love and projection

“Has anyone ever learned to love? We can withdraw our projection certainly, and by so doing we can learn to understand one another. But I do not believe anyone ever learned to love.
“Love happens. It is a miracle that happens by grace. We have no control over it. It happens. It comes, it lights our lives, and very often it departs. We can never make it happen nor make it stay.” Pg. 116

“The miracle of being in love is too overwhelming an experience ever to be dismissed as a projection. I do not believe for one moment that a projection can in itself light up the whole world. It is the love which goes with it that lights the world.” Pg. 118

- Irene Claremont de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology

Negative Animus

“It is the woman who is not using the animus creatively who is at his mercy for he must throw his light somewhere. So he attracts he attention by throwing his light on one formula or slogan after another quite regardless of their exact relevance. She falls into the trap and accepts what he shows her as gospel truth.
“A metallic note in a woman’s voice or some physical rigidity will announce his presence; it may be a stiffening of the shoulders; a slight twist of the lips or rigidity of the whole body. Words are powerless to remove him. Only action can do so – an affectionate gesture, a playful shake or even a cup of tea!
“Irrelevance is, I believe, the unmistakable hallmark of a negative animus statement. If looked at in isolation, animus generalizations are mostly sound remarks in themselves, for they are the fruit of experience garnered through the ages and they express the moral code of the place and time in history in which we live. But they happen to be irrelevant to the living moment.
“So we come to this: the animus is a woman’s greatest friend when he shines his light on what is relevant, and turns foe the moment he lapses into irrelevance.”- - Irene Claremont de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology, Pg. 80

Anxiety

“If power is the most poisonous of the false attitudes we can adopt, anxiety is the most useless. Our worry never helps anyone. It is a most destructive form of idle fantasy. We surround the person we wish to protect with a mist of anxiety which only befuddles his possibility of clear thinking or clear action. Who knows whether it may not even bring about the disasters we are trying to avoid.
“To have a deep concern for anyone is to keep him in one’s heart without the interference of wishing, or still worse willing, any particular goal or outcome for him; yet with faith in the purposefulness of life and the belief in the need for that individual to fulfil his own unknown destiny.
“Concern is a leaving free with the utmost readiness to help if asked, and in the meantime a knowing that being on one’s own thread is true tending of the soil which will provide the surest ground for the right outcome; for it will help to keep clear the channels between what is and what will be, and blow away the confusing mists between our muddled existence and the ultimate purpose of our lives.” - Irene Claremont de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology, Pg. 144

Horror in Dreams

A little late for Halloween, here are some quotes on the topic of horror from Hermes and His Children, by Rafael Lopez-Pedraza:

“An image of horror in dreams can be especially upsetting for a therapist without the background or attitude for dealing with it, believing with the faith of all believers that the patient is in a bad mental condition because of the horror images brought with him into psychotherapy; that the therapist’s office is to cure the patient’s illness by getting rid of the images of horror. There is no awareness that these very images arise, firstly, to compensate the patient’s nature and, secondly, to be recognized as an expression of the need for initiation through horror. Furthermore, I would suggest our aim should be to detect the horror image in the complex, not for diagnostic purposes, but to provide a view more suited to the patient’s nature. If, basically speaking, psychotherapy is to compensate, then we have to stick to the images of horror, for, even though we can neither understand them nor make much sense of them, it is these images which can compensate. All we can do is to withstand these images of horror, even when they appear profusely, until nature begins to metamorphose them into a more understandable psychic expression; for example, into a more commodious depression or individual view of life.” Pp. 166-167

“This evaluation of horror images offers a suggestion for psychotherapy, namely to conceive of them in terms of psychic-movers, contained in the memory (the main instrument of psychotherapy), and part of what is probably the psychotherapeutic virtue par excellence – Prudence. With the help of Prudence we can evaluate more accurately the image of horror in relation to the personality of the patient. It is Prudence that moves us into the art of dosage: dosing the image carefully and then leaving it to be assimilated.” Pg. 167

“Ziegler centers his therapy of some morbidities in the reflection on and connection to death, and has chosen the traditional medieval image of the Todeshochzeit, the wedding of death, for this purpose. I would add that the image of marriage with death is valid for the therapy of any kind of illness. How to deal with and reflect the constellation of Todeshochzeit, especially in dreams, requires, however, all the therapist’s art, as does the imagery of rape, which is implicitly a wedding with death.” Pp. 170-171

“The appearance of an imagery of death in psychotherapy is always welcome to a psychotherapist who knows how essential it is for the psyche’s life.” Pg. 202

Being Normal

“The psychologists’ method of making individuals deal with the shadow within themselves, is making many intelligent citizens turn their backs on the problems of the outside world.

