My Blog

Rites of Passage and the Individuation Process

06/17/2011 13:29:00

It has long been recognized by anthropologists, theologians, depth psychologists, and sociologists that the rites of passage are a vital element of our humanity. Yet, with considerably few exceptions, rites of passage events (socially recognized ceremonies) no longer exist in the Western European culture.

Still, our need to be guided and recognized as the constantly evolving initiands that we are remains in our psyche and seeks to be met, generatively or not. Youth gang initiations and fraternity hazing are just two of the ways that the call to initiation is met.

Living a well examined life of self reflection, or individuation, is the psychologizing of these ancient patterns of life cycles. Without guidance, support and a creative expression of these cycles, life often becomes meaningless as we reach for a sense of order amidst the internal chaos we experience.

I invite you to evoke stillness into your day. I invite you to reach for the creative expression that works to give order to the seemingly chaotic, churning of your evolving self.

The Great Mother

02/09/2011 07:35:00

The Jeita Grotto is a karstic limestone cave outside of Beirut. She has been there, in the mountains of Lebanon since the Paleolithic era.

I first visited Jeita Grotto over sixteen years ago, and most recently, on Christmas day, 2010.

Currently one of the sites being voted for as one of the 7 Wonders of the World, it is one of my favorite places on the planet and the experience of standing in the womb of the earth is extraordinary, visceral and soul-stirring.

Archetypally inspired writing will often speak of the cave as an expression of the Great Mother. In Jeita, the symbol of the cave is an experience supported by reality. On each visit, I was overcome with the awe of the physical environment as well as the strength of the emotionally toned response of being in the field of the Great Mother.

This powerful energy is not only positive, it is daunting!The upper caves are challenging to walk; the steps are slippery and the heights take your breath away. This all makes for a slower, more cautious tour. The lower caves are accessed by a small boat that glides you inches underneath the crystallized "icicles."

The first time I was there I was carrying my son in my womb. On this visit he was standing beside me, holding my hand for support. On this past Christmas Day, Jeita heightened my appreciation for the passing of time and the eternal replication of the birthing experience, both physically and psychically.

Who Am I Now?

01/25/2011 11:46:00

All the financial issues are cleared up. You get the job you wanted. The relationship issues are quiet and the kids are happy. Now what? Do we finally, at this point, begin to recognize that the outer dramas were only there to keep the inner life at bay?

Inner callings and the re-membering of distant urges and longings need solitude as a foundation. The mystics, the wise ones, the desert fathers all knew that solitude was the basis for hearing the whispers of the divine and being in communication with our own depths.

I don't mean the few minutes of quiet time you steal on a lunch break or even your sitting practice in the early, dawn hours - though both of those practices are essential to my day. I mean vacations on one's own, weekends away in retreat, long days of writing, reflecting and service to the interior being.

The first half of life, school and career, child raising and "future building" doesn't allow much for this kind of activity. At any age it is often viewed as withdraw, indulgence in melancholy, and somehow unnatural. In fact, in can be a time of great awakening, especially if you are without the stimuli of television, cell phones and internet.

If you are in the position for such choices, I hope you are packing your bags now!The greatest gift we can give ourselves is time to reacquaint oursleves with our own depths. Without experiencing aloneness we cannot discover what it is that always accompanies us.

What is an Archetype?

01/19/2011 12:03:00

An archetype is not a thing that we can hold in our hands or point to out there in the world. An archetype is a pattern of energy that can be recognized in nature and human psyche.

For example, the Trickster archetype can be expressed in addictions, the puer archetype can be expressed in the artist, and the Great Mother in depression.

Archetypal energy is like a current in a river. We may not see it or understand its strength unless we enter the river and suddenly become aware of its pull on us.

Archetypal Pattern Recognition is a modality that assists people in recognizing the core currents at play in their lives.

Solitude of the Desert

01/14/2011 13:02:00

Oh D'mba! The belly without child is like a cinder in the desert wind,

like a leaf in a bush-fire.

Oh D'mba! Goddess of fertility,

Oh D'mba! you who make the sap rise in the dust.

Here are my breasts, let them be the same as yours.

Here is my belly, that the sap of the Baga may continue to rise.

Traditional song of the Baga people of Guinea, West Africa.

If you have read my web page you know that I have spent my entire adult life teaching dance, and with significant focus on West African dance. Over a decade ago, this verse of song from the Baga people that celebrates the D'mba symbol caught me and has not let me go. It has been a guiding image in itself of the longing for connection to the transpersonal and the gifts, solitude, grief and passion that that longing engages. That longing to be closer to the Mystery is the calling that brought me to this work.

The profound image of an empty womb speaks clearly from the domain of the Feminine, the Soul, where our human ability to conceive of creative potential lies. Without that potential, without transformational imagination, we are like cinders in the desert wind; sparks of hope that are shut out by a seemingly terrible nature.Or we are doomed as is a leaf in a bush-fire, helpless and fated to burn in the fire of a relentless passion.

