On July 29, 2026, Glen Hansard passed away at the age of 56. Glen, a beloved Irish musician, busker, actor, and philosopher, had given one final performance the night of his death at the Wren’s Nest Pub. According to news reports, after leaving the pub, on his way home, he had lost control of his motorcycle, resulting in the fatal crash early that morning.

Glen was known not only for winning an Oscar (in 2008 for best song) and the fame that came with it in his later life. Having busked for a large part of his life, he was known for bringing people together through his talent, charisma, and creativity. He was a true artist, a vessel channeling his passion and gift for song and storytelling to touch everyone with his heart, humility, and presence.

*You can find his music and more about his life and accomplishments throughout the web.

A good friend of mine said to me that she had rarely been so touched by the death of someone she hadn’t met before. I agreed wholeheartedly. We played some of his music, and raised a glass (just the one, as he was known for saying) to celebrate his life.

I want to focus on the joy the man brought to so many and share some of his quotes today. Since I write a lot about creativity and psychology, I try to draw some correlations between what I had seen as Glen’s worldview with Jung’s ideas about active imagination and the creative unconscious. An imaginal conversation follows using some of Hansard’s quotes, and some made-up ones. Sláinte.

Hansard’s philosophy centers on humility, presence, imagination, and creative service.

1. Humility and Ego-shedding.

Hansard: “As a busker…one thing that doesn’t work is self-consciousness. A busker needs to shed all ego and get down to work.”

Jung: The artist must confront the shadow.

Me: As a busker (performer), you are exposed and without status. You’re at ground level. You have to acknowledge that insecure and self-conscious part of yourself, but you can’t live there. You have work to do.

Hansard: “Being out on the street, everyone is equal…You’ve humbled yourself.”

Jung: Individuation occurs through humility.

Me: Yes, right-sizing the ego.

2. Active Imagination.

Hansard: “Our imagination just needs space. It’s all it needs, that moment where you just sort of stare into the distance, where your brain gets to sort of somehow rise up.”

Jung: The goal is to get into touch with the unconscious, and that entails allowing it to express itself in some way or other.

Me: So many of us need to create that space and begin to pay attention to what we see, hear, and feel.

Jung: Yes, we need to surrender and observe.

Me: Let the unconscious take the lead.

Hansard: It’s not about forcing it or trying to control the outcome.

Jung: In active imagination, you must stay awake.

Me: You don’t just watch your fantasies float by.

Hansard: Right, you must engage actively with the symbols and characters that appear.

Jung: Yes. The unconscious takes the lead, you observe without judgment, capture the experience, and confront, converse, negotiate, etc., with all the psychic elements, archetypes, and symbols through song, dance, story, etc.

Hansard: Our imagination is such a great ally. “It literally lays out a path before you”.

3. Artist as Vessel.

Hansard: “A song is sort of like a saddle…if it’s the right kind of song, you can sing it for the rest of your life”.

Jung: Some works of art stay with you because they are archetypal and emerge from the collective unconscious.

Me: It’s interesting to me that you used the symbol of the saddle. We’re talking about the unconscious and active imagination, and I envision the artist as getting “back in the saddle” when the psyche reconnects with the unconscious. Back on the journey, allowing the unconscious to take the lead.

4. Rest and Rhythm.

Hansard: “Rest is just as important as work”.

Jung: Exactly. Withdrawal and Return. The psyche needs incubation.

Me: The rhythm of creativity.

Jung: The creative rhythm mirrors the psychological one.

Hansard: When we are young, we don’t appreciate the need for rest to restore inner balance.

Me: So true. The need for rest is sacred. It can feel like a real act of resistance in today’s world.

Jung: That’s why I’ve been known to take extended holidays. Lol. Anyone who continues to work when exhausted “is a fool”.

5. The Refusal of Cynicism to be of service to others.

Hansard: What do you think about cynicism? I’ve always felt that “cynicism is the death of true art” and that if I ever felt I had gotten too cynical, I would have to stop making music, because I’d just be poisoning the air”.

Me: I think cynicism has its place; it can be protective, but I guess by definition it’s a “world-view” of distrust and bitterness. I definitely agree it’s creative’s cryptonite. It’s also boring. Have you been around a perpetual cynic? Toxic.

Hansard: “I’ve seen too much beauty to be cynical…too many sunrises not to be a believer”.

Jung: I see cynicism as a defense against the unconscious. It’s willful, and to be an artist is to allow oneself to be open and to feel deeply, even painfully.

Me: It was wonderful to be with you both. It reminded me of the importance of rest and of creating space for actively engaging with the unconscious. You reminded me to guard against cynicism and other forms of defensiveness in order to be of creative service to others and stay open to the beauty of life. Thank you for sharing your thoughts about the psyche and the artist’s role in culture.

As a creative arts psychotherapist, there were many years when I worked with young women and men; those in their 20’s, many in college. I realized early on how difficult the summer could be for those who stayed on campus instead of returning home. There were many reasons for staying on: work, research, relationships, but often those I saw in the clinic were students with very little family support. They didn’t have lake cottages to visit, weddings, family celebrations to attend, or other built-in gatherings that mark the season for so many others. Summer for them wasn’t a time of play and expansion; instead, it was a time of loneliness and exposure.

Over time, I began seeing the same pattern in older adults: men and women who struggled not only in winter, but in summer as well. This was less tied to a school calendar, more correlated to a seasonal one. Most of us intuitively understand “winter depression”. There is less light, more isolation, holiday expectations, family dynamics to navigate, and more financial strain. It’s what we think of when we hear the term, Seasonal Affective Disorder. “Summer Depression”, on the other hand, surprises a lot of people.

There’s less research on summer-pattern SAD, but it is clinically important to ask clients when meeting them how they cope with things like light, temperature, humidity, seasonal expectations, etc. The weather itself can be a social factor.

One year, I had moved to Florida and quickly realized I wasn’t built for the year-round heat. The constant humidity felt oppressive. I remember ducking into a restaurant to pick up food, sweating profusely, when “Little Drummer Boy” started playing over the speakers. That was the moment I knew I’d be moving back north by the following fall, and I did. I need seasons, and I genuinely enjoy colder weather. Some of my friends think this is strange, but as temperatures rise with climate change, I suspect more people are beginning to appreciate the beauty of winter.

Some people struggle in both summer and winter. They feel best in spring and fall, the seasons where daylight and darkness are more balanced, and social expectations are quieter.

In addition to the weather in summer, it brings with it the expectation to be more visible, more social, active, and happy. For people who don’t have the resources or relationships to meet these expectations, summer can become a season of comparison and exclusion. All of these factors can contribute to summer sadness.

Below are a couple of composite client examples, recurring scenarios not tied to any one person.

The Overheated Caregiver

One woman I worked with described summer as “too bright, too loud, too demanding.” While spring seemed to energize her, by mid-summer, she reported feeling wrung out. Her sleep suffered, her appetite dropped, and she said she found herself quick to anger. She reported feeling like a failure at the life she imagined, and that the season seemed to demand her “cheerfulness”.

Together we practiced specific breathwork techniques (https://www.equinox.com/articles/2025/07/breathe-in-cool-down) to slow the heart rate, activate the parasympathetic nervous system, and reduce body heat. We also drew with charcoal, cool shading, grounding pictures; hers was a woman, reading under a tree that provided a canopy providing shade.

The Struggling Graduate Student

A 20-something-year-old graduate student didn’t have anywhere to go for the summer. She struggled with childhood trauma. She said that winter was quiet but usually tolerable. Every summer felt like a spotlight on everything she never had. Social media was intolerable, scrolling through all the pictures of friends and family getting together for fun in the sun. Her small apartment was very hot, as it lacked air conditioning. Her finances were tight, despite working two jobs. She described herself as “Cinderella” away in the attic, with a full list of thankless chores ahead of her every day.

As part of our therapy sessions, this therapist helped facilitate a version of Cinderella, where she becomes the heroine in her own story. Not relying on temporary gifts that disappeared at midnight. And not relying on a Prince to provide her with what she felt was lacking in her life. Instead, through authentic dance/movement and drama vignettes, she made use of sessions to begin to reveal her true self, while the therapist’s role is to provide a compassionate container and a nonjudgmental presence displaying movement empathy, the analog to verbal validation and clarification.

The use of the imaginal realm, including working with dreams, symbols, myths, and metaphor, assists with accessing 1. parts of the psyche that may be outside of daily awareness, 2. deeper conflicts and patterns, and 3. experiences that may be hard to articulate. One of my favorite quotes is, “Transformation begins in the imaginal realm.” If a person comes in to therapy presenting with SAD, an expressive arts therapist would not rely on skill building or structured problem solving, although this may be a part of a treatment plan.

With Summer SAD, the use of symbols such as heat, light, water, and listening for clues (metaphors) like “I’m looking for shade”, “I feel overexposed”, “I’m like a fish out of water, in the summer”. “A storm would clear the air”. Using nature as a mirror can provide healing and symbolic companionship.

A couple of other art forms that I might choose would be: the use of watercolor (offers fluidity), or stream of consciousness writing.

Summer is not inherently joyful for everyone. Summer seasonal depression is a function of environmental stress that affects emotion regulation and biological factors like circadian disruption and physical inflammation. Often, there are other triggers such as grief, past trauma, and body image distortion, to name a few. Expressive arts therapy gives clients a way to understand their inner climate as well as ways to cope with the outer climate.

Below (in no particular order) are some articles for further reading on the subject.

Young, M. A. (1998). Seasonal affective disorder and trauma history. Journal of Affective Disorders, 50(2–3), 147–155. Shows that people with trauma histories have heightened sensitivity to seasonal cues — including summer.

Mersch et al. (1999) — Seasonal Affective Disorder and Latitude Explores how geography affects SAD. Summer-pattern SAD is more common in hot, humid climates and regions with long daylight hours.

Roecklein & Rohan (2005) — Biological Mechanisms of SAD discusses melatonin suppression, serotonin transporter sensitivity, and thermoregulation — all relevant to summer SAD.

Lim et al. (2018) — Seasonal Variation of Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Explains how long summer days shorten melatonin duration and fragment sleep.

Miller (2008) — Environmental Temperature and Mood shows strong correlations between heat waves, sleep disruption, irritability, and depressive symptoms.

Tsai et al. (2011) — Ambient Temperature and Humidity Associated with Mood Disorders found that high humidity increases fatigue, heaviness, and depressive symptoms.

Sanders & Lam (2010) — Social Rhythms and Seasonal Mood explores how seasonal cultural expectations amplify depressive symptoms.

Beck et al. (2014) — Social Comparison Processes in Depression. Not SAD-specific, but highly relevant: summer increases visible social comparison (vacations, weddings, gatherings).

Young (1998) — Trauma History and Seasonal Vulnerability Shows that trauma increases sensitivity to seasonal cues — including summer.

~Christine Matteson BC-DMT, LCAT, LMHC

Reflections on the Archetypal and Internal Father

Lately, I’ve been reflecting on these concepts: “toxic masculinity” and the “manosphere”. These terms are loaded and in the zeitgeist. This post is not about these terms. I’ve been pondering the question, “What is positive masculinity?” Surely, it can’t mean misogyny, alpha rigidity, or the radicalization of young men who are experiencing loneliness, and convincing them that lack of empathy and bullying are desirable characteristics. Right?

It must mean more than just the opposite of these attributes, but the embodiment of positive expressions of masculinity. While there are many glaring examples of real-world harm from these negative aspects, how can we describe and understand what it means to be a good man?

With Father’s Day this past Sunday, I found myself reflecting on what makes someone a “good enough father”.

Borrowing from Winnicott’s idea of the good enough mother, I’m thinking about the fathering qualities that don’t require perfection but instead refer to presence, attunement, and a willingness to repair.

After spending many years working with fathers and daughters, I’ve seen firsthand how many different ways fathering can look. Some fathers are steady and present or loving but inconsistent. Some are simply overwhelmed but have good intentions. Some are trying to repair what they never received themselves. Some are repeating negative patterns that they received. And some are simply absent, leaving the psyche to fill in the gaps.

But beneath the personal stories lies something deeper: the father archetype. The Father Archetype is a symbolic function of protection, structure, guidance, and boundary‑setting that every human being needs, regardless of gender or family structure. This essay is about how we internalize this archetype and how it shapes us long after childhood ends.

The Archetypal Father Lives in All of Us

In Jungian psychology, every one of us carries a full spectrum of inner energies — the symbolic masculine and feminine — regardless of our gender, identity, or sexuality. The personal is the story of our lived experience; the archetypal is the deeper pattern that lives in the psyche.

These inner figures aren’t about being “male” or “female.” They’re about qualities: structure and flow, direction and receptivity, protection and nurturance. We all contain all of them. And when we explore archetypes like the Father, we’re not talking about a literal man — we’re talking about a psychological function that every human being needs to grow.

From Archetype to Personal Experience

And while these archetypal energies live in all of us, they don’t float above our lives untouched. They enter through the doorway of our personal story — through the father we had, the father we longed for, or the father we never knew. A daughter’s earliest experiences with her father shape her first understanding of masculine energy: what protection feels like, what authority feels like, what boundaries feel like, what love with structure feels like.

Some of us received steadiness, encouragement, and safety. Some received inconsistency, criticism, or absence. Most received a complicated mixture. And all of it becomes the raw material from which we build our inner father — the internal figure who later governs our sense of direction, our ability to set limits, our relationship to discipline, and our capacity to protect ourselves.

