Rathi
@ratzest.bsky.social
Jungian/depth psychology, mythology, spiritual ecology, mysticism, mindfulness, philosophy, art, literature, social justice.
Header image: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1872) by Vasily Perov.
Header image: Fyodor Dostoevsky (1872) by Vasily Perov.
Jung on neurosis: "There are in a neurosis two tendencies standing in strict opposition to one another, one of which is unconscious. The neurotic is only a special instance of the disunited man who ought to harmonize nature and culture within himself."
November 22, 2025 at 1:39 AM
Jung on neurosis: "There are in a neurosis two tendencies standing in strict opposition to one another, one of which is unconscious. The neurotic is only a special instance of the disunited man who ought to harmonize nature and culture within himself."
"It's just that a mother rejoices...when she notices her baby's first smile, the same as God rejoices each time he looks down from heaven and sees a sinner standing before him and praying with all his heart." | The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky
October 8, 2025 at 5:26 PM
"It's just that a mother rejoices...when she notices her baby's first smile, the same as God rejoices each time he looks down from heaven and sees a sinner standing before him and praying with all his heart." | The Idiot, Fyodor Dostoevsky
Majestic beauty.
Oak Alley Plantation - Vacherie, Louisiana 🌳🌳
Famous for its double row of southern live oaks planted in 1710. Note the tiny figure in red for scale
Photo: Wim Brinkerink
Famous for its double row of southern live oaks planted in 1710. Note the tiny figure in red for scale
Photo: Wim Brinkerink
September 27, 2025 at 2:23 AM
Majestic beauty.
‘Omar answers’
The wisdom of the wisest of the wise
Is but the pinch of powder in the eyes
Thrown by the fingers of the fiend, that we
True things from false may fail to recognise.
Hafiz in London, Hafiz
(Translation: J.H. McCarthy)
The wisdom of the wisest of the wise
Is but the pinch of powder in the eyes
Thrown by the fingers of the fiend, that we
True things from false may fail to recognise.
Hafiz in London, Hafiz
(Translation: J.H. McCarthy)
June 29, 2025 at 3:40 PM
‘Omar answers’
The wisdom of the wisest of the wise
Is but the pinch of powder in the eyes
Thrown by the fingers of the fiend, that we
True things from false may fail to recognise.
Hafiz in London, Hafiz
(Translation: J.H. McCarthy)
The wisdom of the wisest of the wise
Is but the pinch of powder in the eyes
Thrown by the fingers of the fiend, that we
True things from false may fail to recognise.
Hafiz in London, Hafiz
(Translation: J.H. McCarthy)
"Defenses are forms of narratives, created in imagination and fantasy to support a positive sense of identity and personal worth when these are threatened by cruelty, hostility or indifference from those on whom we are most dependent." | Archetype, Attachment, Analysis; Jean Knox
June 28, 2025 at 2:36 PM
"Defenses are forms of narratives, created in imagination and fantasy to support a positive sense of identity and personal worth when these are threatened by cruelty, hostility or indifference from those on whom we are most dependent." | Archetype, Attachment, Analysis; Jean Knox
"Wishes! Desires! What does life know about them? Life urges and pushes forward and it has its mighty nature into which we stare with our waiting eyes." | The Poet's Guide to Life, Rainer Maria Rilke
June 28, 2025 at 4:15 AM
"Wishes! Desires! What does life know about them? Life urges and pushes forward and it has its mighty nature into which we stare with our waiting eyes." | The Poet's Guide to Life, Rainer Maria Rilke
The self – wounded, incomplete, empty, is felt to have a fundamental flaw, a congenital deficiency. Such logic presupposes a severe super-ego and a complex dialectic of idealization and devalorization, both of self and other."
June 21, 2025 at 2:26 PM
The self – wounded, incomplete, empty, is felt to have a fundamental flaw, a congenital deficiency. Such logic presupposes a severe super-ego and a complex dialectic of idealization and devalorization, both of self and other."
