Guided by aliveness

  The lyrics to the christmas song Panis angelicus was written by the theologian Thomas Aquinas in the 13th century. The first sentence: Panis angelicus fit panis hominum , means 'may the bread of angels become the bread of mankind'. In the original context this was about the eucharist. To me today however it points to something deeper: a longing for nourishment for the soul. There is a tenderness and vulnerability in this longing. And in a way its not hard to find sources of nourishment - connecting with others, being in nature, creating, enjoying the beauty of art. But to me the  longing also points to something less obvious, something to do with the parts of us which traditionally have been expressed in religious and spiritual practices.  How to understand this longing now, when most people reject organized traditional religion and find it irrelevant? In his book The darkening spirit. Jung, spirituality, religion.  David Tacey argues that we have a postsecular so...

The first book I read on jungian perspectives on development was the classic Women who run with the wolves  by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. I was twentysomething and borrowed  the book from my flatmate, who was an artist and a free spirit. I read it and was intrigued, and it has inspired me many times since then. Clarissa writes about the archetype or universal psychic pattern of the wild woman, with whom women needs to reconnect with to feel creative, healthy, nourished and alive. Its about connecting with deeper parts of the psyche which have been suppressed in the process of socializing and adjusting to societal norms. The wild woman archetype is the inherent, instinctive Self, and Clarissa shows us how she is described in myths and fairytales from around the world. To jungians, myths and fairytales express timeless truths about the human psyche and the challenges it will go through, and give guiding on how to meet and resolve the challenges. So myths and fairytales are in this ...