Dreams
and a Sense of Place
A distinct aspect of Jung's contribution to ecopsychology
is using dreams to help one connect to a place, be it a city or
a natural environment. The
soul needs to be rooted to a place for it to emerge and flourish. Jung said a person was neurotic if not
connected to the land, and attached great importance to our innate
ability to connect deeply to the land
A main premise of deep ecology is that we are capable of
connecting far more deeply to the land than we currently do.
E. O. Wilson talked about biophilia as an innate love of
nature.
Connection to the land should be the foundation
for any form of environmentalism, for one who loves the land will
not need a host of rules and regulations in order to protect and
use it in a sustainable way.
There are three examples in this web site of dreams that
helped further a connection to the land or a city.
The introduction to "Spirit in the Land" and the
last paragraph in "Jung and the Greening of Psychology and
Education" present my "meadow dream" that helped
re-connect me to Wisconsin's incredible range of natural states.
The last paragraph of "Dance, Archetypes and the I
Ching" contains the "Madison dream"
I had before finishing my training at the Jung Institute in Zurich.
These two dreams were instrumental in helping my wife and
I decide to come to Wisconsin, Madison in particular, upon completion
of my training . The third dream places the dreamer in glacier country, and
my article "The Soul of Glacier Country" is an example
of how one would amplify that dream to help connect the dreamer
to glacier country. This article is available on Theodor Rozak's
ecopsychololgy web site:
http://isis.csuhayward.edu/ALSS/ECO/0597/dreams.htm
Such dreams are powerful hints from the
unconscious about where the soul will feel grounded and able to
develop. One can literally move to the area and/or
let the dream work on one by keeping it in mind and amplifying it. By amplifying I mean reading and studying
about the area in its many dimensions; appreciating the art, literature
and poetry associated with it; and, most of all, immersing oneself
in the area so as to appreciate its contours, textures, smells and
changes as it lives you through the seasons.
The "Spirit in the Land" program is an extended
example of this process at many different levels, while "The
Soul of Glacier Country" focuses on a particular geological
area.
As mentioned in the introduction, the talks I gave at the
"Spirit in the Land" seminars became the genesis of my
book The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe--Jung, Hermes and
Ecopsychology. Three of the chapters amplify natural
phenomena from an archetypal and scientific perspective; "An Archetypal view of the Midwest
Environment," "Seasons of the Soul," and "Planet
of the Insect." "The
Soul of Glacier Country" is largely an extract of "An
Archetypal View of the Midwest Environment."
The final chapter describes how a Jungian ecopsychology as
developed in the book can help "green" our educational
system and be used in psychotherapy. Several of the ideas in the book are presented
in my article on this web site, "Jung and Greening of Psychology
and Education." Anticipated
publication date is 2004.
Leave your e-mail address if you would like to be notified
of its publication.
I am collecting dreams of Madison, Wisconsin. Call or e-mail me if you would like to share your "Big
Dream" about our fair city.
I will be publishing an article on a symbolic view of Madison
and your dreams may help me sharpen the archetypal focus.
e-mail: DLMerritt@cal.berkeley.edu
Telephone:
(608) 255-9330 ext. 5
Fax: (608) 255-7810
Website: www.DennisMerrittJungianAnalyst.com
|