How to teach Jungian psychology to children

How to teach Jungian psychology to children

As much as I love Jungian psychology, most Jungian analysts and enthusiasts tend to be on the older side. It would be great to see Jungian psychology taught to children.

That’s why I really enjoyed this video of Jungian analyst Dennis Merritt, where he talks about how to teach Jungian psychology to children.

As Merritt says, we’re not offering children an understanding of how we got here to this present cultural and environmental moment. We’re mostly making them aware of the negativity.

Jungian psychology can show children what we can do about how to improve the environment, relationships, and culture.

He recommends that the curriculum for students follow the levels of the collective unconscious as delineated by Jung:

  1. Individual – ego, shadow, anima/animus. There would be an emphasis on the spiritual dimensions of relationships with the opposite sex, so youth could learn about their own shadow in regards to people they don’t get along with well and the positive aspect of shadow in people they envy.
  2. Family – attachment theory determines how safe you feel in the world. 40% of people have poor attachment. The Madonna and child image is the perfect image of attachment at the transcendent level.
  3. Clan – the extended family.
  4. Nation – myths of country, like cowboy, have affected how Americans think of themselves. The minuteman myth is at basis of NRA.
  5. Large group – Eastern culture vs. western culture. Jung emphasized the importance of remaining in the culture you were born in. Religion also is in this category. Jung talked about how Christianity cuts us off from nature, animals, the feminine, and sensuality.
  6. Primeval ancestors – The “2 million year old man within” that Jung talked about, which all cultures share. Our indigenous roots.
  7. Animal ancestors – Indigenous people were close to this realm. An example is Native American spirituality and their indigenous connection with nature through spirit animals and ceremonies.

Here are more ideas for the curriculum:

Continue ReadingHow to teach Jungian psychology to children

The I Ching in the Wisconsin heartland: maintaining inner steadiness as better times approach (hexagram 19, plus some birdies)

The I Ching in the Wisconsin heartland: maintaining inner steadiness as better times approach (hexagram 19, plus some birdies)

Yesterday, the day after the Summer Solstice, I grabbed one of my I Ching books and made my way to a Native American burial mound in a forest a few miles from my house.

The I Ching is an ancient source of wisdom you can access anywhere and it gives you insights that are so refreshingly different from most modern advice. No “7 steps to a more successful career” kind of thing. It’s become an important part of the work I do with a Jungian analyst.

Unfortunately I’ve avoided this forest the past couple of years, due to acquiring a fear of deer ticks, which are Lyme disease transmitters. Eek! But I put on long socks and fortified myself with some Taco Bell pintos and cheese, because this is the heartland, after all. Plus, it wouldn’t seem right to eat frou frou food before walking to an ancient site like this. And off I went:

Last week my Jungian analyst said moments of synchronicity frequently occur at sacred places like a Native American burial mounds. He suggested I start visiting a few of them, due to my late father’s interest in them when he was around my age. He would take long walks in nature and visit the mounds in Wisconsin.

Standing at this ancient site (it was built in 650 – 1100 CE) I slowly tossed the coins to form the hexagram and asked for words of wisdom to ponder this weekend. I also explained the reason I was at the burial mound. The thing about the I Ching is, you should approach it respectfully, never ask a silly question, and don’t ask a “yes/no” question.

There are 64 hexagrams, each with 6 lines. There are a possible 4,096 I Ching readings. So whatever hexagram you cast, there is a 4,096 chance of drawing that particular reading.

I was given:

Hexagram 19: Approach. (Better Times Approach)

Better times? I liked the sound of that.

But this is the I Ching. Because of how deep it is, there will always be some shades of darkness mixed in, along with the strong sense that your attitude plays a large role; it’s not about running off and creating an action plan and following “next steps.” It’s not a vending machine of wisdom. You must enter into the hexagram, feel your away around, be content with opaqueness, and look at it from many angles.

There are three different I Ching books I use, as recommended by my analyst. Carol Anthony’s A Guide to the I Ching is my favorite of the the three and I had that one with me. I sat on the rock and read. I’ll share parts of it here, so you can consider these insights for your own life as well:

“Through developing a balanced, sincere, and conscientious attitude we acquire the assistance of the Sage, who approaches to help; as a result, times change for the better and tensions ease.”

