What happens when the gods come calling, from a depth psychological perspective, and how can one be ready when it happens? These are questions that arose when I recently sat down with Dr. Jennifer Selig to discuss her upcoming Salon on January 22, 2016, at Pacifica’s Ladera Lane Campus: “The Right Address: How to Be Home When the Gods Come Calling.”
The title of Selig’s presentation is based on the double meaning of the word “address.” Not only can the word mean a physical “address” where you live or work— where you can typically be found—it’s verb form, while pronounced differently, signifies when someone calls you. “Calling” ties to the word “vocation,” which is based on the Latin vocatus, the past tense of vocare, “to call.” Vocation, from the early 15th century is defined as “spiritual calling.” Thus the word “vocation,” Selig notes, literally means to be called by the gods.
One’s vocation, as it turns out, is not as much about what we want to do as it is about where the gods would have us be based on the gifts they have bestowed on us.
In his book, The Soul’s Code: In Search of Character and Calling, Hillman wrote, “We dull our lives by how we conceive them,” Selig reminded me, so vocation—or calling—is the place where we ultimately express the gifts and talents that come through us but are not necessarily of us; not restricted or constrained by our limited egoic perspective.... Continue reading this post here, (and find the link to the audio interview I did with Jennifer)
