DEPTH INSIGHTS Seeing the World With Soul

Spring/Summer 2015

“Recordar” by Debra Goldman INSIDE THIS ISSUE Holding Center: Ecopsychological Portraitures on the Poetics of Place Becoming Real; Seeing Through the Eyes of the Velveteen Rabbit Fishing for the Salmon of Knowledge Talking about Dreams, Bones, and the Future The Study of Dreams from Freud to Jung New Grange: The Mystery of Speech

More Depth Psychology Articles, Essays, and Poetry Table of Contents From the Editor

Holding Center: Ecopsychological The Study of Dreams from From the pen of Jesse Masterson: 2 Portraitures on the Poetics of Place 24 Freud to Jung By Dana Swain By Elise Wardle We are here in this community of Depth Insights brought together under Becoming Real: Seeing Through the Talking About Dreams and Bones 8 Eyes of the Velveteen Rabbit 33 Bonnie Bright in Conversation with the auspices of depth psychology. As we By Marta Koonz Authors Russell Lockhart and Paco go about research, writing, teaching, Mitchell therapy, or as practitioners, how often do 13 Fishing for the Salmon of Knowledge we stop and consider our individual social By Catherine Svehla Review of Jung and Phenomenology location? Social location is critical as we 38 by Roger Brooke A Soul Unleashed: The Archetype of By Matthew Gildersleeve engage communities (Kovach, 2010; 15 Partnership, Dangerous Beauty and Smith, 2012). the Art of Relationship 42 “Liana’s Sacred Hands”: Knowing ourselves and where we are By Cathy Lynn Pagano New Myth #67 socially located moves us away from By Willi Paul New Grange: The Mystery of Speech universalizing our individual experience as 22 By John Woodcock the experience of all peoples. Knowing our individual social location gives us an POETRY CONTEST WINNERS ADDITIONAL POETRY understanding of the impacts race, “Conversations between a Psychologist and a Poet” 2015 W. P. Basil gender, sexual orientation, economic Poetry Contest sponsored by Depth Psychology Alliance Mary Ann Bencivengo class, and the myriad of ways we identify Mary Pierce Brosmer (Winner) R. L. Boyer ourselves and are identified by others. It Matthew Fishler Roz Bound (Honorable Mention) Melissa La Flamme becomes imperative as we work in depth Bonnie Pfeiffer (Honorable Mention) Donna May psychology to understand our individual Eva Rider social location and the many ways it inter- ART J R Romanyshyn sects with depth psychology. Debra Goldman (includes our cover art this issue) Roy Rosenblatt Vera Long Equally important to our work in depth psychology is the personal exploration of the purpose of our work or in not so About this Issue subtle terms, how do we become clear, to ourselves and to others, what the Depth Insights, Issue 7 motivations are behind what we are doing Publisher Cont’d on page 7 Depth Insights, a Media Partner for Depth Psychology Alliance Co-Editors This Issue Bonnie Bright & Jesse Masterson

Layout and Design GreatGraphicLayouts.com/ On the cover: Stephanie Kunzler with Bonnie Bright “Recordar”, "to pass back through the Contact heart", encaustic paint [email protected] on board, 16"x12", 2014 by Debra Goldman Submissions/Subscription/Ad Info See more of Debra’s http://www.depthinsights.com/Depth-Insights-scholarly-ezine/ work on page 21

Depth Insights is published twice a year. Copyright 2012-2015 by Depth Insights, Depth Psychology Alliance Online version of Depth Insights scholarly e-zine produced by SpeedyBlogSetup.com and can be found at www.depthinsights.com/Depth-Insights-scholarly-ezine

Note: Opinions expressed by the authors contained in this issue do not necessarily reflect those of Depth Insights or its editors, publisher, or representative. Copyright of content remains with the authors & artists. Copyright of the eZine & design belongs to Depth Insights™. No part of this publica- tion may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the publisher.

Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring 2015 1 Holding Center Ecopsychological Portraitures on the Poetics of Place

By Dana Swain

One thing is certain: the very act of Place is a fundamental reality that it reality is that center is always in the pres- putting the nonhuman world at the is often overlooked. Place is the earth, ent, always wherever one is, always in periphery of what is cultivated the landscape, the region, the home, and nature because we exist within nature. marginalizes Nature . . . What if the even the body. Differing places elicit their Casey (1993) asks the fundamental and supposed margin is itself center? own unique contemplations, their own obvious question that our lack of mindful- (Casey, 1993, p. 186). voices, but it requires someone to take ness repeatedly overlooks: the time to attune and witness them. What if Nature is the true a priori, copsychology is a relative Place is also narrative, because it is in the that which was there first, that from newcomer to the psychological narrative about place that our interiority which we come, that which sustains scene,E emerging in the latter part of the of imagination interweaves with the us even as we cultivate and 20th century to address the peculiar and materiality of “place-ness,” which in turn construct? . . Nature is not just particular pathos of the modern human— creates a field of reciprocity, and in reci- around us; or rather, there is no alienation from our ecological roots. procity we are never alone. It is poetic getting around Nature, which is at all Theodore Roszak, who coined the term, narrative that navigates the interiorized times under us, indeed in us. In this understood that it is a new discipline but and exteriorized landscape best because regard, Nature can be considered the an old path, one that indigenous cultures poetics hold the essence of narrative ‘Encompassing’ . . . in the literal have walked for millennia. According to most closely in the formation of image, sense of the word, ‘to be within the Roszak (1992), “Ecopsychology seeks to which touches our emotions and our compass of.’ (p. 186) experiences most intimately, drawing us heal the more fundamental alienation This essay is a contemplation of between the recently created urban in a closer embrace to our natural world. When we care for places, we are caring aspects of nature as center, as landscape, psyche and the age-old natural environ- as a priori space and place, as it changes ment” (para. 9). Ecopsychology has close for our own subjective vivacity, tending our own creative imagination, forming in form, in function, in expression, but affiliation with Jungian depth psychology always reflects and dialogues with the particularly because both disciplines inner realms and regions as we attempt to responsibly, thoughtfully, participate in psyche of the human world. Gary Snyder recognize the reality of the unconscious, (1990), in his book, Practice of the Wild and accept that psyche and nature exist the formation and stewardship of the regions of the earth. suggests, “It is not enough just to ‘love not as separate entities that orbit each nature’ or to want to ‘be in harmony with other, but as a continuum of an animated Gaia.’ Our relation to the natural world expression. A basic tenant of ecopsychol- “Differing places elicit takes place in a place, and it must be ogy is that there is a “synergistic interplay their own unique grounded in information and experience” between planetary and personal well- (p. 42). being . . . the needs of the planet are the contemplations, their needs of the person, the rights of the own voices, but it The Symbolic Landscape person are the rights of the planet” (para. requires someone to Since Neolithic times humans have 13). take the time to attune left evidence all over the earth of their The discipline of ecopsychology is communion, worship, and celebration of the study of the psyche’s relationship and witness them” nature. Egyptians made pyramids so that with its natural environment, her funda- pharaohs could be laid to rest with many mental home. When we reflect on one, of their worldly belongings so they would we are reflecting on the other. James In our post-modern culture our high-speed, high-tech urbanized land- not pass through the gateway of the Hillman (n.d.), recognized by many as the underworld empty handed. Older still founder of archetypal psychology said, scape has left us fundamentally disoriented. Not only has modern culture than the pyramids are the henges and “an individual’s harmony with his or her megalithic structures scattered through- ‘own deep self’ requires not merely a “paved paradise and put up a parking lot” (Mitchell, 1970) in most every developed out the landscape of the United Kingdom. journey to the interior but a harmonizing These henges ranged from singular sites with the environmental world” (n.d, para. and developing nation in the world, we rarely have the time to notice what has of worship that seem to have aligned 6). Philosopher Edward Casey (1993) with astrological aspects, like that of suggests that nature too, has its interior- transpired. We seem to be stumbling after an idea of center that is always Stonehenge, to sites such as the Avebury ity and can never be completely separate henge that appears to have been a from us, because there is no ultimate tantalizingly out of reach, and somehow has become conflated with the ideology complex of sites used to celebrate life, Cartesian boundary of “in here” and “out death, and seasonal rituals (Devereux, there.” (p. 187). of consumerism. The phenomenological

1992, p. 116). There are thousands of Like a Mobius strip, comprised of a landscape in his book, The Poetics of sacred or symbolic sites in the landscape single, non-orientable surface, the atmos- Space. He suggests that the daydream, across the globe, and they speak to an phere of place and the atmosphere of similar to fantasy and perhaps cousin to older way of acknowledging, respecting, human interiority iteratively and organi- Jung’s concept of active imagination, has and living with nature. While some sites cally intermingle. If we experience a tendency to muse about grandeur, or were chosen for their relationship to the consciousness and presence within immensity. In so doing, a particular qual- landscape or to the sun, moon, and stars, ourselves, we also experience it “out ity of subjective space ensues that other sites seem arbitrary to our modern there” in the primeval landscape where resembles infinity (p. 183). It is through mind, but no doubt held deep, cultural presence existed first, long before quiet contemplation that a person relevance. humans had the capacity to detect it. If daydreams, or activates the creative Snyder (1990) suggests that places we fall into the hubristic perspective of imagination, and the objects of contem- in the landscape are given a sacred mean- the primacy of the subjective ego above plation are forms that exist in the world. ing by the cultural heritage endemic to a all other forms of consciousness, the The immensity that lies within as imagi- place, by the elevated amounts of wildlife landscape does not lose its sentiency; its nation or daydream is also external in in the area, or for stories that happened gift of itself is simply removed from us by space, and the two have a symbiotic rela- at the site, or even for qualities in the our own ignorant agency. tionship: earth that resemble human or animal It would seem, then, that it is form—such as faces that seem to through their ‘immensity’ that these protrude from rocky areas. Snyder notes “The breath for two kinds of space—the space of inti- that “these places are gates through eastern meditation macy and the world space—blend. which one can . . . more easily be practices and When human solitude deepens, then touched by a larger-than-human, larger- the two immensities touch and than-personal, view” (p.100). philosophies is become identical . . . In this coexis- Casey (1993) delves even more associated with pure tentialism every object invested with deeply into the subtlety of the atmos- consciousness, or that intimate space becomes the center phere of place. For Casey, perhaps of all space. For each object, distance beyond concrete appearance or fruitful- which leads to pure is the present, the horizon exists as ness and fertility of an area there is a consciousness” much as the center. (p. 203) presence in nature itself that humans sense when they perceive it as sacred: Bachelard suggests that “each new The Imaginal Landscape contact with the cosmos renews our The atmosphere is more thoroughly inner being, and that every new cosmos pervasive of wilderness than any What I term here the imaginal land- is open to us when we have freed other factor . . . It is the wildwise scape is concurrent with the symbolic ourselves from the ties of a former sensi- equivalent of what Heidegger calls landscape, but with a subtle difference. I tivity” (p. 206). ‘moodwise situatedness’ define “symbol” in the manner C.G. Jung James Hillman (1982) holds a (Befindlichkeit). Atmosphere embod- defined it, as the image that arises from similar notion, but situates his argument ies the emotional tonality of a wild the unconscious, whether personal or psychologically. Hillman suggests that the place, its predominant mood. When collective, that has a particularly popular western view of a subjective we are in such a place, we sense it compelling affective quality associated psychic reality and an external dead not only as continuous with our own with its archetypal foundation. The imagi- world of objects is a limited and lop-sided feeling—or as reflecting that feel- nal as I am conceiving it, is closer to view. He re-introduces the term anima ing—but also as itself containing Henry Corbin’s concept of the creative mundi or “world soul,” as the Platonists feeling . . .The atmosphere perme- imagination. According to Corbin, the conceived it (p. 101). Hillman suggests ates everything. (p. 219) creative imagination is an organ of the world soul is not to be found in a Casey links the word “atmosphere” perception that lies between the rational transcendent world or a kind of unifying etymologically with the meaning of conscious thought process and the life principle that runs throughout the smoke and breath, and notes that it objects of perception, and “a means by world: which we perceive symbols” (Cheetham, shares a root with the Sanksrit “atman,” Rather let us imagine the anima which means “Self” and “soul” which is 2012, p. 102). The symbolic landscape is perceived through the imaginal organ of mundi as that particular soul-spark, also linked etymologically with “breath” that seminal image, which offers (p. 219). The breath for eastern medita- perception, which is co-located—or pervasive—to both human beings and the itself through each thing in its visible tion practices and philosophies is form. Then anima mundi indicates associated with pure consciousness, or landscape. In this sense the imaginal landscape and the atmosphere of place the animated possibilities presented that which leads to pure consciousness. by each event as it is, its sensuous Perceiving Nature’s atmosphere in this are closely attuned. French philosopher Gaston presentation as a face bespeaking its manner means attuning to an all-perva- interior image—in short, its availabil- sive sense of consciousness, sentiency, Bachelard (1958) meditates on a similar concept that links the imagination to the ity to imagination, its presence as a and presence in the landscape. psychic reality. (p. 101)

3 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

For Hillman, it is not that we psycho- pying its domain. This is not to say that African people. Something stirred Jung logically project our internal psychic life the landscape requires humans for deeply when witnessing a solitary African onto objects, but that objects contain in expression, rather that the inter-subjec- warrior on a ridge. Jung wrote, themselves their own expression that tivity of physical, symbolic, and imaginal I had the feeling that I had already compels us and enlivens the imagination. landscape with the human psyche creates experienced this moment and had It is not only when a thing is beautiful a third field of expression that is culture. always known this world which was that we are attracted to it, but that “the Depending on the landscape the culture separated from me only by distance soul of the thing corresponds or is enmeshed in, certain archetypal ener- in time . . . I could not guess what coalesces with ours” (p. 102). Hillman gies embedded in the land will also be string within myself was plucked at argues for an aesthetic sensibility apparent in the culture. the sight of that solitary dark hunter. towards the world. He says, “the anima I know only that his world had been mundi is simply not perceived if the mine for countless millennia. (p. 254) organ of this perception remains uncon- “Something stirred Jung scious by being conceived only as a deeply when The experience of different land- scapes and cultures gave Jung access to physical pump or a personal chamber of witnessing a solitary feeling” (p. 108). If this organ of percep- his own psychic depths in a manner he tion is the creative imagination, then it is African warrior would not have experienced by staying in through the aesthetic sensibility of the on a ridge” Switzerland. creative imagination that the animated, These quotes from Jung are alive ontological atmosphere of the personal narratives with mythic and anima mundi is perceived. Jung often spoke of the importance cultural implications for all. When we Jung, Casey, Corbin, Bachelard, and of myth for a culture. Myth implied witness the landscape, regardless of Hillman all point to facets of an emerging meaning, direction, and archetypal and whether it is our place of origin or a place (and already eminent to many non-west- psychological truths. While entire alien to us, we are dialoguing consciously ern cultures) ecological image: an cultures would adhere to a particular or unconsciously with nature, as with the ensouled natural environment that is not mythic story, Jung believed in the neces- urge to travel, to see new sites, to hike a as separate as our western cultural sity for personal myth as well. Without mountain because one can. The explicit worldview conceives of it. It is an image the individual mythic narrative a person goal may not be to have a dialogue with of the natural world that interacts with us would suffer from lack of meaning. Part nature, with the landscape, or to deepen not only physiologically, but also symboli- of Jung’s own myth, and no doubt his our psychological knowing and healing as cally and imaginally. We can experience way of connecting deeply to emanations a result of this dialogue, but often that is this reality directly when we take the of new myths arising in his psyche, was to the unconscious urge. time to notice it, become still and engage spend time in nature. He built his own The Global Soul in a Techno-fied our imagination and our aesthetic sensi- tower home in Bolligen, Switzerland, Landscape? bility, and relativize the ego from its where he could escape the chatter and dominant position in our perception, busyness of the city. Jung (1961) wrote: The ideal situation to heal the earth as we heal ourselves is to engage the which blocks a more comprehensive At times I feel as if I am spread out vision. natural environment through the over the landscape and inside things concrete and the imaginal, having the The Mythopoetic and Cultural . . . There is nothing in the Tower time and the solitude to tune into the Landscape that has not grown into its own form interiority of psyche as human and over the decades, nothing with which psyche as world, and experiencing the As long as humans are interacting I am not linked. Here everything has with the natural environment, there is interconnection, indeed the continuum, its history, and mine; here is space of beingness between the two. This is culture. Part of culture is the poetic for the spaceless kingdom of the narrative of myth. One function of myths what ecopsychologists strive to bring to world’s and the psyche’s hinterland. human awareness. But what is the is to speak about the origins of the world (pp. 225-226) and the role of the people within that current reality of our global life? If our At the same time, traveling to other cosmological order. Myths often hold natural world is a reflection of the state locations and experiencing the atmos- deep psychological wisdom and truth. of the soul in humans as well as the phere and people of a totally unknown Myths are embedded in the landscape, as earth, we are in dire straits. Our technol- region tremendously inspired Jung. He if the landscape invoked the myths and ogy has given us access to vast amounts was impressed and overwhelmed by New the culture itself by its presence. The of information and led to profound York, moved deeply in Taos, New Mexico, forms in myth are taken from form in the breakthroughs in many science and tech- by a Native American who instigated his landscape; the way a culture develops— nologies, but it has sped up the lived realization that the European civilization cuisines, language, wardrobes, experience of time. When time is of the “had another face—the face of a bird of architecture, and stories—are all at least essence, everything is urgent, but there is prey seeking with cruel intentness for partially dictated by the landscape. The no sitting with the essence of time. distant quarry” (Jung, 1961, p. 248), and landscape evokes its own expression in Particularly for Westerners, time felt a deep kinship with Africa and the part through the humans who are occu- becomes a series of tasks, the next text,

5 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

Hillman, J. (1995). A psyche the size of the earth. Ecological Buddhism: A Buddhist response to global warming. Retrieved from http://www.ecobuddhism.org/wisdom/psyche_and_spirit/james_ hillman/ Iyer, Pico. (2000). The global soul: Jet lag, shopping malls, and the search for home. New York, NY: Vintage Books. Jung, C.G. (1961). Memories, dreams, reflections, New York, NY: Vintage Books. Silko, L.M. (1996). Yellow woman and a beauty of the spirit: Essays on Native American life today. New York, NY: Simon & Schuster. Roszak, T. (1992). Ecopsychology: Eight principles. Grand Rapids, MI: Phanes Press, Inc. Snyder, G. (1990). The practice of the wild. Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint.

Dana Swain is a doctoral Candidate in Jungian and Archetypal Studies at Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara, California. She has lived in many different landscapes, including that of Angola, Brazil, and currently Indonesia. As a movement-based expressive arts facilitator, Ms. Swain also considers the body as an personal landscape that expresses not only the personal consciousness, but holds the deep inner wisdom of our collective landscapes—both conscious and unconscious.

7 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

By Marta Koonz

“By the time you are Real, most of your the Velveteen Rabbit, that offers us the realities as primarily symbolic or hair has been loved off, and your eyes opportunity to become Real. metaphorical” (Hillman, 1975, p. xvii). drop out and you get loose in the joints Archetypal Psychology and Soul Depth psychologist Glen Slater noted that and very shabby. But these things don’t in Hillman’s work “The driving concern is Before embarking on a quest to matter at all, because once you are Real, for apt perspective—insight that satisfies explore what gives archetypal psychology you can’t be ugly, except to people who through its very way of seeing, so that its distinct flavor, let us attempt to define the process of being psychological, don’t understand.” (Williams, 2005, p. 17) the psychology itself. In looking to the referred to by him as soul-making, Greek roots of the word “psychology” we becomes the focus” (as cited in Hillman, rom one vantage point, The find logos and psyche, speech and soul. 2005, p. x). I continue to see the multi- FVelveteen Rabbit appears a tale The word “archetypal” offers a multitude plicity. Seeing soul as a thing, as an for children, a story that brings to mind of potential meanings, but for the internal guiding force, provides an easier beloved toys and childhood dreams. But purposes of this paper, Hillman’s (1977) handle to grasp when first encountering if we shift our view just a bit, we can see musings seem best suited: He noted that the word and concept. It is here I begin that the words hold truth and meaning archetypal “rather than pointing at some- with others. I am then able to move for children of all ages, young and young- thing, points to something, and this is beyond, to sink into soul, to explore the at-heart. A further shift and an imagining value.” When we look at an image from connection that unites my being with all into these very words brings us to a place an archetypal perspective, “we ennoble that surrounds me—a recognition of the where the Velveteen Rabbit himself is or empower the image with the widest, anima mundi that shares my spark. able to explain the intricacies of Hillman’s richest, and deepest possible signifi- Holding this allows me to reflect from a archetypal psychology. By gently holding cance” (p. 82). Speech, soul, value, image, new perspective, to reach the place both the children’s storybook and the significance: These words fall together for where soul and soul-making merge as story of archetypal psychology side by me in a way that asks me to consider one and experience and reflection side, we will consider the four aspects of archetypal psychology as a way of inter- deepen to a way of being. this psychology, looking at each in turn acting with the soul that honors its way through the eyes of the Velveteen Rabbit. of speaking, that recognizes the value and Personifying, or Imagining Things We will begin by imagining into the significance held within the images it The first element of archetypal story itself, engendering the toys and shares. psychology we shall explore is that of allowing ourselves to hear their voices “personifying,” or imagining things. and feel their emotions. We will journey Hillman (1975) defined personifying as with Rabbit as he experiences both the “We will journey “the spontaneous experiencing, envision- joys and struggles of life, and begins to ing and speaking of the configurations of understand the value of these experi- with Rabbit as he existence as psychic presences” (p. 12). ences. Finally, we will consider what it experiences both the He saw it as “a way of being in the world means to immerse ourselves in the expe- joys and struggles of and experiencing the world as a psycho- rience of soul-making, to be enchanted, logical field, where persons are given to open ourselves to the multiplicity pres- life, and begins to with events, so that events are experi- ent in every moment. understand the value of ences that touch us, move us, appeal to My argument is simple: The story of us” (Hillman, 1975, p. 13). A sign of this the Velveteen Rabbit, when read from these experiences” imagining is the use of capital letters, for the imaginal and reflective perspective of “words with capital letters are charged soul, not only provides us with an oppor- with affect, they jump out of their tunity to observe a “deepening of events This viewpoint urges me to consider sentences and become images” (Hillman, into experiences” (Hillman, 1975, p. xvi), the word “soul,” and ponder how it is 1975, p. 14). Personifying is what makes but also engages us, the readers, in the seen in this psychology that places such the story of the Velveteen Rabbit so very act of soul-making itself. As we importance upon it. Hillman (1975) meaningful: Rabbit and Skin Horse are consider Rabbit’s transformation to stated, “By soul I mean, first of all, a not mere toys tossed upon the nursery “Real,” we, in turn, become a bit more perspective rather than a substance, a floor, waiting to be picked up and given Real. Hillman (1972) shared with us that viewpoint towards things rather than a life. They have their own essence that “what we hold close in our imaginal thing itself. This perspective is reflective; does rely on another, that has no need world are not just images and ideas but it mediates events and makes differences for human contact to be brought into living bits of soul; when they are spoken, between ourselves and everything that existence. We can see the spirit of this a bit of soul is carried with them (p. 182). happens” (p. xvi). He continued, “By ‘soul’ imagining into on multiple levels when Rabbit has spoken, he has told us his tale, I mean the imaginative possibility in our we consider “becoming Real.” and as Hillman observed, “When we tell natures, the experiencing through reflec- First, there is the word itself: “Real.” our tales, we give away our souls” (p. tive speculation, dream, image, and Just as in Jungian psychology there is a 182). It is this bit of soul, given to us by fantasy—that mode which recognizes all difference between the small “s” self and

9 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

11 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

ome say that when the fairy folk transformation. lived in a deep pool overhung with trees ruled Ireland, they had a well Fishing requires patience and recep- in a curve of the Boyne River. Finn tracks beneathS the sea where the nine hazel tivity, two qualities that are indispensable the fish to this spot and he spends seven trees of wisdom grew. At the given hour to any creative encounter, and it involves years trying to catch it. The image of the these nine trees would blossom and fruit water, the origin of life and archetypal solitary poet evokes the combination of and drop their nuts onto the surface of Source, or what Gretel Ehrlich calls the focus, stillness, and relaxed alertness that the water, where five salmon waited to “creative swill.” Water, she writes, characterize much creative work. Finn is eat them. The nuts contained all wisdom, “carries, weightlessly, the imponderable methodical, purposeful, and watchful. He poetic inspiration, and the gift of second things in our lives: death and creation.”3 devotes all of his energies to this task, sight. Whoever caught one of these The language of fishing also provides a even lives on the riverbank, because he salmon and ate the first three bites of its number of provocative metaphors: knows of a prophecy that a man named flesh would acquire this wisdom and tackle, cast, troll, lure, snag, plumb, Finn will eat this very fish. become a great poet. wade, and flounder, for example. With every failed attempt he learns Every creative enterprise unfolds in But as any skilled fisher person more about this fish and his desire for it. accord with the image that guides it. knows, the object is not merely to catch The attitude of active waiting extends to Sometimes the image is given with the fish, but to catch the right fish, the big or the salmon, who we sense drawing near process but it can also be chosen, and wily fish, or the right kind of fish. Fish according to the logic of instinctual attention to the operative metaphors that are too small or otherwise inappro- memory. The salmon took the nut when enhances the collaboration with the priate get released and thrown back. it fell into the water. He will take the unseen sought by every artist and poet. Finn, the druid poet and fisherman in the hook too, when the right moment arrives My exploration of this relationship began story, was a man in search of deep to surrender his gifts. It’s merely a matter with James Hillman’s suggestion that we knowledge. He studied the ancient lore of time and patient effort. “entertain” ideas. For years, I’ve begun about the hazels, the salmon, and the At last Finn catches the fish. most creative projects by imagining gifts of wisdom and poetic inspiration. He Feverish with anticipation, he builds a fire myself straightening up my house, setting was fishing for the Salmon of Knowledge. and puts the salmon on the spit. The up a tea table with fresh flowers, and cooking has to be exactly right. The fire patiently waiting (well, sometimes) by the has to be the right temperature and the open door for an idea or two to arrive. “Every creative fish has to be turned at the right speed. These guests are vaguely imagined in enterprise unfolds in Everything is going perfectly when Finn human form, like Greek Muses. They are notices that the coals are beginning to invariably courteous and well dressed, accord with the image burn a bit low. But the salmon is not but lately my dates for coffee or a late that guides it” done. Now what? He is out of dry sticks night scotch (only with the most compati- but if he leaves the fish to gather more ble) have been replaced with the image wood it will burn on one side and the of fish and fishing found in the Celtic Salmon of Knowledge will be ruined. story “Finn and the Salmon of Salmon are distinguished from most At that moment, a young man Knowledge.” other fish by their ability to live in fresh wanders onto the riverbank. He is so The image of the fish as the embodi- and salt water. They are born in fresh entranced by the beauty of the place that ment of vital, living contents of the water rivers and streams and make their he doesn’t notice the man by his fire until psyche has a long mythological history, way to the sea. Salmon return to their Finn calls to him. “Boy,” Finn says, “I am and the metaphor of fishing is often used freshwater birthplace to spawn after one so glad to see you. You’ve come at just to describe the search for inspiration. to five years of swimming in the open the right time. I have a beautiful salmon Arlo Guthrie said, “Songwriting is like fish- ocean. The majority of them die in the cooking but I need more wood. I’ll give ing in a stream; you put in your line and process. The tenacity they display in this you a silver penny if you’ll come over hope you catch something,”—so stay endeavor, and their astonishing accuracy here and turn the spit.” upstream from Bob Dylan1. In fairy tales, in locating the place of their birth, may The young man was good hearted fishing signals a waiting readiness for remind us that the creative act is always and immediately came to the fire. “Turn something to happen. Robert Bly writes an act of remembrance and that memory it just like this, “Finn told him, “The that, “Fishing is a kind of dreaming in is instinctual, especially memories of our consequences of burning this salmon daylight, a longing for what is below.”2 beginnings. would be terrible. I won’t be gone long, What takes the bait will be a catalyst for The particular salmon in Finn’s story but you must look me in the eye and

13 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

15 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

17 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

Muses of music, dance and poetry. Her as for their sexual artistry, and for the rulers of Venice, and at one point, she sacred priestesses were skilled not only in next few centuries, courtesans enjoyed helped Venice attain the support of the the arts of sexual love but in all the arts more power and independence – espe- French king in their war with the that make for civilization – writing, cially economic freedom - than any other Ottoman Empire. But when the plague poetry, history, philosophy, music, art women in Western Europe. The courte- swept through Venice, the Church and dance. Knowledge and creativity in sans of Europe have left their mark on blamed it on the licentiousness of the the Arts can also teach the art of living our architectural, literary and artistic courtesans and had many of them brutal- and loving. heritage. ized. Veronica was charged with Throughout the ages, the Courtesan The courtesan became the ideal witchcraft, but she saved herself by exemplified this ideal woman: a woman incarnation of the Goddess Aphrodite, a standing up for herself and shaming the who enjoyed her sexuality, who was woman who belonged to herself, who noble men who had used her for their known for her intelligence and who was often enjoyed the same freedom and own pleasure and yet were quick to skilled in the arts. There is a beautiful social benefits as men, who was the intel- abandon her in her trouble. The character 1998 movie about the famous Venetian lectual equal of men, and who was as of Veronica Franc is the most complete courtesan and poetess, Veronica Franco, adept at the arts of music, poetry and and whole female character in any movie called Dangerous Beauty. This film is a dance as she was at the art of lovemak- I’ve ever seen. tribute to Aphrodite and the courtesans ing. While the courtesan’s place and Dangerous Beauty is a story about of Europe, who inspired and created power depended on powerful men’s Veronica’s rise to fame, as well as her much of Western art, literature and need for female companionship, the enduring love for a powerful Venetian culture since the Renaissance. Courtesan certainly is the exemplar of the noble, Marco Venier (a moody Rufus In ancient times, when the patri- powerful influence an independent Sewell). When Veronica (an amazingly archy was just gaining power and the woman can have on men if we own our artful Catherine McCormack) learns that religion of the Goddess and her relation- wholeness. Marco cannot marry her because he must ship to fertility and sexuality was still marry for wealth and power, her mother consciously valued, there were sacred Paola (the beautiful Jacqueline Bisset) prostitutes, tantric priestesses of the “Veronica was encourages her to become a courtesan. Goddess, who would make love to men charged with witchcraft, We are invited into the mystery school of as a sacred act of worship, a way of but she saved herself the courtesan as Veronica is taught the connecting men to the power of the arts of the courtesan in a most informa- Goddess. As the patriarchy took over by standing up for tive and delightful way. The power of the power from the earlier matriarchy, men herself and shaming the courtesan is that she can be educated, still recognized and honored the power of noble men who had unlike the proper noble wives of Venice, these sacred prostitutes, and there were who are left ignorant of both history as still priestesses who performed the hieros used her for their own well as current events. Veronica’s friend gamos, or sacred marriage, of the King to pleasure and yet were Beatrice, sister of Marco, has to ask the land and the Goddess. quick to abandon her Veronica to come and tell the proper These women later became the ladies of Venice how their husbands fare courtesans of ancient Greece. Courtesans in her trouble” during the war, for as Beatrice says, they enjoyed great personal freedom and are totally inconsequential to their men. economic power, while the wives and The beauty of Veronica’s character female children of men were often Susan Griffin, in her book The Book is that she has all the virtues of the treated little better than slaves. These of the Courtesans7 enumerates the noblemen of her time, and yet she hetaira, called ‘companions to men’ were virtues of these courtesans: Timing, displays them through her femininity. not viewed as common prostitutes, but Beauty, Cheek, Brilliance, Gaiety, Grace While she is wildly in love with Marco, were often in the center of the political and Charm. We modern women could once she becomes a courtesan she values and as well as the social life of Athens, as learn a lot about getting men to value herself enough not to sleep with him if were her later counterparts in Venice and and complement our standpoint if we she can’t marry him, and she enjoys – yes Paris. The most famous woman in 5th practiced these ancient arts. totally enjoys – the sex with other men. Century Athens was the hetaira, Aspasia, Veronica Franco knew how to use Her wit and her charm, her intelligence who lived with the great Athenian politi- these feminine virtues. Trained as a cour- and poetry, make her a favorite at court. cal leader, Pericles. Plutarch claimed that tesan by her mother, who was also a She is not afraid to stand up for herself, Aspasia was clever and politically astute, famous courtesan, Veronica quickly even dueling to defend her honor when and noted that Socrates would bring his became a favorite of the power elite in she has a nasty altercation with Marco’s students to hear her speak, for she was a Venice. From an ancient, yet impover- mean-spirited, jealous, drunk cousin, teacher of rhetoric, even though she also ished, Venetian family, Veronica was Maffio (a deliciously evil Oliver Platt). ran a school for courtesans.6 skilled in all the arts of the courtesans, After seeing her hurt by Maffio, During the Renaissance, the courte- for Venice was famous throughout Marco goes to her. Once Veronica and sans of Venice, called Honest Courtesans, Europe for her courtesans. Her literary Marco are together, she willingly gives up were as famous for their literary talents skills were enjoyed and supported by the everything to go away with him, against

19 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

About the poem Melissa La Flamme, M.A. is a What You Are For is an invitation to a modern-day vision quest, visionary poetry that visionary artisan of cultural beckons a healing journey into the depths and heights of individuation. Offered up to evolution, author, poet, simultaneously ravish and soothe the tender, broken-open heart, this piece was writ- shamanic guide and teacher, ten as medicine for the soul. Intentionally crafted to open the doors of perception Jungian psychotherapist, and deliver the reader into her or his delicious potential, What You Are For engages depth psychologist and trouble- the reader in the central conversation of this life. All at once an encounter, lovely, maker. Melissa is a graduate of heart-pounding, yummy and sensual, raw and erotic, heart-opening and heart-break- Pacifica Graduate institute in ing, wrapped warmly in comforting, healing love. This poem is primal, poetic medicine Carpinteria, California. She lives for the 21st century soul. in Denver, Colorado and serves souls—humans and This poem has been called "a shaman’s brew of poetic ayahuasca." A vine of soul, of death, of new life. To sit with these poetic lines and the power of the word is in itself other-than-humans—worldwide. a breaking open of our egos, their compromises and identifications which bind us and Find her online at www.jungian- hold us back. This is a new kind of poetry, medicine for the soul. Here we have soulwork.com and on Facebook at shamanic poetry at its best, at its freshest, a post-modern poetry that unites the old www.facebook.com/ initiatory shamanic themes. MelissaALaFlamme.

Kintsugi 1 Kintsugi 2 by Debra Goldman by Debra Goldman mixed media on board, 12"x9", 2014 acrylic paint & encaustic on board, 24"x18", 2015

Debra writes:

“I am an American-born artist and a mother of two children. Debra’s image, Recordar, "to Of equal importance to these two significant aspects of myself I also have an pass back through the heart", is ongoing commitment to working and witnessing in creative ceremony and ritual, featured on our cover this issue in mentoring women in workshops that include Story, Art and Transformation as well as fragments next to the and in living on a small organic farm in the Pacific Northwest. titles of each of our essays.

