The concept of holding the tension of opposites is central to the Jungian journey of individuation. Our psyches are pulled between opposing forces, such as the conscious and the unconscious, light and shadow, masculine and feminine, or rationality and intuition. These opposites are archetypal in nature and cannot be fully integrated or reduced into one; they represent fundamental dualities.
From a Jungian perspective, engaging with myths, poetry, stories, music, and movement provides a profound means of accessing the deeper archetypal truths embedded in the collective unconscious.
This message came to me during a medicine hike, after spotting a snake—a Puff Adder!—crossing the road. Snake medicine teaches us how to attune to the earth’s vibrations. Unlike humans, who hear through the air, snakes hear primarily through the ground.
Traditional shamanism operates from an animistic worldview, where everything in creation is considered alive and possesses a spirit. People, animals, plants, rocks, rivers, mountains, stars, and even concepts and illnesses are believed to have souls.
Recently, at the Louvain Burn Festival, a frog found its way into our tent—a ‘Platanna’, also known as the African clawed frog or claw-toed frog. The son of the guest farm’s owner showed us how this frog moved inside its own skin, and I recognized this unique feature as its medicine.
Instinctual drives and violent affective responses are deeply embedded in the body, representing the personal shadow that threatens psychological stability and requires defense mechanisms.
When we’re anxious or feel threatened, we tend to hold our breath. This can become a habit, creating a breath-holding pattern that signals to our body that it’s not safe, which reinforces anxiety.
In some traditions, black-colored birds are revered for their spiritual significance and are seen as powerful symbols of mystery, the unknown, transformation, and connection to the divine.
Dreams show us the landscapes of our souls. Where do your dreams regularly take place? What is the felt sense of that space? How does it speak to you? According to the African indigenous perspective on dreaming, the landscapes in our dreams denote our DNA and the people we originate from.
But what happens when the stories we choose to live by lead us down dark and treacherous paths? The Netflix series “The Last Airbender" offers a compelling example of this question through the character of Admiral Zhao and his unrelenting pursuit of becoming a legend by slaying the Moon Spirit.
Carl Jung astutely observed the tendency of human beings to unwittingly perpetuate their own suffering while remaining oblivious to the root causes within themselves. Despite externalizing blame onto the world, the true origins of these narratives lie within the unconscious.
Jung believed that the psyche operates as a self-regulating system, akin to the body, aiming to maintain internal stability amidst external influences. This equilibrium involves a balance between polarities wherein the psyche integrates unconscious elements like archetypes and complexes into conscious awareness. Through self-discovery and transformation, a process Jung termed ‘individuation’, individuals seek to manifest their unique potential and achieve inner harmony, fostering a sense of wholeness.
Animal visitations in our dreams represent archetypal patterns and qualities unique to their species; thus, each animal carries an essence that we need to inquire about to understand the dream's message beyond our personal associations...
In the modern world, where urban and technological landscapes often overshadow the natural world, there is an ever-increasing disconnect between humanity and the environment that sustains us. The consequences of this detachment are far-reaching, impacting on the very essence of our well-being. Jung saw our relationship with nature as essential to the development of consciousness and wholeness (Sabini 2001). Jung stated that in the “civilization process, we have increasingly divided our consciousness from the deeper instinctive strata of the human psyche” (Jung, 1964, 36).
Carl Jung's concept of the archetype of the Self is a complex idea of embodied consciousness, symbolizing unity between body, mind, and soul. It directs us to explore and integrate the various parts of our psyche while maintaining a homeostatic balance, and serves as a guiding force on the journey of individuation.
Kriya is a form of pranayama (the yogic practice of focusing on breath), the practice of controlling life energy (prana). By harnessing and directing our life force, we gain greater control over the mind's ceaseless fluctuations, allowing us to become masters of our thoughts. Through Kriya, one can revitalize the subtle currents of prana in the spine and brain, leading to heightened consciousness and personal evolution.
