Sibling Rivalry: Archetypal Conflicts and Shadow Dynamics in Families
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Sibling rivalry can bruise and build in equal measure. On the hard side, the older child feels toppled from the throne, the younger scrambles for a foothold, and both learn how quickly envy, resentment, and score-keeping ignite—whether over a parent’s extra hour of attention or the larger slice of birthday cake. Those early contests can calcify into adult grudges that surface in estate negotiations, workplace jockeying, or mismatched relationships.Yet the same daily friction teaches useful skills: we sharpen empathy by reading a sibling’s next move, develop a theory of mind through constant negotiation, and discover that competition does not rule out loyalty—especially when a crisis calls every rival home. Listen and discover how sibling rivalry is both the first training ground for conflict and the first workshop for cooperation, shaping how we handle fairness, attachment, and resilience for the rest of our lives.Read along with our dream analysis HERE.LOOK & GROWJoin THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOLDo you have a topic you want us to cover?WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.We've got totally NEW MERCH!We’d like to take a crack interpreting your dream.If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!
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1:11:36
Mandala Archetype: How the Self Turns Chaos into Cosmos
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!Mandalas are Psyche’s way of drawing a compass for you when life feels off-kilter. Jung noticed that these circular patterns—whether they appear in Navajo sand paintings, Tibetan yantras, or last night’s dream—pull everything back toward a stable center he called the Self.The rim defines where your ego ends; the cross-lines and repeating fours help you locate sensation, feeling, thinking, and intuition in relation to your core. By “walking” the circle, even in imagination, the ego learns to orbit rather than hijack the organizing center, and the usual tug-of-war between instinct and spirit eases.Jung’s own Liverpool dream, with its sunlit circular island in a dark industrial square, showed him how a mandala can emerge autonomously whenever Psyche needs to order chaos and point the way back to wholeness. Curious why a circle keeps popping up in dreams and sacred art?—listen in and find out how it can quietly realign your life.*Featuring our new Q&A section where we answer questions from our Patrons!GO DIRECTLY TO THE Q&A: 43:29LOOK & GROWJoin THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOLDo you have a topic you want us to cover?WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.We've got totally NEW MERCH!We’d like to take a crack interpreting your dream.If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!
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1:12:58
House Dreams: Schematics of Your Psychological Functioning
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!When a house turns up in a dream, it isn’t a staging background—it’s an architectural X-ray of your inner life, drafted by the dream maker overnight and delivered to your doorstep at dawn. Floors chart levels of awareness, locked doors expose repressed material, intruders crash in as disowned traits, and every leaking pipe or crooked stair announces a personal attitude in need of repair.In this episode, we’ll teach you how to read the blueprint with the same clarity you’d bring to structural engineering, and your dream will hand you a working map for shadow work, boundary-setting, and genuine psychic renovation.Read along with our dream interpretations HERE.LOOK & GROWJoin THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOLDo you have a topic you want us to cover?WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.We've got totally NEW MERCH!We’d like to take a crack interpreting your dream.If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!
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1:20:03
Ready for the Real Snow White? The True Tale of Envy, Murder, and Retribution
NEW: Come along to our free Shadow and Dreams Seminar on May 17Ever wonder why “Snow White” still hooks us after all the Disney glitter flakes off? This episode strips the tale down to its psychological wiring: murderous envy of the mother shadow, malignant innocence, the unforgiving “mirror” inside that only answers the questions we’re brave enough to ask, and the dangerous alchemy that transforms three lethal mistakes into mature authority.You’ll hear why the dwarflike bits of half-formed masculinity in all of us mine gold from the unconscious, how raw instinct often finishes the work refined methods can’t, and how real agency activates only when infantile fantasies are forged into a powerful animus. It’s a crash course in holding onto wonder while crafting ruthless boundaries—if that mix intrigues you, dive into the full conversation.*Featuring our new Q&A section where we answer questions from our Patrons!LOOK & GROWAttend Our Free Shadow and Dreams SeminarJoin THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOLDo you have a topic you want us to cover?WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.We've got totally NEW MERCH!We’d like to take a crack interpreting your dream.If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!
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1:38:54
Forging the Upward Thread: Why Do We Create Religions?
DREAM WITH US, and we’ll teach you how to interpret them!The religious function is part of who we are — as natural as needing food or love. It’s the inner drive that pushes us to find meaning, to touch something larger than ourselves. Jung saw that if we don’t tend it, it doesn’t go away; it twists itself into addictions, compulsions, or a kind of soul-sickness. Religion, in the deepest sense, isn’t about belief systems.It’s about real encounters with the Self — the larger reality inside us that humbles, heals, and reshapes us. Dreams, symbols, and moments of awe are how Psyche keeps that connection alive. Without them, the energies meant for growth get stuck or spill out in destructive ways. In this episode, you’ll learn how to stay open and reimagine ways the sacred can speak to you.Read along with our dream interpretation HERE.LOOK & GROWAttend Our Free Shadow and Dreams SeminarJoin THIS JUNGIAN LIFE DREAM SCHOOLDo you have a topic you want us to cover?WE NEED YOUR HELP! Become a patron to keep TJL running.We've got totally NEW MERCH!We’d like to take a crack interpreting your dream.If you’ve been struggling in the dark, trying to find the keys to unlock your dreams, help has arrived. Order your copy of Dream Wise: Unlocking the Meaning of Your Dreams from the hosts of This Jungian Life podcast and open the secret door.Lisa’s leading a retreat in ITALY!
Eavesdrop on three Jungian analysts as they engage in lively, sometimes irreverent conversations about a wide range of topics as they share what it’s like to see the world through the depth psychological lens provided by Carl Jung. Half of each episode is spent discussing a dream submitted by a listener.