Gathering the Light: A Jungian View of Meditation

Originally published by Shambhala in 1993, Gathering the Light is a significant contribution to Jungian psychology and to research concerning the relationship between psychological and spiritual development. Gathering the Light remains a groundbreaking work that integrates Jungian psychology, alchemy, and the practice of meditation. It is one of very few, if not the only Jungian book that demonstrates that the alchemical opus is not only an analogy of the individuation process, but also a depiction of various experiential stages encountered in the course of meditation. Gathering the Light compares Western and Eastern images of the goal of alchemy and of meditation practice; it offers a psychological interpretation of the Zen Ox Herding pictures; it argues that in essence both psychological and spiritual development consists of the withdrawal of projections; and the appendix offers a critique of Wilber's mistaken view of Jung's conception of archetypes and provides a critical review of Thomas Cleary's translation of The Secret of the Golden Flower. About the Author V. Walter Odajnyk, PhD, is a graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich, a member of the C.G. Jung Study Center of Southern California and a core faculty member of Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is the author of Marxism and Existentialism (Doubleday Anchor Books), Jung and Politics: The Political and Social Ideas of C. G. Jung (Harper & Row) and of a forthcoming Palgrave Macmillan book, Archetype and Character: Power, Eros, Spirit and Matter Personality Types.