Tuesday, March 2, 2021

I Ching, Jung, Tao and Synchronicity

Here is a link to a major presentation that Fisher King Press author Dennis L. Merritt gave on February 21, 2021, to the C. G. Jung Club of Orange County on “The I Ching—Oracle and Book of Wisdom”.

The I Ching is one of the oldest and most profound books of wisdom whose origins go back to Chinese shamanism and prototypical Chinese ideograms. Jung, who used it extensively, described the I Ching as a book of archetypal imagery first assembled in 1050 BCE. Every major Chinese thinker, artist, and philosopher had been influenced by I Ching until the modern era. One can put a question to the book and via synchronicity get a meaningful answer as if from a Chinese sage. Examples are given to illustrate how the book can be used personally and in the therapeutic setting for guidance on relationships, difficult life situations, and psychological and spiritual development.

The most complex part of my presentation explores the binary code numerical base of the I Ching, which computers run on, and how numbers as the purest forms of the archetypes (Jung) framed the thinking of the sages as they put images and words to abstract numbers beginning with yin and yang lines. Hermes from our Western tradition is used to illustrate how things cross over from what Lao Tzu called the “dark enigma” into consciousness.

https://uci.zoom.us/rec/play/fltK-SapUY39XNrTxatcgAJVD03z5rQ7QyxuNmcg9sFa55sO-lHuqAYWxE26VB4L5W0oVS_2a0Q11b6-.9jMk5ur_mRyfESRI?startTime=1613951061000
Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives and a growing list of Cutting-Edge alternative titles. www.fisherkingpress.com

Monday, April 6, 2020

Merritt on: Covid-19: Inflection Point in the Anthropocene Era and the Paradigm Shift

Covid-19: Inflection Point in the Anthropocene Era and the Paradigm Shift of Jung’s New Age

Article by Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D.

The Covid-19 pandemic has created a unique moment in the history of our species. Something so small it takes an electron microscope to see is disrupting millions of lives and threatening the world’s economy. Frontline workers risk their lives trying to save patients who may die alone without friends or family at their sides. A virus, a strand of nucleic acid that highjacks the functioning of a cell to reproduce its unique viral form, is bringing our species to a near standstill. Despite the wonders of science, technology, and economic systems we can still be humbled by nature, indeed, by a strand of nucleic acid. It is crucial how we respond to the situation. What can we learn from it and how do we go forward?

We start with an adequate framing of the issue. This is an issue of life and death, which means it is in the most fundamental archetypal realm and requires an archetypal perspective. The fear of death from the pandemic is bringing a sense of immediacy and urgency on a planet-wide scale. Death cannot be separated from life, death makes us aware of the preciousness of life, and death confronts us with questions about the meaning of existence and our place it the bigger scheme of things. Death can bring an end to systems and beliefs that no longer support life and a healthy existence, and that could be the most important outcome of the present crisis.

The virus is demonstrating to what degree we are interconnected and how much we need each other. The forced social isolation and six-foot distancing has cut us off from intimate contacts and group experiences making us aware by absence how important we are to each other.  The ghostly empty streets in otherwise bustling cities are eerie reminders that our systems are in shock at all levels. Like a nightmare that wakes us in the middle of the night, this shock is meant to shock us into a new awareness.

Read more...

Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Dr. Merritt is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Dr. Merritt is the author of Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology: The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volumes 1 - 4.


Monday, January 7, 2019

Press Release: Just Published - Fairy Tales with a Mexican Twist


January 7, 2019

Fisher King Press announced today their newest publication:

Fairy Tales with a Mexican Twist: Soul Stories

by Jacqueline Gerson

illustrations by Saúl Kaminer

Fairy tales convey life’s magic, reflecting the deep psychological themes that govern the outcomes of our lives. Written in simple language, these stories take us along soul’s path once more, revealing how the issues of today can still yield new restorative meanings. This fresh set of tales introduces characters who invite the reader to think the unthinkable, explore the unknown, and feel what is irreconcilable—resulting in a deeper experience of life itself. Staged in remote corners of the world where healing mysteries can be summoned when life’s dilemmas emerge and right and wrong are no longer clear, Gerson’s fairy tales show that there are still Gods and Goddesses who can intervene when humans lose their way on life’s journey.

In simple language, deep psychological themes concerning the soul’s path are illustrated through new fairy tales which bring up life’s magic into often present everyday issues. 28 color illustrations.

About the Author
Jacqueline Gerson is a Jungian analyst with a private practice in Mexico City, where she works as an analyst, teacher, and supervisor. With a lifelong passion for dance and movement, she first approached dreams as spontaneous choreographies created by the psyche. Eventually, that discovery led her to the study of Analytical Psychology to become an individual member of the IAAP. She lectures on topics related to analytical psychology and has been published in The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, with Daimon Verlag, Brunner-Routledge, Spring Journal, as well as the Mexican magazine Epoca. As a new way for her to relate to most sensitive aspects in life, writing stories became apparent. Her special joys are grandmothering, dance movement, writing, poetry, and nature.

About the Illustrator
Saúl Kaminer was born in Mexico City on July 8, 1952. He graduated as an architect from the Mexican National University (UNAM). He started his artistic work in 1970 and moved to Paris in 1976 where he worked intensely in his paintings and sculptures. After 22 years in France, Saul continued his artistic work in Mexico. So far, he has had 65 individual expositions and participated in 160 collective expositions in various countries in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.




