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Category Archives: John A. Sanford

Dream Bibliography

07 Sunday Jun 2015

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Archetypes, Carl Jung, Dream Groups, Dream Work, Dreams, Haden Institute, Inner Work, Jeremy Taylor, John A. Sanford, Robert A. Johnson, Self-actualization, Shadow work

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Dreams, Dreamwork

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I offer below a bibliography of books recommended by The Haden Institute (hadeninstitute.com) to help with your dreamwork:

I. Achroyd, Eric—A Dictionary of Dream Symbols **

II. Bosnak, Robert—A Little Course in Dream

III. Brook, Stephen—The Oxford Book of Dreams

IV. Bryant, Dorothy—The Kin of Atta are Waiting for You

V. Campbell, Joseph, ed.—Myths, Dreams and Religion

VI. Cirlot, J.E.—A Dictionary of Symbols **/***

VII. Clift, Jean and Wallace—Symbols of Transformation in Dreams

VIII. Fontana, David—The Secret Language of Dreams **

IX. Freud, Sigmund—The Interpretation of Dreams

X. Gongloff, Robert—Dream Exploration

XI. Haden, Robert—Unopened Letters from God *

XII. Hall, James—Jungian Dream Interpretation

XIII. Hoss, Robert—Dream Language

XIV. Hudson, Joyce Rockwood—Natural Spirituality */***

XV. Johnson, Robert A.—Inner Work ***

XVI. Jung, Carl—Dreams ***

XVII. Jung, Carl—Memories, Dreams and Reflections */***

XVIII. Jung, Carl—Psychology and Religion

XIX. Jung, Carl—Man and His Symbols **/***

XX. Kelsey, Morton—Dreams: A Way to Listen to God

XXI. Kelsey, Morton—God, Dreams and Revelation

XXII. Kutz, Ilan—Dreamland Comparison

XXIII. Lyons, Tallulah—Dream Prayers

XXIV. Maurer, Sue—God Has Been Whispering in My Ear

XXV. Moore, Thomas—The Care of the Soul

XXVI. Moore, Thomas—Soul Mates

XXVII. Sanford, John—Dreams: God’s Forgotten Language */***

XXVIII. Sanford, John—Dreams and Healing

XXIX. Sanford, John—Healing and Wholeness

XXX. Sanford, John—Invisible Partners

XXXI. Sanford, John—The Kingdom Within ***

XXXII. Sanford, John—The Man Who Wrestled With God

XXXIII. Savary, Louise—Dreams and Spiritual Growth: A Christian Approach to Dreamwork

XXXIV. Singer, June—Boundaries of the Soul

XXXV. Stein, Murray, ed.—Jungian Analysis

XXXVI. Stevens, Anthony—Archetypes

XXXVII. Taylor, Jeremy—The Wisdom of the Dream *

XXXVIII. Taylor, Jeremy—Dream Work ***

XXXIX. Van De Castle, Robert L.—Our Dreaming Mind

XL. Von Franz, Marie-Louise—Animus and Anima

XLI. Von Franz, Marie-Louise—On Dreams and Death

XLII. Von Franz, Marie-Louise—Projection and Re-Collection

* Good Beginning Books

** Good Books to Explore Symbols

*** Books I own

Conclusion: The Kingdom Within

21 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Dream Work, John A. Sanford, Self-actualization, Shadow work, Soul

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chaseprairie

The early Christians lived under the impression that the world would soon end, so much so that Saint Paul advised them to avoid marriage if at all possible. They were so wrapped up in the conventional thinking of their times that they couldn’t even begin to comprehend the dynamic new psychological developments for humanity made possible by Jesus Christ.

It is all very Zen-ish, but the Western world was not prepared for that, and as a result Christian theology never developed a philosophy of the future or a theology of the workings of the Holy Spirit. That is why Christianity must now take into account the psychological dimension of Jesus’ sayings.

“Even as Jesus became a complete person,” John Sanford says, “so our calling is to imitate him, not by mimicking what we suppose to have been his virtues, but by approximating completeness ourselves as much as possible. In this way, we manifest Christ within us.”

If Christians, in general, were aware of this it would make Christianity the most psychological of all religions because of the emphasis it places on the inner development of the individual and the important role that it assigns to the ego as the bearer of consciousness, he says.

What prevents this from becoming a basically selfish concern is the fact that becoming self-actualized requires one to participate in the lives and needs of others.

