ADDICTION AS AN ARCHETYPAL SYMBOL OF SPIRITUS CONTRA SPIRITUM, A SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

Friday, January 14, 2011

Lecture

“Every form of addiction is bad, no matter whether the narcotic be alcohol, morphine or idealism.” –Carl Jung

After many years of analysis with Ebby, a close friend of Bill Wilson (one of the founders of Alcoholics Anonymous), Carl Jung told Ebby that he was hopeless without a vital Spiritual experience, in regard to his alcoholism.

Alcoholism, addiction to ethanol, or addictions in general, are within the psyche an unrecognized spiritual need, an unconscious desire to be in union with god. Addicts report using for two reasons: for medicine, to relieve suffering; for the high, to be close to spirit. The experience of loss of control that accompanies the physical dependence and tissue tolerance of the drug to the body increases the feeling of shame. The initiation of addiction leads to isolation. Isolation allows for any evil principle to prevail.

Jung’s quote,

“an ordinary man not protected by action from above and isolated in society, cannot resist the power of evil,”

describes the plight of the addict. The longing or Craving for one’s drug of choice, even in the face of dire consequences and continued use, is the puzzle in addiction. Through the telling of the myth The Red Shoes we will reveal the archetypal motifs that play out in the Initiation through Addiction and Recovery. Through the group’s active imagination we will shed some consciousness on this puzzle.

ADDICTION AS AN ARCHETYPAL SYMBOL

Saturday, January 15, 2011

Workshop

Through Active Imagination we will look closely at archetypal motifs that come from the myth The Red Shoes. The group will continue to unfold these motifs through telling of personal/professional experience with addictions as it relates to the myth’s motifs chosen. The Red Shoes is rich in wisdom regarding the spiritual journey addiction takes one on.

Through ritual and ceremony the group will experience the discipline and surrender required for the gold to emerge or the genius to be lived–what it really means to become willing to cut your feet off and be of service to others. I would ask that each participant in Saturday’s Workshop bring their authority and creativity. All percussion instruments are welcome, voices loved, movement appreciated, colors, textures, imagination most welcome, as we look at the brutal myth The Red Shoes and gain wisdom into one of today’s culture’s loose threads, addictions.

From a Jungian perspective of individuation, a mythical perspective of an initiation, a 12 Step spiritual perspective and Lynda’s 20 years experience with active addiction, and 30 years a person in Recovery–a person out of her leg trap of her initiation of addiction and now in her eldership as a wise woman in the addiction journey of spirituality and recovery.

LYNDA STEELE, LCSW has been working in the field of addictive disease since 1981. She began designing and implementing addiction programs in the mid-1980s and has designed clinical programs for several of the leading addictive disease residential treatment programs in the nation. In the early 1990s she began her own private practice specializing in treating individuals, couples and families suffering from the disease of addiction. She also serves on the Board of Directors and is the Director of Program Services for Project Recovery, Inc., a not for profit organization that provides residential, sober-living for adult men and women. She is a Partner at The Center for Transpersonal Therapy, a psychotherapist, Addictions Counselor, storyteller and guide, with 36 years experience in healing professions. Her fascination with mythology and psychology, and her personal and professional experience with addictions, led her to Carl Jung’s work and the integration of his philosophy into her work with the individuation process through addiction.