This week has been all about the mythic, the intuitive, the Shadow Self. It’s been a week of abundance. Books, websites, articles, poems—I’ve stumbled across a wealth of interesting material. Here is just a sample of them on this Great Stuff for Writers Saturday:
The Passion of Isis and Osiris by Jean Houston. The mythology surrounding these central deities of ancient Egypt is rich and fascinating. The story of Osiris’s murder and dismemberment, his wife’s courageous reassembling of his body, and his exile to the Underworld is psychologically powerful and profoundly meaningful. If you love myth, want to explore it deeply, and believe mythology can be applied to our own everyday lives, this book by the author of A Mythic Life: Learning to Live Our Greater Story will charm, intrigue, and enlighten you.
Shadow Dance : Liberating the Power and Creativity of Your Dark Side by David Richo
“The challenge is accepting ourselves all the way to the bottom,” writes Richo in this interesting little book. This includes the selfishness, jealousy, pettiness, malice—all those qualities we dislike about ourselves. As Richo points out, it also includes creative potential we disown from fear of our own power.
Richo shows how to take ownership of our dark side—a major step toward living authentically. Along with some clear discussion of the Jungian notion of the Shadow, he offers practical ways to find it in our personal relationships, the work place, spirituality, and other aspects of our lives. And he provides a wealth of exercises for understanding the Shadow and making it work for us.
Archetypes for Writers by Jennifer Van Bergen is a sound introduction to the notion of archetypes and to working with the subconscious in our writing. There is nothing particularly new in Van Bergen’s discussion of archetypes, but she does offer some unique exercises to allow the material in the subconscious to “gather itself together, emerge, and become part of a work of art.”
The Shadow Self on the Talent Development Resources website. This webpage is a remarkable collection of quotes and short passages about creativity, art, the subconscious, and the “dark side” of consciousness from writers, actors, and others, along with links to a variety of interesting longer works.
Your Intuitive Intelligence by Dr. Jill Ammon Wexler, also on Talent Development Resources, is a brief introduction to using intuition in art and business. It has some interesting (if rather superficial) discussion about the neuroscience of intuition and the mind-brain connection, as well as some useful suggestions for tapping intuition.