Discouragement of natural rebels is no service to a democracy.

But psychologists are so scared of allowing anyone to foster anything resembling a savior complex, that the dynamism that goes with a reforming zeal is being damped down and lost to the world. Great deeds can only be achieved when we are more than our little selves. When we are lent wings we should not reject them.

Today the normal appears to be the modern goal. The normal? Could anything be more uninspiring?

If a man can be got back into the labour market, able to carry out some dull little job, be some insignificant cog in the great anonymous machine of industry or civil service, the psychiatrist considers he has ably done his job; though he plunges the man back into the very society and the very work which had made him ill. Psychologists have inadvertently side-slipped into this dreary passion for normality. But

I am not so sure that to be balanced is necessarily a virtue.

Some urgent inner problem or some imbalance may actually provide the impetus for dealing with outer wrongs. The rebel who is stirred to action by injustice or cruelty to others may well have himself suffered from an inner tyrant which bullies him. Most geniuses in whatever field are, to ordinary eyes, more than a little mad. The heavy price some artists have to pay for their unusual insight may be lack of balance. The world would have been a poorer place without Van Gogh. The trouble is that psychologists believe they can see and explain patterns of behaviour. On certain levels maybe they can, but

let us never forget the unique unknowableness of every individual soul.”

- Irene Claremont de Castillejo, Knowing Woman: A Feminine Psychology

Dreams of Being Chased by Animals

“The familiar dream in which the dreamer is pursued by an animal nearly always indicates that an instinct has been split off from the consciousness and ought to be (or is trying to be) readmitted and integrated into life. The more dangerous the behavior of the animal in the dream, the more unconscious is the primitive and instinctual soul of the dreamer, and the more imperative is its integration into his life if some irreparable evil is to be forestalled.

“Suppressed and wounded instincts are the dangers threatening civilized man; uninhibited drives are the dangers threatening primitive man. In both cases the ‘animal’ is alienated from its true nature; and for both, the acceptance of the animal soul is the condition for wholeness and a fully lived life. Primitive man must tame the animal in himself and make it his helpful companion; civilized man must heal the animal in himself and make it his friend.”

- Aniela Jaffe, Man and His Symbols

Interpreting Right & Left in Art & Dreams

If you think about this quote while viewing some paintings, you might find possible insight about the artist's conscious attitude on the right side of the painting and the artist's unconscious attitude to the left:

“Among other things ‘right’ often means, psychologically, the side of consciousness, of adaptation, of being ‘right,’ while the left signifies the sphere of unadapted, unconscious reactions or sometimes even something ‘sinister.’” - Marie-Louise von Franz, Man and His Symbols

Another quote applies this right/left observation to dream work:

(Examining a subject’s dream.) “Henry is a ‘lonely wanderer’ on the narrow path. But (perhaps thanks to the analysis) he is already on his way down from inhospitable heights. To the left, on the side of the unconscious, his road is bordered by the terrifying depths of the abyss. On the right side, the side of consciousness, the way is blocked by the rigid caves (which might represent, so to speak, unconscious areas in Henry’s field of consciousness) there are places where refuge can be found when bad weather comes – in other words, when outside tensions become too threatening.” - Aniela Jaffe, Man and His Symbols

Dreams having meaning for both inner and outer life.

Guidance from dreams for both inner and outer life:

“But this specific help from the unconscious is not given to primitive man alone. Jung discovered that dreams can also give civilized man the guidance he needs in finding his way through the problems of both his inner and his outer life. Indeed, many of our dreams are concerned with details of our outer life and our surroundings. Such things as the tree in front of the window, one’s bicycle or car, or a stone picked up during a walk may be raised to the level of symbolism through our dream life and become meaningful. If we pay attention to our dreams, instead of living in a cold, impersonal world of meaningless chance, we may begin to emerge into a world of our own, full of important and secretly ordered events.

“Our dreams, however, are not as a rule primarily concerned with our adaptation to outer life. In our civilized world, most dreams have to do with the development (by the ego) of the ‘right’ inner attitude toward the Self, for this relationship is far more disturbed in us by modern ways of thinking and behaving than is the case with primitive people. They generally live directly from the inner center, but we, with our uprooted consciousness, are so entangled with external, completely foreign matters that it is very difficult for the messages of the Self to get through to us.” – Man and His Symbols, Marie-Louise von Franz

The meaning of dream symbols being relative to the individual.

