by Richard Stromer | May 25, 2018 | Authenticity, Perfectionism
In the Medusa and the Snail, a classic collection of observations about the marvels of the natural world, biologist Lewis Thomas includes an insightful essay on DNA called “The Wonderful Mistake.” In that essay, Thomas writes: We know a lot about DNA, but if our kind...
by Richard Stromer | May 11, 2018 | Archetypes, Carl Jung, Personal Mythology, The Mother
In the introduction to his ground-breaking work The Symbols of Transformation, C. G. Jung asked a question simultaneously simple yet profound: “What is the myth you are living?” That fundamental question is one which, in their related, yet different, ways both...
by Richard Stromer | Apr 20, 2018 | Archetypes, Astrology, Carl Jung, Consciousness, Cosmology
In my previous post, I offered some thoughts about C.G. Jung’s concept of archetype. As I wrote in that post, we often think of archetypes as a sort of “inner cast of characters,” thereby reducing them to a purely internal psychological phenomenon. In fact, Jung...
by Richard Stromer | Apr 6, 2018 | Archetypes, Carl Jung
Among the most compelling ideas in the Western mystical tradition is the understanding that the universe is patterned by perennial, universal motifs. The depth psychologist C.G. Jung, drawing inspiration from the work of the Greek philosopher Plato, called these...
by Richard Stromer | Mar 23, 2018 | Archetypes, Biblical Myths, Judaism, Midrash, Religious Function of Myth
Joseph Campbell was famously critical of many aspects of the monotheistic religions, none more so than the tendency of these faiths – especially the orthodox or fundamentalist versions of them – to confuse myth and history. Since the Judaic, Christian, and Islamic...
