THE MYSTERIES AND SHADOWS OF LOVE:
RELATIONSHIP AS A PORTAL TO THE SACRED 

Presented by
Veronica Goodchild, Ph.D. 

March 15, 2002

 

In Plato’s origin myth, we were created as ovoid, androgynous beings.  Because we revolted against the gods, Zeus, in his wrath, divided us.  The need for our lost other is so powerful that we return again and again seeking this original union.

 

Contemporary physics also emphasizes our indissoluble connectedness.  Quanta of light emitted from the same source maintain their connection to one another, and each photon is affected by what happens to its twin, even many miles away.  This quantum connectedness is one of the most radical of modern scientific discoveries.  Such mythic/scientific accounts speak to the deep intuition in our souls that relationship, eros, is at the heart of the spiritual and material worlds.

 

All of us, in one way or another, struggle with the difficulties of relationship.  Love always opens us to its opposite, to its chaotic shadows, and it may be that learning to love more deeply also implies that we must pay attention to the vulnerabilities and sorrows opened to us by Eros’ arrows.  Through dream, vision, poetry, and encounter, this presentation will explore the mysteries and shadows of love as a portal to the sacred, revealing the multidimensional nature of Eros’ domain.

 

Veronica Goodchild, Ph.D. is a Core Faculty member, and a Dissertation Coordinator for the Depth and Clinical Psychology Programs at Pacifica Graduate Institute.  She has been a Jungian-oriented psychotherapist and teacher for over 20 years.  She studied theology and philosophy at London University in her native England.  Her first book is Eros and Chaos: The Sacred Mysteries and Dark Shadows of Love.  She is under contract for another book titled, The Songlines of the Soul: Synchronicity, UFO/ET Encounters and the Mystical Cities of the Imaginal World.  This work arises out of her interest in the anomalous encounter and its meaning for the transformation of consciousness in our times.