Blue Fire (Hillman) Discussion Group

Gang, I need to get the list of books to you that are "in play" at the moment. The 6-book decision space here is not meant at this time to narrow, but on the contrary to spark more ideas. The only intent driving this list is to tilt towards a more "Yin" orientation, since Hillman will have occupied us for two years. Book 6 was recommended today, and others should feel free to do so, too. 

Our last involvements with female analysts were with Marion Woodman and Marie-Louise von Frantz. The sheer list of male Jungian scholars swamps our ability to incorporate their opuses, so again the intent is to balance voices in a fundamental dimensio

Here goes: 

1. Patricia Berry, Echo's Subtle Body

- Archetypal Psychology through an embodied "lens"

2. Sharon Blackie, If Women Rose Rooted

Second Saturday of the Month from 10 AM to 12 PM via Zoom Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87083473156?pwd=bkZQZkZDM0NEVitzSmpVVUJLZ0JOQT09 In the Blue Fire Discussion Group, we will be reading from the first section of "A Blue Fire," the section named "Soul." In addition, we will be sampling from the profusion of videos Hillman left that are available on YouTube. The objective here is to attempt to wrestle with his ideas and to see what sticks. Join us. The notion of the individual soul becomes much more highly charged when one entertains the aggregations of soul: community, cultural, global, and - shall we say universal-cosmic. On the other hand, if one believes "As above, so below," then the spheres are busy doing their work on events, if synchronistically. What are we to be thinking about all this - our lives, our beliefs, our values, our friends? Jung treated these questions, especially in his later writings: "Modern Man in Search of a Soul," "The Undiscovered Self," for example. We have to start somewhere.

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James Hillman is a credible source with which to begin, having made Soul (psyche) a primary focus during his lifetime. His works include: "The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World." His "Revisioning Psychology," based on a series of lectures presented at Yale, was nominated for a Pulizer. Contrary in his day, and still controversial in Jungian circles today, he was a brilliant, commanding speaker but displayed little patience with students or others who failed to keep up with him.

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Thomas Moore, poet, psychotherapist, and author of books on spiritual matters, claimed he read Hillman every day. He collected and edited material from many of Hillman's writings in a volume "A Blue Fire," and frankly, Hillman benefits from good editing.

Second Saturday of the Month from 10 AM to 12 PM via Zoom Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87083473156?pwd=bkZQZkZDM0NEVitzSmpVVUJLZ0JOQT09 In this book/video group, we will be reading from the first section of "A Blue Fire," the section named "Soul." In addition, we will be sampling from the profusion of videos Hillman left that are available on YouTube. The objective here is to attempt to wrestle with his ideas and to see what sticks. Join us. The notion of the individual soul becomes much more highly charged when one entertains the aggregations of soul: community, cultural, global, and - shall we say universal-cosmic. On the other hand, if one believes "As above, so below," then the spheres are busy doing their work on events, if synchronistically. What are we to be thinking about all this - our lives, our beliefs, our values, our friends? Jung treated these questions, especially in his later writings: "Modern Man in Search of a Soul," "The Undiscovered Self," for example. We have to start somewhere.

​

James Hillman is a credible source with which to begin, having made Soul (psyche) a primary focus during his lifetime. His works include: "The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World." His "Revisioning Psychology," based on a series of lectures presented at Yale, was nominated for a Pulizer. Contrary in his day, and still controversial in Jungian circles today, he was a brilliant, commanding speaker but displayed little patience with students or others who failed to keep up with him.

​

Thomas Moore, poet, psychotherapist, and author of books on spiritual matters, claimed he read Hillman every day. He collected and edited material from many of Hillman's writings in a volume "A Blue Fire," and frankly, Hillman benefits from good editing.