Manufacturing Company, 1969. Print.

The Archetype of Initiation

Posted on by under Mythology, Pop Culture, Psychology

On Wednesday evening, I had the pleasure of visiting the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles for the program Changing Women: Female Initiation for Our Time presented by Jennifer Koster. She discussed the archetype of initiation, looking specifically at this process for women, and drawing examples from the films Black Swan and Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland.  (Note: spoilers for Black Swan included below).

Jennifer began the night by providing working definitions of ritual and initiation, terms that have a lot of depth. In her definition of ritual, she included the following elements: pure experience, culturally related, a universal cultural element, any sacred or secular event. She aptly concluded that ritual is so “expansive and omnipresent” that is is difficult to define. She defined initiation, in a broad sense, as the move from immaturity into adulthood. She drew on Bruce Lincoln’s text Emerging from the Chrysalis, summarizing four types of women’s initiation rites he discusses: body mutilation, identification with the mythic heroine, a cosmic journey, and the play of opposites.

Jennifer also discussed the difference between male and female initiation. While drawing on examples from Arnold van Gennep’s text The Rites of Passage, she reminded us that the majority of life consists of transitions. Traditionally, the male would go out into the world and take on a new role, while the female would turn inwards for initiation. Historically, the male initiation typically led to liminality, while the female initiation typically led to metamorphoses. In our modern time, however, women can change more outwardly and men can change more inwardly. Jennifer acknowledged that Jungians have long known that feminine doesn’t belong only to female and the masculine doesn’t belong to only male; the rest of the world is finally starting to catch up with us.

In the process of initiation, something has to be let go. Reflecting on Joseph Henderson’s text Thresholds of Initiation, Jennifer told us that the initiation archetype contains something that is forgotten and rediscovered. She drew an example from her own life, indicating that if she just writes from notes and quotations she’s jotted down, it becomes dry. Instead she has to step away from the source material, forget it, and then rediscover it as she writes from heart. What a beautiful example! Jennifer reminded us that it is painful to let go of what you thought you knew about life; initiation does feel like a loss, but it is a gaining. And even though you have to let go of that old self, it is still there with you. An audience member asked Jennifer, “What about when it’s not a choice??” to which she responded that the lack of choice is part of the initiation archetype. Furthermore, “you don’t get to be done with it until you’re done with it.”

Change does take time, as Jennifer emphasized several times, and can be imagined as a dance between the known and unknown. With life being filled with a constant cycle of change, this archetype of initiation is very powerful. Jennifer reminded us that the archetype does need to be relevant to the specific person, in her specific time, in her specific place. If the archetype doesn’t connect with the person, it won’t have any effect. Also, if you’re not ready for the change, it probably won’t stick. She also conveyed that initiation is deeply tied to the body and the eternal. The body holds a lot of life experience, and it is through our body that we connect to our soul.  What’s so great about the archetype is that it reminds us that we have gone through change before and survived and can do so again.

In the final part of her lecture, Jennifer discussed cinema as a psychological medium and showed clips from Alice in Wonderland and Black Swan . We saw Alice falling down the rabbit hole and Nina’s dream in the opening scene. Alice seems to be going an adventure while Nina’s encounter contains a dark force making her change. It’s clear from the beginning that they are on different types of initiation. Alice encounters identification with the mythic heroine while Nina faces a cosmic journey. Both girls come to question their identity: Alice is literally questioned by the caterpillar while Nina is pushed by the director to show more of her Black Swan side when he forces a kiss on her.(In discussing Nina’s quest for perfection, Jennifer mentioned Marion Woodman’s text Addiction to Perfection. Lots of books to add to my “must read” list!) Ultimately, Nina’s journey is darker as she is more at odds with the person she is becoming than Alice is. The White Queen makes it clear to Alice that she has a choice about fighting the Jabberwocky while Nina’s mom locks her in her room forcing Nina to fiercely stand up for herself. In a way, Alice’s initiation is more cheerful and empowering, while Nina’s is related to death and transformation. This led to a the positing of an  important question that comes up at the end of Black Swan: has Nina died symbolically or literally?

In her concluding remarks, Jennifer reminded us that these women are the dreams of men, with both films produced by men, and Alice in Wonderland initially written by a man. She opened up the question of what happens if we look at the film as a dream of the collective. After all, films are always collaborative. And then we can also consider how we respond to the images from film as a group. She left us with great ideas to chew on! I heard several people comment afterwards that the lecture was just too short!!  We could have easily spent a whole day exploring just these two films.  At the very least now, I want to rewatch both films from this archetypal perspective.  Thank you, Jennifer, for opening my mind to even more ideas from the spring of depth psychology.

