Memories 2020

MEMORIES

A nice memory of a warm summer day in July (2019)

Two years ago, Carmen shared an idea at a brainstorming session with the planning committee. She said, “why don’t we have a little get together to celebrate Jung’s birthday and put it out there by word of mouth on the Jung Society page and post it on Meet Up and see who comes. We all agreed! Too much time goes by between the last spring event of our year and the first fall event. People miss each other.

I thought it was a terrific idea and a perfect opportunity personally for my family members visiting from B.C. to meet socially and become acquainted with the colourful individuals and personalities of the Jung Society. They were never in town for the lectures, workshops and various activities but were aware exciting things were taking place.

Carmen recommended a good central place for us to gather. It was a large leafy park, Parc Marguerite Bourgeois, in Pointe-St.-Charles. There was the advantage of it being central to buses and Métro and along cycling routes. There was some hint of inclement weather later on in the day but who cares; a little summer rain, big deal. Also, there was a modest but authentic Caribbean restaurant nearby called Boom Jay’s that was a great take out place for anyone disinclined to drag food along.

The day arrived, we all found each other, parking was easy and some people just new in town arrived by bicycle. There were delicious things to eat, some did bring wonderful things to adorn the many picnic tables. Two came all the way from Hemmingford, alas only arriving in time for the desserts. There was wine … Clouds gathered. Mary suddenly announced: ”we are packing up now" and set to putting the desserts. of all things, away. (She had her wits about her!)

And then it happened. The sky turned black, the wind whipped up, things started flying around and the heavens opened up! The dumping of rain was phenomenal. Someone tiny even hid under one of the tables. My sister grabbed one of the plastic table cloths, and threw it over herself and to shelter my 90-year old mother . You never saw anyone who was used to normally walking with a walker boot it so fast in the direction of the car. Everyone took their leave unceremoniously and vanished like a spooked flock of seagulls!

The aftermath of the flood …

As bad luck would have it I knocked a wine bottle onto the only tiny patch of concrete in the park in my haste. I kneeled down and collected every piece of glass with water falling in my eyes. John and Murray stood there watching me, one looking alarmed, the other sheepish.

Agnes, made it to a Métro and stood up in it all the way “like a drowned rat.”

People going home by car were drenched to the bone and had a pretty uncomfortable squelching ride and Carmen had a spiritual epiphany walking alone when the deluge finally subsided and the sun broke through, illuminating new heavens and a new earth.

According to Carmen: “The world truly became a magical place as I walked the distance from the park to the Métro, completely drenched and still under the effects of the massive rain.

It was a moment of grace. Maybe even a thank you gift from our dear Carl G. Jung since people remembered his birthday after so many years of absence from the world.”

My mother discovered in her water-logged purse the next day a soggy, useless cheque book. No one got the new kid in town's phone number. We concluded in the end that somehow it was a fitting way to resurrect the spirit of Jung especially those who went along with him on his descent into the unconscious via his Red Book.

Last summer the event was repeated in a pub near Westmount park with shelter and facilities. A good time was had by all. If any one cares to join us we will be gathering again this summer to celebrate Jung’s 145^th birthday. I think he would like that.

–Kathryn Archibald

DREAMS

Marie-Louise von Franz: (on Emma Jung) No, I didn’t know her very well … she was a great friend of Miss Hannah and they got on very well together. We never had any difficulty with her I never came close to her except in the last summer when she was ill and she knew she was going to die she apparently talked to her husband and they decided that I should finish her book; and one day when I went to the tower, he said to me: “go over to speak to my wife ,” and I looked at him amazed and he said: ”her attitude to you has changed “and then I had a very good talk with her. He had the wish that I should do it and so that then suddenly in these last moments before her death made a very positive bridge. Then I had a very interesting dream. I was very uncertain. I naturally agreed to do it; I mean who wouldn’t in the situation but subjectively I felt I can’t do all the creative work; you know it’s not my work. How can I carry out a child which somebody else has conceived … That’s a transplantation. How can I do it? And I was very doubtful about it and then I dreamt in the night. Yes, I must first be telling reality … my dog after she had been in heat sometime, imagined she was going to have puppies and then she made holes in the ground and laying in them happily you know with these mother feelings. She did that once in Jung’s tower under a bench and had made a hole there and he laughed about it, and in the dream Mrs. Jung had a big bowl of soup and she said, ”I am going to. she put it in that hole which my dog had made. Now you see the soup bowl is one of the symbols of the Grail. In one version the Grail is a soup bowl and so it means I hand now this soup bowl, my child, to your mother instinct as an adoptive child to your dog, which is your mother instinct. So that is an act of adoption on the feminine side. I had adopted her child, because she has entrusted me with her child. When I woke up after the dream I thought: ”now I would probably be able to do it. My unconscious has accepted the task.”

–Kathryn Archibald