Image by Ralf Seemann
Greetings, dear readers!
The following is the final post of our blog series “Reflections from the Heart of the Feminine.” If you’re just joining us you may want to start here.
Thanks so much for participating in this adventure. We invite you to write directly to us to let us know what you found valuable about this series: info@budharris.com.
The world needs the Feminine! Let your healing journey ripple outward to reach others.
Again, thanks and best wishes on your journey,
Massimilla and Bud Harris
Quotation from Chapter 12 for Reflection and Discussion:
As we wander on these journeys, we find that just like in the stories, we often begin in shadowy places, dark forests of the heart or lonely castles that reflect some of the gloomiest wounded and denied places within the kingdom of ourselves. Along the way, we will meet monsters, strange animals (even talking ones), and extraordinary people like dwarfs, witches, beggars, old hags, and even the devil. Some of these figures are helpful; others try to hinder us or even destroy us. But if we want to follow the maps laid out by these stories and to be transported by the stories, we must remember to embrace the world of metaphor because, in reality, the story is within us. The dangers are within ourselves, in our situation and in our unconscious. The helpful figures are parts of our unconscious as well.
Psychologically, as you have probably imagined by now, to be in a spell, cursed, or enchanted is to be in the grips of a major complex in our personality. The helpful figures and the guiding plot of the story come from what we Jungians call the Self. For us, the Self represents both the center of who we are and the totality of who we are. We may also think of the Self as an integration point, the ground of our being, where the mind, body, soul, and spirit come together. Our perceptions, feelings, personal history, cultural history, and collective history join in the Self. And the Self carries the unique pattern for who we are to become psychologically, creatively, and emotionally, just as it contains the patterns of our physical growth through our DNA. These patterns come to us through our DNA in the same way our instinctual urge to grow into them does.
Questions for Journaling and Group Discussion:
Do you see how your journey into facing your real emotions and true reality can free you to face a new destiny?
Can you value yourself enough to be devoted to this journey that you have begun?
What do you feel about our statement: “To change our fate, we must learn to recognize it, to honor it, and to give it bread, nourishment, and body”?
To get a good introduction to the Death Mother archetype, watch Massimilla’s lecture on the topic:
“In this compelling book, Jungian analysts Massimilla and Bud Harris explore the power of the Death Mother complex that ‘drains our energy, saps our vitality, and drags us down.’ Drawing upon personal experience, clinical practice, archetypal stories, and the myth of Medusa, the authors describe not only the paralyzing effects of the Death Mother complex, but the steps needed to transform it into healing and vitalizing energy. This engaging, moving work offers wisdom to both men and women who seek to liberate their deepest creative potential.”
– Susan Olson, Jungian analyst and author of By Grief Transformed: Dreams and the Mourning Process
Book Excerpts and Resources
, authenticity, being human, creative life, happiness, healthy personality, hope, Jungian psychology, living authentically, Personal Transformation, self-loving
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