“When we attempt to understand symbols, we are not only confronted with the symbol itself, but we are brought up against the wholeness of the symbol-producing individual. This includes a study of his background, and in the process one fills in many gaps in one’s own education. I have made it a rule myself to consider every case as an entirely new proposition about which I do not even know the ABC. Routine responses may be practical and useful while one is dealing with the surface, but as soon as one gets in touch with the vital problems, life itself takes over and even the most brilliant theoretical premises become theoretical words.” Man and His Symbols, C.G. Jung

a little Taoist thought can help

"In learning, we always pick up more. In Taoism, we drop things. Since our infancy, we have learned many things that separate us from the universe. We worry about trivial matters like wealth and prestige. Now we want to return to our origins, to be more like a baby and forget these distractions. We want to do nothing. This is Wu Wei (doing nothing).

“By choosing nonaction, we choose to empty ourselves and go with the flow rather than fight the current. Nonaction does not mean not doing, stopping the natural progression of events; instead, nonaction means to follow nature’s course without fighting, striving, or resisting change. We are like water, like the empty vessel, formless and nameless; and in so being, we cannot act: we must accept what challenges the universe throws at us. At the same time, by fulfilling our purpose and allowing ourselves to be empty, we are doing all that we need to do. We do nothing and, in so doing, accomplish everything.

“Wu wei is an act of spontaneity and effortlessness. Zhuangzi refers to this type of existence as xiao yao, or “purposeless wandering.” It should not be considered laziness or mere passivity. Instead, it is the practice of going with nature, or swimming with the current. The Chinese expression “ting qi zi ran,” “let nature take its course,” and the English axiom “Go with the flow” are close approximations of this fundamental principle.”

- Qiguang Zhao, Do Nothing and Do Everything

A complex you got before childhood - not from your parents

“Yet it seems that what we call the unconscious has preserve primitive characteristics that formed part of the original mind. It is to these characteristics that the symbols of dreams constantly refer, as if the unconscious sought to bring back all the old things from which the mind freed itself as it evolved – illusions fantasies, archaic thought forms, fundamental instincts, and so on.

“This is what explains the resistance, even fear, that people often experience in approaching unconscious matters. These relict contents are not merely neutral or indifferent. On the contrary, they are so highly charged that they are often more than merely uncomfortable. They can cause real fear. The more they are repressed, the more they spread through the whole personality in the form of a neurosis.

“It is this psychic energy that gives them such vital importance. It is just as if a man who has lived through a period of unconsciousness should suddenly realize that there is a gap in his memory – that important events seem to have taken place that he cannot remember. In so far as he assumes that the psyche is an exclusively personal affair (and this is the usual assumption), he will try to retrieve the apparently lost infantile memories. But the gaps in his childhood memory are merely the symptoms of a much greater loss -–the loss of the primitive psyche.”

Nietzsche and Intuitives and Zarathustra

“Nietzsche made far greater use of the intuitive source and in so doing freed himself from the bonds of the intellect in shaping his philosophical ideas – so much so that his intuition carried him outside the bounds of a purely philosophical system and led to the creation of a work of art which is largely inaccessible to philosophical criticism. I am speaking, of course, of Zarathustra… If one may speak of an intuitive method at all, Zarathustra is in my view the best example of it, and at the same time a vivid illustration of how the problem can be grasped in a non-intellectual and yet philosophical way.”
- Carl Jung, Psychological Types

“Many introverted intuitives are to be found among artists and poets. They generally are artists of the type which produces very archetypal and fantastic material, as in Nietzsche’s The Spake Zarathustra or in Gustav Meyrinck’s The Golem and Kubin’s The Other Side. This kind of visionary art, as one could call it, is generally only understood by later generations as a realization of what was going on in the collective unconscious at that time.”
- Marie-Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

“It was his masterpiece and he knew it… Yet Nietzsche had a bitter time getting it into print; the first part was delayed because the publisher’s presses were busy with an order for 500,000 hymn-books, and then by a stream of anti-Semitic pamphlets; and the publisher refused to print the last part at all, as quite worthless from the point of view of shekels; so that the author had to pay for its publication himself. Forty copies of the book were sold; seven were given away; one acknowledged it; no one praised it. Never was a man so much alone.”
- Will Durant, The Story of Philosophy

Hermes and the Guide in Active Imagination

I read this passage from von Franz three days after the Wizard archetype in my active-imagination meditations told me that his name was Herman:

"An important motif in the dream is the guide, who instructs the dreamer. Such a figure only appears if the analyst does not take its place. Hermes, the soul guide of the alchemists, called himself 'the friend of every solitary' (cuiusque segregati - each one who is separated from the herd). The most important result of active imagination according to Jung is getting the analysand to become independent of his analyst. For that reason, we ought not to interfere in it (with the exception of making corrections in the method). When an analysand reads me an active imagination, I often think, 'I would never have done or said that!' This shows in what an individual way the actions of the ego arise in relation to the unconscious in active imagination - and this is what determines what course the inner events will take."

