This Jungian Life
Eavesdrop on three Jungian analysts as they engage in lively, sometimes irreverent conversations about a wide range of topics. Join them for a discussion of news events, family dynamics, personal issues, and more as they share what it’s like to see the world through the depth psychological lens provided by CG Jung. Half of each episode is spent discussing a dream submitted by a listener. Lisa, Joseph, and Deb went through their Jungian training together, becoming friends and developing creative partnerships.
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Prayer and the Psyche: A Jungian Exploration
07/09/2026
Prayer and the Psyche: A Jungian Exploration
Throughout human history, prayer has been a constant. Jung referred to it as “not only one of the most original but also the most frequent means to change the condition of mind”. This week Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart for a Jungian exploration of prayer. Everyone at some point in their lives will pray (even if we do not call it that). When we reach out for help, or to express gratitude for life’s blessings, we are reaching for a connection with the eternal and the infinite. Prayer can be examined from the lens of the ego-self axis. When we pray, it can be understood as ego asking the guiding self for wisdom, from a position of humility and supplication. Prayer is also linked to our mortality. It is integral to grief rituals. In desperate times, it gives us an act to perform that acknowledges our helplessness but also offers comfort. When we say grace at the dinner table, we offer expiation and acknowledgement of the life we’ve taken from the world in order to sustain our own life. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention in the episode. Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Individuation: A Jungian Reading of the Declaration of Independence
07/02/2026
Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Individuation: A Jungian Reading of the Declaration of Independence
America’s Declaration of Independence has profoundly influenced the development of democracy and democratic movements all over the world, with its bold assertion: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This week Jungian analyst ROBERT SHEAVLY joins Lisa Marchiano for a psychological exploration of the Declaration of Independence, marking its 250th anniversary this Fourth of July. The Declaration of Independence grew from a need to separate from an authority that once provided structure and strength, but no longer served. Psychologically, this reflects an archetypal pattern: the movement away from external authority and toward a deeper source of inner authority. Jung wrote, “In the last analysis the essential thing is the life of the individual”. His work shares the same sacred idea that we find in the Declaration: that the individual holds his or her own dignity, sovereignty and uniqueness. We are not granted rights by external authorities, these are innate to our humanity. Of course, the nation built around the Declaration of Independence failed to live up to its ideals. Thomas Jefferson, the principal author, enslaved hundreds of people throughout his lifetime. At the heart of Independence Day celebrations lies a split, with noble principles dissociated from lived reality. The Declaration of Independence’s centering of the individual, however, reinforces the Jungian idea that we can only solve crises in the collective if we each find the strength to withdraw our shadow projections. Cultural transformation begins with the difficult inner work we must find the courage to take on, working toward wholeness at the personal level. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention in the episode. Connect With This Jungian Life Take a look at This Jungian Life , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Watch bonus mini-episodes on our channel. Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Descent: A Jungian Exploration of the Underworld
06/25/2026
The Descent: A Jungian Exploration of the Underworld
In every culture and every religion, we find the concept of the underworld: sometimes located underground, and usually understood as a final destination after death. This week, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart circumambulate the notion of the underworld and what it means for us psychologically. James Hillman’s Dreams and the Underworld offers a guide, linking our dreaming life to myths of the underworld. We discuss versions of the underworld in Etruscan, Mayan, Christian, Egyptian and Greek mythology, and explore how each culture envisions the threshold between the worlds of the living and the dead, and the extent to which it is possible to enter an underworld and return. Psychologically, the underworld can represent a descent into the world of the unconscious, where completely different values apply. Awake, we may feel concerned about our job or our house, but if we listen to our dreams, we’ll often find the unconscious pointing us elsewhere, towards neglected truths or hidden desires. A visit to the underworld can also be understood as a transformational loss of innocence, just as Kore is raped and abducted by Hades, and transforms into Persephone, Queen of the Underworld. In life, we will all experience a painful loss of innocence or an experience that feels like a descent into hell. Such descents may become important points of initiation on our life’s journey. Visit our to read today’s dream and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Take a look at This Jungian Life , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Watch bonus mini-episodes on our channel. Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Absent Father: Jung and the Missing Masculine
06/18/2026
The Absent Father: Jung and the Missing Masculine
A father who is unavailable - whether due to untimely death, a demanding job, family breakup, or simply an inability to step up and meet his children’s needs - may deprive his children of the emotional bedrock they require. They can struggle to access their capacity for aggression and creativity, or to build the self-esteem necessary for successful adult relationships. As many fairy tales show us, an absent father is sometimes experienced alongside an abusive mother, leaving a complicated legacy of emotional wounding to be worked through. First of all, the abuse must be confronted, and then the failure of the absent parent to witness or protect. Jung’s life offers us fascinating material with which to explore the impact of the absent father. His father’s powerlessness as an uninspired, struggling pastor planted the seed of Jung’s lifelong quest for the numinous. As a father himself, Jung paid little attention to his children as he developed his life’s work and maintained a relationship with his collaborator Toni Wolff alongside his marriage to Emma Jung. Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart this week as they explore what it means to be an absent father, and how we might both survive and transcend the legacy of such a parent. Visit our to read today’s dream, get more detail on the absent father, and follow up on the resources we mention. Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Check out our . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Cry of Merlin: A Jungian Approach to the Wizard
