Monday, October 18, 2010

Invoked or uninvoked, the god is present


A sampling of one-liners from the road - which led me last weekend to a lodge up in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina, right on the Eastern Continental Divide, which felt like the right location, symbolically, for bridging several distinct groups that were present (Jungians and Christian ministers, dreamers and Native American ceremonialists).

"I have to work very hard in order to play." (Jungian analyst, in a playshop.)

"I envy you Native Americans because you have ancestors." (American woman of German-Irish descent, quoted by the leader of an indigenous-themed fire ceremony.)

"Play is something you don't want to stop doing." (My own summary of what I felt at the end of a playshop, when I did not want to stop drawing in crayons.)

"You are an unrepeatable miracle." (Retired Presbyterian minister, at the end of one of my presentations.)

Vocatus atque non vocatus deus aderit. Inscription on a mug presented to me in the closing ceremony at the conference. This statement was carved by Jung above the door of his house at Kusnacht. He found it in the Latin writings of Erasmus, who stated that it was an ancient saying of the Spartans. It means: "Invoked or uninvoked, the god is present."


3 comments:

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  2. Play is our birthright as humans! When I dream, hike, write, sing silly songs, dance with a grandchild, walk my dog, tell a story about some mis-adventure, (the play list goes on and on....) I am living through and with my natural essence. Having Robert in the play-group I led at Journey Conference in North Carolina was a joy-filled delight! Play heart-ily Robert and continue to spread the word about the value of continuing to play into adulthood and beyond. Re-visit Childhood--How did you like to play then, and now?

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