Hillman on friends and relatives we see in dreams

The Dream and the Underworld is one of my favorite books on dreams. Hillman points out, the people you see in dreams who you recognize as friends or relatives are not representations of those people nor are they even aspects of yourself. They are archetypal, and for the dream to work its affect they must remain in the "underworld" and not be brought up into a recognizable "dayworld" position. Here’s a quote from Hillman:

"We associate my dream-brother and dream-father to my day-brother and day-father and, by this association, return the dream to the day. Jung’s method of interpretation on the subjective level takes the dream persons into the subject of the dreamer. They become expressions of my psychic traits. They are introjected into my personality. In neither method do we ever truly leave the personal aspect of the dream persons, and thus they remain in the upperworld. Dare I say it loud and clear? The persons I engage with in dreams are neither representations (simulacra) of their living selves nor parts of myself. They are shadow images that fill archetypal roles; they are personae, masks, in the hollow of which is numen." James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld

The Warrior Archetype

"The warriors inside American men have become weak in recent years, and their weakness contributes to a lack of boundaries, a condition which earlier in this book we spoke of as naivete. A grown man six feet tall will allow another person to cross his boundaries, enter his psychic house, verbally abuse him, carry away his treasures, and slam the door behind; the invaded man will stand there with an ingratiating, confused smile on his face." Robert Bly, Iron John

"Warriorship inside, then, amounts to a soul alertness that helps protect a human being from being turned into copper wire, and protects us from shamers, unconscious swordsmen, hostile people, and greedy interior beings." Robert Bly, Iron John

on dreams

"It has often happened that I have been profoundly shaken by a patient’s dream that he himself is recounting in a very cool and matter-of-fact way. I have learned in such cases not to hide my own feelings, not to hide how deeply touched I am emotionally, but to express it. In my experience this has always had a positive effect. Jung himself always had strong emotional reactions to dreams. He reacted to the dreams people brought to him with laughter, outcries of fear, ill humor, or excitement, and often his reaction would trigger in a patient a realization of what the dream was really about." Marie-Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

still more quotes on active imagination

"However, beyond that and far more important is that active imagination makes the autonomy of the analysand possible altogether. Indeed Jung referred to acceptance and practice of this form of meditation as the criteria of whether an analysand was willing to take responsibility for himself or would seek to continue forever living as a parasite on his analyst." Marie-Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

"Active imagination is produced entirely from within and is looked at in the same way, though it has sometimes an outer effect; indeed, one should only do it for one’s own inner sake. Jung has experienced that if it is done with living people, the other person is actually affected, though he could not explain how it works, but that is why it is dangerous, and we try to keep away from it. You can talk to your projection on the living person, but not directly to the living person." Marie-Louise von Franz, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales

If we are upset about something, a discussion goes on all the time within us, but that is passive imagination and completely different from the difficult art of sitting apart and disidentifying and looking at something objectively. If it is done rightly, one is exhausted after ten minutes, for it is a real effort and not a ‘letting go.’" Marie-Louise von Franz, Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales

the meaning of vampires in dreams

"Like vampires, the anima and the mountain spirit love the blood of their victims. The vampire motif is worldwide. Vampires are the spirits of the dead in Hades to whom Odysseus must first sacrifice blood. Their lust for blood is the craving or impulse of the unconscious contents to break into consciousness. If they are denied they begin to drain energy from consciousness, leaving the individual fatigued and listless. This story indicates an attempt on the part of unconscious contents to attract the attention of consciousness, to obtain recognition of their reality and their needs and to impart something to consciousness." Marie-Louise von Franz, The Interpretation of Fairy Tales

more quotes on active imagination

"Jung performed an important service, however, by showing that it is possible to relate to these contents, instead of repressing them, thus neutralizing their negative effects quite considerably. This can be done through the technique of meditation that is called active imagination. In this method the conscious ego permits the unconscious contents to come into the field of consciousness as fantasy images, as objectively as possible, and then enters into dialogue with them as with an autonomous vis-à-vis." Marie-Louise von Franz, Projection and Recollection in Jungian Psychology.

"Jung found that active imagination was practically the only possibility for assimilating the fourth function. He discovered that after having assimilated three functions, he couldn’t get on with his inferior function, and he began to play – to give his inferior function an expression through symbolic play." Marie-Louise von Franz, Psychotherapy

First Post

My very own blogger site... what will I do with this? I think I'll use this site to post quotes from Jungian authors on the topics of dream images and archetypes. I'll get to that sometime soon. In the meantime, here's a link to the web site where I chronicle the archetypal journeys of Aulden Schlief: http://www.willapabay.org/~js/