Wow, Alyssa. Such a beautiful and profound post. It was also wonderful to learn more about your personal story. I can tell that it's not simply an intellectual understanding you share, but rather one that comes through your own lived experience. The archetypal theme of home has been constellated for me these past couple years, and has be…
Wow, Alyssa. Such a beautiful and profound post. It was also wonderful to learn more about your personal story. I can tell that it's not simply an intellectual understanding you share, but rather one that comes through your own lived experience. The archetypal theme of home has been constellated for me these past couple years, and has been "sneaking" its way into my poetry. Curiously I just read the Odyssey not that long ago. Seems timely as I begin to enter Midlife and my Uranus-Opposition. Everything you wrote really resonates with me. Thank for that.
Home is a home-coming to Self and Mystery. And, for me, more recently, I have been feeling called to connect to my Ancestors. Perhaps this belongs more to the theme of belonging.
Thanks, Chris. I appreciate your kind words. Much of my writing, even when it's being portrayed as an intellectual exploration, is often rooted in my own personal experience. I've felt that the path of personal development has led me to so many questions; how to make sense of what is happening, what psychological dynamics seem to underpin a situation, etc. In that sense, it's been a development of my own personality alongside a deepening of concepts, ideas, frameworks. It's why Jung's work resonates so deeply. I find much of my story reflected in his theories.
Having just read the Odyssey, do you sense any of those trials as closely tied to ones you're experiencing now? I found that an interesting exercise.
I think connecting with ancestors is tied to that sense of home as well, the archetypal constellation. Another viewpoint I want to touch on with home is through the mythic lens of Hestia and how nurturing the ancestral hearth is key for a place to be established as home. I think this has inner and outer components. In my experience, visiting ancestral land, reconciling ancestral themes has been really important. But it still felt like something was "missing" if the crucial inner dynamic wasn't met too.
What stuck me most and resonates until today is the katabasis scene, when Odysseus visits Hades to consult the seer on how to make his journey home. Katabasis and the underworld has always appealed to me. That scene is powerful in many respects. For me, it relates to building a living relationship with the unconsciousness, to venture into the depths of myself to seek counsel. It also relates to my current practice (which I've just begun) of ancestral reverence and cultivating a reciprocal relationship with my ancestors. Jung said something really interesting (I don't have the reference). I believe he said that the unconscious is the realm of the dead and the ancestors. What I am coming into is an understanding that dreams and the unconscious are both here and there, inner and outer, personal and collective, psychological and generational. It is not only the place where we meet ourselves, it is also where we meet others. We are ever so intertwined in each other's destiny. There is no escaping that reality.
Beautifully put. It’s paradoxical in a sense, but really in my eyes, complementary. The unconscious contains its opposite, the many layered experience of life in all its shades and colors. We may see through one lens at a time, but it is intertwined, as you said.
Wow, Alyssa. Such a beautiful and profound post. It was also wonderful to learn more about your personal story. I can tell that it's not simply an intellectual understanding you share, but rather one that comes through your own lived experience. The archetypal theme of home has been constellated for me these past couple years, and has been "sneaking" its way into my poetry. Curiously I just read the Odyssey not that long ago. Seems timely as I begin to enter Midlife and my Uranus-Opposition. Everything you wrote really resonates with me. Thank for that.
Home is a home-coming to Self and Mystery. And, for me, more recently, I have been feeling called to connect to my Ancestors. Perhaps this belongs more to the theme of belonging.
Thanks again, Alyssa. Beautiful post!
Thanks, Chris. I appreciate your kind words. Much of my writing, even when it's being portrayed as an intellectual exploration, is often rooted in my own personal experience. I've felt that the path of personal development has led me to so many questions; how to make sense of what is happening, what psychological dynamics seem to underpin a situation, etc. In that sense, it's been a development of my own personality alongside a deepening of concepts, ideas, frameworks. It's why Jung's work resonates so deeply. I find much of my story reflected in his theories.
Having just read the Odyssey, do you sense any of those trials as closely tied to ones you're experiencing now? I found that an interesting exercise.
I think connecting with ancestors is tied to that sense of home as well, the archetypal constellation. Another viewpoint I want to touch on with home is through the mythic lens of Hestia and how nurturing the ancestral hearth is key for a place to be established as home. I think this has inner and outer components. In my experience, visiting ancestral land, reconciling ancestral themes has been really important. But it still felt like something was "missing" if the crucial inner dynamic wasn't met too.
What stuck me most and resonates until today is the katabasis scene, when Odysseus visits Hades to consult the seer on how to make his journey home. Katabasis and the underworld has always appealed to me. That scene is powerful in many respects. For me, it relates to building a living relationship with the unconsciousness, to venture into the depths of myself to seek counsel. It also relates to my current practice (which I've just begun) of ancestral reverence and cultivating a reciprocal relationship with my ancestors. Jung said something really interesting (I don't have the reference). I believe he said that the unconscious is the realm of the dead and the ancestors. What I am coming into is an understanding that dreams and the unconscious are both here and there, inner and outer, personal and collective, psychological and generational. It is not only the place where we meet ourselves, it is also where we meet others. We are ever so intertwined in each other's destiny. There is no escaping that reality.
Beautifully put. It’s paradoxical in a sense, but really in my eyes, complementary. The unconscious contains its opposite, the many layered experience of life in all its shades and colors. We may see through one lens at a time, but it is intertwined, as you said.