06/11/2026
The Cry of Merlin: A Jungian Approach to the Wizard
Merlin, the mythical prophet, magician, and kingmaker of medieval legend, has lived in the Western imagination for centuries. Arthurian legend gives us more than the idealized government of the Round Table and the hero’s valiant quest for the Holy Grail—it also gives us Merlin’s darkness and power: sorcery, communion with nature, and the prospect of achieving our aims through shadowy transgression. This week, our special guest is Jungian analyst and friend DOUG TYLER. Doug guides us through Merlin’s role in Western culture, sharing some of his favorite stories and explaining the profound influence of Merlin on his analytic work and psycho-spiritual landscape. Considered through a psychological lens, Merlin models the necessity of journeying downward and confronting our darker aspects. He prefigures Gandalf and Dumbledore, embodying the archetype of the mature masculine in a strong and shadowed relationship with the feminine. Merlin can also be understood as a counterpoint to Christ: although his father was a demon, he was born to a virgin mother and twice offered himself as sacrifice. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Check out our . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on .
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Working with Short Dreams and Fragments
06/04/2026
Working with Short Dreams and Fragments
This week, to mark the publication in paperback of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart interpret a selection of short dreams sent in by listeners. Many of us dismiss short dreams or fragments of dreams as unworthy of our time. We await the arrival of epic, cinematic dreams, while perhaps overlooking the gold that can be found in more “ordinary” dreams. Honoring short dreams by writing them down and spending time with them can yield powerful insights. It can also work as an incentive to your unconscious, helping you remember more dreams, and more of your dreams. The time you spend on fragments and snippets strengthens connection with the unconscious. We hope you enjoy today’s discussion of dreams: an overfed fish raising big relationship questions, a meeting with Greek mythology’s star-crossed lover Thisbe, a harsh landscape of volcanic rocks and blood, a bleached Christ figure, and a biting spider at a crossroads in the dreamer’s life. Buy the paperback version of Read the dreams we analyze on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Check out our . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Devouring Mother: Facing Archetypal Darkness
05/28/2026
The Devouring Mother: Facing Archetypal Darkness
Every archetype has a dual aspect: light and dark, and ‘mother’ as devouring and destructive is the dark side of this ever-present, over-arching archetype. The mother’s life-giving, bright aspect is counterbalanced by her engulfing, attacking aspect. The devouring mother is present across cultures in myth, fairy tale, religion, and literature, and most of us have at least had glimpses of her in our experiences as children or later, as parents. In this episode Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore Erich Neumann’s The Great Mother and his and Jung’s concept of the unconscious as devouring mother. Drawing on myths of the Aztec goddess Tlaltecuhtli, the Hindu goddess Kali, the tale of Snow White, and the film Black Swan, we examine the archetypal image of the mother who nourishes and devours, protects and possesses. We also look at how the devouring mother shows up in ourselves and in our own parents. This dynamic can present as enmeshment, helicopter parenting, fear-based control, or an inability to allow our children to separate and become fully themselves. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re analyzing your short dreams or dream fragments to celebrate the publication of the paperback of our book, Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams: . Pre-order the paperback edition of Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Coniunctio: The Alchemy of Union
05/21/2026
Coniunctio: The Alchemy of Union
In this final episode of our series on Jungian alchemy, we explore coniunctio, the union of opposites that gives rise to new wholeness. There are many ways in which we might encounter coniunctio in outer life. We might fall in love, form a partnership, or undertake transformative work with a psychotherapist. In some meaningful, mysterious way, two become one, giving us incremental tastes of transformation. At the psychological level, work with one’s shadow represents the first stage of coniunctio. When we recognize and reclaim aspects of ourselves that have been split off or rejected, we begin to heal inner division and move toward wholeness. We also discuss the sacred union, the second layer of coniunctio, in which we strive to achieve an inner marriage, creating new vitality, creativity, and psychic spaciousness. Ultimately, coniunctio parallels Jung’s concept of individuation, the lifelong process of becoming whole by integrating the hidden, conflicting, and unrealized dimensions of the self and achieving a relationship with the greater Self. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re collecting your short dreams (under 3 sentences): . Pre-order the paperback edition of Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Desirous Dreams: Our Private Erotic Encounters
05/14/2026
Desirous Dreams: Our Private Erotic Encounters
Erotic dreams are extremely common. We may experience them as pleasurable, exciting and moving, or as disturbing and upsetting. It can be hard to talk about erotic dreams, even in therapy, as they insist on attending to secret satisfactions and shames. There is relatively little written on the subject from a Jungian perspective, so this week we dive in and discuss how to work with your erotic dreams. We also analyze some of the many dreams our listeners sent in. Erotic dreams may be about connection, union and intimacy, or confront us with shadow figures and situations that show us what we deny or disobey. They may also offer us potent images of unexplored desires. Join us as we interpret four erotic dreams: a hedonistic experience in a hotel pool, an unsettling meeting with a repellent music teacher, a ritualistic sauna experience, and an unwanted kitchen encounter that invites the dreamer to reclaim her own desires. Read the dreams we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life We’re collecting your short dreams or dream fragments to celebrate the publication of the paperback of Dream Wise: . Pre-order the paperback edition of Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Jung and the End of the World: Can Depth Psychology Save Us?
