The darkness that keeps us from proceeding along our way is the same that sooner or later allows a torch to shine in the distance. One could not speak of light and darkness if they were not complementary realities. “A light cannot help but shine in the darkness. The darkness of depression may be a signal that our life has reached a turning point and nothing will resolve our emptiness but to risk a new adventure.Īs Aldo Carotenuto teaches us, sometimes the darkness is needed if we are to discover the light: Sometimes the “old normal” must be left behind and the journey to a new mode of living undertaken. It is a natural response when confronted with such difficult feelings to wish, as many of my clients initially do, to “return to normal.” At the same time many models of therapy approach depression with the goal of “returning to a previous level of functioning.”īut sometimes there is no normal to return to. Given these reflections, is it possible to see in the experience of depression the first stirrings of our own call to adventure? The symptoms of depression, including feelings of hopelessness, loss of energy, loss of interest in one’s usual activities, and a pervasive sad mood are all also qualities of Carotenuto’s experience of the “shadows.” They may be signs that, as Joseph Campbell says, “the familiar life horizon has been outgrown.” “A sensation of emptiness, that is, of loss and of something missing, often accompanies the shadows…It is important, however, to emphasize how the sensation of shadows is a necessary premise if the light of a meaning is to begin to shine, if something with meaning is to reveal itself.” Jung, with whom she worked closely from 1934 until his death in 1961.
Jung Institute of Zurich, she published widely on subjects including alchemy, dreams, fairy tales, personality types, and psychotherapy. The Jungian psychoanalyst, Aldo Carotenuto, in a book titled, The Call of the Daimon, writes of how the call usually begins in a feeling of being lost, what he calls an experience of the “shadows.” Marie-Louise von Franz (19151998) was the foremost student of C. Marie-Louise von Franz (19151998) was the foremost student of C. The blunder may amount to the opening of a destiny.” And these may be very deep – as deep as the soul itself. It may, in fact, appear in the form of an accident, a mere chance, or a “blunder.”īlunders “are ripples on the surface of life, produced by unsuspected springs. Joseph Campbell teaches that the call to adventure is frequently something we stumble upon by accident. But more often than not it is not so clear. Like Moses, we will hear the voice of God speaking to us from the burning bush and telling us what we need to do next. Eavesdrop on three Jungian analysts as they engage in lively, sometimes irreverent conversations about a wide range of topics as they share what its like. Many of us, I suspect, imagine that the call comes in the form of a sudden revelation. All that is known is that where you are is not where you want to be. It may not always be clear what the call to adventure is leading toward.
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