Mankind owns four things
That are no good at sea —
Rudder, anchor, oars,
And the fear of going down.
Antonio Machado
That are no good at sea —
Rudder, anchor, oars,
And the fear of going down.
Antonio Machado
June 18, 2025 at 4:13 AM
Mankind owns four things
That are no good at sea —
Rudder, anchor, oars,
And the fear of going down.
Antonio Machado
That are no good at sea —
Rudder, anchor, oars,
And the fear of going down.
Antonio Machado
Waking to
sound of thunder
Coffee.
sound of thunder
Coffee.
June 15, 2025 at 12:15 AM
Waking to
sound of thunder
Coffee.
sound of thunder
Coffee.
Hollis on anger: “The child who suffers the insufficiency of its environment tends to develop a diminished sense of self-worth and addictively pursue affirmation and reassurance from others. In both cases (overwhelm and abandonment), the child unwittingly colludes in self-estrangement."
June 13, 2025 at 2:05 AM
Hollis on anger: “The child who suffers the insufficiency of its environment tends to develop a diminished sense of self-worth and addictively pursue affirmation and reassurance from others. In both cases (overwhelm and abandonment), the child unwittingly colludes in self-estrangement."
"What cannot be borne consciously will be projected onto a person, a substance, a behavior, and the wheel turns anew." | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
June 13, 2025 at 1:11 AM
"What cannot be borne consciously will be projected onto a person, a substance, a behavior, and the wheel turns anew." | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
“Falling in love happens through projective identification. What feels so good about the ‘in love’ state is that the other is, for the moment, able to reflect our missing piece(s) back to us. The sense of euphoria arises from the momentary intimation of our own wholeness."
June 12, 2025 at 4:32 PM
“Falling in love happens through projective identification. What feels so good about the ‘in love’ state is that the other is, for the moment, able to reflect our missing piece(s) back to us. The sense of euphoria arises from the momentary intimation of our own wholeness."
“The consequence most terrible to us all from the primal wounding is not the wound itself, but the distortion it causes in one’s sense of self, and the unconscious compulsions to replay analogs of that relationship over and over later in our lives.” | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
June 10, 2025 at 12:43 PM
“The consequence most terrible to us all from the primal wounding is not the wound itself, but the distortion it causes in one’s sense of self, and the unconscious compulsions to replay analogs of that relationship over and over later in our lives.” | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
A perspective on anxiety as a portal to individuation: "Risking doubt means risking greater anxiety. But to risk greater anxiety is to open to the enlargement of personality against which our rigid standpoint is a defense.” | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
June 9, 2025 at 2:52 AM
A perspective on anxiety as a portal to individuation: "Risking doubt means risking greater anxiety. But to risk greater anxiety is to open to the enlargement of personality against which our rigid standpoint is a defense.” | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
James Hollis on the importance of loneliness and its role in individuation: "The more we are enmeshed with others, the less differentiated, the less individuated we are; the less individuated, the less we serve the greater purposes of the cosmos for which we were so mysteriously generated."
June 8, 2025 at 2:52 PM
James Hollis on the importance of loneliness and its role in individuation: "The more we are enmeshed with others, the less differentiated, the less individuated we are; the less individuated, the less we serve the greater purposes of the cosmos for which we were so mysteriously generated."
"The two greatest fantasies we are obliged to relinquish in the second half of life are that we are immortal exceptions to the human condition, and that out there somewhere is some "magical Other" who will rescue us from existential isolation." | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
June 8, 2025 at 10:56 AM
"The two greatest fantasies we are obliged to relinquish in the second half of life are that we are immortal exceptions to the human condition, and that out there somewhere is some "magical Other" who will rescue us from existential isolation." | Swamplands of the Soul, James Hollis
"The experience of betrayal, translated into psychological terms, provides the opportunity to experience one of the fundamental processes of psychic life, the integration of ambivalence, including the love-hate feelings that exist in every relationship."