Whether situations get better or worse, “we remain emotionally detached and inwardly independent. That times are better should not indicate that it is time to let down our discipline, renew bad habits, or luxuriate in self-indulgence. We enjoy the moment but do not get lost in it.; we go on, almost without breaking step. This attitude is the embodiment of modesty. […] Because we do not allow ourselves to indulge in an emotional high, we avoid a resulting emotional low, thus we maintain the inner steadiness that characterizes the Sage, a steadiness which enables us to achieve all our purposes.”

The top line of the hexagram is what I cast and it says: “When we are firm in our principles, yet open-minded and compassionate, we attain a greathearted approach to life which is free of impatience with others’ imperfections. This attitude invokes the help of the Sage. As the Sage humbles himself in a greathearted way to help us, a greathearted humility enables us to help others.”

The next step is to take the first hexagram, which describes the present state, and create a second one out of it by following certain steps. The second hexagram describes the future state:

Hexagram 41: Decline (Decrease)

Oh oh, I thought.

But that’s how it goes in life. A pendulum. Better times. Then decline. Better times. Then decline.

Hexagram 41 has wisdom about what to do the next time things take a downturn:

“Sacrifice feelings to which we are attached, such as desire, affection, repulsion, negation, alienation, or irritation, for the good of the whole.”

“Decrease also refers to the sense of dismay we feel when we realize that our ego must relinquish leadership of our personality. […] To decrease the ego, by letting go of such feelings, is to ‘express the true sentiments of the heart.’ By decreasing our ego, the correct messages are transmitted to others and the Higher Power is able to help and defend us.

“[…] During moments of decrease we are able to see that we need help, and we have the humility to ask for help. […] So long as our ego is able to control us, we remain unreliable. To accept our need for help, and to call for help, is to gain to help of the Higher Power.

Birdies!

On the way back out of the forest I walked past my favorite section in the meadow where the geese have a “daycare.” The mother goose was unfazed by me, didn’t move, and seemed to exemplify that hexagram 19 inner steadiness. Yes, I know, I’m projecting human qualities onto a bird (anthropomorphization, if you want to be fancy about it), but humor me, because I can’t help myself. I like birdies.

Then I came across this baby American robin in the middle of the path just as I was about to exit the forest:

The bird didn’t move, probably because she was too young to know she should be afraid. The mother bird was cheeping frantically a short distance away, but didn’t seem to see the baby bird.

Two birds in a moment of Decrease and in need of help. I’m standing there wanting a better time to Approach for these birds; a reminder we are all connected. I called out to mama bird to let her know that her baby was over here. I said words of comfort to baby bird. Then, with “greathearted humility,” I said a prayer, asking for divine help for these two birdies, that they would quickly be reunited, that the moment of Decrease would be over so quickly it would be forgotten.

One of the beautiful things about using the I Ching is you feel you aren’t alone. Through synchronicity you feel that someone (Sage, God, the Higher Power, Divine Feminine, the Creative, whatever name you prefer) is there ready to help you.

An ancient Chinese text, on an ancient Native American burial mound, so now let’s weave in an ancient Biblical text (Luke 12:6) for good measure: “Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.”

Continue ReadingThe I Ching in the Wisconsin heartland: maintaining inner steadiness as better times approach (hexagram 19, plus some birdies)

Is AI the future of personality typing?

Is AI the future of personality typing?

So much energy goes into studying and debating the accuracy of various personality typology methods.

What if typing didn’t have to be that complicated?

Imagine… the consternation and stress many people experience when they are typed incorrectly could become mostly a thing of the past.

There is a lot of discussion these days about bringing objectivity into the typing process.

To remove bias from personality typing, and make the process as objective as possible, then how about we just let AI do the typing?

Carl Jung created typology to be used as a tool for individuation, so at first glance this concept might seem oxymoronic, if not downright appalling. I’ll address that in a moment, but first let’s take a quick look at the technology aspect.

The technology already exists. It simply needs to be tailored for typology.

For example, HireVue created assessment and video interview softwarethat eliminates the need for resumes and traditional interviews. It is now widely used by employers

Applicants upload their LinkedIn profile. Then, if it passes the AI screening process, the applicant receives an invitation to play 12 online games that assess cognitive, emotional, and social traits.

