“For the dark God has slipped the atom bomb and chemical weapons into his [humanity’s] hands and given him the power to empty out the apocalyptic vials of wrath on his fellow creatures.”

Jung was by no means clear that humanity could rise to the level required. Neither is it clear how this realisation may have affected his moods towards the end of his life but what is well known is that he spent his final days dictating his last visions to his daughter and Marie-Louise von Franz. These were often very somber (including images of global devastation), but he reportedly faced them with a sense of "objective" calm rather than despair.

For those who want more information on booking for the Archetypal Constellations workshop "Resourcing Our Future", led by Richard Olivier, here is the link:  https://www.wholepartnership.com/booking/resourcing-our-future-a-masterclass-on-archetypal-constellations-with-richard-olivier/

Four examples of the earliest archetypal images, beliefs, and practices are given and for which we have hard evidence taking us back many tens of thousands years deep into the last ice age. These are 1. burial practices; 2. images of the Great Mother; 3. cave paintings, rock-art, figurines, and statues;  4. shamanism. Their relevance to the contemporary world is indicated - a theme of great importance and to be taken up as this mini-series progresses.

The first archetypal images of humanity for which we have evidence.

The areas of the world where this evidence is found: South Africa, Indonesia, India, Australia, the Americas, Siberia. We leave the famous cave paintings of France and Spain until next episode.

The dates of the cave painting and rock art that have survived and recently been discovered. These stretch back into pre-history for tens of thousands of years.

What are the links between these early images and shamanism?

Exploring how archetypes—rooted in mythology and Shakespearean drama—can revolutionize leadership, organizational culture, and personal growth.

Key highlights include:

• The Power of Shakespearean Drama: Uncover how mythological and archetypal elements in Shakespeare’s plays illuminate leadership dynamics and human potential.
• Peak Performance and Inner Essence: Learn how embracing archetypes allows acting in to unlock authentic leadership.
• The Ten Archetypes Framework: Discover a transformative tool for understanding and developing leadership capacities and individual transformation. Identify your dominant archetypes, awaken dormant ones, and address shadow elements that may hinder growth.
• A Path to Growth and Resilience: Explore how balancing archetypes fosters personal development, strengthens organizations, and offers a lens for navigating the crises of our time.

This is a rare opportunity to delve into the intersection of myth, leadership, and psychology, with insights that resonate across industries and individual development alike. Whether you’re a leader, psychotherapist, coach, or simply curious about the stories shaping our lives, this conversation promises to be both profound, unique, and practical.

This is the metaphysical background to transhumanism which in its radical form wishes to move at least some humans to a post-biological state that overcomes ageing and death. However the history of utopias – and Transhumanism is definitely one - is that they have a dystopian underside. This can be even be presented metaphysically as a movement from the Luciferian to the Satanic. There is a Faustian pact at the origins of business civilization. The pursuit of Artificial Intelligence and the movement to Transhumanism are its consequences. The myth of Dr Faustus is explored.

1.  Megathreats  (2022)  by Nouriel Roubini  especially ch8.

2. The Coming Wave  (2023 ) by Mustafa Suleyman.

The episode ends with a warning dream of mine about AI …

An expedition of Western soldiers in India stumbled on an unusual tomb. It is like a big room which is guarded by a living demon, whom the soldiers decide to execute perhaps by burning. They walk backwards to the place of execution while the blue demon walks forward in a sinister, elegant kind of dance.

A cautious interpretation is offered.

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 hold in your hand,

She’s like the waters of the Nile

She comes from other lands.

Transhumanism divides into moderate Transhumanism which believes in an enhanced human condition, and radical Transhumanism which envisages a profound alteration of our bodies and minds, even to the extent of abandoning our biological inheritance and becoming a designed new species. Both visions envisage accelerating technological change. But humans are not in charge of their technologies, rather technology itself is in the driving seat. While the record so far of a highly improved human condition looks good, for example increased life span, as well as impressive increases in GDP and the standard of living, on closer inspection the contemporary situation looks fraught with difficulty and the world economy could well be at an inflection point. Thus, the moderate Transhumanism project would be stalled, even endangered. However, as further episodes will argue this does not apply to radical Transhumanism which  is set to proceed regardless of economic conditions.

We examine firstly the consequences, values and paradigms of Business Civilization such as  removal from nature, hyper-technological rationalism, intense consumerism, over-emphasis on science and calculation, exaggerated individualism and so on. These become more intensified in the contemporary period with huge destructive consequences. It is these traits that need to change in order to modify our destructive impact.

Secondly, we explore depth psychology, with reference to ideas of Freud, Jung, Klein and Grof. They all refer to a basic dualism in the unconscious. On the one hand  great creativity, on the other an extraordinary capacity for destruction. Business Civilization needs to be "put on the couch". Unless it integrates its profound negativity it cannot last.

1. A tipping point has been reached in the climate crisis past the 1.5 degree centigrade threshold and the planet is now in a stage of unpredictable runaway effects.

2. Climate defiance is in the ascendant and there is crisis, confusion, and perhaps despair in the Green ranks. The Green agenda will, however, make a come-back as the true damaging costs of fossil fuel dependency hammer home.

3. The climate crisis has to be gone through – quick fixes are not possible. It is useful to view this whole period as a rite of passage. This does not mean humanity will necessarily get through it. We might fail or not get through intact. But what is required is a total paradigm shift in human values and in global political and economic organization. 

The competitive state of the world economic and political system prevents adequate international cooperation on climate matters. Psychiatry and psychoanalysis have provided diagnostic terms that are useful when describing negative aspects of business civilization such as psychopathic, addictive, manic-depressive, and schizoid. They have also provided insight into climate denial as a defence against anxiety. But the more obvious source of problems is in our values systems, our beliefs about ourselves, nature and even the cosmos. There is in the human psyche a combination of opposites – god-like powers and a demonic destructiveness.

