Chicken Little: The Inside Story (A Jungian ... - Inner City Books

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92 Chicken Little: The Inside Story My fantasies, what would I be without them? And they, without me? Chicken Little, now, I wouldn’t mind being quit of her, but she grips me so. Intransigent complex, obsession, idée fixe, whatever; I’m more interested in what it means than what it’s called. If I were fifty years younger and half as scrupulous, I’d start a religion. Or a cult, more likely. I’d aim to squeeze the poor and dispossessed, those most vulnerable. I’d hire someone with a commanding presence to go on prime time television in a black robe and cry out, HALLELUJAH!!! Ms. Little came to earth to save yo’ SOULS! The sky was fallin’ then and it still is! Don’ you hear them clouds clappin’? Frien’s, they is gettin’ ready t’ FALL!! An’ when they falls, you don’ wanna be unda them, do you? Now, how you gonna ‘scape a fallin’ cloud o’ horror and hell-fire damnation? Well frien’s, all you gotta do is BELIEVE!—man, woman ‘n’ chil’, you gotta believe in the worda Ms. Little!! And jus’ what’s all that about, you ask, just what’s this l’il Ms. Little got that you ain’t got and ain’t never had? Well, I’m here to tell ya what she got that you ain’t; I’m here to tell ya WHAT SHE GOT that you ain’ NEVER HAD. And that’s SOUL! Brothers ‘n’ sisters, the soula Ms. Little is available to alla you, no single man, woman or chil’ gonna go without. It’s a BIG SOUL an’ a piece of it’s there for the askin’. All you gotta do is BELIEVE!—Come forth now, march right up, don’ be shy, she loves ya all and nobody gonna be left out who truly BE- LIEVES! An’ out there in the big wide worl’, I hear ya, ya wanna come up the aisle like these true believers, on’y ya ain’t here! So how you too gonna be saved? Well, I’m here to tell ya, ya gonna be saved jus’ the same when ya send yo’ MONEY! Ms. Little ain’ no high hoss up on no hill; she ain’ makin’ you come to her, she gonna ‘cept yo’ true belief from WHERE YOU IS!! . . . I couldn’t do that now, of course. Thanks to analysis for that. It brought my chickens home to roost, so to speak. It put an end to all sorts of delusions, like the belief that I knew what I was doing; that I could survive alone; that I could grow, feeding only on myself; that I was particularly different. Hasn’t all been roses, though. Lost a few angels as well as devils. Just when you get hold of a really good fantasy, reality hits you in the eye. Isn’t that the shits. Still, I don’t trip over myself as much.
A Stitch in Time 93 The prodigal son. Once the myth got under my skin, there was no question about it, I had to return. But first I had to leave. My mother cried at the boat: “Come back and be one of us.” I did go back, but not to be one of them. I let them watch me from a distance, bending here and there, picking up the threads of a finelywoven myth. Perversely, I would not stop until I had delivered it raveled. The big question then was how to make freedom creative. Could I realize my potential by plunging head-first into life? Should I proceed with caution? Opt out? How to make a choice from the limitless possibilities—that was the biggest question of all, and to some extent it still is. The purpose of life could resolve the issue, but then what is its purpose? Jung believed the purpose of human life is to become conscious. Maybe that’s true. But conscious of what? 94 How little we know of all this. Born infants, we die as children, hardly mature enough to cope with ourselves, let alone lead whole nations. If we could live as long as Methuselah, at what age would we begin to profit from our mistakes? A hundred and ten? A hundred and fifty? When would we escape the familiar cycle of growth and decay and truly begin to evolve? At what age would we solve the mystery of our own existence? Or is it not simply a matter of living longer to understand more? Do we reach a plateau, as Kierkegaard believed, where everything is reversed, after which the struggle is to realize that many things can’t be understood at all? That’s Socratic ignorance, he said: we continue to mature until we become children again. Oh, I did love Kierkegaard’s Journals, I could live on one of his nuggets for days. For instance: “A life which is not clear about itself inevitably displays an uneven surface.” 95 “One cannot reap immediately where one has sown. . . . One 94 With all due respect, I am at a loss to understand how Brillig could have missed Jung’s point, which is that consciousness is an end in itself, and moreover is useful: “The reason why consciousness exists, and why there is an urge to widen and deepen it, is very simple: without consciousness things go less well.” (“Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung,” The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, CW 8, par. 695) Jung’s essential views on this subject are presented in Edward F. Edinger, The Creation of Consciousness: Jung’s Myth for Modern Man. 95 Journals, p. 47.
