Many ways to experience the divine

Richard Dawkin's book 'The God Delusion' appeals to the increasingly secular world of Western culture.  However, it only negates the existence of the God of religion, not the divine, the spiritual per se.  Our need to be in touch with the divine is evidenced by increasing participation in other spiritual practices.  With the decline of formal religions there has been  an increased interest in various other forms of spiritual practice - keying in the 'spirituality' category on Amazon books and there are 75 pages of them (a few are 'religious' but the vast majority are not).  This need was a view taken by Jung at a time when religions were still more paramount, it being an inherent part of everyone's psyche and he saw that it could be experienced in many ways, according to what suits the individual.
He wrote "Christian education has done all that is humanly possible; but it has not been enough.  Too few people have experienced the divine image as the innermost possession of their own souls"

Immigrants - working with the positive and imagination

All we hear about the influx of immigrants into Europe is the problems, the negatives.  Renos Papadopoulos, a Jungian analyst, is in the forefront, with decades of UN experience working with displaced people.  His talk to the C G Jung Club London on Thursday evening this week included the Jungian perspectives of working with the balance of good and bad, and the healing-ness of imagination and creativity.  The situation is overwhelming for all concerned.  When a situation is overwhelming, we simplify to cope, creating polarisation.  Instead, to acknowledge, respect and work with the positive side, alongside engaging with the suffering, not as pathological but seeing it as being a part of the pantheon of humanity's existence.  What are they good at, the abilities they retain and can still use, even positive things they have learnt from the experience e.g. a resilience and the value of themselves, just as people on their own without the trappings of their former existence which they relied upon.  He showed a poignant photograph of a little girl totally absorbed playing with a jigsaw, alone beside her family's meagre worldly goods.  To play, to imagine, engenders hope and the jigsaw symbolises the idea of working towards something coherent from the complex and fragmented world they are in.

Continual growth is not healthy

One of the big news stories today is the decline in Chinese economic growth causing a worrying decline in share values and an increasing sense of world economic crisis.  What is it with this need to forever grow?  For good health it is necessary to stop growing at times. This is the case in nature. Plants need to die back in winter, or be pruned, those forced through artificial means are weaker.  Jungian psychology does not look for linear development in people, it is a spiral process, honouring and valuing both the ups and the downs., this is what gives people a greater depth.  What would be the effect if economists and markets saw a downturn as healthy?