The Quest: Vision in an age of Crisis. Economic & Financial Crisis. Jungian Psychotherapy

S2 Ep37. The Crisis of our Times. Part 11. Capitalism and the Soul

Why do I juxtapose economic and financial theory, policy and practice on the one hand, and spiritual matters on the other. The answer is that it is only in theory and specialisms that such things are separated. In practice the human psyche consists of many parts, but it is a fundamental drive within us to unify them, to make ourselves whole instead of being conflicting parts.

At first glance economic and monetary policy along with poetry and mysticism seem strange bedfellows. But I am suggesting more than this – that the evolving emergencies have at least ten dimensions – and undoubtedly many more. I am suggesting a multi-dimenional crisis. Never with more urgency do we need a spiritual vision of the planet, which unites economics politics, climate, our treatment of all life and so on. On a purely practical note, we need to put spirit and ethical values into the economy and our political system and our relationship to nature. Our philosophies, theories, specialism and knowledge systems have been tremendously creative but unless there is a radical paradigm shift our species will be profoundly self-traumatised and possibly extinguished. Since we bear responsibility for all life on earth and now, we realise, for the planet itself, this is the moment of our truth.

S3 Ep4. Carl Jung: Recuerdos, Sueños, Pensamientos. Spanish Language Podcast

Recuerdos, Sueños, Pensamientos, el más accesible y popular de los escritos de Jung, sirve de introducción inspiradora al turbulento mundo interior que subyace al exterior burgués de un visionario extraordinario.

Aquí, en esta breve charla, seleccioné aquellos detalles que ilustran mi tesis principal: a saber, que Jung luchó intensamente con sus propias tendencias desintegradoras y tuvo que encontrar una solución creativa para ellas, para él y para el colectivo.

“Los años en que perseguía mis imágenes internas fueron los más importantes de mi vida: en ellos se decidió todo lo esencial. Todo comenzó entonces; los detalles posteriores son solo suplementos y aclaraciones del material que brotó del inconsciente y al principio me inundó. Fue la prima materia para el trabajo de toda la vida ... "    Carl Jung.

 

Este mini-serie sobre Jung es hecho por el equipo del Quest:

el escritor, Alan Mulhern;   la traductora, Maria;   la locutora, Beatriz.

S2 Ep36. The Crisis of our Times. Part 10. World Crisis and the Search for Soul

I am a psychotherapist with an interest not only in the individual psyche but also that of the collective. The malaise of civilization has become increasingly my focus in these podcasts; the evolving multidimensional crises of the 21^st century is my backdrop; the ten horseman (or crises) of the apocalypse are the drivers of my argument. These are the economic, political, climatic, military, technological, spiritual, clash of ideas, pandemic, financial, and social.

I have suggested a road map of the evolving crises: 1. Approaching storm; 2. Storm hits; 3. Policy response; 4 Economic and financial chaos;  5. Great Global Depression; 6 Civil disturbance, political radicalism, dangers of war; 7 Fallout and emergence in a radically changed world.

We are now passing from stage 3 to 4. Immense money creation and government intervention can postpone the crisis but only intensify it later. 

Yet visionary responses are possible. These begin with a reorientation of consciousness outside the ego. The poem The Sower and the Seed  is presented as an example. Its subject is the formulation of a creation mythology which is always the foundation of a radical paradigm change, in this case from a materialist to a spiritual cosmic view, which is the essence of the pilgrim's quest. 

S2 Ep35. The Crisis of our Times. Part 9. Capitalism and Changing Consciousness

For the next group of episodes, there will be a mini-series providing an overview of the driver of our global civilization – the capitalist system. What distinguishes this presentation from the many other authors on this topic  is its focus on the changes in consciousness that capitalism has brought about - the changes to the evolving human being that has been and is being created by this process.

By way of contrast, each episode will also continue the poems and commentaries of the Quest that illustrate an archetypal template of the spiritual and psychological journey of healing and spiritual illumination. No matter what the movement of the collective in its technological and materialist developments there is always the option of personal, emotional, and spiritual development regardless of the age one lives in – for this is the eternal quest of humanity.