05/07/2026
Jung and the End of the World: Can Depth Psychology Save Us?
In his new book, The End of the World, author and psychoanalyst JON MILLS considers the question of why humanity seems bent on self-destruction. We face famine, climate change, obscene wealth disparities, and threats of global war and nuclear annihilation. Yet the majority of us seem to prefer living either in denial, or in irrational, active opposition to reading the writing on the wall. This week Jungian analyst and co-host Lisa Marchiano interviews Jon about how we face up to impending catastrophe. Is there a viable alternative to the current situation in which we seem to be indulging a collective death wish, careening unconsciously toward a dangerous precipice? Lisa and Jon discuss Jung’s emphasis on doing individual shadow work and how myth and fairy tale - a distillation of human nature and wisdom - might offer a spark of hope. If we can recognize and confront evil and hold the tension of opposites we can start a conversation with our shadow. Follow Up for This Episode Read Jon Mills’ new book, . Visit Jon Mills’ . Watch bonus mini-episodes on our channel. Download our free Dream Recall .
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Dark Forces in the Psyche: Our Self-Destructive Impulses
04/30/2026
Dark Forces in the Psyche: Our Self-Destructive Impulses
Why is it that we sometimes fail to rise to life’s most important challenges? Why do we instead procrastinate, withdraw, self-sabotage, or feel unable to move toward the life we want? This week, at a listener’s suggestion, Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart explore the concept of anti-libidinal forces in the psyche: those self-destructive impulses that oppose growth, pleasure, and forward movement. We discuss the ways this phenomenon has been addressed within the profession, including Freud’s death drive, Melanie Klein’s concept of the bad breast, Clarissa Pinkola Estés’ predator in the psyche, and Donald Kalsched’s protector/persecutor. Libido was understood by Jung to mean life energy, rather than being purely sexual. We explore how blocked libido can become depression, paralyzing fear, hoarding behavior, vicious self-criticism, or simply an inability to begin or complete what matters most. Through stories such as Bluebeard, Jonah and the Whale, and Marduk and Tiamat, we consider inner monsters that threaten to devour vitality. Anti-libidinal forces, however, are not the end of the story. We also discuss the heroic task of meeting fear, reclaiming disowned energies, and choosing life one step at a time. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free . Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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Psyche in the Age of AI
04/23/2026
Psyche in the Age of AI
Our lives have already been altered by rapidly expanding access to artificial intelligence (AI). In this week’s episode, we consider how this latest technological revolution might be reshaping the human psyche. Hosts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart are joined by a special guest, the author and Jungian analyst Christina Becker, to explore the psychological impact of AI’s incursion into our work, home and relationships. One of the major AI use cases has been for advice, self-reflection and companionship. Some users are even referring to this as “therapy”. This raises thorny questions: what happens when a sycophantic AI interface constantly mirrors us back to ourselves as being in the right? How does this affect our judgment, our relationships, and our connection to reality? Christina Becker shares her work exploring the potential of AI to support Jungian dream analysis. Together we ask whether it is possible to use this powerful tool consciously, while also being aware of the fantasies and projections we bring to it, and maintaining the integrity of our inner lives. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Follow Up Read Christina Becker’s , Soul-Making: A Journey of Resilience and Spiritual Rediscovery Request Christina Becker’s Jungian-based dream interpretation prompt Read Lisa Marchiano’s , “ChatGPT-Induced Psychosis and the Good-Enough Therapist”, Psychology Today, July 2025 Download our free Dream Recall Meditation Send a dream for us to on the show
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The Labyrinth: Soul’s Winding Journey
04/16/2026
The Labyrinth: Soul’s Winding Journey
The labyrinth is a powerful metaphor for psychological development and the path of individuation. This week Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Deborah Stewart consider how twists and turns in the path of life (especially in early adulthood), ask us to confront uncertainty, anxiety, and the unknown. Ego may crave a straight, well-planned path, but life inevitably offers something else: a fiendishly difficult labyrinth. If we want to get the most out of the journey, we’ve no choice other than to give it all we’ve got. Through the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, we reflect on the necessity of facing up to our darkness. Ariadne’s thread, which allows Theseus to return after slaying the beast, shows us the vital role of connection in helping us find our way back. We also explore the story of Abhimanyu from the Mahabharata. Abhimanyu’s mother gives him some knowledge of the labyrinth, but doesn’t tell him the way out, leading to tragedy. If we’re going to crack the code and exit the labyrinth, we’ll require a soulful attitude towards life, and the right psycho-spiritual teachings. Finally, we turn to the contemplative labyrinth. This is not a place to escape from, but a path toward the center. Here, the journey becomes one of surrender, reflection, and gradual movement toward wholeness. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Dream Studio: Our new on dreams and art starts April 16. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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LOW ENERGY: Where Can We Source the Drive to Take Action? (Re-Publish)
