E81: The Quest for the Soul with Special Guest

Dr. Anne Baring

E81 Introduction-

So many of our wisdom traditions and myths speak of the recovery of the Soul. In the central myth of the Gnostics, The Goddess Sophia has fallen. The Feminine Soul has descended. Out of the Pleroma or Heavenly Abode all the way to the material dimension that we find ourselves in. Sophia: confused, lost, bewildered, and homesick, the Feminine Soul begins its slow, steady journey back to its Heavenly Abode.

Myths and fairy tales often contain the clues and maps of the Soul’s Journey. It’s descent and eventual ascension. Myths awaken and nourish the Divine imagination. They nourish the Soul.

To use my guests’ words, when we are not in touch with the Soul, it is as if a vital part of us is asleep. It cannot communicate with us, nor we with it. Civilizations such as ours may die because we have forgotten how to nourish the soul and imagination. We have forgotten how to honor and love nature and the Divine Feminine.

All of our most vibrant myths seem to be pointing in this direction. To the marriage of the Divine Masculine Spirit with the Divine Feminine Soul. We are, as a tribe, being asked to reclaim what has been dormant but not forgotten.

We will not restore the Wasteland we find ourselves in without this awakening. Technology will not rescue us. Not with its dry, digital landscape. It’s algorithms. Technology represents a kingdom without the Goddess, without nature and the Divine Feminine.

In mythic terms, the most beautiful maiden of the forest is in a deep sleep and awaits for the right Prince, for the right moment in the story. It seems we have arrived at this part of the story. We are there.

The destiny of the entire kingdom is dependent on this outcome. Can the Prince, the symbol of Solar Consciousness, turn inward and find the Lunar Soul, his inner Divine Feminine?

Each one of us holds part of this Soul. The myth of the Holy Grail includes all of us. Each one of us IS the Sleeping Beauty AND the Prince that restores her and the kingdom.

It is important to remember that the Soul does not communicate primarily through words. It does through myth and poetry but the Soul seems to prefer feelings, intuitions, emotions, and dreams. It is in this inner direction that holds the key to the Grail and has the potential to awaken the sleeping Princess.

My guest today has written an incredible book. One that ought to sit high up in anyone’s library.

Anne Baring Bio-

Doctor Anne Baring is a Jungian Analyst and the author of 7 booksincluding her most recent book The Dream of the Cosmos: A Quest for the Soulwhich was awarded the Scientific and Medical Network Book Prize for 2013. The ground of all her work is a deep interest in the spiritual, mythological, shamanic and artistic traditions of different cultures. Her website www.annebaring.com is devoted to the affirmation of a new vision of reality and the issues facing us at this crucial time of choice. Here is my interview with Anne Baring.

E81 Final Thoughts-

I hope you enjoyed my discussion with Anne Baring as much as I did. I felt like I could talk to her all night and not run out of things to ask her.

If you have not read the fairy tale The Sleeping Beauty or you have kids and you want to introduce them to a powerful tale of the lost feminine principle and the Soul’s Journey, go pick up a copy.

Fairy tales carry an amazing transformative power in them. I was speaking with a friend the other day and I was saying that sometimes I think you could take out all the literature of the world and leave only the fairy tales and the Soul would still be able to figure out where it is and where it is going.

Anne’s book The Dr

Basecamp for Men E81: The Quest for the Soul