This book urges contemporary healers to utilize premodern tribal principles of sacred space and ritual process long considered lost or inaccessible to modern culture. Properly prepared "ritual elders" can guide people through ritual steps from (a) the challenge of a life-crisis, into (b) sacred space and time for needed reorganization, and then into (c) a newly transformed personal and social world. These steps derive from key concepts in the scholarship of Arnold van Gennep, Mircea Eliade, Joseph Campbell, and Victor Turner, reformulated with new insights from extensive field research and psychoanalytic practice. "Here Robert Moore's deeply penetrating mind awakens us to the urgency of what time it is' time to reclaim the sense of sacred space in our secularized culture, time to grow a mature ritual leadership that can hold and steward that space, time to restore the processes of a comprehensive initiation into wholeness which alone can re-create a habitable world for humanity." Don Jones, Past International Chairman, The ManKind Project "These materials articulate my conviction that our species has evolved to the point where we either must continue to provide conscious, creative, and responsible rituals of life that serve the maturation and healing of all its people, or face the alternative of unconscious and destructive participation in rituals of personal, social, and global death." Author's Preface

This book builds on the vast clinical experience of Joseph L. Henderson, who became interested in initiatory symbolism when he began his analysis with Jung in 1929. Henderson studied this symbolism in patients' dreams, fantasies, and active imagination, and demonstrated the archetype of initiation in both men and women's psychology. After Henderson’s book was republished in 2005 Kirsch, Beane Rutter and Singer brought together this collection of essays to allow a new generation to explore the archetype of initiation. Initiation: The Living Reality of an Archetype demonstrates how the archetype of initiation is seen clinically today. Divided into distinct parts, the book explores the archetype of initiation in Dr Henderson’s own life, as well as suggesting its importance in: clinical practice culture aging and death. The chapters in this book amplify and extend the archetype of initiation from the earliest historical periods up to the present day. The editors argue that initiation symbolism often underlies contemporary phenomena, but is rarely recognized; Initiation helps to bring a new understanding to these experiences. This book will be of interest to psychotherapists with an interest in psychoanalysis and analytical psychology, as well as those training at analytic institutes.

Basing his study on Jung's archetypal theory-especially that of initiation-Thresholds of Initiation represents thirty years of testing the theory in analytical practice. Joseph Henderson considers archetypes to be predictable patterns of inner conditioning that lead to certain essential changes and shows the parallels between individual psychological self-development and the rites that marked initiation in the past. Dr. Henderson's topics include the uninitiated; return of the mother; remaking a man; trial by strength; the rite of vision; thresholds of initiation; initiation and the principle of ego-development in adolescence; and initiation in the process of individuation. This is essential reading for an understanding of the universal nature of initiation, especially as it relates traditional initiatory practices to Jung's theory of archetypes.

Structured around a series of lectures presented at the Jung Institute of Chicago in a program entitled "Jungian Psychology and Human Spirituality: Liberation from Tribalism in Religious Life," this book-length essay attacks the related problems of human evil, spiritual narcissism, secularism and ritual, and grandiosity. Robert Moore dares to insist that we stop ignoring these issues and provides clear-sighted guidance for where to start and what to expect. Along the way, he pulls together many important threads from recent findings in theology, spirituality, and psychology and brings us to a point where we can conceive of embarking on a corrective course. Traditional doctrinal and historical interpretation both rely heavily on rational analysis. But from the disciples at Emmaus to the beginnings of the present century, it has been the impact of scripture upon the human heart that has changed human lives. In recent decades, this impact has been strengthened by advances in linguistic and literary theory, by such disparate influences as feminism, structuralism, Jungianism, deconstructionism, the analysis of archaic imagery and myth, the recovery of Gnostic texts, and finally an openness to pluralism, whether ethnic, geographic, religious, or interpretive. All of these factors are treated here with a brevity and comprehensiveness which convincingly show that the reader of scripture has a creative and not merely passive role. "If you would understand the deepest roots of terrorism, greed, and religious fanaticism, read Facing the Dragon. But be forewarned: you may find some offshoots in your own garden."-June Singer, Jungian analyst, author of Boundaries of the Soul Robert Moore, Phd was an internationally recognized psychotherapist and consultant in private practice in Chicago. He was considered one of the leading therapists specializing in psychotherapy with men because of his discovery of the Archetypal Dynamics of the Masculine Self (King, Warrior, Magician, Lover). He served as Distinguished Service Professor of Psychology, Psychoanalysis and Spirituality at the Graduate Center of the Chicago Theological Seminary, and has served as a Training Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. He is Co-founder of the Chicago Center for Integrative Psychotherapy.

The bestselling, widely heralded, Jungian introduction to the psychological foundation of a mature, authentic, and revitalized masculinity. Redefining age-old concepts of masculinity, Jungian analysts Robert Moore and Douglas Gillette make the argument that mature masculinity is not abusive or domineering, but generative, creative, and empowering of the self and others. Moore and Gillette clearly define the four mature male archetypes that stand out through myth and literature across history: the king (the energy of just and creative ordering), the warrior (the energy of aggressive but nonviolent action), the magician (the energy of initiation and transformation), and the lover (the energy that connects one to others and the world), as well as the four immature patterns that interfere with masculine potential (divine child, oedipal child, trickster and hero). King, Warrior, Magician, Lover is an exploratory journey that will help men and women reimagine and deepen their understanding of the masculine psyche.

Betwixt and Between offers new insights into the basic elements of initiations and rites of passage. The absence of these traditional supports creates problems in the lives of those who are caught in the void and lack definite expectations at various times of their lives. The chapters on masculine and feminine initiation provide new and creative concepts and practical possibilities for each of us. Initiation has been a missing component in the modern world and needs to be re-introduced with new understanding and consciousness.

In this pioneering contribution to the emerging men's movement, Robert Moore, a Jungian psychoanalyst who, along with Robert Bly, is a principle architect of the movement, and Douglas Gillette, a mythologist, examine the inner King--one of the four archetypes of the male psyche. 8-page color photo section; 50 black-and-white photos.