According to Jung the collective unconscious is a reservoir of shared, universal experiences and symbolic imagery that all humans inherit, regardless of upbringing. In a metaphorical sense, one can see archetypes as source codes, signifying the deep and fundamental patterns that underlie human consciousness and our interconnectedness with the natural world.
‘Conscious relating’ emphasizes self-awareness, authenticity, genuine understanding, mutual respect, and growth within relationships. Viewed through a Jungian framework, this requires a willingness and commitment to engage in introspection and self-exploration. This doesn't mean relinquishing personal boundaries or merging identities, but rather recognizing that by understanding our own motivations, fears, and desires, we can communicate more honestly and openly with our partners. This level of vulnerability fosters a safe environment where authentic connecting can flourish. Relationships then become a container for the journey of individuation while meeting our need for emotional attachment.
The Feminine encompasses a diverse tapestry of archetypal representations. In myths, literature, and art, the feminine is embodied as the muse inspiring creativity, the crone imparting wisdom, and the seductress representing the allure of mystery and sensuality. From nurturing mother figures to dark goddesses symbolizing destruction, these varied and dynamic depictions of the feminine allows for a deeper understanding of human consciousness.
The circle is a powerful and widely recognized symbol that represents wholeness, unity, and the eternal cyclical nature of life. It signifies the interconnection and interdependence of all things, associated with infinity, harmony, and balance. Circles also hold symbolism of protection, completeness, and the rhythmic patterns of nature. Furthermore, circles represent community, equality, and spirituality in various traditions.
A complex can’t be reasoned with. When it is activated, it will play out the dynamics of its programming in the world. There is no objective reality from the perspective of a complex. It operates from the original wounding...
Not all communications use language. The psyche uses the body to communicate dissociated emotional experiences. The body remembers everything that ever happened to us. The human body is a carrier of trauma, unfinished business, unlived potentials, deep psychological insights, and sacred meanings.
The word narcissism is so easily thrown around these days, but is the wounding and vulnerability that lies underneath this pattern really understood? We should look at it as a continuum. We need healthy narcissism to manifest our creative endeavours in the world - Freud spoke about primary narcissism of young children which is a healthy natural expression of Self, not indicative of a problem, but needs to be mirrored by the caregivers of the child. Narcissistic personality disorder is caused by a severe early injury to healthy self-love or self-esteem, where this healthy narcissism has been damaged.
Dream analysis and intuition (umbillini) is central to divination in the African traditional healers’ perspective as much as it is also the focus during Jungian Analysis. Within the context of African cosmology, the traditional healer's calling includes an understanding of the role of the ancestors, the causes of illnesses and the use of dreams, symbols, and rituals in the healing process. Jung’s theory encompasses the collective unconscious which is populated by archetypes. Jung believes the symbolic mode to be the cornerstone of mythological images, which are complex structures consisting of different aspects.
We have learnt, actually we have been encouraged, not to notice certain things that shaped our mental filtering systems and created our world views. One of the things the western world learnt not to see is the energetic world around us...
Within spaciousness, formlessness spawns form, darkness sparks light, and silence resonates sound… Spaciousness, appearing as form, light and sound, spawns seeds of the imagination...The primal wound opens...
Individuation is what Carl Jung called the process of lifelong psychological development with a person moving closer to a sense of wholeness, uniqueness, authenticity, self-knowledge, and fuller realization of inner potentials. The purpose of individuation is to achieve a state of unified consciousness as an individual, integrating all parts of the self, conscious and unconscious.
An ancient symbol for humanity, doves represent peace, love, gentleness, and serenity. Dove encounters such as these may represent joy, happiness, calmness, hope and healing...
The stories we tell ourselves shape our lives in powerful ways. Our narratives about who we are and our place in the world dictate our life experiences; not necessarily what happens to us, but how we interpret events, our roles in what unfolded and what future may lie ahead for us. These stories are not merely thought up by our minds, but originate deep in our psyche...
