Revisiting some roots (long)
As a teenager, reading Jung provided the first glimmer that I was not alone in the world. Unlike almost anyone I've known, I did not get into spirituality from Wicca or yoga (or Hare Krishna's or whatever) but from work with neuro-linguistic programming and Ericksonian hypnotherapy. As mentioned in this blog's inaugural post in 2007, I performed magic for the first time reading a therapeutic script to a fellow workshop attendee. No one called it magic, but there was no other explanation.
This base of understanding has not always had a comfortable existence with what followed in druidry. A psychological explanation places the spiritual world inside the head or if you follow Jung inside the head and then into the collective unconscious of all our heads. Visitations of Deity become undifferentiated parts of the self that can, over time, be reintegrated into a coherent whole. Equally, visitations of misery, terror and self-loathing can also be integrated into a fully balanced personality.
R.J. Stewart, in one of his many books, castigates psychology, and Jung in particular, in a very odd way. On one hand, he recognizes that psychology is a valid way of understanding oneself and the world. On the other hand, he notes that what you believe as you approach spiritual work produces different results. Wallowing in the mud and blood of fey with the idea that its all a projection produces different a different experience than the terror of a confrontation with the true Other.
If I read Thorn Coyle's Kissing the Limitless, I get both perspectives. The middle section of KTL seems very Jungian in scope. How does acknowledging your demons and then putting them to work for you differ from integrating the disparate parts of the self into a complete whole. The final section of KTL is a different matter since it is about the mechanics of enlightenment which I haven't achieved. But on the surface, Thorn's God Soul, the Sacred Dove, seems remarkably like the Self's bridge to the collective unconscious with the same shattering results.
So I feel a need to reread Jung and really understand what he was getting at. That along with reading some of his more critical followers such as John Beebe, folks that appreciate his immense contribution and are fully aware of all of his flaws.
This base of understanding has not always had a comfortable existence with what followed in druidry. A psychological explanation places the spiritual world inside the head or if you follow Jung inside the head and then into the collective unconscious of all our heads. Visitations of Deity become undifferentiated parts of the self that can, over time, be reintegrated into a coherent whole. Equally, visitations of misery, terror and self-loathing can also be integrated into a fully balanced personality.
R.J. Stewart, in one of his many books, castigates psychology, and Jung in particular, in a very odd way. On one hand, he recognizes that psychology is a valid way of understanding oneself and the world. On the other hand, he notes that what you believe as you approach spiritual work produces different results. Wallowing in the mud and blood of fey with the idea that its all a projection produces different a different experience than the terror of a confrontation with the true Other.
If I read Thorn Coyle's Kissing the Limitless, I get both perspectives. The middle section of KTL seems very Jungian in scope. How does acknowledging your demons and then putting them to work for you differ from integrating the disparate parts of the self into a complete whole. The final section of KTL is a different matter since it is about the mechanics of enlightenment which I haven't achieved. But on the surface, Thorn's God Soul, the Sacred Dove, seems remarkably like the Self's bridge to the collective unconscious with the same shattering results.
So I feel a need to reread Jung and really understand what he was getting at. That along with reading some of his more critical followers such as John Beebe, folks that appreciate his immense contribution and are fully aware of all of his flaws.