RE: CREDO XXII Cogito ergo sum

[Guest guest]

Dear Jung-Fire folk,

After a hiatus of several years, I have re-joined this list at

Alice’s invitation. 

Just a brief introduction: I live in central Vermont with my

wife .  I have a day job as a manager at a dairy processing plant, but

my true vocation is the study of dreams and the archetypal wisdom that derives

from them.  I have been studying for four years with Marc Bregman, the founder

of North of Eden, a dreamwork community, where I am now a staff teacher.  If you

are interested in learning more, check out www.northofeden.com.

It’s a website with a host of information, writings by Marc and others,

artwork, poetry, and lots more.

Recently Rodger Kamenetz, a well-known author on spiritual

topics (his previous book,“The Jew in the Lotus†is about the Dalai Lama’s

meeting with Orthodox rabbis) published “The History of Last Night’s Dreamâ€,

(Harper 2007) in which the North of Eden dreamwork is discussed at

length.  Also, Marc Bregman has two books about this work: “The Deep Well Tapesâ€

and “The Secret of the Pomegranate,†both published by North of Eden Press (see

the website for more details).

I have been charged by the community to help bring this seminal

work to the attention of the Jungian world.  My roots in that world include more

than 200 hours of Jungian analysis with Vannoy , now head of the

Jungian Psychological Association, the two-year program at Assisi Conferences,

from which I received a certificate in archetypal pattern recognition, and clinical

training with Langs, M.D.  I also attended many Jungian courses and

seminars at the C.G. Jung Foundation in New York, and I have an M.A. in

psychology from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

The core of the North of Eden work is best summed up in Jung’s

words, “Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart.  Who

looks outside, dreams.  Who looks inside, awakens.â€Â  Our dreams come straight

from the deep unconscious and are a source of pure wisdom, unadulterated by the

ego and the influences of waking life.  By paying attention to dreams we have

the opportunity to tap into this source and to deepen our relationship with the

Divine.

I have sent all three books to Alice and I look forward to her

comments on this list.  I invite and welcome any questions or discussions that

this post may initiate and I am really happy to participate in the work of this

group and to be in contact with Alice once again.

Peace and blessings in this New Year,

From:

JUNG-FIRE [mailto:JUNG-FIRE ] On Behalf Of IonaDove@...

Sent: Monday, December 31, 2007 9:45 AM

To: JUNG-FIRE ; Negative-Capability ; museredux@...

Subject: CREDO XXII Cogito ergo sum

CREDO XXII

Cogito ergo

sum

I have only had one dream in Latin

but it was so unusual, I woke my dear husband, who kindly wrote it down. I

heard one sentence: Cogito ergo sum which, of course, is Rene Descartes’

proof of his own existence – I think therefore I am. But the voice continued: Cogito

ergo sum ergo scio Deus est! I think therefore I am, therefore I

[can] know God exists.

The emphasis is on the difference

between thinking and knowing. I have pondered on this dream for several years.

It makes sense in terms of Jung’s differentiation between the ego (I), the

center of consciousness, and the mystery of the Self (Divine Guest). It seems

to hint that the ultimate purpose is for us to make conscious the

existence of Spirit in a logical and undeniable way.

This brings me back to the simple

analogy of a candle. The candle is the separate ego; the wick is the individual

Self, and when lit holds the flame (Divine Guest!), which is the same

collective fire all over the world and is the only element of the symbolic four

to give us Light, Life, and Love. So far so good?

In THE BEEJUM BOOK, the child Teak

goes into a lantern factory of the elves and finds every different lamp

imaginable, some lovely, some tacky, some dirty and ugly, hardly giving out any

light at all. She is asked to select her favorite and the one she dislikes

most. Left alone, she chooses two. Then Gumblegurk, the head elf, asks her to

look inside and notice that it is the same flame in each. The difference,

symbolically, is the lantern, the outer persona of the individual.

When I was teaching ninth grade at

Portledge, I brought in a glass box with a top. It was made for me as a gift by

a friend. I put a small candle in it and lit it. Then I placed in succession a

series of religious symbols: cross, Star of , Crescent and Star, etc., and

the same Light shone through each. The kids could draw birds, people, animals

on tissue paper with the same result. I also put a square of black paper with

just a few pin pricks in front of it. Now they all got talking – about becoming

“en-lightened,†“illuminated,†and the ubiquitous references to Light in the

darkness. The most breathtaking moment came when one teenaged girl remarked with

awe, “That means that whatever we do to others, we are really doing to

ourselves!â€

So that ninth grade agreed on a new interpretation of an

old commandmentâ€

Love thy neighbor, he is

thyself!

Well, we have 2000 years of the Age of Aquarius ahead of us

to figure this out – this is our collective task. Mother put it in a

nutshell: “I believe in person-to-person and that God is in everyone.†The trap

must be the person-to-person! Ah so!

lovingly,

ao

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