Conjunctio on a bind

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“So, here in this underworld orchard awaits the gathering together of those powerful parts of the psyche, both male and female. They form a conjunctio. This word is from alchemy and means a higher transformative union of unlike substances. When these opposites are rubbed together they result in the activation of certain intra-psychic processes. They act like flint struck against rock in order to make fire. It is trough the conjunction and pressure of dissimilar elements inhabiting the same psychic space that soulful energy, insight and knowing are made.

The presence of the sort of conjunctio we have in this story signals an activation of a verdant Life/Death/Life cycle. When we see this rare and precious gathering, we know that a spiritual death will take place, that a spiritual marriage is imminent, also that a new life will be born. These factors predict what is to come. Conjunctio is not something one goes out and gets. It is something that occurs because hard, hard work is being done.

So, here we are, in our mud clothes walking down a road we’ve never seen, and with a mark of the wild nature glowing through us more and more. It is fair to say that this conjunctio is insisting on a striking revision of the old you. If you are here in the orchard, and there are these identifiable psychic aspects of you, there is no turning back—we are going forward.”

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Clarissa Pinkola Estés, in “Women Who Run With The Wolves—Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype”