In the midst of the trials and tribulations that permeate our lives, it has become increasingly vital to attend to our capacity for wonder, awe, and joy in our encounters with the world.  A pathway towards recovery and re-animation of these emotions in our lives can begin through creative play, rooted in engagement with unconscious processes. 

Over the past 125 years or more, therapeutic listening to the suffering of the soul has gradually been refined and can be expanded beyond the consulting room to the pathos of our culture, to nature, and even to the universe.  Exploration of our dreamworlds has shown us they are not solely intrapsychic events but have enhanced our awareness to include interpersonal and environmental aspects of the psyche.  Now we are learning to listen to the Anima Mundi, the soul of the world, which has led to a re-valuation of indigenous and “pre-modern” traditions, such as alchemy.  

Approaches to this larger vision of soul can be made in various ways.  Here we will discuss and explore several: first, through listening for the interrupted or undreamt dreams of cultures and the world.  By attuning to our reveries arising while seeking deep engagement with the suffering of the world, we may glimpse aspects of the unconscious field of dreams and through this participate in collaborate dreamwork with the world soul.  Second, from a systems perspective, we can recognize that certain meaningful coincidences point towards what may be seeking to be “dreamt.”  When linked with the environment, these synchronicities can help us attune to the ecosystems within which we are always embedded.  A Jungian framework for this will be offered as a useful guide for our reflections and may lead us towards a re-enchantment of the world.  

Joseph Cambray, Ph.D., is the Past President and CEO of Pacifica Graduate Institute and Past President of the International Association for Analytical Psychology.  He has served as the U.S. Editor for The Journal of Analytical Psychology and is on various editorial boards. He was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School in the Department of Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital, Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, and former President of the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston. Dr. Cambray is a Jungian analyst, now living in the Santa Barbara area of California. His many publications include the book based on his Fay Lectures: Synchronicity: Nature and Psyche in an Interconnected Universe; a recent volume edited with Leslie Sawin, Research in Analytical Psychology, Volume 1: Applications from Scientific, Historical, and (Cross)-Cultural Research; and an earlier volume with Linda Carter, Analytical Psychology: Contemporary Perspectives in Jungian Psychology. He has published numerous book chapters and papers in a range of international journals.