Where
This is an online event. Caught in the Crosshairs
Gun Violence: An Archetypal Perspective
Ethology refers to the natural patterns of animals in the world. For instance, we find a number of videos on the internet of elephant herds banning together to save an endangered calf. Once safely back within the confines of the herd, the adults literally form a circle around the calf to convey that the calf is now once again safe and secure, and perhaps speaks of a renewed security and trust in its elders. Then too, we find elephant’s mournful response to the death of their calf and of member of their herd. Safety and an honoring of their dead, are cherished values within their fold.
When we look at the ethological behaviors of animals we are actually seeing into the very nature and behavior of humanities inherited archetypal patterns and can begin to speak of an “Archetypal Ethology”. Survival of the species requires a strict adherence to these time honored archetypal behaviors and instincts, whereas their absence may have catastrophic consequence for their individual and collective survival. It was Jung who reminded us that Neurosis represents estrangement from the archetypal currents of life.
What shifts must be made in our psyche as we watch our youth both mourn their slaughtered friends, and struggle to find ways to protect their right to safety and realize they are in fact, joining in an individual and collective moment that has existed since the beginning of time? This is a movement that is responding to the archetypal need to protect and to mourn.
With this ongoing proliferation of school shootings we are, in fact, witnessing something so profound and troubling, in that this speaks to a killing of our own children, and the inability or refusal to do what is needed to provide the protection which so many of the animals in the world provide so naturally for their young. Perhaps as we watch our children display their love for those who have died, and struggle against the old order to bring a much needed sense of safety into the world, we are witnessing the re-emergence of universal, and archetypally generative tendencies.
When we look at the ethological behaviors of animals we are actually seeing into the very nature and behavior of humanities inherited archetypal patterns and can begin to speak of an “Archetypal Ethology”. Survival of the species requires a strict adherence to these time honored archetypal behaviors and instincts, whereas their absence may have catastrophic consequence for their individual and collective survival. It was Jung who reminded us that Neurosis represents estrangement from the archetypal currents of life.
What shifts must be made in our psyche as we watch our youth both mourn their slaughtered friends, and struggle to find ways to protect their right to safety and realize they are in fact, joining in an individual and collective moment that has existed since the beginning of time? This is a movement that is responding to the archetypal need to protect and to mourn.
With this ongoing proliferation of school shootings we are, in fact, witnessing something so profound and troubling, in that this speaks to a killing of our own children, and the inability or refusal to do what is needed to provide the protection which so many of the animals in the world provide so naturally for their young. Perhaps as we watch our children display their love for those who have died, and struggle against the old order to bring a much needed sense of safety into the world, we are witnessing the re-emergence of universal, and archetypally generative tendencies.
Join Michael Conforti, Hank Brightman and Sukey Fontelieu for this complimentary panel discussion as they introduce the themes they will each be focusing on in this Assisi Institute webinar series.