This Jungian Life Podcast
Join us—Lisa, Deb, and Joseph—for sometimes irreverent but potentially life-changing conversations. Every Thursday, we explore culture, relationships, and depth psychology through the lens of Carl Jung. We devote a segment of each episode to analyzing a listener’s dream.
Episodes
The Cry of Merlin: A Jungian Approach to the Wizard
Merlin, the mythical prophet, magician, and kingmaker of medieval legend, has lived in the Western imagination for centuries. Arthurian legend gives us more than the idealized government of the Round Table and the hero’s valiant quest for the Holy Grail—it also gives us Merlin’s darkness and power: sorcery, communion with nature, and the prospect of achieving our aims through shadowy transgression
Working with Short Dreams and Fragments
This week, to mark the publication in paperback of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart interpret a selection of short dreams sent in by listeners. Many of us dismiss short dreams or fragments of dreams as unworthy of our time. We await the arrival of epic, cinematic dreams, while perhaps overlooking the gold that can be found in mor
The Devouring Mother: Facing Archetypal Darkness
Every archetype has a dual aspect: light and dark, and ‘mother’ as devouring and destructive is the dark side of this ever-present, over-arching archetype. The mother’s life-giving, bright aspect is counterbalanced by her engulfing, attacking aspect. The devouring mother is present across cultures in myth, fairy tale, religion, and literature, and most of us have at least had glimpses of her in ou
Coniunctio: The Alchemy of Union
In this final episode of our series on Jungian alchemy, we explore coniunctio, the union of opposites that gives rise to new wholeness.There are many ways in which we might encounter coniunctio in outer life. We might fall in love, form a partnership, or undertake transformative work with a psychotherapist. In some meaningful, mysterious way, two become one, giving us incremental tastes of transfo
Desirous Dreams: Our Private Erotic Encounters
Erotic dreams are extremely common. We may experience them as pleasurable, exciting and moving, or as disturbing and upsetting. It can be hard to talk about erotic dreams, even in therapy, as they insist on attending to secret satisfactions and shames.There is relatively little written on the subject from a Jungian perspective, so this week we dive in and discuss how to work with your erotic dream
Jung and the End of the World: Can Depth Psychology Save Us?
In his new book, The End of the World, author and psychoanalyst JON MILLS considers the question of why humanity seems bent on self-destruction.We face famine, climate change, obscene wealth disparities, and threats of global war and nuclear annihilation. Yet the majority of us seem to prefer living either in denial, or in irrational, active opposition to reading the writing on the wall.This week
Dark Forces in the Psyche: Our Self-Destructive Impulses
Why is it that we sometimes fail to rise to life’s most important challenges? Why do we instead procrastinate, withdraw, self-sabotage, or feel unable to move toward the life we want?This week, at a listener’s suggestion, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore the concept of anti-libidinal forces in the psyche: those self-destructive impulses that oppose growth, pleasure, and
Psyche in the Age of AI
Our lives have already been altered by rapidly expanding access to artificial intelligence (AI). In this week’s episode, we consider how this latest technological revolution might be reshaping the human psyche. Hosts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart are joined by a special guest, the author and Jungian analyst Christina Becker, to explore the psychological impact of AI’s incursion into our work,
The Labyrinth: Soul’s Winding Journey
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
LOW ENERGY: Where Can We Source the Drive to Take Action? (Re-Publish)
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
A Jungian Sense of Place: Bollingen and The Tower on the Marsh
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 s
The Age of Aquarius: A Jungian View of a Changing World
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 sm
Cassandra: A Jungian Interpretation
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 pe
Chance Encounters: When Life Calls Us to a New Path
Chance encounters can change the whole direction of our lives. A casual chat with a stranger at the bank, a book that beckons to you from the shelf, or a last-minute lunch invitation might lead to transformative consequences. This week, join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Joseph Lee and Deborah Stewart as we circumambulate the phenomenon of the chance encounter. For Jungians, these moments are m
COAGULATIO: The Alchemy of Settling Down
COAGULATIO marks the psychological moment when possibility takes shape. Uncertainty recedes as we commit to our choices, and life slows and “thickens” into stable commitments and a predictable path.Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Joseph Lee as we continue our exploration of Jung’s alchemical stages. This week, we discuss the concept of coagulatio, or the solidifying of what was once liqui
Why You Dream of Intruders: The Hidden Meaning of Break-In Dreams
Intruder dreams stage a boundary crisis: something arrives without the ego’s consent, and the dreamer wakes with fear, shame, or outrage. Join Jungian analysts Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, and Lisa Marchiano as we analyze a selection of vivid listener-submitted dreams about intruders. We begin with the word itself, “intrusion,” asking how a visitor can feel deeply unwelcome, but at the same time c
Dissociation as Design: Why the Mind Sometimes Lets Go
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Pierre Janet’s term abaissement du niveau mental describes an experience so common we barely notice it: fatigue, highway hypnosis, shock, wool-gathering, or monotony lowers the threshold of consciousness, and then images, memories, and impulses press forward. Jung found this idea useful for understanding threshold conditions that interfere
The Outsider at the Gate: Are We Lovable When Persona Washes Away?