“For completeness to develop in the life of an individual,” Sanford says, “that individual must be involved in the totality of life.”

In other words, becoming a person who is completely individuated is a matter of psychological development, but not of psychologizing. Totality arrives when life is lived completely and when the demands of both the inner and outer realities are met consciously.

“No one can hope to find his or her salvation without being deeply concerned with the salvation of other,” he says, “for human beings are complete in relationship and not as islands standing alone.”

The kingdom of God is a personal and psychologically real experience, yet it is not a purely personal experience. It has a transcendental as well as immediate character. The kingdom doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the kingdom.

“What the kingdom is in itself can never be contained by rational consciousness,” he says, “but can be expressed only in symbols.”

It cannot be thought but can only be embraced, even if only for a moment, in a mystical experience, for it far transcends personal consciousness and the limitations of the ego’s thinking.

“In its transcendence,” Sanford says, “the kingdom is a call into the future. In grounding our lives upon the kingdom within, we become a part of the evolving of human consciousness, which means being part of God’s intention.”

Here, in the evolution of consciousness, taking place through individuals but always transcending the individual in its significance, is the Christianity of the future, he concludes.

The Coming of the Kingdom, Part II

14 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Dream Work, John A. Sanford, Self-actualization, Shadow work, Soul

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Castle by Griffin Logue

Castle by Griffin Logue

When doing the inner work needed to become self actualized, the image of the wedding might also be prevalent in our dreams. When we begin to dream of weddings, it can be a hopeful sign that the process of unification can finally begin, particularly if the ego (you in your dream) is not directly involved in the wedding.

By ‘directly involved,’ I mean that if you are one of the couple getting married then the dream is probably about something else like possession or seduction by certain aspects of the unconscious.

Because the wedding is a union of opposites bringing about unification, the main characters in the wedding are usually figures other than the ego itself.

“I tell you solemnly, nowhere in Israel have I found faith like this. And I tell you that many will come from east and west to take their places with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob at the feast in the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 8:10-11

And Luke 13:29 says, “And men from east and west, from north and south, will come to take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God.”

Here the kingdom of heaven is shown as a great gathering together that includes all humanity. In Luke’s Gospel, Sanford says, because he mentions all four compass points, the image is that of a mandala, which suggests wholeness or totality.

“The unity of the kingdom is a creative, not a static, unity,” Sanford says. “It is not a peace of quiescence, but a creative inner relatedness.”

Because God is primarily a Creator, his kingdom generates a continual source of new energies and possibilities. That is why, on an experiential level, no human being ever reaches the end of his or her journey, he says. For, as the kingdom begins to become a reality within, there is generated from within a host of new possibilities that consciousness can fulfill. So, the life of the kingdom is dynamic and continually evolving.

This brings new meaning to the story of the great catch of fish:

“[Jesus] said to Simon, ‘Put out in deep water and pay out your nets for a catch.’ ‘Master,’ Simon replied, ‘we worked hard all night long and caught nothing, but if you say so, I will pay out the nets.’ And when they had done this they netted such a huge number of fish that their nets began to tear, so they signaled to their companions in the other boat to come and help them; when these came, they filled the two boats to sinking point.” Luke 5:4-7

Fish are a favorite dream symbol because they can represent the contents of the inner world. While they may lurk under the surface and may be difficult to see, they can also be caught with patience and skill. And when they are caught, they may be eaten and, as such, taken into oneself. The contents of the inner world are also below the surface and, similar to the fish, taken into consciousness and become as food for our lives.

Obviously, the above is not the only reference to fish in the New Testament: the disciples are fishermen, the multitudes are fed with fish, a fish is caught to supply tax money, and it is the first food Jesus eats after his resurrection, to name a few.

According to Sanford, creativity is a function of the inner imagination, not of the ego. Creativity comes when we are in contact with the living contents of the inner world–the inner fish–and, bringing them to the surface, give them expression in life.

“When one is in contact with the creative aspects of the inner world,” he says, “one comes into possession of a vast treasure. Their is no higher gift in life than the gift of creativity.”

“Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth, where moths and woodworms destroy them and thieves can break in and steal. But, store up treasure for yourselves in heaven, where neither moth nor woodworms destroy them and thieves cannot break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matthew 6:19-21/Luke 12:33-34.