There will also be an update on the evolving series of crises of our times.

S3 Ep3. Las Crises de Nuestro Tiempo. La Pandemia en America Latina. Spanish Language Podcast

La tesis central de esta serie es que el mundo en el siglo XXI enfrenta una crisis multidimensional: política, económica, financiera, militar, climática, tecnológica, espiritual, de salud, social, ideológica. Los llamo los 10 jinetes del apocalipsis por razones que serán con cada episodio más claras. Estos solo pueden entenderse de manera sistémica, es decir, como un sistema de interacción. Por lo tanto, no se puede hablar sobre la situación de pandemia de salud sin referirse a la crisis económica y financiera. Mi intención es explorar todas estas dimensiones y mostrarlas como una crisis interactiva.

Su propósito es cambiar completamente la visión del mundo. Puede sacarnos de nuestras preocupaciones subjetivas. También nos ayudará a entender el mundo interior, nuestra propia psique y ayudarnos a encontrar una respuesta visionaria a los problemas de nuestro tiempo y a nuestras crisis personales. En los episodios por venir exploramos respuestas visionarias a estas crisis incluidas las de Carl Gustav Jung, quien desde lo más profundo de su propia psique proporcionó una respuesta a la crisis spiritual de nuestro tiempo.

S2 Ep 34. The Crisis of our Times. Part 8. The Wake-up Call

My wake-up call in March 2020 was that this unfolding series of crises, long in the making, had already passed its tipping point. The house of cards was already falling. What has happened since then is that most major economies have covered up and disguised the economic and financial crisis by creating vast debt and money creation and pretending this is fine, pretending they are in charge. But they are merely postponing the crisis while it becomes larger.

Accordingly, I have said clearly that a Great Global Depression has already begun and that the financial crisis is unfolding in front of us. I have given a road-map in episodes 27 and 30 which outlined the stages of the crisis – the sequence and timing could be different but all stages will be experienced. 

I described in episodes 27 and 30 the great fault lines in the world system in the decade leading up to 2010 and have called the different parts of the multidimensional crises the 10 horseman of the Apocalypse because they will take humanity to the brink of extinction and constitute a great unveiling or revelation. So beyond the economic, health and financial we have a number of dimensions that stretch all the way to the conflict of ideas of our times and the spiritual crises, besides the ones that are glaringly more obvious such as the climatic and the military. Less obvious is the crisis of our subservience to technology especially as human nature itself is becoming profoundly altered by this force, one might say this is the god that we worship. We simply are incapable of resisting it, questioning it, or putting any ethical dimension around it. It is shaping us. We are not in control of it.

This episode continues with the poetry readings from the last part of The Sower and the Seed (2015) which via the metaphors of the pilgrimage and  mountain ascent tell the archetypal story (the myth) of spiritual transformation. No matter what the crisis this is always available to us. Illumination and gnosis are triggered by suffering and an inherent, built-in impulse of the psyche.

S2 Ep 33. The Crisis of our Times. Part 7. The Ten Horseman of the Apocalypse

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 widening gyre

The falcon cannot hear the falconer;

Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world ….

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

W.B.Yeats. The Second Coming

S3 Ep2. Las Crisis de Nuestro Tiempo. El Acercamiento de la Tormenta. Spanish Language Podcast

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 radicalmente cambiado

Actualmente en mayo de 2020 estamos en la etapa 3. Es decir, la respuesta política

Hoy examinaremos la etapa inicial de este modelo: EL ACERCAMIENTO DE LA TORMENTA.

“El cisma en el cuerpo social, que hemos estado examinando, es una experiencia colectiva y, por lo tanto, superficial. Su importancia radica en que es el signo externo y visible de una grieta interna y espiritual. Encontraremos un cisma en las almas de los seres humanos que subyace a cualquier cisma que ocurra en la superficie de la sociedad " Arnold Toynbee. A Study of History

S2 Ep 32. The Crisis of our Times. Part 6. Civilizational Eclipse, Human Extinction, and Hope?

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 is at the beginning of civilization, whereas we fear we may be at the end. Here we see clearly the battle between the creative and destructive forces, good and evil, told in this magnificent narrative which offers hope - exactly what we need today.

