Pregnant Darkness: Alchemy and the Rebirth of Consciousness

I attended a talk (via Zoom) that Monika Wikman gave in association with the Oregon Friends of C.G. Jung entitled, "Dreams, Life, Death, and the Alchemical Wedding." It was a fascinating presentation with a follow-up discussion that inspired me to read her book, Pregnant Darkness: Alchemy and the Rebirth of Consciousness. For those who have a cognitive predisposition toward Jungian psychology – with its study of the archetypes – this book could be a nourishing experience for the psyche. It's a very involved, and symbolically dense book that delves into mystical experiences, dreams, inner alchemy, synchronicity, life and death, storytelling and art. This book was such a delight – reminding me of how my world view changed while reading the works of Joseph Campbell so many years ago! As it gets into storytelling and mythology, this book has a poetic style that can invigorate the creative aspects of our being that resonates with our universal archetypes as manifested in fables, fairytales, myths and dreams. There's something so beguiling about the transformational processes, individually and collectively, that we human creatures –with our potential for reverence – can experience through our unique personalities. This quote from the book points to this sacredness..."When we allow such experiences ... to open us to the dimensions of time as synchronous instead of linear, something of the divine Self appears in our midst, and an inner harmony arrives among all the seemingly discordant parts. We may then drop into the awareness that our existence is organic, circular, like a unique flower unfolding its petals and revealing soul essence, petal by petal. The petals are, at one level, like the different manifestations in time—the child we once were, the maiden, the woman, and the crone—each open to allow the entire essence beyond time to come forth into the world. From the feminine point of view, from yin, this is the soul's goal in life, to draw the unique essence from the core, out into interaction with creation, and into our own creations, love, expressions, solitude, and so on."

Pregnant Darkness: Alchemy and the Rebirth of ConsciousnessMonika Wikman stories us into transformation. In her case-studies of dream work with clients, both the drama of the personal psyche and our participation in collective myths shine as if through stained glass. The reader's own life takes on extraordinary colors of "what is possible."What needs transformed? "When we become ill, or lose jobs, or relationships are on the brink," or when we experience the darkness of any unknowing, Wikman offers tools for renewal. For meaning-making that engages the whole of our psyche, she surrounds us with mirrors for psychological healing from dreams, poetry, art, ritual, metaphor, and storytelling.Her own story shines assurance regarding the importance of conscious transformation. Given a death sentence with stage IV cancer, Wikman describes the experience of surrender to the darkness of unknowing, which opened autonomous energy available in the transpersonal realm for "spontaneous remission." (A resounding title, then, Pregnant Darkness).She found in C.G. Jung's work the lens that recognized how such "mysteries" are described by alchemists, world religions, and pagan deities. After a doctorate in mainstream clinical psychology with research on dreams of the dying, Wikman earned her diplomat at the C.G. Jung Institut, Zurich.With Pregnant Darkness she provides the richness of personal and professional experience for a much overlooked arena--how the personal psyche can tap into the "transcendent dimensions of reality that are beyond the ego and ordinary states of consciousness." Such a journey may not be for the faint-hearted, since guiding and protecting forces activate by encounter with inner darkness.In this dynamic, Wikman's descriptions of work with clients draw us into the poignant "possibility of a renewing drink" from the living waters that reside beyond the ego. Something wise resides in our psychic makeup that instructs and inspires, if we open to what is possible. These cases of healing resonate with symbols that provide both personal and universal guides to transcend our hanging on the cross of "opposites"-desire and duty, known and unknown, shadow and persona, our conscious sun and reflective moon.Here a brilliant mind and a poetic voice "plunges to the depths", as Jung described this kind of writing. Yet this work also grounds in cultural, political, and ecological attentions. The context is a field of heart, soul, and (from Rumi) "companions who have come before." And Wikman attends to personal love, perhaps the most universal peak experience, how it alters and incarnates meaning. Love lifts into a spiral of personal renewal and sometimes to a larger Self and wholeness, "giving and glowing in all directions."

This book was incredibly powerful for me. I’ve only recently, last 6 months delved into Jung,(Red Book, Man and His symbols, other papers/essays) his theories, practices and readings and this book helped bring so many Jungian items together for me. It is dense! The first few chapters I felt a bit disoriented but the language and themes became more and more easily digested as I kept reading. I plan to read again and take notes versus only highlighting. There is so much to digest here. It most definitely will speak to those with a Jungian background or curiosity. I was recommended this book by a spiritual director and I am most grateful. It has helped solidify my own feelings of my personal religious( spiritual) instinct like nothing I’ve read before. And I am a Jungian convert. I believe his brilliance and courage is not completely appreciated. I often feel his writings and theories and other Jungian analysts therapists speak directly to my own personal experience and spiritual longings and “knowings”.

It's difficult to know quite where to begin with this astonishing book. The first thing to comment is that if you are coming to this subject completely cold, without much or any background, then this may well not be the book for you.The writing is very lucid and engaging, making it comfortable and enjoyable to read, despite the fact that it's quite heavy duty stuff; I read most of it before sleep. On many occasions I had a shiver of recognition, when dreams and dreamers were described and seemed so familiar it was eerie to see it written down.For anyone looking for a how-to type book, however, there isn't any of that nice, neat step-by-step strategies so beloved of self-help books. This is very much a text for grown ups, aware that they may well be deep in the midst of a very dark place (nigredo/putrefacio) that may not have an exit except by keeping on going through the pain, distress and confusion. I would suggest as companion reading, works by Marie-Louise von Franz.

I read a lot of favorables reviews about this book before buying it.But I must say this book would shurely be interesting for someone who knows already something about psychanalyse or Jung's work.This book is highly intellectual. so if you study psychology at university maybe this is perfect for you, but it is not a book to help people finding the pregnant life in their darkness...Yes there is a touch a individuals night dreams but only when it illustrate the perfect psyche expression.

Excellent

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