“Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster… for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.”

― Friedrich Nietzsche

Just in time for Halloween, I wanted to write about my most favorite fairy tale character for whom this blog is named, Baba Yaga. If you do not know her, you should. She makes several important…

There is a spirit world. In psychology we refer to it as the collective unconscious, a realm inhabited by archetypal energies. Essentially, they are spirits, and sometimes appear as ghosts. C.G. commented, " . . . I know however that certain archetypal figures of the unconscious literally appear as ghostly controls with materialistic mediums. I can't deny the possibility that certain figures that might appear in our dreams could materialize just as well as ghosts . . . " )C.G. Jung…

"No one has ever listened to me. Really listened and given me time to tell my story." These are the words of a young man who had been contemplating suicide. Prior to entering depth treatment he felt isolated and expressed this isolation by his statement that no one listened, heard, understood him. No one had ever taken the time.

Depth psychologist, Christopher Bollas, in his book When the Sun Bursts writes, "We all know the wisdom of talking. In…

I love lesser known tales that vary from the more predictable narratives. The Czech fairy tale The Wooden Baby is a fantastically macabre tale that does not have many common variants. Better yet, it deals with the dark side of parenthood.

A poor couple lived at the edge of a forest. Even though they barely had enough to feed themselves, they longed for…

The Sixth Gate of Grief

Day of the Dead in Oaxaca, Mexico

Francis Weller has given us all a great gift with the publication of his book The Wild Edge of Sorrow, in which he distills the insights gained in twenty years of leading grief rituals. It…

PART FIVE: LA CATRINA

It is a most sincere truth

that this adage makes us see:

only one who was never born

can never a death’s-head be.

              – Mexican “Corrido” (folk song)

Parts 1-4 of this essay can be found here.…

Halloween, Masks and Your Shadow: What’s Jung Got To Do With It?

 by Effie Heotis, M.S.

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious".

Like a haunted house in a good horror movie, shadow work can be scary. However, it holds a key which can unlock our unconscious minds, allowing us to become more at peace with ourselves and with others in the process. The shadow, if not called…

http://:chironsouljourneytruth.com/home/html

Basically the same article first appeared at THE MOUNTAIN ASTROLOGER online site for online-subscribers only. The article is easily accessible to the non-astrologer.

Thanks for reading,

Chironically,

Dale (O'Brien) 

When the heart weeps for what it has lost, the spirit laughs for what it has found. — West Africa

Modern people have long been aware of lacking something that neither our ideologies, nor our addictions nor our consumerist frenzies can satisfy. Searching for it, millions have sampled Asian spirituality and discovered contemplative practices that…

A Dark Salvation

I love Gospel music — the music, but generally not the lyrics. Most Gospel lyrics convey the perspective of one has been saved by accepting Jesus. In other words, they tell the end of a story that began in ignorance, descended into sin, rose up to acknowledge the condition of being a sinner and arrived at the state of salvation. They invite the listener to join the singer, accept his/her reality as the only solution to life’s dissatisfaction and…

Issue 8 of The Grapevine is ready to read at www.barbaraknott.net

The online journal explores depths of many kinds, including psychology, art, and soulful living. We welcome readers and submitters. Issue includes articles in Entertaining Ideas column on James Hollis's book Hauntings and on what happens when imagination fails. Book review of Diane Thomas' In Wilderness. Articles on tracking history and world voices. Poetry, wilderness…

Life and death depend on listening. All we need in life is one person who gets us, who understands and wants to keep understanding. This is food for the soul, nutrition for the mind, and sustenance for life.

A young man made his way into depth therapy. Through the years he made significant progress, healed deep pain from hidden trauma. One session he told me, "If I wouldn't have gotten here all those years back, I wouldn't be alive right now. You took me where…