This Jungian Life Podcast

The labyrinth is a powerful metaphor for psychological development and the path of individuation.

This week Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart consider how twists and turns in the path of life (especially in early adulthood), ask us to confront uncertainty, anxiety, and the unknown.

Ego may crave a straight, well-planned path, but life inevitably offers something else: a fiendishly difficult labyrinth. If we want to get the most out of the journey, we’ve no choice other than to give it all we’ve got.

Through the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, we reflect on the necessity of facing up to our darkness. Ariadne’s thread, which allows Theseus to return after slaying the beast, shows us the vital role of connection in helping us find our way back.

We also explore the story of Abhimanyu from the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu’s mother gives him some knowledge of the labyrinth, but doesn’t tell him the way out, leading to tragedy. If we’re going to crack the code and exit the labyrinth, we’ll require a soulful attitude towards life, and the right psycho-spiritual teachings.

Finally, we turn to the contemplative labyrinth. This is not a place to escape from, but a path toward the center. Here, the journey becomes one of surrender, reflection, and gradual movement toward wholeness.

Read the dream we analyze in full on our website.

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Many people just can’t rally to do what’s necessary and improve their lives. Is it possible they just don’t carry much vitality, or is some inner conflict blocking their access? We share personal stories of ‘energy loss’ and offer insights into purposelessness.

Carl Jung tells us inner energy flows according to its own laws, but if we can’t harness it? Expect to learn why some people are naturally low-energy, which aspects of your psyche might be leaking energy, how over-aligning with cultural norms can cut off access to instinctive vitality, where we can look for solutions, and much more...

SPECIAL NOTE: This is the second dream we've interpreted from this listener. The first interpretation follows. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see how a dream sequence evolves!

Read along with our dream interpretations HERE.

Connect With This Jungian Life
Dream Studio: Our new Dream School program on dreams and art starts April 16.
Send a ⁠⁠⁠dream⁠⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.
Check out our TJL ⁠⁠⁠podcast merch⁠⁠⁠.
Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠.

Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and Christiana Morgan all dedicated time, soul and imagination to a peculiarly Jungian form of architecture: the stone tower.

This week host Deborah Stewart is joined by Dr. Martin Gledhill, an architect, author and Jungian scholar, and filmmaker Hilary Morgan, the granddaughter of Christiana Morgan, an eminent American psychologist who collaborated with Jung on some of his most important work.

Deb, Martin and Hilary explore Jung’s Bollingen Tower and Christiana Morgan’s Tower on the Marsh, discussing the profound expressions of psyche through place. Both towers render psyche in art, carvings and stone. They are more than just physical places, they are architectural explorations of Self and soul. The two towers are what Martin calls “restless places”: dream-like in ambience, shaped through an ongoing, iterative process, and surrounded by differing, sometimes conflicting, accounts of their evolution.

Follow Up

Read Martin Gledhill’s book, The Bollingen Tower: Constructing a Jungian Sense of Place
Watch (for free) The Tower of Dreams - a film by Hilary Morgan

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Send a ⁠⁠dream⁠⁠ for us to analyze on the show.
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Jung suggested in Aion that humanity is moving from the great symbolic Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius.

Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, as we ask what it means to live through the turbulence and vitality of this period of transition.

Jung pioneered the idea that human consciousness unfolds in great symbolic ages. The shift from one to the next is not a smooth or pleasant experience. As Jung saw it, each new age emerges through a process of decline, breakdown, and renewal, a process that can bring with it frightening levels of destabilization.

The Age of Pisces, shaped by Christianity, emphasized faith, morality, and the authority of external structures. But as this era wanes, Jung suggested we are coming under the influence of a new attitude, one that asks more of the individual psyche.

This new Age of Aquarius asks us to hold the tension of opposites consciously, rather than splitting experience into simple categories of right and wrong, and to be open to a genuinely new attitude that can contain much greater complexity.

We consider whether this emerging age calls us into a deeper interior life, one grounded not in external authority, but in an evolving relationship to the Self.

Read the dream we analyze in full on our website.

Connect With This Jungian Life
Book your place at our ⁠⁠free seminar⁠⁠ on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster.
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In Greek mythology, Cassandra was a Trojan princess and priestess of Apollo who was given the gift of true prophecy, along with the curse that no one would ever believe her. She warned the Trojans not to bring the famous wooden horse inside their city walls, but her prophecy was ignored and the city fell.

In this episode, we discuss the psychological meaning of the Cassandra story from a Jungian perspective, exploring the painful experience of recognizing a deep truth but finding that others cannot or will not hear it.

We examine how the Cassandra archetype can intrude into a person’s life, compelling them to deliver uncomfortable truths to audiences who do not wish to hear. Understanding the archetypal pattern may help us discern the difference between those who won’t hear, and those who may be able to accept our message.

The story of Cassandra can also be applied to our inner lives. We often ignore our own inner Cassandra, and her quiet warning that something glittering may hide danger. False promises, quick fixes, and seductive fantasies can lure us into welcoming the Trojan horse despite our better judgment.

Finally, we ask how we might hold the Cassandra complex differently. Instead of identifying with the doomed prophet, we can recognize the archetype at work: “Cassandra is visiting.” By holding insight with humility, seeking listeners who can truly hear, and accepting the limits of our power to change fate, we might shape the anguish of Cassandra into a deeper wisdom.

Read the dream we analyze and find this episode’s resource list on our website.

Connect With This Jungian Life
Book your place at our ⁠free seminar⁠ on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster.
Send a ⁠dream⁠ for us to analyze on the show.
Check out our TJL ⁠podcast merch⁠.
Follow This Jungian Life on ⁠Instagram⁠.