Dreaming the Myth Forward

Last updated on: January 1, 2013 at 4:32 pm by John Halstead

Dreaming the Myth Forward 2013-01-01T16:32:31-05:00 John Halstead

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A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking about New Year’s resolutions in anticipation of 2013. I was looking forward to publishing my 200th post before the end of the year (this is No. 201) and I was considering taking a hiatus from blogging, just a short break, thirty days to refocus on my spiritual practice. I had been reading D.T. Strain’s series on “Distractions to Spiritual Practice”. In it, D.T. identifies “cosmology” (by which he means what I would call “metaphysics”), the ego, and academics, as distractions from the practice of spirituality. Essentially, D.T. says talking about spirituality is not spirituality. I’ve written before about how blogging helps keep me focused on my spiritual quest, and I have listed blogging among the five elements of my “daily” spiritual practice. At the same time, blogging can be a distraction, as I have learned. It has always been easier for me to write than to do. So, I thought a 30-day break might be fruitful.

But Fate intervened. I had the honor of being invited to blog at PaganSquare, a community blog maintained by the editor of the Witches and Pagans magazine. I had had this phrase bouncing around in my head for a few weeks, “dreaming the myth forward”, and I knew instantly that was the name of the new blog. The phrase comes from a quote by Jung:

“Not for a moment dare we succumb to the illusion that an archetype can be finally explained and disposed of. Even the best attempts at explanation are only more or less successful translations into another metaphorical language. (Indeed, language itself is only an image.) The most we can do is to dream the myth onwards and give it a modern dress” (CW 9).

This quote is a partly reminder about the primacy of experience over theory, so it seems fitting.

I’d had already discovered many great voices at PaganSquare and I’m honored to share a place with them. Just to name a few whose blogs I regularly enjoy: B.T. Newberg (Naturalistic Paganism), Elani Temperance (Hellenismos), Eli Effinger-Weintraub (Reclaiming), Adelina St. Clair (Christian Witchcraft), Galina Kraskova (Heathenry), Tess Dawson (Canaanite Reconstructionism), Holli Emore (Egyptian Reconstructionism), and Literata (Wiccan academic). There is a synchronicity in the timing of this invitation, so rather than take a hiatus from blogging, I have decided to double down and recommit to bringing my personal experience to this blog as well as my new blog at PaganSquare: Dreaming the Myth Forward: Jungian Neopaganism. I hope to see you all there.

P.S.: It has come to my attention that my email address was hard to find on this blog, so I have remedied that. You can find the address on the menu at the right and on the “About Me” at the top of the page.

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