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...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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,...
info_outline
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...
info_outline
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,...
info_outline
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_outline
How to Develop Your Inner Guidance: Charting a Path Through the Current Chaos with Jung’s Insights
This Jungian Life
Today you'll learn about inner guidance--the quiet, built-in compass that surfaces when we pause the outer noise long enough to feel what rings true inside. It is less a mystical oracle than a subtle convergence of bodily signals, emotional undertones, and intuitive "hunches" distilled from our lived experience. When we meet a decision with open attention—neither forcing a rational verdict nor surrendering to raw impulse—this inner faculty sorts, weighs, and hints at the direction that aligns with our deepest values. Acting on it demands two skills: discerning authentic signals from fear...
info_outline![[SUBSCRIBER-BONUS] How to work with Shadow Material show art](https://assets.libsyn.com/content/187279690?height=50&width=50)
[SUBSCRIBER-BONUS] How to work with Shadow Material
This Jungian Life
In this free edition of Jung Love, our -bonus content, a Patron asks: "What do you do with shadow material? Is it enough to just become aware of your shadows? Or does it require a fixing of oneself? What is the process of processing it? I'm still trying to wrap my head around the shadow. What if I'm aware, but still don't like the shadow? Robert Johnson talked about rituals for the shadow. Can you speak about that in more depth and perhaps provide some examples?" BECOME a TJL Patron and enjoy exclusive content like interpreting your dreams, explaining Jung's ideas, and more: LOOK &...
info_outline
Shadow and Self in Adolescence: Navigating Rage, Love, and Individuation
This Jungian Life
Think of adolescence as life’s built‑in boot camp: your body hits the gas, your mind scrambles to keep up, and suddenly you’re wrestling with raw impulses, big feelings, and the question “Who am I, really?” That surge of anger toward parents often hides an intense love that feels too risky to show, so teens push back while secretly measuring whether adults—and the wider world—can handle their storm. Without clear rites of passage, they test limits through friends, online thrills, and daring choices, all in service of hammering out a story that’s theirs, not just a...
info_outline
From Worry to Insight: making sense of uncertainty
This Jungian Life
Worry arises because we can imagine countless possibilities, yet it often traps us in unproductive loops. Recognizing when worry prompts useful action—and when it spirals into paralysis—can be transformative. By holding uncertainty with patience, rather than trying to eliminate it, we engage a deeper capacity to reflect, adapt, and discover hidden strength. Read along with our dream interpretation . LOOK & GROW If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of from the hosts of This Jungian Life...
info_outlineStoicism and Jungian psychology are a natural fit. The first invigorates and organizes the reasoning mind, and the second ensouls it.
The amalgam of Stoicism and Jungian Psychology generates a natural resilience. It offers a frame to understand the interplay of reason, emotion, and imagination in service to inner growth. Integrated philosophical reflection empowers us to confront societal crises and develop autonomy through rational self-awareness. Inclusive Stoicism connects personal development to shared human values. The ancient discipline of clear thinking can heal us through narrative coherence, emotional management, and the integration of unconscious material. Combined with imagination, we gain tools to interpret emotions that help us navigate life. From this vantage, the modern epidemic of anxiety is seen as unmet potential in search of purposeful action and the cultivation of virtue as a template for a meaningful life. The ancient stoics explored the concept of the greatest good and found it in the wholesome and generous interconnectedness of individuals and society.
Prepare to discover what shapes the interplay between reason, emotion, and imagination, how practices of self-cultivation foster resilience, adaptability, and a deeper meaning, which virtues and approaches lead to the integration of inner life with collective well-being, whether balancing rationality and emotional insight can support wholeness, why cultivating inner strength and understanding interconnectedness are essential for navigating complexity.
FIND A COPY OF THE DREAM WE ANALYZE HERE: https://thisjungianlife.com/stoicism
Our friend John White was philosophy professor for twenty years then completed training to be a certified Jungian analyst. Learn more about him: https://www.johnrwhitepgh.org/
LOOK & GROW
*Give yourself the gift of insight! JOIN DREAM SCHOOL THIS MONTH AND GET 10% off by using code: Holiday2024. COME DREAM WITH US! https://thisjungianlife.com/join-dream-school/
*Join our Dreamography project by sharing your childhood dreams (or a dream your child had): https://dreamwisebook.com/dreamography/
*WE’VE PUBLISHED OUR FIRST BOOK TOGETHER! Check Out DREAM WISE: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams: https://a.co/d/6SORo25
*Support Dreams and Depth: Join Our Patreon Community Today: https://www.patreon.com/ThisJungianLife
*Don't Miss Out - Submit Any Dream for a Chance to Be Featured on Our Podcast! https://thisjungianlife.com/share-your-dream/
*Help Shape Our Show! Share Your Ideas for Our Next Podcast: https://thisjungianlife.com/podcast-form-topics/
*Get Caught up! Check Out All Our Previous Episodes: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLcE4RL3VIbzGWHI-Sq0Y2lZc7R6Zxmfb6
STAY INSPIRED EVERY DAY!
*Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thisjungianlifepodcast
*Twitter: https://twitter.com/ThisJungianLife
*Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThisJungianLife/
*LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thisjungianlife/