The essence of this precious life,

The seed upon the flower.

The scent within a perfume,

The light that is a star.

The freedom of the wild west wind,

The mist on mountain side,

The thought before you think it,

She knows you from inside.

The sweetness of the desert breeze

You can’t grasp in your hands.

She’s like the waters of the Nile,

She comes from other lands.

        From Alan Mulhen The Sower and the Seed

 

S2 Ep 31. The Crises of our Times. Part 5. The Economic and Spiritual Crisis

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 dimensions, which we also call the horseman of the Apocalypse. Apocalypse comes from the Greek word meaning to reveal. It is also, in the bible, associated with the idea of a great judgement and end times,

It is only by this means of a spiritual awakening that a new vision can emerge that can save us. There has to be a spiritual rebirth because mankind’s reason cannot solve the crises in front of us. The term apocalyptic is therefore appropriate to describe our age. We will approach this final horseman, the spiritual crisis, slowly and with great caution for there is no telling the hour or the manner of its coming

S3 Ep1. Las Crisis de Nuestro Tiempo. El Momento de la Verdad. Spanish Language Podcast

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 economías ya están experimentando un colapso importante a una escala nunca antes vista.

Este es nuestro momento de la verdad. Esto es lo que la evolución de la vida y la conciencia en este planeta le ha llevado después de miles de millones de años. A menos que lo recibamos con la verdad, nos enfrentaremos con la puerta en la cara.

Libros

shorturl.at/jqISY     The Sower and the Seed: Reflections on the Development of Consciousness

shorturl.at/xGIR9     La Inteligencia de Sanación: El Espíritu en Psicoterapia

Website:                    https://www.alanmulhern.com/

S2 Ep 30. The Crisis of our Times. Part 4. Homo Demonicus

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 grows upon the weakness of the host.

This episode explores the demonic in our species. I don’t believe that the human race is principally or only demonic rather that humans are divided into opposites of light and dark. The dark has the demonic as one of its possibilities while the light is that which seeks healing, growth, and which transcends the realm of the ego and its selfish, animal desires and obsessions, and embraces life itself, the good. Humans are split between these two positions which are intimately linked.

This drama is currently being played out in our economic and political systems which are also possessed by these forces. 

Such a conflict of opposites comes into focus in every age of crisis and, like the crises of past ages, ours too may re-birth a spiritual vision, if it confronts its darkness and embraces a new vision, the light. For this it needs not only sound argument and science, but a spiritual and moral vision and experience from the depths of the psyche. It needs to have its vision renewed, to have the doors of perception cleansed. In other words this is the crisis of the 21^st century – that we are possessed by forces we can call demonic which are driving to destruction. It is not enough that we just see our shadow, and know our darkness, it is necessary to seek the light which gives birth to new vision - - the rebirth. Out of the spiritual crisis, only when fully experienced, can there be a rebirth of the current age. All the evidence however points to the great difficulty of human beings voluntarily doing this, so I consider, that it will only be via the hard path, that of trauma and suffering, that this may occur.

S2 Ep 29. The Crisis of our Times. Part 3. De Profundis (Out of the Depths)

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 - might have been thought of as hyperbole. I think that view may now well be changing.

This present crisis is of the greatest seriousness but transformation is just possible. The human race must pass through deep trauma and then a chance might emerge. The potential transformation will necessarily have deep spiritual elements informing it throughout, and reason and science should be subordinate to that vision. There is no guarantee of the outcome of this process. There is no inevitable happy ending. The human race has no guardian angels or gods that necessarily see them through this. It does however have immense help if visionary material is accessed. Once the spiritual eye is opened then transformation is possible, a renewed personal and world vision may occur. There is a narrow door of opportunity. The Quest is committed to that possibility. The difficult journey, the descent, has to be undertaken so this opportunity arises. No matter how dark the vision is at times it is the light of the transformation possibility that is the raison d’etre of the Quest Series.

 

 

S2 Ep28. The Crisis of our Times. Part 2. The Moment of Truth

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.