Following further research post Cop28 I see no reason to change my central warning: prepare for survival on a degraded planet.

A new attitude on the global scene is noted - climate defiance. Arguments for climate denial are also examined and dismissed as contrary to the evidence. 

The episode ends with a beautiful song The Turning of the Year by Mark Dunn of The Bringers of Change whose music albums can be found on Spotify etc. and as CDs at www.fallingarecords.com

This episode is being released a few days early in the breather between Christmas and New Year. The next and probable final episode in this mini-series  will be Feb 1st 2024. Its subject will be the spiritual, mythical, and spiritual dimensions of the climate crisis.

A free meditation programme following the Secret of the Golden Flower starts Jan 2  2024. Contact me at thepilgrimquest@gmail.com if you wish to join - up to 2 weeks late start is OK.

The Quest Lecture series (as distinct from these podcasts) starts in April 2024. Syllabus on my website www.alanmulhern.com

The GHG emissions targets are not being reached on time.

We need to prepare for survival in a degraded world.

There needs to be a spiritual vision to give us insight into the climate and other crises of our age.

Biodiversity loss

Chemical pollution into land, air, rivers, and oceans

Particle pollution of the atmosphere

Deforestation and land use

Freshwater scarcity

The phosphorous and nitrogen cycle

# The episode continued by identifying Business Civilization as the immediate source of the contemporary ecological disaster.

# Next it introduced the Dasgupta Review with its investigation of the contemporary trauma of global biodiversity reduction.

# Finally it explored Shelley’s Ode to the West Wind.

Firstly, the Spanish language podcasts, which have explored the life and work of Carl Jung, have now ended. For the forseeable future there will only be the English speaking podcasts.

Secondly, I am moving the podcast release dates generally to the first of the month - an easier date to remember rather than the mid-month timing. Hence S2 Ep89 will be released on October 1st 2023 etc.

The overall theme of the podcasts remains - the quest for vision in an age of crises. The current set of episodes are on the Ecological Catastrophe of our Age. As preparation for the coming episode you could read the highly recommended and freely available internet version of The Economics of Biodiversity: The Dasgupta Review. You could start with the Headline Messages (just a few pages) and then read the Abridged version. The full text is for the highly motivated student - who knows this might include yourself.

This current set of episodes is placed within the larger context of our exploration of the multiple crises of our age (dramatically referred to as the Ten Horsemen of the Apocalypse) which, in addition to the ecological, will include the economic, financial, political, social, health, military, technological, clash of ideas and ideologies (including the Culture Wars, Woke etc. ), and spiritual crisis of our age. En route we will encounter extraordinary possibilities emerging in the 21st century - such as transformations of human nature, global totalitarianism. modification, replacement or even extinction of Homo sapiens, and spiritual transformation.

As you will readily appreciate this is an ambitious undertaking, will take a number of years, and has to be done at a pace which will allow me to complete this task. So I ask for your patience. I also ask for your support, which you can do in two ways: firstly, by telling others of this podcast series; secondly by studying the content of this freely available podcast series (and its references) as seriously as you can, thirdly by leaving comments on the series. If you can accompany this with a spiritual practice, so much the better. Logic, argument and reason are important, yes, but the vision of spiritual experience is the decisive factor in the type of knowledge or gnosis we seek. As a Jungian analyst I am also very much in favour of combining this with deep self-examination. 

 I also run periodically (say once a year) a 100 day meditation online programme based on the Secret of the Golden Flower. Also there is a parallel series of lectures and meeting (called the Quest) which takes place once a month online. For more details, including contact information, you may consult my website www.alanmulhern.com

Terminamos, como deberíamos. con las propias visiones y pensamientos de Jung al final de su vida, tal como se cuentan en los capítulos finales de Recuerdos, Sueños, Pensamientos.

Estos incluyen: su experiencia cercana a la muerte; su posterior convicción de que la vida en esta tierra era como una caja tridimensional especialmente construida a la que llamamos "realidad"; sus pensamientos sobre la existencia después de la muerte; su conciencia de que esta vida era una proyección de una realidad más profunda; su convicción de que la civilización occidental necesitaba recuperar un ancla mitológica sin la cual estábamos perdidos; sus extraordinarias reinterpretaciones de la sabiduría, las religiones y las mitologías antiguas para reanimar el alma de la humanidad; y su creencia de que un amor profundo es la base del universo.

Jung escribió: “Hasta donde podemos discernir, el único propósito de la existencia humana es encender una luz en la oscuridad del mero ser”.

Pocas veces ha habido tanta luz en la oscuridad como la de Carl Jung.

However the extremity of environmental and climatic change continues to our own period and we are reminded of Toynbee’s acute observation that civilization has to continually manage its challenges or face extinction. The same applies to species. Our species, Homo sapiens, is now a global business civilization and despite all its creativity is in great danger.

Climate change, often very severe, quite simply has been one of the biggest factors in earth history. It has also been one of the most powerful influences also in human history.

The current ecological emergency is undeniable. But current policies to deal with it are inadequate.

Can the attack upon nature be characterised as evil since it is a prime example of the destruction of life and the good?

Can something of the magnitude of Business Civilization,  the first example of a truly global civilization, reform itself to the extent required to avoid catastrophe?

Can a global leadership emerge that stops fighting and squabbling?

Will a global totalitarianism be required and will this lead to a world dystopia?

Can we rise to meet the scale of the challenge we face?

Do we realise that what is required is not just some new inventions leaving our standard of living and way of life intact  but rather a vast paradigm shift and a change in our very thinking and way of life?

Episodes for the moment will continue to  be released  around the 15th of the month but will change to 1st of the month by the end of the year.

