Depth Insights Jungian and Depth Psychology scholarly eZine

39 Pages·2013·2.72 MB·English

by  Bonnie Bright

D E P T H I N S I G H T S
S e e i n g t h e W o r l d W i t h S o u l
Spring 2013
“Surrender”~ Artwork by Jane Johnston
INSIDE THIS ISSUE
Dream Remedies: Music and Psyche
Jerusalem Stone: A Confession of Faith in Stone
Bricolage: Psyche’s Eco-healing Agent
The Archetypal Field of Leadership
The Role and Value of Dreams in a Post-Apocalyptic Future
More Depth Psychology Articles, Essays, and Poetry
Table of Contents From the Editor
2 Dream Remedies: Music and Psyche 21 A Horizon in Every Direction:
When we refer to something as cru-
By Travis Wernet Engaging the Soul of the Great
Plains and the Smoky Hill Trail cial, we usually mean that we have arrived
4 Jerusalem Stone: A Confession of By Carla Paton at the crux of a matter, a decisive point in
Faith in Stone time where paths cross and diverge, and
By Aviva Lev-David (Joseph) 27 Dreams in the Talmud and in Depth
outcomes are decided. This is where we
Psychology
Bricolage: Psyche’s Eco-healing By Susan Vorhand are today—living through a crucial time in
9
Agent history, facing the crux of what it is to be
By April Heaslip 32 The Role and Value of Dreams in a human on this planet, standing at a cross-
Post-Apocalyptic Future
roads, making choices that will determine
The Archetypal Field of Leadership By Paco Mitchell
14 outcomes well into the future.
By Sylvia Behrend
But the basis upon which we make
Poetryby Catherine Baumgartner, Laurie Corzett, Kathryn LaFevers Evans, Sharon those choices cannot continue unchal-
Galliford, Hadley Fitzgerald, Dennis Slattery, Brian Tracy, Thali Bower Williams lenged—the very basis of how we under-
stand ourselves must change. Otherwise,
Artby Linda Ravenswood
we will simply follow the same tracks that
Cover Artby Jane Johnston have led us to the problems we presently
face. But how are we to reach a different
About this Issue understanding, and on what basis? If the
foundation of our awareness remains
Depth Insights, Issue 4 Editorial Selection Committee unchanged, is anything really different?
Carol Rizzolo This is where the immense value of
Publisher Dennis Pottenger Rebecca Pottenger depth psychology comes into play. Any
Depth Insights, a Media Partner for Ileen Root Siona van Dijk understanding of ourselves and the world,
Depth Psychology Alliance Maria Hess Susanne Dutton that seriously takes into account the
Nancy Forrest Tish Signet
objective reality of the psyche, the mys-
Executive Editor
tery of the unconscious and the vast cre-
Bonnie Bright Contact
ativity of dreams, can potentially lead us
[email protected]
to a revision, even a re-birth, of the epis-
Acting Editor
Paco Mitchell, with special thanks to Submissions/Subscription/Ad Info temological ground beneath our feet. The
Rebecca Livingston Pottenger http://www.depthinsights.com/Depth- boundaries of our definitions of what is
Insights-scholarly-ezine/ real and true may be expanded, revital-
Layout and Design ized.
Deadline for submissions to Issue 5
GreatGraphicLayouts.com/ is June 15, 2013 Cont’d on page 37
Stephanie Kunzler with Bonnie Bright
Depth Insightsis published twice a year. Copyright 2013 by Depth Insights, Depth
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On the cover: “Surrender” by Jane Johnston:
A ritual mandala 2 feet in diameter, painted
in gouache with 000 size brushes over a 15
month period
This version of“Surrender” is professionally
photographed by: Rob d'Estrubé OF DESTRUBE
PHOTOGRAPHY
Read comments from the artist, Jane Johnston
Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 1
Dream Remedies
Music and Psyche
By Travis Wernet
There may be more of a connection ties for survival, essentials such as food, and are affected by the vibrations in
between music and the depths of shelter, water, clean air, and sleep are sound, the under-pinning hum of life, as
our being than we previously realized. tantamount. It can be said that just as the rhythms and melodies of the ‘music
Jung made an interesting comment in vital to survival is the cultivation of imagi- of the spheres’ sneak past certain limits
support of this notion when Meg Tilly nation—the art of dreaming. Even the like a canny breeze through a door crack.