04/09/2026
LOW ENERGY: Where Can We Source the Drive to Take Action? (Re-Publish)
Many people just can’t rally to do what’s necessary and improve their lives. Is it possible they just don’t carry much vitality, or is some inner conflict blocking their access? We share personal stories of ‘energy loss’ and offer insights into purposelessness. Carl Jung tells us inner energy flows according to its own laws, but if we can’t harness it? Expect to learn why some people are naturally low-energy, which aspects of your psyche might be leaking energy, how over-aligning with cultural norms can cut off access to instinctive vitality, where we can look for solutions, and much more... SPECIAL NOTE: This is the second dream we've interpreted from this listener. The first interpretation follows. This is an extraordinary opportunity to see how a dream sequence evolves! Read along with our dream interpretations . Connect With This Jungian Life Dream Studio: Our new on dreams and art starts April 16. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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A Jungian Sense of Place: Bollingen and The Tower on the Marsh
04/02/2026
A Jungian Sense of Place: Bollingen and The Tower on the Marsh
Carl Jung, Marie-Louise von Franz and Christiana Morgan all dedicated time, soul and imagination to a peculiarly Jungian form of architecture: the stone tower. This week host Deborah Stewart is joined by Dr. Martin Gledhill, an architect, author and Jungian scholar, and filmmaker Hilary Morgan, the granddaughter of Christiana Morgan, an eminent American psychologist who collaborated with Jung on some of his most important work. Deb, Martin and Hilary explore Jung’s Bollingen Tower and Christiana Morgan’s Tower on the Marsh, discussing the profound expressions of psyche through place. Both towers render psyche in art, carvings and stone. They are more than just physical places, they are architectural explorations of Self and soul. The two towers are what Martin calls “restless places”: dream-like in ambience, shaped through an ongoing, iterative process, and surrounded by differing, sometimes conflicting, accounts of their evolution. Follow Up Read , The Bollingen Tower: Constructing a Jungian Sense of Place Watch (for free) - a film by Hilary Morgan Connect With This Jungian Life Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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The Age of Aquarius: A Jungian View of a Changing World
03/26/2026
The Age of Aquarius: A Jungian View of a Changing World
Jung suggested in Aion that humanity is moving from the great symbolic Age of Pisces to the Age of Aquarius. Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Deborah Stewart and Joseph Lee, as we ask what it means to live through the turbulence and vitality of this period of transition. Jung pioneered the idea that human consciousness unfolds in great symbolic ages. The shift from one to the next is not a smooth or pleasant experience. As Jung saw it, each new age emerges through a process of decline, breakdown, and renewal, a process that can bring with it frightening levels of destabilization. The Age of Pisces, shaped by Christianity, emphasized faith, morality, and the authority of external structures. But as this era wanes, Jung suggested we are coming under the influence of a new attitude, one that asks more of the individual psyche. This new Age of Aquarius asks us to hold the tension of opposites consciously, rather than splitting experience into simple categories of right and wrong, and to be open to a genuinely new attitude that can contain much greater complexity. We consider whether this emerging age calls us into a deeper interior life, one grounded not in external authority, but in an evolving relationship to the Self. Read the dream we analyze in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Book your place at our on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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Cassandra: A Jungian Interpretation
03/19/2026
Cassandra: A Jungian Interpretation
