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Core Jungian Concepts
MYTHS: maps of the collective unconscious

MYTHS: maps of the collective unconscious

Think of myths as the dreams of an entire culture. Those stories reside in the collective unconscious and influence all of us throughout our lifespan. Mythic patterns shape our attitudes, and when we recognize them, we can link our personal experiences to the universal. When you’re panicking, you’re under the influence of Pan; when you’re sunk in gloom, you’re on a night-sea journey like Odysseus. Jungians’ call linking the personal to the universal, amplification: take a symptom, link it to a myth, and you’ve shifted it from “my private defect” to “a shared force,” which gives us objectivity. Jung noticed that when we lose awareness of the mythic, those patterns secretly affect us and tend to act themselves out, sometimes recklessly. Today, we’ll help you bring these grand narratives into awareness and understand how they help and, at times, hinder you.

The Creative Power of Inner Tension

The Creative Power of Inner Tension

Holding the tension of the opposites is a deliberate practice of keeping a true inner conflict steadily in awareness until Psyche offers a new form that includes what each side demands. Jung names the inner mechanism that enables this shift the transcendent function, which arises from the union of conscious and unconscious contents. This definition sets a clear frame: consciousness brings its viewpoint, the unconscious contributes what consciousness misses, and their meeting yields movement. The practice concerns real, affect-laden standpoints rather than abstract word games. The personality carries the conflict long enough for something fresh to take shape from the pressure itself. That something arrives as a symbol and not as a compromise, which matters for growth.

Forging the Upward Thread: Why do we create religions?

Forging the Upward Thread: Why do we create religions?

The religious function is part of who we are — as natural as needing food or love. It’s the inner drive that pushes us to find meaning, to touch something larger than ourselves. Jung saw that if we don’t tend it, it doesn’t go away; it twists itself into addictions, compulsions, or a kind of soul-sickness. Religion, in the deepest sense, isn’t about belief systems. It’s about real encounters with the Self — the larger reality inside us that humbles, heals, and reshapes us. Dreams, symbols, and moments of awe are how Psyche keeps that connection alive. Without them, the energies meant for growth get stuck or spill out in destructive ways. In this episode you’ll learn how to stay open and reimagine ways the sacred can speak to you.

How to Develop Your Inner Guidance: charting a path through the current chaos with Jung’s insights

How to Develop Your Inner Guidance: charting a path through the current chaos with Jung’s insights

Inner guidance is Psyche’s built-in orienting system, a silent interlocutor that Jung named the Self. When the ego listens to that source, life organizes around an inner axis rather than around social noise. The conversation begins in dreams: every night the unconscious compensates for one-sided attitudes and sketches latent possibilities, offering images that ask to be amplified rather than solved. Even a “snippet” is enough; when recorded in a temenos of morning journaling, the material becomes a living letter whose meaning ripens across weeks or years. Symbols such as the abattoir, the dictator, or the mysteriously delivered “blessings” in the dream transcript confront the dreamer with shadow, sacrifice, and the double face of unconscious gifts—each theme urging dialogue rather than repression.

Unlocking the Power of Your Shadow

Unlocking the Power of Your Shadow

f you’ve ever been startled by an impulsive action or a sharp comment you later regret, you’ve likely met your shadow. The shadow refers to aspects of ourselves—traits, impulses, fantasies—that we’d rather not claim as our own. These hidden dimensions lie outside our everyday awareness, shaping behaviors and blocking us from deeper intimacy with ourselves and others. At first glance, it can be unsettling to acknowledge these unwelcome parts of psyche. Yet it is precisely through learning to see, hear, and eventually befriend them that we gain an honest sense of who we are. It requires us to move beyond denial and projection and bring these aspects into conscious dialogue. The reward? Reduced self-sabotage, enhanced creativity, and greater capacity to connect with loved ones from a more authentic place.

Analyzing Our Childhood Dreams

Analyzing Our Childhood Dreams

Emerging from the nascent psyche, childhood dreams arise unmediated by the ego’s defenses, bringing archetypal images to the fore. The threshold between consciousness and the unconscious remains thin, allowing symbolic material to emerge unfiltered. This unrefined quality reveals universal patterns—images of wholeness, death, and transformation—that speak to the deep structure of the psyche. These dreams tap into the collective unconscious, offering not only insights into individual development but also access to the timeless, mythic currents that shape human experience. Such imagery often prefigures significant themes in later life, serving as markers of the psyche’s early attempts to orient itself within the vast terrain of existence.

The Psychology of Meaning: keys to authentic living

The Psychology of Meaning: keys to authentic living

The Psychology of Meaning arises not as an abstract concept but as a deeply felt experience rooted in the fabric of psyche. Our guest, James Hollis, Ph.D., tells us it is never found as an object to be located; rather, it manifests through the alignment of our inner world with the external realities we inhabit. When the psyche resonates with the environment, we experience an intrinsic validation that signals purpose and connection. Yet, when this harmony falters, we find ourselves plunged into despair or psychological distress, revealing meaning’s centrality to human well-being.

DREAM WISE: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams ~ live book launch event!

DREAM WISE: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams ~ live book launch event!

Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams offers a new and unique lens to dream interpretation. It is a practical guide, a recipe book of sorts, that will help you discover guidance and comfort, reassurance, and skillful instruction tailored precisely to you. The symbolic language of dreams conveys meanings and feelings we could never discover ourselves. By combining our memories with archetypal images and symbols that bridge them, we find ourselves improved, dream by dream, throughout our lives

Jung and Gnosticism: discover a universe of whole-making

Jung and Gnosticism: discover a universe of whole-making

Jung’s exploration of Gnosticism significantly shaped his understanding of the Self as the totality of the psyche, a concept central to analytical psychology. In Aion: Researches into the Phenomenology of the Self, he draws a direct parallel between the Gnostic figure of the Anthropos and the psychological Self. In Gnostic mythology, the Anthropos represents the primordial, unified human being—symbolizing a state of wholeness that encompasses both the divine and human, the spiritual and the material. Jung saw this figure as an archetype of the Self, which, in his psychology, is the integration of both conscious and unconscious elements of the psyche.

Loyalty to Self and the Death of Illusion

Loyalty to Self and the Death of Illusion

Loyalty is often seen as a virtue, something to be revered and upheld. It is deeply connected to our identity, attachment, and sense of fairness. Loyalty is not always a conscious choice; it is a force that evolves as we grow, shaping our relationships and our expectations of the world. The evolution of loyalty is influenced by our attachment styles, which dictate how we connect with others and how we remain steadfast in our commitments. In political contexts, loyalty can be manipulated, often distorting our sense of fairness and justice. Understanding our own loyalty patterns is crucial to navigating the complexities of life and relationships.

UNLOCK THE POWER OF SYMBOLS

UNLOCK THE POWER OF SYMBOLS

The distinction between signs and symbols is essential to understanding the unconscious. Signs convey familiar information or directions, such as a stop sign indicating the need to halt. Symbols, however, represent something unknown or unconscious, carrying a deeper, often mysterious meaning that transcends ordinary understanding. They play a crucial role in human development, providing a bridge between the conscious and unconscious mind. Symbols should not be reduced to something already known; instead, they should be experienced and lived with, allowing their deeper messages to unfold over time.