The next stage is a digital one-way interview. The applicant answers a series of pre-recorded questions via computer or smartphone from the comfort of their home.

AI assesses the video and analyzes the speech-to-text translation for the words used and notes how often the person uses the word “I” instead of “we,” and picks up on other EQ skills.

The bias, fatigue, projections, hunger pains, etc., of a human interviewer are removed from the process. At the end, if selected as a finalist, the applicant talks with a real human.

It’s not a stretch to see how a similar AI approach could be used for personality typing.

To be statistically valid, one would need a sample size of at least 350+ people for each personality type. The text of those interviews, facial expressions, tone of voice, and emotion detection become part of the algorithm. The algorithm would pay attention only to those factors that have proven to predict a particular type. Regular audits and testing would be done to eliminate bias in the algorithm.

It removes the typologist bottleneck. AI could type people at scale much more quickly than typologists ever could in person.

One could easily find outliers and those would be followed up with by a human typologist. Refinements and adjustments made to that typing would be entered into the algorithm to improve accuracy in the future. It would be very iterative.

The data could be used for more than just typing people.

You could do a search of the data to find out characteristics and trends of a particular type.

You could compare, say, ENTP’s over the age of 65 to those under the age of 30. How often does an ISTJ mention books compared to an INTP? Are INFJ’s really only 1% of the data set? And so on.

It could eliminate the anecdotal profiles that proliferate today. There would now be actually data to drive the writing of the profiles.

This is similar to customer experience/feedback management software by companies like Qualtrics that businesses use to analyze the thousands of phone calls, emails, live chats, survey responses, etc. they receive every day.

Users of this software never long to return to the days when humans had to attempt to acquire this data through manually listening to a smattering of call recordings and taking a guess at what was upsetting customers. Instead the desire is simply for more and more data from AI.

The data can be served up in something as simple as a word cloud. You also have the ability to drill down deeper and find detailed insights. Instead of having to spend time finding data, there is the luxury of analyzing it instead.

Again, it is easy to see how this could apply to typology as well.

Why humans can’t be objective

Daniel Kahneman makes the bold claim that “humans should be replaced by algorithms whenever possible.”

This is because human thinking is too noisy and narrow to be objective:

Wisdom is breadth. Wisdom is not having a narrow view; that’s the essence of wisdom. It’s broad framing, and a robot will be endowed with broad framing.

And I really do not see why, when it has learned enough, it will not be wiser than we people because we don’t have broad framing. We’re narrow thinking, we’re noisy thinkers, it’s very easy to improve upon us, and I don’t think that there is very much that we can do that computers will not eventually be programmed to do.

Let’s also not forget how much projections get in the way of objectivity. A projection is when we observe our own unconscious tendencies in other people. We tend to be unaware of our projections.

Marie-Louise von Franz, Carl Jung’s close associate, said:

Projections of all kinds obscure our view of our fellow men, spoiling its objectivity, and thus spoiling all possibility of genuine human relationships.”

OK, fine. Robots can type people. But should they?

According to psychiatrist and Jungian analyst John Beebe, The Association of Psychological Typing says it’s unethical to type someone without interviewing them.

Therefore, follow up with a human typologist would be imperative. But it there would be the luxury for the conversation to focus on the inner work needed for individuation and living out one’s type, and less about the typing process.

And, dare I say it, there could be less conversation about disagreeing about type and more about integrating it.

Knowledge of one’s personality type has to slowly seep inwards. There is the gradual slow reveal of your type as you receive confirmation of it through dreams, engagement with your shadow side, and one-on-one work with an analyst/coach/therapist, etc.

Those not interested in that kind of depth would at least be likely to learn insights about themselves they may not have have otherwise. Personality typing could benefit more people who know little or nothing about typology.

Even though Daniel Kahneman says that humans won’t always prefer emotional contact with other humans over robots, I suspect for the foreseeable future it will be real, non-artificial intelligence that will help people integrate their typing.

And, in the final analysis, your psyche will always know more about your true type than any robot or human ever will.