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” is a parable about seeing beneath the surface. It shows us that our authentic nature can be detected, whether we’re swathed in status or rags, if we’re offered the opportunity. A prince’s search for happiness fails when it’s driven by lordly criteria. A wild storm heralds change and deli
"What Do I Owe My Hurtful Parents?" Is The Wrong Question! Do This Instead!
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!In the aftermath of the holidays, many people find themselves facing an old question in a new stage of life: what does an adult child owe aging parents, especially when the relationship was full of criticism, absence, harm, or disappointment? The pressure to visit, to host, to reconcile, or to perform affection can feel like a moral demand
Corruption Starts Inside You: Why Malignant Certainty Makes You Dangerous!
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!In this episode, Joseph, Lisa, and Deb explain why Corruption is not only a political problem, but a human one, why Power breaks trust long before it breaks laws, and why the most dangerous people are often the most certain. They reveal the core mechanism behind Corruption and Inflation: when unconscious drives flood the ego, making someon
How Did I Become a Statistic?
Jung wrote “The Undiscovered Self” in 1957, opening with “What will the future bring?”, as the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, and nuclear weapons gained enough momentum to threaten survival. He argued that mass-mindedness, amplified by state power, corporate bureaucracy, and scientific rationalism, reduces people to statistics, numbs conscience, and makes evil all the easier to project.When instituti
How to Stop Hiding After Trauma (Starting Today)
You're invited to our free Dreams for Change seminar on Sunday January 18th. Sign up here.*****If you have been through betrayal or loss, you may still be living by a terrible rule you made when in pain.It can look like hiding, overworking, numbing out, or letting people cross lines because being unseen feels safer. This episode uses the fairy tale “All-Kinds-of-Fur” to help you identify your su
Purpose as Service to a Self-Led Future
You're invited to our free Dreams for Change seminar on Sunday January 18th. Sign up here.*****Modernity promotes endless techniques to optimize goal-setting and productivity. Yet most of us race from one task to the next, telling our friends how busy we are, secretly knowing we lack direction. This conversation defines Self-led purpose as an orientation to a future beyond our ego needs. This
Can Angels Survive in a Disenchanted World?
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Angels persist in dreams, scripture, and art, while modern institutions psychologize them into coincidences or flatten them into greeting cards. In this episode, we explore angels as autonomous psychic facts, reimagined from age to age but always carrying meaning across the unconscious threshold to the ego’s surprise and benefit. When we l
Santa and Krampus: Why the “Nice List” Needs a Shadow
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with 10% off from now until December 31st. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. Learn more and enroll. * * * * * * * * * * * * * Santa Claus persists as a central figure who teaches children that their desires can be understood and met, on the condition of good behavior. The Christma
Alchemical Mortificatio: How to Survive the Wintering of Your Life
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with 10% off from now until December 31st. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. Learn more and enroll. -----------------------------------------------------Mortificatio is an alchemical term for the moment a life-organizing identity collapses. We might call it burnout, divorce, depress
How to Work with Denial: A Jungian Guide to Facing Reality
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with 10% off from now until December 31st. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. Learn more and enroll. -----------------------------------------------------People often mistake denial for stubbornness, self-deception, or moral failure. Denial is actually a primal psychological defense th
Have We Ever Really Read Jung? Sonu Shamdasani on the Collected Works Crisis
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with 10% off from now until December 31st. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. Learn more and enroll. -----------------------------------------------------Jung’s translator and editor for the English edition of his Collected Works took it upon himself to alter more than 60% of Jung’s idea
[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] Is My Wanderlust Related To My Mother Complex?
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks:"I'm wondering if you can talk about the issue of place: the ability to settle down somewhere, and how this could relate to a mother complex."Support This Jungian Life on Patreon and ask Lisa, Deb, and Joseph your questions for a chance to have them answered on Jung Love.
