In 1994 in the Ardeche region of France, three explorers pulled rocks away from a tiny opening at the base of a cliff and opened the door to another world. Inside the deepest recesses of what turned out to be a 1300-foot long cave were remarkable images of animals painted there by humans living 30,000 years ago (Herzog, 2010). The images are remarkable in their style and beauty, virtually perfectly preserved in the near airtight conditions of the cave. Lions, bears, bison, reindeer, mammoth, rhinoceroses and other beings line the walls in almost three-dimensional form, many captured in dynamic action–hooves […]
Continue reading »Author: Bonnie Bright, Ph.D.
Bonnie Bright, Ph.D. holds M.A. degrees in Psychology from Sonoma State University and Depth Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute, where she also completed her doctorate. She is a certified Archetypal Pattern Analyst™ and Transpersonal Soul-Centered Coach, using Somatic, Symbolic, and Shamanic perspectives to guide clients through spiritual awakening, integrate mystical experiences, and overcome creative blockages. She founded the Institute for Soul-Centered Psychology and Coaching™ in 2020.
Bonnie is accredited through the International Association of Coaches, Therapists, & Mentors (IACTM) and has extensive training in dream work, Holotropic Breathwork, and the Enneagram. She also completed a 2-year training in Indigenous African Spiritual Technologies with elder Malidoma Somé, has lived with indigenous Shipibo people in Peru as part of a shamanic initiation to learn medicine and healing modalities , and has worked with shamans and healers in the Africa, and North and South America.
In 2010, she founded Depth Psychology Alliance™, an online organization with over 5,500 members, and served as Executive Editor of Depth Insights™ journal for six years. Bonnie is the editor of "Earth, Climate, Dreams: Dialogues with Depth Psychologists in the Age of the Anthropocene" (2019) and "Depth Psychology and the Digital Age" (2016). Her journey into soul-centered work began with a mystical experience in 2006, which continues to inform her daily quest for awakening and helping others find their own path to soul.
Jung, Individuation, and Shamanism
According to historian philosopher Mircea Eliade, has been around for millennia, practically as long as humans have existed. In recent decades, the archetype of has experienced a rebirth. With growing consciousness, more more individuals are recognizing spontaneously consistently what our indigenous ancestors knew: that there is a divine intelligence at work in the universe, a life force of love light, of which, by nature birthright, we are an integral part. Anne Baring (2007), psychologist author, notes that C.G. himself commented on the capacity of humans to respond to this greater force, saying: The archetypal image of the wise man, the saviour or redeemer, lies buried dormant in man’s unconscious […]
Continue reading »Our Modern Cultural Mindset and the Forward Thinking of Carl Jung
One of my favorite quotes is this from Carl Jung, which addresses the reality of nature and our loss of contact with it. It also identifies a deep and burgeoning issue for humankind: “Man feels isolated in the cosmos. He is no longer involved in nature and has lost his emotional participation in natural events, which hitherto had symbolic meaning for him. Thunder is no longer the voice of a god, nor is lightning his avenging missile. No river contains a spirit, no tree makes a man’s life, no snake is the embodiment of wisdom and no mountain still harbours […]
Continue reading »When Culture Battles Spirit: An Archetypal and Depth Psychological Look at the Nature of Addiction
Addiction (of all kinds) has been described as everything from frustrating to “hell” to “possession,” and worse. The pattern of addiction is an archetype that has been around for millennia, but it certainly seems like our current culture is more and more conducive to the iron grip of addiction in a multitude of ways–including everything from the more traditional issues with alcohol, drugs, gambling, cigarettes, sex, food, or work, to new and emerging culturally supported issues like television, shopping, Internet, email, texting, social media, mobile gadgets, video gaming, and more. Often, particularly in the case of the latter group, we […]
Continue reading »Watching without Seeing: A Pathological Cultural Disorder?
