Although meditation is an ancient practice, its psychological, spiritual and physical benefits have become increasingly evident as time unfolds. Studies have shown that meditation can reduce stress, improve concentration, increase self-awareness and one’s acceptance of life’s ups and downs. All these psychological benefits can then flow through into our bodies as the destructive physiological effects…
In 1927 Freud wrote “The future of an illusion” wondering how long religion would last in a new secular age; the implication was that we would all outgrow it. By 2006 Richard Dawkins, frustrated with the persistence of spirituality when sceptics thought it should have disappeared in puff of logic, wrote his angrier work, “The…
Carl Jung often wrestled with the tension of the unity and plurality of our souls. This was not just an academic exercise for him as different archetypes and figures, such as Elijah, Salome, Philemon and Siegfried were instrumental in his own development. Jung saw this plurality as the original state of humanity, writing: “This is…
I wrote the following as background for a workshop on “Archetypes in Depth” that I will be presenting at the Jung Society of Melbourne in June. It is long for a post but I hope you may find it rewarding if you follow it to the end. More to come. Archetypes are easier to…
How did everything come into being? Do I continue to exist after I die? Why is there anything at all? We have all at times pondered these big questions about existence, about the nature of what is. For millennia these questions have been central to human spirituality, often focused on the figure of “God”. In…
One of main purposes of spirituality is the enchantment of our lives. It helps move our experience of life out of the rut of repetition and labour, the struggle for survival and status, and imbues it with a sense of wonder. The main conduit of this enchantment are spiritual myths. So the mythologist Joseph…
This morning I heard a talk on how God is really Spirit and that depicting him as Father is somewhat misguided. I was amused (and a little disturbed) at this attempt to elevate one of the archetypal manifestations of the divine over another even if it was somewhat softened by the speakers attempt to say…
When we say we are “spiritual but not religious” we are implying that there are some aspects of traditional religion that we are not comfortable with. But which parts? It’s certainly not the festivals which everyone participates in with gusto over Christmas, Hanukkah or Holi. It is generally not a belief in God. Unlike atheists,…
Archetypal Spirituality 