Soul is the organizing principle of life, the ‘connective tissue’ of the world and the source of creativity, vitality, joy and profound meaning. Michael Meade states: “Soul is the glue of the world and the connecting principle of life . . . [it] connects us to things that are deep and abiding in the world and in our own lives. The depths of soul contain the vitality of life, the core powers of imagination, and the ancient inheritance of humanity.” If we have a deep connection to our souls, we can live in a kind of spontaneous freedom manifesting as an honest expression of our authentic selves in harmony with Nature and Spirit.
Myths and stories throughout the ages and across the world tell tales of heroes and heroines who survive the ordeals of impossible tasks given to them or perhaps having to fight dragons, but hopefully coming home with the treasure. The hero’s journey is a dynamic process that can serve as a conceptual metaphor for understanding individual development where each major transitionary life event serves as a call to step into an initiatory experience.
The Greek word Gnosis (γνῶσις) implies genuine knowledge of the truth. Underlying this is the premise that in order to understand truth, one must experience it. Gnosis refers to authentic knowledge from direct transcendent experiences which are beyond the five senses and the logical mind, often in the form of visionary experiences. A person’s own efforts to expand their consciousness can lead to such experiences of truth which form the basis of a personal spirituality, rather than being taught a belief system by an external figure. Gnosis can also refer to the wisdom traditions that embody the collective knowledge of humanity. This knowledge was not envisioned as a rational scientific knowledge or philosophy, but rather as a knowing that arises in the heart in an intuitive and mysterious manner.
Jungian Analyst, Robert Bosnak describes dreams as the genius of creative imagination. They are mystery in constant motion and we generally only touch the surface of these vast internal spaces. You can work with a dream for hours, yet always more to understand. Dreams are not a still life image. According to Stephen Aizenstat dreams are living presences originating from the deeper intelligence of the psyche.
“There lives a creative being inside all of us and we must get out of its way for it will give us no peace unless we do.” At the core of this creativity is our personal daimon. Jung states that a creative person has little power over his own life, being captive and driven by his daimon which creates conflicts between the demands of inner and outer life.
There is a creative instinct inherent in all human beings. Cultivating your creative capacity is deeply fulfilling, however as Jung cautions “There are hardly any exceptions to the rule that a person must pay dearly for the divine gift of the creative fire”. Engaging in genuine creativity is to manifest something unique. Rollo May describes the creative process “as representing the highest degree of emotional health, as the expression of the normal people in the act of actualizing themselves”, but warns “if you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.”
Dream work provides an opportunity to get to know the different aspects of yourself. As a complex system, the human psyche, is not only identified by one state, but consists of multiple states simultaneously with an underlying hidden order. According to Robert Bosnak, what we experience as ourselves is, ‘A brewing together of disparate ingredients’, with these multiple inner perspectives often holding opposing values. Bosnak refers to dreams as ecosystems in which we are deeply connected to the presences we encounter.
How do we link dreams most effectively to waking life? The golden rule is to stay with the dream images. Clarify the detail rather than place the dream in some general category...
Jung was profoundly influenced by Indian philosophy. He made a comprehensive study of yoga and delivered numerous lectures focusing on a psychological interpretation of kundalini yoga. Many mystical traditions speak of a transcendent consciousness rooted in non-duality - the premise bring that everything, including humanity, is an aspect of the divine and is not separate from it.
We are living a dream. Are we awake in the dream? Through resonance with Nature (even in the heart of a city) as an extension of our highest Self, or what Jung called the archetype of the Self, we expand our consciousness through a deep awareness of our embeddedness in our surrounding world. We are not separate.
The spider is the master weaver. It weaves an intricate web with such a subtle fabric. As energetic beings, we too weave subtle energies to create our lives. “We are the keepers and writers of our own destiny, weaving it like a web by our thoughts, feelings, and actions”.
Compassion and love are not mere luxuries. As the source both of inner and external peace, they are fundamental to the continued survival of our species." (The Dalai Lama) In Buddhist teachings compassion is defined as the heart that trembles in the face of suffering. Many spiritual traditions and world religions regard compassion as one of the highest values.
Butterflies have long been associated with the process of transformation and metamorphosis - a powerful representation of the soul and its journey through life. This intense transformation process can be equated to the alchemical stage of Solutio. Solutio is the root of alchemy, where one form disappears and a new revitalized form emerges.