Sanford says that in the Bible, “heaven” does not refer to a geographical location, but rather to spiritual reality. Treasures on earth are obviously material values and possessions which are notoriously perishable. Treasures in heaven are inner values, treasures of the spirit, a creative inner wealth, and these are imperishable.

This same motif appears in our dreams when we encounter a treasure. Coins can be found hidden in the ground, or a marvelous piece of jewelry may appear, or a large sum of money may come our way. These often refer to inner treasures with a spiritual or psychological value.

It is not about rejecting the material aspects of life for the sake of the spiritual. The material is needed to survive. Rather, we are asked to put the spiritual first; to realize that the material is necessary but not the ultimate goal.

So, in essence, the coming of the kingdom represents the “end of the world,” in the psychological sense that it is the end of an old order and the establishment of a new order of being, Sanford says.

“The ‘complete human being’–that is the Son of Man–is at the heart the heart of this new person born into the kingdom of God,” he says. “Because personality is the ultimately valuable thing in creation, since it’s life most unique expression, and because the kingdom is the goal of personality, the kingdom is futuristic and goal-centered.”

“If then they say to you, ‘Look, he is in the desert,’ do not go there; ‘Look he is in some hiding place,’ do not believe it; because the coming of the Son of Man will be like lightning striking in the east and flashing far into the west.” Matthew 24:26-27/Luke 17:23-24

Necessarily, the establishment of the kingdom brings great insight (lightning). Two kinds of knowledge have always been available to humans: knowledge of the outer, physical world, which is available through the methods of science; and knowledge of the inner world, spiritual knowledge that comes through inner gnosis or insight.

Our dreams often pick up on this lightning imagery, as well. A person on the verge of a significant and revealing inner experience may dream of a great flash of lightning, or a resplendent mountain, or go on a mysterious journey under the sea on some mission of great importance, or discover some mysteriously significant object.

The suddeness with which our inner reality may burst upon us is often represented by a flood in our dreams. Because water, in the form of the ocean, rivers, floods, torrents, streams, pools, etc., is a favorite symbol for inner reality, it is the symbol par excellence for the origin of our psychic life. Therefore, a flood is a sign that our inner reality has caught us unawares.

“Inner reality is beyond our control,” Sanford says. “We cannot predict or control the inner realm any more than we can predict and control our dreams. We can only be conscious and seek to be prepared to understand.”

Jesus says, “So stay awake, because you do not know the day when your master is coming. . . . Therefore, you too must stand ready because the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.” Matthew 24:42/Luke 12:39-40

When the Son of Man does arrive, when inner reality floods our consciousness, it will bring with it a reorganization of the personality so violent and complete that it can be described in only apocalyptic images. This reorganization might take place very quickly or over a long period of time, but the result will still be the same: the old attitudes and structures of the personality must give way to the new ones.

Jesus portrayed this vividly: “Immediately after the distress of those days the sun will be  darkened, the moon will lose its brightness, the stars will fall from the sky and the powers of heaven will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven; then too all the people of the earth will beat their breasts; and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet to gather his chosen from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.” Matthew 24:29-31/Luke 21:25-27/Mark 13:24-27

Dreams frequently occur in which the heavenly bodies play a major role. We dream of the sun or moon or find ourselves gazing up into a brilliant starry night. The heavenly bodies refer to the archetypal contents of the inner world, the dominant psychic forces that powerfully influence consciousness. And, once again, the image of the four winds, signifies a mandala or totality and completeness.

“Another way in which the mystery of the coming of the kingdom is expressed is in the image of the Undivided Person,” Sanford says. “Unity is the goal of the kingdom.”

Thus the masculine-feminine division represented by the wedding as the male and female unite as one: both physically through intercourse, and psychologically through the act of sex representing an image of a higher unity that can take place within the individual as the diverse parts become one with each other. The union of masculine and feminine is therefore the symbol for the union of the psyche, and the image of marriage is, naturally, the primary representation of their inner mystery.

The opposite sides of the personality are so different that only a great force can draw them together in union. This power is love. Love is a stronger power than the forces of disunion. In love, even opposites can become one, and their differences unite in one indivisible whole. This is why love is the strongest power there is, stronger than sin, or death, or evil.

In the end, nothing can be excluded that belongs to human wholeness. In the kingdom, body, soul, and spirit, sexuality, eros, and meaning–all are part of totality.

