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Creative Play
Senex and puer are not hidden. They do battle on the world-political and social stage, underpinning profound rifts between rigid conservatism and free wheeling expression evident everywhere we turn. — the senex-puer split can start wars and determine the course of history. It may be seen in the political divisions of the Vietnam era… The puer surfaced in the idealism of flower power. Today he infuses the mercurial minds of Silicon Valley, who show senex faces when their companies move to Wall Street. . The puer is in the twinkle-in-the-eye creatives who can never realize their vision, the senex enters at midlife, when the soul turns dry, vision has dimmed and unlived life begins to plague us. This pair is all around, roaming unrecognized and in need of our attention.
— James Hillman
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“During the dark night there is no choice but to surrender control, give in to unknowing, and stop and listen to whatever signals of wisdom might come along. It’s a time of enforced retreat and perhaps unwilling withdrawal. The dark night is more than a learning experience; it’s a profound initiation into a realm that nothing in the culture, so preoccupied with external concerns and material success, prepares you for.”
― Thomas Moore, Dark Nights of the Soul
Creative people want to keep playing even when they grow up. We hardly hear the…
