Quadrant: The Journal of the C.G. Jung Foundation

Volume XXXIV, No. 2, Summer 2004

From the Editor — Kathryn Madden

We live in challenging times. Challenging for all persons. Every day the news media serve up more and more atrocities, inhumanities committed in the name of God. During another time of collective trouble, Carl Jung observed that all psychological problems are basically religious problems, or problems of meaning. Religion can unite and religion can divide. We in this country — especially in New York City — but equally in other countries and continents — are all too aware of what can come from religion that divides. But how are we to respond?

A very big part of our response must be to always seek out that which unites rather than that which divides us. The work of depth psychologists, lay or professional, bears witness to the mission of seeking that which unites, brings together, heals, and binds.

In seeking what unites we become astutely, sometimes painfully, aware that consciousness, as it becomes more differentiated, requires withdrawing projections. Otherwise we face religious terrorism as one of the inevitable compensatory conclusions for a one-sided consciousness. In “Terrorism and the Dark Side of Religion,” author William J. Ventimiglia claims, “hitherto [projections] were the basis for our sense of belonging in the world.” Truly, life is intolerable without reverence for the sacred, which invokes the projective imagination, yet, we cannot allow the symbolic to become literalized, as Ventimiglia tells us. What is required of us is change. We still need to learn from those we are threatened by. We need to forge ahead on our individual paths of individuation and yet, in so doing, examine our collectivist institutions. These challenging times engage us in a self-scrutiny as never before, but one in which personal and collective redemption lie.

In “Jung and the Neo-Pagan Movement” David and Sharn Waldron appreciate sacred ritual and the numinosum. In the current Neo-Pagan movement, however, they find an arbitrary attribution of meaning being ascribed to symbols based upon personally designated needs. Neo-Paganism appropriates Jungian methodology in an attempt to legitimate Pagan ritual outside of empirical history. These authors critically examine how this appropriation attempts to ensconce the Neo-Pagan movement within a respectable psychological and epistemological framework.

Richard W. Voss continues the theme of preserving ancient wisdom and the sacred. He introduces us to the historical understanding of the Spirit-relational Self of the Lakota-Sioux peoples. Voss offers analogues between Lakota perspectives and Jungian concepts while maintaining the integrity of each source. He urges us to remain open to a sense of meaning intrinsic to cultures different than the dominant one. Through a Lakota lens, he encourages us to consider the often neglected spiritual dimension, inclusive of environmental resources, as healing factors in contemporary medicine and healthcare.

Following Voss' piece with its emphasis on the human being as a peer to all that is created and visible in the natural world, author Dennis Patrick Slattery delves into the notion of imaginal musing upon matter itself. Drawing from the concept of reverie in the work of Gaston Bachelard, he encourages us to reflect upon our physical and our symbolic universe as a function of poiesis. Slattery draws together the overarching theme of this issue asking that we reflect upon matter not only to gain insight into ourselves but to gain insight into the imagination of matter itself.

As the new editor of Quadrant, I have accepted the torch that has been passed on to me by my colleagues V. Walter Odajnyk and Robin van Löben Sels to whom I am thankful. I am also grateful for the years of mentoring and now internalized presence of dear colleagues Ann Belford Ulanov, Barry Ulanov, and Donald Kalsched. I hope to continue to bring to Quadrant's readers the essence of Jung's transformative vision as it relates to this century of challenge. Quadrant has an incredible lineage. With the help of our authors and you, our readers, I trust that Quadrant will continue to leave a legacy in which “the imaginary powers of heaven and earth, the light of diamonds and stars, are truly interchangeable …” — Kathryn Madden

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