The psychology of midlife

She is living an unlived life, estranged from her own sense of authenticity, dried up and disconnected from intimacy – with herself, with others, with the world. Now she has heard the Call. She knows that she needs a new source of nourishing moisture to quench her aridity. What can she do? How can she find her lost skin? Is it even possible? What i

The most inspiring work in the world today is being performed by those who have undergone this initiatory passage, those who have returned with precious resources for a soulcentric or life-sustaining society. This is the descent of which Thomas writes, the mature hero's journey described by mythologist Joseph Campbell, the descent to the goddess po

In a famous paper, ‘Death and the midlife crisis’, first published in 1965, Elliot Jacques argued that between the ages of 35 and 65 the work of creative artists changes, from a ‘hot’ and intense creativity to a more ‘sculpted’ one. This, he believed, showed that they’d worked through some of the emotional conflicts that had raged in their earlier

“Of all those who ever consulted me who were in the second half of life,” he wrote, “no one was ever cured who did not achieve a spiritual outlook on life.”31

the return, we will take a closer look at the psychological treasures to which we can hopefully lay claim when we resurface, including mature spirituality, renewed creativity, and an abiding sense of inner authority.

This is our meditation practice as women, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of ourselves, calling back the dead and dismembered aspects of life itself. The one who re-creates from that which has died is always a double-sided archetype. The Creation Mother is always also the Death Mother and vice versa. Because of this dual nature, or do