Wednesday was another great day!!! Here’s a quick, run down of the intellectually stimulating day in the second day in Ginette Paris’ class.
Oh, and first? One of my peers described her in the perfect way: She’s our Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher.
We talked about religion and that Jung believed there’s a religious function to the psyche. There’s a natural part of us that will express that WOW when you experience something bigger than you (like birthing a child, or even witnessing it). Ultimately, we have a natural, religious instinct. Therefore, today’s psychology is religious. However, it’s in an invisible sense. And we often don’t recognize that it’s Christian. We’ve been with it so long, essentially, that we don’t even see it. There’s a hidden morality but because it’s hidden it is not the same as the numinous experience Jung was talking about. In his texts, James Hillman says that we’re so monotheistic that we’ve forgotten about the polytheistic view, which can provide a better model of our psyche. Ginette said that it may seem like Hillman is selling polytheism, but he’s actually pushing for a needed balance in a montheistic/polytheistic approach. He’s taking us back to the Greeks because we also live in a Greek/Roman culture. Yet, at the same time, looking at the differences from the ancient Greek culture shows us how really Christian our traditions are.
We talked about psychic wounds, to which Ginette gave us this brilliant wisdom: “It’s only when you’re wounded that you connect with others . . . Being broken forces us to the wisdom of the psyche.” Beautiful. Profound. So many good things I’m still chewing on from these first three days!!
Something that came up that maybe someone out there needs to here: “Guilt is a waste of psychic energy.”
In reviewing Hillman’s Revisioning Psychology, I came across this powerful quote I highlighted: “Feeling is all. Discover your feelings; trust your feelings. The human heart is the way to soul and what psychology is all about” (181).
We talked about the body. Ginette says that all archetypes have a somatic aspect. And also? Courage is in the body. If a man jumps into a river to save children and is asked what he was thinking when jumped, he will say he wasn’t thinking anything.
Discussing Depth Psychology: it does away with the question of WHY and asks HOW? WHAT? WHO? If you can identify something that is going on, what archetype is presenting itself in the psyche, then you mythologize, and really, begin to heal.
Ginette told us that training in mythology will refine our capacity to perceive.
So, there’s another stream-of-consciousness post without any proofreading. I hope you find some tidbits that resonate with you! As for me, it’s yummy, fresh breakfast time again!
Namaste.

And Tuesday began the adventure into Ginette Paris’ wonderful class on Post-Jungian & Archetypal theories! I’m just going to give a quick run down of some highlights from yesterday.
We started the morning with this bit of wisdom from her lecture: We always see reality through a frame. Human language is full of metaphors – you just have to catch them.
We discussed how we personify objects. Oh yeah! I’ve named all my electronic devices, and while my car herself doesn’t have a name, she has always definitely been a “she.” We discussed what computers mean to different groups. For children, it’s a friend; for men, a toy; for women, a tool.
As we discussed symbols, Ginette revealed: “The person is the most complex symbol.”
We discussed Lady Liberty, a powerful symbol throughout the world and our most powerful symbol in the U.S. Liberty is a concept. Lady Liberty is an archetype. I kept thinking of the first (only) time I saw the statue of Liberty and was moved to tears. Powerful indeed. And I just feel compelled to mention our dog is named Liberty!
We discussed Greek Myth as more of a psychology than a religion. It is deeply rooted in images, and that’s what Hillman wants to bring us back to. (We discussed James Hillman’s work all day).
We discussed cinema! Ginette deemed it our main myth maker. It doesn’t need a text to refer us to because we feel it. She said if it’s a bad movie it won’t change the myth because it’s not moving. She brought up Avatar and how it was bringing us back to nature, revisiting the god and goddess myth. A student added that it was a film people wanted. Ginette commented that the artists know what the community needs.
We talked about a book called The History of Economy. The idea there is that the economy only works when the feminine idea of saving and the masculine idea of risk taking is in balance. Right now, Wall Street is an adolescent area, filled with game playing. Where is the Wise Old Man figure?
We talked about an important image to Jung: that of the ocean as depth psychology. Like the ocean, depth psychology has abysmal depth and it can be mapped. You go into this ocean in analysis, and the analyst is the one on the ship holding onto your cable, ready to bring you back up.
We did an exercise in active imagination to find our anima/animus. Though my animus did not come to me at this time, I had an a-ha moment later in lecture where I discovered him. As students shared what they discovered in themselves, Ginette said that whenever you’re surprised by an image from the psyche, that means it’s genuine and not an ego image. If it’s not surprising, it’s probably the ego speaking.
We talked about Jung’s theory on love. Basically, you fall in love with a person who is your inner anima/animus. It’s really your projection. The real love then begins when start picking up your projections.