Gratitude and Reverence: How to Lead a Sacred, Soulful Life
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with ten percent off from now until the 31st of December. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. Learn more and enroll. -----------------------------------------------------A Jungian Look at Gratitude (and Why It Usually Arrives Late)Have you ever suddenly realized, “I never really thanked the
Signs Contempt Is Ruining Your Relationship & Ways to Cope
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Contempt feels like a gut punch. It’s a cold, distancing act that devalues a person even as it avoids solving a real problem. The contemptuous are full of shame, fear, or hurt, so they recreate those feelings in others to evade their own issues. Unlike anger (which tries to correct an injustice), disgust (which avoids what feels contamina
SEPARATIO: The Alchemical Secret That Ends Confusion
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Alchemical separatio is the skill of sorting out your mind. You separate what belongs to you—your complexes, habitual triggers, and painful memories--from what is happening in the world around you. In the laboratory of your life, you separate present triggers from older wounds, and literal facts from symbolic meanings. This is part of your
LUCID DREAMING: How to Make the Most of a Magical Opportunity
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Lucid dreaming is an interesting ego state when we are dreaming and regain full self-awareness. Being awake in the dream world can be useful, but imposing a rigid agenda can undermine the Dream Maker’s attempts to educate and help us. Each dream is crafted to incrementally expand our awareness and acceptance of unconscious factors we need
[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] Should I Marry My First and Only Partner?
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks:"My fiancé and I have known each other since we were 17. Neither one of us has really ever dated anyone else. We're both 29 now and due to be married in October. I love him, and he's my best friend, but I find as our wedding date gets closer, I'm having second thoughts.I'm about to commit myself to
Shadow, Evil, and Individuation: Jung’s View of the Devil
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!The devil archetype carries three qualities: it promotes bestial violence of every kind, it tries to convince us that the material world is the only reality, and it fools us into thinking we can spiritually ascend through intellect alone. On a personal level, it gathers our disowned infernal traits—envy, rage, greed, and the wish to domina
Horror as a Mirror: What Netflix’s MONSTER Makes Us See
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!The new controversial Netflix series MONSTER: The Ed Gein Story offers a window into the devouring mother archetype, a transformation fantasy gone horribly wrong, and the human capacity for monstrous behavior. Gein’s crimes inspired the Hitchcock movie Psycho, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and Silence of the Lambs. It challenges the audience
SUBLIMATIO: Jung’s Alchemical Method of Turning Problems into Archetypes
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Do you get overwhelmed by intense feelings and old patterns, feeling stuck because you can’t make sense of what’s happening, and reacting on impulse instead of pausing to choose a steady, thoughtful response? Jung’s alchemical insights will help. Sublimatio is an old alchemy term for heating a solid so that it turns directly into a gas, ris
People Pleasing Is Making You Sick!
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!People Pleasing is a compulsive strategy that disavows your needs and surrenders your agency. It begins in family systems that only reward compliance, which produces a false self. If your soul is constantly devalued, you may develop dependent narcissism with a covert contract: “I’ll keep you happy, and you’ll keep me safe.” Healing
[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] How Do the Negative Mother and Negative Animus Collude?
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks:"What are the dynamics in a woman's psyche of the collusion between the negative mother and the negative animus?"Support This Jungian Life on Patreon and ask Lisa, Deb, and Joseph your questions for a chance to have them answered on Jung Love.
If Looks Could Kill: The Death Mother Archetype
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Some mothers attack life in their children. They crush appetite, joy, curiosity, and initiative. They call it love or duty. It is not love. It is domination dressed as care. She withholds warmth to make the child obedient. She intrudes when the child needs space and vanishes when the child needs help. She shames tears, punishes pla
Projection & Play: What Dolls Do to Psyche
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Dolls are human stand-ins that invite projection and play; children use them (including action figures and Barbies) to try on identities and develop imagination, then later withdraw the projection as the figure becomes inert again. Icons and idols differ because their meaning is fixed and not for play, which limits imaginative engag
MYTHS: Maps of the Collective Unconscious
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Think of myths as the dreams of an entire culture. Those stories reside in the collective unconscious and influence all of us throughout our lifespan. Mythic patterns shape our attitudes, and when we recognize them, we can link our personal experiences to the universal. When you’re panicking, you’re under the influence of Pan; when
BULLYING: When Aggression Runs Wild
Join us for a free Zoom seminar on Dreams and Art on Saturday, September 13th, at 10:30 am EST. Register here.Bullying is about unmanaged aggression and broken containment in early life. Aggression is normal, but kids need adults to name it, hold it, and channel it into play with clear rules. When that doesn’t happen, some children learn to control and humiliate to feel safe, while others shut
Jung’s Inner Guides: The Secret of The Red Book
Join us for a free Zoom seminar on Dreams and Art on Saturday, September 13th, at 10:30 am EST. Register here.Jung’s Red Book is the primary research record of his systematic experiments in active imagination after the break with Freud, combining calligraphic German text and paintings that document dialogues with his inner guides—especially Philemon and Salome—which became source material for hi
[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] How Do We Know When to 'Trust' Dreams?
