Digital Jung

In this episode: We confront the difficulties of the inner life and consider the hard work of learning to live creative and authentic lives. Sources for quotes and more: "Everything good is costly and the development of the personality is one of the most costly of all things." ~ C.G. Jung from 'Collected Works, Vol. 13.' "It's easy to do what is not good, and things t...

In this episode: We discuss the psyche’s affinity for religious expression and it’s meaning for the experience of our own psychological depths. Sources for quotes and more: “I do not, however, hold myself responsible for the fact that man has, everywhere and always, spontaneously developed religious forms of expression..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'Modern Man in Search of a Soul.' "the...

In this episode: We look at our complicated relationship with technology and the challenge it poses in our experience of the symbolic life. Sources for quotes and more: "All time-saving devices, amongst which we must count easier means of communication and other conveniences, do not, paradoxically enough, save time..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'Return to the Simple Life' in Collected W...

In this episode: We discuss how we can know and express what Carl Jung calls “the unique and unrepeatable experience” that we are. Sources for quotes and more: "The whole of yourself is certainly an irrational entity, but this is just precisely yourself..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'C.G. Jung Speaking.' Each person “represents the unique, the very special and always significant and rem...

In this episode: We discuss what Carl Jung called “the decisive question”: the need for a relationship with the infinite. Sources for quotes and more: "The decisive question for man is: Is he related to something infinite or not?" ~ C.G. Jung from 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections' "Without a direct link to the transcendent, we're just one member of a series, replaceable...

In this episode: We look at the symbol of the heart and consider its central place in the practice of the symbolic life. Sources for quotes and more: "The most beautiful truth..." ~ C.G. Jung from Collected Works vol. 18, par. 1292 Last week's episode: The Living Symbol The Man Without a Heart fairy tale "The heart is the organ that produces true knowledge, comprehensive intuit...

In this episode: We explore the elusive nature of symbols and offer some suggestions about ways that we can strengthen our ability to perceive them. Sources for quotes and more: "A symbol, then, is a living Gestalt, or form..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'The Psychology of Kundalini Yoga.' Jung and the Story of Our Time by Laurens van der Post "A word or an image is symbolic, when i...

In this episode: With help from some of the symbols in the story of Parzival, I discuss the surprising importance of vulnerability in the process of psychological growth. Sources for quotes and more: "Only through our feebleness and incapacity are we linked up with the unconscious..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'The Tavistock Lectures,' Collected Works, vol. 18. Jacob and the Angel from...

In this episode: In this episode, we look at a factor that Carl Jung felt was a central need for psychological healing. We discuss what it is, the circumstances that constellate this need in our lives, and the attitude necessary to cultivate it. Sources for quotes and more: "Among all my patients in the second half of life..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'Psychotherapists or the Clergy,'...

In this episode: We look at one of the major barriers in the practice of the symbolic life today — the problem of noise. How does this problem change our experience of the inner life? And what, if anything, can we do about it? Sources for quotes and more: "Noise protects us from painful reflection..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'Selected Letters,' p. 163 "In the deepest heart of all...

In this episode we explore two key questions: What is the symbolic life? How do we begin to live it? Sources for quotes and more: "Now we have no symbolic life..." ~ C.G. Jung from 'The Symbolic Life' in Collected Works, vol. 18 (CW18), par. 627 "Our soul may never have rest in anything which is beneath itself." Julian of Norwich from 'Showings' (Classics of...