invited him to listen to her piano playing most conservative dream researchers There are many ways to support the
and witness her approach to music thera- agree that dreaming serves the function vital sense of our dreams. One that I find
py. Tilly apparently felt that incorporation of taking us through certain scenarios of most useful is the invocation of medita-
of music into Analytical Psychology would experience to ‘rehearse’ up-coming tive music and trance-inducing sounds as
be of benefit, and sought to influence events which we need to learn or prac- tools for enriching dreaming. Music is a
Jung on this matter. She was invited to tice. Indigenous cultures, like the portal for soul, heart and mind to con-
Küsnacht after contacting Jung to share Australian Aboriginal and North American nect—within waves and images, within
her method with him. In regards to the Iroquois Peoples (among others), have and beyond language, across time and
experience, he remarked, “Music is deal- understood for ages that dreams come to space.
ing with such deep archetypal material help us learn about what’s ahead, in life- As already mentioned, several ancient
and those who play don’t realize this. Yet, sustaining ways. In a paradoxical twist of ‘dreaming cultures’ have tended the rela-
used therapeutically from this level, modernity, it seems that science and the tionship between music and dreams. It
music should be an essential part of old spiritual teachings have the potential has even been said that music can be a
every analysis. [It] expresses in sounds to wrap around at the ends, during our bridge to dreaming, and vice versa. In
what fantasies and visions express in visu- time, to conjoin and agree—if not on pre- Why the World Doesn’t End, storyteller
al images … music represents movement, cise meanings or applications, at least on and mythologist Michael Meade reminds
development and transformation of a general sense of shared purpose for us how, in one of the old Native
motifs of the collective unconscious.” 1 optimum survival. American folk-myths, the creation-origin
From a depth view of psyche, we of medicine is found in a story about the
know that dreams, too, present a reliable First People going out into the dark night
“Music is a portal for
touchstone for accessing the uncon- of the soul, to the four corners of exis-
scious. To invite the energies of the soul soul, heart and mind to tence, to learn how to pray, chant, sing
to speak to us through dreaming, we may and drum.3These mythic First People go
connect—within waves
yearn to cultivate ways of bringing our into deep night and are affected by the
and images, within and
imaginations alive. Just remembering wild discovery that these activities are
dreams has a potent effect on our waking beyond language, like the living roots of a great and vital
experience, but practice shows this isn’t tree containing a flowing green sap of
across time and space.”
enough. As any number of engaged, living wisdom and wholeness. Like dreamers
studies of dreams show, our nightly who seek and receive healing when the
sojourns provide us with missing keys to sun has descended into the Underworld
ourselves, and a larger life. They also pro- Inherent to a full-blooded vitality is (as ancient Egyptians imagined nightfall in
vide us with a wealth of practical prompt- relating to the realm of the creative. For, their mythos), these first seekers went
ings towards wellness and a depth of what can come into existence that hasn’t out to the darkest part of the night to
understanding. Dreams have even been first been dreamt up? Who among us receive as yet unknown remedies for
shown to speak towards finding our place would choose to live without music, for wellbeing.
within the ecology of the Earth in their example, that most universal of healing As Marina Roseman has shown, the
invitations to recognize the inter-connect- balms? Whether we know it or not, we all Temiar people of Malay are known
edness of all things: “Our dreams carry us hear several kinds of music every day. dreamers who intentionally dream to
beyond the limits of our ordinary distinc- The birds singing their wake-up songs in learn songs from healing spirits.4Theirs is
tions and categorizations to reveal that the early morn, the wind blowing through a culture in which dreams must be enact-
we are indeed part of a web of being that the tree branches, a loved one’s voice in ed to music for the rest of the village,
expands in many different directions.” 2 tender conversation, even the wild where great medicine comes from experi-
For this and so many other reasons, we’d cacophony of traffic outside—all of these ences in dreams, as well as from the
do well to develop further ways to work and more form a soundtrack to our lives dreamers’ responsive actions, and both
and play with dreams, to foster a space which we synchronize with. We also sur- dreams and dreamers come together in
for the imaginal in our lives. round ourselves with composed music in an imaginatively true way within the day-
When one thinks of the bare necessi- a variety of settings. Even deaf folks enjoy world of outer events. Not only does such
Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 2
Dream Remedies: Music and Psyche
a practice show powerful transformation- support these kinds of results. the poetry we desire for describing expe-
al effects flowing from dreams involving Music can provide powerful ways for riences that occur inside such a space of
music and sound, it also bespeaks a vivid augmenting the living energies pouring resonance where what we hear is accom-
creative practice for honoring the “visions through us during our dreams. As Jung panied by the silence that is part of any
of the night”. This life-way shines forth a said, music can help us transform with musical quest.
tremendously helpful cultural embodi- the energies of the unconscious. These
Notes
ment for waking and dreaming life with modes of vibrancy, through sound, can
its diverse mélange of actions whereby enhance and enrich the playful, serious 1Claire Dunne, Carl Jung, Wounded
people seek to unite with their authentic Healer of the Soul, (Watkins
selves, the spirits and each other. Publishing, London, 2012), p.220.
