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

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.

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 "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

 

S2 Ep 21. Beethoven. Part 3. Rebirth

This symphony is not only the emergence of the Romantic movement (our relationship to the sublime) but has pagan vitality permeating it; the spirit of great mystery religions of Greece, Egypt and the Near East are saturating this symphony since at its heart is a death and resurrection archetype which can turn any spiritually attuned person inside-out. The hero myth is central to it, especially that of Prometheus who stole the fire (spirit, intelligence) from the Olympians so as to create the human race and for which he was cruelly punished - like Beethoven, the greatest living composer, for many the greatest of all time, who was going deaf and feared the loss of his titanic creativity. The third symphony is the rising from his grave of despair.  Beyond that it represents an archetype in human consciousness, that of its death and rebirth. This symphony is immersed in that archetype and therefore speaks to our times as much as to his.

Thanks to the BBC radio 3 recording of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony 2005 and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label. All musical extracts in these podcasts taken from that source.   https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1

S2 Ep 20. Beethoven. Part 2. Death and resurrection.

Beethoven’s music put the struggle of the individual, the agony and ecstatic flight, at the centre of the performance. Music in his hands was being reshaped forming a new stage of human consciousness. This is the journey of the hero – hence the title: the Eroica. It may start with Napoleon and the politics of the day, it proceeds through the individual struggle of the greatest living composer rapidly going deaf and faced with suicide; but it then reaches out to the archetypal and transcendent.

The second movement, our topic in this episode, begins with the famous funeral march - the world’s greatest? Beethoven’s second movement divides in two parts – the death of the hero and the experience of 'resurrection'. The funeral march can then be thought of a descent into a symbolic death (depression, stagnation, loss, trauma and so on), which in this movement, amazingly, has a turning point and a rebirth.

Thanks to the BBC radio 3 recording of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony 2005 and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label. All musical extracts in these podcasts taken from that source.    https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1

S2 Ep 19. Beethoven 3rd symphony. Part 1. Battle and triumph.

The opening movement of Beethoven's 3rd is the first stage of the hero's journey – struggle and victory. The hero myth has many variations in its death and resurrection themes. Mythologically it involves the bringing of new consciousness to humanity. 

It therefore represents in Beethoven’s day the revolts, insurrections and revolutions that were emerging in Europe and its colonies. However, Beethoven is tapping into an archetypal structure and therefore this music is as relevant now as it was then. For we too, in the contemporary age, live in a civilization in crisis and transition where radical change needs to be fought for.

Individuals also seek their own renewal which is partially an independent activity, something, in the inner world – it’s not exactly a programme but an archetype, a template of immense possibility deep in the psyche. At its core the 3rd symphony demonstrates this within a death and rebirth archetype that takes music into the Romantic period and places the individual's relation to the sublime or transcendent at the centre of consciousness.

This is the first of three podcasts on Beethoven's 3rd symphony. 

Thanks to the BBC radio 3 recording 2005 of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label. All musical extracts in these podcasts taken from that source.   https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1

S2 Ep 18. Gnosticism for our time?

Gnostic themes of entrapment, profound alienation, the struggle for gnosis (knowledge, illumination), the battle between the light and the dark, the forces of evil and good, the illusions of the world, the devilish devices to distract one from truth are all archetypal themes that reoccur throughout history and across all cultures. Gnosticism, despite some of its excesses, speaks profound truth in wonderful poetry which once heard is unforgettable. They speak of the soul like no others:

“In that world of darkness I dwelt thousands of myriads of years, and nobody knew of me that I was there. . . . Year upon year and generation upon generation I was there, and they did not know about me that I dwelt in their world."

In the modern era Gnostic motifs have surfaced in films such as Superman and the Matrix. This episode is the last in the Gnostic series. It finishes with a contemporary question: is there a gnostic dimension to the transgender question?

S2 Ep 17. The Fall of Sophia and the Division of the Dark and the Light

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

S2 Ep 16. The Gnostics and the Call

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

This "call" is the most powerful connection of Gnosticsm to Jungian psychology since the Self is also the source of the call - from the soul to the contemporary ego. 

S2 Ep 15. Gnosticism & Jungian Psychology

Jung knew he had to drop anchor into the historical depths since he felt instinctively that what he was discovering was not just another interesting theory but something that was archetypal in dimension and therefore could be found in many cultures throughout history and even lay in the historical unconscious despite repression and persecution - just as gnosticism lay buried in the sands beneath the Christian surface. This gives Jungian psychology an extraordinary depth, an anchor deep in the world psyche.

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

S2 Ep 14. Initiation and Gnosis - a personal experience

The essence of the gnostic experience is one that will never disappear and will again play its part in the crises that are evolving in the 21 century as many individuals undertake the path of initiation into higher knowledge, Gnosis. Such initiation rites are preceded by a period of preparation, a descent, a confrontation and an integration with the shadow, a meeting with the core of oneself, the visionary experience, and a rebirth. In the 21^st century this classical initiation path is now conjoined with Jungian psychology which has become a new container into which the ancient wisdom and myths has been poured.

S2 Ep 13. Jung and Gnosticism Part B

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

S2 Ep 12 Jung and Gnosticism Part A

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

S2 Ep 11. Jung and Alchemy Part B

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

S2 Ep 10. Jung and Alchemy Part A.

Jung did an enormous amount to breathe the spirit back into alchemy after the cold hand of the Western scientific enlightenment had extinguished its flame. He was a pioneer in re-interpreting the alchemical symbols into the language of archetypal myths as well as psychology allowing them to live again.

He was convinced it provided a missing link between the modern analytical psychology that he had created and the wisdom of the ancient world. For him it was the language of the lost soul. Although deeply enigmatic there was a key to the alchemy mysteries and Jung was destined, vocationally called, redemptively compelled to find it as few others could. One is reminded of a saying of the gnostic redeemer: "I wandered through worlds and generations ... all the mysteries unlock."

S2 Ep 9. Jung's Contributions to the Psychotherapy of our Time

From his disintegration, his descent to the underworld, Jung brought creative treasures, not simply as theoretical ideas but as practical tools that could be inserted into the living tissue of our times. Jungian psychotherapy is a potent tool of transformation.

" The years ... when I pursued the inner images were the most important time of my life. Everything else is to be derived from this. My entire life consisted in elaborating what had burst forth from the unconscious and flooded me like an enigmatic stream and threatened to break me. That was the stuff and material for more than only one life. Everything later was merely the outer classification, the scientific elaboration, and the integration into life. But the numinous beginning, which contained everything was then.” CGJung