In Carl Jung’s 1961 essay, Healing the Split, he discussed how humanity was connected with nature but that we have lost this connection. Humanity was essentially woven into the fabric of nature, and our instinctual and archetypal patterns were established within this fabric. Jung described how, through scientific rationalism, we lost our connection with nature, which resulted in the relegation of nature to the unconscious.

With the news media constantly reinforcing eco-trauma by showing scenes of destruction, or what I refer to as the Four Horsemen of the Climate Apocalypse: Fire, Flood, Disease, and Disconnection (the uncoupling of species inter-dependence), it is easy to become “bewitched” and disenchanted, that is, frozen and incapacitated.  We fail to act, unless we can remember that we remain woven into the fabric of nature through physical need and through our feelings for the earth, expressed by archetypal patterns of nature in the psyche.

In this talk, I propose to lay out Jung’s discussion of our split with nature, to bring awareness to ways in which archetypal patterns of nature (the Nature Archetype) have become activated on a personal and collective level. As an amplification of these forces, I will examine how the unconscious responds through selected works of literature and images to enliven the psyche and to re-animate the natural world within us. These works may be seen as expressions of the light of nature (lumen naturae), that are sparks from the Anima Mundi, or world soul, that ultimately expand our consciousness.

Stephen Foster, Ph.D., LPC, NCPsyA, is Senior Training Analyst with the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analyst (IRSJA), teaching with their Memphis-Atlanta Seminar. He is a Licensed Professional Counselor and a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis, with a private practice in Boulder, Colo.

Stephen has taught a wide range of subjects, including nature and the environment, alchemy, Norse mythology, fairy tales, and the Tarot.  Before becoming a Jungian analyst, Stephen worked as an environmental scientist, studying the risks and impacts associated with hazardous chemicals in the environment. The combination of these experiences resulted in his book, Risky Business: A Jungian View of Environmental Disasters and the Nature Archetype. His most recent publication is Our Climate Crisis: The Need for an Active Analyst When Working with the Nature Archetype in Jungian Analysis, chapter 1 in Jungian Analysis in a World on Fire: At the Nexus of Individual and Collective Trauma, Routledge Mental Health, Taylor & Francis Group. (For more information, visit www.boulderjungiananalyst.com)