The Father Archetype: Positive, Negative, and the Shadow

The Positive Father Charge

Qualities that help a child thrive, regardless of gender:

Steadiness: predictable presence

Encouragement: confidence‑building support

Boundaries: limits that teach self‑regulation

Protection: containment without control

Guidance: orientation toward purpose

Integrity: modeling honesty and “walking your talk”.

These qualities give a child a sense of structure, safety, and possibility.

The Negative Father Charge

A negative charge isn’t the shadow, but rather it’s a conscious negative expression. The shadow is unconscious.

Harshness

Control

Inconsistency

Emotional distance

Perfectionism

Creating fear, confusion, and self-doubt will often create an intense “inner critic”. Every father can express these negative energies from time to time. The “good enough” father will be able to primarily express the positive aspects, be able to recognize and apologize when he embodies these negative aspects, and try to learn from them.

The Shadow side of the Archetype: The shadow side of the Archetype are the unconscious aspects; sometimes inherited, unexamined, and can be intergenerational.

The Absent Father

The Weak Father

The Tyrant Father

The Wounded Father

The Silent Father

The shadow father can become the internalized voice (regardless of the child’s gender) that is too absent, too harsh, too weak, or too controlling.

What about Single Parents and Same Sex parents? The weight that single parents and same sex parents carry and how families adapt.

Single Parents: When we understand the father and mother as masculine/feminine psychic functions rather than gendered roles, it becomes clear why single parents often carry such an enormous load. They are not just managing the logistics of raising the child/children alone, but they are also holding both the protective structure of the symbolic father and the nurturing attunement of the symbolic mother.

Same Sex Parents: In families with same sex parents, the archetypal functions still exist. Most parents are somewhat fluid in their roles, but according to the research, the functions may be shared more fluidly or expressed in unique ways by each caregiver. Please note that the psyche doesn’t require a specific gender to provide fathering/mothering. Good parenting requires both structure and softness, direction and receptivity, protection, and empathetic presence.

Beginning to Heal the Wounded Father Imprint

All of us can begin to heal our father imprint (whether or not you are a parent), and it doesn’t begin with fixing anything. Instead, it begins with looking and really seeing what lives inside us. Our internalized “wounded father” will show up in an inner voice harsh and critical; this is the part of us that either collapses under pressure, or pushes one relentlessly with difficulty to relax and recreate. This part may have difficulty setting limits. It may even show up in eating, drinking, lack of adequate sleep, overworking, excessive spending, etc. You may know how to set limits, but wait for permission to live more fully. *Please note, it’s important to remember that these patterns aren’t moral failings; instead, they are echoes of the fathering we received and needed.

The “Good Enough” Father

The First Step is Honest Recognition

Healing means to take a look at both the positive and negative aspects of your fathering qualities. And, to recognize: What was given, What was missing, What was harmful, and What was below the surface (unconscious).

This is the beginning of reclaiming the father archetype from the past.

*Please note that taking this step itself is a positive “fathering” quality. Knowing and accepting these aspects, we can then begin to grow the inner father that we need; one who offers steadiness, protection, and direction from within. Again, this is true for all of us, regardless of gender. When we grow the inner father that we needed, often by being present and “there for ourselves”, we will be a “good enough” father for ourselves and our children.

Below are some resources and references for further reading:

• Carl Jung – The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious

• Donald Winnicott – The Child, the Family, and the Outside World

• Daniel Stern – The Interpersonal World of the Infant

• John Bowlby – Attachment and Loss

• James Hollis – Under Saturn’s Shadow

• Robert Bly – Iron John

• Terrence Real – I Don’t Want to Talk About It

• Harville Hendrix – Getting the Love You Want

• Father–Daughter Attachment Research

• Michael Gurian – The Wonder of Girls

These works offer a range of perspectives: clinical, archetypal, developmental, and for anyone who wants to explore the father imprint more deeply, both in the psyche and in your outer life.

Like this essay? Feel free to share it with your friends. And leave a comment below with your thoughts and questions. Thank you. ~Christine

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Last week, like so many of us, I watched Stephen Colbert’s final week of shows. Each night felt like a celebration — great guests, music, dancing, comedy, friendship, love, kindness. And Stephen was right in the middle of it all: rocking out with Eddie Vedder, jumping into the dance circle at his after-party; always both celebrant and celebrated.

We knew this ending was coming, and he didn’t disappoint, showing us how to close out this chapter with love and joy, and how to honor a community he built. He left people laughing and happy. It was the best of what his show has always been: wry, warm, smart, and deeply human. Who couldn’t like this guy?

Well, we know who.
The one who can’t take a joke.
The garish one, the easily offended one.
The toddler who regularly kicks over a LEGO tower when the attention isn’t on him.
The destroyer who can’t stand to see others having a good time.
The man talking about a ballroom with a bunker beneath it, where he’ll live out his days, in the middle of a press conference about a war of choice that he started.
The man who missed his own son’s wedding this weekend.
And the man who points his fingers with contempt at everyone else for feelings, failures, and shame that originate only from him.

I wanted to stay with Stephen’s celebration. I wanted to stay at the dance party. We danced along with him in our living room, inspired to have our own dance party. the shared joy, the reminder that creativity and connection still exist. I want to live there.

But we don’t live only there. We live in a world where both joy and despair coexist.
We watch a jubilant finale one night and read about war crimes, famine, and an Ebola outbreak the next morning. We live with the Tension of Opposites every day.

The tension of opposites is a psychological and philosophical construct coined by Carl Jung; it’s the friction that arises when two contrasting truths exist at the same time. Instead of collapsing into one side of this continuum, despair and denial or joy and love, the work for all of us is to hold both. To let the discomfort generate something new.

We are living in that pull.
Joy and Anger.
Celebration and grief.
A dance party and a breaking world.

We meet with friends and ask, “How are you?”; answering, “not bad; then add thoughtfully, “considering the chaos of the world” or “considering that our democracy is sliding into authoritarianism”.

Carl Jung believed the ego stays healthy by balancing opposing forces, and when we sit with a real conflict long enough, the psyche can and does produce what he called the Transcendent Function: a third way (a new understanding that includes the truth of both sides).

Philosophers have said the same. Heraclitus wrote that tension is the engine of the universe. Weather forms from the meeting of warm and cold fronts. A guitar string only sings when pulled in opposite directions.

We are operating in a world that asks us to stay awake to the whole continuum and to let the friction create something wiser.

Maybe the “third” that emerges now is a deeper kind of citizenship.
Or a fiercer clarity about what joy is for.
Or a refusal to let cruelty define the emotional climate.
Or a new form of community that can dance and grieve at the same time.

Colbert’s final week reminded us that joy is not frivolous.
It’s fuel.
It’s resistance.
It’s part of the psychic equation that keeps us from collapsing into despair.

What if the only way through this moment in history is to hold joy and dread at the same time — long enough for something new to emerge?

~Christine

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I felt compelled to correct the disinformation or intentional misstatements made by Senator Kennedy from Louisiana during the DOJ hearing that took place yesterday. He was talking about Medicaid in California in particular. And he said that Medicaid pays for exorcisms, tribal prayers, and herbal medicine. He said that it pays off student loans for meal delivery services, in-home chefs, gym memberships, bicycles, scooters, and music lessons.

He then said that Medicaid fraud is widespread and that all of these people from California are just wild. This type of disinformation and propaganda only serves to prejudice people and get them outraged about things that aren’t true. It prejudices people against those receiving benefits.

So the first allegation, Medi-Cal pays for exorcisms, tribal prayers, and herbal medicines.

Here are the facts. In late 2024, the federal government approved a historic expansion allowing Medi-Cal to reimburse traditional native american health care practices for indigenous eligible members undergoing substance use disorder treatment. According to the official California Department of Health Care Services, recognized tribal healers can use traditional healing practices within a qualified health facility, provided they are facilitated by a trained practitioner.

So when he said that Medicaid pays for exorcisms, he was talking about traditional Native American health care practices for those getting substance use disorder treatment within a qualified health facility by a trained practitioner. It’s a lot different than California, providing at will “Exorcisms”.

The next allegation is that Medi-Cal covers the costs of sports club fees, gym memberships, bicycles, scooters, and music lessons. The facts are that a specific subpopulation under California’s Activity Funds Initiative, which launched in the spring of 2026 this year, is eligible for some reimbursed recreation fees. The population that may be eligible is “severely emotionally and behaviorally challenged children and youth”, receiving treatment for their disability. Others who may qualify are those children in the foster care system.

*Oprah isn’t standing on a platform in California, handing out bikes and scooters to the population of the state.

Research shows the arts provide behaviorally challenged children with powerful non-verbal outlets to externalize complex emotions. According to the National Institute of Health, evidence-based studies highlight reduced hyperactivity, lower frustration levels, and improved executive functioning. Creative Arts Therapies successfully build resilience and social communication.

The next allegation from Senator Kennedy is, “Medi-Cal pays for housing and meal deliveries.” So, so far, according to him, it sounds like moving to California is a really great deal. You’ll get an exorcism, a home, a bicycle, and music lessons.

The facts about the housing benefit are that Medi-Cal has a specific benefit for transitional navigation services for securing temporary housing for the homeless. Some of these funds include medically tailored post-hospitalization meals or grocery deliveries. These are for individuals with chronic severe conditions such as congestive heart failure.

The next allegation is the private chef.

The fact: Those who care for disabled elderly individuals can receive an hourly wage to perform essential daily tasks like bowel/bathroom care, bathing, and basic meal preparation. This is so that the disabled or elderly individual can remain in their home rather than being placed in expensive nursing facilities. Medicaid does not pay for private chefs.

Allegation: Medicare will repay student loans. Fact: California uses workforce grants partly funded through their health care system, and this is to assist paying student loans for doctors, nurses, and other behavioral health care employees, and in return, they must commit to spending several years serving a high volume of low income medicaid patients in underserved areas.

Lastly, Senator Kennedy wrapped up his misinformation and disinformation rant by concluding, “Medicaid fraud is widespread and rampant; Those people from California are just wild.”

I don’t know how many times people have had to confront these lies about Medicaid, but Medicaid fraud has been proven to be less than 1%. The majority of this “less than 1%” is clerical and administrative error that is caught before any payments are even distributed.

Between now and the midterms, we’re going to hear a lot more about “fraud,” and you’re going to try to place the blame on those receiving benefits like Medicaid. Blame will be placed upon marginalized groups like immigrants, lbgtq + populations, persons of color, single mothers, and women in general.

Please remember that any accusation from the current administration is actually an admission of behavior that they themselves engage in. So when they are blaming others for fraud, look into the facts, and you’ll often find the fraud is coming from the very people who are accusing others of it.

~Christine

Last week was one of those weeks when life stepped in with a series of challenges, one after another, landing on an already overloaded system. I’m talking about the kind of cumulative strain that edges into allostatic stress, i.e., the body’s attempt to remain grounded and stable under pressure by burning through its reserves.

In my last post, I wrote about “Allostatic Load”, when stressors stack up faster than one can recover. Last week, I got a real-time example. A plumbing crisis, a sick cat, and car trouble, then right on cue… a pinched nerve in my neck; a literal “pain in the neck”. My body’s way of saying, “You’re at capacity”. These mind-body signals show up for so many of us when cumulative overload needs to be acknowledged, not pushed through.

*Many of the clients I see for therapy make the call to begin sessions when multiple challenges have come together, forming a psychological weather pattern that is cloudy, heavy, and unrelenting. Someone, something, some event signaled, “You’re at capacity. Time to stop; Time to look at what’s been going on, Get some support, Do something different. Therapists are doing this in their own lives consistently; in peer groups, with clinical supervisors, their own therapy; It’s akin to walking your talk. It doesn’t mean that challenges don’t happen, and sometimes one after another; it means committing to personal well-being.

Now that the particular internal weather pattern has begun to settle, I wanted to talk about what it means to “weather” allostatic stress through an Internal Family Systems frame; noticing which parts stepped forward, which parts panicked, and which parts needed care to move through the storm.

Let me try to sum up the Internal Family Systems (IFS) model in a very simplistic way for this post. *Googling IFS will provide you with many more comprehensive resources if you’re interested in learning more. In IFS, the psyche is understood as a collection of “parts”, each with its own role, history, and protective strategy. 1. The Managers: parts that try to keep life orderly and predictable; they are task masters, they make the to-do lists. They plan and control. 2. The Firefighters: These parts rush in to put out emotional fires. They are emotional protectors and function to numb and distract. 3. The Exiles: these are the younger parts of ourselves; they carry the tender wounds and raw emotions that we often want to lock away; these parts are vulnerable, and the other parts “exile” them in an attempt to prevent the “system” or psyche from being overwhelmed.

In IFS, the Self is the calm, compassionate, and wise center. It encompasses all of the parts in addition to being a “watcher” to assist with making conscious choices as to how to get needs met, how to use space, weight (intensity), and time. The “Self” in IFS is like “Wise Mind” in DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy).

Let’s look at each of these internal family structures and look at how the framework can provide a lens to assist with Allostatic Stress. Each of the structures has both a positive and a negative charge.