We talked about pathology. Really, we’re all a bit neurotic. Ginette said that many think of therapy as an investment, but she sees it as an adventure. Ultimately, psychological problems are part of our humanity, but they eventually become our wisdom.
Ginette talked a bit about her newest book and heart break and gave this wisdom: “You cannot be heroic with a heart break. You can only be wise about it.”
We talked about the treatment fantasy, where we think we can fix ours or others problems. But when you’re being medical with something that’s not medical, you’re harming the soul. Soul problems can’t be fixed like broken bones. We need to serve the soul, to let it lead, as Hillman directs.
Those are the highlights! It was a great day. Hope you enjoyed these tidbit and it doesn’t read too awkwardly. I’m not proofreading, as it’s now time for breakfast!!

I had a wonderful, beautiful day! And I just wrote a beautiful blog post about it that I lost! Let’s see if I can recapture the magic.
Today we had a colloquium with Dr. Clayton Koelb. He studied Comparative Literature at Harvard and now teaches in the Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He is well versed in German studies, to say the least! Today he discussed Goethe’s Faust and Nietzsche’s Birth of Tragedy. I was very appreciative of the historical context he provided us with. As I have admitted before, my historical knowledge in general is rather sparse. I have grown to have a deep appreciation for history, and I understand its significance. Unfortunately, I never took many history classes and never had a particularly good or captivating teacher. I am picking up quite a bit though as I move through these different texts and our instructors help us fill in the historical gaps that, thankfully, I’m not the only one unfamiliar with. It really enlivens a text when you understand the influences on the writers, including their historical setting. Ultimately today I gained a much better understanding of Goethe’s second part of Faust, which has apparently been deemed so difficult that most German schools don’t even teach it!! I still prefer the first part, which just has more fun drama in my opinion, but I do appreciate the second part more now that I grasp its complexities. As for Nietzsche, I have a much more thorough understanding of his discussion on Apollo and Dionysus, though I know we really only scratched the surface of the text overall in our discussion today. These are very expansive texts, and today was a great overview of them that will allow us to explore more. Overall, there was about seven hours of lecture time. I happily took notes on my iPad with my wireless Apple keyboard. I really enjoy this 1) because it’s lighter than my laptop and 2) because I love having notes to review later. It’s really just such loaded days when we’re up here that I find it rather impossible to really digest all the information as I receive it. Typing is one of the best skills I ever learned! I just about captured a full transcript of the day, and I know there’s a lot of good material in there that I can review later at a slower pace.
Over the next four days, we’ll be in a Post-Jungian Psych course with Ginette Paris. You will remember her and her book Wisdom of the Psyche from a couple of my recent posts. I am really thrilled about taking this course and working with her after reading her profound text. We met with her this evening and she is amazing. You won’t believe the wonderful classroom environment she has designed for us! She has said that the open areas on either side of the classroom are “the beach.” She has invited us to bring blankets and pillows and to go lie on the beach whenever our bodies need a break. She is very aware of the difficulty in sitting in 7/8 hour lectures for 5 days and wants us to listen to our bodies. Furthermore, she said that she understands that sometimes a great idea will strike you during a lecture and she understands if we need to close our eyes for a couple minutes, retreat inwards, and work with our thoughts, even if it means missing a few minutes of what she’s saying. And, to top it all off, she will be providing us with all her lecture notes and power point presentations at the end of the course session, so she told us not to “take notes obsessively.” (I felt she was talking directly to me!!). As much as I do enjoy my note taking, I really like this idea of having access to all the information later and just being able to sit with the ideas as she lectures. She encouraged us to jot some notes down as we get our own ideas, but really emphasized not to worry about capturing any of her ideas. In the morning I’m going to pick up a small notebook for my own little note taking. I feel handwriting will be conducive to this, and I won’t be toting the Apple keyboard for the remainder of the week. This is going to be a really neat classroom experience.
Overall, I’m really thrilled with this experience. There are two campuses at the school attend, and we’re on the one with the dorms now that I haven’t previously attended. I’m enjoying my first lil’ dorm experience. I had heard horror stories, but have found everything to be quite pleasant! The room is small, yes, but I think it’s quaint. It’s got everything needed: twin bed, night stand, small desk, chair, medicine cabinet, sink, and small closet space. The showers for women are in the basement (which conjures an inaccurate frightful image). The showers are enclosed in individual stalls, have good water pressure, and supply hot water! That’s all I need. And then after you get ready in the morning, you just walk over to the dining hall for a nice, warm breakfast!
At the end of our scholastic adventures for the day, several of my peers and I went down to the beach at sunset. So beautiful! So refreshing! We took a good long walk, which was much needed after all the sitting of the day, and the fresh air was crisp and wondrous.
This is a blessed experience indeed!