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| Detail of the Way |
You know when you find your path, because there is a little extra energy there that tugs on you. It is seldom something you planned. The alchemists knew this path: when everything is black, then you know you are on the right course. Before it’s over, everything not connected to your bedrock will shatter; your life will be changed forever.
And yet, this path endured demands you make regular sacrifice of ego’s agenda to this tug from Self, leading you into the largeness of psyche and an expanded relationship to yourself and to the universe.
The stories in Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way, a collection Naomi Ruth Lowinsky and I just finished co-editing (to be released April 2012), are descriptions of the authors’ own paths, individual and unique, yet also with a common element in being guided eventually to, and then by, the philosophy of C. G. Jung.
The book had its own way with Naomi and me, as synchronicity guided us, confirmed when we were on course, alerted us to when we were not. It is a weaving of many stories, even one of finding the cover image. While editing the book, we spent a week in retreat at Opus House (!) in Truchas, New Mexico. One day we ambled into the Cardona-Hine Gallery. Barbara McCauley met us at the door, showing us her paintings and those of her husband. She took us on a tour of her husband’s studio, and then, almost as an afterthought, of her own. Most of Barbara’s paintings were of the New Mexican landscape painted with rich and beautiful earth colors. The first painting we pulled out showed an woman in rose red confronting the viewer with an enigmatic stare. She rides a lowly donkey and above her is that whirl of informing Spirit. Flight to Egypt, the title of this piece, tugged us both! This is it! There is no physical baby in the painting: Mary’s stare informs us of the enormity of the divine birth, suggests we question its nature, reflects the humbleness of journey we must take to protect it. That is what these author’s stories are about.
From Fisher King Press:
Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way
is a soulful collection of essays that illuminate the inner life.
When Soul appeared to C.G. Jung and demanded he change his life, he opened himself to the powerful forces of the unconscious. He recorded his inner journey, his conversations with figures that appeared to him in vision and in dream in The Red Book. Although it would be years before The Red Book was published, much of what we now know as Jungian psychology began in those pages, when Jung allowed the irrational to assault him. That was a century ago.
How do those of us who dedicate ourselves to Jung’s psychology as analysts, teachers, writers respond to Soul’s demands in our own lives? If we believe, with Jung, in “the reality of the psyche,” how does that shape us? The articles in Marked By Fire portray direct experiences of the unconscious; they tell life stories about the fiery process of becoming ourselves
Contributors to Marked by Fire: Jerome Bernstein, Claire Douglas, Gilda Frantz, Jacqueline Gerson, Jean Kirsch, Chie Lee, Karlyn Ward, Henry Abramovitch, Sharon Heath, Dennis Patrick Slattery, Robert Romanyshyn, Patricia Damery, and Naomi Ruth Lowinsky.
Available Spring 2012. Paperback & eBook editions – Advance Orders Welcomed
Product Details
Paperback & eBook editions: 150 pages (estimate)
Large Page Size Format 9.25″ x 7.5″
Publisher: Fisher King Press; 1st edition (April 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1-926715-68-3
ISBN-13: 978-1-926715-68-1