Book: Modern Woman in Search of Soul by June Singer

I did not like Modern Woman in Search of Soul as much as Boundaries of the Soul. I had high hopes for a book that, in its into, promises to support the modern woman in a Jungian process of individuation. June Singer points out how Jung wrote at a time when gender roles were still starkly separate, and he himself admitted he could mostly infer about the female subconscious, being him a male in said genderized world. However, MWISOS does not really deliver in terms of a specific text for women, and goes instead into a very complex (at least for me) history of scientific and philosophical inquiry in what concerns the relationship between the “visible” and “invisible” worlds. Perhaps it should have simply being titled differently.

Nonetheless, I was intrigued by Singer's explanation of the Gnostic principles, which I would love to explore in more detail someday. The Gnostics undoubtedly laid the foundation of the Jungian idea of spiritual knowledge through direct experience. I also was intrigued by their incorporation of Sophia as a female principle, in contrast with the "male" Trinity in the traditional Christian tradition. 

I also really enjoyed the last part of the book, when June Singer talks about how to look and live "the invisible" in our lives. She outlines a few different techniques only in the vaguest and most evocative of terms (“sweeping the temple”, “attending to dreams”, “practice dying”), and I can really see how that can inspire the reader in seeing those activities in their own terms. I immediately got some concrete images in my mind, and connections and meanings sprouted almost organically from them. I also understood why meditation never really worked for me, and that I already have means to access the invisible more rapidly and deeply (listening to music, practicing active imagination, cooking,…) Thanks to her suggestions, I am more confident I can start building meaningful rituals in my life.

I was also intrigued by her presentation of the three different developmental stages of consciousness according to Ken Wilber (p. 147): the prepersonal stage where one is only conscious only of one's own primal needs; the personal or egoic stage where one is conscious of societal needs; and the transpersonal stage where one has reached a higher consciousness of good and evil and the spirit. It got me thinking how Italy is still in the prepersonal stage, while the US is in the personal stage (none is in the transpersonal stage). 

Wilber criticized Jung for “not sufficiently differentiating the primitive collective unconscious from the highly evolved collective unconscious,” and that is correct. However, Jung did not assign value judgement to different kinds of unconscious materials, and thought justly that all dimensions coexisted in the same space. Basically, we need all three dimensions at all times: If we live in the prepersonal, we are like animals. If we live only in the personal, we are boring; and if we live in the transpersonal, we are bored in the best of cases or in danger of developing hubris in the worst of cases (mana personality). 

INTERESTING IDEAS:

• The wise old man/woman appear as simple people occupied in mundane jobs, yet they talk with extraordinary wisdom. Important when confronting guru personalities. (p. 129)
• The invisible path must be taken by the individual alone. A teacher can only point the path and maybe “accompany the initiate a little way.” No teacher can and should promise solutions or bliss or demand absolute loyalty to strict regime. (p. 130)
• You need to attend to your invisible world so that you can be ready for when an important, life-altering message is delivered. (p. 131)
• “People of every age… have created rituals and practices to enact in the body and in the world what the psyche knows.” (p. 152)
• Acquiring Tools for Contacting the Invisible World (p. 154)
• Once a person starts exploring the invisible world, “every complex… is activated, as if the unconscious were determined to undermine any intrusion into its secret and unknown territory.” This reminded me of the confusion I felt when I first started reading Jung. It felt as if I had pried open a Pandora’s box. (p. 204)
• We need to struggle to balance the opposites to attain wisdom, and wisdom ultimately requires that we acknowledge “the fruitless effort to maintain the illusion of one’s own importance.” And bridging the opposites is dangerous, painful, scary. (p. 205)