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The author is a well-published academic from Melbourne, Australia, best known for Jung and the New Age . This book was first published in Australia in 1995. This is the first international edition; chapters one, two and three are new, as is chapter 10. I learnt about the liminal spaces between ecology, psychology, spirituality and about ‘the greening of analysis’. I particularly enjoyed the last section and final chapter (11) on ‘Tracking the sacred’, with its wise guidance on how symbol-making skills can help reinstate the spiritual in our increasingly troubled world.
The book divides into four sections: psyche and earth, going native in Africa and Australia, the psyche down below and spiritual renewal. The author shares his lived experience, which is deeply engaging. For example, hearing the term ‘Mother Earth’ at primary school created a timeless moment in which meaning transformed (p. 11); he could experience ‘Earth as Mother’, not simply as a projection, but as lived and felt through a boy's skin. His account of growing up in Alice Springs poignantly captures being lost and re-found within ‘Mother Earth's’ culture, accepting the blessings of the land from native Australians whom he knew. I'd love to have read more (chapter 4).
Tacey examines ideas prevalent in the ‘thirties within analytical psychology, about the influence of landscape on culture, based on Jung's excursions. Saying that much of Jung's culture, style and language is imprecise and grates to contemporary readers is helpful, but the nettle of his cultural lordliness could be more firmly grasped. The author might have drawn more widely on post-Jungian ideas; Andrew Samuels’ work on ‘resacralizing society’ or even ‘Death of a Princess’—which accounts for a different sort of ‘Dreamtime’.