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Excerpt 2 from James Hillman's "A Blue Fire", Part 2

James Hillman -- one of the most creative thinkers in the field of psychology -- talks about the necessity of greiving, and the repurcussions when it is sidestepped in this transcribed excerpt from his fascinating weekend seminar based on his book A Blue Fire. 

Now, if that passive aggressive is not… if the aggressive part is not given something valuable -- which is what I think goes on in the men’s work, something valuable – true, some sort of images of poetry, spirit, body, and language -- I think that passive aggressive part of our nature will become ideological and fascistic and revert to its old forms. Well, not all together. Not all together. You haven’t yet seen. You know, we’re not lynching and we’re not marching. We vote for Reagan but that’s as far as it got. It’s gotten further than that. [talking in background: “You get gay bashing.  You get racial slurs.” Etc.] It can get much worse. [talking in background] Well, it’s that absence of grieving. First the absence of grieving and mourning for the loss in Vietnam, and the fact that so many American males went through an initiation experience without the initiation mythology that goes with it. So they were deserted and they are the base of change in the country, but they are considered outsiders and put through psychotherapy. But no one who is responsible for Vietnam is put through psychotherapy!

Excerpt 1 from James Hillman's "A Blue Fire", Part 2

The late James Hillman -- one of the foremost scholars in Jungian theory and thinking -- discusses the true nature of longing in this transcribed excerpt from his weekend seminar based on his book, A Blue Fire.

Realizing you are a creature of longing, the romantic said, “Tell me what you long for and I will tell you who you are.” Tremendous sentence. We say, “What do you do?” And you fill out your Social Security form, you know? Or your tax thing. Tell me what you long for and I will tell you who you are. They made a great deal of sehnsucht. That kind of nostalgia. I don’t know what other word to use for it. Longing. And it’s more than the desire that the French are using that is jouissance desire. I think it’s something much more than that.
 

Excerpt 2 from James Hillman's "A Blue Fire", Part 1

The late James Hillman -- considered the father of Archtypal Psychology based on the work of Carl Jung -- gives us a glimpse into his thinking when talkng about the relationship between egocentricity, excess and eccentricity in this transcribed excerpt from a fascinating weekend seminar Hillman offered at the Rowe Camp & Conference Center.

That’s metaphysics and philosophy and has to do with a worldview. I prefer to stay in this other realm, which is just the pragmatics of living with imagination. Let’s stay with this business of working with the images. And the fear… you see, there’s a fear. There’s a fear about those ants. There’s a fear of the power of the image. One of the reasons we don’t like the, you know… I’m not in animal rights… is we’re afraid. What happens if they all had rights? You know, we’re afraid of releasing the humanistic egocentricity. And that fear had given a negative cast to the dreams -- they have to be interpreted because, you know, there’s muck and there’s slime and there’s dirt and there’s danger and there’s psychosis and suicide and depression, and all those terms are used about the imagination that if we give over to it, we will be destroyed. We will be destroyed! The egocentric attitude will be weakened, yes. [talking in background] Control, yeah. Big word, except it’s used now more nicely, deal with, and cope, which means control, which means still holding the wheel in your hand.

Free Download Monday - A Magical Life with Thomas Moore

Throughout this month BetterListen! will offer a tribute and homage to James Hillman who passed away just last week. This month we will feature and offer free downloads from colaborators with Hillman that we have the good fortune to publish on BetterLIsten! This week our free download Monday program is from one of our favorite authors, Thomas Moore. Thomas worked closely with Hillman over the years. There is a wonderful tribute to James Hillman written by Thomas this week in the Huffington Post.

The inspirational audio program, A Magical Life, with Thomas Moore is free through Wednesday evening. Enjoy and let us know what you think after you listen.

Excerpt 1 from James Hillman's "A Blue Fire", Part 1

In this transcribed excerpt recorded during a weekend seminar at Rowe Camp & Conference Center in Massachusetts, James Hillman -- one of the most influential voices of modern psychology -- reflects on hope versus optimism, observing versus engaging in life.

I have a little trouble with hope. I don’t want to take yours away from you, but I heard a lovely phrase today. To be optimistic without hope. It’s a sentence from Paul Valerie. It was a very nice phrase. That’s a hard one for the Christian mind. The idea of being hopeful, that isn’t quite what I meant in re-visioning psychology about pathology. That pathologizing… it isn’t… it doesn’t mean its going to get… it’s not hope. It is that it draws your interest. Actually, interest is more important than hope. Interest in what’s going on would be both a medical approach and a psychological approach. Do you follow me there at all? Does anybody want to add to that? That being interested is really the crucial thing.

James Hillman - A celebration of a great man, thinker, friend, author and publisher

It is with great sadness we note and mention the passing of our longtime time friend and author, James Hillman. It is perhaps fitting and synchronistic that on the day of his passing we release for the first time in digital format the recordings A Blue Fire Part I and Part II.

All of the recordings we are priviledged to offer with James bring to light the wisdom, depth and humor of this great thinker and human being. Over the next month or so we will do what we can to honor his vast contribution.

The Educated Heart with Robert Bly

During this talk, Robert Bly gives a delicate and lively view of the fantastic flowering of feeling in the 12th century Provence. The feeling thought, developed of Arabic, Gnostic, and Albigensian sources, blossoms as love poetry famous at that time.

Bly distinguishes in this talk between the literal mode, the psychological mode and the mythological mode, and he locates the “Amor” or ecstatic love in the latter. That mythological mode of feeling led to Sufism among the Arabs.

When we hear the Provencal poetry he recites toward the end we recognize the terrible loss we suffered when these traditions were uprooted and destroyed.

Robert Bly Bio and links

Running Time: 58 minutes Click here for Educated Heart Preview	Buy From BetterListen! MP3 download info
	also available on iTunes