Through a Jungian Lens

I took this photo a few moments ago, a scene from the back garden. While sitting out on my back deck with a cup of coffee enjoying a bit of sunshine though the air was still quite cool at 13 C, I thought that this would be the photo for today’s post and so went for the camera.  The scene is a mixture of artificial and old and broken material as well as garden plants.  In the modern world, this is about as good as it gets.

Often I hear people talking about going back to a better way of being on the earth as though the past was a sane and safe place where people naturally took care of the earth and all of their garbage.  The truth is that the past was as messy as is the present, perhaps even messier in terms of being a safe and healthy place.   In spite of pollution and our relentless attacks on nature and the planet, we are a healthier people and in relative terms we live in a state of peace.  This has allowed us to now live longer and perhaps have a deeper life, one that has more art, more music, more thought than past times.  The present, however, is far from being perfect as anyone who watches the evening television news can tell you.  It seems we can’t get too far from our living unconsciously where we make messes and quarrel and fight.  It is only through consciousness that we approach the world with a deep respect and that we can approach others without looking through negative filters of both personal and collective shadows.