DENISE GROBBELAAR - JUNGIAN ANALYST Clinical Psychologist & Psychotherapist
​0842433648
  • Home
  • About me
    • Upcoming talks & lectures
    • Publications
    • White Lion Dream Appreciation Retreat
  • Psychotherapy
  • Dreams
  • Enneagram
    • Enneagram courses
  • Consulting
  • CONTACT ME
  • Blog

Dark night of the Soul

6/2/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
Humanity is in a Dark Night of the Soul, a time of global crisis ushered in by Covid19. People around the world are suffering devastating loss and trauma –the death of loved ones or loss of income as economies threaten collapse.  During this time of uncertainty people may experience feelings of despair, loss of meaning and deep insecurity.

St. John of the Cross, a Spanish mystic and poet who lived in the 16th century, initiated the term “Dark Night of the Soul”.  Having experienced his own dark time while imprisoned, he wrote about painful experiences as a process of “purification” in the spiritual journey towards connection with the divine.
​
An experience of the Dark Night is almost always precipitated by a crisis: a dreadful disappointment; a terrible heartache; a distressing illness; or, the loss of a loved one. What follows is a difficult, but significant transition to a deeper perception of life through a painful shedding of the beliefs and conceptual frameworks we use to give meaning to identity, relationships, career, etc.
 
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. Jung metaphorically compared alchemy (transforming lead into gold) to the psychological process of navigating the Dark Night of the Soul, equating it with Nigredo stage.
 
The Dark Night symbolizes death and initiation. The individuation journey must include a meaningful psychic descent into the underworld, a facing of our shadow aspects. Mythology describes many such descents in the tales of  Inanna, Persephone and others.
 
The Dark Night of the Soul can be a painful, chaotic, frightening, overwhelming and disintegrating life crisis. It can also be a time of transformation, renewal, rebirth and finding deeper meaning in life. Our collective response to the current coronavirus pandemic has the potential to reframe, renew or even completely change our belief systems which may bring a shift in consciousness and alter the future of humanity.

 
A social media post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
 
Image credit:  Michal Karcz
 
#jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #unconscious #consciousness #innergrowth #archetypes #individuation #shadow #darknightofthesoul #nightseajourney #katabasis #nekyia #nigredo #descent #initiation #death #depression #capetown #capetownlife #capetownliving #southernafrica


0 Comments

The symbolism of the Sun

4/9/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​The sun is the centre of our solar system and the source of all life on Earth. Nature and, by extension, human beings cannot exist without the solar energy generated by the sun.
 
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. “Just as the physical sun lightens and warms the universe, so, in the human body, there is in the heart a sunlike arcanum from which life and warmth stream forth.” (Jung, CW14: par. 113) According to Jung the sun motif as it appears in mythology denotes a new consciousness as the light which illuminates the vast darkness.
 
Jung believed the sun to be a symbol of the god-image. The sun “is the only truly ‘rational’ image of God… the sun is the father-god from which all living things draw life: he is the fructifer and creator, the source of energy for our world” (Jung, CW 5: par. 176) In Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1962, 247–253), Jung recognized that Ochwiay Biano’s sense of himself as a son of the sun gave him a proper “place in the great process of being” depicting a meaningful relationship with Nature in the cosmology of the first Nations of America  (Sabini 2001, 49).
 
Alchemy regards the sun (Sol) as “the central celestial fire; it is the fructifying source of heat and light and the root of the life drive… Some of the many metaphors used to describe Sol are light, heat, sulphur, redness, gold, fire and certain kinds of fruit especially oranges and lemons! Sol is thought of as the central source and, appropriately, its alchemical symbol is a circle with a dot in the center. The same symbol is used for gold because they are thought to be of the same substance. Gold is the terrestrial sun-stuff spun into the bowels of the earth by Sol's endless revolutions around the earth” (Edinger, 1995, p. 87). In spiritual traditions, golden light is associated with the highest divine energy. 
 
In these challenging times, remember to feel warmth of the sun on your skin. Bathe in its golden light and notice how the sun caresses the leaves of the trees at dusk, promising return.
 

Image Credit: NASA
 
A social media post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
 
#jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #unconscious #consciousness #innergrowth #archetypes #individuation
#ecopscyhology #ecological #nature #earth #archetypalmother #motherearth #gaia  #sun #sunsymbolism #innersun #energy #source #alchemy #capetown #capetownsouthafrica #capetownlocal #capetownlife #capetownliving

0 Comments

The symbolic meaning of the Sun King and the Moon Queen

2/18/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
“Just as all energy proceeds from opposition, so the psyche too possesses its inner polarity, this being the indispensable prerequisite for its aliveness, as Heraclitus realized long ago” (Jung, 1965, p 346).