June 7, 2025 at 1:37 AM
"The experience of betrayal, translated into psychological terms, provides the opportunity to experience one of the fundamental processes of psychic life, the integration of ambivalence, including the love-hate feelings that exist in every relationship."
Thomas Moore writes about genuine #power: "A tolerance of weakness, you might say, is a prerequisite for the discovery of power, for any exercise of strength motivated by an avoidance of weakness is not genuine power...In general, we keep our power when we protect the power of others."
May 23, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Thomas Moore writes about genuine #power: "A tolerance of weakness, you might say, is a prerequisite for the discovery of power, for any exercise of strength motivated by an avoidance of weakness is not genuine power...In general, we keep our power when we protect the power of others."
@msmariestillfree.bsky.social, how are you doing now? Hope you're feeling better 🌱
May 22, 2025 at 9:04 AM
@msmariestillfree.bsky.social, how are you doing now? Hope you're feeling better 🌱
This is the paradox of socialisation. It is supposed to orient and instruct us to become members of a society, but it also teaches us ideas against community, solidarity, and finding and offering support. One must remember: "Support doesn’t make us weaker – it makes things more possible."
May 21, 2025 at 7:43 AM
This is the paradox of socialisation. It is supposed to orient and instruct us to become members of a society, but it also teaches us ideas against community, solidarity, and finding and offering support. One must remember: "Support doesn’t make us weaker – it makes things more possible."
We grieve the loss of friendship in strange ways. There is inconsolable crying or a certain hard-heartedness that prevents us from feeling fully the many pains, without realising soon that a loss of friendship mirrors the losses one accrues from a difficult childhood and brings into adulthood.
‘The loss of that friendship felt like the most important thing in the world’
A thoughtful meditation on friendship, loss, and the courage to remain open despite past hurts buff.ly/0YitnT1
A thoughtful meditation on friendship, loss, and the courage to remain open despite past hurts buff.ly/0YitnT1
May 21, 2025 at 2:08 AM
We grieve the loss of friendship in strange ways. There is inconsolable crying or a certain hard-heartedness that prevents us from feeling fully the many pains, without realising soon that a loss of friendship mirrors the losses one accrues from a difficult childhood and brings into adulthood.
And here he is writing about the power of the #soul. Look at this unforgettable imagery: "The power of the soul, in contrast, is more like a great reservoir or, in traditional imagery, like the force of water in a fast-rushing river. It is natural, not manipulated, and stems from an unknown source."
May 21, 2025 at 12:38 AM
And here he is writing about the power of the #soul. Look at this unforgettable imagery: "The power of the soul, in contrast, is more like a great reservoir or, in traditional imagery, like the force of water in a fast-rushing river. It is natural, not manipulated, and stems from an unknown source."
Thomas Moore on jealousy and envy: "It is the gods who become jealous and envious, and only by touching that deep place of divine activity can the individual make a response that is transforming, that takes him to an unfamiliar place where the mythical impulse stirs." (Book: Care of the Soul)
May 21, 2025 at 12:35 AM
Thomas Moore on jealousy and envy: "It is the gods who become jealous and envious, and only by touching that deep place of divine activity can the individual make a response that is transforming, that takes him to an unfamiliar place where the mythical impulse stirs." (Book: Care of the Soul)
Witness our elder.
This is Hercules the oak
One of the tallest oak trees in England, having to compete for light with other trees for 150 years
One of the tallest oak trees in England, having to compete for light with other trees for 150 years
May 15, 2025 at 11:42 AM
Witness our elder.
"Bringing grief and death out of the shadow is our spiritual responsibility, our sacred duty. By so doing, we may be able to feel our desire for life once again and remember who we are, where we belong, and what is sacred." | The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller
May 14, 2025 at 3:41 PM
"Bringing grief and death out of the shadow is our spiritual responsibility, our sacred duty. By so doing, we may be able to feel our desire for life once again and remember who we are, where we belong, and what is sacred." | The Wild Edge of Sorrow, Francis Weller