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Tag Archives: James Hillman
Reading The Red Book (19)
I. “… opening The Red Book seems to be opening the mouth of the dead.” James Hillman in James Hillman and Sonu Shamdasani, “Lament of the Dead: Psychology After Jung’s Red Book” II. “We need the coldness of death to … Continue reading
Roma: Movie of the Year
The movie Roma is a beautiful hymn to women. It tells the story of Cleo, an indigenous (Mixtec) woman who works as a maid to an upper-middle-class Mexican family. She is wonderfully portrayed by Yalitza Aparicio, who had never acted … Continue reading
Posted in Movie Review
Tagged Alfonso Cuaron, anima mundi, archetypes, domestic work, film, goddess, Hestia, housework, humility, James Hillman, Mixtec, movie, Power, review, Roma, servant, service, serving, Soul, symbolism, symbols, water, woman, women
21 Comments
Transcending Toxic Masculinity
There is a deep collective need to rewrite the scripts of masculinity. “Dig deeply into any man and one would find not only the lake of tears but a mountain of rage, layers of anger accumulated since childhood, slowly pushing … Continue reading
Posted in Masculinity, Uncategorized
Tagged Adam Sommer, analytical psychology, archetypes, astrology, C.G. Jung, Cancer, Capricorn, Franz Kafka, healing, inner child, James Hillman, James Hollis, Jungian psychology, Kafka's father, Mark Jones, masculine, Masculinity, planetary nodes, puer and senex, symbols, the father complex, the mother complex, trauma, Under Saturn's Shadow, wound
13 Comments
Insects: Smaller-Than-Small in Appearance, Bigger-Than-Big in Effect
Jainism, an Indian religion prescribing a path of nonviolence towards all living beings, professes a doctrine of Ahimsa (non-injury, absence of desire to harm), one expression of which is sweeping the ground with very small brushes before stepping on it … Continue reading
Posted in Insects
Tagged ahimsa, Animal Presences, animals, archetypes, Breaking Bad, bugs, C.G. Jung, Crime and Punishment, depth psychology, Dostoevsky, dung beetle, evil, Hades, insects, Jainism, James Hillman, khepri, Pluto, Raskolnikov, symbolism, symbols, vermin, Walter White
29 Comments
A Few Thoughts on Power
Paul Kane, “Mount St Helens Erupting at Night” “Business has defeated everything in its path. Its last enemies are the oldest: it is still defied by the ancient Gods of blood revenge, territorial tribalism and the strangely recurrent death struggles … Continue reading
Posted in Power
Tagged archetypes, depth psychology, equality, inequality, James Hillman, justice, Power, psychology, symbolism, symbols, tao te ching
24 Comments
Haunting Paintings: “Wind from the Sea” by Andrew Wyeth
I saw this painting today and became transfixed by it. The wind has brought the smell of the sea and the birds on the old and frail lace curtain have momentarily caught wind in their wings. I felt nostalgia, melancholia, … Continue reading
Posted in Painting
Tagged Andrew Wyeth, archetypes, art, “Christina’s World”, “Wind from the Sea”, Iris, James Hillman, painting, pothos, symbolism, symbols, Zephyrus
20 Comments
The Secrets of the Odyssey (3): Calypso and Phaecians
According to a well-known saying by Whitehead, all Western philosophy is a footnote to Plato. Philosophy may have begun with Plato but storytelling and literature began with minstrel poets such as Homer. Our cultural womb and cradle is ancient Greece; … Continue reading
Posted in The Odyssey
Tagged archetypes, Calypso, depth psychology, epic poetry, Eva Brann, Florence and Kenneth Wood, goddess, goddesses, gods, Greek myth, Homer, Homer’s Secret Odyssey, Homeric moments, James Hillman, literature, mythology, Nausicaa, Odyssey, Ogygia, Robert Fitzgerald translation, Scheria, symbols, symptoms
16 Comments
Iris: the Goddess of the Rainbow as the Harbinger of a New Era
There is a well-known saying that the rainbow comes only after the storm. In the Bible, after the Deluge, God places a rainbow in the sky and pledges solemnly not to send another flood upon the earth: “I have set … Continue reading
Posted in Iris
Tagged Aquarius, archetypes, asteroid, astrology, covenant, deluge, depth pychology, Electra, flood, goddess, Greek mythology, Iris, James Hillman, mythology, Pleiades, pothos, Rainbow, seven, symbolism, symbolism of number seven, symbols
42 Comments
Of Mountains and Valleys
Kashmir valley, image credit “Call the world if you please ‘the vale of soul-making.’ Then you will find out the use of the world.” John Keats, in a letter Mountain valleys can be breathtakingly beautiful. Lusciously green, nested between high … Continue reading
Posted in Psyche
Tagged archetypes, James Hillman, mountain, mountains, Soul, spirit, symbolism, symbols, Valley
21 Comments
Senex and Puer
image credit The turn of the year is ruled by the senex/puer archetypal polarity. In the most popular allegorical depictions, the old man gives way to a young boy. This happens when the Sun is in Capricorn: the sign of … Continue reading
Posted in Senex and Puer
Tagged archetypes, depth psychology, James Hillman, puer, senex, symbolism, symbols
22 Comments