Cristo es este mito viviente de nuestra cultura. Es nuestro héroe cultural que encarna el mito del hombre primordial divino ...La imagen de Cristo es el arquetipo del Self”. Sin embargo, el símbolo del Cristo celestial carece de totalidad en el sentido psicológico moderno, ya que no incluye al luciferino que está separado. El cristianismo era muy consciente de esto, pero lo llamó privatio boni. Significaba la ausencia del bien más que una realidad positiva por derecho propio. Lucifer corresponde al Anticristo, la mitad oscura de la totalidad divina y humana. En el concepto cristiano, el arquetipo de la totalidad se divide irremediablemente en dos mitades irreconciliables que conducen en última instancia a un dualismo metafísico: la separación final del reino de los cielos del mundo de los condenados". Jung: Christ a Symbol of the Self. Aion CW Part 2

At the same time as the emergence of death awareness the higher self is  simultaneously triggered into existence and this is closely related to love. Our higher self has many attributes such as higher intuition, illumination, revelation, music, art, poetry, and advanced forms of symbolic thought which are revolutionary in evolution. The level and range of our abstract symbolic understanding and expression are extraordinary.

The existence of the higher self in humans, we suggest, is a result of the inherent spirit in the cosmos, the anima mundi, an intelligence in nature and evolution. It cannot be really explained by a materialist view of evolution for it has little, if any survival value. It is grace, primal spirit, embodied in matter.

El Chikhai Bardo - "el momento de la muerte" que tiene la experiencia de la "luz clara de la realidad".

El Chonyid Bardo - "la experiencia de la realidad" que presenta la experiencia de las ilusiones cósmicas.

El Sidpa Bardo o "bardo del renacimiento", que es el resultado del karma y tiene imágenes típicamente de hombres y mujeres copulando que conducen al renacimiento.

En el proceso de la muerte hay una posibilidad de liberación, pero muy pronto comienzan las ilusiones que conducen a la reencarnación. Las luminarias se vuelven más débiles y la visión más aterradora.

Jung dice:

“Las instrucciones son tan detalladas y están tan completamente adaptadas a los cambios aparentes en la condición del hombre muerto que todo lector serio debe preguntarse si estos sabios y viejos lamas no podrían, después de todo, haber vislumbrado la cuarta dimensión y rasgado el velo del mayor de los secretos de la vida.”

“Si podemos reconocer las apariencias del bardo dharmata como la energía de sabiduría de nuestra propia mente, no hay diferencia entre el perceptor y lo percibido, y esta es una experiencia de no dualidad. Entrar completamente en esa experiencia es alcanzar la liberación que surge en ese momento en el estado posterior a la muerte cuando la conciencia puede darse cuenta de que sus experiencias no son más que la mente misma.”

The pig represents ignorance, avidya, which is a basic misrepresentation of reality. The snake represents aggression which in the human species reaches a malignancy unprecedented in the rest of nature. The third is the rooster symbol – lust, desire and insatiable greed. These three are surely responsible for much of the darkness in the human species.

The Tibetan Book of the Dead can be used to guide the dying person through the experiences of consciousness after death, but it is also used during life by those who want to prepare for what will come after death. Liberation from the wheel of rebirth is actually possible in the after-death states or bardos.

Al igual que otros de sus comentarios, como los del I Ching y El Secreto de la Flor de Oro, aquí Jung pretende construir un puente desde el budismo tibetano a su escuela de Psicología Analítica. Por ejemplo escribe:

“… el inconsciente es la mente matriz con la cualidad de la creatividad adjunta, el lugar de nacimiento de todas las formas de pensamiento y similar a la Mente Universal de Oriente. Estas formas de pensamiento o arquetipos son omnipresentes y atemporales ... Por medio de la función trascendente no solo ganamos acceso a la Mente Universal sino que también llegamos a comprender porqué Oriente cree en la posibilidad de la autoliberación.”

Like other of his commentaries, such as those of the I Ching and the Secret of the Golden Flower, Jung is here aiming at a building a bridge from an unfamiliar Eastern religion, in this case Tibetan Buddhism, to a Western psychology, namely his school of Analytical Psychology.

For example he writes:

“… the unconscious, for Analytical Psychology, is the matrix mind with the quality of creativity attached to it, the birthplace of all thought forms and akin to the Universal Mind of the Orient. These thought forms or archetypes are omnipresent and timeless ... By means of the transcendent function we not only gain access to the “One Mind” but also come to understand why the East believes in the possibility of self liberation. If, through introspection and the conscious realisation of unconscious compensations, it is possible to transform one’s mental conditions and thus arrive at a solution of people’s complex, one would seem entitled to speak of self liberation”.

The episode ends with a beautiful song The Turning of the Year by Mark Dunn of The Bringers of Change whose music albums can be found on Spotify etc. and as CDs at www.fallingarecords.com

The free meditation programme following the Secret of the Golden Flower starts Jan 23rd.

The Quest Lecture series (as distinct from these podcasts) starts Jan.28th.

There will be no podcast episode in January. The next one will be Feb.15th 2023.

My feelings about the difficulties of the work are as follows:

Firstly, relevance. How much can it offer the modern world?

Secondly, isolationism -  its removal from the other analytic disciplines.

Thirdly, certain inconsistencies which may confuse the reader.

Fourthly, contradiction - whether the archetype of the Self is the totality or a specific archetype.

Fifthly, the inherent difficulty of the text.

Some of its strengths are as follows:

1: Its passion and tremendous personal conviction.

2:  Its roots in childhood experiences (visions, dreams).

3: Jung speaks with many voices, as it were out of the depth of many esoteric traditions.

4: The audacity of the text

5: Jung uses a new voice – that of archetypal psychology combined with mythology  and gnosticism.

6:  Answer to Job reinforces Jung’s impact on the practice of psychotherapy.