This current work explores ideas of planetary healing through the metaphorical About Recordar: encaustic paint process of Kintsugi, the art of golden repair.” on board, 16"x12", 2014

Find Debra’s work at www.DebraGoldmanStudio.com

21 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

By John Woodcock

three separate meanings, each seemingly unrelated to the others—all hidden within the word “inspiration”. Breathing seems so unrelated to spiraling and tapering. I decide to dig more deeply into the living history of meanings residing in our everyday use of words. A spire, as one turn of a spiral, arises from spira, which means, “to coil.” A coil is a connected series of spirals, as in a coil of rope. “Coil” comes from colligere, Latin for “collect”. This makes sense since a coil, in collecting spires together, becomes a coil in the first place. But then a surprise! The word “collect”, as I said, arises from the Latin colligere and this word emerges in turn from the etymological New Grange (c 1880): public domain root, leg-, which, as well as meaning to collect and gather, as in the Latin legere, cholarship does not know defini- echo of the past? from which one meaning of religion is tively what the spirals at This preliminary “word work” derived—a sacred gathering, has a deriv- Ireland’sS most famous tomb and monu- already triggers a memory. ative meaning of “to speak”, or logos, ment—New Grange, meant to the Celts Spirals and vortices have frequently with an inflection in meaning of speaking or their forbearers. appeared in my dreams over the years. enchanted words. They remain a mystery. Part of my subsequent research took me So, I now find buried within the Scholars remain on the outside of to the Celtic world where spirals of word “inspiration” meanings of “breath”, this mystery, studying the facts. course play a prominent role. I learned “sacred gatherings”, “enchanted speech”, Is there a way into this 5000 year- that Celtic scholarship could not discover “spirals”, and “tapering to a point”, as in old mystery, into an experience of this any definitive meaning for the many a church steeple. mystery? spirallic forms found on Celtic artifacts. I have at last penetrated the histori- While engaged in this research, I remem- cal depths of language to the forgotten ber seeing an ancient rock carving psyche, the ancient living past, as recon- Inspiration! depicting human figures with spirals structed in modern consciousness, and an Its very sound has a compelling pull emanating from their mouths! I saw it, I image is thus released! on me. swear, yet to this day I cannot find any The magnificent ruins of New I hear my breath expel softly as the reference to it in the archeological world. Grange now appear before my eyes. I see word is spoken. Its sound conveys breath- I am left with an intriguing hint from a mouth, from which emanates a collec- ing—mostly breath, with no hard memory that spirals and speech belong tion of spirallic forms, directed perhaps to consonant “stops”. together, somehow. a sacred gathering below, radiating So much like “whisper”. But the archeological world of outwards from the center, like a sector of I look up its meaning although I buried facts is not the only “portal” to a circle. already know that “spire” means to our spiritual heritage—our dead past. Our Now from the listener’s standpoint, breathe. This word also has two other spiritual heritage is also buried deep I see a rising and tapering to a point, to meanings: a single turn of a spiral and a within our language, yes, as the past, but the place where enchanted, inspired tapering, rising to a point, like a church that past still living within our language, speech emanates from the high priest spire. All three meanings, of breath, or as language’s very within-ness. standing at the mouth of the cave: spiral, and tapering, are now independent I return to my word work. priest—the cave’s chosen mouthpiece, of one another in our daily usage. But In our modern language, as stan- inspired to speak the cave’s spirallic their sounds echo with one another—an dardized by the dictionary, “spire” has wisdom out to the people waiting below.

New Grange, magnificent ruin of a long-gone culture, now lies mute, as its former mystery is appropriated to the needs of a growing tourist industry.

But the real New Grange still lives, yes, still “out there” in the real world, as the real world—its very Being. But it too lies mute—mute for thousands of years. It needs its modern priests, its mouth- pieces, in order to speak. It speaks in spirals, vortices. What would such speech sound like, and where would its meaning take us if we spoke its turnings as they coil around us? What would it say, in saying through us, its mouthpieces, after so many millen- nia of silence?

John C. Woodcock currently lives with his wife Anita in Sydney, where he teaches, writes, and consults with others concern- ing their own journey, in hiscapacity as a Jungian psychotherapist.

23 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

By Elise Wardle

Introduction nected ideas, both conscious and uncon- (psychical) stimuli disturbing sleep, by the scious, which have a dynamic effect on method of hallucinatory satisfaction.’11 The study of dream interpretation 4 has been a subject debated throughout our behaviour. We may further consider Illustrating this in a simple dream of history and continues to this day to hold that as dreams are such a common undisguised wish fulfilment, Freud a fascination not only for those involved phenomena, that interpretation may be discusses a dream of his daughter, Anna, in the world of psychology, medicine, reli- one of the most useful methods by which who at nineteen months, after a day to work with the resistance of neurotic without food following a stomach upset, gion and philosophy, but also to others 5 who merely wish to gain a greater insight patients. dreamed of a menu with her own name into their own psyche through the study Freud’s ‘The Interpretation of on it; ‘Anna F., stwawbewwies, wild Dreams’, (1900), is one of the most stwawbewwies, omblet, pudden!’ Anna’s of their dreams. As the pioneer of dream- th work within a psychoanalytic framework, important works of the 20 century on stomach upset had been traced back to dream analysis and formed the basis the fruit which appeared twice in the Freud’s theories were revolutionary and 12 his original ideas are still relevant today. from which others followed with further dream, a reaction to a day of starvation. Many have followed Freud and expanded psychoanalytic theories. His hypotheses Translation into the manifest on his pioneering work, making further are based on the understanding that content is necessitated by both the physi- contributions to the theories of dream dreams are fulfilment of disguised or ological conditions of sleep, determining repressed wishes that touch upon the that dreaming is a visual process, and analysis, the most notable being Carl 6 Jung. Hence this work commences with desires of infancy. It is argued that the that the wish is unacceptable to the an overview of Freud’s theories prior to problematic of Freud’s proposition lies in waking ego and needs to be disguised in his association and collaboration with Freud’s adherence to the view that all order to pass the censor. One may view Jung, whom he viewed as his successor. It dreams are, in some way, fulfilment of nightmares and anxiety dreams repre- continues to explore the relationship and wishes, and ultimately, that this results senting failures in the dream-work where differences between Freud and Jung, from repressed or frustrated sexual traumatic dreams, in which the dream desires occasionally triggering nightmares merely repeats the traumatic experience, leading to the break in their association, 7 13 followed by an exploration of Jungian from surrounding anxieties. are exceptions to the theory’. Freud theory in relation to dreams. An overview proposed that dreams may be distorted and that in order to make an interpreta- of some post-Jungian concepts precedes “Many have followed Freud a brief conclusion to this article. tion, a contrast must be made between and expanded on his the manifest and latent content of the dream, the only necessity being to take Freud as the pioneer of dream inter- pioneering work, making notice of his theory which is not based on pretation further contributions to the consideration of the manifest but as Freud developed his pioneering theories of dream analysis, reference to thoughts shown by interpre- work with dreams over a period of years, tation.14 renowned for his statement that the the most notable being Freud initially saw the way to the interpretation of dreams is ‘the royal Carl Jung” repressed contents that the individual road to knowledge of the unconscious does not want to accept by use of the activities of the mind’.1 Following Freud’s patient’s free association with his dream father’s death in 1896, his self-analysis According to Freud’s original theo- images. It may be considered that free led to increased concern with dream- ries, dreams have both a manifest association is the method by which a interpretation and the way in which he content (as the dream is experienced, voice must be given to all thoughts with- treated his patients2. Freud worked on reported or recalled) and a latent or out exception.15 When encouraged to the general assumption that dreams are hidden content which may only be continue talking, whilst lying on a consult- not a matter of chance but associated revealed by interpretation.8 Freud ing couch, with Freud sitting, unobserved with conscious thoughts and problems. believed that dreams have an original behind his patient, the thoughts which Appearing to be split off areas of the text, which encounters censorship on emerged would eventually reveal the conscious mind, and based upon the publication and needs to be redrafted in unconscious basis to his neurosis. In conclusion of eminent neurologists, it a way that the censor cannot understand. order to illustrate Freud’s way of working, was believed that neurotic symptoms are Thus the original draft is the latent in the case of the dream of a young related to some conscious experience.3 content, the redrafting is the dream- woman suffering from agoraphobia Thus, from Freud’s point of view, work, and the final published draft is the resulting from a fear of seduction, his dreams look back retrospectively and manifest content.9 Freud’s wish fulfilment patient dreamed that she walked down a contain some indication of the causes of theory defines the latent content as a street in summer wearing a straw hat of a neuroses and complexes, the complex wish fulfilled in hallucinatory form in the peculiar shape with the middle-piece being defined as a group of intercon- dream10, on which he comments; bent upwards and side pieces hanging ‘Dreams are things which get rid of downwards so that one side was lower

25 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

27 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

29 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

WHY NOSTALGIA STINGS LIKE A MOTHER oetry By W. P. Basil

How deep will you go, said the ancient but wise one, nostalgia being Greek for pain from an old wound. Keep calm and soldier on, you said on too many occasions. You didn’t want me to be your private fail or another hit and run away. Could you be any more unconscious?