“As Jung said, music
The ancient Greeks also incorporated 2Kelly Bulkely, Visions of the Night,
aspects of sound, music and theatre, can help us transform (State University of New York Press,
while engaging the transformative pow- Albany, 1999) p. 45.
with the energies of
ers in dreams at the ancient healing sanc- 3Michael Meade, Why the World Doesn’t
the unconscious.”
tuaries of Asclepius, the God of Healing.
End, Tales of Renewal in Times of
C.A. Meier, a colleague of Jung’s, has
Loss, (Green Fire Press, an imprint of
commented on this: “It is quite clear from
Mosaic Multicultural Foundation,
Plato that musical and poetic competi- work we do while honoring the memory
2012).
tions on a large scale took place at the of our mythopoetic travels in the realms
4Marina Roseman, Healing Sounds from
Asclepieia… The particularly large the- of the human imagination. Working with
the Malaysian Rainforest, (University
aters in the sanctuaries are further evi- these and other instruments, as well as
of California Press, Berkeley, Los
dence of the importance attached to the the voice, can help us transcend and
Angeles, Oxford, 1991).
influence of music in the ancient ritual include the limits of spoken languages
healing.”5Meier’s words show that a which often make it difficult to describe 5C.A. Meier, Healing Dream and Ritual,
Ancient Incubation and Modern
relationship existed between music and and feel the energy and reality of our
Psychotherapy, (Daimon Verlag,
medicine amongst the ancestors of west- dreaming adventures. Entering these
2009), p. 73.
ern civilization and that it was deeply invisible layers of sound, we stimulate
understood that the influence of such deep sense perceptions and feeling
Travis Wernetis a certified MIPD Dream
creative interweaving helpfully affected sources within us that draw upon surpris-
Worker & Musician. He has traveled to
dreamers seeking wellness at these sanc- ing sources other than, but in addition to,
Egypt offering ceremonies using
tuaries. the intellect. In this way we are affected
Didjeridu, Flutes and Tibetan Bowls. He
I have witnessed the potency of musi- by the intonations of tapestries woven in
leads dream groups in Northern California
cal dream incubation where groups of dreams and visionary planes. The audible and his most recent musical release is
dreamers during retreats have been hum and tonality of music can also 'Yoro Yoro'.
encouraged to seek dreams while listen- inspire us to discover our best words—
ing to special instruments, including the
didjeridu, Tibetan bowlsand Native
American flutes. In these workshops and
depth ceremonies, we often start with an
evening of Sound Healing. Inviting
dreams through listening to music is
encouraged. We do this at night, just
before folks go to their dreaming. On one
occasion, a woman in our group entered
deeply—albeit skeptically, at first—into
the musical meditation. Upon returning
to share journeys the next morning, this
dreamer reported having received a pow-
erful dream, which we re-imagined
together. While working with the narra-
tive, it became clear that the further
meanings of her dream had to do with
clear promptings to go ahead with a
questionable surgery. This woman fol-
lowed through on the implied actions
springing from the dream and our work
with it. She later underwent a successful
medical procedure that greatly affected
her overall health and wellbeing. Dreams
worked with powerful intention often
3 Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 <Back to TOC
Jerusalem Stone
A Confession of Faith in Stone
By Aviva Lev-David
Jung began to build his house in could say ‘I’ and think: ‘I am lying mystery of being, the embodiment of
Bollingen, Switzerland, in 1923, at here on this slope and he is sitting on spirit” (1963, p. 90).
the age of forty-eight. He continued top of me.’ The question then arose: In 1950 Jung received an unexpected
building this solitary retreat well into his ‘Am I the one who is sitting on the visitor to his Bollingen house. It was a
old age. What was the impulse behind stone, or am I the stone on which he square stone instead of the triangular
this significant endeavor? What inspired is sitting?’ This question always per- stone ordered. The dimensions of the
Jung to invest this much time and energy plexed me, and I would stand up, stone were also much larger than antici-
in building the tower, as he called it? wondering who was what now. The pated. It apparently arrived at his house
“Words and paper did not seem real answer remained totally unclear, and by mistake. When the masons were
enough to me” he says in his autobiogra- my uncertainty was accompanied by about to take the stone back Jung insist-
phy. He clarifies, a feeling of curious and fascinating ed, “No, that is my stone. I must have it!”