In Greek mythology, Cassandra was a Trojan princess and priestess of Apollo who was given the gift of true prophecy, along with the curse that no one would ever believe her. She warned the Trojans not to bring the famous wooden horse inside their city walls, but her prophecy was ignored and the city fell. In this episode, we discuss the psychological meaning of the Cassandra story from a Jungian perspective, exploring the painful experience of recognizing a deep truth but finding that others cannot or will not hear it. We examine how the Cassandra archetype can intrude into a person’s life, compelling them to deliver uncomfortable truths to audiences who do not wish to hear. Understanding the archetypal pattern may help us discern the difference between those who won’t hear, and those who may be able to accept our message. The story of Cassandra can also be applied to our inner lives. We often ignore our own inner Cassandra, and her quiet warning that something glittering may hide danger. False promises, quick fixes, and seductive fantasies can lure us into welcoming the Trojan horse despite our better judgment. Finally, we ask how we might hold the Cassandra complex differently. Instead of identifying with the doomed prophet, we can recognize the archetype at work: “Cassandra is visiting.” By holding insight with humility, seeking listeners who can truly hear, and accepting the limits of our power to change fate, we might shape the anguish of Cassandra into a deeper wisdom. Read the dream we analyze and find this episode’s resource list on our Connect With This Jungian Life Book your place at our on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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Chance Encounters: When Life Calls Us to a New Path
03/12/2026
Chance Encounters: When Life Calls Us to a New Path
Chance encounters can change the whole direction of our lives. A casual chat with a stranger at the bank, a book that beckons to you from the shelf, or a last-minute lunch invitation might lead to transformative consequences. This week, join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano, Joseph Lee and Deborah Stewart as we circumambulate the phenomenon of the chance encounter. For Jungians, these moments are more than happy accidents. They may be understood as encounters with the deeper ordering principle Jung called the Self, which disrupts the ego’s plans and invites us toward something larger. Fairy tales often feature animal visitors offering the main character a surprising and unexpected choice. These stories can be powerful guides for recognizing the potential of chance encounters and making the most of them. We also discuss how, in an age of overstimulation, you can be receptive to the possibilities of the chance encounter. These moments usually speak softly and quietly rather than arriving with a trumpet sounding from the hills. They are visitations, not tools for self-improvement, and we must be open to allowing them in. Read the dream we analyze on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Book your place at our on March 28, Your Personal Red Book: A Dream School Taster. Send a for us to analyze on the show. Check out our TJL . Follow This Jungian Life on .
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COAGULATIO: The Alchemy of Settling Down
03/05/2026
COAGULATIO: The Alchemy of Settling Down
COAGULATIO marks the psychological moment when possibility takes shape. Uncertainty recedes as we commit to our choices, and life slows and “thickens” into stable commitments and a predictable path. Join Jungian analysts Lisa Marchiano and Joseph Lee as we continue our exploration of Jung’s alchemical stages. This week, we discuss the concept of coagulatio, or the solidifying of what was once liquid. Coagulatio involves settling into a path, a vocation, a relationship, or an identity. Yet these stages of solidification also carry with them loss. Incarnating something in the real world, whether in our creative life, marriage or career, means letting go of infinite possibility. Coagulatio can be seen as an antidote to puer psychology; signifying the demanding task of growing up and settling down. We also investigate the process of coagulatio in the consulting room, where finding language or images with an analyst can shape our distress into something we can work with. Similarly, dream work offers the chance to condense our psychic turmoil into tangible, relatable images that can be used in a process of growth or transformation. Coagulatio is not a permanent state: the alchemical phrase “solve et coagula” indicates a dynamic rhythm between dissolution and solidification. In the course of our life, we may find our stable path starts to feel joyless and rigid, at which point we may return to solutio, when structures loosen again and must be re-formed. Read the dream we analyze and find this episode’s resource list on our website: Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Why You Dream of Intruders: The Hidden Meaning of Break-In Dreams
02/26/2026
Why You Dream of Intruders: The Hidden Meaning of Break-In Dreams
Intruder dreams stage a boundary crisis: something arrives without the ego’s consent, and the dreamer wakes with fear, shame, or outrage. Join Jungian analysts Joseph Lee, Deborah Stewart, and Lisa Marchiano as we analyze a selection of vivid listener-submitted dreams about intruders. We begin with the word itself, “intrusion,” asking how a visitor can feel deeply unwelcome, but at the same time carry something with the potential to protect, repair or even save us. We cover: How the mind negotiates trauma, dissociated affects, and developmental change. How meaning changes depending on whether we read the intruder as a threat vs as a messenger. How intruder dreams can point to weak boundaries, often disguised in waking life as “being nice” or “keeping the peace,” Intruder dreams as communications of unexpressed anger. Detailed guidance on working with your own intruder dream The listener dreams we discuss feature a camel that shatters windows and becomes a man when welcomed; an animus-like husband as mediator between ego and unconscious; blank eyes and the golem as images of unfinished consciousness; and the “friendly threat” of unexpected roommates with bolognese. Read the dreams in full on our . Connect With This Jungian Life Download our free for us to analyze on the show. Take a look at , our online course in Jungian dream analysis. Follow This Jungian Life on