Jung used symbolism from the alchemical text Rosarium Philosophorum to demonstrate the transformative process of reconciliation of opposites. In the individuation journey to wholeness, the Sun King (Solar or Yang energy) and Moon Queen (Lunar or Yin energy) have to be recognized as archetypal polarities within the soul.  The Conjunctio is the union or ‘sacred marriage’ of solar and lunar energies necessary to move from a lesser to a higher state of being as symbolized by the alchemical process of turning lead into gold.

The King (Sol) and the Queen (Luna) are the masculine and feminine personifications of the archetype of the Self which represents the sovereign energy of the psyche, the transpersonal aspect, or higher self. The King/Queen, as the ruler of our own inner world, represents the 'ordering of the realm', choosing what will/will not be in your personal domain. The King/Queen symbolism mirrors the Brother/Sister pairs that were the ‘gods on earth’ of ancient mythologies such as the Egyptian myth of Isis and Osiris. Jung wrote: “Luna… is the counterpart of Sol…. She is the sister and bride, mother and spouse of the sun.”  CW14 ¶ 154

A proper relationship between these feminine and masculine inner forces must be established to contain the full experience of Spirit. The images in Rosarium Philosophorum, show the King and Queen transitioning through a series of conjunctios.  Initially they stand apart, barely touching, their meeting restrained and restricted (fully clothed). During this archetypal process they get into the alchemical bath together (naked) - into the realm of the unconscious - and eventually emerge as a hermaphrodite.   It is only when we can hold the tensions of opposites, without identification with either polar opposite that a unique third position can arise. This is the transcendent function.


Image credit: philippa_shanks

A social media post I wrote for @jungsouthernafrica
​
 #jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #consciousness #growing “innergrowth #individuation #storytelling, #mythology #myth #alchemy #King #Queen #hermaphrodite #marriage #mysteriumconiunctionis #unionmasculinefeminine #masculine #feminine #relationship #self #capetown #capetownsouthafrica #capetownlocal #capetownlife #capetownliving

0 Comments

Alchemical marriage: The union of masculine and feminine

2/3/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
​It is the month of love and Valentine’s Day – when lovers celebrate their togetherness with romantic gestures – an appropriate time to focus on the relationship between the inner masculine and feminine.  The union of masculine and feminine within each human could be referred to as the alchemical marriage


Carl Jung named the masculine part within a woman the Animus with the Anima being the inner feminine part of a man. These concepts have nothing to do with biological sex or sexual orientation, but represent opposing forces within all people.  Together they contribute to a sense of wholeness in an individual (and in society), but only when in a harmonious dance, each contributing their unique qualities, as opposed to a brutal  wrestle for dominance.


​It is sadly the latter that has manifested in society and in individuals for many thousands of years.  This situation desperately needs to be remedied.   
 
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. Jung wrote about the “mysterium coniunctionis” as encapsulated in the image of the hermaphrodite or bisexual being, which symbolizes the ability to hold the tension of the opposites - a necessity for psychic balance. This divine union, or hieragamos, is symbolized in alchemy by the King and Queen. In eastern philosophy the symbolism of Yin and Yang represents the interlocking play between these polar opposites.  The various gods/goddesses can be seen as archetypal patterns manifesting particular aspects of these divine principles. Even the left and right sides of the brain may be understood in terms of masculine and feminine characterization. .
 
Masculine energy comprises a forward-moving penetrating thrust into the unknown, while the feminine whispers “Listen”, “Keep still”, denoting receptivity as well as keeping us connected to the sacred silence of the Universe.
 
Image: Erica Wexler Copyright © 2020 Surrealism Art
 
A post I wrote for @jungsoutherafrica 

#jungsouthernafrica #jung #carljung #jungpsychology #jungianpsychology #depthpsychology #analyticalpsychology #unconscious #consciousness #innergrowth #archetypes #archetypal patterns  #alchemicalmarriage #hieragamos #mysteriumconiunctionis   #unionmasculinefeminine #masculine #feminine alchemy #yinyang # kingqueen, #brothersister #sonmoon #marionwoodman #silence #love #valentine #valentinesday #relationship #innerrelationship #anima #animus #capetown #capetownsouthafrica #capetownlocal #capetownlife #capetownliving


0 Comments

    Author

    Denise Grobbelaar

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020

    Categories

    All
    Active Imagination
    Alchemy
    Anima & Animus
    Animal Symbolism
    Archetypes
    Complexes
    Dark Night Of The Soul
    Dreams
    Enneagram
    Fairy Tales
    Gods & Goddesses
    Individuation
    Masculine & Feminine
    Mysticism
    Mythology
    New Beginnings
    Shadow
    Shamanism
    Symbolism
    The Impact Of Childhood Experiences
    The Living Earth & Nature
    The Other
    Trauma

    RSS Feed

Picture
Denise Grobbelaar 

Clinical Psychologist
                & Psychotherapist                                

Consulting Psychologist
​Individual, Team & Leadership Development 

            Enneagram Practitioner                                                 

              Cell: 084 243 3648                                                             
      denisegrobbelaar@gmail.com     
Picture