___________

Sources:

AEI public policy January 11, 2018 blog post about Daniel Kahneman

On Being interview with Daniel Kahneman

Man and His Symbols by Carl Jung

Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type by John Beebe

Net Prompter System Podcast interview with HireVue’s Kevin Parker

Continue ReadingIs AI the future of personality typing?

Tapping into my inferior ESTP mode

As an INFJ, I feel like when I am in my inferior ESTP mode, I tap into a certain rawness and bluntness that cuts to the core of experiencing life. It stems from my love of rock music, being a huge sports (and especially basketball) fan. It also makes me gravitate heavily towards people who have this raw, no bullshit way of communicating.

I am very attracted to raw and vivid TRUTH. Simply viewing reality as it is without any distortion or manipulation. Just living in a hardcore, essential kind of way.

I’m very attracted to people that embody these hyper-REAL qualities to them, and I love the opportunity to (on occasion) express that rawness.

This is a huge reason why (on a Socionics level) I can totally buy into the idea of connecting with an ESTP dual. All the qualities that I just mentioned (in a human being that expresses these qualities) certainly can be something that I can viscerally relate to in a really genuine, hardcore way.

Continue ReadingTapping into my inferior ESTP mode

The role of animals in your personality type

The role of animals in your personality type

Did you know that animals play a role in your personality type?

I don’t just mean regular animals, although they are important. Like Jungian analyst James Hillman said, pets were the first psychoanalysts. I’m referring to the animal within with whom, according to Carl Jung, we must connect in order to become a whole person.

Jung said we have a “2 million-year-old man within” and that “we still have an animal character.” Our 2 million-year-old woman/man manifests in dreams where we experience numinous connections with animals. James Hillman called dreams “zoological cathedrals.”

Jungian analyst Dennis L. Merritt says:

The purpose of psychoanalysis is to enliven and enrich consciousness through contact with the animal instinctual level.

Jung again:

The body is the original animal condition, we are all animals in body, and so we have to have an animal psychology in order to be able to live in it. […] Since we have a body it is indispensable that we exist also as an animal.”

This brings us to the Objective Personality typology system.

Objective Personality: bringing animals to your personality

In addition to a function stack, Objective Personality includes an “animal stack” of four animal energies for each personality type. It’s like your body has a type of its own and this type has a direct connection to your personality type.

The animals are created by two cognitive functions working together. Here are the names and descriptions of the four animals as per the Objective Personality website:

Sleep — “Process and preserves energy for self, before expending energy for the tribe.”

Sleep is about budgeting one’s energy and attention. It’s what helps preserve the flow state in my mind.

Consume — “Takes in and respects info, before getting started and teaching.”

Listening, reading, and researching are some of the attributes of consume.

Blast– “ Gets started and is able to teach, before respecting and gathering info.”

Blast is often conflated with speaking, but this isn’t always the case with introverts people who have this animal. For introverts, blast is an internal energy that propels us. It’s also used to make our speaking and writing as concise as possible.

Play — Expends energy for the tribe, before processing and preserving energy for self.

Blast and Play are extroverted and Sleep and Consume are introverted. If two of your top three animals are introverted, then you are an introvert.

Conversely, if two of the top three animals are extroverted then you are extrovert.

The animal stacks can also help explain why some extroverts think they are an introvert and vice versa. The third animal in your animal stack is your “hobby” animal. For example, if someone has Consume as the third animal, they might tend to seek out reading and other Consume activities in their spare time. If someone has Sleep as their third animal, and their top two animals are the extroverted Play and Sleep animals, they might feel like they are an introvert sometimes, because they will be inclined to seek out Sleep activities in their spare time. These activities allow them to be quiet and recharge.

Create a field guide for your animal

You should also study your animal with objective or disinterested observations, the way a zoologist studies animals. Only you are studying the animal named you.

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great and other business books, spent several years early in his career making detached observations about himself. But that’s not all. He also would make note when another individual would inspire him:

I’d spent a lot of it not just on my own experiences, but also very much on people that I admired. Not people from afar, people I knew and observed. Not their achievements, but something about the quality of what they were. And that was also a big part of that observation process.

How to care for your animal

The first step in caring for your animal is to understand how your animal cares for you.

