IRRESISTIBLE INVITATIONS: the powerful seduction of possibilities
Release Date: 02/16/2023
The Handless Maiden: A Tale to Heal the Wounded Feminine
This Jungian Life
Everyone faces a moment when they are tempted to sacrifice their true self to chase wealth, approval, success, or security, but doing so strips away their strength and leaves them hollow. To reclaim their lost agency, a person must embrace the uncertainty and vulnerability they've been avoiding. They must stand alone, undefended, and trust the wisdom hidden in their wounds. The Handless Maiden fairytale will help us understand the path back to wholeness. Read along with our dream interpretation . LOOK & GROW If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock...
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TAMING YOUR INNER CRITIC: Turn Self-Attack into Self-Awareness
This Jungian Life
Our inner critic—that voice constantly tearing us down—can stem from difficult childhood experiences, negative cultural messages, or even powerful archetypal forces deep within us. While healthy self-assessment involves honestly owning our mistakes, feeling genuine regret, and making amends, the harsh inner critic keeps us stuck in cycles of self-hatred and shame. Sometimes, beating ourselves up can actually be a sneaky way to avoid openly engaging a problem or soberly accepting responsibility. The trick is to slow down, get curious, and talk back to that voice—to have an honest inner...
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SHARK: Elemental Symbol of Our Will to Survive and Ravenous Hunger for Experience
This Jungian Life
Primeval, silent, relentless—the shark announces itself as its fin slices the water. In that instant, ego’s barriers shudder and give way: you’re not anxious; you’re utterly alert, stripped of distraction by a force both familiar and uncanny. When you stop battling that raw terror and honor it—offer a silent libation of attention—the predator becomes a protector. Here, in the shark’s unblinking gaze, you meet the stranger in your depths, the animality you once fled, now guiding you to face what you’ve long denied. Read along with our dream analysis ....
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MOTIVATION: What Happens When Your Get-Up-and-Go Leaves Without You?
This Jungian Life
Motivation rises from conscious and unconscious dynamics. We can reason with ourselves to take logical action while our libido flows with its own intelligence. When these two aspects align, we find ourselves acting decisively and effectively with remarkable freedom. When we’re at odds with the secret intelligence of the unconscious, we can find ourselves uncomfortably suspended. As we honor the autonomy of Psyche and cultivate a curious friendship with it, we can discover a creative collaboration that sets us in a fresh direction aligned with the Self. Read along with our dream analysis ....
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Sibling Rivalry: Archetypal Conflicts and Shadow Dynamics in Families
This Jungian Life
Sibling rivalry can bruise and build in equal measure. On the hard side, the older child feels toppled from the throne, the younger scrambles for a foothold, and both learn how quickly envy, resentment, and score-keeping ignite—whether over a parent’s extra hour of attention or the larger slice of birthday cake. Those early contests can calcify into adult grudges that surface in estate negotiations, workplace jockeying, or mismatched relationships. Yet the same daily friction teaches useful skills: we sharpen empathy by reading a sibling’s next move, develop a theory of mind through...
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Mandala Archetype: How the Self Turns Chaos into Cosmos
This Jungian Life
Mandalas are Psyche’s way of drawing a compass for you when life feels off-kilter. Jung noticed that these circular patterns—whether they appear in Navajo sand paintings, Tibetan yantras, or last night’s dream—pull everything back toward a stable center he called the Self. The rim defines where your ego ends; the cross-lines and repeating fours help you locate sensation, feeling, thinking, and intuition in relation to your core. By “walking” the circle, even in imagination, the ego learns to orbit rather than hijack the organizing center, and the usual tug-of-war between instinct...
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House Dreams: Schematics of Your Psychological Functioning
This Jungian Life
When a house turns up in a dream, it isn’t a staging background—it’s an architectural X-ray of your inner life, drafted by the dream maker overnight and delivered to your doorstep at dawn. Floors chart levels of awareness, locked doors expose repressed material, intruders crash in as disowned traits, and every leaking pipe or crooked stair announces a personal attitude in need of repair. In this episode, we’ll teach you how to read the blueprint with the same clarity you’d bring to structural engineering, and your dream will hand you a working map for shadow work,...
