Archetypes + The Collective Unconscious [Episode 10]

McCall explores the life of Carl G. Jung, detailing his journey to theorizing about the collective unconscious. McCall notes near death experiences as an example that shows the effects of collective unconscious. This leads to her sharing her experience of being repelled by the esoteric practices of tarot cards, crystals, chakras, etc., but opening up when discovering her ancestral heritage. It gave her the freedom to explore, while a trilogy called Medicine Woman gave her a thirst for spirituality.

McCall welcomes Jenny Sieck, who has studied counseling psychology, depth psychology, and archetypal psychology. They discuss intuition and how it grows when you pay attention to it. Jenny and McCall touch on the relationship between intuition, instinct, and intellect, as well as the idea that dreams are manifestations. Should we interpret dreams? This is where your intuition comes in.

Jenny shares some golden nuggets with us, specifically about how creative visualization helped her through dark times in life. She details what happens on a bodily level when we identify something archetypal and what the perils of intuition and being too open are.

McCall shares an idea of hers based off an experience with x-rays that led her to question what some of the other ways people tap into the collective unconscious are. She introduces Haleigh, who speaks about tarot cards and how we can relate to them. Then, Cassidy and Ryan are back to discuss archetypes a bit more, making them easier for us to understand. They talk about some of the various archetypes, including The Hero, The Seeker, and The Sage, and why your archetype may change over time.

Summary

• On this episode of Unboxing God, McCall details the life of Carl G. Jung that led to an inexhaustible knowledge of science, religion, medicine, mythology, and psychology. She notes the lucid dreams and visions that he experienced, many of which were quite horrific, leading him to feel a connection between himself and humanity. Jung developed representations for the personalities inside himself and theorized about his psyche and the collective unconscious.

• Jenny Sieck became intrigued with the intuition, along with tarot card reading, and now works with people on developing their intuition. She also does dream work, which incorporates an individual’s deep feelings to interpret symbols from their dreams. Leaning into imagination, feeling response, and dreams, then talking about your experience, can really help keep your life vibrant.

• Archetypes are unlearned tendencies to experience things in a certain way and to group things together in a certain way. We see them throughout history, culture, music, art, dreams, and stories. Symbols are held in our bodies. Some have meaning and some don’t, it’s about what evokes something within you. Intuitively, we can have an idea of where we’ve come from and how it’s affected us, but sometimes we need tools to assist us. Tarot is a tool that helps many people interpret their past and tell their stories. All patterns are potential archetypes and it’s what we do with archetypes that may cause us to think of them as ‘good’ or ‘bad’. It’s important to be open to the potential growth our intuition and these spiritual tools can bring about for us.

Quotes

• "If you want to understand the jungle, you can't be content just to sail back and forth near the shore. You've got to get into it. No matter how strange and frightening it may seem." -- Carl Jung

• “...when we think in a black and white context, then we assign good or bad, chosen and forsaken.” -- Jenny Sieck

• “If you think about it, the shadow does make itself known to us by certain clues; things like our moods or fantasies, maybe impulses, but above all, dreams.” -- McCall

• “Jung theorized about this new part of the psyche that made his theory stand out from all others, and also apparently pissed off Sigmund Freud a ton. Jung called this part the collective unconscious. We’re going to think of it as the knowledge we’re born with, as this psychic inheritance.” -- McCall

• “If you accept the idea that science can demonstrate the power of intuition, then it’s not much of a leap to accept that our dreams are manifestations of our intuition.” -- McCall

Recommended Resources

• Find Jenny Sieck on her website or on Youtube or on Facebook

• Out of Character: Surprising truths about the Liar, Cheat, Sinner (and Saint) lurking in all of us by David DeSteno and Piercarlo Valdesolo

• Psychological Archetype test

• Find Cassidy here and Ryan here

• Join the conversation on Facebook!

• Support UnBoxing “God” here

• Email Waldo (McCall and the team) at waldolovesme@gmail.com if there’s anything you’d like to unbox with us!

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tags: 12-step recovery | spiritual recovery | recovery podcast | spiritual exploration | spiritual podcast | carl jung | jungian psychology | collective unconscious | archetypes | archetypal psychology | dream analysis | tarot | seeker | hero | sage | intuition | instinct | intellect