The Nature of Individuation

In this episode:
We discuss the experience of nature and its connection to the important work of individuation.

Let's make this a conversation:
Do you have a comment or  question about this episode, or about something you would like me to address in a future episode? Please contact me on Facebook (facebook.com/jungiananalyst) or Twitter (@Jason_E_Smith).

For more on living a symbolic life:
Please check out my book, Religious but Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life, available from Chiron Publications.

Sources for quotes and more:

1. “At Bollingen I am in the midst of my true life..." ~ C.G. Jung, in 'Memories, Dreams, Reflections.'
2. "Individuation is a process by which a [person] becomes the definite, unique being that he [or she] in fact is." ~ C.G. Jung in 'Collected Works, vol. 7.'
3. "Individuation is an expression of that biological process ..." ~ C.G. Jung in 'Collected Works, vol. 11.'
4. "Individuation is a natural process. It is what makes a tree turn into a tree...." ~ C.G. Jung in 'C.G. Jung Speaking.'
5. “Dreams are impartial, spontaneous products of the unconscious psyche...” ~ C.G. Jung in 'Collected Works, vol. 10.'
6. S1 Ep. 1: What is the Symbolic Life?
7.  "My self is not confined to my body..." ~ C.G. Jung in 'C.G. Jung Speaking.'
8. "Rather than taking us out of ourselves, nature coaxes us deeper inwards..." ~ John O'Donohue in 'Beauty: The Invisible Embrace.'
9. "The reason why the world lacks unity, and lies broken and in heaps is because man is disunited with himself." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson in 'Nature.'
10. “In a standardized milieu, it is easy to lose the sense of one's own personality...” ~ C.G. Jung in 'C.G. Jung Speaking.'
11.  Just Looking at Photos of Nature Could Be Enough to Lower Your Work Stress Levels
12. When I Heard the Learn’d Astronomer, poem by Walt Whitman
13. “I come to my solitary woodland walk as the homesick go home” ~ Henry David Thoreau, quoted in The Winged Life (ed. by R. Bly). 
14. “Love the world as your own self, then you can truly care for all things.” ~ Tao Te Ching 
15. "We shall not discover the real situation we are in, collectively as well as individually, if our hearts are not pure..."