THE TWO WORLDS - Laura Martin

'The individual must now consolidate himself by cutting himself off from God and becoming wholly himself. Thereby and at the same time he also separates himself from society. Outwardly he plunges into solitude, but inwardly into hell, distance from God. In consequence, he loads himself with guilt. In order to expiate this guilt, he gives his good to the soul, the soul brings it before God (the polarized unconscious), and God returns a gift (productive reaction of the unconscious) which the soul offers to man, and which man gives to mankind.' (CW 18 para 1103)

Twoness comes up in a surprising diversity of places: Blake’s double vision, Yeats's Celtic otherworld, Tolkien’s real world vs faërie, and of course Jung’s spirit of the times and spirit of the depths, as well as his ego and Self, conscious and unconscious psyche and matter. More recently we have Iain McGilchrist’s work on the right brain and left brain. There are many more examples.

Dreams and imagination are the mediators of this other world into our (supposedly) rational daily life, and a connection with their imagistic and feeling-toned communications can engender a sense of wholeness and health. A 'one foot in, one foot out' stance, or the spiral trajectory whereby one oscillates between the two worlds consciously, are examples of a connection between the worlds without one-sidedness.

In this seminar we will look comparatively at some of these visions of twoness, with a focus on Jung. The second session will include experiential activities as well as some allusion to clinical material.

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