Marie-Louise von Franz, who was a close associate of Carl Jung’s for several decades, and was an expert in both typology and fairy tales, said that the only “rule” or “ethic” in the mysterious world of fairy tales is this:

Anyone who earns the gratitude of animals, or whom they help for any reason, invariably wins out. This is the only unfailing rule I have been able to find.

Our animals are a vital support system to our cognitive functions. John Beebe describes the function stack as two axes. The “spine” axis is the hero (lead) function and anima/animus (inferior) function. These are the functions we use to develop ourselves.

The “arms” axis is the parent (auxiliary) and child (tertiary) functions. These are the functions we use to help others.

I view our animal as the reverse of this. Our lead and inferior animals helps us engage with the outside world. And our middle two animals help us take care of ourselves.

For example, Beebe says the second function is the parent function, but it is only able to parent others; it is not able to parent oneself very well. I think the second animal can swoop in and help you parent yourself.

The next step is to pay attention to your last animal. A person with Play last could endlessly remain in the realm of Blast/Sleep/Consume, but their body will occasionally let them know when they need to get up and move around, take a walk, or interact with others.

Those with Sleep last sometimes indicate they are capable of being on the go constantly, but their bodies will occasionally slow them down by getting sick, or they experience a flare up of a chronic medical condition. Then they spend a day or more in bed to recover.

Please feed your animals

The best scenario is to regularly “budget” time to engage with your last animal.

Someone with Play last could schedule regular time to exercise, schedule recurring lunches with co-workers or friends, and so on.

Someone with Blast last could engage in small activities with little planning beforehand or start writing blog or social media posts regularly with little preparation.

Someone with Consume last could have scheduled time where they read books, articles, watch documentaries, and so on. One consume last person said that after he finishes reading a book, he has to start a new book within 24 hours, otherwise there is the danger he will go months without reading any books.

Someone with Sleep last could budget a certain number of hours per week/month to devote to Sleep, which could involve writing a journal entry and reflecting in solitude with no set purpose.

Your animal helps you reach your full human potential

According to Jungian analyst Dennis L. Merritt:

To be truly human, Jung believed, and to reach our unique potential,we have to be in relationship to animals. This is both an outer relationship to animals and an intimate relationship with the collective unconscious, coming to terms with the animal in our inheritance.

The collective unconscious makes its appearance in our dreams quite often and is also a part of our animal nature. Keeping a dream journal is one way to maintain this connection with the numinous, archetypes, and your shadow side.

Many forces in our society suppress both our outer relationship to animals and our relationship to the collective unconscious. Making the unconscious conscious is the goal of individuation. Integrating your animal self is a part of this.

A good first step is to discuss your dreams with a Jungian analyst. Speaking from experience, (disclosure: I am a client of Dennis Merritt’s), I can’t emphasize the importance of this enough.

I think often about how animals are always fully themselves. A tiger doesn’t try to pretend to be a cow. A Northern Cardinal doesn’t pretend to be a Great Horned Owl.

Native Americans have a perfect model for this. When a boy reached puberty he was “put on a hill” and not given food or water for four days. He would call out for a vision in hopes of receiving his spirit animal, among other things.

According to Dennis L. Merritt:

The energy was embodied, for example, by studying the animal, wearing elements of it on one’s body, dancing it at sacred gatherings, etc. If a young man did not have a spirit animal he could not go into battle: it would be a crime for someone to die without ever knowing who they really were. [emphasis mine]

Humans are the only animal that can pretend to be someone they are not. This is also why personality typology is so important and an important tool for individuation, so you can understand your true essence beneath your persona.

Your type can be revealed to you over time through work with an analyst. I recommend studying the 8 function model of John Beebe, Lectures in Psychological Type by Marie-Louise Von Franz and James Hillman, the Enneagram (especially Don Richard Riso’s works and his concept of the Levels of Development), and the animal stack in Objective Personality, for a complete picture.

It seems appropriate to close this article with a quote from Ursula Le Guin, the fantasy and science fiction author:

The animal does not reason but it sees. And it acts with certainty; it acts ‘rightly,’ appropriately. That is why all animals are beautiful. It is the animal who knows the way, the way home.