S2 Ep 27. The Crisis of our Times. Part 1. Economic and Financial Crisis

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 respectful of the world's spiritual traditions and it is a common observation that individuals change most when they can face their traumas fully and honestly and harness the energies to effect fundamental change. The same applies to the collective in this series of crises that are unfolding. By facing not only our own shadow and self-made traumas, but also those traumas we have inflicted on others, the earth, animals of all descriptions – the trauma and killing we have inflicted on this incredibly beautiful and miraculous life that we have been so privileged to have been given, only by facing this, acknowledging it, feeling it, can we begin the process of change. However, the likelihood of extreme, radical parties taking over in the near future is very high since the poltical centre that we have known will disappear as the crisis mounts.

.

 "And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

The solemn temples, the great globe itself—

Yea, all which it inherit—shall dissolve,

And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep."

Shakespeare, The Tempest. Act 4 Sc1.

 

S2 Ep 26. Spiritual Hero. Part 5. The changing image of Christ

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 anointed one, from the house of David who is still a human being, but has come to rebuild the temple and bring the Jewish religious authorities and the Jewish people back to their true god. This image and role is both religious and political. So far we are in the Jewish traditions. The fourth image steps outside of this Jewish framework and the Christian writers of the Gospels elevate Jesus to the son of the Father, the son of god, and the route to the father who is heaven. By now the Christians have their eye on the lands outside of Judea, and their mission is  to the peoples of the Roman empire and perhaps even beyond. A universalist vision is to take hold of Christianity.  But this comes next in our story.

There is also an introduction to the next podcast in two weeks time, March 21 2020 - the emerging economic and financial crisis of our time. 

Reference: Tanakh - The Hebrew Bible - Ketuvim - Scriptures - Psalm 22

https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/16243/jewish/Chapter-22.htm

 

References from Gospels using Psalm 22:

Verse 1, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?", is quoted in Mark 15:34; Matthew 27:46[16]

Verse 7, "They hurl insults, shaking their heads", is quoted in Mark 15:29; Matthew 27:39[16]

Verse 8, "He trusted on the Lord that he would deliver him: let him deliver him, seeing he delighted in him", is quoted in Matthew 27:43[16]

Verse 18, "They divide my clothes among them and cast lots for my garment", is quoted in Mark 15:24; Matthew 27:35; Luke 23:34; John 19:24[16]

S2 Ep 25. Spiritual Hero Part 4. The Risen Christ?

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 sufficiently to transform history.

The gospel of Thomas the Gnostic says:

And his disciples said to him, "Show us the place where you are, since it is necessary for us to seek it."

He said to them, "Whoever has ears, let him hear. There is light within a man of light, and he lights up the whole world. If he does not shine, he is darkness."

S2 Ep 24. Spiritual Hero. Part 3. Christ. Who do they say that I am?

 

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 that I have tended."

And he took him, and withdrew, and spoke three sayings to him. When Thomas came back to his friends they asked him, "What did Jesus say to you?"

Thomas said to them, "If I tell you one of the sayings he spoke to me, you will pick up rocks and stone me, and fire will come from the rocks and devour you"

The Gnostic Gospel of Thomas

S2 Ep 23. Spiritual Hero. Part 2. Evidence for Jesus Christ

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 of their history. Between his death and the writings of the Gospels sufficient time passed for amazing tales and fantastical legends to gather around the increasingly mythical figure of Christ. In this podcast we examine the evidence for Jesus Christ and whether the gospels are really witnesses to his life.

S2 Ep 22. The Spiritual Hero Myth. Part 1

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 not been able to overcome their challenges and they have become extinct. 

Hero myths are some of the oldest stories we have. The story of Osiris’ death at the hand of his brother Seth is probably the most dramatic and was retold across thousand of years of Egyptian history. The battle between the forces of light and darkness symbolises the inner state of mankind, the nature of our psyche. The forces of order, the creative principles that have fashioned the existence of not only life but the human psyche, are threatened by chaos and destructiveness.

The underlying philosophy upon which these podcasts are based is in the following book and can be obtained at the link below:

The Sower and the Seed

Reflections on the Development of Consciousness

(Karnac Books 2015)

https://rb.gy/xmvpjq