From Ayahuasca & New Age stuff to conspiracies, Carl Jung & Rudolf Steiner
New podcast episode with Bernhard Günter from The Cosmic Matrix podcast...
Watch the full episode here
What happens when spirituality becomes a way of avoiding the darker parts of ourselves?
In my latest conversation with Bernhard, we explore this territory: the relationship between spiritual development, the shadow, conspiracy realities and theories, evil and self-knowledge.
There can be a temptation on the spiritual path to focus primarily on the light — higher consciousness, love, awakening, positive thinking and transcending or transforming the lower ego.
But genuine spiritual development also requires us to turn towards what we would rather not see.
Carl Jung famously explored the idea of the shadow: those aspects of ourselves that have been pushed out of conscious awareness. And although Rudolf Steiner approached the human being from a very different spiritual and philosophical framework, there are fascinating points of contact between Jung's psychology and Steiner's understanding of spiritual development.
This becomes particularly important when we begin looking at darkness in the world.
It's relatively easy to recognise deception, corruption, manipulation or evil somewhere "out there". Much harder is the question:
What is my own relationship to the forces I am seeing in others or in the world?
Without genuine self-knowledge, even the search for truth can potentially become another means of projection.
In the conversation, Bernhard Günter and I explore these questions through Jung, Steiner, conspiracy culture and the uncomfortable but necessary task of confronting the darkness within ourselves.
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Explore these things further
If these kinds of questions interest you, you're also very welcome to join The Spiritual Scientist community, where we explore Rudolf Steiner, spiritual development, meditation and the practical work of bringing spiritual knowledge into everyday life. 👉 Join for free here
Warm wishes,
Mick