| Delving into Gary Snyder's (1995) inquiry, "How does knowledge of place help us know the Self?" (p.189), this study explores the relationship between psyche and landscape, and how this relationship expresses itself through archetypal symbols manifested in island, valley, mountain, and desert landscapes. Given that the study of psyche and landscape is comparable to the alchemical work with spirit and matter, I also demonstrate that a living psychological relationship to landscape is an alchemical one in which both the observer and the landscape are transformed.; This study lingers in the spaces between---between psyche and landscape, spirit and matter, inner and outer. Hermeneutics lends the tools to navigate through the uncertainties of these intermediate spaces and to that "mysterious point of contact" (von Franz, 1974, p. 236) where landscape becomes dream and psyche regains her footing on terra firma. It is here that one rediscovers the primordial, regenerative, and reciprocal bond between psyche and landscape.; My procedure has been threefold: spending considerable time in natural landscapes and observing the symbolic imagery that emerges during this time; comparing literature from various genres including depth psychology, mythology, poetry and nature writing, and finally, engaging in the difficult task of putting my findings into a living language that bequeaths voice and breath to both psyche and landscape.; What I discovered is that the conversation between psyche and landscape is a dynamic one that takes place largely on an unconscious level. Here the distinction between inner and outer becomes blurred, influenced by unconscious projections, which leads to confusion between the observer and that which is observed. The difficult task of the writer is to initiate the alchemical operation of separatio---the separation---which entails sorting through the chaos and making sense of it, and then putting this new insight into words and thus bringing it into consciousness.; Ultimately, this study reveals that personal and ecological healing comes about by redeeming our inherent connection to landscape, and by recognizing that the archetype of individuation is deeply rooted in Earth. In doing so, we become active participants in creation, co-creators, engaging the world fully and consciously. |
