'RESTORING THE UNITY OF BODY AND SOUL'

Marion Woodman, The Pregnant Virgin: A Process of Psychological Transformation ((Studies in Jungian Psychology by Jungian Analysts) (Toronto: Inner City Books, 1985) ("This book does not, however, make the traditional body/soul distinction between caterpillar and butterfly, mortal and immortal life. Rather it explores the presence of the one in the other, suggesting that immortality is a reality contained within mortality and, in this life, dependent upon it. The Pregnant Virgin, that is, looks at ways of restoring the unity of body and soul." Id. at 7. "Insecurity lies at the heart of the fear of change. Individuals who recognize their own worth among those they love can leave and return without fear of separation. They know they are valued for themselves. Our computerized society, fascinating and efficient as it is, is making deeper and deeper inroads into genuine human values. A machine, however intricate, has no soul, nor does it move with the rhythms of instinct. A computer may be able to vomit out the facts of my existence, but it cannot fathom the subterranean corridors of my aloneness, nor can it hear my silence, nor can it respond to the shadow that passes over my eyes. It cannot compute the depth and breadth and height of the human soul. When society deliberately programs itself to a set of norms that has very little to do with instinct, love or privacy, then people who set out to become individuals, trusting in the dignity of their own soul and the creativity of their own imagination, have good reason to be afraid. They are outcasts, cut off from society and to a greater or lesser degree from their own instincts. As they work in the silence of their cocoon, they often think they are crazy. They also think they would be crazier if they gave up their faith in their own journey. Like the chrysalis pinned to the kitchen curtain, Blake's proverb is pinned to their study wall: 'If a fool would persist in his folly, he would become become wise.'" Id. at 15-16. "A life that is being truly lived is constantly burning way the veils of illusion, gradually revealing the essence of the individual." Id. at 20. "Psychic intimacy and physical intimacy go together naturally, but, where they have been split apart at a pre-verbal level, the instinct is isolated. The emotional food that should be incorporated with the physical food is not present; thus the instinctual pole of what Jung called a 'a psychoid pocess' receives a different message from the psychic pole. Without the experience of the instincts, neither the feminine soul nor the masculine spirit is embodied; consequently in later life emotional intimacy, including love-making, may be undermined by a sense of betrayal. The body is not present. She is not there." "The woman who is whole resonates both physically and psychically. The soul, that is, is incarnate. Women who are robbed of that feminine birthright may have to experience physical acceptance by another woman, whether in dreams, in close friendships or in a lesbian relationship, before they can find security within themselves. (In rare cases, this can happen in relationship with a man, depending on the maturity of his anima.)" Id. at 38. Hmm! May explain a lot about one of the significant gender dynamic of yoga studios. "The adult world moves at such a pace and with so much fear that people cannot take in  what others are attempting to give. Bombarded by trivia, and bombarded equally by heartbreaking images of famine, wars, desecrated nature, they are obsessed with their own defenses. Locked into a rigid framework, they attempt to chisel themselves into images of the gods of our age--machines that perform efficiently but are without heart. Their bodies cry out in fear or rage when they pop pills, have an intestinal by-pass, staple their stomachs, yet they still ignore their ferocious rape dreams and rush on again in their male, goal-oriented pursuit of a perfection that is in fact a total illusion protecting them from looking at themselves as failed human beings." 'We are not gods; we are not machines that can be driven by logic or power. We do have hearts, and our hearts are in our bodies, and our bodies are related to our instincts. So long as we allow our heads to be cut off from our bodies, we are colluding with the madness of our age in attempting to cure physical ills without making the necessary psychic corrections. We may temporarily succeed, but the body will have its way. It will not lie. It has received the pain that the mind cannot endure. Eventually it will reject the shallow veneer that blocks the possibility of honest response--the kind that would take in, go through the slow, circuitous route of the gut and heart, and comes back with real reaction. In genuine conversation, intercourse takes place, soul is shared with soul. Each has enough Presence to allow the other in without distortion and projection. Each gives energy to the other." Id. at 129-130.).