Crop Circles, Jung, and the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine

My Q&A wih Gary S. Bobroff

Brought to you by North Atlantic Books

1. What was your prime motivation and inspiration to create your new book, “Crop Circles, Jung, and the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine”?

It’s very exciting to discover the abundance of science and archival historic record that demonstrates that there’s a genuine mystery before us (that’s chapters 1 and 2 of the book) and that’s fun to share, but the key to my interest is the psychological/symbolic meaning of the phenomenon in general. Much of what I look at is what’s there for us in terms of meaning that we’re not grasping. My work is about offering a platform by which readers can deepen their own appreciation of the meaning of this mysterious phenomenon.

2. What is your perception on Crop circles and how they are possibly created and the symbolism they portray?

I look at the mystery of Crop Circles as though it were a dream and the world is the dreamer–how then when we look for meaning? There’s many people out there looking for so-called solutions (or excuses to explain away the phenomenon) but very few looking toward how we might best approach it’s meaning for us today. The science and history of the phenomenon make clear that there is an Other that is creating Crop Circles, who or what that Other is, is not my prime interest. I’m interested in how we receive the phenomenon or fail to do so, how much of ourselves, our whole selves (including our heart, imagination and courage), do we bring to our reception of it?

Approaching the symbolic meaning of the phenomenon there are two primary constituent elements: circle & grain. Jung made clear that inside the human psyche, the circle is the most basic form of the mandala image, the Self, that part of us that seeks our growth, our connection to inner source and our recovery from imbalance. Grain is strongly associated with the archetypal Feminine, the miracle of life, the seed which dies and is reborn, the wonder of the expression of life throughout Nature. Our culture has lost it’s connection to this energy and instead lives in an imbalance toward archetypal Masculine ways of knowing that emphasize separation, objectivity and linear solutions. This imbalance has us very high on ourselves and imagining that we have all the answers and effectively allergic to mystery. As this profound imbalance is the dominant illness of our time, it’s no wonder that we face an expression of mystery in a media which symbolic of the archetypal Feminine.

3. How does Jung fit into your research and could you share some thoughts on him with us?

While the book is for general readership, it’s also an exercise in applied Jungian psychology. I explain Jung’s concepts in a way that everyone can understand and use the depth of his work to open up the deeper possibilities of meaning inherent in Crop Circles. Jung tells us that plant symbols point in “downward way, yin, the earth and the darkness of humanity” and that “the most profound problem afflicting the human psyche [is] an imbalance which favours masculine principles and archetypes over feminine ones.” Those two quotes alone point us in a meaningful direction.

In addition, I was led to discover documents which come as close as we’re ever going to get to discovering how Jung himself would’ve interpreted Crop Circles. After I finished writing a Master’s thesis on this topic, I found, on a dusty shelf in a Santa Barbara library, a pamphlet which contained dream images painted by Irene Champernowne, an art therapist in the English countryside, in 1951 which depict a UFO, feminine figures and swirling grain. Irene’s dream paintings were interpreted primarily by Toni Wolff (Jung’s closest companion) and later by Emma and Carl Jung. All felt that there was something deeply profound about the images and Carl chose one of them to be the cover of his book on UFO’s. Toni’s interpretation addressed the shift in the ages that we’re living through today and the need for a renewed contact with the archetypal Feminine.

4. Would you explain what you mean by the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine?

The archetypal Feminine and Masculine refer to psychological qualities that are inherent throughout Nature. Some prefer the term Lunar and Solar (or yin and yang). All of us, men and women alike, carry these both of these qualities and each of them has a shadow expression. While we can never fully express or exhaust the possibilities in an archetype, we gain sight of them very often through their polar differences. So, in the case, we can see the Masculine in its preference for separation, distinction, objectivity and the Feminine for connection, context, depth, feeling and mystery. The Masculine prefers certainty, knowing and solutions. The Feminine is able to hold all the pieces even when they don’t fit easily into a linear package. Both are required for psychological health.

