Through a Jungian Lens

You can't get there from here.

I am bringing another photo from Jamestown and the reservoir.  Hidden by the water is a road and a bridge that takes one to the island which is in the background.  The water is more than six feet over the road surface of the bridge making it inadvisable to risk crossing with a vehicle.  However, there are other ways to get to the island such as swimming across the body of water, a feat performed by two of my grandchildren.

If I follow my usual pattern of shifting away from the objective reality to one that is psychological then I enter into a different world, a different reality – yet I have to remember that the objective physical reality is not isolated from the psychological reality.  And here I want to look at the image as if it were taken from a dream.

I have often found myself in impassable situations in dreams, at least what I would have thought should have been impassable.  Swamplands, mountain ranges without passes, endless stretches of water have been some of the scenes in these dreams.

In the swamplands I somehow found footing where nothing was visible from the surface.  In the dreams, the dream form of my ego seemed to know where to step while knowing that to do otherwise would mean failure.  When confronted with mountains through which no trail could be found, I flew.  Yet strangely, I flew through the mountains to avoid the peaks.  And with water, I swam under the surface never worrying about drowning at all.  It was as if this was a natural place to be.

And always, I swim, fly and walk unclothed.  With all these intimate engagements with the unconscious, I bring only myself, no masks, no costumes, no mirrors to deflect.  With the right intention, the right spirit, the road is never closed.