Working with Archetypes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Feb 27, 2010
\nI first learned about archetypes when I took a dream class with Charles Ponce.\u00a0 Finding universal archetypes showing up in my deams widened my life considerably.\u00a0 I also read Jung\u2019s autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, and learned a lot from how he lived his life.
\nI see archetypes more as patterns than as figures, empty patterns that we then fill out from our own experience.\u00a0 Keeping track of my dreams and watching major figures change over time gives me an indicator of how I\u2019m growing and healing.\u00a0 Watching images of \u201cmother\u201d changing from damaging to nurturing shows how I\u2019m transforming my inner landscape.
\nJung doesn\u2019t speak about God, but about the \u201cgod image in the psyche.\u201d I have watched my god image change from someone punitive and judgemental to a being that is loving and forgiving.\u00a0 Initially I believed in a white bearded god sitting on his throne, watching and judging us all the time.\u00a0 By the time I was an adolescent, I didn\u2019t believe in god any more.\u00a0 I remember thinking (not sure what I was so angry about) \u201cGod can go to Hell,\u201d and then waiting for the lightning bolt which didn\u2019t happen.\u00a0 In college I majored in Astronomy, and I was lucky to have a very fine teacher.\u00a0 I was very well trained in scientific method, learning to identify assumptions, data, and hypotheses, and I\u2019ve found that training to continue to be useful in my struggle with PTSD.
\nSo I replaced god with the universe, a universe beautiful, creative and complex. At one point, I don\u2019t remember now what sent my thoughts in this direction, perhaps people were talking about their images of god.\u00a0 I thought \u201cI don\u2019t have a god image, I haven\u2019t believed in god for years.\u201d So then I thought about what the universe was really like, and three words came to mind: \u201ccapricious, malicious and wilful.\u201d I was shocked, since the image of the universe that astronomy had given me was of something orderly, beautiful, and impersonal.\u00a0 Where did those words come from?\u00a0 Who in my experience was \u201ccapricious, malicious, and wilful\u201d? A pair of alcoholic parents, that\u2019s who.
\nSince then, I\u2019ve watched my god image change.\u00a0 I\u2019ve prayed a lot, and rarely got any answers.\u00a0 On the other hand, sometimes I\u2019ve spoken to god and been greatly surprised by what god said back.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a journal entry from October 2007
\nI\u2019ve been sitting here thinking of all the failures \u2014 the things I tried to do that didn\u2019t work \u2014 like the kayak, the screen tent \u2014 and that still have to be dealt with.\u00a0 I\u2019m looking back over my life and seeing nothing but failures \u2014 at the moment, Neskaya feels very far away.\u00a0 Have I made a difference to any other being?\u00a0 Well, I have made a difference to Lynelle, and to Kayla, and to Gene.\u00a0 To the people who wouldn\u2019t have found Circle Dance if I hadn\u2019t built Neskaya.\u00a0 And surely I\u2019ve made a difference to people who\u2019ve been helped by Heifer and FINCA, and the whales, and the buffalo…\u00a0\u00a0 but that\u2019s all mostly money.\u00a0 Money, generosity, and good will \u2014 it\u2019s how I\u2019ve chosen to use my money.\u00a0 What will god think when I bring this thin harvest?\u00a0 And I have a sense of huge compassion and delight, a sense of being welcomed and gathered in to a being to whom it doesn\u2019t matter at all what I\u2019ve done or not done.\u00a0 O my.\u00a0 My heart feels all warm and soft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Working with Archetypes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Feb 27, 2010 I first learned about archetypes when I took a dream class with Charles Ponce.\u00a0 Finding universal archetypes showing up in my deams widened my life considerably.\u00a0 I also read Jung\u2019s autobiography Memories, Dreams, Reflections, … Continue reading