darkness. But there was no doubt (1963, p. 226). In recognition of his sev-
To put my fantasies on solid footing
whatsoever that this stone stood in enty-fifth birthday he carved it as a mon-
something more was needed. I had
some secret relationship to me. I ument to express what the tower meant
to achieve a kind of representation in
could sit on it for hours, fascinated to him. When working with the stone,
stone of my innermost thoughts and
by the puzzle it set me. (1963, p. 33) Jung reports that something unexpected
of the knowledge I had acquired. Put
occurred. “I began to see on the front
another way, I had to make a confes-
face, in the natural structure of the stone,
sion of faith in stone. That was the
“What I had dimly
a small circle, a sort of eye, which looked
beginning of the tower, the house I
felt to be my kinship at me…. I chiseled it into the stone, and
built for myself at Bollingen. (1963, p.
212, my emphasis) with the stone was in the center made a tiny homunculus
[corresponding] … to yourself—which you
At first glance, Jung’s drive to build the the divine nature in
see in the pupil of another’s eye” (p.
tower, as described above, appears to be
both, in the dead 226). And later, when working on the
centered on his desire to sculpt psyche
and living matter.” third face of the stone, Jung surrendered
into matter; to place his developing
even further to the unfolding mystery let-
knowledge on solid ground; to root the
ting “the stone itself speak, as it were” (p. 227).
ineffable reality of psyche in the perma-
Jung’s confession of faith in stone
From an early age Jung saw in stone
nence of stone. In reading this, one might
could be seen as a bold, pantheistic state-
something more than a lifeless object,
get the impression that Jung regarded
ment moving us beyond the limiting
unintelligent and passive. He imagined
stone merely as a solid object, a canvas
views of a narrow modern rational para-
the stone to have an “I,” an enigmatic
for his unconscious projections involving
digm, arguing on behalf of an experience
identity somehow related to him. As we
a unilateral movement from Jung’s psy-
of stone as ensouled with divine, expres-
see above, he had “no doubt whatsoev-
che to the receptive and neutral ground
sive intelligence. Jung’s cosmology
er” that the stone stood in some secret
of stone. This understanding, however, is
expands from the stone to include the
relationship to him and that a mystery
a very limited and limiting view of a far
world at large. He says, “Nothing could
was unfolding through their connection.
more complex and rich relationship
persuade me that the saying ‘in the
In Jung’s cosmology no element in nature
between Jung and stone. In this paper I
image of God’ applied only to man. In
was devoid of numinosity, a divine or
will attempt to explore Jung’s confession
fact, it seemed to me that the high moun-
spiritual quality inherent in visible
of faith in stone as a pointer to a relation-
tains, the rivers, lakes, trees, flowers and
objects. He says, ”What I had dimly felt to
ship with stone full of mystery. Later I will
animals far better exemplified the
be my kinship with the stone was the
look at this mystery as expressed in leg-
essence of God than men... “ (1963, p.
divine nature in both, in the dead and liv-
ends of and lived experiences in
45). Jung laments the loss of this under-
ing matter.” When later in life he began
Jerusalem.