Most of us have had the experience of feeling stopped, stuck, or paralyzed in our lives, unable to progress, to access creativity, meet deadlines, sometimes even to manage basic obligations. Being immobilized is hardly pleasant, but it is absolutely a hallmark of impending change, and it behooves us to understand both the problem and the power of paralysis. Years ago, I did some meaningful research into the myth of Medusa, the legendary Gorgon who turned people to stone when they looked at her. What I ultimately realized is that the irony of regarding Medusa is that being turned to stone makes one an object of disregard. Disregard may […]
Continue reading »The Shadow of Society and its Role in Mass Shootings
With the gradual development of our corresponding capacity for logical thinking in humans (that is, to “think about our ability to think”), we have both increased opportunities for consciousness but also increased challenges in the sense that we categorically seek to analyze, label, and put into buckets the things we don’t understand–sometimes becoming reductive and trapped in limited thinking. In order for us to transcend our current mythology and come to new creative awareness, we need to be able to look beyond established boundaries and facades to see what newand emergent concepts await. One good example of this is the […]
Continue reading »Carl Jung’s Process of Individuation and the Archetype of Renewal
In describing the process of individuation as an alchemical process, Jung maintained that the point of individuation was not to become perfect or attempt to overcome or master our personal psychology, but to become familiar with it, thereby coming into relationship with the parts of ourselves that have become repressed, numbed, split off, or disowned (Sharp, 1991). A lack of relationship between the individual and the Self can lead to pathology when the Self is not realized (in the body), often erupting in symptoms (Edinger, 1995). Likewise, contemporary psychologist, John Weir Perry (1976) attributes the psychotic break of schizophrenic patients […]
Continue reading »In the Face of Trauma: A Depth Psychological Approach
In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy of the Sandy Hook Newtown Connecticut mass school shooting, many of us are experiencing some degree of trauma–whether we knew the victims firsthand or not. In fact, there are many reasons we may feel increasingly traumatized in a culture where chaos seems to be the norm, rather than the unusual. Psychologist and trauma expert, Robert Stolorow (2010) designates the contemporary era an “Age of Trauma” because, according to him, the “tranquilizing illusions of our everyday world seem in our time to be severely threatened from all sides” (para. 2). He refers to ongoing and increasing global issues like […]
Continue reading »In the Face of Trauma: A Depth Psychological Approach
In the aftermath of the terrible tragedy of the Sandy Hook Newtown Connecticut mass school shooting, many of us are experiencing some degree of trauma–whether we knew the victims firsthand or not. In fact, there are many reasons we may feel increasingly traumatized in a culture where chaos seems to be the norm, rather than the unusual. Psychologist and trauma expert, Robert Stolorow (2010) designates the contemporary era an “Age of Trauma” because, according to him, the “tranquilizing illusions of our everyday world seem in our time to be severely threatened from all sides” (para. 2). He refers to ongoing and increasing global issues like […]
Continue reading »The Importance of Witnessing and Feeling in the Face of Tragedy
More than ever, many of us are looking for meaning in a culture where we are moving faster connecting with each other less less. The more things feel out of our control, the more we tend to tamp down emotions not allow ourselves to witness or feel the devastating effects of our environments the things going on around us. After all, feeling the impact of the horrors of genocide, war, disaster, famine, or senseless acts of violence such as the mass shootings in Newtown, Connecticut Clackamas, Oregon this week would be virtually impossible for us to humanly bear if we […]
Continue reading »An Archetypal Perspective on Clinical Practice: A Summary of a Lecture by Jungian Analyst Michael Conforti
Recently I attended a teleseminar wich I found valuable and provocative and which inspired me to summarize it here. Please note that that this synopsis is based on my own understanding and interpretation of what was said on the call, and has not been reviewed by the presenter, Dr. Michael Conforti. ### Whether you are a clinical psychologist or psychotherapist, or simply an individual who had experienced therapy, the capacity to use an archetypal perspective is critical and greatly enriches the treatment, stated Dr. Michael Conforti in his introductory teleseminar in the Master Lecture series, “An Archetypal Perspective on Clinical […]
Continue reading »Nature, Psyche, Climate Change, and the Psychology of Place
A pioneer of depth psychology, C.G. Jung carved the following enigmatic quote in a stone at his home in Bollingen. I am an orphan, alone, nevertheless I am found everywhere, I am one, but opposed to myself. I am youth and old man at one and the same time. I have known neither father nor mother, because I have had to be fetched out of the deep like a fish, or fell like a white stone from heaven. In woods and mountains I roam, but I am hidden in the innermost soul of man. I am mortal for every one, […]
Continue reading »Psyche and the Symbolic Life: How do Symbols Transform You?
Sometimes events occur that naturally captivate our attention, arresting us mid-stream in our daily lives and returning to our thoughts with increasing intensity. While there is no obvious initial explanation for why these events seem to grab us, if we turn our awareness to them, create a container in which they can unfold, and allow them to speak to us through image and emotion, they can provide powerful messages about our personal lives, our psyches, and our relationship with the culture and cosmos around us. C.G. Jung believed these captivating events and images are manifestations of the unconscious, which are imbued […]
Continue reading »Enter the World of Soul and You are Like a Madman: Learnings from Carl Jung’s Red Book
Originally Posted by Bonnie Bright on November 29, 2010 at 7:00pm “If you enter into the world of soul, you are like a madman” – Carl Jung, The Red Book, p. 238. In his recently released Red Book, a body of work Carl Jung immersed himself in for nearly 17 years, Jung reveals the deep introspective nature of what he ultimately considered an archetypal “descent.” He documented this journey to the Underworld in tremendous detail and accompanied many of the entries and topics with beautifully detailed drawings. If you haven’t had a chance to view the Red Book, I highly recommend you […]
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