1. The Managers:

In my “terrible, horrible, no good, very bad week” (Judith Viorst), the first parts to react were the managers. They believe that if we just keep everything organized, we can stay on top of things. They mean well. They send the message, “Hold it together, push through, you don’t have time for this.” Managers want to out-organize chaos. They mean well. They’re trying to protect. (Initially, I listened to them; they work a lot of the time when it comes to work, not so well in relationships.)

The car was first..it was my car, so “call the mechanics, get a time to take it in, wait for the call, figure out the best option, and how to pay for repairs, walk to the garage, pick it up, figure out how to get to the places we need to get to for the next several days”. Then came the plumbing, water dripped first from the upstairs down to the kitchen on the floor below, slowly at first, then consistently; then the ceiling crumbled. The managers came in, “delegate this one. Your husband will figure out how to collect the water, turn it off, take off any drywall to prevent further damage, and call the plumber for an appointment the following morning; I was reprieved from this one. The next issue happened at the very same time; my beloved cat began getting sick; this was mine to attend to. (The managers were still up front here, striving to keep on top of things, but they were beginning to fray as this was emotional.) They advised to take care of him tonight, plug in his symptoms to ChatGPT, and if he continues to be sick tomorrow, call the vet; (even though we didn’t have transportation, or plumbing, this was presenting as a real challenge; My “exiled” parts were beginning to whimper).

The managers said, “No time for that now, push through”. But their strategies weren’t working. The world wasn’t cooperating. I was tired and getting upset. And that’s when another set of parts stepped in.

2. The Firefighters:

The firefighter parts rushed in as they always do when the system senses rising emotional heat. Their mission is simple and urgent: stop the pain now. They don’t care about long‑term plans or deeper meaning; they care about immediate relief. The Exiles, they messaged, are starting with their “shit, whining like a little bitch”.

The Firefighters can be relentless in their singular focus to stop pain. For some, firefighters look like using substances like drugs, alcohol, food, spending, gambling, etc, acting out to put out the emotions. For me, the firefighters know which coping strategies work initially, extinguishing pain for a minute but causing more pain in the long run. I’ve long since tamed my firefighters who instead take their cues from the “Self” that urges more gentle, functional ways of coping; getting sleep, playing a mindless game, or watching an episode of “Escape to the Country” (when you know, you know.) While my particular Firefighters can urge time suckage as they seek to quiet the system, in a “Self-led” life, the self will call up the managers to keep time. A little Pinterest goes a long way. Games can be addictive, and screens at night don’t always allow for the best sleep. Firefighters can become habitual. They tend to grab whatever will quiet the system fastest: distraction, sweetness, escape, and they use it generously. For many, firefighters can be desperate in their pursuit of putting out emotional fires. They try to drown out the Exiles’ vulnerability, neediness, and fear, and do so in the way they know how. The Firefighters say, “Numb those feelings, so we don’t have to feel them”. This never works in the long run because it leaves you disconnected and further away from the Self.

3. The Exiles:

Between the organizing and the desire to numb, the Exile was beginning to feel unsafe. The Exiles are the younger parts of you that carry your old fears and beliefs. They rarely speak in full sentences; they speak in sensations. Dizziness, Headaches, a tightening in the chest, or a sinking feeling in your stomach. Exiles are the parts of us that are vulnerable, and this vulnerability is what the Firefighters work to drown out. Because we tend to “exile” the Exiles, they ask to be acknowledged. Sometimes, that’s all they need: a little validation and compassion.

Waking with a pinched nerve in my neck the following day certainly let me know that I needed both attention and care.

The Mindful Self

With the managers tightening their grip, the exiles trembling, and the firefighters trying to drown out the pain, there was the ever-present, steady, and compassionate Self, the center of the psyche.

It isn’t a part, but it’s the grounded awareness that can hold all the parts without becoming overwhelmed by them. The Self functions to offer wisdom and guidance. It’s the authentic witness who says, “Hey, this is a lot here. Let’s take a break. You are allowed to be human”. The Self is mindful; it observes, isn’t judgmental, and it provides clarity, kindness, and a bigger perspective with which to view how best to move through life.

For example, when the Self is present, the Managers soften, the firefighters don’t work as hard, and the exile feels seen, not silenced. It changes how we move through challenges.

The Managers, Firefighters, and Exiles each did what they’ve always done to protect me, and the Self stepped in to help them work together rather than against one another.

A Self‑led life isn’t about preventing overwhelm; it’s about meeting it with awareness, compassion, and creativity.

I’m curious about you.

Have you noticed moments when your own inner system, your organizers, your distractors, your tender parts showed up similarly?

Or have you encountered the Internal Family Systems framework before, in therapy, reading, or your own self‑reflection?

If you feel like sharing, I’d love to hear how you’ve navigated your own internal weather.

Thank you for reading, for reflecting, and for being part of this unfolding work.

~Christine

A few nights ago, I had what Jung would call a “big dream,” a kind that arrives with a numinous charge. It feels less personal and more like something drawn from the collective unconscious. In the dream, I stood at the edge of a vast pit of mud. In it, I saw people in various levels of distress. It seemed to me (in the dream) that some people had already been fully submerged, their bodies absorbed into the mud as they had slipped beyond visibility. Others were submerged in the mud up to their necks, straining to keep their heads above the mud. They could see around them and make eye contact with the others. They knew they weren’t alone. A smaller group was up to their knees in the mud, struggling to move, but still able to do so with effort. A couple of people stood at the shallowest edge, barely touching the edge of the pit.

Dreams are ultimately in the eyes of the dreamer, but there are many different techniques to use when working with dreams. I tend to write them down, then, while doing my journaling, I’ll look at it and write it out in the present tense, taking note of things like symbols, metaphors, point of view, which parts felt more amplified than others, and so on. Some people will create art from dream images: a dance, a drawing, a piece of music, etc. Making meaning emerges through the associations, emotions, and interpretations the dreamer brings to them.

Even within this dream, I found myself making sense of what I was seeing.

I associated the fully submerged bodies with those who never received the aid that they needed.

(Current estimates indicate that at least 600,000 to 1,000,000 people have died over the past year, 2025–2026, as a result of not receiving aid previously provided by USAID. New Yorker in November 2025. (* Dr. Atul Gawande: Hundreds of Thousands Have Already Died Since Trump Closed USAID). The shutdown contributed to hundreds of thousands of deaths, with potential for millions more due to halted food aid and health programs. These were the people who remain unseen by most Americans; those who never received the food that rotted in warehouses, when the Rump administration and DOGE closed USAID. They also included the elderly, infirm, sick, and mentally ill, who were unable to access the treatment they needed.

The bodies with only their heads above the mud resembled the working poor and the lower middle class families (37% of the population of the US that cannot withstand a $400 emergency, without going into debt; Federal Reserve surveys).

Those stuck at their knees reminded me of suburban families who are absorbing rising costs, have had promotions postponed, and are experiencing shrinking margins of stability. (Notably, a much smaller proportion than the first two categories)

And the few with only their feet in the mud seemed like those who can still weather the instability; finally becoming aware of the chaos, feeling uncomfortable, but buffered by resources, status, or other forms of insulation. These few (in the dream) are just starting to anticipate and feel uncomfortable about the future.

I, as the dreamer, was watching this scene off to the side, and what struck me most wasn’t just the stratification itself, but the shared expression across all of the people. They looked exhausted, the psychological impact of chronic chaos and stress. So much mud had been thrown over such a long period of time that even those who still could move about with some effort were covered in the stuff. In clinical terms, this is the cumulative effect of allostatic load; the result of continuous “flooding the zone”. The allostatic load is defined as the wear and tear that builds when stress becomes constant and recovery becomes scarce. Even those at the shallowest edge of the mud were not untouched; they were simply less encumbered, less weighted down. They were finally willing to begin taking a look at the damage done by all of the mud-throwing.

The uncomfortable truth of the dream seemed to be that meaningful change often begins only when those at the top, with the least mud and most resources, start to be uncomfortable.

However, this was the opening scene in the dream.

Does collective action emerge only when distress becomes visible to those with influence? Yet empathy does not always rise with discomfort; research consistently shows that individuals with fewer resources are statistically more likely to help others in need. As the dream continued, it held that tension: the possibility of solidarity, and the reality of uneven burden.

As I stood there in the dream (but outside of the scene), I began thinking what it would take for people to move toward safety. “What was going to happen, now?” I wondered. I didn’t have to wait long before I saw those with their heads above water begin talking with one another, showing concern, and positing ways to help each other move out of the mud. One person said, “I think we are supposed to spread out our weight by lying back, so that we don’t sink; another said, I learned that using the breast stroke can help us move slowly and steadily toward the edge of the pit. (Outside of the dream, “I” had learned these strategies somewhere). I saw cooperation and interdependence, and witnessed their critical thinking. I saw community as a rope line, and the shared awareness seemed to be a form of its own traction. The group listened to those with more experience in rescue operations and agreed that some would “float” and wait their turn to move, while others began moving toward shore in a procession.

It was then that I saw the group that was “up to their knees” began to ask to be included too, and wondered if they could be of help. I was curious that those on the edge of the mud simply turned around and walked in the other direction.

(Research consistently shows that connection mitigates the impact of chronic stress more effectively than any individual strategy alone.)

What associations do you have with this dream?

Perhaps you see it totally different than my own interpretation. That’s what makes messages from the unconscious so interesting. We may all agree on general ideas like “stratification” and “stress,” but others may choose to amplify different parts of the dream, be interested in dialoguing with different characters, or use the whole or parts of the dream to create a piece of art, music, or dance. I can imagine a modern dance piece being choreographed, exploring some of the themes.

Working with your dreams is one of the easiest ways to explore the unconscious.

To work with your own dreams, set an intention to remember them; have a notebook and pen near your bed; write down everything you remember, even if it’s just a time, place, or where you were, either inside or outside the dream, who was there, etc.

When you come back to look at the dream, either from the point of view of the watcher, or from an active participant in the dream, begin to ask yourself questions like..

How does the dream make you feel?

What words come to mind when you think about the dream?

Is there a core message? What’s the story here?

What imagery and symbols were in the dream?

Who are the characters in the dream?

Looking at your dreams helps with processing your emotions, confronting uncomfortable feelings, and increasing self-understanding. It is wonderful for igniting creativity.

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The Aftermath of the Dream

What happens in the aftermath? (another question to explore when working with dreams.)

What happens in the aftermath when individuals who toiled and supported one another to reach stable ground?

Well, there is a lot of cleanup. It’s not going to resolve itself quickly.

This mess happened both over time and then seemingly all at once. It will have to be a collaborative project that includes restoring basic structures and making the landscape more navigable.

Then comes the part where we look at what we want the landscape to look like, asking questions like what was working before? We don’t want to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” nor “reinvent the wheel” (lots of cliches, but they seem appropriate here).

Give credit to those who came before; those who were innovative and held space for maintaining and advocating for democracy. Prosecute those who committed crimes; apply the laws we have on the books.

Next, a look at the process required for achieving goals that will protect the people and the country from this happening again.

And, I hope we don’t forget the importance of seeing what the unconscious has to say about the clean-up effort and the vision for the future. Curiosity and creativity will be essential.

The weather is always shifting, just like the psychological climate. Today we had 4 seasons in one day. Other standout messages for me were: Awareness is a clinical intervention in itself. Small relational gestures like checking in with one another, sharing resources, and asking for help will go a long way towards helping others stay afloat.

Is a shift starting to occur here?

~Christine

Share

Some resources:

Allostatic Load & Chronic Stress

• McEwen, B. S. (1998). Protective and damaging effects of stress mediators. New England Journal of Medicine.

Collective Trauma & Unpredictable Stressors

• Hirschberger, G. (2018). Collective trauma and the social construction of meaning. Frontiers in Psychology.

Social Support as a Buffer

• Cohen, S., & Wills, T. A. (1985). Stress, social support, and the buffering hypothesis. Psychological Bulletin.

Empathy & Resource Scarcity

• Piff, P. K. et al. (2010). Having less, giving more: The influence of social class on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

In my work as a creative arts psychotherapist, I use Jungian conceptualizations in addition to Kestenberg Movement analysis and theory (which combines psychodynamic, developmental, and object relations psychology) as ways to assess and treat clients. I am not a Jungian analyst.

The Psyche is the totality of the human mind, both the conscious and unconscious mind. To really simplify this: The Conscious Mind is “what is known”. The Unconscious Mind is “what is not known”. The Psyche in Jungian psychology can be seen as a full circle. The self is the “organizing center” of the psyche.

So now that you know the psyche includes both the conscious and unconscious material. (The unconscious speaks to us in myth, metaphor, symbols, and dreams.) Let’s look at some of the concepts contained within the psyche itself.

The Shadow:

Jungian concepts and structures often have both positive and negative charges to them. The negative charge is sometimes equated to the “Shadow”. However, the shadow is part of the unconscious mind. The shadow includes those parts of ourselves that are hidden, denied, repressed, or as yet unknown. This is where the Jungian concept gets confusing. The shadow is not inherently good or bad, positive or negative. The ego will sometimes judge shadowy aspects of the psyche. A person can be a “shadow” artist, one who keeps their creativity under wraps. But when we think of repression, we often think about the parts of ourselves that we deem immoral, aggressive, sexual, envious, or otherwise unacceptable. Therapy often provides a safe vessel for bringing the shadow into the light and beginning to integrate these parts in ways that promote wholeness and health.

The Persona:

The mask we wear. Our social self. How we present to the world. Again, it can have a positive or negative side: positive - adaptive, communicative, sense of belonging; negative - too fake, lose connection with authenticity.

