The Quest: Vision in an Age of Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

Ten interacting crises are described; long term economic problems of American society outlined; apocalypse means the revealing, the unveiling in ancient Greek. Thus, in these times, as the crises intensify, the fissures of societies and civilisations (race, religion, class, gender) come to the surface and reveal themselves as open wounds. Spiritual growth is required. Turning and turning in the wi...

Este podcast propone un modelo simplificado, una suerte de mapa de ruta por la evolución de la crisis económica y financiera mundial. Las etapas de esta crisis son los siguientes: 1 El acercamiento de la tormenta 2 La tormenta llega 3 La respuesta política 4 Depresión económica y caos financiero 5 Gran depresión global 6 Disturbios civiles. Radicalismo político. Peligros de guerra 7 Un mundo radic...

We live in an age of apocalyptical possibilities. We now truly have the means to bring this about. Humans have always had to face their own darkness and even evil - the life-destructive Satanic force within them. The world's mythologies are testimony to this. This episode, after reflecting on aspects of the current evolving crises, turns to a myth from Ancient Egypt that of Isis and Osiris, which...

These podcasts explore the evolving crises of the 21st century. The Virus pandemic, extremely serious though it is, has revealed the fracture lines of the world economy. We have a series of crises, and if we wish to understand more of the world we have created we have to understand them in their interacting totality – i.e. as a system. As the podcast series progresses we will examine these dimensi...

El siglo XXI está siendo testigo de la emergencia de numerosas crisis que vienen operando de manera sistémica e interconectada conduciendo a la humanidad a un momento crítico y muy decisivo.  El tema de hoy es, El Momento De La Verdad, que abordaremos en forma breve, en cuatro niveles: colectivo, individual, moral y espiritual. Estamos entrando en la primera Gran Depresión Global. De hecho, muchas...

The fault lines of the world economy are explained and these are the fractures that are opening in the Great Global Depression we are now entering. These existed before the Corona Virus which is the detonator of the inflated global economic and financial structure. The virus is serious enough but the origins of the multiple crises that are upon us were not caused by Covid 19. A virus feeds and gro...

The world's leaders, both in the political and economic spheres, have failed in any preparation for this curent health crisis which is morphing into a Great Global Depression which will utterly change our political and social landscape. Previous declarations of the Quest Series concerning the multiple crises that are to unfold in the 21st century - the horeseman of the apocalyse and the like - mig...

We further examine the evolving crises of our times and argue that a renewed spiritual and moral vision fit-for-purpose in the 21st century is urgently required.  This is our moment of Truth. This is what the evolution of life and consciousness on this planet have led to after billions of years. Unless we meet it with the Truth we face the exit door.

Our species is sleepwalking to the edge of a precipice. Awaken I do not believe there is any easy escape from the multiple crises that are now unfolding and anyway if by some miracle we returned to business as usual we would only move onto another crisis of greater magnitude. That is the evidence of our history and certainly our economic system. However I am a psychotherapist and someone deeply re...

Christ has a changing image over time. The first is that of holy man, the curer of the sick, an exorcist of devils, the worker of miracles, and he who demonstrates the soul. This second image rapidly moves to that of a prophet, as in the line of Old Testament prophets – an elevation of his status. The third image is an even greater elevation to that of the chief prophet, the messiah himself, the a...

The Archetypal Core and the Historical Conjuncture are presented as our underlying methodology. The resurrection story is explored as a myth, that is, an archetype flowing from the core and manifesting in a particular historical epoch. Those who lived out the myth, the apostles for example, tended to experience it though the historical lens they were given but nevertheless experienced the core suf...

  Jesus said to his disciples, "Compare me to something and tell me what I am like." Simon Peter said to him, "You are like a just messenger." Matthew said to him, "You are like a wise philosopher." Thomas said to him, "Teacher, my mouth is utterly unable to say what you are like." Jesus said​, "I am not your teacher. Because you have drunk, you have become intoxicated from the bubbling spring tha...