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Dissociation as Design: Why the Mind Sometimes Lets Go
02/19/2026
Dissociation as Design: Why the Mind Sometimes Lets Go
Pierre Janet’s term abaissement du niveau mental describes an experience so common we barely notice it: fatigue, highway hypnosis, shock, wool-gathering, or monotony lowers the threshold of consciousness, and then images, memories, and impulses press forward. Jung found this idea useful for understanding threshold conditions that interfere with our normal skills, yet make symbolic material available, with the caveat that it’s only useful when it’s committed to memory and reflected on. What separates a generative reverie from a dissociative collapse? How can we make use of this dip into the unconscious to access imaginal material and return by choice? How can we evaluate “doors that do not close” from trauma reverie and substance-induced hallucinations? Jungian analysts Joseph Lee, Lisa Marchiano, and Deborah Stewart trace how dissociation, affect, and imagination shape what becomes thinkable, and why technique matters less than containment. We discuss Janet’s early psychiatric discoveries and Jung’s ground breaking 1902 word-association experiments, why consciousness is so hard to maintain, how trauma stores feelings in places we cannot find, what fairytales offer archetypal examples of links between worlds, Jung’s frightening 1913 flood visions, the value of reality-testing and when it’s a violation of Psyche, Anthropologist Lévy-Bruhl’s observations of participation mystique and Ogden’s “analytic third” as models of a shared field phenomenon, and why active imagination and psychedelics must address not only how to open the inner door but how to close it! Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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The Outsider at the Gate: Are We Lovable When Persona Washes Away?
02/12/2026
The Outsider at the Gate: Are We Lovable When Persona Washes Away?
Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Princess and the Pea” is a parable about seeing beneath the surface. It shows us that our authentic nature can be detected, whether we’re swathed in status or rags, if we’re offered the opportunity. A prince’s search for happiness fails when it’s driven by lordly criteria. A wild storm heralds change and delivers a drenched possibility. A king and queen choose subtlety to coax what is hidden into sight, raising stakes about vulnerability, discernment, and the body as witness. What counts as evidence of realness, and why does the tale treat pain as the strongest credential? When ego choice collapses, what higher ordering functions intervene, and how do they design tests? What does sensitivity reveal that competence, status, and prettiness conceal? We ask how a seed-sized irritant becomes a criterion of truth. We discuss the prince’s idealized bride, the storm as solutio and unconscious intervention, the gate as psychic defense and moral threshold, the queen’s ordeal as initiation, the pea as a metaphor for latent potential, bruises as involuntary testimony, sensitivity, and the fourth function as an unexpected route to wholeness. Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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"What Do I Owe My Hurtful Parents?" Is The Wrong Question! Do This Instead!
02/05/2026
"What Do I Owe My Hurtful Parents?" Is The Wrong Question! Do This Instead!
In the aftermath of the holidays, many people find themselves facing an old question in a new stage of life: what does an adult child owe aging parents, especially when the relationship was full of criticism, absence, harm, or disappointment? The pressure to visit, to host, to reconcile, or to perform affection can feel like a moral demand, and a trap. In this episode, three Jungian analysts question the idea of filial duty that feels like debt and lift up new aspects of discernment. They explore the mythic elements of the parent-child bond, the power of the internalized parent, and the inner figures that govern Psyche through guilt, rage, duty, love, and refusal. They consider the power of cultural scripts, the tension between fleeing painful demands on the one hand and familial duty on the other, and the pressure to abandon one's inner life. They offer practical and safe ways to release parental wounds without collapsing back into obedience, define boundaries to protect your autonomy, and clarify care vs. intimacy. You'll discover there is a psychic cost to remembering in the wrong way. Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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Corruption Starts Inside You: Why Malignant Certainty Makes You Dangerous!
01/29/2026
Corruption Starts Inside You: Why Malignant Certainty Makes You Dangerous!
