2010 - The Year of the Great C.G. Jung Project

From synchronicity to the vast collective unconscious, I have found myself working with symbols, dreams and the language of the spirit. Actually, it's as if the symbolic sort of grabbed me and has taken my mind captive. One day I was looking at the world one way, and the next I was seeing myths, legends and archetypes all around me. I decided I was going to try to read as many Carl Jung books as I can in 2010. The goal is to get through all the “relevant” ones and blog about how his ideas are relevant (or not ) to spiritual and psychological evolution. It’s time I read the works of the man who has had such an impact on me (even if it was unknown). Or as someone told me once, “you both came to the same place independently in different ways.” Am I the 100th monkey or has Jung's work simply become part of the collective unconscious? This year we will see where Jung and I come together and where we fall apart and whether all this study and reflection can lead to individuation, self-actualization or self-realization. Please join me on this journey to self-discovery.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Book Study

My friend Amy and I recently started a book study group. While I'd love spending time with Amy anyway, discussing books is just the icing on the cupcake for me. We are currently reading two books - alternating between them. Could be a bit disjointed, I guess, but because they are nonfiction it works well. One of the books is the Dance of the Dissident Daughter by Sue Monk Kidd. The other is Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Tool by Lauren Artress.

I have had this book on my shelf for a couple years (I actually have a labyrinth in my back yard). I just never got around to reading it. What a nice surprise! I am enjoying reading Artress' analogy of the labyrinth as an archetype (shouldn't that be a metaphor?). And she discusses the value of the symbolic and the need for rituals in our spiritual life. She writes, "To walk a sacred path is to discover our inner sacred space: that core of feeling that is waiting to have life breathed back into it through symbols, archetypal forms like the labyrinth, rituals, stories and myths. Understanding the invisible world, the world of patterns and process, opens us up to the movement of the Spirit." I continue to find myself surrounded by symbols and discussions of the same. What a trip that is, synchronicity at it's best. Jung would be proud.


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