Journeys of a Pregnant Virgin

Here I am, back in Zurich, on a dark, wet, November Sunday morning. I have been back almost two weeks. Last Sunday I began to write an entry but realized that I wasn't ready to take up this blog again, so I let it be. I'm still not sure I'm ready to go public, but I'm writing anyway, to see how it feels.

I think my reluctance has to do with the fact that what is most important to me right now is going on in the soul realm and has to be contained. But since a number of you, my dear friends, have expressed disappointment at checking this blogspot in vain, and I do find this a good way to keep in touch, I will give it a go, after these many months.

Perhaps a brief update is in order. My dear Mum had open heart surgery (quintupple bypass and aortic valve replacement) on June 6th and has been recovering ever since. Although her recovery continues, she was stable enough that I felt comfortable picking up my Jungian studies in Zurich again. Thankfully, I was able to return to my cozy little room next to the Institute, where I can run across the path to class without a coat or umbrella, even in the rain. I'm amazed again by my good fortune in finding this room in a city of high housing costs and low vacancy rates! It could hardly be more ideal for my purposes and it was lovely to be welcomed back warmly by Marianne, my landlady, who certainly could have rented it out to someone else in my absence. We have resumed our habit of enjoying a glass of red wine together and making enormous shared salads for supper most evenings.

The lectures and seminars at ISAP have been interesting and engaging thus far this semester. I have decided to be more selective, after attending almost everything on offer during my previous two terms, because I want to begin researching and reading for the required "Symbol paper" and also for the "Propideutikum" (midway) exams that I may be taking next summer - if I continue. That is still the big unknown. I have been doing this one semester at a time, always open to the possibility that at any point I may decide not to carry on.

There are more students this semester than last year at this time and I Iike this very much - especially since many of the new ones are mature (meaning my age or older!) and provide a welcome gentle balance to the sparkling younger folk with their goal oriented fervour and intensity. I appreciate the variety of ages and cultural backgrounds and not least, the fact that there are now a few men in the lectures and seminars, five out of twenty five in Judith Harris' Reading Seminar last week, to be exact. Still not a balance, but much better than last semester when there were often six or eight women and no men at all.

So far I have not been out in Zurich much, other than for my usual hour long walk through the city most mornings or afternoons. But yesterday Wendy and I went to a beautiful Egyptian movie called "Dunia," about a young woman searching for her authentic identity in modern Egypt (a lyrical meditation on the Virgin archetype), and then had an early supper and wonderful conversation in a nearby restaurant. There is so much rich cultural life on offer here and I do want to take advantage of some concerts, in particular. This afternoon Vicki and I may go to the Kunsthaus (which I have not visited yet because it was undergoing renovations last semester) and plan a few other outings for the next month or two. I can't imagine ever feeling bored in Zurich (not that I do in Vancouver either, for that matter)!

The coming week also looks full. In addition to the usual lectures and seminars, I'm hoping to get out to the Kusnacht Institute library to do some preliminary reasearch, and I will be visiting my feisty retired Jungian analyst friend, Sonja, on Thursday. Then I may jump on a train to Geneva on the weekend to visit my stepson David and his family, if it suits them. It's hard to believe they are only a few hours away now, since their move from Leipzig earlier this year. With Zurich, Geneva, and Vancouver consistently ranked as the top three cities in the world for quality of life, I like to remind Steve that we have all three bases covered, at the moment!

Enough. I would like to close with a quote, and here is one that struck me in the Reading Seminar, from CGJ himself.

"It is immediately clear to the psychologist what cathartic and at the same time rejuvenating effects must flow from the Demeter cult into the feminine psyche, and what a lack of psychic hygiene characterizes our culture, which no longer knows the kind of wholesome experience afforded by Eleusinian emotions."

In particular this passage struck me in terms of the Body Soul Rhythms work I have been doing over the past six years, and also as inspiration for my own teaching and for the workshops Ursula and I have been creating together.

Until next time, all the best to you who read these lines! Have a good week.