Our perception of the world around us is filtered through our belief system which acts as a frame of reference in how we interpret events, phenomena, our own subjective experience and other people’s behaviour...
“There are spiritual processes of transformation in the psyche”. Jung framed the psyche as a purposive self-regulating system aimed toward the unfolding of inherent potentials. According to Jung symbols play a dynamic role in the psyche’s movement toward wholeness.
Light is traditionally equated with Spirit . . . Its whiteness alludes to just such a synthesis of the All . . . the significance of emanation from the “Centre”, for light is also the creative force, cosmic energy . . .
Horses represents freedom, movement and power. If a horse appears in your life, it may be time to free yourself from constricted views and limiting beliefs. A question to ask yourself is “Where am I stuck?”...
After the appearance of a white horse in a soul retrieval dream, I attended an “Art, Horses and Constellations” workshop run by animal communicator, Anthea Myburgh of @UbuntuHealing. Horses are acutely sensitive to the resonance within the ‘field’...
The hero myth is a deeply human mythological narrative, an archetypal pattern woven into soul. Joseph Campbell studied the hero archetype across cultures and understood this pattern to be a fundamental primordial instinctual drive in the human psyche which serve as a vessel of transformation of our consciousness.
Crow is legendary for its intelligence, watchfulness, adaptability and its remarkable voice range. Mythologically, Crow is associated with creation and the archetypal forces that surrounds us, and is symbolic with “magic that is alive within our world every day and available to us”...
The individuation journey pushes a person into greater consciousness of their inner world and the tension-creating polarities threatening to sometimes pull us apart. We realised we lived in a hall of mirrors. In the service of psychic survival, we have had to adjust, adapt, compromise, and even betray our authentic nature.
Sunbirds are Africa’s equivalent of the Hummingbird. The Sunbird reminds us to play, find joy in what we do, while being present to ourselves and in our lives.
Jung believed that the human psyche is a self-regulating system that strives for growth and seeks to maintain a balance between conflicting potentialities (polar opposites) in the process of ‘individuation’. An important aspect in this process is the Ego-Self Axis, the vital connecting link between Self and ego.
African people regard myths as a direct expression of the universe and of their inner and outer experience of themselves in relation to the world around them. Myths are not merely symbolic or a product of human imagination, but conveying certain facts or truths about man’s experiences in his encounter with the created order and its relation to the super-sensible world.”
A psychologically absent mother “cannot recognize or support the child’s psychic aliveness and this denies permission for the child to exist or be separate.” Whether outright or subtle, maternal rejection, emotional neglect or a lack of secure attachment arrests the healthy development of the child.
The mother’s impact on her children can be enlivening or deadening as reflected in the positive and negative mother complexes. Awareness of how mother images live within is us integral to becoming more conscious.
Our own relationship with our father figures repeats in many other relationships, especially in the form of a father complex, whether negative or positive. The complex is based on the specific conditioning or programming we received as children though the real interactions with a father figure. This may compel us to search for father figures all our life, sometimes ruthlessly competing for their attention.
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I recently had a dream in which the teacher leant forward and whispered to me “Review your Life Purpose”. Following a unique life purpose is not a safe, familiar journey. As Campbell says “If the path before you is clear, you’re probably on someone else’s.”
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What about the people who turn up in our dreams? Do you know them, are they familiar friends or family, or are they unfamiliar and complete strangers to you? Dreams use both real people as well as inventing imaginary characters for their stories. The real people may be persons who are known to the dreamer, from the present or the past, close intimate partners and friends or distant acquaintances, celebrities, historical or mythological figures.
Dreams may be seen as a conversation between consciousness and the unconscious, between an ego perspective and multiple other viewpoints alive in us...
Every animal is a gateway to the phenomenal world of the human spirit”. According to James Hillman animal presences may depict the state of our soul. He is adamant that animal images are not merely representations of instincts and our ‘lower nature’, but that they are alive in the human psyche as patterns and therefore, essential intelligences in the Soul’s menagerie.