This symbol of D'mba, as you can read in my essay, The D'mba Headdress as as Expression of the Great Mother Archetype, is both the desert wind and the Mystery that can make sap rise from dust - milk from blood.

It is only within the embrace of solitude and descent that we are able to discover the magical madness of our deepest longings. Jung cautioned in the Red Book:

"No one can or should halt sacrifice. Sacrifice is not destruction, sacrifice is the foundation stone of what is to come. Have you not had monasteries? Have not countless thousands gone into the desert? You should carry the monastery in yourself. The desert is within you. The desert calls you and draws you back, and if you were fettered to the world of this time with iron, the call of the desert would break all chains. Truly, I prepare you for solitude." pg 230

A West African Expression of the Great Mother Archetype

01/12/2011 08:58:00

The D’mba headdress of the Baga people of Guinea West Africa was first recognized and recorded by Europeans in 1886, yet definitive understanding of D'mba remains elusive.[i] There are several reasons for the enigma surrounding D’mba’s meaning and function. First, the Europeans that initially encountered her relied on the Susu people of the region to name and describe her. That is the reason why she is still referred to by the name of Nimba, which is the Susu word for “great spirit,” and why she is considered a “spirit” in the West. For the Baga people, she is not a spirit or a deity. The Susu described her as such for lack of a better way to communicate the enormity of her presence in the Baga culture.[ii] There was also a shift in the ways that the Baga people engaged in their traditional rituals during the last century’s wave of Islamic conversion in West Africa and of the Baga themselves.[iii] Their initial migration out of the inland mountain regions toward the coast was, in fact, a resistance to Islam and, as with all oral traditions, primary source documentation regarding the culture is scarce.[iv] The ambiguity surrounding D’mba is a necessary component when, as argued here, she is viewed as an expression of the Great Mother archetype defined by the Swiss psychologist Carl Jung. Primordial archetypes of this magnitude contain immense and powerful potential. The D’mba headdress plays a vital role in the cultural, spiritual and psychological health of the Baga people and has become a symbol of national identity for the whole of Guinea. [v]

Click here for the full essay.

Archetypal Possession

01/06/2011 20:57:00

The power of archetypal energy is immeasurable. It has the capacity to over power mere humans, creating atrocities such as ethnic cleansing. It turns brother against brother, nation against nation, and all reason against unexplainable drive.

To be possessed by the energy of an archetypal alignment is to stand subservient to its directive. We can see this when the archetype of the parent kicks in to save a child from a dangerous situation. We would stand in front of a train to save them! We can also see the power of the energy when we are in the throes of the addiction archetype - on our knees with desire for one more fix, or falling in love.

Archetypes are not something we create or control. Archetypes are energetic patterns that drive human experience and our work is to first honor their eternal presence, and then to understand their need. What is the presence of this power asking of us?

The Archetypal Imagination

01/05/2011 09:19:00

On December 20th, 2010 I began the twenty-four hour trip from New York State to Beirut, Lebanon. On the evening of the rare lunar eclipse that coincided with the Spring Equinox, suspended over the Atlantic ocean, I opened the pages of James Hollis', The Archetypal Imagination.

A few summers ago I went through a James Hollis book each week and by September I felt a little weary, heavy.

The Archetypal Imagination left me in a very different place. I was inspired and re-committed to the life of the symbolic. Each chapter of the short book (124 pages) begins with this sentence, "What we wish most to know, most desire, remains unknowable and lies beyond our grasp." Hollis then takes us to a place where we experience the desire and accept the unknowable. He reminds us that the Mystery is what leads us on our quest for meaning.

This is a book to read numerous times, savoring the language, the possibilities, the devotion to the symbolic, and the call to unite psyche with soul.

Determination vs Surrender

01/04/2011 21:35:00

Welcome to 2011! If you are like most, you made some resolutions for the upcoming new year. And, if you are like many, you will have forgotten about them come February.

Why is it we can be so determined to make those changes for ourselves one day and back to the same behaviors the next?

Patterns are deeply embedded in our psyches. Along the way we have gathered many associations that now defend those patterns. To create the shift we are searching for we need to begin the long and dedicated process of unraveling those associations.

And who are we without our patterns of thought and behavior? Who are we without our ways of being that have been our companions for so many years?

Determination alone will not assist us as we seek our authentic nature. A true surrender to our humanness is a beginning. Our humanness brings with it a relentless desire to connect with others and to the divine. It also brings with it fears of loss. Our desire to be known and our fear of being known is a paradox that weights on us.

As we begin 2011, I wish you all the strength and courage to surrender to your human nature, your fears and doubts, your needs for connection and conversation with the divine.

I wish you all quiet hours in nature where the sounds of our collective human longing can be heard.