Depth psychology, religion, spirituality, and more
IF JESUS CHRIST HAD LIVED TO A RIPE OLD AGE, AS DID SIDDHARTHA BUDDHA, I think Jesus still would have become one of the greatest spiritual teachers in human history. Instead of falling prey to a tragic and brutal Roman execution after only a year or so of ministry, Jesus would have been able to …
Continue reading "The Spirit Filling the Soul Leads to Wisdom"
THE WORLD’S GREAT SPIRITUAL TRADITIONS ALL AGREE, with a few exceptions, that the material world is at least unreal, if not fundamentally false and evil. To state the case in overly simplistic generalizations, the spiritual is exalted over the material in Buddhism, in most Hindu traditions, in Daoist spirituality, in Christian theological and mystical traditions, …
IMAGINE YOU’RE IN THE AUDIENCE AT A CHRISTMAS PAGEANT and the oh-so-familiar story is unfolding before you. It’s nighttime in Bethlehem, where a wondrous star hangs overhead. Angels watch over the birth. Because there was no room at the inn, the baby Jesus lies in a manger, in the stable, under the loving gaze of …
THE MUSES BROUGHT PAUL McCARTNEY A MAGICAL BIT OF ARCHETYPAL INSPIRATION to get him started on the song “Let It Be” — (sing along with me now) “When I find myself in times of trouble, Mother Mary comes to me …” The image evokes not only millennia of Marian veneration, but also our collective affection …
EVERY DAY, AGAIN AND AGAIN, THE NEWS SHOWS US HOW DIVIDED WE ARE and how hostile some of us have become toward the others of us who see things differently. What’s going on? How did we become so uncivil toward one another? Denial. If you understand the mechanisms and effects of a collective denial of …
WHAT’S SO GOOD ABOUT TRYING TO BE PERFECT? Not much, according to the highly influential Jungian analyst, Erich Neumann. In 1949, Neumann published Depth Psychology and the New Ethic, arguing that the “old ethic” of perfection was doing so much damage to individual well-being and human survival, that it had to give way to new …
IMAGINE WHAT IT MIGHT BE LIKE TO DIE AND DISCOVER YOU’VE BEEN SENT TO HELL. Never mind the fact that in the cosmos, as we now understand it to be, there’s no “below” for hell (and no “above” for heaven). In the Western tradition, hell is believed to be an infernal, fiery place for eternal, …
THIS YEAR, I’M WORKING TO BRING A GROUP OF ORIGINAL SONGS TO LIFE, recording them with my band, BlueStoneMojo, and sharing the recordings online. Although organizational challenges have tended to dominate the project, it’s still a fundamentally creative process in which mysterious influences can manifest in unexpected ways. Here’s an example of what I mean. …
Solitude “When one is not alone when one is alone, when one is aware of a goodly presence within oneself, then one has achieved solitude. Our popular culture is a tacit agreement to flee the terror of loneliness, and it therefore circumvents the possibility of solitude. The avoidance of solitude is the flight, ultimately, from …
THE PROBLEM IS PROJECTION — AND THE DARK SHADOWS IT CASTS. For anyone to ascend to the heights of popular power in a society, he (or, rarely, she) must provide an adequate “hook” on which the mass of people can hang their archetypal projections. The primary archetypal image at play here is the Sovereign. Like …
Soul Spirit Wisdom 