Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati

334 Pages·2014·10.26 MB·English

Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati:
A Mythopoetic Inquiry
Looking Through A Spiral Lens
by
Susanna Ruebsaat
M.A. (Education), Simon Fraser University, 2002
Dipl., Vancouver Art Therapy Institute, 1998
T. Ed., University of British Columbia, 1981
B.F.A., Nova Scotia University of Art and Design, 1978
Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the
Art Education Program
Faculty of Education
© Susanna Ruebsaat 2014
SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY
Fall 2014
Approval
Name: Susanna Ruebsaat
Degree: Doctor of Philosophy (Education)
Title: Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati:
A Mythopoetic Inquiry Looking Through a Spiral Lens
Examining Committee: Chair: Michael Ling, Senior Lecturer
Celeste Snowber
Senior Supervisor
Associate Professor
Vicki Kelley
Supervisor
Associate Professor
Lynn Fels
Supervisor
Associate Professor
Sharalyn Jordan

Internal Examiner
Assistant Professor
Faculty of Education

Susan Walsh
External Examiner
Associate Professor
Faculty of Education
Mount Saint Vincent University

Date Defended: December 16, 2014

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Partial Copyright Licence

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Abstract
Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati: A Mythopoetic1 Inquiry Looking through a Spiral Lens2 is
an investigation of the relationship between a state of mourning or loss, and amor fati—
love of one’s fate. This investigation is a process of exposing the dialectical nature of
self-actualization, or individuation. The inquiry proposes that the nature of
consciousness and what we can know about it is a matter of epistemology. As the study
of knowledge, epistemology is concerned with questions, some of which have been
identified and pursued in this mythopoetic journey.
Through both personal and clinical experience, Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati: A
Mythopoetic Inquiry Looking through a Spiral Lens, includes an examination of what role
‘image’ plays in the relationship between perception and consciousness and the
implications of what looking through a spiral lens suggest. The inquiry speaks of image
as embodiment of unconscious or invisible processes that inform consciousness through
the creative process. Modalities of art making, poetry, autobiographical inquiry, and field
notes from living inquiry as methods of “active/embodied imagination”—a technique
wherein one opens to the contents of the unconscious, then shaping these through the
creative process—are presented within a theoretical framing from the discourses of
Depth Psychology, Mythology, Art Education, Art Therapy, Phenomenology and Taoism.
Part of the method of Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati is a kind of ‘soul tracking’ by way of
the footprints of the emerging autonomous images from the unconscious that present
themselves metaphorically and symbolically. From the metaphoric ground created in the

1 “A basic function of the unconscious, i. e. its tendency to present itself in consciousness in the
form of images…this form of the unconscious has not received the attention it deserves…. A
mythopoetic story evolves in each individual’s life, the flame around a candle’s wick providing a
matrix for the soul’s indwelling…representing an intermediate between the worlds of spiritual
and material reality. This mysterious third area is known in analytic psychology as psychic
reality or imaginal reality. …mythopoetic images have their roots in a collective layer of the
unconscious and… this stratum of the psyche mediates experience that is perceived as
spiritual. So we cannot avoid spiritual experience in our otherwise material lives. We live our
true lives “between the worlds.” In ourselves we are “citizens of two realms” (Kalsched, 2013,
p.316).
2 The notion of the spiral lens emerged through the image on page 196 “I Am a Spiral Lens”.

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spiral inquiry process, emerges the diaphoric imagination in which new presences arise
that generate the possibility of both mourning the dream and loving one’s fate. Amor
Fati.
Mythopoetic process extends the rational—conceptual into the imaginal; it allows a new
understanding of how new information gained through the experience of the imaginal
changes the creator in the process of creation. Mythopoetic inquiry extends rational
knowledge based information; the imaginal discourse is a bridge into the unconscious,
bringing the previously unknown into awareness. In the realm of the imaginal the image
as experienced in the body and the process of creation is a powerful mode of inquiry
extending beyond regions of rational evidence based inquiry. The application of the
findings of the research involves asking questions, while dwelling in the everyday,
listening to the call and feeling into the “flickers” as clues the direction the inquiry is both
led by, and leading me to: the symbolic. Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati: A Mythopoetic
Inquiry Looking through a Spiral lens demonstrates that perception is an act. It is not just
something that comes to us therefore it is inherently dialogical
Keywords: Mythopoetic; archetypal activism; deep democracy; Depth Psychology;
psyche; imaginal; liminal; diaphoric

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Dedication
“if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you”
(Nietzsche, 1888, p. 77).
This dissertation was written for all the abusers, violators, disturbers and victims of the
Subjective and Objective Unconscious that pull us to the lip of the abyss. These figures
are trying to come into consciousness but generally remain in the form of
undifferentiated anxiety. "Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process
[s]he does not become a monster” (Nietzsche, 1888, 71).
In light of Nietzsche’s (1888) uncanny provocation of the abyss looking into you, the
reader, the following inquiry may invoke your own figures of undifferentiated anxiety, any
of whom are invited to dance with your, the readers’ imagination.