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Chicken Little
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CHICKEN LITTLE The Inside Story A J
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Contents Chicken Little: Messiah, M
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Chicken Little: Messiah, Meshuggene
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The Letter 21 had a joint. The feel
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The Letter 23 could use some spice.
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The Letter 25 chel about Brillig’
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The Letter 27 the difference. She h
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The Letter 29 since the morning in
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The Letter 31 her, was written at a
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The Meeting 33 Well, strictly speak
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The Meeting 35 “Rachel,” I said
Page 37 and 38:
The Meeting 37 “May I?” he aske
Page 39 and 40:
The Meeting 39 tain-climbing goods
Page 41 and 42: The Meeting 41 Arnold furtively sli
Page 43 and 44: The Meeting 43 things, ‘of shoes
Page 45 and 46: 3 An Unveiling I awoke at 5:30. Tha
Page 47 and 48: An Unveiling 47 had been through th
Page 49 and 50: An Unveiling 49 six hours there and
Page 51 and 52: An Unveiling 51 sensuous mate befor
Page 53 and 54: An Unveiling 53 still devout, and a
Page 55 and 56: An Unveiling 55 I felt a twinge of
Page 57 and 58: 4 Search for the Self After we’d
Page 59 and 60: Search for the Self 59 “Jung spok
Page 61 and 62: Search for the Self 61 concerned to
Page 63 and 64: Search for the Self 63 “I also sa
Page 65 and 66: Search for the Self 65 I looked at
Page 67 and 68: Search for the Self 67 Rachel looke
Page 69 and 70: Search for the Self 69 “You could
Page 71 and 72: Intermezzo 71 town and sent to the
Page 73 and 74: Search for the Self 73 Alchemical l
Page 75 and 76: Philosophers’ Stone 75 next door.
Page 77 and 78: Philosophers’ Stone 77 zine these
Page 79 and 80: Philosophers’ Stone 79
Page 81 and 82: Philosophers’ Stone 81 only in hi
Page 83 and 84: Philosophers’ Stone 83 circled hi
Page 85 and 86: Philosophers’ Stone 85 fours and
Page 87 and 88: Philosophers’ Stone 87 how does i
Page 89 and 90: A Stitch in Time 89 as I can say wh
Page 91: A Stitch in Time 91 “Good, bad, w
Page 95 and 96: A Stitch in Time 95 “Well,” I s
Page 97 and 98: A Stitch in Time 97 as I dare say t
Page 99 and 100: New Dimensions 99 had a session wit
Page 101 and 102: New Dimensions 101 I was afraid I
Page 103 and 104: New Dimensions 103 Night after nigh
Page 105 and 106: New Dimensions 105 culine God-image
Page 107 and 108: New Dimensions 107 Adam smiled at m
Page 109 and 110: New Dimensions 109 Adam had said ea
Page 111 and 112: The Experiment 111 No team of mount
Page 113 and 114: The Experiment 113 “The major por
Page 115 and 116: The Experiment 115 While Rachel and
Page 117 and 118: The Experiment 117 It took some tri
Page 119 and 120: The Experiment 119 From the Great A
Page 121 and 122: The Experiment 121 “Hear, hear,
Page 123 and 124: The Experiment 123 While I scooped
Page 125 and 126: Bibliography Birkhäuser-Oeri, Siby
Page 127: Bibliography 127 _______. The Pregn
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