Next Week: Conclusion: Christianity–A Religion for a Modern Era

The Coming of the Kingdom, Part I

07 Sunday Jul 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Dream Work, John A. Sanford, Self-actualization, Shadow work

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Corinne&Jeus

Once we’ve managed to incorporate what was rejected by the conscious, the kingdom can be established as our inner center. This is both a surrender of the ego to the supremacy of the kingdom, Sanford says, and the fulfillment of the ego and its establishment in a position of strength and importance as the representative of the totality of the personality.

Jesus says, “Anyone who finds his life will lose it; anyone who loses his life for my sake will find it.” Matthew 10:30/Luke 9:24/Mark 8:35

And:

“Anyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and anyone who humbles himself will be exalted.” Matthew 23:12/Luke 14:11Once again his sayings can be applied both inwardly and outwardly. Outwardly it is a call by Christ to a life marked by commitment rather than self-seeking, which is possible only if the same event has happened within and the ego has sacrificed its egocentricity to the larger life within.

“This is not a call to extinguish, nullify, or devalue the ego,” Sanford says, because the ego is important to the total personality. “There can be no wholeness, no strength, no capacity to be used by God without a strong ego,” he continues. “It is only an ego made strong by inner confrontation that is capable of performing the act of self-sacrifice.”

He says that a weak ego feels compelled to fight and struggle for its very existence, and since we cannot sacrifice what we do not have, if we are not in possession of ourselves, we cannot turn ourselves over to God. A person with a strong ego is humble, not proud, because they have no need for self-pride. They are confident in their authenticity, their totality.

“Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus says in Matthew 5:3, KJV and Luke 6:20.

As ‘poor’ in Greek literally means ‘beggarly,’ the ‘poor in spirit’ are those who recognize that they must beg for their spirit from a source beyond themselves. If one is too self-sufficient, they sacrifice their chance at the kingdom.

Unfortunately, most humans are all too willing to do this because it is our unconscious inclination to seek power for ourselves and to try and exploit life to our own purposes. In fear of losing our ego, we become anxious, which prevents us from doing the very work necessary to die to the old ego so that the new ego may be born.

Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow, since the road that leads to perdition is wide and spacious, and many take it; but it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Matthew 7:13-14/Luke 13:24.

The narrow way is the anxious way,” Sanford says, “and the anxious way occurs when the ego must give place to the kingdom.”

This giving way of the ego to the greater reality within is often portrayed in our dreams as a death. We might dream of dying, or of having a mortal illness, or of finding ourselves under sentence of death. If we are working on this inner process, yet deny this “death,” it is not unusual to experience compulsive thoughts about dying or be convinced that we have cancer or some other deadly disease.

It is only the death of the ego, not actual physical death, which is symbolized by death in our dreams, and death of the ego is symbolic of the psychological process. Jesus often represents the new personality in his sayings as a child.

“At this time the disciples came to Jesus and said, ‘Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?’ So he called a little child to him and set the child in front of them. Then he said, ‘I tell you solemnly, unless you change and become like little children you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. And so, the one who makes himself as little as this little child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.’” Matthew 18:1-4/Luke 9:46-48/Mark 9:33-37

Jesus uses the example of a child as one who has entered the kingdom because, as I noted earlier, children have not yet developed their mask—they are what they seem to be. Children also have a free connection to the inner world. So, one must enter the kingdom as a little child—with no false façade, a newborn (ego), and closely connected to the inner world, from which spring imagination, spontaneity and creativity.

We all have a child-self within us, which is partly a remnant of our own childhood psyche and partly archetypal in nature. The inner child is an important part of our psychology. If we deny the inner child, we become childish, which is the opposite of what we want. When we become childish we are infantile, regressive and dependent. But, if recognize the legitimacy of the child-self in the positive sense, then it is expressed in our personalities as freedom, creativity, and the continual generation within us of new life.

That is why the appearance of a child in our dreams is always important. If the child appears as forlorn, orphaned, neglected, or crippled in some way, our subconscious is calling our attention to the need to recognize and accept the child-self. If the child is a happy companion, takes us by the hand, or is seen at play, for example, it represents inner creativity. If the dream shows the birth of a child or a newborn infant, it represents new life within. Another alternative is one of a group of mischievous children, which shows creative elements within us which are likely to be disturbing the status quo of consciousness, but are valuable for the future growth of the personality. The child can also symbolize the kingdom itself, as in Isaiah 11:6-8: “The wolf lives with the lamb . . . with a little boy to lead them . . .”