Complexes:

They are clusters of ideas, memories, images, and feelings that are organized around a theme and are emotionally charged. Because they can be intense, a complex may “take over” your behavior. Here are some examples of complexes: Mother complex, father complex, power complex, inferiority complex, or hero complex. They are kind of like intra-psychic sub-personalities. People can use the therapy process to begin to reduce the “hold” they have over you and can begin to integrate these aspects of the psyche.

The Ego:

Remember, I said that the psyche includes both the conscious and unconscious mind. Well, the Ego is the center of consciousness. It’s the part of you that makes decisions, and experiences things. I think of the Ego as the part of you that gets things done. We need a healthy ego. A balanced ego.

Archetypes:

These are universal patterns or motifs that are part of the collective unconscious. They can shape how we perceive and respond to life. Because they are part of the collective unconscious, that means that these are patterns that occur through time and place. Masculine Archetypes were the subject of recent posts as they relate to patriarchal societies. Examples of these are Mother, Father, King, Queen, Maiden, Hero/Warrior, Heroine, Trickster/Magician, Wise old man/Wise old woman, child, Anima (the inner feminine within a man), and Animus (the inner masculine within a female).

*The Anima and Animus are the inner opposite-sex psychological figures.

Jung defined the lifelong process of becoming your true, whole self as “Individuation”. It is the process of integrating the shadow, persona, complexes, anima/animus, and aligning with the self.

I tried to design a graphic for these concepts, but found it very difficult to concretize the structures. But I tried, so here it is, and if you have a better graphic or an idea for one, please feel free to message me or leave a comment.

So, below is an attempt at highlighting the structures of the psyche that include both the unconscious and conscious mind. All of these structures exist within the individual psyche, with the Self existing as the organizing center.

Hope this helps with a better perspective and understanding. You may want to go back and re-read yesterday’s post, “The road to war..again”.

~Christine

Here we go, again.

So, now we’re in a war with Iran. Are you f-ing kidding me?

Are we calling it a war today, a military exercise, or an operation, an incursion, or an excursion? Seriously, these are the words used by the administration depending on how the attacks on Iran are being framed on a particular day. This morning, I heard that Rump proclaimed the war was “complete”, but we are still fighting.

Why is this whole thing happening?

What is the endgame?

By now, we’ve all heard many explanations. The initial answer we got was that Iran poses an imminent threat and is developing weapons of mass destruction. Now that sounds eerily familiar.

Weren’t we told that we “decimated” all of their capabilities?

The next reason given was for regime change.

Then, we heard any combination of the following: self-defense, freeing the Iranian people, Israel was planning a strike which would result in Iran striking the US, so we better pre-emptively start a war (because Netanyahu urged us to do so), or was it for oil, money, power, or any combination of these?

And let’s not forget these rationales provided last week: The war is happening to distract from the Epstein files, and/or to provide an “emergency” for Rump to federalize the upcoming midterms.

It’s probably a combination of some or all of these.

Let’s take a look at what we know.

A US Tomahawk missile hit an Iranian girls’ school and killed about 170 people, most of whom were young girls. After the US bombing of Iran, Iran launched attacks on US military bases in Bahrain, the UAE, Qatar, and others. And, at this writing, 7 US service people have been killed.

We also know that we spent approximately 6 billion dollars in the first week. And because we don’t even have a straight answer as to why we started this war, a war of choice, we also have no idea what the endgame or exit strategy will be.

And..we know that gas prices have gone up at least .60$ a gallon in one week. The war is disrupting trade and commerce by restricting or eliminating shipping routes such as the Strait of Hormuz. We are already struggling with an affordability crisis, and this stresses and strains the US people even more.

The Road to War

Let’s break this down and look deeply into the road to war for patriarchal societies.

Let’s use a synthesis of psychological theoretical constructs, the lens through which some of us use.

In patriarchal societies like ours, masculine archetypes live beneath our politics. These are: the Rebel, the Magician, the King, the Father, and the Warrior. In a previous post, "When everything feels like it's falling apart.. I wrote about a coalition of the negative charge of these archetypes gaining strength. All archetypes have both a positive and a negative charge. When the masculine energy is healthy, there is safety, security, a sense of compassion, and purpose-driven leadership. The archetypal patterns operate with integrity within and without the individual and the collective. In addition, positive leadership has the capacity for self-reflection. There is an acknowledgment of the shadow aspects of self and society, all while making conscious behavioral choices and purpose-driven actions.

This collective shadow occurs when the different factions of society (or the individual) respond reactively to fear, uncertainty, and/or change, then these deep-seated patterns (archetypes) begin to shift, and the emotional landscape changes. It’s my opinion that this may have started when the government began to serve itself and its donors rather than the people that they were tasked to serve. It’s when there is an over-identification with the positive aspects of the archetypes. “Others are to blame for my pain”. I’m righteous in my quest against the establishment that seeks to further destroy me. However, the closer you get to the light, the larger the shadow. So the shadow aspects demand to be felt, seen, and heard. The shadow aspects become conscious, and the positive aspects move underground.

Let’s look at what these shadow aspects are.

Let’s remind ourselves about one of these factions in society that has come to represent the inverted archetypes. 1. Populist Nationalist Political Figures: (i.e., MAGA); Archetype: The Rebel; Upright: challenge corruption, fight for renewal; Inverted: the Destroyers. They seek to tear down institutions, only to dominate, not to create. The other factions that represent inverted archetypes are all coming together, and these are: 2. The tech-bros: (i.e., the Billionaires); Archetype: The Magicians, Inverted. 3. the world leaders: (the Dictators, Authoritarians); Archetype: The Kings, Inverted. 4. The Christian-nationalists: (evangelicals); Archetype: The Fathers, Inverted. 5. Extremists: (Proud Boys, kkk, white nationalists); Archetype: The Warriors, Inverted. These inverted groups that are over-identifying with the archetypes have been moving closer together (as discussed in the earlier post) and have developed into the collective shadow that we see today, even though they seek to hide the negative patterns that continue to leak.

So, let’s use the example of MAGA as the inverted rebel or the destroyer aspect. The shadow side of this inversion is the insecurity, weakness, and inability to create or make tough decisions. These aspects of the collective shadow are some of the reasons that we are not given one specific rationale for this “war” with Iran. It’s also the reason why we are not given an “endgame” and why we won’t know what success or failure would look like. This insecurity and ignorance are extraordinarily dangerous. Expertise, Diplomacy, and Competent strategy are needed here. Because the shadowy rebel aspects of the regime spend so much energy trying to cover up their own weakness, allowing expertise to come in and right the ship or competently make decisions would expose the underbelly.

I feel that if the persona begins to crack, those in the groups identifying with the shadowy archetypes will begin to take increasingly drastic steps to stay in power. Others will be tasked with taking the blame for any hint of the mask beginning to slip. Enablers and scapegoats are needed in these systems. Division and a denial of a sense of interconnectedness (us vs. them) are also needed to hold this negative collective together.

Ironically, most conscious people and entire countries can see the whole of what is going on. It is so difficult to hold the “tension of opposites” during this time. Breaking and destroying are de riguer by those who hold power. There is no plan for clearing space for new growth and creating something new.

The Rebel in shadow form doesn’t destroy to improve anything; he will tear at the foundation, convinced that only ruin can cleanse his fear and insecurity.

I believe that what we’ve seen in this particular road to war is the belief that “breaking is easier than building.”

Until we make the unconscious conscious, “darkness will continue to direct our lives, and we will call it fate”. This, according to C.G. Jung.

But when we do, we will begin to right the ship toward wholeness, growth, and greater freedom.

If you like this post, consider sharing, subscribing, and leaving a comment.

Thank you,

Christine

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Imagine a group of young women, standing on a stage, showing up with courage and heart. Maybe they are your daughters, her friends, neighbors, a classroom, a sports team. They have just achieved something wonderful that they’ve rehearsed, trained, performed, etc.

Now imagine the most powerful person in the country stepping up to a microphone and calling her a fat pig. Or a dog. Or disgusting. Or nasty. Or crazy. Or hysterical. Or low I.Q. Or saying she’s “just not a young and beautiful piece of ass.”

These are just some of the actual words, not from a stranger in a parking lot, not from an anonymous commenter online, but from the President of the United States to women of all walks of life.

Upset on the way out to the car, would you tell her, “lighten up,” that he was “just joking,” and “Smile”? Would you tell her that she is overreacting?

Or would you feel that burning sensation rising in you, a moral clarity that this is outrageous and abhorrent? This is not how anyone speaks to anyone. Let alone me, my daughter, my friends, my sister, or any other human being!

We’ve been doing this for over a decade now, but what if this person were, for example, Kamala Harris speaking to young boys or men? I bet you can’t. It’s impossible to imagine. Not because there aren’t women who are capable of cruelty, but it wouldn’t be tolerated. Condemnation and outrage would come swiftly.

When insults are aimed at women, we are often told to “be cool”.

Calm down.

Don’t make a scene.

But girls and women are not overreacting to misogyny. We’re reacting to something that affects our bodies, minds, and our daughters’ futures. The response from the public to men who normalize disrespect toward women is to blame them for noticing.

Tonight is the State of the Union address. I’m glad to see that the Women’s Hockey Team declined the President’s request to attend after denigrating them while speaking publicly to the men’s team. Both teams won Gold. Will Trump blame the women for noticing the disrespect? It would be typical.

But many of us won’t be watching. Would you put yourself in another place to hear the false claims, misrepresentations, and disinformation? Or to sit through a performance of denigration and hostility?

Reporters and Journalists will be there tonight. There will be bullet points to look at tomorrow. There are a multitude of ways to get up to speed, should there be any points of “need to know”.

I hope you’ll join me in choosing not to attend or amplify this speech, and instead stand with those who refuse to normalize harm. ~Christine

Back in the fall of 2025, I (unfortunately) watched Pete Hegseth give a “speech” (i.e., pep rally) to hundreds of the highest-ranking military personnel at Quantico, who were mandated to be there; a wasteful, humiliating event costing taxpayers roughly 6 million dollars.

Hegseth’s “warrior ethos” is a war on woke policies, women, gay soldiers, and body fat. His culture war grievances were on full display. It was embarrassing to watch. He stood there in front of decorated admirals and generals and delivered a speech full of bluster about purging “fat soldiers” and stripping away accountability. I felt sick. It was the performance of war in front of men who had lived the real thing. He was play-acting at a Hollywoodized B-movie version of manhood, advocating for lethality, and he looked like an idiot.

My husband, Chris, scoffed, “I could just imagine what my father would be thinking if he were in that audience”. His father was a colonel who fought in World War II. Later, he was in the military government. I never met my father-in-law, Leonard; he had passed away before I became a member of the family, but I’ve heard many stories about him over the years.

One of the main themes in the stories about Leonard, the colonel, was that “real soldiers don’t swagger and sermonize, or glorify war”. Chris told me that his dad always said all that hero worship stuff is bullshit. “Because when you saw the sky filled with planes, or felt the ground shake under tanks, everyone shit their pants.” And if you didn’t, “there was probably something wrong with you”. Even Patton vomited behind a building when coming upon a concentration camp. These veterans carried what they saw and experienced, quietly and with dignity.

So, during Hegseth’s performance, I could picture my father‑in‑law, sitting in that audience, taking in the spectacle for all of thirty seconds before muttering, “What a god‑damn fool,” and walking out.

I imagine what all of our parents would be saying today about the current political and social climate in the US. Would they think their sacrifices were in vain? What would they say when they see our current president has his own “secret police” in the streets, assaulting, assassinating, and wrongfully detaining citizens? Then lying about it. Scapegoating immigrants. Watching our Department of Justice covering up for pedophiles. Then lying about it. Seeing the very freedoms they were fighting for being lost. And our democracy is being dismantled. Project 2025 and the Authoritarian playbook are in full swing.

This week, I learned that the Department of Homeland Security and ICE have been scouting warehouses to turn into concentration camps. The administration reportedly plans to establish a national network of many warehouse sites with a total capacity of up to 80,000–107,000 detainees. While it was reported that these warehouses will be “well-structured” detention facilities, I’m sure you’ve seen the reports of the conditions in the current detainment facilities: rotten food, lack of sanitation, no medical care, physical and sexual abuse, and sometimes fatal neglect. We also know that over 70% of those currently detained do not have criminal records. So, who are all these camps being created for? We have no reason to believe any of the propaganda coming out of the white house. And every reason to question any purported press releases.

What reactions would the World War II vets have to this? Many, I think, are rolling over in their graves.

My father‑in‑law was one of the men who helped liberate Ohrdruf and Buchenwald. He didn’t talk about it much. I was told that Chris’s grandparents said that it had changed him. My husband said that his dad often sat on the porch with a drink and his pipe in the evenings, and there was a heaviness about him, the kind that comes from having seen something that rearranges your own understanding of what human beings are capable of. He didn’t need to describe what he saw; the names of the camps were enough. He brought home pictures. Pictures of unbelievable horror.

Anyone who has studied even a fraction of that history knows that those concentration camps, death camps, were the end of a long chain of choices; the small cruelties, tolerated lies, convenient silences, and the steady narrowing of who counted as fully human and who didn’t.

