The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective Transforming Trauma and the Wellsprings of Renewal

The Mystical Exodus in Jungian Perspective explores the soul loss that results from personal, collective, and transgenerational trauma and the healing that unfolds through reconnection with the sacred. Personal narratives of disconnection from and reconnection to Jewish collective memory are illuminated by millennia of Jewish mystical wisdom, contemporary Jewish Renewal and feminist theology, and Jungian and trauma theory.

The archetypal resonance of the Exodus story guides our exploration. Understanding exile as disconnection from the Divine Self, we follow Moses, keeper of the spiritual fire, and Serach bat Asher, preserver of ancestral memory. We encounter the depths with Joseph, touch collective grief with Lilith, experience the Red Sea crossing and Miriam?s well as psychological rebirth and Sinai as the repatterning of traumatized consciousness.

Tracing the reawakening of the qualities of eros and relatedness on the journey out of exile, the book demonstrates how restoring and deepening relationship with the Sacred Feminine helps us to transform collective trauma.

This text will be key reading for scholars of Jewish studies, Jungian and post-Jungian studies, feminist spirituality, trauma studies, Jungian analysts and psychotherapists, and those interested in healing from personal and collective trauma.

Cover art: 'Radiance' by Elaine Greenwood

Chapter One: The Beloved, Knocking. PART I: An Historical Overview of Jewish Mysticism and Psychology (On One Foot). Chapter Two: Renewing Jewish Mysticism. Chapter Three: Judaism and Psychology. PART II: Rupture. Chapter Four: Exile. PART III: The Awakening. Chapter Five: Women, Copper Mirrors, and Awakening from the Trance of Exile. Chapter Six: Moses and Awakening the Spiritual Fire. Chapter Seven: Shattered Vessels, Scattered Seeds. PART IV: The Healing. Chapter Eight: Serach Bat Asher and Healing the Ruptured Bridge to Collective Memory. Chapter Nine: Joseph—Light out of Darkness. Chapter Ten: Lilith, the Dark Feminine, and the Redemptive Power of Grief. PART V: The Promise. Chapter Eleven: The Watery Initiation and Learning to Trust the Ground of Being. Chapter Twelve: The Fiery Initiation and Moving

Shoshana Fershtman,JD, PhD, is a Jungian analyst and psychologist in Sonoma County, California, USA. She is a member analyst and teaches at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, and served as core faculty at the Sonoma State University Depth Psychology program. She has studied Jewish mysticism with teachers from the Jewish Renewal and Reconstructing Judaism movements, and has taught extensively on Jewish mysticism, transgenerational trauma, and the Sacred Feminine. Her work as an attorney focused on advocacy for environmental and social justice and indigenous rights.