Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation - Softcover

Patricia Damery

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1926715012 ISBN 13: 9781926715018

Publisher: Fisher King Press, 2010

Synopsis

"the psychological problem of today is a spiritual problem, a religious problem . . ." --C.G. Jung, C.G. Jung Speaking: Interview and Encounters, "Does the World Stand on the Verge of Spiritual Rebirth?" A psychological and spiritual reckoning, 'Farming Soul' questions theories and assumptions that date back to the early 1900's and the days of Freud, assumptions which have too often separated spirituality from psychology. Suffering the trials of her own individuation process, Patricia Damery finds answers through a series of unconventional teachers and through her relationship to the psyche and to the land-answers that are surprisingly deeply intertwined. One strand of 'Farming Soul' is about redeveloping a relationship to the land-Mother Earth-being rooted in a particular place and being guided by the tenets of Rudolf Steiner's Biodynamic(TM) agriculture. Another strand is about Patricia Damery's professional path of becoming a Jungian analyst, which includes an exploration of four aspects of the body: the physical, the etheric, the astral, and the mental. We are acquainted with and have similar assumptions about the physical body, but we are mostly unfamiliar with these three supersensible bodies. Jung and two of his closest and well-respected colleagues, Marie Louise von Franz and Barbara Hannah, address the subtle body in their writings, but analytical psychology (and psychology in general) has avoided this aspect of Jung's work. 'Farming Soul' is a courageous offering that will help reconnect us to our deeper selves, the often untouched realities of soul, and at the same time ground us in our physical relationship to self and Mother Earth.

About this title

From the Author:

Growing up on a small farm in the Midwest,  I was of the last generation to be raised in the small farming culture of our country. My mother was a teacher, her own father a commercial artist, and, of course, my father farmed. I have always been stretched between these two very different cultures, and my life decisions reflect that. 

I got away from the rigors of farming as soon as I was able. When I went to college I studied chemistry, mainly because I scored high in sciences, and, I suspect now, because I am unconsciously drawn to alchemy (as was Carl Jung). I taught high school one year before deciding that was not for me. Although I did not stay in teaching, I was introduced to the study of Jungian psychology through a graduate program in psychology at Sonoma State University near Santa Rosa, California.  The openness and creativity of California ignited my love of both psychology and the beautiful, varied land, and as a result, I decided to reside here and to study psychology. 

After getting a degree in psychology and becoming licensed to practice psychotherapy, I entered a training program at the C. G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Farming Soul: A Tale of Initiation is in part about this experience as well as my return to farming after meeting my husband Donald. Through a farming crisis (also the subject of Farming Soul) we became trained and then certified in Biodynamic agriculture.

I have written two novels, Snakes and Goatsong, both about our relationship to the earth and to each other, as well as various professional articles published in Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, and Psychological Perspectives. I also co-edited an anthology Marked by Fire: Stories of the Jungian Way (Fisher King Press, 2012). 

From the Back Cover:

"This is an unusual account of one individual's efforts to learn to apply a native gift for sensing the emergent irrational to the disciplines of depth psychotherapy and Native American healing. Patricia Damery's memoir details how, inspired by the experience of tending an organic farm, she learned to live with the power of this intelligence and apply it responsibly to healing endeavors. In part a cautionary tale, Damery's story reveals what can happen when professional training does not entirely validate one's natural way of using one's heart and mind. Not every therapist who reads this book will have had to take such an arduous journey to self affirmation, but to anyone in the healing professions who has wondered whether it is possible for a wounded healer to be healed, Damery's story will lend considerable comfort." - John Beebe, M.D., author of Integrity in Depth

About this edition

• Publisher: Fisher King Press
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1926715012
• ISBN 13: 9781926715018
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 165