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks:"Has there ever been a time in your life when a dream or series of dreams seemed to be telling you one thing, but you decided to go against it regardless? If so, what was the result?Is it always safe to assume that dreams are acting in your best interest or is there a possibility that, like an autoimmune disease ca
The Creative Power of Inner Tension
You're invited to join us for a free Zoom seminar on Dreams and Art on Saturday, September 13th, at 10:30am ET. Register here.---Holding the tension of the opposites means that when you’re pulled hard in two different directions, you don’t rush to choose or shut one side down—you keep both viewpoints in mind and let each be heard with equal rights, as if two people were debating inside you. If
IMAGINATION: Jung’s Path to Creativity and Inner Freedom
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Imagination is a central organ of human perception, as vital as the senses, through which we access meaning, creativity, and the unconscious. It first appeared as an evolutionary leap that allowed humans to run mental simulations, project into the future, and innovate new tools, myths, and symbols. It operates voluntarily—when we ac
SOLUTIO: The Alchemy of Letting Go
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Solutio is Psyche’s method to facilitate transformation: our rigid ego is softened in symbolic water, allowing outworn attitudes to unbind. We can see this reflected in dreams of oceans and baths, or a wall of our house dissolving. This can show up when we slough off our work persona or a creative depression brought on by retirement.
Jack and the Beanstalk: When Magic Calls Us Into Life
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Jack and the Beanstalk is a symbolic prescription for psychological growth, teaching us to climb out of darkness, confront the giants within, claim the gifts of our unconscious, and transform our ordinary lives. Join us as we reveal the secret meaning hidden in the fairytale.Read along with the dream.LOOK & GROWJoin Lisa's
THE QUICKENING: Discovering New Life Within
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Dreams about pregnancy and babies symbolize something new taking shape within us, like a creative project, a hidden talent, or a psychological shift that's quietly developing beneath our awareness. These images express the mysterious tension we sense during periods of growth, change, or potential, drawing our attention inward and c
[SUBSCRIBER BONUS] How Can Understanding Symbols Help Us in Everyday Life?
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber bonus content, a Patron asks:"I keep hearing and reading that symbols are healing and transformative for people, but this concept is so arbitrary to me. I need some very specific and concrete examples of how a symbol can help a person in the various dilemmas of life we all can face. Can you please give a few examples in layman's terms?&quo
Wounds into Wisdom: Carl Jung’s Private Life
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Carl Jung’s discoveries are woven into our common understanding. Introvert/extravert, shadow work, typology, persona, and synchronicity pop up in casual conversations all the time. Negotiating with our inner figures, now used by Internal Family Systems, was pioneered by him. Although we have adopted his ideas, few know how they were for
Calcinatio and the Alchemy of Honest Suffering
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!The calcinatio stage in Jung's alchemy is about being put through inner fire—it's when the ego undergoes a kind of burning away of projections, illusions, and inflated ideas about itself. This stage often brings intense suffering, frustration, and confrontation with parts of yourself you'd rather avoid. It's about stayin
DISCOVERING A NEW ARCHETYPE: The Buddhabrot Fractal Bridging Math, Myth, and the Collective Unconscious
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!The Buddhabrot pattern springs from a simple algorithm: you take thousands of starting points, run each one through the same formula over and over, and chart only those whose values grow without limit—these “divergent” paths form the spectral Buddha-like silhouette. Once you recognize the pattern, you see it everywhere. It’s visible in
The Handless Maiden: A Tale to Heal the Wounded Feminine
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Everyone faces a moment when they are tempted to sacrifice their true self to chase wealth, approval, success, or security, but doing so strips away their strength and leaves them hollow. To reclaim their lost agency, a person must embrace the uncertainty and vulnerability they've been avoiding. They must stand alone, undefended, a
Taming Your Inner Critic: Turn Self-Attack into Self-Awareness
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Our inner critic—that voice constantly tearing us down—can stem from difficult childhood experiences, negative cultural messages, or even powerful archetypal forces deep within us. While healthy self-assessment involves honestly owning our mistakes, feeling genuine regret, and making amends, the harsh inner critic keeps us stuck in cycl
SHARK: Elemental Symbol of Our Will to Survive and Ravenous Hunger for Experience
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Primeval, silent, relentless—the shark announces itself as its fin slices the water. In that instant, ego’s barriers shudder and give way: you’re not anxious; you’re utterly alert, stripped of distraction by a force both familiar and uncanny.When you stop battling that raw terror and honor it—offer a silent libation of attention—the pred
MOTIVATION: What Happens When Your Get-Up-and-Go Leaves Without You?
