The Shadow of a Figure of Light

The Shadow of a Figure of Light: the Archetype of the Alcoholic and the Journey to Enlightenment delves into the nature of modern psychospiritual transformation by examining the human thirst for wholeness through the lens of alcoholism and addiction. Establishing an unknown historical thread that ties renowned psychiatrist C.G. Jung and Alcoholics Anonymous co-founder Bill Wilson, Cody Peterson shows how their methodologies each stemmed from an ancient shamanistic source constellated through what he has coined the archetype of the Alcoholic. Painting the Twelve Steps as a modern myth, the author presents the Alcoholic as a paradoxical image leading us towards enlightenment amid a deepening, culture-wide spiritual crisis.Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsForewordIntroductionPersonal RootsMyths of MeaningPart One: The Mythological Mycelia of the Twelve StepsPsychological RootsWilliam JamesHarvard, 1875The Varieties of Religious Experience, 1902Clark University, 1909The Spiritual AncestorsSymbols of Transformation, 1912Mythological MyceliaJung and Jaime, 1923Mother Earth, Father SunJung Goes to Taos, 1925Jung Goes to Africa, 1925-26Myths of Expanding ConsciousnessJung and Rowland, May 1926Rowland and the Oxford Group, 1932Bill Wilson Gets Sober, 1934The Twelve Steps, 1939Part Two: A Psychological Approach to the Twelve Step MythLiving Myths and Dying GodsThe Anonymous AlcoholicGod Is DeadThe New God-ImageJung’s Psychological ApproachWilson’s (Psychological) ApproachAn Immaculate ConceptionThe Great RealityThe Psychological Function of the God-imageThe Real Problem with Western MetaphysicsThe Objective PsycheThe Breath of LifeMeister EckhartAn Inadequate ConceptionAn Eastern ApproachThe NuminosumShaped Energy'The Primitive'Spiritual DynamicsThe Coniunctio OppositorumThe Laws of Spiritual DynamicsWilson Discovers a Middle WayPart Three: The Thirst for WholenessThe Archetype of The AlcoholicAn Archetype EmergesAlcoholism and the West’s Spiritual CrisisThe Alcoholic and the TricksterSpiritus Contra SpiritumThe Wounded HealerThe Music of AlcoholicsThe DevilThe Power of Evil in Twelve Step MythologyAn Insoluble DilemmaSelf-annihilationThe Christ-imageAn Incomplete God-imageEnantiodromiaThe Boy Whistling in the DarkPart Four: The Ego and the SelfThe SelfThe Inflated EgoExpanding Spiritual ConsciousnessThe Fall and the At-one-mentThe FallThe Mythos of the Anonymous AlcoholicThe At-one-mentThe Mystery of CompulsionThe Myth of CompulsionVocation, The Creative InfluenceDoorways to the SelfA Portal into the Universal MindEmulating the SelfConclusionThe Shadow of a Figure of LightProjections of the SelfMaking the Darkness ConsciousA Play of Light and DarkBibliographyIndex