After a 24-year career in psychology, Jayni retired at the end of 2021 and is now actively pursuing her love of making in fiber. She is a mixed-medium artist using photography, painting, fabric, and machine embroidery in her work. She feels that making has brought her ‘home’.
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· ‘Listening’, an art-quilt was accepted into the Sacred Threads exhibition in July 2022, at the Floris United Methodist Church, close to Washington DC, USA.
· ‘Earth-Cycles’ was selected as one of 32 artworks a Juried exhibition of SAQA's SOFA in 2022, Chicago.
· ‘Exuberance’ was showcased in Ottawa in October/November2022, with 20 other pieces in the local ‘Out -of-the-Box’, Ottawa artists group.
· "Find the Medicine for the Poison of Imprisoned Pain" was accepted in SAQA’s virtual Gallery ‘Imprisoned’ in October 2023.
Worldview Beauty/Creativity/Love/Light
The relationship between our cognitive consciousness and the expansive potential of the non-linear personal and collective unconscious, creates a new mysterious, elevated level of ‘consciousness’ that supersedes the original parts. The collective unconscious is only called unconscious because we are not aware of its potency when we do not allow it to communicate with us. This concept of interrelationship between the cognitive and non-linear, underlies the essence of creativity, and a creative life of self-development and healing. For me there is no more separation between the practical world and the magical, no separation between the logical and the mystical. We are all experiencing a shift in the time phase on earth right now that is urging us to find balance between opposites; within ourselves as well as between ourselves and others. By allowing ourselves to connect our rational consciousness with the collective consciousness, a new equilibrium in the world can be created.
It is the artists, storytellers and those souls who use symbol and symbol systems, that maintained our connection with the Archetypes over the ages. It is them who kept the symbolic themes, that medicine that indicates the paths of human evolution, alive in our unconscious minds so that we can re-connect our reason with that softer voice of ancestors, memory and future knowing through symbolism that unfolds the divine voice within us which steers our true healing and destiny.
Healers and all people who want to be healed, re-connect with the symbolic world. We bypass our cognitive emotional defense mechanisms through symbolism and can no longer deny the truth about the emotional-spiritual healing work we need to practice.
Join the discussion and my workshops for more on this healing experience and release yourself from the shackles of emotional life challenges. © by Jayni Bloch
Jayni authored two books:
“The Riddle in the Mirror - a journey in search of Healing”, 2012, Balboa Press (available at Amazon)
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“Mirrors to your Soul ™– Keys to unlock Divine Archetypal Portals”, 2015; a booklet with accompanying hand painted watercolour Archetypal Images that serve as a psychological projection technique and as Oracle Cards. (Available on this website page Books)
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Transformation and Healing is not a logical process. A thousand doors open for us when our authentic hearts transform through spiritual alchemy.
MY STORY
I grew up, studied and worked as a Psychologist in South Africa until the age of 43, and have been working in Canada in private practice for 25 years. I work with individuals, couples and families. My practice was eclectic, and I used a combination of Cognitive Behavioural, Emotionally Focused and Depth-Psychology approaches for problems such as personal crises, relationship issues, psycho-dynamic dream work for personal growth and life turning points, before I retired in November 2021.
I am also an artist; working with and recognizing the power of image in healing life. The similarities of the human psyche throughout all world cultures drew me into studying the Archetypes, which portrays the unconscious elements in all people. Symbolism and Archetypes is commonly used in art, and it helps me understand the collective processes common to all humans. The unconscious framework of being, portrayed in symbols, gives a glimpse of the process of human evolution itself.
When I refer to Archetypes, it is more in terms of processes and essential core evolutionary cycles of essences we discover through our experiences. These themes are alive and show up in all of life in the Universe. I will explain further about my views and experiences of Archetypes I have, personally, and during my 45 years of observation and contemplation in psychological practice, in blog posts and videos.
My booklet and card set "Mirrors to your Soul, Keys to unlock Divine Archetypal Portals" is also about this viewpoint.
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I approach life from an archetypal psychological perspective, guided by psychology, astrology, mythology, dreams, symbols (and the use of symbol - systems) and synchronicities, which all illuminate my soul with insights form an all-inclusive viewpoint.
I use archetypes as a cosmic map of the psyche’s potential, of which I see the transitioning of the psyche’s movement through cycles of development and archetypal themes as a compass that orients us to focus on the immediate path towards consciousness about a specific discovery on our overall life journey. A deep understanding of Archetypal cycles, helps orient us in the practical application of the these deep insights in our life to heal and grow.
Every person is a multidimensional composite of personalized archetypal expressions that keep on evolving as they allow and cooperate with opportunities to evolve, which contribute to the evolution of collective consciousness too.
Our dreams, physical symptoms and problems are clues and metaphors of these Archetypal themes that come into our lives to lead us to healing, understanding and growth. Archetypal themes are universal human learning and healing opportunities when we understand them. It underlies and drives the evolution of all consciousness.
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The study of symbol systems and Archetypes gives me an understanding of evolving processes, phases and patterns, within nature and the human psyche, which I incorporate with my scientific knowledge. Universal patterns and processes, known as Archetypes, are collective but also individual. Archetypes are symbolic in essence. Symbolism is the domain of the subconscious mind. Integrating ancient wisdom with the sciences brings about a new understanding and creativity that lies beyond a linear application of information.
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The Purpose of Creativity:
Joseph Campbell writes about art and artists: "Studio techniques alone, not only are of no use, but also may mislead even the gifted craftsman himself."
It is rather the elevation of mind and eye, above desire, loathing or fear, that brings the way of art into relation to that of the mystic: that opens one's heart to see what the soul wants us to see. This is a practice that I describe in my 'Mirrors to your Soul' tool.
Campbell quotes William Blake saying that “the doors of perception are cleansed, and everything appears to man as it is, infinite”, when art transcends physical, or human vision. We need to see with the inner eye and heart. We need to awaken the eye and heart to wonder with imagination to reach what our soul wants to tell us through art, both by doing it and looking at it.
Art is about wholeness, harmony and radiance according to Campbell.
Wholeness is what contains all the parts of the story that is revealed.
Harmony is the rhythm, or composition of the arrangement of parts that tells the story.
Radiance is the authentic recognition of reality by artist and observer of the art. The heart is touched when an archetype is recognized.
The artist is the seer and prophet of their own development and that of life’s evolution. Because the artist recognizes and expresses the archetypal truths, where action follows insight.
The artist sees the world from its centre: in a sacred manner, void of all desires, fears and commitment to ideologies; all that which interferes with the soul’s message of creating reality. Building an innovative life is what our soul is here to do.
The artist observes the world from the 'centre of existence'. T.S. Elliot describes that 'centre of the world' at the ‘still point.'
‘We find that the unconscious connects us to other people and to our entire environment; therefore when we focus a great deal of energy within the inner world, a parallel energy often arises in the people or situations around us. In this way we can do healing through our inner work that we never could have done through external means.'
Inner Work, R. A. Johnson. Harper 1986.
Astrology
“Astrology takes us into the very heart of life – it is at once intuitive and intellectual, down-to earth and deeply magical, a system of thought and a very pragmatic tool: a philosophy of an interconnected earth and sky which over the centuries has inspired both scientists and artists, and is capable of describing and illuminating every stratum of life on earth, from the workings of the individual human psyche to the rhythms and cycles of the natural environment.
Its roots are to be found in the ancient world – the star lore and astronomy of Mesopotamia and the philosophy and mathematics of the ancient Greeks, brought together and planted in the fertile intellectual soil of Hellenistic Alexandria in the centuries just before and after Christ. Carried by the Arabs following the collapse of ancient Greece and Rome, it was transmitted into Europe in the early Middle Ages via Islamic scholars and became recognized as one of the pillars of Western magical thinking, along with alchemy and Kabbalah. Falling out of favor in the Age of Enlightenment, which emphasized rationality and scientific observation as the routes to knowledge, astrology re-emerged in the later part of the 19th century, encouraged by the founding of the Theosophical Society and a growing interest in alternative spirituality and ancient wisdom. In the 20th and 21st centuries, astrology has come of age, enriched by the depth psychology of Carl Jung, the humanistic spirituality and psychology of Dane Rudhyar and the inimitable work of Alan Leo, Charles Carter, Liz Greene, Howard Sasportas and others who have been in the vanguard of its rebirth as a subject worthy of serious attention and study.
It is an immensely rewarding subject – a potent language of archetypal symbols which becomes particularly powerful when used in a modern psychological context. It is this marriage of the archetypal, the magical and the psychological….”
Written by Carole Taylor, Director of Studies © Faculty of Astrological Studies, Exeter College, Oxford, UK, February 2013.