As human beings we have an inherent need to belong, whether with an intimate partner, to a family, friendship circle or community with shared values and experiences, and in due course to ourselves, our purpose and innate potential, and ultimately to Earth and the Cosmos.
Awareness of how mother and father images live inside us is vital in being conscious of how they influence our current relationships. A parental complex can have enlivening and deadening features...
Yggdrasil in Norse cosmology is an immense central sacred tree that sprang forth from the primordial void. As a symbol of the interconnectedness of all things, the Cosmic Tree...
Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell believed myths carry varied truths of the human experience. Perhaps we can learn from the past? Patterns repeat themselves across many different mythologies.
People with a COMPETENCY CONFLICT STYLE, also known as the methodical style, respond to conflict by taking a problem-solving approach, focusing on objectivity, rationality, logic and reason. They have an unemotional approach, focusing "on the matter".
Shamanism is the path of direct revelation. Its purpose is to serve the highest good of humanity. It is the practice of communicating with Spirit through Resonance. It operates on the understanding of the interconnectedness between all things within Nature/Cosmos and between the seen and unseen worlds (dimensions beyond the ordinary state of consciousness).
People who are eternally cheerful and optimistic approach conflict with a POSITIVE OUTLOOK CONFLICT STYLE. They focus on happiness and positivity. They don’t sweat the small stuff, always looking at the best possible outcome and framing challenges into a broader context.
The INTENSE REACTIVE CONFLICT STYLE’s response to conflict is direct and confrontational. People with this pattern tend to react strongly and passionately when faced with disappointment, obstacles or difficulties. This conflict style is also called the Emotional Realness pattern, emphasizing honest expression of emotions.
The Enneagram Harmonics Groups refers to a person’s dominant response to stressful situations, crisis and conflict. It shows the underlying similarity in how certain clusters of Enneagram patterns emotionally self-regulate and cope with obstacles and difficulties.
The process of ‘othering’ has allowed humans to treat Nature as a mere object instead of a living organism with its own organizing intelligence. Carl Jung recognized that ‘We are Nature’ - that the natural world is important for the development of consciousness and wholeness...
Jung’s archetype of the Self is the central archetype in our psyche, the ‘imago Dei’ and source of life energy. Jung said “It might equally be called ‘the God within us.’ The beginnings of our whole psychic life seem to be inextricably rooted in this point, and all our highest and ultimate purposes seem to be striving toward it.”
The way of the warrior is not one of wanton destruction, but of judicious use of violence in appropriate situations. “Proper aggressiveness in the right circumstances… (which the warrior) knows through clarity of thinking, through discernment”...
“Man ‘possesses’ many things which he has never acquired but has inherited from his ancestors. He is not born as a tabula rasa, he is merely born unconscious. But he brings with him systems that are organized and ready to function in a specifically human way, and these he owes to millions of years of human development.”(
Becoming aware of your unconscious motivations and how you act out certain archetypal patterns in the world will increase your flexibility as to how you respond emotionally, how you think and behave - as opposed to being stuck in outdated paradigms or worldviews… and keep falling in the same hole.
The Enneagram can be used to discern the hidden theme or the archetypal thread that runs through our lives giving our life purpose and meaning, perhaps giving clues to the question of “Why am I here?”
Even though the Enneagram describes traits and behaviours of each type, it emphasizes the underlying, often unconscious motivation since behaviours may belong to more than one type. Ultimate, it is about why we behave in the way we do. Each Enneagram motivation is unique, distinctive and multidimensional.
Shadow refers to aspects of our personality relegated to the darkness of the unconscious and which Jung saw as a doorway to the Self. The Shadow contains not only destructive aspects, but also life promoting characteristics and powerful capabilities which can unlock our unique potential. ..
The “Descent of Inanna” is one of the oldest myths of journeying to the underworld where, through death, an initiation takes place and, ultimately a rebirth...
Jung referred to the Dark Night as the ‘night sea journey’ or ‘nekyia’, believing that our sorrow and suffering serve the individuation journey. As an archetypal pattern or process it involves a basic restructuring of the psyche, transforming our individual or collective values and attitudes.
