Sisyphus and Sealskin: Shadow, Loss and Emptiness in Spiritual Journeys (Hybrid)

How can we recognize the shadowy side of a spiritual endeavor?

Spirituality is an inherent human dimension, full of potential and transformation. However, since everything and anything can become spiritualized, it can become a murky and dangerous landscape. In this seminar, through the myth of Sisyphus and Celtic and Norse tales of the Selkie, we will analyze the dangers of the unrecognized shadow material in any spiritual endeavor. These stories portray the dangers of spirituality’s shadows – while it can activate our curiosity, it can also trap us in a never-ending spell of novelty; it can connect us to a larger, non-material reality, but cause us to disdain consensual or “ordinary” reality. Through a brief active imagination exercise, we’ll integrate the material we learn into our everyday life.