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Motivation rises from conscious and unconscious dynamics. We can reason with ourselves to take logical action while our libido flows with its own intelligence. When these two aspects align, we find ourselves acting decisively and effectively with remarkable freedom. When we’re at odds with the secret intelligence of the unconscious, we ca
Sibling Rivalry: Archetypal Conflicts and Shadow Dynamics in Families
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Sibling rivalry can bruise and build in equal measure. On the hard side, the older child feels toppled from the throne, the younger scrambles for a foothold, and both learn how quickly envy, resentment, and score-keeping ignite—whether over a parent’s extra hour of attention or the larger slice of birthday cake. Those early contests can ca
Mandala Archetype: How the Self Turns Chaos into Cosmos
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Mandalas are Psyche’s way of drawing a compass for you when life feels off-kilter. Jung noticed that these circular patterns—whether they appear in Navajo sand paintings, Tibetan yantras, or last night’s dream—pull everything back toward a stable center he called the Self.The rim defines where your ego ends; the cross-lines and repeating fo
House Dreams: Schematics of Your Psychological Functioning
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!When a house turns up in a dream, it isn’t a staging background—it’s an architectural X-ray of your inner life, drafted by the dream maker overnight and delivered to your doorstep at dawn. Floors chart levels of awareness, locked doors expose repressed material, intruders crash in as disowned traits, and every leaking pipe or crooked stair a
Ready for the Real Snow White? The True Tale of Envy, Murder, and Retribution
NEW: Come along to our free Shadow and Dreams Seminar on May 17Ever wonder why “Snow White” still hooks us after all the Disney glitter flakes off? This episode strips the tale down to its psychological wiring: murderous envy of the mother shadow, malignant innocence, the unforgiving “mirror” inside that only answers the questions we’re brave enough to ask, and the dangerous alchemy that transform
Forging the Upward Thread: Why Do We Create Religions?
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!The religious function is part of who we are — as natural as needing food or love. It’s the inner drive that pushes us to find meaning, to touch something larger than ourselves. Jung saw that if we don’t tend it, it doesn’t go away; it twists itself into addictions, compulsions, or a kind of soul-sickness. Religion, in the deepest sense, isn
Trauma Can Be Rewritten: The Use of Art to Reimagine our Past and Grant Us New Life
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Viviane Silvera animated 30,000 of her hand-painted images to explore how traumatic memories are formed, stored, and ultimately transformed. Her animated documentary, SEE MEMORY, traces the intimate story of a young woman caught between past and present; her film captures the fragmented texture of trauma and the healing that becomes possible
How to Develop Your Inner Guidance: Charting a Path Through the Current Chaos with Jung’s Insights
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Today you'll learn about inner guidance--the quiet, built-in compass that surfaces when we pause the outer noise long enough to feel what rings true inside. It is less a mystical oracle than a subtle convergence of bodily signals, emotional undertones, and intuitive "hunches" distilled from our lived experience.When we meet
[SUBSCRIBER-BONUS] How to work with Shadow Material.