I wonder, could you be any more endearing too, with your toes like baby shrimp, nostrils that finds chaos so appealing to the senses, with ears for not listening? Your words, like your hair, don’t care where they land. Your mouth as wide as the Panama Canal, the same color as slice of watermelon at a picnic. It is always open but not for me.

I’ll ask you then, where is my picnic? From the shoreline, you will check under the sea for motives and misgivings. Checkmate back to the future. Bounce check over the rainbow. Check “No thanks, I do not wish to be contacted” about past reveries if sad.

I’ve been gliding away unheard. Didn’t you notice the grass stain at the door where I cheerfully left my loafers behind? My soul is in slippers now, so happy. And you will find a feast in someone else. To think that you were the loaf of bread, the communion I used to begger. I will recall that you were also the loafer, stuck in place, a needy Narcissus gazing in the tide pool.

I find the water still and waiting and warm. My boat is made of old leaves and new lawn. I’ll make my communion with breadcrumbs on the sea, hoping they will lead me home to myself, beyond all symbols, symptoms and predictions. Dig deeper in your reedy greedy slumber. You can keep the words and the ruminations. They don’t travel well.

W.P. Basil has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute and offers clients depth psychology work through narrative therapy. She is also a university instructor, currently teaching psychology classes to students in all branches of military She is the co-author of the book SPINOLOGY, which is a Jungian approach to marketing and media relations. The book, written with her co-author Sherry Klinger was published by Depth Publishing in 2014, E-book in 2015 and is available on Amazon Barnes & Noble.

Hetaira-Mediatrix — Eternal Moment Hetaira-Mediatrix — Ten Feather Fire 30-x-40-inches, pastel on paper, 2014 30'-x-40' inches, pastel-on-paper, 2014

31 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

You are the fallen tree. J. R. Romanyshyn is a 47-year-old poet. I He has loved The palm waving in the distance. mythology all his life. The bedroom left empty at sunset. Not longing for wholeness lost but standing in a place, reverberating with solitude, where love was cast away. You are held there by all that you do not understand, waiting again on the passing.

It will come again. You will be left again to your strange art of making tapestries of stones, of planting seeds in some invisible field.

There you, and all of them, come to rest.

Matthew Fishler is a depth psychologist with a private practice in Sherman Oaks. He received an MA and PhD from Pacifica, and serves as Adjunct Faculty at Pacifica (teaching in the Masters in Counseling program). His research and poetry embrace evanescent experiences, and the via poetica that gives them voice and form. His poetry has appeared in a number of literary journals, including Poetry Quarterly, Psychological Perspectives, Soul Fountain, Ship of Fools, the Aurorean, Spindrift, Avocet, and Psychopoetica.

Russell Lockhart and Paco Mitchell with Bonnie Bright

Recently, a new book arrived in our this all the time. But we also found that, His email was something like an midst, emerging from the depths into our in both symbolic and instrumental ways, oasis providing thirst-quenching waters awareness and carrying with it ideas “bones” also provided a link between for a thirst I did not know I had. Back and painted in language that births images past and future. forth the emails flew and at some point, I that create a sort of magical effect on the Of course, in the opening pages of suggested that others might be inter- reader. Indeed, the manuscript is “imagi- the book we treat this in greater detail. ested in what we were talking about, and cal”—a dialogue between two astounding I proposed that we publish in Dream writers who are also profoundly BB: How did you come to collabo- Network. Paco agreed, as did the editor, cognizant of and driven by the power of rate together on such a big project as a Roberta Ossana, and so it went, on and dreams and the images they contain. In book, and this book in particular? on for several years. this conversation with the writers, Russell By the tenth published dialogue, we Lockhart and Paco Mitchell open up to RL: Hi Bonnie. I want to echo Paco’s reached a point of pause, a repose of Bonnie Bright about Dreams, Bones & the appreciation for your invitation to talk sorts. It was in this state that the idea of Future. about Dreams, Bones & the Future. How a book took shape and now it has materi- * * * it became a book began in a dream I had, alized. As readers will discover, we are back in the winter of 2007. I dreamed I still in repose, but are about to set our BB: Great title! Where did it come was working on a gourd that I was to craft sailing once again. In many ways, we from? make into a “dream-gourd” for casting have only just begun. the I Ching, to use in working with PM: First of all, Bonnie, I would like dreams. I made the dream-gourd and BB: I first discovered your work to thank you for giving Russ and me the have regularly used it since that time. I when I read your book, Words as Eggs, opportunity to talk about this unusual wrote up this experience for my column, Russ, right after you published a new project, which has occupied much of our “Dreams in the News,” in the journal, edition in 2012. Paco and I met when he attention for several years. I say Dream Network. became involved in Depth Insights schol- “unusual,” because everything about the arly eZine and ended up becoming my project, including the title, was co-editor for a period of time, as well as unplanned. We were less like two schol- “People are starving publishing several essays along the way. ars researching a question than we were for something that the The commonality you mention above like two old dogs following a scent. In current exploitative really comes down to both your fascina- that spirit, then, of following the invisible, tion for dreams, and I think this is a both the title and the entire book only and narcissistic culture topic that many individuals are hungry became gradually visible to us—like the cannot provide. to explore today. We know that many red spot emerging from the black back- It would be a good ancient and indigenous cultures have ground on the cover. relied on the wisdom of dreams to Several years ago, various elements thing, then, if more provide insight and direction for the in Russ’ writings had begun churning people became aware entire tribe. What do you think the role among similar elements in my own writ- of their own innate of dreams is today for both individuals ing until, like volatile chemicals, the and the culture? Is it a constant or might whole mixture began sputtering and dream-hunger” it change in the future, especially in the emitting sparks. This resulted in a longish context of the cultural and ecological email that I sent Russ, in response to an crisis we are facing today? article he had written and a dream he Shortly after this was published, I had related. The resulting email exchange received an extraordinary email from PM: Interesting that you use the was so stimulating—insistent, even—that Paco. We were old friends, but had not term “hunger” in reference to dreams, we just kept following it wherever it led been in touch for a long while. The letter Bonnie. It suggests there is something us. The result was 144 pages, and this was so rich, so full of sparks, so full of vital about dreams, something nourishing book. deep consideration of the synchrony of at a fundamental level. I heartily agree— Without any deliberate prompting his reading my article at the same time as there is a hunger, and it is far more from us, certain concerns kept recur- he was reading books by Brian Swimme widespread than most people realize. In ring—questions of the distant past and and Thomas Berry, that I was compelled fact, people are starving for something the emerging future. Dreams naturally do to respond in kind. that the current exploitative and narcis-

33 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

35 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

Chateau Montelena A Child in the Old World P By R. L. Boyer By Mary Ann Bencivengo A child in the old world At the edge of the vineyard, near an oetry asks her mother where babies come from and this is the reply: Old pagoda overlooking a lake of Jade, I rest on a shady bank, drowsy I am no different With the first languid haze of summer. than the soil, find a delight in that. Not ever any need Nearby, a dark goddess—a great black to differentiate a thing Swan—nests in a womb of saplings, from any other thing. Where the wind whispers mysteries. That’s where we come from, Poetry bubbles up from deep springs, from any other thing. No part of us not Overflowing my soul. Sweet perfume of a part of any thing. Jasmine intoxicates in the warm breeze. No thing not ever not a part of us. R. L. Boyer is an award-winning poet, fiction author, and screenwriter. He is currently a doctoral student in Mary Ann Bencivengo attends Pacifica Graduate the Art and Religion program at the Graduate Institute in the Depth Psychology program for Jungian Theological Union in Berkeley, CA, and holds an MA in and Archetypal Studies. Prior to that, she received her Depth Psychology from Sonoma State University. He is MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis on Poetry a regular contributor to Depth Insights. after earning a BFA in Creative Writing.