Sources:

Objective Personality website

Dream Animals by James Hillman

Jung and Ecopsychology: The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe by Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D. and Jungian Analyst

Care of the Soul a lecture by Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., February, 2019.

The Child and the Shadow, an essay in the book The Language of the Night: Essays on Fantasy and Science Fiction by Ursula Le Guin

Energies and Patterns in Psychological Type by John Beebe

Tim Ferriss Show interview with Jim Collins

The Wisdom of the Enneagram by Don Richard Riso and Russ Hudson

Lectures on Jung’s Typology by Marie-Louise Von Franz and James Hillman

Continue ReadingThe role of animals in your personality type

How you make others feel the pressure in your Human Design

How you make others feel the pressure in your Human Design

Human Design is a mystical system that combines astrology, Kabbalah, I’Ching, and the chakras to describe the mechanics of life and relationships. One of the fascinating things about Human Design is that your channels indicate not just what your qualities are, but what you bring out in other people as well.

The root is one of the nine centers and is a pressure center. It is about adrenaline and is a pressure to make something happen. When you have defined root, you are the pacesetter; others can’t make you speed up or slow down. You are constantly under pressure and can withstand it.

When you have defined root you apply pressure on others through your aura. You are unable to stop this from happening. It happens automatically.

The three channels that connect from the root to the sacral center pressure others more than all the channels in the chart. If you have one or more of these channels, they override every other channel in your chart in the pressure department. The three channels are:

*9-52 Channel of Concentration – This is a logic process channel. It pressures others to focus and concentrate.

*3-60 Channel of Mutation – This is an individual process channel. If you have this channel it pressures others to wait for something to happen.

*42-53 Channel of Maturation – This is an abstract process channel. It pressures people to enter into an event following the sequence of a beginning, middle, and end in order to maximize its inherent potential.

The three channels from the root to the spleen and the three channels from the root to the solar plexus also apply pressure on others

If you have undefined root, work on de-conditioning from the belief that you need to get your work done in order to enjoy yourself. You don’t have to be in a hurry! Those of us with defined root will never be wise about stress (alas). If you have undefined root, you can learn how to manage stress. Then you can teach us defined root people how to relax and take a vacation already. Please! I’m waiting for your wisdom. But don’t hurry.

The source for this post is Jonah Dempcy’s The Root Center in Human Design video. Also check out his brief What is Human Design video. I recommend all of his Human Design videos.

Continue ReadingHow you make others feel the pressure in your Human Design

How to parent others with your parent function

How to parent others with your parent function

The second (auxiliary) cognitive function is, in archetypal terms, your parent function. This is the function you can call upon when “parenting” others.

Someone who is an ENTP or ESTP type, for example, has introverted thinking (Ti) as their parent function. They use this function to help others define their problems more sharply and bring clarity to the situation.

An INFJ or ISFF has extroverted feeling (Fe) as their parent function. When advising others, they use this function to relate to the other person and understand their motivations.

Things get more complicated and nuanced, however, when factoring in the age of the other person and their relationship to you.

Keep the Hero in its proper place

When interacting with a peer that you get along with well, it is fairly easy to remain in parent function mode when providing assistance or interacting with them.

When dealing with the elderly, a vulnerable person, your own parents. or a peer that you dislike, however, it is all too easy to slip into Hero (lead) function mode instead. The hero function’s more proper role is to serve in developing your personal identity. When used in an interaction with someone you are ‘parenting,” it can overwhelm them.

For example, an INFJ has Hero introverted intuition (Ni). When they have an insight to share with someone, it is best if they filter it through their parent function first and not just blurt it out. That filtering process will quite often result in the person keeping that insight to themselves until the time is right to share it.

In their zeal to help a person in need, an ESTJ or ENTJ might overwhelm the person with too much extroverted thinking (te) style solutions.

Things get even more interesting when pondering which functions you use with your parents. Karma and baggage from childhood may trigger you to use the Hero in anger, or regress into using the Child function, all too often. When you find yourself triggered in this way, it will reveal growth opportunities. If your parent is elderly, try using your parent function with them as much as you can (assuming your relationship with them is fairly healthy).

