Intersections

Last weekend I attended a dream workshop sponsored by the Jung Society of Seattle.

(Side note: I adore that I live somewhere now that not only has a Jung Society, but hosts events eight blocks from my house. Awesome.)

So there I was sitting in the the workshop when suddenly it occurred to me that I was feeling like a total outsider.

And for some reason, that realization led to all these crazy epiphanies about what I want to do with my work. Gentle epiphanies that seemed like they had been there all along, all I had to do was turn my head and see them.

Something about that outsider-feeling shifted my perspective ever so slightly, giving me extra access to my vision.

I realized that even if our filters are invisible to us, we can have moments where we start to see what what they’re made of, a general outline of size and shape.

Here’s how it happened for me…

Jung and “soul work”

It started with this. I’ve talked about him before, and it’s an understatement to say his ideas make me understand life and purpose. That his philosophy and methodology quite literally changed my life’s path.

And yet, there I was at a Jung event, feeling like an outsider. When I looked at why, I got to piece together more of my filter…

+ Personal Experience

As I sat there listening to very intellectual discussions and analysis I found myself sort of…intimidated.

And then something different underneath the intimidation which was…boredom.

Or more accurately, impatience.

Frustration.

Which was probably partly a defense mechanism, since I clearly didn’t have the intellectual background or educational credentials that others in the group did.

But it was more than that. When I found Jung it was backwards. Inside out. I was in deep therapy and wrestling with so much inside of me. And I had to trust the person I was working with. So I’d be in something and get through to the other side under my own power, and only then I would get a name for what I had just experienced.

Kind of like “oh and by the way, Jung calls that the ‘tension of the opposites’.”

Which was amazing. It was as if these shapeless things that were so very real to me and I thought were mine to bear alone all of a sudden had hangers. Some vocabulary. Commonality with the rest of humanity.

Eventually, I found this intellectually stimulating. But it started as comfort.

So when I overheard this conversation behind me…

“have you ever been in analysis?”

“No, how about you?

“No, but I’ve always wanted to try it. I don’t really need therapy or anything, but think it would be interesting.”

…I realized, whoa. I have a completely different experience of all of this stuff than the others here. My personal experience with depression came before my intellectual curiosity about Jung’s philosophy.

+The internet, “social media”, Havi-verse etc

Whatever you want to call it, it’s the idea that I can bring my own self to my work, and I can reach out directly to the people who need it.

One person I talked to at the seminar was talking about how interested she is in Jung but how she didn’t think it would make any sense to go back to school to pursue jungian studies.

Go back to school?

Bwhaaa?

I mean, don’t get me wrong, I love academics and I’m sure I’d enjoy taking some immersive courses in these topics.

But the idea that school might be something I would need to enable me to pursue what I want to pursue just isn’t in my worldview anymore.

There are books, and teachers everywhere I need them. And when people need what I have to teach, they can find me. Right here.

And it’s not just that I happen to be on Twitter or read Havi’s stuff. Everyone else in the room with me could do that too, and each one of us would filter it in different ways.

(Another side note: part of the seminar was on personal mythologies, so I was cracking up a little bit at the idea that a personal mythology was standing in the way of someone learning more about personal mythologies. Yes, I’m obnoxious.)

So…what did I learn?

I realized that some of my big, life’s-work-type intersections are: Jung + personal experience + social media

I’m sure I have lots of other ones, of course. They’re countless. Some are more important than others. Some will always be with me and some will change. But they all contribute to the uniqueness of my filter.

So much so that it can be hard to see them.

A question

What are your intersections? Was there a moment when you discovered them, or have you always known?

Related posts:
Backwards, Upside-down and Sideways
The Human Filter
That bitch in my head