Today I was remembering Maggie
Bromell, a Jungian Analyst I encountered as a client, and came to know as a
fascinating acquaintance. I met her some years ago, when she was 85, and I was
52, introduced by a neighbor of mine. No longer with us, I found her to be an
elegant person, with flowing clothing the colors of the earth and the sky, and
had a remarkable way about her, making you feel instantly at home and at ease,
as she folded her long self into chairs, and invited thoughtful conversation.
She told me stories of racing on horseback across the sands by the Pyramids at
dawn, of being invited to tea with Margaret Mead.
After raising her children while traveling with her husband, a diplomat, in her seventies she studied to become a Jungian Analyst, and was active teaching in Boston, as well as involved with the Jung Association of Western Massachusetts.
She also spoke often about her age, about growing older, about the life she had lived, and of dying. She shared her thoughts on her beloved husband, of their eventual parting, and spoke with such frank clarity it galvanized by own motivation to somehow circle and approach aging and dying, so that my own fear and anxiety would not be such an obstacle to the development of my own awareness.
One of the qualities I have noticed in creative people older than myself is the directness with which they welcome relationship. So often, people I have met who are inquisitive and interesting seem to have few qualms about inviting anyone they find interesting to connect, for tea, for a walk for anything.
Her great fascination was dreams, prompting her to teach also about Homes- with such insight.
After raising her children while traveling with her husband, a diplomat, in her seventies she studied to become a Jungian Analyst, and was active teaching in Boston, as well as involved with the Jung Association of Western Massachusetts.
She also spoke often about her age, about growing older, about the life she had lived, and of dying. She shared her thoughts on her beloved husband, of their eventual parting, and spoke with such frank clarity it galvanized by own motivation to somehow circle and approach aging and dying, so that my own fear and anxiety would not be such an obstacle to the development of my own awareness.
One of the qualities I have noticed in creative people older than myself is the directness with which they welcome relationship. So often, people I have met who are inquisitive and interesting seem to have few qualms about inviting anyone they find interesting to connect, for tea, for a walk for anything.
Her great fascination was dreams, prompting her to teach also about Homes- with such insight.
We come to know some people, whose
thoughts and perspectives become interwoven with our own, whose experiences
become some of the bedrock of our own lives, no matter at what age we meet
them. I loved her thoughts on our day to day lives and archetypes, on the ways
in which we are ever impacted by such things. On how insight and willingness to
follow the thread of wisdom and inquiry leads us unerringly to our own
authentic self. Simply grateful that her threads are still, and will remain, a
part of my own small tapestry.
Maggie Bromell: On the
Archetype of Home
“Home” is an ancient and familiar archetype. Home is always just around the corner on the pathway into the future or into the past. The longing for home is as deeply entrenched in the contemporary psyche as it was, so long ago, in the psyche of Ulysses as he sailed the Aegean and Adriatic seas. Sometimes home is a particular place, other times, home is a matter of particular people. We will look at the concept and meaning of home in old and new texts and venture into the world of psyche to find, at its heart, “home.”
“Home” is an ancient and familiar archetype. Home is always just around the corner on the pathway into the future or into the past. The longing for home is as deeply entrenched in the contemporary psyche as it was, so long ago, in the psyche of Ulysses as he sailed the Aegean and Adriatic seas. Sometimes home is a particular place, other times, home is a matter of particular people. We will look at the concept and meaning of home in old and new texts and venture into the world of psyche to find, at its heart, “home.”
Maggie
Bromell, MA, IAAP, was a Jungian psychoanalyst practicing in Northampton. A
graduate of the C. G. Jung Institute-Boston, she was also on the Institute
teaching staff
http://www.westmassjung.org/
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