standing and our loss of experiencing the
to explore the ancient practice of alche-
A life-long relationship was created
world this way,
my, the stone received yet a more pro-
between Jung and stone. When Jung was
found meaning as the ‘Philosopher’s No voices now speak to man from
about six, he would often find himself
Stone’—the culmination of the alchemical stones . . . nor does he speak to them
alone playing an imaginary game while
opus. Jung’s fascination and enthrallment believing they can hear. His contact
sitting down on a stone that he affection-
with the mystery of stone is unquestion- with nature has gone, and with it has
ately called ‘my stone.’The game would
able. In speaking of the alchemical tradi- gone the profound emotional energy
go something like this:
tion, he argued, “The stone contained that this symbolic connection sup-
I am sitting on top of this stone and
and at the same time was the bottomless plied. (1968,p. 85)
it is underneath. But the stone also
Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 4
Jerusalem Stone
Jung continued to brood on this up and down a ladder. Furthermore, Stone and Jerusalem are linked in a
“symbolic connection” throughout his Jewish tradition holds to this day, that powerful bond. Yehudah Amichai, one of
life. According to Jung, a symbol always this rock was the site of the Holy of Israel’s national poets, whose intimate
“hint[s] at a hidden, vague or unknown Holies at the center of the Hebrew connection to Jerusalem is well known,
meaning” (1976, ¶416), so that when it Temple where the Ark of the Covenant says in a poem: “Jerusalem stone is the
becomes fully known and explained, it is was placed. only stone that can feel pain. It has a net-
no longer a symbol but a sign. A symbolic Many Muslim traditions acknowledge work of nerves” (1992, p. 51). This con-
connection dies when it is no longer a the extraordinary legacy of the rock in nection also comes to life when reading
signpost for “the bottomless mystery of the heart of Jerusalem. According to a Israeli Geographer Zeev Vilnai’s (1973)
being,” and all that remains is merely the legend recorded in 1887, “Legends of Jerusalem,” one of the best
object, the signpost. collections of legends about the city. It is
when Muhammad… rode to
A connection between people and astounding that more than half of the
Jerusalem astride his marvelous
stone has been alive in the imaginal and legends in the book relate to stone. The
mare [in his dream,] he perceived
physical life of Jerusalem for centuries. Western Wall, for instance, a stone wall
the Foundation Stone in the
As a modern Jewish woman who grew up supporting the platform on which the
[Hebrew] Temple, and recalled all
in Jerusalem I wondered: how might second Hebrew Temple was built,
that had befallen it… The sight of the
Jung’s understanding of a symbolic con- appears in many old and newer legends.
Rock roused his emotions and he
nection between people and stone illu- The wall and the stones comprising it are
cried out with fervor: ‘Salem Aleik Ya
minate certain underlying dynamics in frequently perceived in the stories as
Sakhrat Allah’—peace be unto you,
Jerusalem today? active participants in an ensouled world.
Rock of Allah! Upon seeing
The British government, who ruled The stones often have a voice, emotions
Muhammad and hearing his bene-
Jerusalem from 1917 to 1947, made a and purpose. One event, recorded in
diction, the Rock, too, was seized
powerful gesture when they put into law 1920, was well known among the Jews of
with emotion; it put forth from itself
that all buildings had to be faced with Jerusalem at the time.
a tongue and said: ‘Salam Aleik Ya
Jerusalem stone, a local form of lime-
Rassul Allah’—Peace be unto you, The Wailing Wall is also called The
stone with an exceptionally warm, gold-
messenger of Allah! (Vilnai, 1973, p. Wall of Weeping or The Wall of
en hue. The rule remains in effect to this
20-21) Tears, for in front of this last rem-
day. The stone is an extraordinary mate-
nant of the Great Temple, Jews from
rial, rich and textured and almost magical
“How might Jung’s all parts of the world came to lament
in the glow of dawn and dusk. It can
and shed tears over their past glory
transform even the most mediocre archi- understanding of a
and present desolation. On the night
tecture into a striking place of harmony symbolic connection [that commemorates] the destruc-
with the whole city. Jerusalem and stone
between people and tion of the Temple, the ninth day of
seem to go hand in hand, not only
the month of Ab, as on most sum-
because of the abundance of stone in stone illuminate certain
mer evenings, the stones of the wall
Jerusalem, but also because of the mean- underlying dynamics in are covered with small drops of dew.
ingful connections between people and
Jerusalem today?” The simple folk say that the wall par-
stone in Jerusalem since its foundation.
ticipates in the sorrow of the people,
One of the most profound illustra-
and cries bitter tears with them. One
tions of the symbolic connection
particular night in 1840 stands out. It
Another beautiful Muslim legend, written
between people and stone in Jerusalem
is told that when the worshipers
in 1866, speaks of the amicable relation-
can be located in a place known in
stood in front of the wall pouring
ship between the foundation stone and
Hebrew as the Temple Mount and in
out their sorrowful hearts, they sud-
the Ka’aba, a black rock found in Mecca,
Arabic, Noble Sanctuary, at the heart of
denly discovered small rushes of
considered the most sacred place to
the old city. In the center of this large
water oozing out between the
Islam. According to this legend,
area is a rock, which has been covered
cracks. They cried out: ‘The wall is
th The rock of the [Hebrew] Temple is
with a dome since the 7 century, hence weeping. The wall is crying’ (Vilnai,
one of the stones of the Garden of
its popular name, The Dome of the Rock. 1973, p. 169).
