Encountering the Outside Inside: Confronting Shadow: A Lecture With Kathleen Wiley

"Never shall we put any face on the world other than our own, and we have to do this precisely in order to find ourselves.”

--C.G. Jung, CW8, par. 737

Just as your dreams offer an imaginal snapshot of what’s happening inside of psyche at the moment of the dream, the waking dream of the outside world also mirrors internal realities. Both encounters invite you to know aspects of the Self projected onto persons, places, and objects in your sphere.

Some psychic energies are highly personal, rooted in your unique, subjective, historical experiences. Others arise from unmediated, non-humanized instincts and archetypes arising from the collective psyche/unconscious. Individuation involves transmuting both in your psyche. Confronting your shadow is the first step in transmuting collective shadow.  The appearance of shadow is an invitation towards wholeness.

Tonight’s lecture, as well as tomorrow’s workshop, will explore the power of the wisdom summarized in Jesus’ statement: “Take the board out of your eye before you try to take the speck out of your brother’s.”  The lecture will weave together principles of Jungian dream understanding and Thich Nant Hahn’s mantras of love to guide you in your confrontation with Self. As you humanly relate to all aspects of psyche, including undesirable shadow figures, you encounter the outside inside of you. You access the needed energies to be a powerful agent of healing and wholeness in the world.

Kathleen Wiley, MHDL, is a Licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and diplomate Jungian Analyst in private practice in Davidson, N.C. Her work with analysands recognizes the importance of the embodied present moment, the moment of meeting between analyst and analysand, as primary. Kathleen believes that individuation, incarnation, and the forging of the philosopher’s gold all refer to the process of embodying your essence. To this end, she facilitates a self-paced embodiment circle through www.onlinesacredcircles.com. She also interweaves Jungian psychological concepts and Christian scriptures in her books, New Life: Meditations on the Birth of the Christ Within and New Life: Symbolic Meditations on the Promise of Easter and Spring. See www.InnerDivineSpirit.com for symbolic reflections. Kathleen’s work empowers people to live out of a conscious connection to the Self.