Sacred Illness: Breast Cancer and the Dark Feminine

Abstract

This work explores the phenomenology of numinous experiences during a time of critical illness and how these experiences create healing. Diagnosed with breast cancer as I was beginning research on the power of numinous experiences, this work evolved into a partial memoir of my dreams during illness and recovery. Because numinous experiences are a powerful revelation of the sacred, they bring an awareness of the unification of psyche and matter which provides a healing consciousness. Through a discussion of the breast in the context of the archetype of the feminine and a mythopoetic amplification of dreams, this work explores how tending numinous dreams can transform a scary illness into a sacred illness. The archetype of the feminine is explicated through the symbolism of the breast as an expression of the divine feminine. The historical view of the breast as a bodily representation of the Great Round of life, death and rebirth, is offered as a framework for the particular psychological devastation that breast cancer causes. Through an imaginal approach and the methodology of alchemical hermeneutics, healing dreams are amplified within the context of archetype of the feminine, and particularly the dark aspect of the Great Mother. Ultimately, the mythopoetic and archetypal images lead to the healing source deep within the trauma, the dark feminine. This depth psychological approach to facing breast cancer provides tools for others to understand dreams as a source of healing.