On a final note, I would like to add that in the scene where Natalie Portman stabs herself, she screams out, “It’s my turn!” and she takes on the red eyes of the black swan. I couldn’t help but think of River Tam in Serenity, shouting the same line to Simon. Here, River is ready to fight in defense of her brother. Nina is prepared to fight for herself. Both women have undergone a transformation, but River’s is certainly more empowering and selfless. I just find it interesting that they use the same line. Perhaps something I will explore down the road.

Healing Fiction

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Psychology

Healing FictionHealing Fiction by James Hillman

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Fascinating read! Hillman’s book contains three parts primarily addressing Freud, Jung, and Adler.

I think I was most fascinated by the first section because it contained a concept new for me. Though I’ve got a good handle on Freud himself, Hillman takes us specifically into examining case history and what Freud brought to it. Ultimately, case history itself serves as a type fiction: the person telling the story of their experience(s) is presenting a fiction, their interpretation and memory of the events; the analyst is then recording that story, with his/her (un)conscious interpretation of the events. Fascinating perspective. And, it leads us to the underlining theme of the whole text: why do our souls want this healing fiction??

In the second section, Hillman works with ideas of Jung, images, and Knowing Thyself. Just coming out of my Jungian course and really being fascinated by so much of his work, I soaked up this section. Hillman leads us into the use of active imagination and discussing healing, something of deep interest to me for my possible dissertation topic.

In the third and final section, Hillman looks at Alder and what the soul wants. The focus here lies on inferiority and community, and then leads to Hillman’s final conclusion on what the soul wants. He concludes that, despite that various answers he’s given through out, this is the key: we don’t need to know WHAT the soul wants but THAT it wants. And this is something psychotherapy can deliver.

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Wisdom of the Psyche

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Psychology

I made sooo many notes!

Wisdom of the Psyche by Ginette Paris

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This week, I had a beautiful spiritual, intellectual love affair with Ginette Paris’ Wisdom of the Psyche: Depth Psychology after Neuroscience. The book is a requirement for a summer course I am taking with Dr. Paris in a couple weeks. I really knew nothing about the text or her when I sat down with it. The preface took me by surprise: this was not just another academic venture. This book comes from her absolute being, written in the aftermath of surviving a fall that caused her brain to hemorrhage. This is a profound exploration of the human psyche, ardently written and informed by her academic career. I heartily recommend it to anyone interested at all in the human condition, mind, and spirit.

Paris has a wonderful way of combining the academic with the personal, even including other voices in her text by discussing former patients and providing personal writing samples on both her personal experiences and theirs. She really lets the reader in, allowing a transformative reading experience. At the core of the text, she is, of course, examining psyche. She also provides numerous accessible definitions for depth psychology. And, within that, here’s just some of the potent ideas she discusses: racism, homosexuality, feminism, consumerist culture, archetypes, storytelling, parenting, pain, family, conflict, education, language, soul, redemption, religion, history, globalization, love, soma, relationships, identity, adulthood, anxiety, fear, and depression.

I just finished the book a little while ago, and my head is just buzzing with a million thoughts. I can’t wait to start delving into them more, especially when I get to attend her lectures!

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Why blood?

Posted on by under Buffy, Pop Culture

“Blood is life, lack-brain. Why do you think we eat it?
It’s what keeps you going. Makes you warm. Makes you hard.
Makes you other than dead.” – Spike

Buffy the Vampire Slayer - season five

For my Jungian Psychology class, I recently read Ego and Archetype by Edward Edinger. Now that I’ve survived the research paper process, I want to look at something else I came across in his text.  In discussing Christ as the symbol of Self, Edinger expounds on the significance of the blood of Christ, pausing to first explore the significance of blood. I couldn’t help but think of vampires. Our society is clearly enamored with the vampire myth right now, and I do often wonder what keeps drawing us in.  For the record, I am not drawing a parallel to Christ and vampires, but if you look at Edinger’s chart here, you will see one of the first off shoots is Blood, which leads to many common themes we’re seeing now, especially since Buffy, and now in things like Vampire Diaries, Twilight etc… soul, life, desire, guilt, wrath, vengeance, victim, drinking blood…

Here are some quotes from Edinger that really speak to the resonance of blood imagery, inherent in vampire tales. I could probably turn this into an essay, but for now I’ll be a bit lazy and just leave them for each of you to contemplate. This is some pretty powerful symbolism that stretches back really far, making it even more powerful in our collective unconscious. No wonder we’re fascinated by it.