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Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge David Roomy MA, author, retired Jungian psychotherapist
and Process Oriented Psychology facilitator whose work has deeply influenced the
direction of my work at an early stage in its development.
I would also like to acknowledge Celeste Snowber PhD, my senior supervisor whose
passionate receptivity throughout my graduate and doctoral studies opened an important
door for me personally and academically.
I would like to thank Vicki Kelly PhD whose respectful guidance helped me see the
larger context of the research and faithfully encouraged me through dark patches
preceding the completion of this work.
Lynn, PhD whose patience with the long process of the writing and editing helped keep
me on track.
Mary Barnes PhD, played a crucial role in her engagement of the mythopoetic inquiry
through her participation of employing some of the concepts and embodying these in her
own experience.
Meehae Song PhD(c), kindly offered her moral and technical support in the writing of
Mourning the Dream/Amor Fati.
Steve Rosen PhD, for his support and contributions through conversations about our
mutual interest in Depth Psychology.

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Table of Contents
Approval............................................................................................................................ ii
Partial Copyright Licence..................................................................................................iii
Abstract.............................................................................................................................iv
Dedication.........................................................................................................................vi
Acknowledgements..........................................................................................................vii
Table of Contents............................................................................................................viii
List of Images....................................................................................................................x
List of Poems..................................................................................................................xiv
Foreword..........................................................................................................................xv
Preface: Telling the Story................................................................................................xvi
Introduction ....................................................................................................................1
Part 1. Travelling: Mapping Out the Territory.............................................................45
1. Developing a Mythopoetic Sensibility: I Am Simply a Way of Seeing............46
Myth-making/Soul-finding................................................................................................63
Inlay: Self-Image and Suffering.......................................................................................79
2. Entering the Liminal.............................................................................................81
Inlay: Self and the Imaginal ‘Other’ in Writing (Art).......................................................111
3. The Call................................................................................................................116
Part 2. Falling into Context.........................................................................................163
4. Black ................................................................................................................164
Serious Journeys..........................................................................................................168
A Word about Image and No-Image.............................................................................169
The Black Doors of Destiny...........................................................................................172
Inlay: Pausing for Images..............................................................................................202
Part 3. The Hermeneutic Imagination: The Spiral Lens Crystallizes......................206
5. Learning How to See Again...............................................................................207
Intension/Extension I.....................................................................................................208
How Can I Find an Image in the Dark?.........................................................................211
The Inward and Outward Eye/I.....................................................................................225

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6. Vision-Making: Eye-Sight and In-Sight.............................................................233
Intention/Extension II.....................................................................................................248
Embodied Reflections in the Diaphoric Mirror of Experience: Mourning the
Dream/Amor Fati..................................................................................................264
7. A Mythopoetic Curriculum.................................................................................280
Threading Back, Stitching Forward:..............................................................................280
Mythopoetic Inquiry is the Living Curriculum.................................................................280
Psyche’s Footsteps: Dancing Psyche’s ulterior motive towards an alternate story:.....286
Navigating a Mythopoetic Inquiry..................................................................................289
To Students of a Mythopoetic Curriculum:....................................................................291
Benefits of Practicing Mythopoesis:..............................................................................292
References 298

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List of Images
Body as Klein Bottle Revealing Inside/Outside Simultaneously........................................7
Embodying ...................................................................................................................9
The Moon Is Reflecting upon Herself in the Animal Body...............................................14
Intention/Extension..........................................................................................................21
Sometimes a Gesture is a Sign. Sometimes It’s Unconscious......................................23
Ways of Knowing............................................................................................................27
Choking Bud .................................................................................................................32
Into the Imaginal..............................................................................................................37
The Egg Has Been Sent.................................................................................................50
I Am Simply a Way of Seeing/Dancing/Performing.........................................................53
Embodiment in the Liminal..............................................................................................65
Cut .................................................................................................................68
Experience as a Mirror....................................................................................................71
Amor Fati .................................................................................................................78
Liminal Spaces. Liminal Figures.....................................................................................86
After First Transplant.......................................................................................................88
The Ancients in the Underworld......................................................................................93
Transfiguration through the Temenos of Empathy..........................................................98
Second Transplant........................................................................................................101
Liminal Figure Inside the Cosmic Egg...........................................................................103
The Hunt ...............................................................................................................105
Gaps in the Retina........................................................................................................107
This is My Task.............................................................................................................114
The Call ...............................................................................................................116
You ...............................................................................................................125
Wounding ...............................................................................................................126
Flickers ...............................................................................................................130
Who Am I in Relation to Time.......................................................................................131
Dancing the Time Line..................................................................................................133
After a Long Time I........................................................................................................136
After a Long Time II.......................................................................................................137

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