The camps left a lingering, traumatic impact on those soldiers who liberated them. One of the World War II veterans that I had spoken to said that he couldn’t imagine that the townspeople “didn’t know” what was going on. I asked him what they said when asked about the camp, and he said they thought it was a labor camp and didn’t question the smell. They sometimes said it was pollution from the factory.

How do ordinary people look away? ”How many had looked away? How many had decided disbelief was easier than responsibility?

People decide that certain cruelties are tolerable, or temporary, or “not their problem.” That’s what makes it so dangerous. People convince themselves that as long as they can still go to work, still buy groceries, still keep their heads down, things aren’t “that bad.

This is the part that haunts me now. Because the same pattern is unfolding in front of us, not in the same form, but with the same logic. The scapegoating. The dehumanizing language. The insistence that certain groups are weakening the nation, committing crimes, taking your jobs, and resources. The normalization of cruelty. The warehouses that are being scouted for mass detention. The way people shrug and say, “It’s not that bad, you’re being hysterical,” as if history hasn’t already shown us exactly how bad it can get when we stop paying attention.

The quiet acceptance of things would have horrified us even ten years ago. I bought a book, “Can it happen Again?” by Roselle K. Chartock (Editor), Jack Spencer (Editor), over 20 years ago. When I was done reading it, I said to myself, “Yes. Yes, it can. But I didn’t think it could or ever would happen in the United States.” I know differently now. I see the patterns playing out.

Like so many other people, I’ve been thinking a lot about the murder of Renee Good and Alex Pretti. Those assassinations were witnessed and filmed from every angle. Still, the government tried to confuse and manipulate the public; they claimed these people were domestic terrorists, that Good had “weaponized her vehicle”. Senior administration officials claimed that Pretti was an “assassin” who “brandished his weapon”. Some MAGA supporters still believe these lies, or at least let themselves be manipulated into being “confused” by what happened.

At the end of World War II, when the Americans liberated Buchenwald, I remember reading that Eisenhower took steps to have the atrocities documented and filmed, so that the evidence could be used in the Nuremberg trials, for educational purposes, and so future generations would not dismiss the crimes as propaganda. Dwight D. Eisenhower wrote (in his letters), “I have never felt able to describe my emotional reaction when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency.” So, He had the villagers, who said they didn’t know what was happening, come tour the camps. He had them look at the atrocities, and some government officials dug graves.

I think about what Leonard and his generation must have hoped for when they came home. They didn’t want parades or hero worship. Don’t get me wrong, they wanted to celebrate, but they wanted to rebuild something steadier than the world they had watched collapse. They wanted to start a family. Leonard married Maria, a young Russian who had been captured by the Nazi’s and made to work as a domestic in a Doctor’s home for over 2 years. She, too, experienced her own indelible trauma. He saw her walking on the road with one suitcase, and because she spoke several languages, he told her to hop in and gave her a ride in the jeep to the American side, and she became an interpreter. That was the beginning of their love story. Both of them wanted us to learn from what they saw, not just the horror, but the warning signs. The slow erosion of truth. The corrosion of institutions. The seduction of propaganda, and the danger of looking away.

They also would want us to know that the truth matters, institutions matter, oversight matters, human dignity matters, and history matters.

The responsibility they left us all is simple, but urgent.

We have seen these patterns before.

~Christine

When I hear Democrats continuing to fret about getting their messaging just right, and having meetings about meetings, about studies, about focus groups, it drives me absolutely bonkers. Why? Because, as I wrote in the essay on “The Power of Being Real”, authenticity and empathy win with voters. Most voters care about corruption. Corruption destroys everything that most people care about. They care about safety, affordability, where their money is going, and being lied to.

People are sick of being lied to.

They want to know what you are really doing. They voted for you and want you to communicate with them honestly. They care about their families, their neighbors, and their communities. Look at the protests! (even though mainstream media doesn’t like to feature them.) They are happening every day.

You don’t have to spend more money on research studies. (There is plenty of research to be done in many fields, research that needs funding, but not on how constituents are thinking.)

Talk to your constituents.

Talk to your constituents, not your corporate donors and lobbyists.

What will it take for Democrats to be more open and honest, less academic, and less wordy and vague? To be more direct and compassionate? Studies in political psychology have found that left-leaning parties in democracies use policy-heavy, detail-oriented messaging. This is a policy literalism problem; an instinct to explain and not frame a message. Stop emphasizing policy complexity.

Anti‑corruption messaging is powerful but underused.
There’s substantial evidence that anti‑corruption frames cut across ideology.
Political scientists have found that “clean government” messaging is one of the few themes that appeals to independents, low‑information voters, and cross‑partisan audiences. Some analysts argue that Democrats have historically been hesitant to lean into this because they fear accusations of hypocrisy or retaliation.

“Root out corruption.” It’s a short message. It covers a lot of what people care about.

“What will you do if we elect you?” This is what constituents want to know.. Answer the questions honestly.

Tell the people, “I will do everything I can to stop the corruption. I will find it, I will communicate about it, bring it to light, and attack it head-on.” And mean it. “I will not sugarcoat what is happening. I will not provide distractions, I will not try to manipulate, or provide false quivalents to mix everyone up. I will not try to overwhelm or gaslight you in an effort to cover up my own party’s corruption. I will own my mistakes, learn from them, and do better.”

I think if Democrats stepped away from taking corporate PAC money, they would not be so scared to stand up straighter and wouldn’t back away from fighting against corruption. Even minor vulnerabilities, self-dealing of any kind, can make people reluctant to confront corruption.

*Some analysts claim that reliance on corporate PAC money can create hesitation in messaging around corruption or reform, because it opens the door to counter‑accusations.

Bringing corruption to light will make you a target.

I think about Jack Smith and how his integrity allowed him to be the one to investigate Rump, and how Mueller’s integrity also allowed him to be a special counsel. For anyone to do this, whether in politics or any walk of life, it takes being unafraid that others may come after you for doing this. Leaders with reputations for integrity are trusted to handle more sensitive projects and investigations.

Integrity is an antidote to the fear of being truthful.

What does it mean to live in your own integrity? It means walking your talk. Being forthcoming. Integrity creates freedom.

We often see that younger members of Congress do this because they aren’t corrupted or locked into playing stupid political games, which the public is sick of. Stop playing games.

Fear of backlash shapes behavior.
This is a well‑documented phenomenon in organizational psychology and political science:
* Groups that perceive themselves as vulnerable to counterattacks tend to avoid aggressive messaging. (This is sometimes called “defensive crouch politics.”)

Integrity is moral and strategic! It’s a shield.
When you live clean, you can speak clean.
When you have nothing to hide, you can deal with what others fear.


The Shadow Piece: Integrity Isn’t Cleanliness; It’s Courage.
When people talk about ethical behavior, conversations will often leave off this important part:
Integrity isn’t the absence of mistakes.
It’s the willingness to face them.
Everyone has a shadow. Everyone has a moment they regret. Everyone has a younger version of themselves who did something impulsive, careless, or shortsighted. That’s not a flaw, that’s being human.

What matters is what happens next.

Research in moral psychology shows that people who acknowledge their own mistakes develop stronger ethical resilience. Leaders who admit past errors are trusted more than those who pretend they’ve never stumbled. And individuals who address their own shadow become less defensive, less fearful, and more grounded.

This is the real foundation of integrity:
not spotless purity, but honest self‑reckoning.

When you’ve done that inner work, when you’ve made amends, learned the lesson, and integrated the experience, you stop living in fear of exposure. You stop shrinking. You stop worrying about who might “come after you,” because you’ve already faced yourself.

That’s the kind of integrity that makes someone capable of promoting transparency, challenging entrenched interests, or speaking truth to power.

Everyone makes mistakes. Don’t pretend you haven’t. Just be sure that none of these are unresolved or festering. This is the difference between living in fear and living in alignment.

Integrity isn’t about never having done anything wrong. It’s about not running from the truth of who you’ve been.

And it’s the same dynamic that shows up in public life. Analysts often point out that the people who can take on corruption, or speak truth to power, or stand firm under pressure, are usually the ones who have already done their own internal housekeeping. They’ve faced their own shadow, so they’re not terrified of someone else shining a light.
Leadership research calls this moral autonomy: the ability to act without fear because you have nothing unresolved that can be used to silence you.

Integrity creates room to act.

Integrity isn’t a performance for the public. It’s the quiet work you do when no one is watching.

If we want a politics that feels less hollow, less evasive, less terrified of its own reflection, then integrity, the kind earned through shadow work and accountability, is where the rebuilding begins.

We’re living in a moment when people are exhausted by performance and hungry for honesty. We don’t need saints. We need leaders who have done their own work and act with integrity in the outer world.

Because when you’ve faced yourself, you stop being afraid of anyone else.
And that’s where real power begins.

~Christine Matteson BC-DMT, LCAT, LMHC

*I went through a lot of information before writing this essay. Below are some resources to check out if you want to read further on the subject.

References

• Cambridge University Press & Assessment

  The Curse of Good Intentions: Why Anticorruption Messaging Can ...

  https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/curse-of-good-intentions-why-anticorruption-messaging-can-encourage-bribery/CE180F511D68B5A4D14904ACFA3728F4

• Oxford Academic

  How the Perception of Corruption Shapes the Willingness to Bribe ...

  https://academic.oup.com/ijpor/article/36/3/edae035/7716344

• American Journal of Political Science

  Can norm-based information campaigns reduce corruption?

  https://ajps.org/2025/01/15/can-norm-based-information-campaigns-reduce-corruption/

• National Democratic Institute

  A How-to Guide to Anti-Corruption Messaging - ndi.org

  https://www.ndi.org/sites/default/files/CIPE-How-To-Guide-to-Anti-Corruption-Messaging.pdf

• Anti-Corruption & Governance Center

  What Works and What Hurts: New Research on Anti-Corruption Messaging ...

  https://acgc.cipe.org/rapidresponse/blog/what-works-and-what-hurts-new-research-on-anti-corruption-messaging/

Related results

• CMI (Chr. Michelsen Institute)

  Message misunderstood: Why raising awareness of corruption Peter J ...

  https://www.cmi.no/publications/file/9089-message-misunderstood-why-raising-awareness-of-corruption-can-backfire.pdf

• Wiley Online Library

  Messaging About Corruption: The Power of Social Norms

  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/gove.12633

• Basel Institute on Governance

  Which anti-corruption messaging works best? New Working Paper

  https://baselgovernance.org/blog/which-anti-corruption-messaging-works-best-new-working-paper

• cdn.sida.se

  Anti-corruption messaging: what works and what doesn’t? - Sida

  https://cdn.sida.se/app/uploads/2024/04/26080029/62661_LBER0002_Sida_BRIEF_Anti-corruption_messaging_WEB.pdf

• knowledgehub.transparencycdn.org

  Anti-corruption awareness raising: Effective messaging and best practices

Rituals are old medicine.

They heal because they speak the language of the unconscious.

The psyche speaks in symbols, gestures, metaphor.

Carl Jung understood this and saw ritual as a form of active imagination, a way of entering into dialogue with the inner world. Jung believed that healing happens when the conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche begin to communicate. Ritual is one of the most direct ways to open that channel.

Rituals are actions and/or words done in a structured/intentional manner that give form to the formless.

Ritual creates a container. It sets boundaries around a moment. It’s about embodiment and symbolic action and concretizing meaning.

Rituals say, “This is important”.

Lighting a candle for someone you’re grieving gives your grief a visible form. You’re setting the intention. Externalizing an Internal shift. Unlike habits, rituals are conducted mindfully with intention. Anything from having your morning coffee to participating in a religious rite of passage.

Ritual is healing because it reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves; whether this is community, ancestry, nature, or simply the continuity of our own story.

According to the Research, Psychologists Francesca Gino and Michael Norton found that even simple rituals, such as reading a daily affirmation, writing your morning pages, or repeating a gesture, reduce anxiety and help people process loss. One of the most remarkable findings of their research is that “ritual works even when people don’t believe in it”. This is a perfect example of the mind/body connection and how the body responds to structure, rhythm, and symbolic action even when the conscious mind doesn’t “buy in”.

When we were growing up and didn’t want to go to some ceremony or commemorative event, my mom would say, “Just bring your body there, and you’ll get something out of it”.

According to neuroscientist Nick Hobson, “Ritual calms the brain’s predictive processing system”.

When life feels chaotic, ritual creates a pocket of order. A known sequence. A beginning, middle, and end. The nervous system reads this as safety.

My Walking Ritual

One of my own quiet rituals happens before I go for a walk or a hike. It’s nothing elaborate, a small invocation under my breath, to open myself to whatever wants to meet me on the path. I ask you to notice and pay attention to the animals that I may encounter. Maybe it’s a deer stepping out from the tree line, a hawk circling overhead, a rabbit darting across the trail. One time, a huge coyote walked slowly right across the trail in front of me. He looked at me, then kept on walking. It looked almost like a wolf. The woman ahead of me whipped around, and I said, “You just saw that, right?!” She shook her head frantically. We were in a slightly altered state the rest of the walk. What did “coyote” have to say to me that day? I dialogued with him in my notebook when I got home.

Another time, I rested on a bench during a walk, and was greeted by a huge number of small snails. Criticizing myself slightly for needing a break (I was healing from a broken foot), the snails seemed to be a reminder to take it slow and gradually. Snails also represented the idea of bringing your home with you.