Eden. At resurrection day, the
The rock carries an impressive biography
One can hear in the way the legend is
Ka’abastone, which is in holy
in both Jewish and Muslim traditions.
recorded a modern attitude attempting
Mecca, will go to the Foundation
According to ancient Jewish myths the
to rationally explain a phenomenon that
Stone in holy Jerusalem, bringing
world was woven out from this point,
was experienced by the people, called
with it the inhabitants of Mecca, and
The Foundation Stone, the navel of the
here ‘simple folk,’ as a mysterious rela-
it shall become joined to the
world. On this stone, it is said, Abraham
tionship with stone. Was the wall crying?
Foundation Stone. When the
sacrificed his son, Isaac, according to the
Was there dew dripping from the
Foundation Stone shall see the
Torah, and Ishmael, according to the
stones? Synchronicity allows for opposite
Ka’abastone approaching, it shall
Quran. A Jewish legend also claims this
dimensions, physical phenomena and
cry out: ‘Peace be to the great
to be the place where Jacob rested his
psychic experience, to correspond in an
guest!’ (Vilnai, 1973, p. 18-19)
head and dreamed of the angels going
a-causal way. We can rest with the leg-
5 Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 <Back to TOC
Aviva Lev-David
end and with the mysterious symbolic ed with the names of the 12 tribes of Their use and meaning is covered with
connection between people and stone, Israel. These stones are described as alive secrecy and not much is known about
right where our inner life meets the outer and possessing a direct connection with them. The Breastplate of Justice, as it was
world. The word symbol, from the Greek the Divine. When a decision had to be fully called, was worn by the high priest
syn+bole, points to its purpose: the weav- made, the high priest would consult the above the heart, on top of the ephod.The
ing of things thrown together. A symbol is stones, which would ‘speak’ to him. Since ephodwas an elaborate garment worn by
bipolar. It has a peculiar nature that con- the high priest. There were two engraved
nects and integrates polarities such as stones over the shoulder straps, possibly
“The oracle stones don’t
inner and outer fields of experience, or made from Malachite. These stones were
speak to us any more.
that which can be represented and that called “memorial stones”. The ephod
which is irrepresentable. A symbol serves It is worth repeating together with the memorial stones com-
as a mediator between the physical and bined to activate the oracle of the
Jung’s words, “No
psychological, the conscious and the Breastplate of Justice (Exodus 28).
voices now speak to
unconscious, the personal and the cultural. The priestly work in the Hebrew
One of the areas containing rich sym- man from stones nor Temple ceased after the exile of the Jews
bolic meaning in Jewish heritage concerns and the destruction of the Temple in
does he speak to them,
the priesthood and their rituals. The Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE. The
believing they can hear”
priests were a direct patrilineal descent Temple is no longer standing and no high
from Aaron, Moses’ brother, who per- priest wears the ephodor the breast-
formed various rituals in the Jerusalem plate. The oracle stones don’t speak to us
Temple. For many centuries, every gener- all the letters of the alphabet were any more. It is worth repeating Jung’s
ation chose a priest to carry the holy task inscribed on the stones, the response words, “No voices now speak to man
of being the high priest. The High priest would unfold by letters being lit through from stones nor does he speak to them,
would wear very unique vestments a mysterious source of light and, togeth- believing they can hear. His contact with
described in exceptional detail in the er, the letters would form words and sen- nature has gone, and with it has gone the
Torah. Two of the three pieces he wore tences. The breastplate also included two profound emotional energy that this sym-
involved stones. The ChoshenMishpat more stones called, Urim Vetumim. These bolic connection supplied“ (1968,p. 85).
was a breastplate with 12 stones imprint- stones also served as part of the oracle. A symbol is alive “only as long as it is
Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 6
Jerusalem Stone
pregnant with meaning” (in Jacobi, p. 97), A caravan comes through and a man In my active imagination I dreamed
related to an unknown and hidden steps down from his horse and comes the dream forward. Back in the dream, to
dimension of experience. When a symbol down towards me. He touches the rock the dismay of the people around me,
is fully explained, that is, flattened out, lightly, with exceptional care and gentle- who are still running away from a flood, I
rationalized, and understood, we no ness. He seems to be caressing it. I won- turn around, and I walk down and sit by
longer speak of a symbol but of a sign or der what might he be trying to achieve. I the rock. I sit there in attentive silence for
dogma. With the loss of this emotional think to myself, “With such little effort on a long time. I don’t know where this con-
energy we also lost some kind of guid- his part, surely nothing will happen.” nection with the stone will lead but I feel
ance and wisdom. Suddenly I see a small silver knob that compelled to stay there. And I trust that
Though the ephodis no longer con- was not there before, coming out of the something will emerge out of this preg-
nected to the work of the Temple, the rock. In that moment everyone panics nant, meaningful moment. It’s an enigma,
use of the word did not disappear. It lives and starts running frantically up the road a riddle, a mysterious relationship. It’s a
in the shadows. When you ask any Israeli and up the hill. They shout at me, “The confession of faith in stone.
today to identify an ephodthey will point flood is coming, the flood is coming.”
