MA in Spiritual Guidance

Gay men from non-affirming religious backgrounds typically experience conflict between their religious and sexual identities, which may result in significant emotional turmoil.  Researchers have largely adopted a Christianity-centered model proposed in 2000 by Rodriguez and Ouellette, identifying strategies of rejecting religious identity, rejecting LGBT identity, compartmentalization, and integration as ways of resolving this identity conflict.  This study questioned the adequacy of the Rodriguez and Ouellette model in a spiritually diverse culture.  Through integral inquiry, this study identified spiritual bricolage as a fifth strategy for successful integration of the religious and sexual identities of gay men.  Interviews with three gay men, representing various current spiritual practices, revealed the process by which some gay men draw upon multiple resources to create an affirming personal spirituality that addresses their unique spiritual needs.

The prehistoric artists of Chauvet Cave likely never imagined their drawings would be discovered 35,000 years later, inspiring scholars from a wide range of academic disciplines. Scholarship thus far has focused primarily on artistic techniques and material cultural remnants. Although these quantitative studies have revealed important data suggesting the cave’s use as a ritual space, the history and ceremonies of these ancient humans remain a mystery. This article demonstrates that depth psychology may be a valuable discipline for gaining further understanding of the cave’s ancient images. Depth psychologists have argued that the modern human unconscious retains vestiges of the archaic human psyche. In order to explore that premise, the author applies C. G. Jung’s technique of active imagination to selected Paleolithic images from within Chauvet Cave, amplifying the resulting materials in order to better contextualize them within the collective unconscious. Although this qualitative exploration cannot conclusively establish an accurate portrayal of what specific rituals were performed within the ancient cave, it offers potential insight into archaic elements that persist within the modern human psyche. The 1994 rediscovery of Chauvet Cave thus becomes not just a clue to our past, but a remarkable window upon our present.

Throughout the world, early cultures have recognized multiple human genders beyond the male-female binary. In North America, historical documentation reflects third and fourth genders among over 150 Native American tribes (Roscoe 7). Many indigenous peoples considered gender-atypical individuals to hold special abilities as healers, religious functionaries, and advisors. Elders took note of children who displayed gender variance, and performed initiation ceremonies to honor them in appropriate social roles for their nature (Williams 24-25). Under the colonizing influence of European Christianity, however, this respect waned as missionaries imposed gender essentialist views upon native peoples (Williams 31). Gender variant individuals were persecuted, and ultimately exterminated, in the name of a monotheistic deity whose followers could conceive of no valid gender models beyond the biblical Adam and Eve. In the twenty-first century, the visibility of transgender and gender-variant persons seems to be reaching historic levels. Increased media attention has failed, however, to translate into unanimous acceptance. Some physicians refuse to treat transgender patients, and many others lack proper training to do so effectively. Murders of transgender persons, particularly transgender women of color, remain alarmingly common, often missed by the public because news media tends to report victims according to their gender assigned at birth, rather than their proper, self-described gender identity (Schmider par. 8). One Oregon television station's recent social media post regarding the non-binary gender markers on driver's licenses received more than 100 angry comments, disparaging transgender persons as mentally ill and declaring that gender could not exist beyond the male/female binary (KOBI). As a person who identifies as third gender, neither male nor female, I am well

Mormonism, Masonry, and Mischief: Clyde Forsberg’s Equal Rites Review of Clyde R. Forsberg Jr. Equal Rites: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture. New York: Columbia University Press, 2004. xxiv + 326 pp., with index and bibliography. $35.00. Nicholas S. Literski When I first saw an advertisement for Clyde Forsberg’s Equal Rites: The Book of Mormon, Masonry, Gender, and American Culture, I must admit I was somewhat alarmed. Since I fully intend to explore Forsberg’s background and apparent motives, it is only fair that I do the same with my own. For some time now, I have been researching and writing a history of the impact of Freemasonry on early Mormonism, due to be published in late 2005 or early 2006. When I learned that Equal Rites would be published well before my book was completed, I wondered if my work would be wasted. Would Forsberg, a scholar published by the Columbia University Press, beat me to the punch, steal my thunder, and otherwise tell “my” fasc...

This study applies the depth psychological tool of active imagination in a novel manner to engage 36,000-year-old Paleolithic art images from Chauvet Cave, with an eye toward further understanding C. G. Jung’s concept of the religious instinct. Archeological and anthropological contexts are described in detail, after which three separate active imagination sessions are conducted with each image and transcribed. The resulting material is amplified through comparison with known myths, rituals, and cultural practices to provide results that reach beyond the individual psyche to the collective unconscious. An imaginal council practice is then conducted to draw further psychological understanding from the images as a collective grouping. The outcome of these processes demonstrates that the religious instinct reflects the emergence of human consciousness, is expressed through projection, and satisfies a yearning to perceive the archetypal Self reflected in the external world. The study holds implications for the field of depth psychology, demonstrating that tools such as active imagination may be advantageous in cross-disciplinary studies.
Keywords:  Jungian psychology, depth psychology, active imagination, religious instinct, imaginal hermeneutics, cave art, Chauvet Cave