Connect to the Beauty of Your Soul By Living in Conscious Relationship To Your Inner Divine Spirit.
Invite the new into your life and expand the beauty of your soul by reading and contemplating Advent meditations by Jungian Analyst Kathleen Wiley. Using Jungian psychology as a basis, Wiley writes insights into Biblical scriptures related to the theme of new life and the seasons of Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany. Reading these Christian self help meditations will inspire and lead you to reflect on your inner connection to your larger Self, or the God Within, promoting your spiritual growth and self development.
These 28 meditations will help you live in conscious or knowing relationship to the Divine Spirit within you as the key to connecting with and extending the beauty of your soul. By reading, studying, and contemplating The Holy Bible, you stimulate your conscious connection to the Divine as the spiritual truths resonate with the innate inner knowing that is present because you are created in the image of God. Read these Biblical meditations not just at Advent but also at anytime you want to invite the new into your life.
Targeted Age Group:: Adult
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
I grew up in the Baptist church practicing the discipline of daily meditations. I would read a scripture passage and explore it using various commentaries, Bible dictionaries, and other study materials. I struggled to understand the meaning theologically and practically for my life. My journey led me to academic degrees in Christian Education and Counseling. I was drawn to train professionally as a psychoanalyst in the tradition of Carl Jung because I see his work as the best marriage of psychology and spirituality.
I have been writing meditations on the scriptures with an eye towards what they mean about our psyche/soul. I consider the stories and images as symbols of our inner worlds, including our thoughts, feelings, sensations, intuitions, perceptions, impulses, and emotions. By contemplating the scriptures in this manner, we can access understanding of our selves as living beings who are manifestations of God. We begin to embrace and value who we are as everything in our nature holds a seed of the Divine.
Book Sample
The Mystery of Darkness: Job 23:1–9, 16–17
What we fear seeing in our selves almost always holds the key to greater living. We are restored to health and vitality in life as we willingly engage the unknown, the darkness and mystery of Self. The birth of the Christ child invites us to see beyond what we know and to willingly dialogue with parts of our nature that are problematic.
Verses 4, 15b, 17, “I would state my case before him and set out my arguments in full….when I think about him, I am afraid…yet I am not reduced to silence by the darkness nor by the mystery which hides him.”
In An Answer to Job, Jung wrote about the psychological meaning of Job’s suffering and its outcome. Jung’s concluding premise was that God needed Job in order to see himself (God) more clearly. Job’s attempts to stay in relationship to God, even when Job felt ignored, were finally met by God. Staying in relationship with God is what vindicated Job in the end.
Even though he was afraid, Job was bold enough to be willing to talk with God. As Job suffered, he struggled to understand what was happening and why. He reflected on his life, and he stated what he saw, believed, and experienced. He acknowledged the presence of the darkness and mystery of life, but he continued to speak from his experience and viewpoint.
Psychologically, Job’s struggle with God symbolizes the ego’s struggle with the Self (totality of psyche/soul, God Within). Ego is synonymous with the conscious self. Ego is formed by what we see and know about our selves. The darkness and mystery of the Self is all that is unconscious, including our reflexive personal patterns and automatic archetypal/instinctive templates.
Our suffering often originates from unconscious patterns that wreak havoc with our ego’s emotions, feelings, perceiving, thinking, etc. We may feel “[the Self’s] hand is heavy on me in my trouble.” At these times, the ego may try to go it alone. We may resort to known patterns of behaviors and relationships with others and our selves even if the patterns are problematic and limiting. The ego’s reliance only on what is known, without openness to seeing the unconscious Self, is ultimately self-defeating. It is in the willingness to engage the unknown, the darkness and mystery of the Self, that we are restored to health and vitality in life.
Inner Reflection
Take a few minutes to acknowledge where you are suffering in any way—physically, emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Look to see what you know about the situation and yourself. Pay attention to the emotions and affects (pervasive moods or overshadowing feelings) that are present and note what they trigger in your body and mind. State what you know to yourself and the Self.
In this way, build a relationship between yourself and what is present. Open to see the workings of the darkness and mystery of the Inner Divine Spirit that can bring healing/wholeness.
About the Author:
Kathleen Wiley is a Diplomate in Analytical Psychology. She is licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist and a Professional Counselor and has a private practice in Davidson, North Carolina. Her background includes a B.A. in Christian Education and a Masters in Human Development and Learning. Her work focuses on empowering people to live out of a conscious relationship to the Self/God Within. She realizes the importance of encountering God as part of the human experience of being in a physical body and the importance of interpersonal experiences of relationship.
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