7: Answer to Job has a deep theological critique of Christian and Judaic civilizations.

8: Jung insisted on the dangers of an apocalypse in our times.

9: Jung insists on the overarching metaphysical dimension to human existence.

Q. Why is there no "real" history, sociology, or political science in the Answer to Job and indeed in Jung’s work in general?

Q. Are there other interpretations of the Answer to Job.

Q. How unusual is Jung’s interpretation?

Q. Does Jung speak of God in different ways?

Q. Does the theory of evolution change all bible studies including the Answer to Job?

Q. How can God be the totality and at the same time be a specific component of the unconscious?

Q. What impact has Answer to Job had on the practice of Jungian psychotherapy?

Las dificultades incluyen:

Su relevancia; su alejamiento de las demás disciplinas analíticas; ciertas inconsistencias que pueden confundir al lector; una contradicción - si el arquetipo del Self es la totalidad o un arquetipo específico; la dificultad inherente del texto.

Algunas de sus fortalezas incluyen:

Su pasión y tremenda convicción personal; una profundidad adicional debido a la cantidad de tradiciones esotéricas a las que está vinculada; Jung habla con muchas voces, como si saliera de muchas tradiciones; la audacia del texto; Jung usa una nueva voz - la de la psicología arquetípica; impacto en la práctica de la psicoterapia; una profunda crítica teológica de las civilizaciones cristiana y judaica; advertencia de los peligros de un apocalipsis en nuestros tiempos; inclusión de la dimensión metafísica global de la existencia humana.

Q. Is God separate from us?

Q. How can God be a personality as he mostly appears to be in the bible?

Q. If the dualism of good and evil is contained in God then what is the point of the individuation process in human beings?

Q. How can God be the archetype of the Self?

Q. Jung speaks of the God in different ways in Answer to Job. Is he inconsistent?

Q. How is it possible that God can be equated with the unconscious?

Q. What does Jung mean by God wants to create man but not quite?

¿Por qué no hay historia 'real', sociología o ciencia política en el libro?

¿Qué explicación histórica podría ofrecerse para la literatura apocalíptica?

¿Por qué la interpretación de Jung es atípica?

Como la teoría de la evolución cambia todos los estudios bíblicos, incluido la Respuesta a Job.

¿Cómo puede Dios ser la totalidad y al mismo tiempo ser un componente específico del inconsciente?

Además, en el episodio de hoy contamos un sueño notable que Jung tuvo en 1920 en su visita al norte de África. Su interpretación del sueño es fascinante e ilustra material importante en la Respuesta a Job.

1. The actual dangers of an apocalypse in our own time.

2. The importance of a uniting symbol such as that of a child-hero or the Virgin Mary that is an attempt to heal the opposites and their terrible danger to humanity.

3. Reflections on the nature of God.

“Respuestas” a los siguientes puntos siguen.

¿Está Dios separado de nosotros?

¿Cómo puede Dios ser una personalidad como parece serlo en la Biblia?

Si el dualismo del bien y el mal está contenido en Dios, entonces ¿cuál es el sentido del proceso de individuación en los seres humanos?

¿Cómo puede Dios ser el arquetipo del Self?

Jung habla de Dios de diferentes maneras en el Libro de Job. ¿Es inconsistente?

¿Cómo es posible que se pueda equiparar a Dios con el inconsciente?

Qué quiere decir Jung cuando dice “Dios quiere crear al hombre pero no del todo”?

Jung is indignant at the injustice done to Job. The unconscious creator needs conscious humanity so as to develop but, at the same time it opposes this. The incarnation of God into man through Christ is a world-shaking transformation or objectification of God. God needs to become a man. The incarnation is not to make reparation for mankind’s sins but to make up for Yahweh’s damage to Job (i.e. humanity). Yahweh lacks a feminine side – the lost Sophia. Christ embodies the hero myth. The incarnation of Christ is insufficient to deal with the problem of evil. The belief that God is all good is simply not credible. The God image is a mixture of opposites.

The inspiration for writing the book was as if  he was composing the work of a Bach or Handel.

There are a number of different voices that Jung adopts. He switches between them in a spontaneous intuitive manner in the flow of the text. These include:

# The emotional Jung. # The therapist’s voice. # The theological perspective. # The mystical voice. # The esoteric voice. # The Jungian psychology perspective.  # The voice of archetypal philosophy. # The historical voice.

Jung moves between such different voices with little warning. He is using multiple views and perspectives with great speed and the reader can be left confused Perhaps when one knows the different voices then matters are a little more comprehensible.

This episode:

# explores Jung’s own psychology, especially in his childhood, as a background to this work.

# presents Jung’s account of his religious and theological struggles in his adolescence.

# gives a brief account of the story of Job as presented in the bible.

# presents the question that Jung felt he had to answer.

This series concerns a metaphysical exploration of nature of evil, the contradictions in the godhead, and the dangers to humanity in our own times.

Jung da más evidencia de un dios iracundo y destructivo de las visiones apocalípticas de Ezequiel, Daniel y Enoc del Antiguo Testamento, y el Libro de Revelaciones, el ultimo del Nuevo Testamento.

Las contradicciones de Yahweh son responsables no solo de la creación del mundo sino del destino de la humanidad que debe vivir estas contradicciones de la deidad.

En este episodio cubrimos los primeros 10 capítulos de Respuesta a Job que incluye:

Primero: La naturaleza contradictoria de la personalidad de Yahvé.

Segundo: El tema de que Dios necesita el hombre.

Tercero: Lo que le falta a Yahweh es un lado femenino.

Cuarto: Jung busca la encarnación de Dios a través de Cristo, el dios-hombre. Esto resultó del daño hecho a Job por Yahweh. Cristo seriá perfecto. Satanás tendriá que dejar el cielo y ser arrojado a la tierra. Dios tendriá que entrar en la humanidad.

