Primary Text (PT): Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, Marie Louise von Franz 

Supplementary Material (SM): Four Archetypes, CG Jung, Shadow, Evil, and Individuation, This Jungian Life Podcast;

Description:

By now most westerners have at least some exposure to the psychological framework of Carl Jung. Among the many principles that make up his theory of psychological development is the concept of Shadow. The School of Mythopoetics begins its year long study of Dealing with the Devil: The Mythopoetics of Shadow and Evil in the West with a deep dive into Marie Louise Von Franz’s book Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales.

 Von Franz is seen as Jung’s immediate successor in the world of Jungian psychology. Her book will provide a backbone for July and August as we begin to grapple with and tease out the nuances of Jung’s legacy. 

By beginning with Von Franz’s work we’ll start to see the lines between the psychological/internal experience of darkness and the reality of malevolent forces beyond our subjective experience. We’ll question the notion of “integrating” or “embracing” the Shadow as we afford reality to what has been called evil. We’ll use the mythopoetic lens to build discernment between our own repressed humanity and otherworldly forces that corrupt and corrode the soul.

PT: Shadow and Evil in Fairy Tales, Marie Louise von Franz 

SM: The Revolution Will Not Be Psychologized - The Emerald; We’ve Had 100 Years of Psychotherapy…, James Hillman; Dark Forces in the Psyche - This Jungian Life

PT: The Inferno, Dante tr Jason Baxter; Trauma and the Soul, Donald Kalasched

Description:

In months 3 and 4 of Dealing with the Devil we’ll approach one of the greatest (if not the greatest) works of western literature: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. We’ll focus particularly on The Inferno, the first book of The Divine Comedy, and particularly the figure of Dis, the ruler of the Inferno. 

Following our exploration of the psychological lens with Marie Louise Von Franz, we’ll work with a somatic lens using Donald Kalsched’s book Trauma and the Soul. I came across this book last year in a time of deep personal trouble. Its deft weaving of psychology, somatics, and mythopoetics helped anchor me as I struggled internally with the most focused period of “shadow work” I’d ever done. It in many ways played a big part in inspiring the creation of this course. It gave me a framework to recognize “Hell” as something someone can live everyday, as opposed to a place one will go when one dies. It gave me eyes to see a force I may experience internally, but that nonetheless exists beyond me and my subjectivity.

These two months will provide a bridge between the merely psychological lens and the somato-spiritual. Our time together will be informed by my training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner as we cross-pollinate the fields of somatics and mythopoetics.

PT: The Inferno, Dante tr Jason Baxter; Trauma and the Soul, Donald Kalasched

SM: Trauma and Vegetation Gods - The Emerald

Description:

In months 3 and 4 of Dealing with the Devil we’ll approach one of the greatest (if not the greatest) works of western literature: The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri. We’ll focus particularly on The Inferno, the first book of The Divine Comedy, and particularly the figure of Dis, the ruler of the Inferno. 

Following our exploration of the psychological lens with Marie Louise Von Franz, we’ll work with a somatic lens using Donald Kalsched’s book Trauma and the Soul. I came across this book last year in a time of deep personal trouble. Its deft weaving of psychology, somatics, and mythopoetics helped anchor me as I struggled internally with the most focused period of “shadow work” I’d ever done. It in many ways played a big part in inspiring the creation of this course. It gave me a framework to recognize “Hell” as something someone can live everyday, as opposed to a place one will go when one dies. It gave me eyes to see a force I may experience internally, but that nonetheless exists beyond me and my subjectivity.

These two months will provide a bridge between the merely psychological lens and the somato-spiritual. Our time together will be informed by my training as a Somatic Experiencing Practitioner as we cross-pollinate the fields of somatics and mythopoetics.

PT: The Other Within, Daniel Deardorff

SM: The Soul’s Code, James Hillman; Holy Daimon, Embodiment Means Being Torn Apart and Flying Away - The Emerald

Description:

To close the first half of Dealing with the Devil we’ll look at the work of Daniel Deardorff. Danny was a phenomenal bardic storyteller who lived in Port Townsend, Washington, and stands among the likes of Robert Bly and Martin Shaw for the contributions he made to the tradition of mythopoetics in the West. His book The Other Within provides a window into the exceptional life he lived as a purveyor of wisdom and mythic depth, while sequestered to a wheelchair.

Without addressing the notion of Shadow offered by Jung directly, Deardorff articulates a vision, unparallelled in nuance and complexity, of how our inner depths hold the mysterious genius we were born to manifest. His book takes the psychological and somatic perspectives we will have developed and grounds them socioculturally using a mythic grammar that requires profound patience and openness to truly absorb the wisdom it carries. Our brief time with his work will offer a mere taste.

Deardorff’s work becomes germane to Dealing with the Devil by helping us couch suffering in a greater picture of self-becoming without centering “the self” as the be-all-end-all of our time on this planet. Through his eyes, the suffering presided over by the fires of Dis in the Inferno deliver us to the redemptive, shall we say alchemical, flames of Purgatory. Through his work we can draw hope and solace that though we may suffer, the Cosmic Good uses that suffering to redeem, to edify, and to shine light on the beauty of creation.