Ordinarily, Sanford says, our personality is fragmented because it is split up into pairs of opposites that are hostile and antagonistic. This is expressed in dreams in which there is a motif or war, violence, enmity, or opposition in one form or another.

“The kingdom comes as a unity,” he says, “a paradoxical unity since it is the union of factors that are different from each other and so have a natural inclination to opposition.”

It is for this reason that the most important single image of the kingdom is the image of a wedding since it is here that opposing elements are united. In his parable of the wedding feast (Matthew 22:2-14/Luke 14:15-24), Jesus notes:

“The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a feast for his son’s wedding.” Matthew 22:2The king may be likened to God as the Father, and the son likened to Christ; those who would not come are the Jews. This allegorical interpretation is not particularly edifying. But there is a deeper meaning to its inner significance. God is the king, and the wedding we are called to is the inner wedding, and the union of the opposites within us.

“But the great bulk of humanity is too concerned with outward things to appreciate the value of the inner realm,” Sanford says. “Only those forced by God to come in, good and bad alike, join the wedding feast.”

Another wedding parable Jesus uses is the parable of the ten bridesmaids:

“The kingdom of heaven will be like this: Ten bridesmaids took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. “ Matthew 25:1

Of the ten (once again, the number of totality), only half are prepared with oil ready to go in their lamps. While the others hurry out to get oil, the bridegroom arrives, and doors are closed against them.

The parable ends:

“So stay awake, because you do not know either the day or the hour.” Matthew 25:13

Taken outwardly, the parable suggests the need for constantly being on the alert so that we will be ready to receive the Lord when he comes at the Last Day. Once again, the passage fits with inner reality more readily than outer. The parable speaks of the approach of the kingdom from within. As the kingdom is a wedding, the union of opposites, initiated by God, the bridegroom is the larger Christ-like personality who unites the soul in the inner mystery of coming into selfhood.

But the ego must remain alert (or conscious) so that the lamps, which symbolize the light of consciousness, remain ready to constantly shine that light on our ongoing relationship to the inner life. Events happen from within quite unexpectedly. One never knows what will trigger them to begin the wedding of unification. If we are not prepared, we may miss it and languish far too long in unconsciousness where we will remain forever shut out from the wedding feast because our inner darkness is too great to overcome.

The motif of being too late is often seen in our dreams when we arrive to late to catch a plane or train, ship or bus. Or, we may find ourselves starting a journey but with the feeling of being far behind, or alternately, have a great task set before us that we are overwhelmed by because it is too late to start it, and variations on those themes.

Next Week: The Coming of the Kingdom, Part II

The Lost Coin

30 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Dream Work, John A. Sanford, Saint Augustine, Shadow work, Soul

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lost coin

Once you realize the relationship of the consciousness to the soul, your inner world is available for recognition and integration. The process involves the inclusion of what was once unrecognized and unknown.

This, unfortunately, is not always a pleasant experience, because, as Sanford says, some of what must be included appear at first to be objectionable, inferior, unwanted and perhaps, even “devilish.”

But, without these “lost” aspects of ourselves, the “perfection” or wholeness of the kingdom cannot be established as they represent our unredeemed humanity, which must now be found.

Our early identification with the mask, he says, effectively excludes a large portion of our personality. And, our identification with our masculinity or femininity, depending on whether we are men or women, will also exclude much of our potential.

The undeveloped side of our personality often appears in our dreams. It could be a beggar, a man or woman we see as inferior, a crippled or handicapped person or even a child that has not yet developed. The need to reclaim this part of ourselves is often seen in dreams as a great descent, or a dream figure that cries for help or even in a scene that resembles the realm of hell.

Sanford says the unlived life may “seize the initiative and make a great bid for freedom, in which case there is a turbulence of personality, a violent inner upheaval as the unused portions of ourselves stage a revolt.”

If we identify with that rebellion, it will be a frightening experience for those around us as they see sudden changes taking place in our personalities. If we do no identify with these surging forces, the fear will be our own; we will become deeply frightened of ourselves, fear insanity, or feel forced to quell the rebellion in drugs, alcohol or some other form of escape.

Jesus has many sayings that speak of the need to reclaim what has been denied, such as, “The Son of Man has come to seek out and save what was lost.” Luke 19:10

This has come to mean those people “out there” who have not heard the Gospel, but Sanford says the meaning is also internal. Jesus came as the archetype of human completeness in order to save all those parts of the human personality, wherever they exist, that are lost to consciousness.