Quinto: El mal todavía prevalece en la tierra.

Sexto: La creencia de que Dios es todo bueno simplemente no es creíble.

Septimo: La imagen de Dios es una mezcla de opuestos.

Three to six thousand years ago patriarchal religions replaced Great Mother worship. The masculine became opposed to nature, the realm of the feminine, mythologically portrayed in the dragon fight. This is a fundamental shift in human consciousness and prerequisite to the advancement of patriarchal civilization.

Jung se mueve entre las diversas voces con gran velocidad. Quizás si uno conociera las diferentes perspectivas, entonces este texto sería más comprensible.

# Explorar la propia psicología de Jung, especialmente en su infancia, como trasfondo del texto Respuesta a Job.

# Presentar el relato de Jung sobre sus luchas religiosas e incluso teológicas en su juventud.

# Dar un breve relato de la historia de Job como se presenta en la biblia.

# Presentar la pregunta planteada por esta historia bíblica que Jung sintió que tenía que responder.

Primero. El rescate del espíritu perdido escondido en la naturaleza y en nosotros mismos.

Segundo. El proceso de transformación que implica este rescate.

Tercero. La muerte de la vieja conciencia simbolizada por el Viejo Rey y la Reina.

Cuarto. La formación de la nueva conciencia simbolizada por el Joven Rey y la Reina.

Quinto. La formación del Hermafrodita – la unión de los dos elementos transformados

Sexto. La integración de cuerpo, alma y espíritu.

Animal inheritance which is not just our aggressive and sexual impulses (the id) but the inherited reservoir of evolved genetic intelligence.

Emotional structure: as life evolved instincts evolved into emotion. As the primate brain expanded a far greater and more differentiated emotional structure developed.

Ego consciousness  combines rational intelligence plus a distinct personality. It is a master coordinator to allow the brain to focus and plan and is the integration of multiple brain functions so that a version of ‘reality’, both subjective and objective, can exist. As Self-awareness develops in early humans, they became acutely aware of death. The ego is also the tool for repression of parts of the psyche. Homo sapiens became the world’s first repressed creature. The ego, however, is also a vehicle of meaning in a world which possessed no conscious expression up to this time. Homo sapiens is the problematic embodiment of meaning and awareness in an animal.

The unconscious. With the emergence of Homo sapiens the ego provided an automatic filter for consciousness which increasingly repressed impulses, instincts, and emotions. Three dimensions of the unconscious are relevant: the psycho-somatic unconscious, the emotional or personal unconscious, and the collective unconscious.

In the next episode I will continue with the essentials of human nature and focus on higher consciousness and the archetypeof the Self. Finally I will ask what, if any, is the purpose of human nature?

From a materialist view human consciousness is ultimately inexplicable. From the metaphysical perspective of immanence it is quite different: human consciousness is the living spirit of the universe.

The intelligence of mankind gazes at the universe only to realise that we are an expression of this infinite intelligence itself. That which we have called God or Brahman we then name cosmos; that which we named cosmos we now call Self. Consciousness and the universe are inextricably linked. One searches for the creator, forever finding oneself

Science has no explanation of how these came into being. This appears to be an enormous problem which no amount of evasion can explain away.

The crisis of the Self is at the centre of the crisis of modern times.

Para los taoístas la "acción por non-acción" es para el psicólogo profundo occidental la liberación interna del dominio cognitivo; la importancia de lo femenino en ambas tradiciones; la “circulación de la luz” le recordó a Jung el camino circular hacia el centro, el camino hacia el ser superior; el movimiento circular tiene también el significado de la auto-incubación; las referencias al lado más oscuro en terminología junguiana está cerca de la concepción de la sombra; la creencia taoísta de que se podía lograr un estado iluminador encontraría su equivalente en el concepto de Jung de la experiencia del Ser. Numerosas referencias al símbolo del mandala en el texto resuenan con la creciente fascinación de Jung por el símbolo del Self.

En el seguno parte del episodio examinamos el estado de taoísmo y otra religiones en la China moderna.

We continue by considering modern China with a focus on Taoism which is one of its indigenous religions. What happens in this country is of immense importance not only for its size (over 1/6th of the world population) but also because of its growing importance. 

El texto refiere al proceso de circulatio y distillatio, como alquimia, uniendo los opuestos, creando la coniunctio, la unión de los opuestos, el niño divino, la psique transformada. El corazón celestial se eleva a la cumbre de lo creativo, donde se expande en completa libertad.

Jung quiere hacer que los oscuros conceptos orientales de El Secreto de la Flor de Oro sean más accesibles e intenta mostrar su similitud con unos conceptos en Occidente, especialmente de su propia escuela de psicología que ofrece una puente de comprensión entre Occidente y Oriente

“El centro de gravedad de la personalidad cambia su posición. Deja de ser el ego, que es simplemente el centro de la conciencia, y, en su lugar, se ubica lo que podría llamarse un punto virtual entre lo consciente y lo inconsciente. Este nuevo centro podría llamarse el “Self”. El Flor de Oro en sí es un símbolo de la mandala.

Jung comenta: “La integración y el nacimiento de esta personalidad superior es el logro que se pretende en El Secreto de la Flor de Oro cuando habla del “fruto sagrado”, el “cuerpo de diamante”, o de cualquier otro tipo de cuerpo indestructible, es decir, invulnerable a los enredos emocionales y los trastornos violentos; en una palabra, simbolizan una conciencia liberada del mundo”.

1. The difficulties with the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages;

2. The Renaissance and its spiritual and imaginative possibilities;

3. Protestantism, religious wars, vast colonial conquest;

4. The rise of the Scientific Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution.

Capitalism has demanded considerable freedoms in order to function including freedom from Church and excessive State intervention. A brief overview of the history of Astronomy is given, followed by the emergence of the life sciences - all based on a materialist-reductionist world view.

