Jungian psychology allows us to integrate psychology, creativity, and mythology into a new meaningful whole. Reconnecting with our mythological roots one step at a time allows us to widen our perspective of our own lives in this world, giving deeper meaningful containment, and making it easier to bear with our own loads.

The powerful creative force of nature is not something separate from our own creative urge. In this discussion we will explore the creative process at the hand of a modern poem, “The Secret of Dreaming,” based on an Aboriginal creation myth. In our approach, we will utilize the video of the poem made by the University of Granada, Spain, a beautiful photographic appreciation.

By approaching the poem as an image of creativity itself, we will explore aspects of the creative process and how it might be beneficial. We will look at how symbolical creative images aim at restoring inner equilibrium, releasing tension caused by a too one-sided conscious perspective, and how they might influence us. We will discover the benefits of creative self-containment in a moment of crisis, and its potentially nourishing properties over time. Incorporating creative work into our conscious relationship with our own depths in analysis may enrich the work significantly and it can be particularly valuable in trauma-related work.

Like a distant glow behind a simple creative expression we might notice aspects of our personal myth, or soul name. Jungian psychology allows us to integrate psychology, creativity, and mythology into a new meaningful whole. Reconnecting with our mythological roots one step at a time allows us to widen our perspective of our own lives in this world, giving deeper meaningful containment, and making it easier to bear with our own loads.

Wilna van der Walt is a registered medical doctor; she currently practices in the field of psychotherapy in Muizenberg and has a special interest in creative work in service of inner development. On her personal journey, she encountered the creative process in the 1990’s as a living organic process. Jungian psychology confirmed her experience of the potentially transformative power of the creative process and continues to inform her current work. Since 2018 she has been co-hosting the workshop Creativity and the Inner Other with SAAJA.