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What Remains When All Is Taken: Standing in the LA Wildfires
Fire is the great eraser. It recognizes no hierarchy, no privilege, no sanctuary. The inferno of Los Angeles, relentless in its advance, strips away the illusions of permanence—homes reduced to embers, landmarks erased, identities fragmented into smoke. This week’s wildfires, consuming over 20,000 acres and displacing thousands, remind us of nature’s raw and indifferent power. Yet fire is not solely an agent of destruction; it is also a force of transformation. What remains when all is lost? What emerges when the familiar is torn away?
Feet, Fashion, and Freedom: Shoes as Symbols of Identity
Shoes as Symbols connect identity, culture, and creative adaptation. Shoes reflect our movement through life and mark pivotal transitions, helping us hold the tension between vulnerability and agency. They appear in myths and stories as agents of change, signaling the emergence of a new attitude and facilitating its embodiment. The simple act of wearing shoes bridges the physical and psychological, grounding us while enabling exploration. Shoes communicate individual and collective identity, shaping and revealing roles in society. Tales, like Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes and Cinderella with her glass slippers, dramatize the tension between freedom and constraint, alienation and belonging. Exploring shoes in cultural narratives reveals their role in expressing and shaping psyche. Whether it’s the first tiny black patent leather shoes for a holiday or the first ski boots, their presence in childhood marks key moments of growth and self-discovery. Shoes empower us to adventure forward by protecting our vulnerable feet in innumerable styles that reflect the way we wish to be seen. Without realizing it, every step reveals where we’ve come from and where we are heading.
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 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.
The STAR: archetype of revelation
We have looked to the stars to navigate our ships across night-shrouded seas. We have studied the stars to find their qualities in our character and divine our destiny. We have yearned for the stars as the gates of heaven where we hope to reside one day. Mysterious and inscrutable, humanity has ever projected the arcane depths of its collective psyche onto the sky and marveled at what they saw.
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
Stoicism and Jungian Psychology: a recipe for resilience
The amalgam of Stoicism and Jungian Psychology generates a natural resilience. It offers a frame to understand the interplay of reason, emotion, and imagination in service to inner growth. Integrated philosophical reflection empowers us to confront societal crises and develop autonomy through rational self-awareness. Inclusive Stoicism connects personal development to shared human values. The ancient discipline of clear thinking can heal us through narrative coherence, emotional management, and the integration of unconscious material. Combined with imagination, we gain tools to interpret emotions that help us navigate life. From this vantage, the modern epidemic of anxiety is seen as unmet potential in search of purposeful action and the cultivation of virtue as a template for a meaningful life. The ancient stoics explored the concept of the greatest good and found it in the wholesome and generous interconnectedness of individuals and society.
Finding Our Way Back: healing from self-betrayal
When we betray ourselves, we abandon our values, needs, or truths to gain approval or avoid discomfort. This leaves us disconnected, fragmented, and unsure of who we really are. These patterns often start in childhood, where conditional love or invalidation teaches us to hide our authentic selves to stay safe or gain acceptance.