In this episode, Joseph, Lisa, and Deb explain why Corruption is not only a political problem, but a human one, why Power breaks trust long before it breaks laws, and why the most dangerous people are often the most certain. They reveal the core mechanism behind Corruption and Inflation: when unconscious drives flood the ego, making someone feel exceptional, entitled, and above ordinary rules. They unpack how Corruption escalates quietly, from small rationalisations and moral distortions to full-blown abuse of entrusted Power that destroys relationships, organisations, and communities. Joseph brings decades of clinical experience, including high-stakes psychiatric hospital work, where he has seen how quickly people can become less reflective while feeling more “right.” Lisa and Deborah add decades of analytic practice and teaching, connecting leadership research, brain science, mythology, and Jung’s warnings about the will to Power, certainty, and the loss of love and conscience. We explain how: • Power amplifies certainty, and certainty is the earliest warning sign that something is going wrong • Fear narrows perception, creates straw-enemies, and locks groups into “us vs them.” • The fantasy of purity forces splitting, supercharges the shadow, and drives scapegoating • The real antidotes are conscious constructive Power, humility, feedback, and systems of checks and balances If you think Corruption belongs only to bad people, this conversation is a wake-up call. Corruption grows through small compromises, it spreads through groups, and it accelerates when leaders cannot tolerate doubt, accountability, or the lived experience of the people beneath them. Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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How Did I Become a Statistic?
01/22/2026
How Did I Become a Statistic?
Jung wrote “The Undiscovered Self” in 1957, opening with “What will the future bring?”, as the Cold War, the Iron Curtain, and nuclear weapons gained enough momentum to threaten survival. He argued that mass-mindedness, amplified by state power, corporate bureaucracy, and scientific rationalism, reduces people to statistics, numbs conscience, and makes evil all the easier to project. When institutions promise safety and efficiency, what happens to individual responsibility? If religion is an instinct, what strange substitutes will it flow into when it’s suppressed? What can we do to strengthen our Ego-Self axis to resist groupthink? Late in his life, Jung sought to restore the value of religion by freeing it from specific dogma and defining it as a conscientious regard for the irrational facts of experience. As he watched various nations lose their footing and careen into extremes that swept the populace into unthinking obedience, he quietly stated over and again, a vital connection to the transpersonal was the only stable alternative to the deification of the State. We discuss how crowds crush self-reflection, why turning individuals into units of human resource makes people feel replaceable, how projection turns rivals into demons and justifies violence, why psychologies that seek to make us fit in are agents of compliance, how shadow integration grants inner authority, how secular isms capture our religious hunger by harnessing their agenda to archetypal rituals of purity, heresy and sacrifice, how art might save us and why dreams will always offer a refuge that the collective cannot steal from you. Mentioned: The Undiscovered Self Present and Future God, the Devil, and the Human Soul Jung, His Life and Work The Apotheosis of Washington Nuremberg The Wall Infinite Jest Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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Alchemical Mortificatio: How to Survive the Wintering of Your Life
01/15/2026
Alchemical Mortificatio: How to Survive the Wintering of Your Life
If you have been through betrayal or loss, you may still be living by a terrible rule you made when in pain. It can look like hiding, overworking, numbing out, or letting people cross lines because being unseen feels safer. This episode uses the fairy tale “All-Kinds-of-Fur” to help you identify your survival pattern and take the next step out of it. When you update the rule you made when in trauma, you get your choices back. What you’ll learn Identify the “impossible promise” that keeps you stuck, and where it began. Notice your “fur cloak,” the mask of busyness, perfectionism, people pleasing, or disappearing. Stop confusing coping with identity, and start practicing safer honesty. Practice the “30-minute return,” small windows to feel, speak, and be seen. Build endurance through gentle reveal-retreat-return, until you can stay safely present. Joseph Lee and Deborah Stewart, Jungian analysts, turn this tale into a guide to show how your inner world can heal after trauma. In the tale, the princess survives by covering herself in fur and soot, and you may have built a costume too. That costume once protected you; now it may block love, work opportunities, and genuine intimacy. You might scroll at night, over function in relationships, or stay “fine” so nobody asks. Healing is repeated practice; you show up, you pull back, you show up again. The “gold” in the story is what stays intact in you, even after the worst day. This week, choose one safe moment to let that gold show, one honest sentence, one boundary, one small ask, then note the result. Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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Purpose as Service to a Self-Led Future
01/08/2026
Purpose as Service to a Self-Led Future
You're invited to our free Dreams for Change seminar on Sunday January 18th. . ***** Modernity promotes endless techniques to optimize goal-setting and productivity. Yet most of us race from one task to the next, telling our friends how busy we are, secretly knowing we lack direction. This conversation defines Self-led purpose as an orientation to a future beyond our ego needs. This can align our tasks with Individuation even as we face seductive collective agendas. When we look outside for purpose institutions and communities are all too ready to supply meaning, but at what cost to our inner life. You might ask yourself: What distinguishes a vocation aligned with Psyche from a purpose imposed by status, ideology, or fear? Why does the loss of futurity feel like nihilism, and when does purpose become a path to fanaticism? What does Individuation require when collective belonging offers meaning at the price of autonomy? You’ll learn: How repetitive commitments can still carry meaning. Why purpose as futurity is a defense against nihilism. When initiation and suffering act as engines of aliveness. The difference between Eros-driven devotion and power-driven crusades. Jung’s warning about mass movements and false gods. Mentioned: Divine Madness The Deptford Trilogy The Undiscovered Self The Red Book The Three Feathers Forrest Gump The Ceremony of the Weighing of the Heart Joseph and the Coat of Many Colors Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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Can Angels Survive in Our Disenchanted World?
