Jung and the Ancestors: Beyond Biography, Mending the Ancestral Web

An exploration of the ways in which the ancestors, from the archetypal to the personal, influence us in the present and implicate us in lives of subsequent generations. At a time when interest in family ancestry has never been greater, Sandra Easter’s book introduces us to a powerful mode of psychological inquiry that engages the ancestors as living presences shaping who we are and the lives we live.

Expanding the traditional focus of depth psychology beyond the realm of personal biography, the author finds evidence of the ancestors in dreams, visions, and symptoms of illness, and in nature and the land on which we live. Interweaving theory and practice, and drawing skillfully on C. G. Jung’s work and personal reflections, the book is rich with real-life examples of women who, by establishing dialogues with the ancestors, have been able to work through personal and generational trauma and wounds, healing themselves and those in their ancestral lines. By exploring the unconscious psyche as the ancestral “land of the dead,” Easter argues we can also find greater meaning for our lives and better understand our own personal myth.

Jung and the Ancestors is an important contribution to depth psychology, focusing on an area of Jung’s thought largely overlooked, yet rendered increasingly significant in the wake of the publication of The Red Book. Easter’s work will change the way you understand yourself and your relationship to those in your past and your future.