Today our relation to the Feminine is a shadow one. The wonder of the miracle of life is repressed in us, denied in most of our cultural institutions and rarely honoured. Our children believe that food ‘comes from’ the store. Our Thanksgiving celebrations are closely related to the orgy of materialism that is holiday shopping. In Latin, mater means mother and that word is the root of the English words matter and materialism. We can see our shadow hunger for connection to the archetypal Feminine in our inexhaustible compulsive materialism. A healthy connection to this energy would require an authentic, full bodied emotional creative participation with that quality–a genuine heartfelt giving of thanks for all that we receive.

I believe the Feminine to be reemergent in the life of our time through increasing interest in things which exist outside of dominant cultural boxes and things which bring us into the body and take us into the mystery. The explosion of yoga and tantra, for example, and all of the interest in synchronicity and the apprehension of meaningful patterns throughout Nature.

5. I have to hear your thoughts on alien life. I have had some pretty significant UFO experiences in my life after being healed from cancer and my father’s death. I talk a lot about this on my show The Church of Mabus and books I’ve written. What is your perspective on alien life visiting Earth and society’s perception of this?

As a young child I witnessed a UFO with my grandmother that was on the front page of our local paper the next day and seen by thousands in our town. I believe, along with the vast majority of the human race today, that alien life is real. The question for me is–what do we mean when we say alien life? I pose that question to you and to everyone that reads my book or attends my talks. What do you really believe about aliens? Are they spiritual, physical, dimensional? Our era offers us no leaders with answers to all of our questions, it’s down to each of us to have our own journey. However, I often see people using their preferred answers to avoid doing the work of really sitting with the questions.

6. Could you share some more thoughts on researchers and Crop circles and what your findings have been and what their struggles consist of?

In the beginning of my book, I give thanks to the many researchers who’ve dedicated their lives and fortunes to pursuing this mystery. Most have given more than they’ll ever get back.

One of the most interesting things that we see in the experiences of Crop Circle researchers are synchronicities between them and formations. Occasionally, during their deepest moments of emotional engagement with the phenomenon, a new formation appears to arrive in response to it. When one of them couldn’t afford to pursue the formations all over England one summer, he got a formation close to his home. When another cried out “why can’t this phenomenon be more direct?”, she received an eyewitness experience. There are more many examples like that and the key unifying feature is the presence of deep emotion.

So we see before us something beautiful, often containing an inner sacred geometry, a question artfully-posed. But who is posing it and why? It would seem that their creator cares about us? Does your view of extraterrestrial life include an answer as to whether or not such beings care about us? If we imagine that we live in a world that doesn’t care about us (as our dominant cultural institutions tell us) then we won’t see reality as having any heart. I believe the quest of our era is the struggle for the recovery of the heart.

8. What are you up to next book wise or projects wise and any links you’d like to share?

Today our culture is on the edge of knowing objectively that we live a world in which consciousness is an ever-present field (like gravity). I’m very proud to be hosting and speaking at the SYNCHRONICITY: Matter & Psyche Symposium featuring Rupert Sheldrake, Graham Hancock, Jill Purce, Richard Tarnas, Marilyn Schlitz, Stephen Aizenstat, Dr. Jim B. Tucker and many more in Joshua Tree, CA, September 12-14 www.MatterPsyche.net. It’s a world-class coming together of pioneers whose work has advanced our understanding of the unity of consciousness and reality. It features art, speakers and a host of embodied practices and is a once-in-a-lifetime gathering of talent. Sheldrake studies extended mind phenomenon in plants and animals and Hancock explores alternate archeology and plant medicines. Both men question the assumptions being made by our institutions. SYNCHRONICITY’s genesis was, in part, TED’s removal of Sheldrake and Hancock’s videos last spring and to be a part of this event is to explore of the real cutting edge of the evolution of consciousness in our time.

My new book, Crop Circles, Jung & the Reemergence of the Archetypal Feminine is out now on North Atlantic books, see more at www.JungAndCropCircles.net