The gospels, the supposed authoritative evidence for Jesus, are problematic. However they, along with Paul’s writings, point to a real Jesus of great charisma who lived at a time prior to their writings who said many remarkable things of a spiritual nature with great authority, who had a small band of followers and who was crucified since he clashed with the Jewish authorities at a fraught period...

The heroic is the process by which our consciousness emerges and is transformed to higher levels. The hero in each of us is our struggle with the darkness and our efforts at rebirth. So too in civilisations, at the collective level, the heroic requires courage, vision and sacrifice which allow civilisations to be born, as well as to face their crises and be reborn. However, many civilisations have...

This symphony is not only the emergence of the Romantic movement (our relationship to the sublime) but has pagan vitality permeating it; the spirit of great mystery religions of Greece, Egypt and the Near East are saturating this symphony since at its heart is a death and resurrection archetype which can turn any spiritually attuned person inside-out. The hero myth is central to it, especially tha...

Beethoven’s music put the struggle of the individual, the agony and ecstatic flight, at the centre of the performance. Music in his hands was being reshaped forming a new stage of human consciousness. This is the journey of the hero – hence the title: the Eroica. It may start with Napoleon and the politics of the day, it proceeds through the individual struggle of the greatest living composer rapi...

The opening movement of Beethoven's 3rd is the first stage of the hero's journey – struggle and victory. The hero myth has many variations in its death and resurrection themes. Mythologically it involves the bringing of new consciousness to humanity.  It therefore represents in Beethoven’s day the revolts, insurrections and revolutions that were emerging in Europe and its colonies. However, Beetho...

Gnostic themes of entrapment, profound alienation, the struggle for gnosis (knowledge, illumination), the battle between the light and the dark, the forces of evil and good, the illusions of the world, the devilish devices to distract one from truth are all archetypal themes that reoccur throughout history and across all cultures. Gnosticism, despite some of its excesses, speaks profound truth in...

"The struggle between Light and Darkness concentrates upon mankind, who becomes the main prize and battlefield of the two contending parties, in whom both sides have almost all their stakes: Light that of its own restoration, Darkness that of its very survival. This is the metaphysical centre of the Manichaean religion, and it enhances the deeds and destiny of the individual  to an absolute import...

 “The symbol of the call is so fundamental to Eastern Gnosticism that it may be termed the religion of the call, sometimes termed the call from without which may illumine the mortal house" "I sent a call out into the world … He called with heavenly voice into the turmoil of the worlds". (Hans Jonas) This "call" is the most powerful connection of Gnosticsm to Jungian psychology since the Self is al...

Jung knew he had to drop anchor into the historical depths since he felt instinctively that what he was discovering was not just another interesting theory but something that was archetypal in dimension and therefore could be found in many cultures throughout history and even lay in the historical unconscious despite repression and persecution - just as gnosticism lay buried in the sands beneath t...

The essence of the gnostic experience is one that will never disappear and will again play its part in the crises that are evolving in the 21 century as many individuals undertake the path of initiation into higher knowledge, Gnosis. Such initiation rites are preceded by a period of preparation, a descent, a confrontation and an integration with the shadow, a meeting with the core of oneself, the...

Jung underwent an initiation in his confrontation with the unconscious; it was the gnostic spirit and voice that inhabited him in the 1913-1917 descent. The Gnostics lived a very powerful mystic tradition and there are many metaphysical and mythological ideas which form a bridge to the transpersonal aspects of Jungian psychology. Their influence on Jung was immense since he experienced gnosis thro...

“When I began to understand alchemy I realised that it represented the historical link with Gnosticism and that a continuity therefore existed between past and present. Grounded in the natural philosophy of the Middle Ages, alchemy formed the bridge on the one hand into the past, to Gnosticism, and on the other into the future, to the modern psychology of the unconscious. ... The possibility of a...

“The experiences of the alchemists were, in a sense, my experiences, and their world was my world. Thus, I had at last reached the ground which underlay my own experiences of the years 1913 to 1917 (that is the descent or confrontation with the unconscious); for the process through which I had passed at that time corresponded to the process of alchemical transformation". CGJung