If you find yourself feeling impatient when helping someone, or if it is obvious that you wounded them or were unable to help them, check to see if you inadvertently slipped into Hero mode instead. Of course there are more extreme situations when, in order to get through to someone, or to set a boundary, you may need to invoke your Hero, with a strong helping of Anima/Animus, and bypass the parent function.

How to (not) use your parent function with children

When interacting with young children, using your child function instead of your parent function will help you meet them at their level.

One of the ironies of parenting is that using the parent function can backfire. This is because the shadow function of the parent function (the Witch/Senex) can get activated. The Opposing Parent contains the scripts of things we received in childhood from our own parents. Complexes sometimes run amok here. Before you know it, your parent function can be overtaken by your Opposing Parent function if you aren’t conscious of it. And if the Hero function gets thrown into the mix, it will escalate into a contentious situation.

For an interesting twist, or to break a negative pattern, if you are a parent of teenagers or young adults, try tapping into the child’s parent function. You might be pleasantly surprised at how well an ISFP teenage daughter can redecorate a room for you or pick out an outfit for you in a store. A 23-year-old ESFJ son could be just the right person to plan the family next vacation. An INTJ child could help you learn the best practices of a particular video game. And so on.

An important factor of children in regards to typology is that they can help you type into your Anima/Animus (inferior function) in a healthy way. A daughter may see her father’s feminine and softer side in a way her brother, and even her mother, does not. The same is true of mothers and sons. A mother may be able to better tap into her masculine energy if she has a son.

How to parent yourself

Re-parenting – or, parenting yourself – is an important part of maturity. Eventually one has to take care of oneself and stop relying on, and blaming, their parents for their problems.

However, you can’t use the parent function to parent yourself very well. You’ll need the parent functions of others for that, along with your other three functions, especially the Hero and Anima/Animus functions.

The right archetype for the right situation

A great thing about viewing the functions as archetypes is that it makes it is easier to call upon the functions deliberately – and to avoid using a certain function – as needed,

Keep in mind no two people use the same parent function the same way, because the parent archetype means something a little different to each person, so therefore there isn’t a “right” way to use a parent function.

There is a delicate geometry involved when interacting with others and the unique expression of their own functions. Respecting this will result in fewer collisions and more harmony and self-awareness.

Continue ReadingHow to parent others with your parent function

The biblical “great cloud of witnesses” and archetypal astrology

The biblical “great cloud of witnesses” and archetypal astrology

The biblical phrase “cloud of witnesses” has long enthralled for me, for it hints at the mystical and archetypal.

Hebrews 12:1 is the Bible verse where it’s mentioned:

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

As I continue to do dream work with my Jungian analyst, and have begun to study archetypal astrology, the phrase “cloud of witnesses” keeps coming to mind.

Dreams are populated with archetypal figures that are, in essence, a cloud of witnesses. Animus/anima figures, who often have the persona of the inferior function of one’s personality type. Powerful cameo appearances from loved ones who are deceased and bring a message of healing. And, of course, shadow figures, that remind us of what we have trouble facing in waking life.

I love how James Hillman, the late, great Jungian psychologist and founder of archetypal psychology puts it:

In astrology, this cloud of witnesses is just as evident. It is easier to have self-compassion, and empathy for others, while reviewing the times in your life when you had difficult transits (such as the Saturn return and Uranus square Uranus) because you know that every other person has had a similar period. We are all witnesses to each other.

This archetypal support emboldens us to “run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”

Continue ReadingThe biblical “great cloud of witnesses” and archetypal astrology

What is mysticism?

What is mysticism?

During my podcast travels today I heard an excellent definition of mysticism from Elizabeth Gilbert and Richard Rohr.

Gilbert said the three things you need to create a feeling of peace in order to create are priorities, boundaries, and mysticism.

Mysticism is a human being encountering the mysterious and adding their labor to it. I believe that ideas want to be born, I believe that ideas have consciousness, that they circle the early formlessly looking for human beings to collaborate with to bring them into being.

In Oprah’s interview with Father Richard Rohr on her Super Soul Conversations podcast and show, she called Rohr a modern day mystic. He defined mystic as follows:

Someone who sees in whole rather than parts. They always end up emphasizing love as the center and the goal and the energy. Mystics are always non-dual seers.

Continue ReadingWhat is mysticism?