The world becomes so much more animate and interesting in a synchronistic way, stirring something in our inner world, when we pay attention. Through invocation and attention, we let the unconscious speak, whether it be through landscape, movement, art, music, or writing. The animals become meaningful encounters; messengers. And it reminds me that ritual doesn’t always require candles or altars. Sometimes it’s simply the willingness to walk with intention, to let the natural world reflect something. Something that I may not have been aware of.

How Ritual Works in Real Life

People that I meet with sometimes say, they don’t “do ritual,” but then they describe something that is unmistakably ritualistic. For example:

• A man told me that each evening, he and his wife share something that they are grateful for that day.

• An athlete says a pre-game prayer.

• A woman has a special keepsake in their purse that symbolizes love for someone who has passed away.

• Some people set intentions for the coming year, season, or month.

• Others have a specific song they play or dance to before leaving the house, or to lighten their mood.

None of these people would call themselves mystical. or woo woo. Yet each of them is engaging in symbolic action that regulates the nervous system, creates meaning, and anchors the psyche.

In addition to being a mindful symbolic act, creating meaning, and connecting an internal shift with an external act,

Ritual is about the relationship with yourself, with time, and transition.

Speaking of our relationship with time and transition, Imbolc is an example of a seasonal ritual, and takes place on February 1 and 2. Imbolc is the Celtic festival that marks the potential of spring. It is not spring itself. It’s like the whisper before the song. The symbolic container of Imbolc is a time of planning and noticing the small signs of returning light. It is the midway point between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

Actions that are associated with Imbolc include making a fire, lighting white candles as a sign of the “spark of new light”, and “purification’. It’s also a time to clean your home; to clear out old energy and to create space for new growth.

Do you have certain rituals that are important to you? Do they increase mindfulness, decrease anxiety, and give provide a container for your intention? What have you noticed as a result of the rituals in your own life?

Author’s Note

I’m a licensed mental health counselor and licensed creative arts therapist with three decades of experience sitting with the inner lives of others. My work lives at the intersection of psychology, creativity, current events, and the symbolic imagination, where research meets ritual, and where the psyche speaks in images, gestures, and stories. I write about healing practices that help us return to ourselves. This Substack is a space for reflection, meaning-making, and the kind of inner work that unfolds slowly, like light returning after winter.

Blessed Imbolc to you. ~Christine

The Collective Shadow has reached critical mass.

It has been decades now that certain truths in our culture have been pushed down. These seem to have been deemed “unbearable” to look at and were thrust into shadow.

Between 2008 and 2012, people began talking about living in a “post-racial” society. This notion gained traction following the election of Barack Obama. Some deemed this election to be proof of racial equality. Many considered this idea a myth as disparities in wealth, education, and criminal justice persisted. Another myth was that one could “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” and move up in class. The facts are that the middle class has been disappearing, and there has been an ever-increasing widening of inequality in the US and in many other countries around the world.

The notion of having an “aspirational” society is vanishing, as upward mobility is out of reach for many. At the same time, the rich are getting richer.

A culture, like an individual, can only repress so much before the unconscious (shadow) begins to swell.

In my own experience, working in mental health/social services for decades, after 9/11, we began to feel a shift more immediately than in many other job sectors. Funding moved more and more toward military and security priorities, and away from education and social services. The fear of scarcity seeped into every corner of the field. What had once been collaborative, reflective environments (including clinical supervision, potlucks, consultation groups, and genuine camaraderie) began to shrink. Office doors closed. People kept their heads down. Anyone attempting to name or discuss the dynamic became dangerous; those who tried were told things like, you were too angry, entitled, or focused on administrative issues that weren’t your concern.

At the same time, older staff retired early, often feeling pushed out. New hires weren’t chosen for excellence or vision but for compliance; those who wouldn’t question the environment, didn’t know any different, or simply needed the job badly enough to accept anything. Salaries dropped while pressure increased. Casloads increased. Compliance mattered more than competence.

This is what the collective shadow looks like on the ground.
Fear and scarcity dominate instead of connection and collaboration, and silence and loneliness rather than truth and camaraderie become prevalent.

A sense of shared reality and purpose erodes.

When the shadow becomes too large to contain, it won’t release the pressure gently. It ruptures. According to Mark Carney, former Governor of the Bank of England and Canada, the world is experiencing a "rupture" rather than a mere transition, highlighting systemic global shifts (commonplace.eu).

This “rupture” seems to be the psychological equivalent of an extinction burst. This is the moment when a threatened system, sensing its loss of control, becomes desperate and lashes out intensely.

So, we aren’t seeing random chaos. It is the result of accumulated unintegration. Decades of dynamics breaking the surface.

The Patriarchal Order Is Reacting to Its Own Decline

When a dominant archetype begins to lose power, it isn’t going to fade away; it will thrash and fight. It will produce a surge of chaotic, regressive, or aggressive behavior because it feels that it is weakening, and will do everything to stay in a power position. This is the extinction burst of the patriarchal psyche.

For centuries, male archetypes of Father, King, etc. (see previous post), held authority in this society. It was these voices that mattered and defined societal norms.

For many decades, the shadow side of these archetypes has been gaining momentum. Attempts to cover up and hide rule-breaking, boundary violations, and performative strength only serve to erode and unmask their assumed cultural authority. Institutions no longer command automatic obedience, as the shadow side becomes bigger and louder, demanding to be seen and dealt with. The current administration uses all sorts of strategies to stay in power: manipulation, distraction, gaslighting, and rhetorical, psychological, and media-focused attempts to command attention and demand loyalty. Despite the thrashing and fighting to advance their interests and cover for their corruption, the larger the shadow grows, and the harder it is to look away from it.

In the first essay, I wrote about reversed archetypes — the way a tarot card flips when its energy becomes distorted or defensive. When an individual feels their sense of control slipping, the fear and insecurity intensify, and the shadow grows, the more they try to cover up the negative charge of the archetype. Systems behave the same way. Institutions and hierarchies intensely punish dissent, and desperately cling to the old order even as it crumbles beneath them.

The extinction burst is the last flare of an archetype that knows its era is ending.

Old Archetypes Are Collapsing

Carl Jung warned about archetypal inflation, the danger that arises when a person or a culture identifies too strongly with a single archetype. Archetypes are guides, not identities. They are patterns of energy, not roles to inhabit fully.

When someone fuses with any archetype (the Hero, the Mother, the Warrior, the Savior), the psyche becomes unbalanced. The perception of reality becomes distorted, and nuance disappears. Everything becomes black‑and‑white, mythic rather than human.

Any society that over‑identifies with a single archetype (examples: Warrior Nation, the Chosen People, American Exceptionalism) becomes rigid, brittle, and unable to tolerate contradiction. Any hint of complexity becomes a threat, and dissent becomes betrayal. Brittle systems eventually crack.

When an individual or society fuses with an archetype, eventually this will become a burden.

(One example of this fusion is Marilyn Monroe and her close identification with the "sex symbol" archetype, which caused her significant, long-term distress and feelings of being trapped. According to a recent Huff Post article (2015), even though she achieved immense fame and success, she felt that being viewed only as a “dumb blonde” masked her intelligence, ambition, and complex, sensitive personality.)

People and cultures sometimes cling too tightly to old archetypes, and the identity they fuse with becomes a burden and a caricature of itself.

The stories that once gave meaning become too small to contain the present and to imagine a future.

We Are in a Liminal Era, A Threshold Between Worlds

The word Liminal literally means threshold, the space between what was and what will be. It is a transitional space; The old order is dissolved, but the new order hasn’t yet formed.

Because liminal spaces lack clear rules and expectations, they are places of not‑knowing, and the psyche finds that deeply disorienting.

We, humans, are wired to prefer certainty over tolerating the distress of the unknown or unpredictability. This causes fear to rise, and with it, the urge to grasp onto anything that feels solid.

In an era of liminality, people will cling to rigidity. We see this today with those who identify wholly with a particular political identity. It can be a time when people look for a charismatic figure to follow. It is also a time for people to look for black/white, right/wrong, left/right explanations and narratives. And this is because… certainty feels safer than ambiguity.

Fear tends to decrease consciousness. People will become overwhelmed, and as a result, your imagination narrows. Liminality can feel intolerable unless you get comfortable with remaining calm under chaos.

Critical thinking collapses because the psyche is inundated.

This is why liminal eras often produce extremism, conspiracy movements, and authoritarianism. Our structures and institutions are facing threats to their foundations. They are crumbling.

And we, as a society, are in the “space between”.

Many of the people I talk to express their difficulty with tolerating the distress of this time in our culture. People are having difficulty wondering what comes next. One man said that he can’t plan anything because he doesn’t know if his job is secure, and another woman doesn’t know if she will have healthcare soon. Some are questioning if it is a good time to think about starting a family or whether or not to have children.

The Trickster Has Taken Center Stage

The Trickster appears when an existing order loses its coherence. This is the archetype of disruption, inversion, and revelation. The trickster is the one who exposes what the culture has tried to hide. While the trickster doesn’t create the chaos, he reveals the chaos that is present.

He emerges when authority weakens and when contradictions become impossible to ignore. When people can no longer trust the stories they were raised on, the trickster appears.

In a world where people no longer know what is true, who to trust, or what comes next, the Trickster becomes magnetic. The mischievous trickster’s irony with a wink feels refreshing and honest. His boundary‑breaking feels like freedom.

But when a culture is saturated with fear, and people don’t know who to trust or what is next, the Trickster appears reversed.
The reversed trickster doesn’t reveal truth, but he uses it to manipulate. And instead of exposing hypocrisy, he exploits it. He inflames what is already volatile and stokes fear. No longer a liberator, he fuses his mischief with malice and turns uncertainty into a weapon.

He will say what others won’t, do what others fear, and expose what others deny.

The Psyche Is Demanding Integration

When a culture reaches this level of rupture, the shadow erupts, old archetypes collapse, and the Trickster takes center stage.

This is the work of integration.

Psychologically, integration means bringing all of the fragmented parts of the self into relationship with one another. To do this, we must acknowledge what we’ve avoided, name what we’ve denied, and hold complexity and contradiction, without collapsing.

For Jung, integration is the central task of individuation. This means “doing your work”; facing the shadow, recognizing your projections, balancing opposing forces, and allowing the conscious and unconscious to communicate with each other.

The collective psyche is demanding integration because fragmentation has reached its limit.

Our information landscape is fractured.

Our political landscape is fractured.

Our sense of identity is fractured.

Our relationship to truth is fractured.

The psyche cannot tolerate this level of fragmentation indefinitely.
It pushes toward integration the way a wound pushes toward healing.

We must resist the reversed Trickster and increase the ability to tolerate distress. Don’t be lured by fear and absolutism. Cultivate your capacity to navigate life’s paradoxes long enough for something new to form.

The psyche is not asking us to be perfect. It is asking us to be whole.

~Christine

-image by Christine Matteson

Something deep in the culture is coming undone. We feel it. It is not just the news cycle that is disorienting and overwhelming. What once felt solid feels brittle. We are coming undone. For years now, it has felt like alliances between different groups are echoing the same mainstream rhetoric. We have the tech billionaires, the Christian nationalists, foreign authoritarians/dictators, the populists, and extremist groups. On the surface, they seem contradictory in terms of objectives and ideology. In the last decade, we have seen them becoming eerily coordinated and aligned in similar ways.

If we look at things through a psychological/Jungian lens, this chaos takes on a different shape. (see the diagram above).

Yes, we have been going through political turbulence and ideological conflict. More than this, we are experiencing the eruption of the collective shadow. The parts of society that we have tried to ignore, deny, or repress for several decades are rising into the open in a distorted and amplified form.

When a culture (just like the individual) refuses to face its shadow, the shadow gains power. It will demand to be seen.

The Coalition of the Shadow

When trying to come up with a visual representation of these different factions, I imagined a deck of tarot cards, with each card representing a different archetype, a different energy. You could get overwhelmed by thinking that these cards are being presented to us, one after the other, in no particular spread. What has become clearer is that these cards have moved closer and closer together in ways that feel inevitable, taking shape into a more coherent spread where each of the cards is reversed.

A reverse tarot card (the shadow side) is the archetype turned upside-down; it is distorted. Like a fun house mirror, the reverse card is twisted, exaggerated, and/or misdirected because it is emerging from the shadow, not the conscious self.

That’s what we are seeing now.

Each group sits in its own circle in the visual above. They are distinct, self-contained, and driven by their own motives. At the center, where the circles overlap, is where the gravitational pull occurs. It’s the set of structural desires that benefits each faction, even if for different reasons.

The overlapping center where each faction converges is the collective shadow.

I am not a “card reader” at all. I know very little about it, so bear with me, and let’s look deeper at each archetype in its upright and upside-down position so we can understand the distortion.

Populist-Nationalist Figures: The primary movement in America is MAGA (Make America Great Again).

The card: The Rebel - reversed.

Upright: The Rebel challenges corruption and pushes for renewal.

Reversed: The Rebel is the “Destroyer”. (see previous post - Bulldozers, etc.) The destroyer tears down institutions only to dominate, not to create, to build.

The Tech-bros: The billionaires

The card: The Magician - reversed.

Upright: The Magician transforms and is an innovator.

Reversed: The Magician manipulates people and systems; he confuses and believes that he alone can reshape reality.

Dictators: The King - reversed.

Upright: The King protects and stabilizes.

Reversed: The King becomes the Tyrant who feeds on instability and the exploitation of weakness.

