This Jungian Life Podcast

DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!⁠⁠ Alchemical separatio is the skill of sorting out your mind. You separate what belongs to you—your complexes, habitual triggers, and painful memories--from what is happening in the world around you. In the laboratory of your life, you separate present triggers from older wounds, and literal facts from symbolic meanings. This is part of you...

DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!⁠⁠ Lucid dreaming is an interesting ego state when we are dreaming and regain full self-awareness. Being awake in the dream world can be useful, but imposing a rigid agenda can undermine the Dream Maker’s attempts to educate and help us. Each dream is crafted to incrementally expand our awareness and acceptance of unconscious factors we need...

In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks: "My fiancé and I have known each other since we were 17. Neither one of us has really ever dated anyone else. We're both 29 now and due to be married in October. I love him, and he's my best friend, but I find as our wedding date gets closer, I'm having second thoughts. I'm about to commit myself t...

DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!⁠⁠ The devil archetype carries three qualities: it promotes bestial violence of every kind, it tries to convince us that the material world is the only reality, and it fools us into thinking we can spiritually ascend through intellect alone. On a personal level, it gathers our disowned infernal traits—envy, rage, greed, and the wish to domin...

DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!⁠ The new controversial Netflix series MONSTER: The Ed Gein Story offers a window into the devouring mother archetype, a transformation fantasy gone horribly wrong, and the human capacity for monstrous behavior. Gein’s crimes inspired the Hitchcock movie Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs. It challenges the audienc...

DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!⁠ Do you get overwhelmed by intense feelings and old patterns, feeling stuck because you can’t make sense of what’s happening, and reacting on impulse instead of pausing to choose a steady, thoughtful response? Jung’s alchemical insights will help. Sublimatio is an old alchemy term for heating a solid so that it turns directly into a gas, ri...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! People Pleasing is a compulsive strategy that disavows your needs and surrenders your agency. It begins in family systems that only reward compliance, which produces a false self. If your soul is constantly devalued, you may develop dependent narcissism with a covert contract: “I’ll keep you happy, and you’ll keep me safe.” Healin...

In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks: "What are the dynamics in a woman's psyche of the collusion between the negative mother and the negative animus?" ⁠Support This Jungian Life on Patreon⁠ and ask Lisa, Deb, and Joseph your questions for a chance to have them answered on Jung Love.

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Some mothers attack life in their children. They crush appetite, joy, curiosity, and initiative. They call it love or duty. It is not love. It is domination dressed as care. She withholds warmth to make the child obedient. She intrudes when the child needs space and vanishes when the child needs help. She shames tears, punishes pl...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Dolls are human stand-ins that invite projection and play; children use them (including action figures and Barbies) to try on identities and develop imagination, then later withdraw the projection as the figure becomes inert again. Icons and idols differ because their meaning is fixed and not for play, which limits imaginative enga...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Think of myths as the dreams of an entire culture. Those stories reside in the collective unconscious and influence all of us throughout our lifespan. Mythic patterns shape our attitudes, and when we recognize them, we can link our personal experiences to the universal. When you’re panicking, you’re under the influence of Pan; when...

Join us for a free Zoom seminar on Dreams and Art on Saturday, September 13th, at 10:30 am EST. ⁠ ⁠Register here⁠ ⁠ . Bullying is about unmanaged aggression and broken containment in early life. Aggression is normal, but kids need adults to name it, hold it, and channel it into play with clear rules. When that doesn’t happen, some children learn to control and humiliate to feel safe, while others...

Join us for a free Zoom seminar on Dreams and Art on Saturday, September 13th, at 10:30 am EST. ⁠Register here⁠ . Jung’s Red Book is the primary research record of his systematic experiments in active imagination after the break with Freud, combining calligraphic German text and paintings that document dialogues with his inner guides—especially Philemon and Salome—which became source material for...

In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks: "Has there ever been a time in your life when a dream or series of dreams seemed to be telling you one thing, but you decided to go against it regardless? If so, what was the result? Is it always safe to assume that dreams are acting in your best interest or is there a possibility that, like an autoimmune disease...

You're invited to join us for a free Zoom seminar on Dreams and Art on Saturday, September 13th, at 10:30am ET. Register here . --- Holding the tension of the opposites means that when you’re pulled hard in two different directions, you don’t rush to choose or shut one side down—you keep both viewpoints in mind and let each be heard with equal rights, as if two people were debating inside you....

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Imagination is a central organ of human perception, as vital as the senses, through which we access meaning, creativity, and the unconscious. It first appeared as an evolutionary leap that allowed humans to run mental simulations, project into the future, and innovate new tools, myths, and symbols. It operates voluntarily—when we a...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Solutio is Psyche’s method to facilitate transformation: our rigid ego is softened in symbolic water, allowing outworn attitudes to unbind. We can see this reflected in dreams of oceans and baths, or a wall of our house dissolving. This can show up when we slough off our work persona or a creative depression brought on by retirement...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Jack and the Beanstalk is a symbolic prescription for psychological growth, teaching us to climb out of darkness, confront the giants within, claim the gifts of our unconscious, and transform our ordinary lives. Join us as we reveal the secret meaning hidden in the fairytale. Read along with the dream . LOOK & GROW ⁠⁠⁠Join Lisa&#...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Dreams about pregnancy and babies symbolize something new taking shape within us, like a creative project, a hidden talent, or a psychological shift that's quietly developing beneath our awareness. These images express the mysterious tension we sense during periods of growth, change, or potential, drawing our attention inward and...

In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks: "I keep hearing and reading that symbols are healing and transformative for people, but this concept is so arbitrary to me. I need some very specific and concrete examples of how a symbol can help a person in the various dilemmas of life we all can face. Can you please give a few examples in layman's terms?&qu...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Carl Jung’s discoveries are woven into our common understanding. Introvert/extravert, shadow work, typology, persona, and synchronicity pop up in casual conversations all the time. Negotiating with our inner figures, now used by Internal Family Systems, was pioneered by him. Although we have adopted his ideas, few know how they were fo...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! The calcinatio stage in Jung's alchemy is about being put through inner fire—it's when the ego undergoes a kind of burning away of projections, illusions, and inflated ideas about itself. This stage often brings intense suffering, frustration, and confrontation with parts of yourself you'd rather avoid. It's about stayi...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! The Buddhabrot pattern springs from a simple algorithm: you take thousands of starting points, run each one through the same formula over and over, and chart only those whose values grow without limit—these “divergent” paths form the spectral Buddha-like silhouette. Once you recognize the pattern, you see it everywhere. It’s visible in...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! ⁠ Everyone faces a moment when they are tempted to sacrifice their true self to chase wealth, approval, success, or security, but doing so strips away their strength and leaves them hollow. To reclaim their lost agency, a person must embrace the uncertainty and vulnerability they've been avoiding. They must stand alone, undefended,...

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them! Our inner critic—that voice constantly tearing us down—can stem from difficult childhood experiences, negative cultural messages, or even powerful archetypal forces deep within us. While healthy self-assessment involves honestly owning our mistakes, feeling genuine regret, and making amends, the harsh inner critic keeps us stuck in cyc...