“Since primitive times blood has carried numinous implications. The blood was considered to be the seat of life or soul” (227).

“Blood as the essence of life itself was the most precious thing of which man could conceive . . . Hence the ancient Hebrews were forbidden to eat blood” (228).

“According to primitive thinking (i.e., unconscious thinking) it is not that it is morally wrong to take the life of another but rather that it is highly dangerous to interfere with such a potent substance as blood” (228).

“Understood psychologically, blood represents the life of the soul, of transpersonal origin, exceedingly precious and potent. It is to be reverenced as divine and any effort of the ego to manipulate, appropriate or destroy it for personal purposes provokes vengeance or retribution” (228).

Owning Your Own Shadow

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Psychology

Owning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the PsycheOwning Your Own Shadow: Understanding the Dark Side of the Psyche by Robert A. Johnson

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Another short and fantastic read on the ideas of the shadow and its related elements. Johnson’s text is extremely accessible, and goes into a well-rounded understanding of the shadow, examining both the negative and positive aspects we bury into our shadow. Johnson discusses how religion, properly understood, and Christianity, in a full process of the mass, really embraces the light and dark and helps us access/understand that in ourselves. He discusses where we are at in culture right now, and how the collective shadow can certainly be destructive; if we all do our inner work though, as he quotes Jung, we aren’t doomed.

I enjoyed this book on many levels. It further enriched and deepened my understanding of the shadow, which is preparing me for writing my Jungian Psych paper. It touched on ideas of the wounded healer, which I will set aside for my possible future dissertation topic. And it discussed embracing opposites and accepting paradoxes, something I am personally interested in. Actually, a lot of what he discussed, including the shadow in marriage, resonated on a real and personal level, beyond the realm of studies and in the realm of real applicable life-stuff. “To own one’s shadow is to prepare the ground for spiritual experience” (91).

The final concept I want to mention is the mandorla that Johnson has introduced me to. Similar to the mandala, which I’ve grown to love through Jung’s works, the mandorla (the overlap between two circles) offers “safety and sureness in our fractured world” (103). Johnson also discussed language as a mandorla, which really excited the English-teacher side of me! “To make any well formed sentence is to make unity out of duality. This is immensely healing and restorative. We are all poets and healers when we use language correctly” (104).

I have a feeling I will be rereading this little treasure many times!

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An Afternoon with the Shadow

Posted on by under Books, Grad School, Psychology

A Little Book on the Human ShadowA Little Book on the Human Shadow by Robert Bly

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is a fabulous resource for my Jungian Psychology research paper on the shadow. It explores various components of the shadow in a very accessible manner. Bly offers essentially what I would call a great dialogue on the shadow, interspersed with his poetry. One chapter is even an interview between Bly and his editor Booth. I really feel like I just sat down with these two men and listened to a beautiful conversation about this complex idea. I call it complex primarily because the shadow maintains such a negative connotation, but it is not necessarily always that way. As Booth stated, “it is not something destructive in its very essence” (60).

In the first part, Bly discusses “Problems in the Ark,” and really shares the most poetry here, giving us images of the polarization of lightness and darkness. In second part, “The Long Bag We Drag Behind Us,” Bly dissects the human shadow. Essentially, we are born as a full 360 ball of energy. But we slowly start putting things away in our “bag” to receive positive attention from our parents; what they don’t like gets buried in our bag. We carry on in this manner through high school, now putting the things our peers don’t like in our bag. By our early 20’s, Bly says we only have a sliver of that original ball. Then after a decade or so, we’re ready to dig into our bag and pull it all back out. While all this is going on, we also start projecting (another thing which is not always inherently bad). Then we’re carrying out things we’ve buried in relationships with parents, children, spouses, friends. If our projection is strong enough, the other person is ultimately forced into wearing that mask. It’s a complicated business! And my mind is stuck right now in the thought of the many images and ideas we live with consciously and subconsciously. I’m back to thinking first about perception, and how our reality is what we experience. Throw in that that at the same time we are receiving projections and giving projects, and the self is becoming an even more complicated thing for me to wrap my mind around.