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Ready for the Real Snow White? The True Tale of Envy, Murder, and Retribution
This Jungian Life
Ever wonder why “Snow White” still hooks us after all the Disney glitter flakes off? This episode strips the tale down to its psychological wiring: murderous envy of the mother shadow, malignant innocence, the unforgiving “mirror” inside that only answers the questions we’re brave enough to ask, and the dangerous alchemy that transforms three lethal mistakes into mature authority. You’ll hear why the dwarflike bits of half-formed masculinity in all of us mine gold from the unconscious, how raw instinct often finishes the work refined methods can’t, and how real agency...
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Forging the Upward Thread: Why Do We Create Religions?
This Jungian Life
The religious function is part of who we are — as natural as needing food or love. It’s the inner drive that pushes us to find meaning, to touch something larger than ourselves. Jung saw that if we don’t tend it, it doesn’t go away; it twists itself into addictions, compulsions, or a kind of soul-sickness. Religion, in the deepest sense, isn’t about belief systems. It’s about real encounters with the Self — the larger reality inside us that humbles, heals, and reshapes us. Dreams, symbols, and moments of awe are how Psyche keeps that connection alive. Without them,...
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Trauma Can Be Rewritten: The Use of Art to Reimagine our Past and Grant Us New Life
This Jungian Life
Viviane Silvera animated 30,000 of her hand-painted images to explore how traumatic memories are formed, stored, and ultimately transformed. Her animated documentary, SEE MEMORY, traces the intimate story of a young woman caught between past and present; her film captures the fragmented texture of trauma and the healing that becomes possible when painful memories are witnessed. In our conversation with Viviane, we explore her process of recovering lost memories and how opposing perspectives can constellate new attitudes toward trauma. We discuss cutting-edge findings on the way the brain...
info_outlineInvitations are a subtle siren song, tapping into our primal human need to be chosen combined with our thirst for novelty, making them an irresistible force.
When you receive an invitation, it is a moment of recognition, an invitation to be a part of something greater, to feel wanted, valued, and accepted. In the hierarchy of human needs, the sense of belonging takes a top priority, surpassed only by our basic requirements for survival.
There is power in inviting and being invited. The myth of Baucis and Philemon, who innocently invited Zeus and Hermes to dine in their humble cottage, and were blessed for their generosity, reminds us that the right invitations can bring abundance and joy into our lives. But, like the cautionary tale of Sleeping Beauty and the curse of the uninvited fairy, withheld invitations can also be dangerous, hiding the potential for envy and retribution.
An invitation can be a fateful call to action, tapping into our innate desire to be heroic and admired. It’s difficult to resist such a call. But, just as the hero must leave the safety of their home and venture into the unknown, so must we when we accept. Invitations promise a world of possibilities, whether we’re being asked to join a cause célèbre, fight for change or seek personal meaning.
However, not all invitations are created equal. Some are manipulative, depending on our naivety, susceptibility to feeling special, or sense of obligation. Some may only lead to an evening of mind-numbing boredom. Therefore, it is essential that we take a step back and evaluate each invitation objectively, wisely, and carefully considering the implications and outcomes before accepting. We must understand that invitations are not simple requests but symbols of growth and possibility.
So, join us as we explore the unpredictable consequences that come with each invitation and embrace the opportunities that await us. The irrefusable invitation awaits, and the choice is yours. Will you accept?
Here’s the dream we analyze:
“Me and three old friends are at a fair-like event. One of the friends comes to the three of us and suggests that we should try out the batting cage, which we are all excited about. We start heading to the batting cage and the friend that suggested we go is not going with us. We get to the batting cage and the guy running it says the speed of the balls is 91 mph and asks if we can hit that. My other two friends seem confident, I am not. I was never a good hitter when I played baseball. We head to the batting cages, I notice everyone else is paying in tickets and we didn’t. My friends get slightly ahead of me and a worker points me towards a ladder that is going up about three stories. I am terrified of heights. I climb up the ladder and I’m at the top but there is a worker’s desk right there. She seems nice and unbothered by the fact that I’m climbing up a ladder to get over her desk. I try for several minutes, while at the top of the ladder, to climb over her desk to get to the floor with the batting cages. I am unable to do it. My leg is not flexible enough to reach over the desk. I wake up breathing heavily.”
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