Notes
you to the army uniform: in Modern
Hebrew ephodrefers to a soldier’s vest. Amichai, Y. (1996). The selected poetry of
“I find a disturbing
What once was connected with life and Yehudah Amichai. Ch. Bloch & S. Mitchell (Eds.
yet poetic relationship & Trans). Berkeley, CA: University of California
vision is now connected with death and
Press.
division. The garment that used to store between the act of
Jung, C. G. (1963). Memories, Dreams,
life-giving knowledge now stores lethal throwing stones and Reflections. New York, NY: Vintage Books
ammunition. Stones turned into weapon. Jung, C. G. (1976).The Symbolic Life:
the word ‘symbol’”
Symbol turned into symptom. Stones in Miscellaneous Writings. In G. Adler (Ed.). The
Collected Works of C. G. Jung (R. F. C. Hull,
the hands of Palestinian children, men
Trans.) (Vol. 18). Princeton, NJ:
and women, as they throw them at Israeli Without thinking much, I follow Princeton University Press. (Original work pub-
soldiers who are shooting back became everyone and begin to escape, but I find lished 1950
an emblem of the conflict in the area. In it increasingly difficult to walk, every step Jung, C. G. (1978). Man and His Symbols. New
York: Dell Publishing Co.
this context, stones, like their modern feeling heavier than the one before.
Vilnay, Z. (1973). Legends of Jerusalem. New
counterpart, bullets, are no longer sym- While walking up the hill I stop and ask
York, NY: Jewish Publication Society.
bolic of connection but have become a myself, “Where is the flood? Are we real-
sign, a symptom of a bloody conflict, an ly threatened by a flood?” Then I wake Aviva Lev-Davidis a doctorate candidate
endless cycle of violence. up. In the morning I worked with the in Depth Psychology at Pacifica Graduate
I find a disturbing yet poetic relation- dream and realized that the small silver Institute. Her dissertation titled "Hidden
ship between the act of throwing stones knob looked like a radio dial. I wondered: Sides of Jerusalem" centers on a reconcilia-
and the word “symbol”. When we omit Was the rock trying to communicate tion project that explores women's experi-
the prefix ‘syn’meaning ‘together’ from something with us? Was I being shown a ence of home in Jerusalem as a personal
and a cultural place. Learn more about the
the word, symbol, we are left with the dial so I can find an appropriate frequen-
research:
Greek root ‘bole’, which means to throw, cy to hear it?
http://avivalevdavid.wordpress.com
to throw so as to hit. The Latin ‘ballista’,
the ancient military machine for hurling
stones comes from the same root, as well
as ballistics, the study of the firing, flight,
and effects of ammunition. The loss of
‘syn’in a symbol reveals the loss of the
understanding of our interdependence
with everyone and everything around us;
it is the loss of the connective tissue that
binds self-other-world. The symbol and
the symbolic perception as a mediating
field that can hold the tension of oppo-
sites, has been in exile for a long time. I
do think, however, that we are gradually
beginning to re-member our world.
I would like to finish this article with a
dream I had while working on it. In the
dream I stand in a low place with my back
against a very big rock, maybe 15-20 feet
high. There are others with me. Around
us extends a desert, which reminds me of
the Judean desert surrounding Jerusalem.
7 Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 <Back to TOC
Ariadne’s Back Yard
By Dennis Patrick Slattery
I stand amazed at the glowing
web across the eaves of our back door.
Puzzled by the spider’s labor
in the night
feeling some intricate design stir
in my belly.
I am hungry and alone
yet tied to this web that catches
the morning sun in its dew.
Wet by the welded air of
morning sticky filament
washed clean.
Faerie Scene
Born of the womb of the mother
By Linda Ravenswood
who hovers now midweb—
Second story perch.
I can see there in the pattern of coil
in the labyrinth of solicitude
the whole of my life
anchored to a gutter,
then over to the branch of a
swaying bush
entrapped, full of force of cable
in mid-air, close to its body.