In the third part, Bly discusses “Five Stages in Exiling, Hunting, and Retrieving the Shadow.” First we project, but then something starts to rattle and there’s a disconnect. In the third stage we seek to repair the rattle, and what I see going on is justification, a way of working with the disconnect that is incomplete. In the fourth stage, we come to feel diminished. However many ways we’ve projected ourselves, given away a part of ourselves, those are all ways we now feel diminished. The most interesting commentary here is that Bly said when you share this feeling of diminishment with a friend, the last thing that friend should do is try to cheer you up. I guess this really spoke to me, because I’m always trying to bring everyone sunshine (a nick-name I’ve earned by many). Finally, in the fifth stage, we retrieve that very thing we originally threw out or projected. And then we eat it. We can do this by giving the thing language, or perhaps first with working with it through images or art. And why should we do this? Because “every bit of energy that we don’t actively engage with language or art of floating somewhere in the air . . . No one should make you feel guilty for not keeping a journal, or creating art, but such activity helps the whole world” (bold mine) (43). Here’s the thing about these stages: they can be going on all at once, and they continually reoccur. Also, as Bly really discussed in the second part, the shadow isn’t just personal; there is also a communal shadow and a national shadow, which means we also must deal with the communal projections and the national projections.

In part four, we have the great interview with Booth and Bly. The first key note is that hatred is something that can help us get at our shadows. Who or what is it that really gets us riled up? What is it that you are despising? It’s something in yourself you have buried. Booth questions Bly about the “negative connotations and associations with evil” that are present in the shadow, where Bly explains that evil is separate, but the dark imagery of the shadow can get confused with it. Yet, in fact, “a person who absorbs the shadow becomes not dark, but light and playful” (54). Ultimately, “The shadow energies seem to be a part of the human psyche, a part of its 30-degree nature, and the shadow energies becomes destructive only when they are ignored” (59).

In the fifth and final part, Bly discusses “Wallace Stevens and Dr. Jekyll,” claiming that “[a]ll literature, both of the primitive and the modern peoples, can be thought of as creations by the ‘dark side’ to enable it to rise up from the earth and join the sunlit consciousness again” (63). Bly discusses the shadow-side of Dr. Jekyll, and how we see stories where the shadow side rises and ultimately fails. The discussion also examines a handful of modern poems, and here’s the one I found the most significant (by Wallace Stevens):

Twenty men crossing a bridge,
Into a village,
Are twenty men crossing twenty bridges,
Into twenty villages,
Or one man
Crossing a single bridge into a village.

Comes back to what I was thinking about perception and the unique experiences we all have, no matter how many are sharing that experience with us.

Bly leaves us with this reflection:

“If the shadow’s gifts are not acted upon, it evidently retreats and returns to the earth. It gives the writer or person ten or fifteen years to change his life, in response to the amazing visions the shadow has brought him – that change may involve only a deepening of the interior marriage of male and female within the man or woman – but if that does not happen, the shadow goes back down, abandoning him, and the last state of that man is evidently worse than the first” (80-81).

And this is just a touch of the ideas offered in this small text. I will mention one more small idea that spoke to me personally:

“Our culture teaches us from early infancy to split and polarize dark and light . . . some admire the left-thinking, poorly-lit side, and that group one can associate with the mother, if one wants to, and mythologically with the Great Moth. Most artists, poets, and musicians belong to the second group and love intuition, music, the feminine, owl and the ocean. The right-thinking group loves action, commerce and Empire” (10).

I never really gave this much thought before, but I’m clearly a left-thinker. I hadn’t really considered myself an artist, but I suppose being a writer places me in the category. My jaw just dropped though when I first read this passage and it defined me so well! I always follow my intuition. One of my favorite things on this planet is live music. I’m definitely in touch with my feminine side. I even collect figures of owls. And, most importantly, to me at least, is the ocean. The wonderful, beautiful, deep, endless ocean with all its creatures and magnificent power. As far back as I can remember, I have always loved sitting in the sand gazing at the waves. I’ve never cared to go to the beach during the summer because it’s filled with people, clutter and noise. But cool winter nights? The ocean exists by itself, and it always fills me with serenity.

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Spring 2011

Posted on by under Grad School

This week I attended my third and final session for the spring quarter at Pacifica. It’s been a good way to ease back into things as I only had two courses this quarter instead of the usual three. (However, philosophy has kicked my butt enough that it feels like it’s taken up the time of two classes!).  And, now, two and a half years after I started the program, I’m getting close to finishing my first year of PhD work! It feels really good. I knew I had to take the leave of absence when I did, just as I knew I really needed to return when I did. I’ve been welcomed back with open arms by old and new friends. I really cannot ever emphasize how blessed I feel for this entire experience.

