Jungian Psychology Blogs
There are a lot of excellent blogs being written in the world of Jungian Psychology and I want to use this space to bring attention to some of what is out there. This is just a sampling of some of the posts that have caught my attention this month. My hope is that I can make this round-up of Jungian blogs a regular feature here and that you will use it as an encouragement to explore more deeply.
May, of course, is the month of Mother’s Day and so it is fitting that many of this month’s blogs focus on honoring the feminine.
Honoring Mothers and Daughters
Over at Carl Jung Depth Psychology, Lewis Lafontaine started off May with a meditation on Matter and the Great Mother. He laments the decline of the role of Matriarchy in the West and states:
One can only hope that at the Dawn of the 21st Century that the utterly majestic role of The Feminine will be more widely embraced and Understood.
Len Cruz of the Asheville Jung Center honors the feminine by exploring the importance of the Mother-Daughter Relationship as both an external and internal dynamic. He sees a deeper dimension in the rituals of Mother’s Day:
The nature of a woman’s relationship with her mother may shape the relationship a woman will have with her instincts, her own interior feminine and her relationship with her daughters. Mother’s Day is set aside for the purpose of honoring mothers. Like many exoteric rituals, Mother’s Day belies much deeper, esoteric mysteries.
In her blog, Matrignosis, Jean Raffa explores the realm of Jungian Psychology from a deeply personal perspective, one that has the effect of inviting the reader into a deeper understanding of whatever subject she is addressing. In her post titled Conscious Parenting, Raffa wrestles with the impact of the parenting she received on her own legacy as a mother:
Our parents’ unresolved issues flow into us through dark underground passageways, and if we don’t bring them to the light of consciousness we pass them on to our children. With every gain I’ve made in managing my anxiety, I’ve gifted my family with one less problem to contend with.
The Creative Feminine
Jungian analyst and poet, Naomi Ruth Lowinsky writes a blog called The Sister From Below. In her post The Muse of Gay Poets, Lowinsky pays homage to those gay poets–women and men–who were “my kinfolk, my soul mates, my muses, my major influences. They’ve taught me how to be the poet I’ve become.” In the female poets that were her influences, Lowinsky writes of finding a world “where women were central to themselves”:
Clearly Lesbian poets were a vital element in the ferment and change of the Women’s Liberation Movement. Poets like Judy Grahn and Audre Lorde changed our consciousness in the 1960s and 70s when the Goddess was finding her way back into women’s psyches.
Brian Collinson, the author of the blog Vibrant Jung Thing, examines many different aspects of Jungian Psychology and psychotherapy in his posts. In May, Collinson examined the experience of Midlife Crisis in Women. This is a time where the individuation drive in women is to find, like Lowinsky above, a role where they can be central to themselves:
Lack of visibility for post-menopausal women reflects a society still stuck in sexism. Our culture often has little place for the mothers and grandmothers, and for the wisdom of the Wise Old Woman. Many women in midlife and later years recognize that they need more than the standard role the culture offers. They need encounter with the deep reality of who they are as individuals.
The Inner Feminine
In Jungian Psychology the terms “feminine” and “masculine” describe qualities that exists in all people regardless of gender. Traditionally, the soul, or anima, is imagined as being an inner experience with a feminine quality to it. However one conceives of the qualities of this inner experience, it is one that is tuned to the deeper rhythms of life.
In Behind the Eyes is the Soul Dr. Andy Drymalski at Jungstop offers a nice portrait of this deeper life within:
The soul hears what the ears do not hear. It sees what the eyes do not see. It understands and feels what the mind cannot grasp.
Dreams are central to the practice of Jungian Psychology. Whether I am working with someone in the context of psychotherapy or career counseling, I make use of an individuals dreams to help us to get oriented to their inner life, the deeper life of the soul described by Dr. Drymalski above.
Many of my clients tell me they have a hard time remembering their dreams. Here is a simple but helpful post by Stephen Parker at Jung Currents that offers some suggestions for capturing the wisdom of the unconscious.
The post is titled Twelve Tips For Remembering Your Dreams and includes such suggestions as the following:
- When you do write your dreams down, use the present tense (“I am flying”) rather than past tense (“I flew.”)
- Sketch or draw at least an element of the dream if you can.
- Share the dream.
Honorable Mentions
It’s just not possible to mention all the great posts out there. But if you are looking for more great writing from the Jungian community I would also suggest How Many Climate Scientists Does It Take?–Media, Perception, and Soul Loss by Bonnie Bright and Distillation and Death by Patricia Damery.
And while you’re exploring the world of Jungian Psychology, I hope you’ll also take a moment to check out my own posts from this past month:
Enjoy.
And take good care.
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