Walking on the Moon: A Depth Psychology of Luna Imagery

Abstract

This hermeneutic study explores new avenues of depth psychological understanding pertaining to the relationship between lunar symbolism and the psyche. This relationship is grounded in a study of myth, particularly Greek myth, which guides the amplification of the moon as a symbol of critical strata and dynamics of the collective unconscious. Jungian and archetypal psychological perspectives lead to the development of the main argument: The moon is an archetypal image that concerns the way lunar consciousness in the psyche is activated in psychological darkness. This consciousness belongs to a liminal dimension where there is little if any relation to the ego’s search for differentiation and meaning, but where the contents of the unconscious manifest with their own logic and purpose. This process occurs especially in ego-death experiences where a lunar function illuminates the darkness and guides psychological processes from a place of unknowing. The encounter with light within darkness is further associated with the creative function of the psyche and moments in which the psyche calls us to create. The dissertation does not deny the role of the solar ego in the integration of unconscious contents, but questions its typically understood primacy. The study argues the nature of psychological unknowing has its own light which, prior to the intervention of the ego, invites and encourages a lunar sensibility that mitigates the personal and subjective focus of psychology in general and specifically challenges the depth psychological emphasis on integration.

Defense locations during Covid-19 crisis:
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