Things are not always what they appear to be on the surface. This also applies to sexual desire. The sexual attraction we experience is not always what it seems at first glance—a purely physical desire for sex. Sometimes it can mean exactly the opposite: a powerful spiritual impulse trying to break through into our conscious […]
“The psychological rule says that when an inner situation is not made conscious, it happens outside, as fate. That is to say, when the individual remains undivided and does not become conscious of his inner contradictions, the world must perforce act out the conflict and be torn into opposite halves.” — Carl G. Jung, Aion: […]
I recommend this book to you—the author is David Gordon: Mindful Dreaming: A Practical Guide for Emotional Healing Through Transformative Mythic Journeys. This is a book that presents practical ideas and techniques for interpreting our dreams in an accessible language. And dream interpretation is a very complex matter. In Jungian analysis, where dream analysis is […]
According to David Gordon, a Jungian analyst and author of the book Mindful Dreaming, in order to interpret dreams we need to know the map of our inner journey. These are the different challenges of awareness that arise at different stages of our inner journey—the so-called Calling, Journey, Enlightenment, and Return. What we become aware […]
“There are too many different kinds of psychologies. An American university publishes a volume every year on the psychologies of 1934, 1935, and so on. There is a complete chaos in psychology, and therefore do not take psychological theories so terribly seriously. Psychology is not a religious faith; it is only a point of view, […]
One of the challenges Jung had to deal with was explaining how he differed from Freud’s psychoanalysis. In his lectures, delivered to about two hundred physicians at the Tavistock Clinic in London in 1935 and subsequently published in his book Analytical Psychology: Its Theory and Practice, he provides an answer to this very question. “I […]
I recommend this book — Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés. Recently I received a letter from a friend who wrote to me with great enthusiasm about this book and encouraged me to read it as well. She wrote that once she began reading it, she did not stop all night, […]
Below is an excerpt from Jung’s autobiographical book, in which this brilliant psychiatrist and psychologist describes the latest years of his life, well into his 80s. His words touch and move me; I feel in them the lived experience of a long and extraordinary life. I am grateful for the sincerity and deep humanity with […]
“The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not? That is the telling question of his life. Only if we know that the thing which truly matters is the infinite can we avoid setting our interests upon futilities, and upon all kinds of goals which are not of real importance. […]
“Man always has the last word, even against God’s will. Otherwise there would be no freedom, and what would be its meaning if it could not threaten even the Threatener?” — C.G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 214
“I am told that I am knowledgeable or even ‘wise,’ but I cannot accept it. There was once a man who scooped a little water from a stream in his hat. What does that mean? I am not that stream. I am at the stream, but I do nothing. There are others at the stream, […]
“…the goal of psychic development is the Self. There is no linear evolution; there is only a circumambulation of the Self. Linear development exists only at the very beginning; later, everything is directed toward the center.” — C.G. Jung, “Memories, Dreams, Reflections” For me, this thought by Jung is vital because it explains the difference […]