In this free edition of Jung Love, our subscriber-bonus content, a Patron asks:"What do you do with shadow material? Is it enough to just become aware of your shadows? Or does it require a fixing of oneself? What is the process of processing it? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the shadow. What if I'm aware, but still don't like the shadow? Robert Johnson talked about ritua
Shadow and Self in Adolescence: Navigating Rage, Love, and Individuation
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Think of adolescence as life’s built‑in boot camp: your body hits the gas, your mind scrambles to keep up, and suddenly you’re wrestling with raw impulses, big feelings, and the question “Who am I, really?” That surge of anger toward parents often hides an intense love that feels too risky to show, so teens push back while secretly measur
From Worry to Insight: Making Sense of Uncertainty
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Worry arises because we can imagine countless possibilities, yet it often traps us in unproductive loops. Recognizing when worry prompts useful action—and when it spirals into paralysis—can be transformative. By holding uncertainty with patience, rather than trying to eliminate it, we engage a deeper capacity to reflect, adapt, and disco
Detective Archetype Decoded: Tracking Symbolic Clues
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Ever felt that irresistible urge to poke around for answers? That’s the detective archetype calling. It taps into our natural drive to uncover hidden truths and bridges the gap between what’s out in the open and what’s hidden in shadow. Whether we’re looking at Sherlock Holmes’s logical wizardry or Miss Marple’s understated brilliance, d
Analytical Patisserie: When Pastry Sparked Genius
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!In 1906, during Carl Jung’s formative visit to Vienna to confer with Sigmund Freud, a seemingly incidental stop at the renowned Café Sacher catalyzed his enduring fascination with pastry-making. At the time, Freud was actively refining his drive-based theories—including the pleasure principle—and while Jung had not yet formulated his lat
Unlocking the Power of Your Shadow
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Connie Zweig, author and Jungian therapist, joins us to explore the next level of shadow-work. This transformative practice identifies and integrates the repressed or disowned parts of ourselves, fostering deeper self-awareness, authenticity, and personal growth. These hidden dimensions often emerge in our relationships, politics, and cul
The Boundary Paradox: How Limits Create Freedom
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Boundaries define limits in relationships, work, and the psyche, balancing autonomy and connection. In relationships, they prevent enmeshment and detachment, fostering respect. Professionally, they maintain ethics and prevent burnout. Intrapsychically, they regulate self-cohesion and unconscious influences.Cultures shape boundary norms, w
VISIONS: When the Mystery Breaks Through
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Carl Jung considered visions extraordinary intrusions of the unconscious into waking life, moments when hidden psychic contents press forward with striking intensity. These phenomena do not represent mere hallucinations or idle fantasies. They reflect purposeful eruptions from Psyche’s deeper strata, often evoked by personal crisis or cul
DREAM TELEPATHY: Is it real?
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Join us this week to explore the results of our grand experiment in dream telepathy. A few weeks back, Joseph transmitted an image our listener volunteers were primed to receive, with the hope that it would appear in their dreams. The results? Intriguing, if not conclusive. On today's episode:Joseph shares some uncanny experiences lis
SHADOWLAND: Self-Harm Cults – The Story of Sarah
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!*Content warning: contains references to sexual abuse, animal cruelty, self-harm, and cult exploitation*This is Shadowland, a new podcast experience from This Jungian Life that explores the lives of people who work and take refuge in the hidden places of our culture. We hope our work will bring insight, compassion, and understanding to th
The Symbolism of Travel Inner and Outer
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Travel speaks to something far deeper in us than simply going from one place to another; it’s a powerful metaphor for inner change. In our dreams or daydreams, the drive to “hit the road” or venture overseas often signals Psyche’s desire for growth and transformation. Instead of just showing us new sights, these journeys hint at unexplor
FACING REJECTION
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Facing Rejection forces us to confront what we fear losing—belonging, recognition, identity. Rejection alters how we see ourselves, engage with others, and interpret the world. It shapes unconscious complexes, creates projections, and influences attachment. It appears in myths where exiled figures return transformed, in dreams where locked d
The Archetypal Brain: Jung from an Evolutionary Perspective
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!With Deb and Joe out this week, Lisa speaks with Gary Clark, a visiting research fellow at the University of Adelaide, about his book Carl Jung and the Evolutionary Sciences.The discussion delves into the influence of indigenous cultures on understanding consciousness, the role of anthropology in Jung's work, and the implications of
Changing the Foundation of Personality: the Secret Power of Attitudes
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Transformation isn’t about muscling through change—it’s about loosening the grip on rigid perspectives so energy can move. Resist, and the unconscious will find a way forward anyway—through symptoms, dreams, and compulsions that shake up the illusion of control. Neurosis is just a traffic jam in the psyche—energy stuck where it no longe
What Remains When All Is Taken: Standing in the LA Fires
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Fire strips everything away, leaving only what truly matters. In the wake of the Los Angeles wildfires, homes have become ash, familiar streets are unrecognizable, and life feels uncertain. But fire is not just destructive—it is also transformational.Pamela Power, a Los Angeles Jungian analyst and author, joins us to explore the tension
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