| The existential underpinnings of our current global situation can be framed in the context of failing cultural myths and the resultant lost connection to the Divine, a condition that Carl Jung identified as the spiritual problem of modern men and women. A connection to a living religious myth is essential for mental health and well-being. However, many individuals are no longer contained in an existing religious myth because the teachings, symbols, and rituals no longer contain meaning or an experience of the sacred. Others may continue to attend their churches but are spiritually hungry for something more than what their faith can provide them. Some individuals may have suffered a kind of wounding in their original faith, leaving them hostile, angry, or indifferent to traditional churches and their teachings. Neglect of one's religious instinct can manifest as chronic depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and various addictions but the deeper problem is in fact a religious one.;Individuals who cannot respond to any existing Eastern or Western religious myths may be carrying the seed of a new myth, not only for themselves, but also for the evolutionary advancement of their culture, and ultimately for the evolution of consciousness. To journey in search of a new faith, via a personal mythology, requires nothing short of a total reexamination of one's ontological worldview. The result is a personal connection to the numinous, a religious solution for one's religious problem. The depth psychologist, as opposed to a modern scientific-based psychologist, is in a unique position to assist and witness such an individual's experience.;This is a theoretical work employing a thematic hermeneutic method. It has a heuristic sensibility as it focuses on personal experiences in addition to the interpretation of written theoretical texts. The study explores the relationship between depth psychology and the individuation process as viewed through a religious lens. It asks the primary question, "How does the field of depth psychology understand, from a historical, mythological, and psychological perspective, the religious problems of individuals who cannot be contained or recontained in their original faith?"... |
