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

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

S2.Ep 8. Jung: Visions, Journey of the Soul

The depths of the psyche irrupted in Jung with tremendous force. But he found that ore from which he alchemised the gold of his creations. It came from an inexhaustible seam where psyche means cosmos and buried so deep and under such pressure that it was dangerous to approach. But his daemon drove him and he unravelled the secret of bringing it to the surface, at first hot white and liquid but then transformed through symbol on its long journey from the interior.

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 7. Jung: Introverted Mystic

We examine Chapters 8 and 9 of Memories,Dreams, Reflections which tell of the building of his Tower at Bolligen, Lake Zurich, and his travels to find a non-European perspective on himself and Western civilization.

S2.Ep 6. Jung: The Wounded Visionary

Jung and the recovery of the soul: the first of a series on Carl Jung, his life, thought, formation of a school of psychotherapy, and contribution to Western civilization.

S2. Ep 5. Richard Dawkins:The God Delusion

We critically explore a humanist vision that argues there is almost certainly no God, that evolution and natural selection are the only plausible explanations for the universe and ourselves, that religions have caused enormous damage, and that our ethical systems should be forged from reason. 

"When one person suffers a delusion it is called insanity. When many people suffer a delusion it is called religion". Richard Dawkins.

S2.Ep 4. James Locklock: Ecological visionary of our time. Part 2

"If it be now, tis not to come;  if it be not to come, it will be now;  if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all." (Hamlet: Act 5 Sc.2)

S2.Ep 3. James Lovelock: Visionary of the Ecological Crisis. Part 1

The first of two podcasts on James Lovelock. The evolving ecological crisis is of such gravity as to constitute collective suicide by humanity. This first podcast looks at the theory and evidence.

S2.Ep 2. The Quest: Mysticism and Evolution

This is the first episode in a series that explores great visionaries from across the ages who have changed our history and contemporary world. This episode examines Pierre Teilhard de Chardin - an obscure Jesuit priest of the 20th century who gave a blazing vision of the miracle of evolution and offers an alternative view to the materialist world paradigm which has led us, sleepwalking, into our current crisis.