The study of mythology and mythic imagery has long been the province of comparative religion, anthropology, literature and art. In the early 20th century, the scholarly study of mythology was appropriated by psychology, specifically the depth psychology of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, to investigate the psychological and structural implications of myth. The study of myth and its relation to dreams and psychopathology has contributed to a paradigm shift in the field of psychology, in which the symbolic contents of the unconscious, as distinguished from the rational mind and the sensational body, suggest a third realm of human influence and experience.

The analysis of myth has been an integral part of some of depth psychology’s most significant theories. Modern depth psychology interprets myth as symbolizing an inner, psychological experience. Yet, while Freud’s development of the Oedipus Complex and Jung’s use of mythic symbolism in dream interpretation have been widely studied, and Joseph Campbell’s work in… (Click title to keep reading)

In 1994 in the Ardeche region of France, three explorers pulled rocks away from a tiny opening at the base of a cliff and opened the door to another world. Inside the deepest recesses of what turned out to be a 1300-foot long cave were remarkable images of animals painted there by humans living 30,000 years ago (Herzog, 2010).

The images are remarkable in their style and beauty, virtually perfectly preserved in the near airtight conditions of the cave. Lions, bears, bison, reindeer, mammoth, rhinoceroses and other beings line the walls in almost three-dimensional form, many captured in dynamic action—hooves raised, mouths, open, legs bent midstride—as if they were living beings.

Today, it is easy to take language for granted. The majority of the civilized world both reads and writes, allowing communication in very specific topic and form.  But what is it to “have language”—be linguistic creatures? What would life… (Click title to continue reading)

In his fascinating book, Coming to our Senses, historian and social critic Morris Berman introduces the terms alienation or confiscation as a “rupture in the continuum of life.” Alienation is experienced as the feeling of an abyss where a sense of self or self-identity is missing or where the self does not feel safe. Many psychologists have speculated that this abyss or gap in the experience of the self may be increased or intensified by a lack of positive mirroring in the infancy stage.

Mirroring, which Berman defines as “the growth of self-recognition through the medium of other people” includes both the touch and gaze of others. Donald Winnicott, a British psychoanalyst, pediatrician, and pioneer in the clinical research of mirroring, developed object relations, the understanding of our separate self, or ego self, in relation to other objects or people around us. He suggested it starts at the time of birth because the infant develops his sense of identity based on what he sees… (click title to keep reading)

Synchronicity refers to the underlying cosmic intelligence that synchronizes people, places and events into a meaningful order. We experience synchronicity when an outer event corresponds to our inner thoughts, perceptions or feelings. - Law of Time

Carl Jung is the Swiss psychologist and psychiatrist that founded “analytical psychology,” as well as the extravert and introvert psychological types.

Analytical psychology focuses on the whole of the human being, believing that the unconscious mind is the primary source for healing and is vital to the development of an individual’s soul. Unlike many psychologists and scientists, Jung believed the world of dreams, myth, and folklore, should be…(click title for more)

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The symbols and themes of dreams, legends, fairy tales and myths address realities that the soul understands, even if the conscious mind does not. For example, the legend of King Arthur features a walled city.

Active imagination in Carl Jung’s analytical method of psychotherapy involves opening oneself to the unconscious and giving free rein to fantasy, while at the same time maintaining an active, attentive, conscious point of view. The process leads to a synthesis that contains both perspectives, but in a new and surprising way.

“The Transcendent Function” (1916b [1958]) is Jung’s first paper about the method he later came to call active imagination. It has two parts or stages: Letting the unconscious come up andComing to terms with the unconscious. He describes its starting points (mainly moods, images, bodily sensations); and some of its many expressive forms (painting, sculpting, drawing, writing, dancing, weaving, dramatic enactment, inner visions, inner dialogues). In this early essay he links his method to work with dreams and…

More than anyone else in the 20th century, the psychologist is responsible for our wide interest in what we can call “inner directed spirituality.” He saw the unconscious mind as a hidden treasure, not a basement or cellar where we hide away everything about ourselves we’d rather not face. For Jung, the unconscious was a positive, life-giving part of our psyche and we ignored it at our peril.

Jung’s conviction about the creative role of the unconscious came to him during a traumatic psychic upheaval that followed his break with Freud. Jung charted the course of this “creative illness” in his legendary Red Book, a mysterious tome filled with fantastic watercolor paintings and intricate calligraphy, that Jung kept secret for many years, and which was published for the first time only in…(click title to keep reading)

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“The stone symbolized something permanent that can never be lost or dissolved, something eternal that some have compared to the mystical experience of God within one’s own soul. It symbolizes what …

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