A guest post by Dr. Susan Rowland. The following is excerpted from The Ecocritical Psyche: Literature, Evolutionary Complexity and Jung

"A psychologist, C. G. Jung was acutely aware of the difficulty of writing about nature. To him, the unconscious is how non-human nature inhabits human beings. Unfortunately, the non-human and the unknown psyche are territories resistant to everyday language.

Here is an example of Jung's use of nature as a simile, a kind of metaphor using `like' or `as':

Jung is looking at the nature of the psyche and how it can be captured in writing. After all, to write about the psyche is to fall into a trap. Only the psyche itself, meaning all the properties of the human mind, conscious and unconscious, can reflect upon the psyche. There is no standpoint outside the psyche from which to view it with scientific detachment. If there is a nature of the psyche, it is one in which we are always enmeshed.

A guest post by Dr. Mary Watkins and Dr. Ed Casey. The following is excerpted from their insightful book Up Against the Wall Re-Imagining the U.S.-Mexico Border

We live in an era of forced migration with unprecedented global dimensions. How are we to peaceably and justly co-exist together -- those of us who must leave our homes forever to meet our human needs, and the rest of us who find our neighborhoods, towns, and cities changing as a result of these necessary migrations? In particular, how can we create a compassionate and just response to new neighbors who have come to the United States to find work or asylum?  We offer this book as an invitation to a sustained reflection on these questions.

Epiphanies: Big Dreams and Transformative Meetings

A free audio lecture from Pacifica Graduate Institute. The audio files are from the fall 2014 workshop Epiphanies: Big Dreams and Transformative Meetings with Christine Downing, Ph.D.

"Epiphanies are sudden realizations or flashes of recognition. Although their significance may be apparent immediately or only in retrospect, these are the moments that give depth and meaning to our lives. This workshop by Dr. Christine Downing explored the role played in our lives by such transformative events, beginning with our earliest childhood memories, whether consoling or terrifying, and then going on to honor the life-changing impact of intense engagements with others.

What I believe to be the heart of the Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology specialization is the fieldwork process where students are “asked to listen actively to the kinds of cultural, community, or ecological issues” that call them to service and enaged in those communities. In each of the first two years of this specialization, students are asked to work with the insights and methods of depth psychology in a community setting. This setting provides a window through which one can study the interdependent relation between psyche, culture, and environment. Serving as a rite of passage for students in the program is the poster and/or multi-media presentation showcasing their work with these different communities and organizations.

 “Searching for My Identity”; “Deportation of Mexican-born U.S. Veterans”; “Gentrification and the Future of Oakland, California”; “Druze Men’s Perspectives on Violence Against Women” were just a few titles of fieldwork presentations presented by Pacifica students on December 16, 2014.

To share this exquisite work of students and the communities they engage with I have provided a list of each presentation. To read more download the list of presentations complete with full abstracts. 

A guest post by Dr. Keiron Le Grice

Modern-day cinematic portrayals of myths old and new are etched in our collective imagination. Who can forget the 1960s film depiction of the Greek hero Jason and the crew of the Argo boldly sailing their ship between the Clashing Rocks or Luke Skywalker unmasking his father, Darth Vader, in Star Wars? And how many of us were enthralled watching Frodo Baggins accepting his fateful mission to carry the Ring of Power away from the Shire or were enchanted by the other-worldly experiences of Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz? Such films comprise a set of shared cultural reference points and have inspired audiences the world over. Yet beyond their capacity to entertain and stir the imagination, mythic films also possess an instructive metaphorical significance. Skilfully interpreted, they can provide invaluable guidance for the process of deep psychospiritual transformation that Carl Jung called individuation. It is this way of reading and using myth that is the focus of my 2013 publication, The Rebirth of the Hero.

A guest post by Dr. Jennifer Selig

Deborah Quibell is many things, but she is archetypally a Creator. At least that’s how I know her. I met her several years back when she entered into the newly launched Jungian and Archetypal Studies program at Pacifica. I am now her dissertation chair, which is a distinct pleasure because part of how Deborah creates is through writing. She’s good. She’s damn good.

A guest post by Dr. Jennifer Selig

One of the greatest joys of teaching at Pacifica is working with an amazing student body. Our students awe and amaze us. They challenge and create us. They push and pull us. They keep us awake at night and awaken us in the morning and call us forward during the day to be the best that we can be because they are striving to be their best selves and thinking we might have something, just a little something, to offer those selves.

And sometimes, they supersede us.

• December 16- The Community Psychology, Liberation Psychology, and Ecopsychology fieldwork presentations
• January 16-18- Pacifica's Alumni Association Annual Meeting
• January 21-24- Dream Tending 2015 Certificate Program
• January 25- Earth Charter Meeting
• January 28- Book signing and reception
• January 29- Shakespeare in Depth: A Four-Week Online and Weekend Residential Workshop with Susan Rowland
• February 7- The Pacifica Experience

A guest post by Ginette Paris. The following is excerpted from her acclaimed book Heartbreak: New Approaches to Healing - Recovering from lost love and mourning. Read Part I and Part II.

§  Symbols are an emotional GPS

No scientist in the world can create a symbol in his lab, nor choose the symbols, values, stories, myths we live by. Yet, this is the work that the heartbroken individual must do.

In times of bows and arrows, heartbreak was often symbolized by an arrow piercing the heart; but it is also imagined as a knife sticking out, a gunshot, a ferocious animal tearing the heart from the living body. One feels stuck in quicksand, in tar pit, crucified, shunned, drowning, choking, hemorrhaging. It can be felt like an amputation, a paralysis, a trial, a snake in the bed, a spy in the kingdom, poison in the apple, arsenic in the drink. A widow may feel like an orphan, even though she lost her husband and not her parent. Another feels like a fool, or like a beggar, or like a dismissed servant, or like a defeated general. I have interviewed individuals who felt their heartbreak was an experience of ambush, a test of strength, a season in hell, a glaciation, a forest fire, a tsunami, a bankruptcy, a visitation by an evil alien, an infection of the heart… the number of possible metaphors is infinite.

A guest post by Kerry Methner, PhD / CASA Magazine, www.casasb.com. Dr. Methner's article appeared in the November 14th edition of Casa Magazine.

Pacifica on Lambert Road, Gallery

Mythic Threads: Art, Healing, & Magic in Bali

In a land where the veil between life and death and between the sacred and mundane is porous and sometimes transparent, Kansas native and local resident Pamela Bjork sought solace as she grieved her father’s passing. That land was the island of Bali where she visited for the first time in 1995. That trip was a seed, growing over the next 20 years, bearing fruit in the form of a degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute and now an exhibition that officially opens with a celebration on Saturday, November 22nd from 2 to 5pm - Mythic Threads: Art, Healing, & Magic in Bali.

“An unbidden invitation arrived in the mail one summer day shortly after my father’s death in 1995,” Bjork recalled. “It read, ‘The Healers of Bali.’” Soon she was on her way. “The busyness and warmth of the people, visits to strange and exotic healers, multitudes of offerings, vibrant colors of textiles, sacred ceremonies, and performance everywhere offered a new perspective on how to live and helped assuage my grief,” Bjork shared.

Bjork is a 2012 graduate of the Mythological Studies Program at Pacifica. Her fascination with Balinese culture and mythology led her to the topic of her dissertation, Hospitality of Color: Healing Presence in Ceremonial Balinese Textiles. This exhibition follows, illustrating the living myth of a contemporary culture, allowing the viewer to follow in the footsteps of Bjork’s pilgrimage to see living stories in the images and artifacts she brought home. Bjork will talk about her experiences and learning at 2:30pm.