Decades I wandered through dusty deserts of time. How many have they numbered? Can I ever recall?

Swept through the violent tides of change, I have descended into dark depthless nights of snowdrifts, in deserted cracks of doorways I have arisen with the exultant joy of hatching new life in Spring

Still, I wandered, with no direction, carried on a vagrant cloud drifting on wind hanging onto the delicate tails old spun dreams these too, now long since forgotten.

Memory first stirs through sense of smell, and only then, weaves back into receptive cells of body.

I began my life in a country still vibrating in sullen, stunned shock from a bloodthirsty stampede of the raw power of rage sprung from the loins of the Great Mother, running red with her blood broken in eternal battles between the red and the white mothers, they, the foes of blood of life and and bone of death, of darkness and of light.

All one now, always, it has been so. I did not know my own name in those long, lost years of wandering and stumbling—seeking, between realms of star drift and clay bottom

It was the distant echo of my own name whispered on the wind that was the first call to return, always, it accompanied me, a friend, wrapped in smoky dreams leading to softer landings.

Eva Rider, M.A., M.F.T., is a Jungian psychotherapist in California whose work encompasses unveiling the dream and its relationship to myth, and the Emerging Creative Process. Eva has studied Western Metaphysics for 30 years and incorporates Jungian theory, dreams, alchemy and myth in her work. She has taught at John F. Kennedy University, and is a graduate of the Marion Woodman BodySoul® Leadership Training. Find more at www.reclaimingsoul.com

37 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

39 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

P Dark Stars By Brian Michael Tracy

I am told when your time comes theyoetry fall from below from beyond the surface waters of flesh turning the eye on itself condensing everything it has ever seen and dismissing everything it has not until all that is left is the naked outline of a mind:

a silhouette of space and time, contained shimmering at its ends obscuring a divine radiance like an eclipse, moments before fulfillment lingering, ever so briefly in a glow of despair before consuming its own light.

Brian Michael Tracy is the author of three books of poetry, most recently Opaque Traveler: A Dream Sequence in Verse and two CD’s of poetry and music: His work has appeared in numerous publications and on spoken word radio programs throughout the United States and Canada. He is currently working on his third CD of poetry and music. See more of Brian’s work at www.BrianMichaelTracy.com

I am crouching low, one knee pressing against the Earth for balance. Into a freshly dug hole, I pepper in long cured soil amendments. The pungent, earthen aroma slows me to a savoring pause, then coax a buddleia out of her nursery container and fluidly plant. These spikes of purple flowers will summon butterflies and imagining these visits brings a joy.

I raise myself up to my full height, an admiring witness to all this beauty. In the garden, I am happier, kinder, wiser. And then, as always, I am drawn into the gap between sense-fed reason and the mysterious realm of sightless sight, the voiceless voice, soundless sound.

Reason is denied comfort And unable trespass, my mind rails. Yet I feel it deeply each time the flesh of my hands or feet caress the flesh of the Earth. For I too am rooted in, and draw my nourishment from the soils of Gaia.

A cloud passes, sunlight shimmering through windblown branches of a majestic Oak, one of three such sentinels that protect this garden. A warming ray catches the yellow of wings. A Monarch Butterfly engages the freshly planted buddleia in a weightless, fluttering dance.

Even now, searching for the words, I am struck with silence.

Roy Rosenblatt is new to poetry. He originally cut his teeth in the field of screenwriting, settling into a comfortable lifestyle in what is known as a script doctor, being summoned when existing screenplays were on life support. When the first of his 2 children was born in 1987, he sensed deeply that he could not maintain the intensity of this craft and be present for dad-hood. Now both are grown and he is writing again.

41 Depth Insights, Issue 7, Spring/Summer 2015

By Willi Paul

family. What many call “eco-alchemy” is called something else in his native language; Dolio is practicing important transition strategies to stay healthy and knows his part in the balancing act for a new sacred Earth. One key idea for Dolio’s community is to live and work locally, keeping costs down—and using abundant resources. A second guide is the caring for the community ethic from perma- culture. Liana is a multi-variety local rain forest woody vine that grows fast and has many uses in his village including lattice structure for the dome roofs, perimeter security and large baskets to carry dirt and food. Villagers wear the bright and colorful flowers when they are in bloom. Dolio wants to create a sustainable village and sees a way to earn money for his people and share sacred values with the tourists on the beach through basket weaving workshops. But he is shielding westerners from his village at this time for health, legal and economic concerns. The village council has adopted a resilience creed that liana is any of various long-stemmed, woody vines that means that they can teach and share goods and stories are rooted in the soil at ground level and use trees, as between the contrasting cultures using symbols, like vine well asA other means of vertical support, to climb up to the baskets and flowers. The village understands the deeper spiri- canopy to get access to well-lit areas of the forest. Lianas are tual power and service of their symbols and wants to bolster especially characteristic of tropical moist deciduous forests and their use on the coast. Like on their new workshop banner, rainforests, including temperate rainforests. Lianas can form simple symbols do not need an interpreter. bridges amidst the forest canopy, providing arboreal animals Dolio wants to create a sustainable village and sees a way with paths across the forest. These bridges can protect weaker to earn money for his people and share sacred values with the trees from strong winds. tourists on the beach through basket weaving workshops. But * * * * * * * he is shielding westerners from his village at this time for Dolio is the hero and journey maker for his people who health, legal and economic concerns. reside seven miles inland in the rain forest near Tamarindo, * * * * * * * Province of Guanacaste, Costa Rica. While most of what he knows about the west is apocalyptical, he is determined to Gratitude to Davis, CA, Roundtable participants for their deploy his jungle love to build additional income and a sacred ideas. union between the growing tourist trade and his extended

Willi Paul is a green certified business and sustainability consultant who launched PlanetShifter.com Magazine on Earth Day 2009 to build a database of interviews and articles about innovation, sustainability, and the mystic arts. His bliss renewed in 2011 when he designed openmythsource.com to produce new mythic stories with modern alchemies. His work now focuses on what is sacred is to us, the community building power of permaculture and the transformative energy in the new alchemy (ex: soil, sound, digital) and global mythologies. Willi earned his permaculture design certification in August 2011 at the Urban Permaculture Institute, SF. Willi’s work is featured in an article at the Joseph Campbell Foundation and additional videos are available on YouTube.com. See more at www.NewMythologist.com.