I am currently reading Sue Monk Kidd’s book The Dance of the Dissident Daughter. Finally! I have had this book on my reading list for years. She pulls from Greek mythology often to illustrate her thinking and inner struggles with the patriarchal constraints of her religious and cultural upbringing and her emerging consciousness of the sacred feminine. She write that the wedding of Ariadne and Dionysus symbolizes “an inner marriage of the positive masculine and the conscious feminine”. She then quotes C.G. Jung: “Wholeness…is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one’s being, but by integration of the contraries”. And I was like, oh, hmmm, interesting. And then I went down a whole rabbit hole of reading up on Jung’s theories on the Integration of the Contraries. Unsurprisingly I have a few books on Jungian thought that I had bought at used book sales- years ago!! And I would leaf through them, but never dedicated myself to read them them fully. I’m going to change that. I’m intrigued.
I finished this piece yesterday and worked on an accompanying piece this week as well. While I was reading up on the above, I had the piece in my line of sight. I started thinking about how my work is often a combination of opposing dualities- structure (gridlike compositions, man-made salvaged materials often metal) paired with images of a wildness, nature, growth. Perhaps subconsciously tapping into those energies that Sue Monk Kidd was talking about- positive masculine and the conscious feminine. Or Jung’s outer self (structured, rational) and the inner self (connected to nature, timelessness, intuitive). hmmmmmmmmmm…..
These are my own wandering thoughts and just dipping my toes in. Don’t mind me, for those who have studied and work with Jungian theory.