The horrific image of a father cutting off the hands of his daughter belongs only in fairytales, or does it? To be without hands is to be disempowered, helpless and dependent on others...
With In times of national distress or international threats, such as the Covid19 pandemic, we looked to our leaders to embody the Archetype of the Father. We trust them to make good decisions to ensure our survival and future, as is expected of the Father as protector.
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Pachamama is the Great Earth Mother. As supreme and eternal goddess she represents both the living earth (physical planet) and the Universal Feminine Energy - the cosmic matrix of all life...
This embedded ecological awareness of origin-in-the-sentient-land (earth as mother) and the connection to other life forms as sentient beings and kin is a custodial ethic - a template for how to live in accord with nature based on reverence, responsibility, reciprocity and respect.
The sun in the sky is metaphoric and secondary to the real sun" – Rumi Mystics see this ‘sun energy’ as the substance of our life in terms of the energetic process at the depths of our being. Seen as the central source of divine fire, the image of the sun ignites our awakening hearts.
In the early 1970’s James Lovelock proposed the ‘Gaia’ hypothesis. He argued that earth is a dynamic self-regulating system where all life is interrelated, interacting through complex feedback loops. Life on earth is “a network of inseparable patterns of relationships”. Jung saw our relationship with nature as fundamental to the development of consciousness and wholeness.
Known as “the remover of obstacles” the Hindu god Ganesha is highly recognizable with his elephant head and human body. As an image of the divine child, Ganesha embodies the promise for enlightenment, self-realization and spiritual wholeness through the integration of opposites. Ganesha represents the unification of cosmic forces: god and goddess, eternal and temporal, infinite and finite, spirit and body, conscious and unconscious.
The Divine Child represents the emergence of a new, enlivening idea or energy which constitute a renewal and expansion in consciousness...
The archetype of the child and the various aspects of the 'child’ as an inner image are symbolic of the possibilities of life. Jung says that the image of the child “represents the strongest, the most ineluctable urge in every being, namely the urge to realize itself.” (CW 9i, Para 289). The archetypal image of the child is a symbol of Soul residing in each of us and which has the capacity to lead us to wholeness.
The love story of Eros and Psyche could be interpreted as a reflection of the troubles in a maturing relationship. It symbolizes the difficulties of developing consciousness in the process of integrating the feminine and masculine...
Deep authentic human connection (including the inner relationship) is represented, not by the “love-struck” Romeo and Juliet, but rather by the primordial lovers symbolized in the cosmic dance of Shiva (divine masculine principle) and Shakti (divine feminine principle) from Hinduism.
As one of the most complex and powerful goddesses of Ancient Egypt, Hathor represents the divine feminine principle in synergy with the masculine. In her benevolent aspect Hathor is the personification of love, but in her destructive alter ego, she switches into the leonine goddess, Sekhmet...
Marion Woodman (1990) identified masculine and feminine as “two energies within each individual, both striving toward an inner harmony” (p. 9). To grow our full potential we need to allow these energies to interact and transform our consciousness.
The birth of our world was a definitive new beginning. Creation myths encompass ideas as to how the Universe came into being as well as the role of humans in this drama...
Janus was the god of beginnings and endings, symbolizing change, movement and transitions. He was the god of gates and doorways, entrances, exists and passageways. Janus is the ultimate doorkeeper who holds access between worlds, for instance entry to heaven.
In the series ‘Good Omens’ the powerful image of two human beings holding a flaming sword, leaving the lush abundant Garden of Eden and entering the space beyond the protective wall into the barren desert, evokes the archetypal energy of endings, passage and new beginnings...
It has become clear that our world is changing at an exponential rate! It is difficult to keep up with the changes as humans get stuck in worldviews and archetypal patterns, modified in personal complexes. What is required is a flexible attitude, receptivity and openness. This requires self-reflection, especially an awareness of shadow aspects of humanity, which is a necessary aspect in Jung’s path of individuation.