God is, at first, the clock-maker, who winds up the cosmic clock and then retires to let it run by its own mechanical laws. Later he is made redundant and then rumoured to be dead. But will he rise from the dead – as the scripture have foretold?

But as the scientific and industrial revolutions gained force the very idea of the soul began to disappear in the West except for a few outposts such as Romanticism and mysticism. But is science in the late 20th and early 21st centuries lending itself to a renewed spiritual vision of the cosmos?

El método al que se aspira es el mantenimiento del “centro entre las condiciones y la circulación de la luz que reside en la frente, entre los ojos”. Es un movimiento de retroceso, es decir, un retorno al Ser alejado de las externalizaciones que son las ataduras del mundo.

Sólo en la quietud absoluta, la conciencia celestial se abrirá espontáneamente y la inteligencia espiritual alcanzará el Origen. Este método es simple pero "no se puede lograr fácilmente". “Quien busque la vida eterna debe buscar en el lugar donde la naturaleza humana y la vida surgieron".

"La Flor de Oro, es la Luz, y la Luz del Cielo es el Tao. Allí se encuentra la vesícula germinal donde esencia y vida son todavía una unidad. El nacimiento del proceso alquímico tiene lugar, cuando lo oscuro da nacimiento a la Luz”.   Carl Jung 

“Si las puertas de la percepción fueran depuradas, todo aparecería a los hombres como realmente es: infinito. Pues el hombre se ha encerrado en sí mismo hasta ver todas las cosas a través de las estrechas rendijas de su caverna.”

Ruchir Sharma, “The two big reasons to doubt the global boom”. FT. 19th July 2021

Tuomas Malinen: “Inflation is here to stay, and it should worry everyone”. GNS blog: 15 July 2021

Martin Wolf “Why further financial crises are inevitable”. FT. March 19. 2019

Martin Wolf “The G20 has failed to meet its challenges”. FT. 13 July 2021

The Office of Budget Responsibility for the UK. Fiscal Risks Report to Parliament, July 2021

La confrontación creativa de Jung con el inconsciente entre 1913-1917 combinó el ritual de descenso y renacimiento de las religiones de misterio con la búsqueda de un conocimiento superior de los gnósticos. Si bien esto puede no ser parte de la psicoterapia normal, es parte del núcleo místico de la Psicología Analítica que a su vez ha entrado en nuestros propios tiempos. Esta combinación de los misterios, gnosis y la Psicología Analítica ofrece un camino del alma en el siglo XXI.

Graphs and images mentioned in this episode are to be viewed in the philosophy section of www.alanmulhern.com

Martin Wolf's article Humanity is a cuckoo in the planetary nest  can be found in the Financial Times 21st March 2021. 

The Economics of Bio-diversity: the Dasgupta Review can be viewed in its entirety at  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/final-report-the-economics-of-biodiversity-the-dasgupta-review

The dangers of technology and its impact on a profoundly altered human nature are given in numerous novels, sci-fi films, books, and articles.

The dangers of humans being replaced altogether (the singularity) are mentioned.

The Transhumanist agenda is explained.

"What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?"  Hamlet Act 2 Scene 2

Secondly it examines various viewpoints of Carl Jung expressed in Memories, Dreams, Reflections:

A. His anti-technology views.

B. His belief that one should live close to one's ancestors and past generations - that their unresolved questions needed answering in the present.

C. His conviction that other cultures lived closer to archetypal reality than the modern European.

D. That the modern white man and woman were archetypally and mythically impoverished.

E. That contemporary issues in his day related to sexuality and gender roles were leading to a future goal - the prevention of reproduction.

References in the podcast include:

Cushman, P. (1990) Why the self is empty: American Psychologist vol. 45, no.5.

Frosch, S. (1991) Identity Crisis: Psychoanalysis and the Self.

Gergen, K.J. (1991) The Saturated Self: Dilemmas of Identity in Contemporary Life.

Giddens, A. (1991) Modernity and Self Identity.

Jung C.G. (1962) Memories, Dreams, Reflections.

Lo haremos a través de su escrito llamado: los Siete Sermones a los Muertos. Es este un texto sumamente personal y esotérico. Nuestro argumento es el siguiente: Jung experimentó una iniciación en su confrontación con el inconsciente; fue el espíritu gnóstico y la voz gnóstica lo que lo poseyó en su descenso durante los años 1913-1917.

Los gnósticos vivían una tradición mística muy poderosa y tenían diversas ideas metafísicas y mitológicas que formaban un puente hacia los aspectos transpersonales de la psicología analítica. También su influencia personal sobre Jung fue inmensa, ya que él experimentó la gnosis a través de su espíritu.

Firstly, Marshall McLuhan, a prophet of technology of the 1960s. who argues that technologies profoundly change our consciousness.

Secondly, Iain Mcgilchrist, the author of The Master and his Emissary. An account of the different hemispheres of the brain is given and their impact on the changing nature of consciousness during the development of civilizations. Especial emphasis is placed in this episode on the connection between technology and the left hemisphere and the impact of this one-sided development.

Technologies also alter human identity by deeply influencing the psychology of distinct periods of the history of civilizations.

This episode  will have a nDeep history and our entwinement with technologyumber of items for exploration:

Technology is and has always been deeply entwined with our consciousness and our human nature. They are systemically intertwined, mutually influencing, catalytically interconnected.

Hominids that existed long before our species (Homo sapiens) and their technologies.

Early humanity and its technology.

The Agricultural Revolution.

Capitalism, the most technological of all economic systems - the Kondratiev technological waves that are its motor. We are in the fifth characterised by a fusion of technologies of unprecedented power and danger.

