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PORN: Technology, Consumerism & Soul

Jan 20, 2022

A laptop sits on some grey sheets, showing an image of a breathless woman on the screen, illustrating the topic of pornography.
Photo Credit: Charles Deluvio via Unsplash

Nearly every civilization since ancient times has portrayed explicit sexual acts. Sexuality’s numinous aspect has long brought it into close association with spirituality and religion. The powerful potential of sexual arousal is central to being human and has seized today’s collective via the Internet. Porn is symbolic of the widespread merchandising of desire, from toys to trucks. The unprecedented power of image in today’s world can now drive what Lost Goddesses author Giorgio Tricarico terms our “desiring multiplicities” and quest for limitlessness. Pornography can be addicting, and Jung maintained that “There is no illness that is not at the same time an unsuccessful attempt at a cure.” Pornography could also be an attempt to achieve a sense of integration and wholeness through reconnection with the archetype of the goddess.

HERE’S THE DREAM WE ANALYZE:

“The Dragon Queen, a young blonde woman, was not the rightful queen and needed to be tamed. Everyone said to throw her in the furnace, but I couldn’t do that to her. She had become a sort of friend and had come to trust me. I came to her through a room where archery practice was taking place, a cave to the kingdom. An old friend was a centaur, and he was teaching me to shoot the bow and arrow. He had many tiny arrows, which he shot into the queen’s cave and missed. She came out and said, “Let me show you how it’s done.” I then captured her by tackling her with a black sheet. Then I sat on her and started massaging her legs vigorously. She started to relax. I then went to her arms and belly. She completely relaxed. Then I uncovered her, and she was ready to learn how to live in our society. One of the guys in the archery group took on the job of teaching her how to eat. He showed her a vision of all kinds of foods and nutrition but started with feeding her only sweets—all kinds of candy. I was worried and said so. He said that because she was a dragon, we needed to start out with feeding her that way.”

REFERENCES:

Giorgio Tricarico. Lost Goddesses. https://www.amazon.com/dp/1782205322/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_PBJVC0D9VDDC2TYZW516

Sharon Blackie. If Women Rose Rooted. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B098CXQLLH/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_3AQDWXGFMVJA105QAT1T

RESOURCES:

Learn to Analyze your own Dreams: https://thisjungianlife.com/enroll/

4 Comments

  1. LAB

    Such a great episode! You handled a really difficult topic with clarity, nuance, and care. Thanks for this.

    Reply
  2. Mamie Allegretti

    Hello Jospeh, Deb and Lisa,
    Thank you for a very interesting episode. Gee, I wish there could be some kind of discussion after your episodes! They all encourage so many avenues of discussion and debate and further learning. It’s a good thing I have my husband to talk to during your episodes. And some discussions last for days! A few things came to mind. Jung saw incest as symbolic of a desire to return to the mother. I was wondering in what way choking might be a symbol. Perhaps it’s symbolic of the cutting off of libido or life force in a more general sense in one’s life? And then I was wondering if a person came in with , say. an incest porn addiction or predilection, do you work with that in a symbolic way? And does it seem to really point to a desire for return to the mother as Jung posited? I guess what I’m asking in general is if the images we are drawn to in the sexual act are symbolic of energies that are coming through in other areas of our lives as well? For example, in what other areas of my life might I want to regress and return to the qualities of the mother archetype? And then that leads to the question of why does this desire to regress to the mother get “attached” to our sexual desire? Well, I guess it might be that this archetype is moving through the person in a few different areas of their life and sex is just one of those areas. Combine that with the plethora of images that porn provides and then we can see why porn is so seductive. We can have so many symbolic images all at once. Anyway, thank you for a great episode!

    Reply
  3. Simcha

    Dear TJL,

    Porn producers (at least on the “fan” only websites) and porn consumers seem both to embody an archetype or to become a god / goddess.

    As gods and goddesses, these humans can experience virtually / digitally infinite partners without bearing children (possible online or for gods and goddesses).

    Remember: gods and goddesses are available to ANYONE, any human, as both narrative and fantasy,

    But, of course, humans playing gods or a goddesses without limits is dangerous. Whatever the activity! Just look at Icarus.

    I think also of Charles Baudelaire’s comment: “Sexuality is the lyricism of the masses.”

    Sex, including masturbation, is a kind of “fast track” to the numinous, even if we have not actually arrived or experienced it….

    Thanks!
    S

    Reply
  4. Simcha

    Correction:

    “Copulation is the lyric of the mob.”

    Charles Baudelaire

    Reply

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