“When you give a lunch or a dinner, do not ask your friends, brothers, relations or rich neighbors, for fear they repay your courtesy by inviting you in return. No; when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind; that they cannot pay you back means that you are fortunate, because repayment will be made to you when the virtuous rise again.” Luke 14:12-14

This another of the sayings of Jesus that refers to both the social and psychological attitude the Christian is to cultivate. Says Sanford, “Psychologically they are to . . . include those parts of themselves that have hitherto been denied development. At first this seems futile, as though we must accept in us what is unacceptable, useless, or actually defeating to our conscious purposes. Where is our reward in this? But when the kingdom comes . . . we shall have paved the way for totality.”

Many parables also speak of the necessity of including the inferior element, including the parable of Lazarus and the rich man that appears in Luke 16:19-31. In this parable, the rich man from hell begs Lazarus, who is in heaven, for relief and Lazarus denies him any help for either himself or his brothers. The only thing that is offered is: “They have Moses and the prophets.”

“If they will not listen either to Moses or to the prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone should rise from the dead.”

This may look like a story created to put Jews in their place for not believing in the resurrection, but taken inwardly, the rich man is the ego, which “has everything its own way and falls prey to a hubris so that it unfairly dominates the entire psyche.”

“The poor man,”Sanford says, “is the rejected one, a personality shoved aside by the ego into the unconscious where it longs for acceptance and for nourishment from consciousness but is denied it.”

Sooner or later such an ego is plunged into the hell fire of the unconscious, which is the only way this hubris can be overcome. But the inferior personality (Lazarus) is elevated by God, which shows that what people have regarded as inferior, unworthy, and to be scorned is actually favored, loved and elevated by God.

The great gulf between heaven and hell in the parable is the inevitable result of the refusal of the ego to acknowledge inner reality.

The parables of the lost sheep and the lost coin also illustrate this:

“Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray? I tell you solemnly, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all.” Matthew 18:12-14/Luke 15: 4-7)

Sanford claims there is a reason, an inner meaning, for the precise total of 100 sheep. Numbers for the early Christians, he says, all had a mystical, or psychological, meaning.

“Ignorance of numbers prevents us from understanding things that are set down in Scripture in figurative and mystical ways,” Saint Augustine said.

Thus it is that 10, with its multiples of 100 or 1000, was known as the divine number. It represented unity (as the total of the four primary numbers: 1, 2, 3 ,4) on a complex level. It was the number for totality, or God.

Which explains why the loss of one sheep is so important, without finding the one lost sheep to bring the total back to 100, there is no completeness. So, psychologically, that lost sheep is the lost part of ourselves, the part of our total personality that is submerged in the depths. And, this part must be recognized and brought into expression if we are to be complete.

“Or, once again, what woman with ten drachmas would not, if she lost one, light a lamp and sweep out the house and search thoroughly till she found it? And then, when she had found it, call together her friends and neighbors? ‘Rejoice with me,’ she would say, ‘I have found the drachma I have lost.'” Luke 15: 8-9

A drachma is worth only about 6 cents so it is not particularly valuable, but according to K.C. Pillai, at that point in history, a woman was given 10 coins by her husband at the time of their betrothal as a pledge of love and loyalty. She was to keep them her entire life and losing them would be a terrible disgrace and a bad omen for the marriage.

So, like the lost sheep, the lost coin is a lost part of ourselves, the inferior part that must be recovered if we are to be complete. The lighting of a lamp and the sweeping of the home are also symbolic as we light the lamp of our mind, do a thorough searching of our souls, and a sweeping of our inner world in order to become whole.

Gregory of Nyssa writes of this parable that the lamp/light is “doubtless our reason which throws light on hidden principles” (i.e., consciousness that perceives hidden unconsciousness).  The coin, he says, is to be found “in one’s own house, that is, within oneself.” Then he observes about the lost coin, “By that coin the Parable doubtless hints at the image of our King, not yet hopelessly lost, but hidden beneath the dirt.”

This dirt, he says, “is the impurity of our flesh, which, being swept and purged away by carefulness of life, leaves clear to the view the object of our search . . . Verily, all those powers which are the housemates of the soul, and which the Parable names her neighbors for this occasion, when so be that the image of the mighty King is revealed in all its brightness at last, that image which the fashioner of each individual heart of us has stamped upon this our Drachma, will then be converted to that divine delight and festivity, and will gaze upon the ineffable beauty of the recovered one.”

