The Storm: Mountains Ablaze
Shelter from the storm--Bob Dylan sang about it and the sirens with their beautiful voices lured sailors toward it. When life deals you one heavy blow after another with no end in sight, seeking shelter may seem like the right thing to do. Here in California with the...
Illness and the River of Life
The Mississippi River, one of the great world rivers, starts as a small stream in Northern Minnesota, where it flows from one of the thousands of Minnesota lakes. As the river travels south it gathers speed and size before emptying into the Gulf of Mexico in...
The World Tree and a Christmas Haibun
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Id9mUfnFaA Over the Thanksgiving holiday last month, my family and I were "snowed in" in a mountain cottage west of Denver, Colorado. In the Colorado Rockies, snow can come down hard and deep in almost any month. I was...
C.G. Jung and the Importance of Home
When I was a young man I would spend around two weeks most summers either backpacking with friends somewhere in the Rocky Mountains, or canoeing, in Southern Ontario, Canada. Usually toward late afternoons on these trips, we would begin looking for a new campsite. ...
The Puppet Master and the Free Man
Although it will require some effort, there can be moments in your life when you are truly a free man or a free woman, no matter your circumstances. During those times, when you are a free woman or a free man, you may discover that they are the most insightful and...
Jungian Psychology and Sports 2: The Shot
On August 10, 2011, I published an article on this blog titled, Jungian Psychology and Sports. I am re-visiting this topic now due to a very short, but meaningful dream that I had recently. The dream: I made a really long basketball shot. Shortly after this dream I...
The Role of Evil on the Path of Individuation
Sooner or later, you must enter the dark forest and leave the well-trodden path. Let us re-look at the fairy tale of Little Red Riding Hood. As you recall, Little Red Riding Hood is off to Grandma’s house to deliver some food for her sick grandma. Before leaving, her...
Becoming Yourself; Becoming Someone Else
In fact it seems to me as if that alienation which so long separated me from the world has become transferred into my own inner world, and has revealed to me an unexpected unfamiliarity with myself. (Carl Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections, p. 359) What should...
Work
You are defined not by the work that you do, but by how you do the work that you do. The exact work that you do, of course, is important. But not as important as the focus, integrity and soulfulness, that you bring to your work. Not long ago, I watched boats bringing...
Dreams, Truth Serums and Anti-truth Serums
Just the other day I walked by two men who appeared to be homeless and whose conversation caught my attention. One man said, “You know they have truth serums and anti-truth serums.” I didn’t hear the rest of the conversation, but I heard enough to make me wonder. If...
The Red Ribbon (A Short Story of Trauma, Dreams and Healing)
I could not breathe. Hot, tired and afraid, I was. Trapped in the middle of a crowd of strangers in an airport—people looking at one another more from suspicion than from wonder. Me—held in my mother’s arms while being touched and bumped by bags and elbows. There,...
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Through a Jungian Lens: Colin McNeil of Metro News Canada Interviews Dr. Howlin
I read recently that when Jungian analyst, Dr. Lionel Corbett, was asked to name films with a Jungian theme, he replied, "all movies have a Jungian theme." So right he was. I was asked last month by Colin McNeil of Metro News Canada whether or not I would be...
Learning to See in the Dark
There is a fish that lives deep in the ocean dark The fish has evolved over time To "see" in the deep With a lantern as a light Just in front of its eyes A young man Who knew about this strange fish Had a big dream In the dream He was riding his motorcycle On a...
Dead Wood
If your life was like a tree, you would learn to be a master gardener. You would take the time to prune away all of your dead wood. Like the life of a tree, your process of growth and change can be hindered by the dead wood that is left behind. And like a tree that...
Transformation and Image in Adolescent Jungian Psychotherapy
Society needs to be shaken by the aspirations of those who are not responsible. Donald Winnicott The image is to Jungian psychotherapy as thinking is to cognitive therapy. But there is a difference. In cognitive therapy, it is assumed that one of the events that leads...
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