The present situation is that the major economies are not only hiding their chronic economic difficulties behind a financial façade of money creation and debt, they are also hiding their financial chaos and instability behind the same façade. You may ask then where is this infamous financial crisis that is so feared. The answer should be no surprise by now. We are already in it and have been so for a long time but its full force is yet to be revealed.

Secondly, a coherent narrative is given that is comprehensible to non-specialists concerning the recent history and likely future development of this financial crisis. It will also be of interest to those who have had a training in economics and finance since much of this does not prepare for this financial crisis at all.

Finally, this episode explores the emerging role of Central Bank Digital Currencies which will be key to reshaping the world financial order in the immediate future.

# The post 2007/8 Global Financial Crash led to a new stage of capitalism in which massive government intervention in the financial system became the new paradigm

# This was accomplished through cheap and abundant money, propping up of the financial system at all costs

# Moral hazard has increased enormously

# Zombified companies have saturated the economy

# Stock markets have become disconnected fro the real economy

# Inflation in asset and housing prices have been typical of many counties.

# Increasing inequality

# Paralysed or declining productivity growth rates

# Astronomical and un-payable national debts which are ruinous for the future

# Price discovery, the essence of the free market system has been substantially eroded

Useful links for this episode:

https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD.ZG?end=2019&start=1973

https://www.worldbank.org/en/research/publication/global-productivity

The literary sources for Taoist philosophy are taken from The Secret of the Golden Flower, a book of great importance to Jung. There are also references in the poem to the I Ching, the Book of Changes.

The removal from nature. A material view of the world.  The increasingly rational and economic viewpoint. The abandonment of the religious outlook.  More individualism, less individuation.  An economic view of societal relationships.  A legalistic view of relationships.  Rational and bureaucratic systems of control.  Specialisation but fragmentation of knowledge.  Dominance of money relationships.  Greater education.  Wealth creation and enjoyment.  A vast increase in consumerism.  The impact of property ownership.  Technological reliance.  Greater freedom.  A change in the nature of the repressive apparatus within the collective psyche. Increasing dominance of the conscious over the unconscious.  Disenchantment and loss of soul. Nature is viewed as a completely exploitable resource.  The movement to a de-gendered human being. Informational capitalism – in which the consciousness of humanity is becoming fused with digital and virtual realities. The rise of artificial intelligence and the alteration of human nature.

There is an emerging vision in the modern age which amazingly has been nurtured out of science itself, that sees the universe as alive and pregnant with meaning and consciousness, that sees nature as holy, that sees the human being as part of a spiritual development out of matter towards higher consciousness, that opposes the forces that are destroying us. Only by such visionary consciousness will we emerge from the precarious ledge we are balanced upon and move upwards to the next stage of our evolution.

From Eden cast in fallen state,

To world of death condemned,

Both Eve and Adam tears did shed,

This paradise must end.

Banished into endless toil,

Out of primal grace,

The shadow within consciousness,

Then gripped the human race.

Economic systems rise,

But never calm our fear.

Towards the gates of death we go,

If you have ears, then hear

La psicología junguiana continúa creciendo durante el siglo XXI, ya que no solo ofrece un rico conjunto de herramientas para examinar la psique, sino también la conciencia y los métodos para promover su desarrollo e individuación. El pensamiento junguiano instrumenta el acceso a la psique profunda, entra en el tejido vivo de nuestro tiempo, aborda su sentido de alienación y desesperación, y proporciona significado y el camino de transformación no solo a los individuos sino al colectivo.

The general problems of the EU, both external and internal are covered.   The monetary policies of the ECB since the 2008 crash are presented as a series of errors; These policies are desperate attempts to cover up the depths of the crisis and have led the Eurozone on the path of ruin. Only by understanding these polices as defensive and desperate manoeuvres of dubious legality, will one see the seriousness of the situation the EU is facing. And finally the latest stages of capitalism with respect to the balance between free markets and the State are examined.

As well as the deep differences between EU member states there is a lack of economic flexibility that arises from adopting a common currency. The rigid maintenance of the Euro with the absence of flexible exchange rates plus the escalating debts of the union will undermine its coherence, lead to the downfall of the Euro, and provoke a severe banking crisis which will go global and endanger the Union.

Division in the EU has sharpened. Thus, the EU leaders are caught between a rock and hard place. On the one hand, as countries enter into economic crises, there is threat of the breakup of the union and the destruction of the European dream, the great project. A banking crisis would be sure to follow as debts are reneged upon and the lending banks collapse triggering a global financial crisis. On the other hand, the opposite: the road of federalisation, the defence of the Euro, and the placating of weaker member states. The issuing of a common European debt is a milestone on this path.

Nos precipitamos impetuosamente hacia la novedad, impulsados por una creciente sensación de insuficiencia, insatisfacción e inquietud. Ya no vivimos de lo que tenemos, sino de promesas, ya no a la luz del día presente, sino en la oscuridad del futuro, que, esperamos, finalmente traerá el adecuado amanecer. Nos negamos a reconocer que todo lo mejor se compra al precio de algo peor; que, por ejemplo, la esperanza de una mayor libertad se ve cancelada por una mayor esclavitud al Estado, por no hablar de los terribles peligros a los que nos exponen los descubrimientos más brillantes de la ciencia."

Y luego,  la historia de sus viajes donde él, por un lado, va buscando un significado fuera de sus propias raíces europeas y, por otro, se encuentra fascinado, pero también atemorizado de ser totalmente absorbido por la cultura indígena. Jung buscó en sí mismo el otro lado de la mente europea y osciló entre una severa crítica del punto de vista europeo y la necesidad de mantenerse en estas raíces porque estaba en peligro de ser engullido, tragado por otras culturas. Su inmersión en ellas tuvo sobre él una tremenda atracción magnética y en consecuencia tuvo que resistirla para mantener su sentido de identidad. Fue capaz de experimentar las dimensiones espirituales de culturas completamente distintas e incorporarlas a la Psicología Analítica, además de ofrecerlas a Occidente para su contemplación.