To recover the lost coin within us, our unredeemed humanity, is to recover Christ himself, the psychological equivalent of which is totality.

The paradox of the kingdom is that the very things in life that hitherto have given us such support may now have to be sacrificed, Sanford says. Jesus puts it this way:

“If your right eye should cause you to sin, tear it out and throw it away . . . for it will do less harm to lose one part of you than to have your whole body go to hell.” Matthew 5:29-30

Obviously, literally, this is absurd. Psychologically, the “right” side represents the side of ourselves that is consciously developed; the “left” side is the side of ourselves of which we are unconscious. In other words, we must at times sacrifice what has been psychologically developed if it so takes over that it excludes our totality.

The final paradox, Sanford says, is that it looks as though consciousness, from its superior development and vantage point, must stoop down to lift up the inner beggar, to rescue the undeveloped inner person, or go in search of the lost sheep/coin. But, at the same time it is the lost part of ourselves, the despised “Samaritan” that rescues us. We are saved when the lost part of our personality is recovered.

“With the removal of the hubris of the ego and the inclusion of the inferior, hitherto unconscious parts of our personality that our connection to the soul has made possible, we are now in a position to receive the kingdom of God, he says.

Next Week: The Coming of the Kingdom

The Faith of the Soul, Part II

23 Sunday Jun 2013

Posted by victoriaperpetua in Dream Work, John A. Sanford, Shadow work, Soul

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BanksLakeWaterlily

In both his person and in his sayings, Jesus reflects a living relationship to the soul. In his person, it is shown through his amazing compassion for people. He was capable of lasting, deep personal relationships, which is a mark of someone whose eros side is well developed, and therefore in touch with their soul.

With no soul-connection to oneself, one’s life will come to nothing, John Sanford says. Thus, Jesus can say, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?” Matthew 16:26, KJV/Luke 9:25/Mark 8:36

It is in the contemporary translations that one finds that “soul” has been translated as “life.” But the soul is a psychic reality that makes one alive from within. The mere holding onto physical life when the time has come to relinquish it, is of no value, Sanford says. It is the connection to the soul that is of vital importance, for without that connection our outward life comes to nothing.

“Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; fear him rather who  can destroy both body and soul in hell.” Matthew 10:28

Clearly the death of our physical body is nothing compared to the destruction of our souls.

“Since a connection with the soul is a connection to the principle of eros,” Sanford says, “the place of eros in relationship to the kingdom must be further explored.”

Because eros springs from nature and carries a feminine sign, it is also close to human passion and instincts. This calls into question the place of our bodily nature in the kingdom of God.

There are three reasons that conventional Christianity has been largely identified with a negative view of the instinctual human being and of natural human feelings, he says.

The first reason is the unnatural split between paganism and Christianity: Christianity is good versus Paganism is bad.  And, that there is no connection between the two. But, there should be no such split between the pagan myths and images and the Christian ones.

“All myths have their origin in the striving of the psyche to express in mythological form the deepest human spiritual and psychological truths and strivings,” Sanford says.

There are definite parallels between pagan myths and the Christian story, which shows that a rift between the two is unnatural. Yet, if Christianity grew out of paganism, it also goes beyond it. Why? Because Christianity is not left in the form of a myth but is part of the history of a specific person at a specific time. Also, Christ has a vital relationship not only to the Mother, but also to the heavenly Father, which is an element missing in the dying and rising gods before him. This aspect gives his mission a distinctly spiritual and conscious character. Death on the cross is not involuntary but voluntarily chosen, consciously decided on for a spiritual reason.

His resurrection is a one-time event because he partakes of the nature of the heavenly Father whereas the resurrections of the other gods were cyclical. Christ’s resurrection is lineal not cyclical. This makes Christianity unique, and yet it includes the feminine, natural element within it.

But, the church has long since split off this natural element, and in doing so, Sanford says, has lost the wholeness inherent in the Incarnation, where, in Christ, nature and spirit became one.

The second reason is because there has long been a great tension between the physical and spiritual.

“The instinctual side and the moral side–the bodily person and the intellectual person–are in opposition to each other,” he says.