Title: Fairy Tales with a Mexican Twist: Soul Stories
Author: Jacqueline Gerson
Illustrator: Saúl Kaminer
Paperback: 170 pages with 28 color illustrations
Condition: New
Publisher: Fisher King Press (January 7, 2019)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1771690461
ISBN-13: 978-1771690461
Also available as an eBook from Google Play
Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives and a growing list of Cutting-Edge alternative titles. www.fisherkingpress.com

Sunday, November 25, 2018

Advent and Psychic Birth - An Introduction

From Advent and Psychic Birth by Mariann Burke

Meister Eckhart in a Christmas sermon paraphrasing St. Augustine says of Christ's birth, "This birth is always happening. And yet, if it does not occur in me, how could it help me? Everything depends on that."(1) The thesis of this book is that our own psychological "birth" is related to the "birth" of God within us, and that this birth is "always hap­pening." The paradox is that we long for this birth and yet we fear it. For centuries our unconscious fears and longing have been mirrored and "contained" in the religious dogma and symbolism of the church, a channel to the riverbed of the unconscious. But in a church and a culture that general­ly devalues the feminine realm--earth, the body, sexuality, instinct--these energies flow back into the psyche. Today the longing for consciousness and the integration of these energies have led many to leave the church which, they feel, no longer speaks to their needs. Others find spiritual ful­fillment in a strong adherence to traditional doctrinal and Biblical interpretation. Still others, in increasing numbers, find that a more personal inner journey leads not only to greater self-awareness, but also to a richer appreciation of their religious heritage.

My approach throughout Advent and Psychic Birth is to try to make connections between the archetypal images and personal experience, in both ancient and modern modalities, through associations, amplifications and clinical material. In one sense this approach has evolved out of my training in ana­lytical psychology. Yet it has become deeply personal and flows out of my own felt sense of the Advent imagery and my own journey toward psychic birth. Far from diminish­ing my faith in Christ, it has broadened and deepened my understanding of the meaning of incarnation. Jung writes: "The efficacy of dogma by no means rests on Christ's unique historical reality but on its own symbolic nature, by virtue of which it expresses a more or less ubiquitous psy­chological assumption quite independent of the existence of any dogma."(2) On first reading these words we may feel that Jung is undermining dogma and Christ's mission on earth, yet our own experience as it relates to the underlying pattern of dogma, can only serve to enrich its meaning. "In religious matters ... we cannot understand a thing until we have experienced it inwardly ... for it is in this experience that the connection between the psyche and the outward image or creed is revealed .... "(3)

For each of us the image that speaks to us differs. For some it is an image from the Bible or from another religious tradition, while for others it is a dream image, or an image that seems to surface directly from the body. Each of these can be received as "messages " from God.

If we look at the biblical poetry of Advent in a more personal way, we find that while it belongs to the Hebrew and Christian scriptures, it transcends both. Beginning in darkness and destruction and ending in light and rebirth, Advent imagery represents a mythic or archetypal pattern. The Advent call to awaken from sleep is a call to follow the way of consciousness, to search for the inestimable gift, the treasure of the "hidden" self as well as the Imago Dei which carries the power to revitalize us both as individuals and communities. Symbolically, the four Sundays of Advent remind us of the quarternity and of wholeness, as does the familiar Advent wreath with its four candles, one lighted each week suggesting the gradual dissipation of inner and outer darkness. During the first three weeks of the Advent liturgy, the tone is decidedly one of action and movement, beginning with the Baptist's call to prepare a way. With the desert "transition" the tone changes, and during the fourth week the Virgin appears, strong, questioning, willing to trust in the unknown. As in any religious initiation we are led to participate in a new dimension of life. Here, if we can con­tact our own "virgin energies," we listen as the angel speaks and we, in silence, like Mary, wait as the earth "buds forth a savior."

Wednesday, July 18, 2018

Four Volumes of Jungian Ecopsychology

The four volumes of The Dairy Farmer’s Guide to the Universe offer a comprehensive presentation of Jungian ecopsychology.

Volume 1, Jung and Ecopsychology, examines the evolution of the Western dysfunctional relationship with the environment, explores the theoretical framework and concepts of Jungian ecopsychology, and describes how it could be applied to psychotherapy, our educational system, and our relationship with indigenous peoples.

Volume 2, The Cry of Merlin: Jung, the Prototypical Ecopsychologist, reveals how an individual’s biography can be treated in an ecopsychological manner and articulates how Jung’s life experiences make him the prototypical ecopsychologist.

Volume 3, Hermes, Ecopsychology, and Complexity Theory, provides an archetypal, mythological and symbolic foundation for Jungian ecopsychology.

Volume 4, Land, Weather, Seasons, Insects: An Archetypal View describes how a deep, soulful connection can be made with these elements through a Jungian ecopsychological approach. This involves the use of science, myths, symbols, dreams, Native American spirituality, imaginal psychology and the I Ching.

Together, these volumes provide a useful handbook for psychologists and environmentalists seeking to imagine and enact a healthier relationship with their psyches and the world of which they are a part.


Fisher King Press publishes an eclectic mix of worthy books including Jungian Psychological Perspectives and a growing list of Cutting-Edge alternative titles. www.fisherkingpress.com