01/01/2026
Can Angels Survive in Our Disenchanted World?
Angels persist in dreams, scripture, and art, while modern institutions psychologize them into coincidences or flatten them into greeting cards. In this episode, we explore angels as autonomous psychic facts, reimagined from age to age but always carrying meaning across the unconscious threshold to the ego’s surprise and benefit. When we learn to welcome the sacred messengers and “…fear not, for behold…” they bring tidings that can right the course of our conscious life. What is gained, and what is lost, when angels are interpreted as natural law rather than moral ideals? How does discernment work when a message arrives with certainty and sweeps us into obedience? When the angel archetype constellates images of UFOs, aliens, or AI, what is it announcing about accountability and authority? Deb, Lisa, and Joe approach angels as symbolic forms, clarifying how Psyche can engage awe, fear, and meaning. They discuss: Angels as mediating symbols bridging the ego and Self Why angelic figures must be morally ambiguous rather than purely benevolent Guardian angels and the daimon as images of destiny The difference between dreams and incursions, like premonitions The wisdom in Jacob wrestling the angel Archetypal inflation and its political analogs The archetype’s modern costume changes from winged angel to technological evangelist Mentioned: It’s a Wonderful Life Genesis The Book of Jonah Exodus The Book of Psalms Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in the Skies The Man Watching Hemi-Sync Gateway tapes Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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Santa and Krampus: Why the “Nice List” Needs a Shadow
12/25/2025
Santa and Krampus: Why the “Nice List” Needs a Shadow
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with 10% off from now until December 31st. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. ----------------------------------------------------- Santa Claus persists as a central figure who teaches children that their desires can be understood and met, on the condition of good behavior. The Christmas morning ritual is staged to delight and mystify: Santa crosses thresholds unseen, cookies are eaten, milk is gone, gifts appear. His all-seeing mind takes a moral accounting, drafts the nice-naughty lists, poses the threat of disappointment and the promise of reward, which makes Santa a temporary stand-in for conscience and, in Jungian terms, for the Self that can both nourish and demand. In modern life, the figure is domesticated and commercialized, making disillusionment feel like psychological collapse rather than a developmental step into adult sensibilities. The question becomes whether society can offer a path back to symbolic reality after childhood literal belief ends. What happens to trust and authority when adults manufacture proof, then later reveal it was staged? Which cultural institutions now carry the work of tending belief, and what incentives do they create? How can Santa be understood as both giver and judge, without sentimentality or cynicism? We discuss Santa’s mixed lineage, from St. Nicholas to Odin’s Wild Hunt; why Krampus keeps the punitive shadow alive when the modern Santa edits it out; Jung on the Self’s benevolence and threat; *Miracle on 34th Street* as a courtroom argument about psychic reality and the cane as a symbol of hope; *Santa Claus Conquers the Martians* as a comic attempt to restore enchantment and power to Santa; and the Grinch as an cynical indictment of holiday consumption. Read along with the dream . Mentioned: 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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Alchemical Mortificatio: How to Survive the Wintering of Your Life
12/18/2025
Alchemical Mortificatio: How to Survive the Wintering of Your Life
✨ The Gift of Dreamwork: Join This Jungian Life Dream School with 10% off from now until December 31st. Just use code HOLIDAY2025 when you purchase Dream School for yourself or as a gift. ----------------------------------------------------- Mortificatio is an alchemical term for the moment a life-organizing identity collapses. We might call it burnout, divorce, depression, retirement shock, institutional betrayal, or a terrifying medical diagnosis. The alchemists called it “death,” and Jungians understand it as part of the psychology of transformation. Read along with the dream . 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 podcast and open the secret door.
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