Christianity allowed the spiritual, moral, conscious side to develop as never before, but because instinctuality easily overwhelms the spiritual, moral, conscious side, the two sides often seem enemies.

Because ancient people were still too close to their instincts, it was psychologically necessary for them to deny instinct in order that the precariously won world of the spirit might become stronger. This denial may have been a psychologically necessary step at one point, but it is no longer necessary in our current age where we now must strive for synthesis.

The third reason for the split is the ancient struggle in the church between incarnational Christianity and Gnosticism.

“A complicated religious scheme of salvation with innumerable variations,” Sanford says, “Gnosticism was a danger to Christianity precisely because in so many respects it resembled it.”

The Fathers of the Church were well aware of this danger, particularly Gnosticism’s identification of matter with evil and the rejection of the physical side of human beings as belonging to the world of the devil.

“But, having won the battle theologically against the Gnostics, the Church lost it psychologically by continuing to preach an ethic that, in effect, labeled the body as evil after all,” he says.

The ethic of asceticism, which denies body in favor of spirit (and identifies passion with sin), is essentially Gnosticism. So Christians, who favor this attitude toward sin and the natural side of human beings, are, in fact, Gnostics.

But, in Jesus there is neither asceticism or Gnosticism, no devaluation of the body, no separation from nature. In fact, he was accused of being a “wine drinker and a glutton.” The sins Jesus attacked were not the sins of the flesh but rather the sins of the spirit–hypocrisy, deceit, self-righteousness, allying oneself with Satan, which are far more dangerous to the soul than the excesses of the body (not that Jesus was encouraging excess as he always cautioned moderation).

“If Jesus was not married,” he says, “it was not because he was averse to sexuality or to women but because he was conscious of a unique mission he was to perform that precluded marriage.”

His marriage was from within, the union of masculine and feminine within himself. Despite the culture at the time, Jesus allied himself closely with women as well as men.

We are a totality of body, soul and spirit. If any one side is denied, it imperils the full expression of another. So, Sanford says, if people deny that they have aggressive feelings, they will also deny their sexual feelings, and if the sexual feelings cannot be consciously acknowledged, it becomes impossible to fulfill eros. And, if eros is stifled, spirituality becomes stifled and rigid, hard, judgmental and uncreative. Because humans are organic, if any one part of our being suffers, the total human organism suffers. If the total person is to live, be free, to come into expression, all sides must be consciously recognized and joyfully received as given by God, with no one side predominating at the expense of another.

This unification and transformation will take us to a higher level of being, which sheds light on this saying of Jesus about our sexual life:

“You have learnt how it was said: You must not commit adultery. But I say this to you: if a man looks at a woman lustfully, he has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” Matthew 5:27-28

This verse is always taken as a condemnation by Jesus of sexual desire as he equates a man’s desire for a woman with adultery. But, because Jesus regards the sins of the spirit as more deadly than the sins of the flesh, a condemnation of sexual urges is not characteristic of him.

“Sexual urges and fantasies are part of a perfectly natural and inevitable process,” Sanford says. “Jesus remark is not about sexuality but about the Law.”

While Jesus is not recommending adultery, he is saying that matters of love and sexuality need a higher law than ecclesiastical legislation. And, that higher law is consciousness. Sanford says there are four areas in which our sexual and erotic feelings need to be made conscious.

First, a proper balance must be struck between repressing our sexuality and living it out promiscuously; second, we must become conscious of the difference between the man or woman who is the desired person in our sexual or fantasy life and the inner images that we may have projected onto that person (we must see them as the real humans they are); third, we must become conscious of our motives when we desire sexual experience with someone (Is it to dominate? To avoid relating? To satisfy only ourselves? Or, is it to truly share and love?); and fourth, we must approach our fantasies consciously as they are highly symbolic and relate to our individuation process (they can help us know what is missing in our conscious development and ground us in the reality of the deeper life of the soul).

The more conscious we are of the underlying meaning of our sexuality the less compulsive it is and the ore our erotic life is enriched, he says.

The ethic of the kingdom is an ethic of consciousness. To achieve the kingdom, nothing that belongs to us must be denied conscious recognition and acceptance as a genuine part of our totality. As long as we are seeking consciousness, we keep our soul. The movement becomes toward synthesis, toward a union of the personality in depth.

Because parts of ourselves have long been overlooked, we must draw them to the surface. “What once was lost, will now be found” and this is an event of supreme importance.

Next Week: The Lost Coin

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