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 blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere

The ceremony of innocence is drowned;

The best lack all conviction, while the worst

Are full of passionate intensity.

Part B will follow in the next episode which examines the centripetal and centrifugal  forces acting on the  EU government and the member states. It will examine the idea that contrary to the centralising tendency of the EU government it might be that the abandoning of the Euro (and therefore the currency union) is the only way of saving the European Union.

References:

1.The Bitcoin Standard (2018) by Saifdean Ammous. especially chapters 4-7;

2. The blog of Tuomas Malinen on the www.gnseconomics.com website; also youtube videos;

3. Fredrick Hayek’s classic 1944 book: The Road to Serfdom.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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/

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 21st 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.

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.

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.

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.

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]

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."

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

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

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

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

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

“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?

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. 

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

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."

" 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

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

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

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

Musical extracts in these podcasts taken from:

1. BBC radio 3 recording of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony 2005 and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label. https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1

2. The Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label a 1943 Bayreuth recording extract from the end of Wagner’s Gotterdammerung: https://archive.org/details/Goett42bayreuth3/29+-+3.Szene+4+-+Fliegt+heim%2C+ihr+Raben.mp3

The image accompanying these podcasts is The Sower and the Seed which was drawn by Lindsey C. Harris and was incorporated on the front page of the book of that name.

If thou wouldst complete the diamond body without emanations,

Diligently heat the roots of consciousness and life.

Kindle Light in the blessed country ever close at hand,

And, there hidden, let thy true self eternally dwell.

                                               The Book of Consciousness and Life

The Tao (the Way) is that which exists through itself; it is the one essence; there is nothing above it; it is the one primal spirit.

Essence and life cannot be seen but are contained in the light of heaven. This light is the Golden Flower, the true energy of the transcendent one which, if attained, brings life, if lost brings death. One may live in the energy and light but not see it as fish live in water but see it not.

        "Silently thou fliest upward in the morning". 

Can religions be integrated with a spiritually orientated psychotherapy? Are there psychological skills favouring healing? What is the role of the psychotherapist in this healing process? Is psychotherapy necessary for healing  to take place? Can psychotherapy block the healing process? Can all wounds be healed? What is the wounded healer? Can psychotherapy benefit those on a spiritual path? How is healing connected with individuation and wholeness? What has love and death got to do with it? 

The book upon which these podcasts are based is:  

Healing Intelligence:The Spirit in Psychotherapy

Working with Darkness and Light.

 (Karnac Books 2012).    It can be otained at    https://rb.gy/v4vntt

You can’t grasp in your hands.

She’s like the waters of the Nile,

She comes from other lands.

                The Sower and the Seed - Isis poem

It is often said that therapists should have empathy. But what is this capacity to enter into the emotions of another and feel things from their point of view? And are there different grades or qualities of empathy? This podcast will provide a perspective and suggest some answers to this important question.

Six ways in which healing works in the psyche are described. There are also numerous impediments in our psyche to this wonderful intelligence functioning properly: twelve are outlined. 

The practitioner needs to be aware of the crucial yet variable importance of the ego and of consciousness at each stage of the transformation process and healing journey and be able to judge whether the ego and its defences need challenge or support. However, it is their challenging and dismantling which leads to healing intelligence being released.

The book upon which these podcasts are based is:  

Healing Intelligence:The Spirit in Psychotherapy - Working with Darkness and Light.

 (Karnac Books 2012).    It can be otained at    https://rb.gy/v4vntt

Expressiveness - the capacity of the psyche, suffering a wound, complex or trauma to express its pain in a healthy and effective manner.

Receptivity - the capacity of the wounded psyche to listen and be open.

While healing intelligence is an expression of the wholeness of the psyche, it is intimately bound up with numerous healthy character components, some of which are constitutional, some the result of early conditioning, some the result of training, and others Self-forged.

 The book upon which these podcasts are based is:  

Healing Intelligence:The Spirit in Psychotherapy - Working with Darkness and Light.

 (Karnac Books 2012).    It can be otained at    https://rb.gy/v4vntt

1. To attune to the deep psyche of the client.

2. To help locate and express wounds as fully as possible.

3. To help clarify, challenge, and where possible, clear out the negativity within the psyche of the client.​

4. To stimulate natural healing energy and, where required, contribute their own to aid this process within the client.

The book upon which these podcasts are based is:  

Healing Intelligence:The Spirit in Psychotherapy - Working with Darkness and Light.

 (Karnac Books 2012).    It can be otained at    https://rb.gy/v4vntt

There are a wide range of emotional wounds which are a damage to the sense of self. Just as there are numerous healing mechanisms in the body likewise there is a wide range of healing energies in the psyche. It is of considerable benefit to the practitioner to be familiar with these. An overview is given of the podcasts to follow which include a deep investigation of the healing intelligence in the psyche and the role of the therapist in this process. Prepare to be stretched beyond your traditional trainings and conceptions of how emotional healing takes place.  The book upon which these podcasts are based is:  

Healing Intelligence: The Spirit in Psychotherapy 

Working with Darkness and Light.

 (Karnac Books 2012).    It can be otained at    https://rb.gy/v4vntt

Musical extracts in these podcasts taken from:

1. BBC radio 3 recording of Beethoven’s 3rd symphony 2005 and made available on the Internet Archive on a Creative Commons label.   https://archive.org/details/BBCSymphony3Beethoven_1

The image accompanying these podcasts is The Sower and the Seed which was drawn by Lindsey C. Harris and was incorporated on the front page of the book of that name.