Two women on a road trip. Hardly Thelma and Louise, although it did feel a bit like driving off a cliff as we headed towards a dream retreat. I’d been in, and loved, Jungian dream analysis but the idea of…
Category: Jungian themes
I have a dream that spirituality and soulfulness can be creatively reimagined for our time through inspirational workplaces that take meaning making, compassion and connectedness seriously as part of the deep, holistic wisdom we are rebirthing in our everyday communities.…
There’ll be no return to church, said The Analyst in reflective mode, ‘until they get rid of the homily.’ He was musing, not on the lapsed art of stylish rhetoric, but the tendency to use a pulpit to tell people…
A workshop at Common Ground Conference Progressive Christianity Aotearoa Saturday 8th September 2018 Abstract Blogging about spirituality drew sharp criticism from church authorities who determined my theology ‘not Christian’. I responded by destroying my website, home to myriad articles that…
The Illness The We Are: A Jungian Critique of Christianity by John P. Dourley A creative reading group for explorers Dates and times Thursday evenings, 7-8.30pm. 4, 11, 18, 25 Oct & 1, 8 November 2018. Venue A café in…
When I was at theological college I was fascinated by how it was perfectly acceptable to see the first chapters of Genesis as mythology but not necessarily the Gospel of Mark, an action-packed narrative that forms the bare bones of…
This prayer/poem was created out of a conversation I had with a seriously injured man in ICU. Can you close the curtain?Sure.We call them the blue soundproof ones.Yeah, nah, not, it’s an illusion.(He laughs) So, what does God look…
The giant creature Seraphina went up in flames on Wellington harbour. Within her maternal belly were notes holding the secret desires, dreams, yearnings, and concerns of the locals. A form of confession if you like. The whole thing was cathartic,…
In 1969 when singer Peggy Lee released, Is that all there is, she posed an intense existential question. She wasn’t searching for an after-life but musing about the disappointment that life can be, even when faced with the unbridled energy…
‘So,’ said my Jungian analyst, voice quiet but interested. ‘You didn’t put your ordination dates in this autobiography.’ I scrambled to find the page and chuckled when I realised that I hadn’t even noticed the omission. An inadvertent absence was…