Christian Nationalists:

card: The Father (reversed).

upright: The father guides and offers moral grounding.

reversed: The father becomes the Punisher. He is rigid and controlling. He demands obedience without offering wisdom.

Extremists: white nationalists like the Proud Boys, KKK

card: The Warrior reversed.

upright: a warrior defends and protects.

Reversed: the Zealot, driven by purity myths and fantasies of domination.

The Convergence: The pull of the shadow.

So these groups don’t share ideology. But they do share the distortion.

Each of the cards (or archetypes), when flipped upside down, gravitates toward these shared conditions: 1. They want weakened institutions. 2. Centralized power. 3. Reduced oversight. 4. They want to politicize agencies. 5. Get rid of independent media. 6. Jack up fear and fragmentation.

The commality: Archetypal Inversion.

The collective shadow is taking center stage. To be continued.

Why is it happening now? Stay tuned for the next installment.

~Christine

*Author’s note: I wrote this piece because so many people have told me they feel something shifting beneath the surface of our culture that is difficult to name, because there are so many different groups that seem to be dismantling our democracy. This essay is my attempt to map the deeper psychological forces at play, using Jung’s framework to make sense of a moment that feels chaotic, symbolic, and strangely familiar. If it resonates, feel free to share it with someone who’s been feeling the tremors too.

This year, we are celebrating Yule. Today is day 11. It just felt right to participate in things like creating an altar, making fires, lighting candles, and prioritizing presence over presents. We celebrated the solstice, the return of the light, and focused on nature. It felt right, and with all the hypocrisy and judgment associated with Christmas this year, getting down with nature and the elements felt (and continues to feel) right.

I think it fits for a lot of people, as the soul seeks to compensate for the hyperindividualist and consumerist cultural zeitgeist, which feels so one-sided and irritating because it is so segregative.

I feel that our souls are reaching for something more inclusive, more accepting of all faiths and traditions. Something older, slower, simpler, and tied to the earth.

Many people I know have felt exhausted by the intensity of the past year: the noise, the relentless pursuit of power and resources. And... the lack of compassion, the intentional cruelty, and the lack of regard for others.

This turn toward simpler rituals, slower rhythms, and earth-based practices isn’t escapism. It may be the psyche reaching for what it needs to stay whole. Jung’s idea of compensation is one of those psychological concepts that sounds simple on the surface but opens into a whole psychological universe once you start writing about it.

At its core, compensation is the psyche’s built‑in balancing mechanism. When one part of the personality becomes overblown and exaggerated, the unconscious will push back with dreams, symptoms, or emotional reactions that try to restore equilibrium. According to Jung, if consciousness (individual and/or cultural, collective) leans too far in one direction, i.e.,hyper‑rationality, moral rigidity, inflated confidence, and spiritual detachment, the unconscious produces material that counterbalances it.

The psyche seeks wholeness, not perfection.

The holidays are a perfect time to talk about compensation. The season is full of extremes, such as joy, stress, nostalgia, and family dynamics. And the psyche often responds with its own counter‑movements.

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The psyche adhors one-sidedness.

How to notice compensation in your own life: Ask yourself what irritates you disproportionately. What do you idealize? What do you avoid? What keeps showing up in your dreams? These can be compensatory signals.

Compensation can happen when entire societies become one-sided, such as the swing to the far right or far left.

Societal Compensation

In real time, Democracies all over the world are facing challenges from authoritarianism. In the US, we are experiencing democracy eroding under the Trump administration. We are watching the weakening of democratic institutions, defiance of court orders, attacks on independent media, erosion of checks and balances, etc. We are observing a strong, highly nationalized, religiously coded cultural stance that has been steadily rising over the past several years. This exclusionary identity and its purity narratives signal compensatory attributes. If we listen to them. Sometimes, we react by taking on the shame of the shameless. (see the earlier post, “Don’t let the shame hit you on the way out.)

This year, more than ever, a majority of the population is beginning to participate in a counter movement; compensatory action in response to what is happening. When democratic norms feel threatened, civic organizations often become more active and coordinated, such as increased activity from civic organizations, mutual aid networks, and community coalitions.

Some of the other ways societies are pushing back are: 1. Increased public support for fact-checking and absolute transparency. 2. People who had never before been politically active are starting to pay closer attention. 3. Some judges (particularly local and state court judges) are becoming more confrontative when they sense executive overreach. 4. Legal advocacy groups are becoming more active. 5. More people are speaking out about threats to the Constitution and the rule of law. 6. We have begun to see some unusual alliances form, and a bit more “reaching across the political divide. 7. Artists, comedians, musicians, etc., are using satire with a sharp sense of humor and pushback. You see more themes of resistance, vigilance, and civic responsibility in works of art, music, plays, movies, etc.

The Arts are often the first place people express what they’re afraid to say outright.

The Yule/Pagan Revival as Collective Counterbalance

When you look at this year through Jung’s lens of compensation, the quiet resurgence of Yule makes psychological sense. As the cultural atmosphere has grown more rigid and invested in certainty, the collective unconscious has begun to surface in symbols that restore what’s been neglected.

And Yule is rich with exactly the qualities our culture has been starving for.

Yule is not a rebellion against Christmas. There has never been a war against Christmas. Yule is the part of the season that Christianity only partially absorbed, forgetting the part that stayed wild, cyclical, and tied to the turning of the earth. It may be seen as the shadow side of winter, but referring it to the instinctual layer beneath the doctrine is more accurate.

No one is rejecting Christianity; people are embracing Yule because the collective psyche is trying to rebalance itself.

You can see this in the cultural conversation itself.

It isn’t just anecdotal. From spiritual blogs to mainstream websites, podcasts, and magazines, there has been a wave of 2025 pieces exploring solstice rituals and Yule traditions; Guides, Reflections, and Invitations, reaching for something more instinctual and rooted. The large volume of new content suggests a cultural appetite for something older, slower, and more earth‑rooted.”

Yule offers what the year has lacked: earthiness, rhythm, presence rather than presents, and a true sense of belonging, and embodied ways of knowing. A cultural movement that arises not from ideology but from the unconscious is exactly the symbolic counterweight that is needed.

When a society becomes dominated by purity narratives, exclusionary identity, or ideological rigidity, the collective unconscious pushes back with symbols of inclusivity, embodiment, and global connection. The resurgence of Yule is one such symbol. It’s a reminder that winter is not about winning, but about turning inward, resting, and remembering our place in the larger cycle of things.

On the collective level

Cultures behave like individuals writ large. The individual psyche and the collective psyche often mirror each other when we become conscious of this dynamic.

When the outer world is transactional and values acquisition, then Presents are symbolic of that world. Presence belongs to the inner world, the world of attention, ritual, and relationship. When the outer world becomes overwhelming or one‑sided, the inner world rises to meet it.

Presence is the psyche’s way of saying: “Come back to yourself. Come back to each other. Come back to the moment.”

In Winter, the season of turning inward, this return to the natural rhythm of things is individual and collective rebalancing. Compensation is not political; it’s healing. It’s slowly shifting the culture toward what it needs for wholeness. The resurgence of Yule, solstice gatherings, nature‑based rituals, and global winter traditions can be read as a collective compensatory movement, not a rebellion, but a rebalancing.

Conclusion.

Wholeness (whether personal or cultural) is never achieved by doubling down on one side. It emerges when we allow the other side to speak.

As we step out of this season and into a new year, perhaps the invitation is to practice what both Jung and Wise Mind point toward: a return to the center. A willingness to hold opposites without collapsing into either one. A commitment to presence over performance and to the quiet wisdom that emerges when we pause long enough to listen. Mindfulness, breath, stillness, and simple seasonal practices are not luxuries; they are ways of cultivating Wise Mind, of restoring wholeness in a culture that has forgotten its balance. If this winter has taught us anything, it’s that the psyche knows the way home. Our task is only to slow down enough to follow it.

Wishing you warmth on this very snowy day. And a Happy New Year, however you choose to celebrate.

~Christine

What’s really happening with ICE—across the country, locally, and inside the Onondaga County Justice Center?

Each night, I see videos that make my stomach drop—someone tackled, pepper-sprayed, or dragged away while shouting they’re a U.S. citizen. These aren’t fugitives—they’re parents, workers, students, people attending hearings or renewing visas. They followed the rules.

People I talk to feel afraid to leave home or to go to court, even when they are following the rules. Fear and confusion are real; silence only makes things worse.

If you’ve been feeling anxious or overwhelmed, that reaction is understandable. The system creates uncertainty and offers few answers.

Once we recognize and acknowledge our feelings, we can start to investigate what is really going on.

Let’s start digging.

I want to understand what is and isn’t happening. What does the data show or miss? Is ICE detaining whom it claims? This question guides us through the complexities and helps uncover what’s happening.

So let’s slow it down and walk through this together.

Who is ICE actually detaining?

There’s a huge gap between what people think ICE does and what ICE actually does.

Here’s what the data shows:

• About 70% of people detained by ICE have no criminal record. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/sep/26/immigrants-criminal-record-ice-detention

• The remaining 30% includes everything from dismissed charges to old convictions.

• ICE has detained and even deported U.S. citizens because of database errors, racial profiling, and algorithmic bias.

• ICE has detained those here legally, including those with green cards, student visas, work permits, etc. Not just those here illegally.

• A Senate inquiry documented *22 U.S. citizens who were assaulted, detained, or denied lawyers despite having valid proof of citizenship.

*According to the most recent investigation by ProPublica, they found over 170 U.S. citizens detained by immigration agents in 2025

One of the main reasons that people are so frightened is that the system is inconsistent, opaque, and prone to life-altering errors.

If someone disappears, how do you go about finding them?

This is one of the most frequently asked questions.

There are tools to help you, but none of them are foolproof, and many cracks have led people to fall through.

1. ICE keeps internal records, but they’re not public. https://www.usa.gov/detained-by-ice

2. Families and attorneys can use the ICE Online Detainee Locator, but it only works if the person meets very specific criteria. (locator.ice.gov)

3. Contact your local jails to confirm if someone is being held for ICE.

4. Immigration attorneys can request records.

5. Community groups can assist you with tracking arrests informally and offer support. In my community, these groups include the Workers’ Center of CNY and the Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network.

Why is the process so difficult?

There are several systemic reasons for this. Here are some.

Names are often misspelled. Family members aren’t automatically contacted. Transfer can happen at a moment’s notice. Records are scattered across counties and states.

The ICE locator does not include minors, those who have just been arrested, those who haven’t been fully processed, those who have been recently released, U.S. citizens, or people who fall into certain medical categories.

If the person falls in any of these categories, their name simply won’t appear.

This is why families panic. The system creates confusion and fear.

What happens to a person if they are detained?

This is the part that is hard to imagine, but it’s important to face the facts of what is going on.

According to investigations, verified inspections, and firsthand accounts, the conditions in detention centers around the country are deplorable.

Here are some of the results of these reports:

Detainees suffer from overcrowding, sanitation failures, people going days without showers, sleeping on bare floors, contaminated and insufficient food, and people going days without medications. During transports, people have been made to sit chained on buses for hours without food, water, or toilets.

After learning about these conditions at ICE facilities and what is happening around the country, I wanted to find out more information closer to home. These arrests (without due process) by masked ICE officers aren’t just happening in cities like Chicago or Los Angeles.

What is happening locally?

According to a December 5, 2025, Syracuse.com article, ICE activity has increased in Syracuse, particularly around South Salina Street and East Fayette Street. The article reported these changes over the most recent 10-month period:

• At least 162 people have been arrested by ICE in Onondaga County during this 10-month span, as reported by syracuse.com.

• The Onondaga County Justice Center (OCJC) is being used as an ICE detention site.

• People are often transferred from the Justice Center to Batavia, Albany, or Clinton County.

• There is no public list of who is detained, released, or transferred.

This is what is happening right under our noses.

What is happening at the Onondaga County Justice Center?

According to public records, local articles, investigations, and generative AI:

1. Overcrowding and unsafe conditions.

2. High stress environment, aggression, and mental health crises were documented.

3. People with psychiatric disabilities were placed in solitary confinement.

4. Suicides and suicide attempts have been linked to inadequate monitoring.

5. Family reporting of detainees being denied medication and crisis care.

6. Continued use of pepper spray and physical restraints; force is being used on people in mental health crisis.

7. The ICE detainees are being held alongside county inmates. (Civil detainees held in a criminal jail environment.)

8. Transfers without notice.

9. Minimal to no programming.

Of course, my next question is, why do these places still stay open?

ICE uses hundreds of facilities run by counties or private prison companies. These places earn millions housing detainees and have long, hard-to-end contracts. Oversight bodies can only recommend changes, which ICE may ignore or delay.

The system is built to keep these places open. Confusion is built in. Wrongful detentions are not rare.

Ok.

That answered my questions.

For now.

What we can’t control:

ICE operations

Records are not made public.

Limitations of the detainee locator tool.

Transfers between facilities

Contract structures between the federal government and local/county jails and detention facilities.

*If you are feeling overwhelmed at this point, that makes sense. It is a normal response to an abnormal and dysfunctional system.

I strongly suggest that you search out answers to your questions as well. Once you have the answers and information, you (we) can start to discern what can be done, what can’t, and how to best cope with what we have learned. Below are some suggestions.

Is there anything we can do?

Yes.

1. We can contact county legislators and attend public meetings.

2. We can get in touch with local community groups (like Syracuse Immigration and Refugee Defense Network) to see what you can do and what they may need.