The course work for this session was daunting for my Philosophy class yet great for my Jungian Psych class. I’m just going to brain dump my thoughts about the week now.  ;)

On Monday night, I met my Philosophy teacher at the hotel bar. (Yes, we stay at a hotel for our school, and sometimes I’m taken aback when I see a family in swim suits or something. I forget some people are there for vacation! ;) ). My Philosophy professor is absolutely brilliant. I honestly told her that night that when she’s lecturing, I’m right there with her and it all makes sense. But then I go home and read new material and I’m lost again. I think she appreciated my honesty, and she was glad it at least makes sense in the classroom for me.  I seriously could see this class absolutely flattening me if I had any other teacher. Ultimately, she has convinced me I have enough of a thread to go on to start my Philosophy paper. There was one idea in our second session that really stuck out to me: Kant places thinking above all else. He’s really putting humans at the top of the totem pole, and everything else below it. So what about nature? Won’t this eventually bite us in the ass? We aren’t the biggest thing out there. So, of course, this train of though led me to pop culture… and images from The Happening kept playing in my brain. So, my mission right now is to re-read Kant, re-watch The Happening, and then probably re-read Kant again and see how it all gels together.

On Tuesday we had our Philosophy lecture.  Have I told you these classes are usually about season hours a day? Our instructors really amaze me. The longest I’ve ever taught in one block for one class is four hours. Seven hours could be painful. Fortunately, I’ve yet to have a teacher that makes me feel like scratching my eyes out.  Something as challenging for me though as Philosophy is really intense brain power for seven hours! Because of my fast typing skills, I can take notes nearly verbatim. This is a great advantage because I will hit spells where things stop sinking in, but then I can review them later in my notes. On Tuesday we explored a lot of Derrida. Fortunately, when we got to his “Plato’s Pharmacy” from Dissemination I was actually able to keep up. I had read in a review that Dissemination is perhaps one of his easiest-to-read texts. And we had read The Phaedrus, which he analyzes, at the beginning of the semester, so I already had a grasp on Plato. It was actually really interesting.

Wednesday was my Jungian Psychology class.  We continued an in-depth exploration of Jungian concepts, focusing greatly on the archetype of the self. We also had to view the original The Day the Earth Stood Still which contained an archetype so many of us were surprised to have not picked up on: the Christ figure! A being comes to the Earth, looks like man, walks among men, has an important message, is killed and resurrected. Klattu even takes on the name Carpenter! Now I want to rewatch the film and play with those ideas. That’s what’s really so crazy about these classes: every five minutes will be packed with something you could spend years exploring and playing with! So you grab the best of your ideas and run with ‘em, hoping to at least get a paper topic out of it for the class, and, if you’re lucky, something applicable to your dissertation. For this class, I was drawn immediately to the concept of the Shadow, which always makes me think of one book in particular: Ursula Le Guin’s A Wizard of Earthsea. I haven’t read the book in quite a while, so I’ll be re-reading that this week and delving into all the implications and ramifications of Ged’s shadow. I’m excited about this work!

In the meantime, I’m just a week away from my summer semester of teaching ending. Whew. I absolutely adore my job and wouldn’t want any other job in the world, but when the break comes around, it’s always welcomed.

Ego & Archetype

Posted on by under Books, Grad School

Ego and ArchetypeEgo and Archetype by Edward F. Edinger

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a rich reading! Edinger really breaks down individuation and integrates powerful support direct from various texts of Jung. What stands out to me is Edinger’s examination at what the individual faces in dreams, the shadow, and through symbols/archetypes. Through the use of examples of patient’s dreams, he both shows us the richness of the psyche and how to begin to understand the images it brings to us. I read this for my class on Jungian psychology. I highly recommend it to anyone interested in this field!
“To be aware of individuality is to realize that one has all that one needs. It also means that one needs all that one has, namely, that every psychic content and happening is meaningful” (168).

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The Essential Jung

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The Essential JungThe Essential Jung by C.G. Jung

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This was assigned reading for my Jungian Psychology class. We split the large book into three sections, one for each class session. I’ve enjoyed this reading the most since it’s actually Jung’s writing, and not writing about Jung (though those materials are valuable as well). I like this collection because it includes material from throughout Jung’s career and is carefully selected and highlighted by Anthony Storr. It’s really a walk-through of all of Jung’s concepts (archetypes, Self, shadow, etc) as well as an over-view of his early-late works. Storr’s commentary makes the material even more accessible and places Jung’s writing in context. I do enjoy Jung’s writing style as well. I do find his work very accessible. Since I’ve been reading this 400 page book for the last two months though, I find I’ve already “forgotten” the start of the book. Glad to have all my highlights and notes to flip through!

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