I race the design and
feel uncoil in me a life,
a day, a moment of clear
pattern—spun from so many
road lines that lead to a
center full of thin legs where
web and her marker slip into
the skin of the other—
Contained held still arrested.
I dream today into the filament of
lost time
repeated renewed replenished.
I rejoice. Form E
Origins stir in their wet fur. By Linda Ravenswood
Today perhaps only today
in the labyrinth of my journey
I will feel in my belly energy
so central so focused
Linda Ravenswood is an artist from Los Angeles. Her work
disentangled from all desire
is interdisciplinary in form and practice. Her new book
all repetition all interruption
Hymnal, a Pushcart Prize nominee for 2012, is available
that disturbs the threads of from Mouthfeel Press.
so many lost yesterdays
line by tinseled line.
She loves me knot.
(November 2012)
Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 8
Bricolage
Psyche’s Eco-Healing Agent
By April Heaslip
gration, disuse; something old has outworn its usefulness. This
destruction produces the rich compost—gardener’s gold—out
of which life emerges anew. Famously discussed by Claude
Lévi–Strauss in The Savage Mindin the 1960’s, bricolage has
since been applied to many disciplines and conversations. I sug-
gest it offers an inherently sustainable tool for depth psycholo-
gists and mythologists exploring healing though individuation,
especially how to navigate resurrection and what Joseph
Campbell defined as the Return.
Bricolage as Sacred Re/Membering
I have always loved the rhythm and complexity found in the
genre of art I now know of as bricolage. The components of this
type of creation—found, collaged, quilted, collaborated, cob-
bled and steampunked—are richly textured, fragments echoing
a mature life. Such a life has been through s/hero’s journeys
toward individuation, re/membered along the way. In such a life
re/membered—in order to attain the elegance of bricolage—
some assembly is required. If the energy of psyche is natural,
synchronous and trustworthy, bricolage likewise proceeds in an
organic, intuitive fashion. This connection between re/member-
ing and bricolage offers a gift from psyche, a unique aid for our
ecological crisis, an aid that also—miraculously—heals psyche
itself.
As Rumi would say: “The wound is the place where the Light
comes in.”As artists, we begin with our cracks. When we allow
disintegration, shattering to create shards—the materia prima
so necessary to the bricoleur—we begin our descent as
Crazy Quilt, artist unknown. Photo by Carolyn Comitta.
Published with permission. s/heroes, as artists, as co-creators with life. This regeneration
from materials at hand is the gift of return, the elixir brought
This too is an experience of the soul back to the community. Bricolage is alchemical re/membering
This dismembered world that was the whole god
that amplifies the beauty of regeneration. A bricoleur—some-
Whose broken fragments now lie dead.
one engaging in bricolage, whether artist, poet, or soulmaker—
This passing of reality itself is real.
is, first and foremost, a gatherer. Scraps become jewels; all is
Beyond the looming dangerous end of night potentiality.
Beneath the vaults of fear do his bones lie,
The bricoleur does not have a program, but always makes
And does the maze of nightmare lead to the power within?
do with what is at hand. Naturally, his [or her] skill set
Do menacing nether waters cover the fish king?
builds over time, as does his [or her] stockpile of tools and
I place the divine fragments into the mandala
materials. [S/]He gets a feel for what types of things may
Whose centre is the lost creative power.
come in handy, and for what types of projects they may be
The sun, the heart of God, the lotus, the electron
used for, some day. And just as all drawings and poems
The pulse world upon world, ray upon ray
grow out of previous drawings and poems, all of the
That he who lived on the first may rise on the last day.
bricoleur’s acts become the groundwork for new acts
--From Isis Wandererby Kathleen Raine
(Kerstetter).
Bricolage is a sophisticated form of art that can be found Edward Edinger describes this psycho-logicalact of gather-
across mediums and genres. Quilting, mosaics, collage,
ing in The Mystery of the Coniunctio: Alchemical Image of
and jazz are all examples of this elegant, organic design, exam-
Individuation. “Very gradually we will collect our scattered psy-
ples of how resurrection is possible through the art of re/mem-
che from the outer world, as Isis gathered the dismembered
bering. In bricolage a whole is created from disparate parts;
body of Osiris, and in doing that we will be working on the coni-
some form of glue—connective tissue—is required. Then some-
unctio” (18). Isis was perhaps the first bricoleur.
thing new emerges. Re/creation presupposes collapse, disinte-
As I was pulling in and rearranging fragments of my
9 Depth Insights, Issue 4, Spring 2013 <Back to TOC