3. Keep informed and participate in all local elections.

4. Offer support to families.

5. Create a community where you live. Get to know your neighbors.

Don’t look away.

Change doesn’t start with certainty.

It starts with clarity, community, and the courage to pay attention.

Together, we can stand resilient and support each other against the challenges we are facing.

Thanks for reading.

Christine

The body knows when it’s outside its comfort zone. Heart racing, muscles tightening, the ancient circuitry of fight, flight, or fawn lights up. My instinct…Flee. “I’ve gotta get outta here.”

I was 23 years old. I had just driven six hours to a new town for graduate school in dance/movement therapy and counseling psychology. Nervous but excited, I knew that this course of study would be challenging. I had taken dance lessons since I was 4 years old and was good at taking direction. However, I had just started to learn to dance from the “inside-out” in an authentic movement group I had attended over the summer. Orientation day was supposed to be exciting, but upon arriving, I became extremely overwhelmed. People were eating out of bento boxes, food I didn’t recognize, others were stretching in the hallway, and one woman was exhaling loudly, making “weird” sounds that were a little…uh…frightening. Was I supposed to be this uninhibited and make animal sounds to “warm up”? This is too much. I don’t know what I was thinking. I went to the morning sessions and was pretty quiet. I remember the last words a friend said to me. Jokingly, she said, “Matteson, I’m pretty sure you’re going to come back with hairy pits, Birkenstocks, and a co‑op membership.” I turned to her and assuredly said, “I’ll always shave my pits!” Suddenly, that didn’t feel like a joke. I felt like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, and I “wasn’t in Kansas anymore”.

So I fled. At the lunch break, I told myself I’d go for a drive to chill out. Instead of turning the car around at the half-hour point, I ended up driving the entire six hours back to what was familiar! “Fuck me”, I mumbled. “What am I going to do, now?” But when I arrived, I realized “home” had changed. My apartment had a new tenant, my friends had moved on, and I had transitioned out of my 3 part-time jobs. Sitting in a restaurant, I remembered my “why”— the dream that had brought me to graduate school in the first place. Why did I want to do this thing, take on this 3 and 1/2 year commitment? Because I recognized the power of dance for healing, communication, and self-expression, and I’d seen how it transformed patients in a psychiatric facility and how it transformed others in our group over the summer. It was the modality that built resilience, self-esteem, community, and self-awareness. And, I wanted to be able to be the person to facilitate this type of healing and self-expression in others. I called one of my friends, and we laughed at where I was and told her that I’m getting back in the car. I drove six hours back through the dark, terrified but determined. It’s now or never. No more fleeing.

I still smile when I think of that time, even though it was darn uncomfortable being on my “growing edge”, and feeling scared. For years afterward, I lived with that urge to drop out, to flee at different times. Yet staying taught me something essential: how to be comfortable with discomfort. I learned to take what fits for me, to recognize my strengths, and to develop new ones. I discovered that I wasn’t as “liberal” as some or as “conservative” as others when it came to learning to think critically. For myself. Instead, I began to cultivate my wise mind — a way of thinking that looks beyond rigid binaries, toward groundedness and critical reflection.

That lesson matters beyond the studio. (as most do!)

In America today, we see propaganda and fake news exaggerating stereotypes: “the liberals” aren’t putting litter boxes in schools or changing everyone’s gender, and “the conservatives” aren’t all racist or whatever other stereotypes are attributed to “both sides”. Maybe we are scared. Scared of what is unfamiliar. We’ve all seen both sides choose flight — retreating into echo chambers, avoiding dialogue, fleeing from discomfort.

What if we resisted that urge? What if, instead of fleeing, we stayed in the dance? Jung reminds us that the Self emerges when opposites are held together, not when one side runs away. Dance therapy teaches that movement becomes transformative when we stay embodied, even in awkwardness.

Fear doesn’t have to mean Fuck Everything And Run. It can mean Face Everything And Rise. My six‑hour detour taught me that fleeing feels safe, but it robs us of growth. In therapy, in art, in teaching, and in politics, the challenge is the same: to stay in the room, to stay in the dance, even when it feels unbearable.

And today, that lesson matters more than ever. We are facing a real threat to democracy, not from one side alone, but from the widening gap between us. The instinct to flee into our corners is strong, but survival and renewal will take all of us, with all of our wisdom and experience.

Therapists know the power of holding discomfort. Academics know the value of critical thought. Artists know how to transform tension into beauty. Teachers know how to guide dialogue across differences. Together, these strengths form the choreography we need: a collective willingness to meet, to listen, to challenge stereotypes, and to discover common ground.

If we can resist the urge to flee, perhaps we can begin to approach one another, not to erase differences, but to honor them, and to protect the fragile dance of democracy that depends on our willingness to move together. We are more than Democrats or Republicans. We are people who hold certain beliefs. Not so scary.

Please subscribe for free (or there is a paid option to support this “stack”), and share this post on your “socials”. ~Thanks for reading. Christine

Stories have always been a force that holds up truths too heavy to bear directly. We return today to the mythical land known as Tempestria, where the wind speaks in riddles and the stones remember names (see previous post: The Martyr Archetype). Myth is not about literal facts. In Myths, we delve into timeless truths. We are exposed to echoes of our own day, secrecy that shelters the powerful; voices that emerge from silence; the long, uneven road to healing. Walking through the Veil of Shadows, the Broken Song, and the Dance of Renewal explores where the true, the just, the unified emerge, and pain becomes progress.

The Veil of Shadows.

A Veil of Shadows had been cast upon the land of shifting sands that had come to Tempestria. The people were very confused about this and what actions to take, so they met up with the Council of Elders, who came in and met to try to make decisions. The Council whispered among themselves; they were afraid that the scrolls that had been locked away held names far too strong to be spoken aloud. The people assembled in the meeting house and demanded that the Veil be lifted, so that the truth could breathe. Yet a strong and oppressive silence hung still.

Serenya.

Serenya, a wise woman of age, stood among the people. She could penetrate the dark and sniff out deception. She spoke in manners as firm as she was compassionate. Serenya could decide her stance with care; when to lead with strength and when empathy should guide. One of her greatest gifts was having the ability to speak clearly and effectively to all audiences. Above all, her presence reminded us that to protect the most vulnerable among them, we must have the truth.

Women and Children of the Broken Song.

She had moved down to the valley, away from the Assembly, where the people of the Broken Song met. Some who met were silenced women, some were children whose music had been taken from them before any singing had occurred. Their solos lay shattered like shards scattered upon the earth. Serenya walked among them. She was shelter and illumination all in one. She listened carefully, and in her listening, the victims were able to hear themselves. What were fragments emerged as a chorus, so vigorous that their voices began to be heard by the whole town.

Gaining Awareness and Support.

The townspeople began to recognize that these women and children needed justice and that those responsible for the crimes against them must be held into account. Some realized that the criminals were among them, and some of the perpetrators were even Elders in the Assembly. They were initially shocked that they had been misled by Kael, their leader, who was among the most egregious of the villains. It was he, in fact, who was most responsible for the silencing of the women and children. He had long known the harm caused that had broken them and taken their voices. He used all the tricks at his disposal to make sure the scrolls stayed hidden and that the names were never learned. The people of Tempestria knew that they could not stay silent any longer, because silence would no longer save the power-holding elite perpetrators.

Serenya returned to the circle where the survivors began preparing for the Dance of Renewal. She told the women and girls that a large majority of the townspeople were beginning to recognize how they had been deceived, and wanted to help them in any way they could.

The Dance of Renewal.

The next day, the survivors came together, tentative but longing for safety and connection. Serenya began to see the courage, once concealed behind their fear, take center stage as the survivors moved toward the center to form the circle. Serenya looked up, smiling to see the people of Tempestria walking down to the valley. They joined the victims, while Serenya held the space, providing the safety and kindness that allowed each soul to breathe, and for everyone to move together in hope and love.

The Lifting of the Veil.

As they danced together with a shared purpose, the veil began to lift. The land itself responded, as the sun shone, and the rivers appeared to glitter. Everyone knew that healing would not be a straight line; there was more to do, actions to be taken. Serenya spoke with careful and clear articulation, and what they all recognized, that healing is not something given, but it is chosen, embodied, and shared. Through song, dance, community, courage, and common purpose, a sense of faith can be restored, and renewal will emerge. And Justice will be powerfully pursued.

——-

Study of the Myth.

The Veil of Shadows is evidence of the sinister dangers of hiding and cover-up. Just as the Council of Elders shut the scrolls and books of powerful people away and sealed them, our current administration continues to find ways to cover up truths that serve the protection of the people in positions of power. The townspeople’s appeal to lift the veil is a reminder of our shared promise that transparency is the cornerstone of justice. The Children of the Broken Song represent the suppressed voices of survivors. Serenya chose to walk amongst them instead of standing above them, speaking strongly to the very need to provide attunement, listening carefully. In her presence, individual voices became a chorus. In our world, survivor voices — when listened to and believed — become the chorus that cuts through silence, which brings people to reckon with their own injustices. Justice starts, in both myth and fact, when testimony is regarded as valuable. The Dance of Renewal shows healing is neither linear nor solipsistic. Survivors enter movement with initial hesitancy, gradually seizing rhythm and strength, and Serenya establishes safety and holds space with empathy. This is akin to a trauma‑informed practice of today, in which safety and empowerment are critical to healing. The healing is the kind of healing that is not imposed from on high: it is chosen, it is embodied, and it is shared. That communal dance teaches us that a new start is inclusive. Third, the glimmering rivers and enhanced skies are representative of the landscape of justice. Society, as a whole, is better off when the truth is spoken and survivors are protected. Progress is not abstract; it’s felt, breathed, experienced. Justice is as much about transformation as it is about natural consequence, and the lifting of veils makes way for renewal to flow through the land.

Stories have always helped us carry truths too heavy to hold directly.

~Christine

It’s been a disorienting week. The headlines don’t match the reality, and the truth feels buried under spin. Here’s what actually happened and why it matters.

What happened?

Earlier this week, the government shutdown ended with a so-called deal between Democrats and Republicans. All over the news, “Schumer and the Democrats cave”. “What now?” (Face Palm). One thing I know for sure after this past decade is... Every time the media blames Democrats for something, that is a cue to investigate further. They are far from perfect, but they don’t want their constituents to starve or lose healthcare. And they are the best we’ve got right now. Blaming others is the number one defensive strategy of this current administration. (Too many others to highlight here.)

SNAP and Healthcare Breakdown

1. SNAP funding: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is funded through September 2026. Food aid is safe for now.

2. Healthcare subsidies will expire at the end of 2025. The only guarantee that was agreed upon was a Senate vote in December. No commitment from the House of Representatives.

The probability of the Senate voting to keep healthcare intact is practically nonexistent, as the Republicans have the majority. Why was there a shutdown in the first place? The Republicans didn’t have enough signatures for their budget bill, and while the Democrats were open to discussion, the Republicans refused to negotiate. So, without a budget bill passed, the Government shut down. SNAP funds were set to run out, but the government has emergency SNAP funds or “D-SNAP” (disaster SNAP) in case of government shutdowns. Trump’s refusal to release it was unprecedented. This resulted in a court order demanding that he release them. Then your president said, ‘I’ll release half.’ Back to court. The process dragged on…

No one expected a President to weaponize hunger and healthcare against his own people.

Why not? Don’t we know who we are dealing with by now? So the government will reopen without a healthcare guarantee.

Media Framing and Messaging Failure

So it’s not as simple as “The Democrats caved”. This is actually bullshit. Why isn’t the headline “The President will starve constituents unless he and Republicans can take away healthcare”? It would be in my newspaper, but then again, media outlets.... Who owns them? Who owns a whole lot of stuff nowadays? Reframing the narrative is how Democrats can fight back harder. The Democrats still fight and message from behind. People are busy trying to survive. They don’t have time to dig through political spin. Everybody is exhausted, throwing up their hands, and here come the false equivalents: They are all alike. And many of us who have the time to pay attention are waving our hands, “No, don’t give up”. All of this is by design.

Living Under Narcissistic Power

Just like in abusive households, the abuser rewrites reality. ‘Democrats caved’ is the political version of ‘You made me do this.’ When a malignant narcissist is pulling the strings, the dynamics of the relationship, the household, and/or the country he or she holds power in often revolve around

1. Control

2. Manipulation

3. Emotional Instability

An environment of fear, confusion, and psychological harm can and often does result. So if you’ve been feeling isolated, fearful, and as if you are second-guessing your own instincts and emotions.

Again, this is by design. As is the message this week, “Democrats Caved.”

This particular negotiation managed to keep the status quo and reopen the government for another month.

What must Democrats do?

Democrats keep negotiating like it’s 1995. They still believe in bipartisan goodwill, in playing by the rules, in messaging that’s polite and cautious. But that strategy doesn’t work in a political landscape dominated by chaos and manipulation. When they fail to reframe the narrative, they lose control of it. Headlines like “Democrats caved” aren’t just misleading—they’re the result of outdated messaging and a refusal to meet the moment with clarity and strength. They can start by not taking blame for something they didn’t do, and start messaging with strength. They can stop underestimating the electorate. And start communicating more directly with the people they serve.

So, if you’re feeling confused, exhausted, or gaslit by the headlines—trust your instincts. This chaos is by design. But clarity is resistance.

~Christine