JANET CURCIO WILSON, M.Ed. ATR

Janet Curcio Wilson is a PhD Candidate at Pacifica Graduate School studying Depth Psychology. She is an Art Therapist, Retired Art and Special Education Educator and a Certified Consulting Hypnotist. She is currently in private practice in New Hampshire where she lives with her husband, Bob and their three companions: Red Dawg, a large red fox Labrador, Romeo, their tuxedo cat and Katniss, their sweet grey tabby.

Janet’s practice incorporates Nature Therapy through fishing, frog-catching and Mother-Tree meditations, honoring the potable 34-acre pond in the woods, where they live. Janet says, “We sleep to the sounds of owls mating or loons singing. As I watch the sunset over the foothills of the white mountains I communicate with my muse, Philomena. She provides respite, cushioning difficulties between the folds of our natural surroundings.”

Janet is a self-trained artist by choice. Trained under Don Jones and Bruce Moon in Art Therapy, she uses psychoanalytically understood Gestalt processing, designed to elicit unconscious stirrings within her clients. This technique prefers raw art for the soulful and unguarded honesty of the untrained artist. Janet’s artwork accompanied Joseph Campbell’s 1981 lecture on The Archetypes Within the Tarot held at The Fountain Street Church in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

JAGUAR SHADOW
(Pastel 36" High x 26.5" Wide)

Facing one’s shadow requires ego strength consummate to one’s character. The unconscious mind, when faced headlong, yields such light through self-realization from out of the darkness. Jaguar emerges silently, stealthfully, beaconing soul forces to ignite within us. The process of creating shadow art helps us to tame the amygdala, or at least holding it at bay, long enough to become familiar with the subtle nuances of pain breathing through the darkness. This process then, paves a pathway to the numinous and the blue lotus emerges as a balancing force. Numerous sources suggest in Buddhism, the blue lotus symbolizes the victory of spirit over the senses of intelligence, wisdom and knowledge. It is also a symbol of rebirth and resurrection. The blue lotus is the rarest of the lotus flowers and was the most revered plant in ancient India and Eqypt.

So, what does it mean to “attain victory over intelligence, wisdom and knowledge?” To answer this question, one must look at the amorphous nature of the shadow. It is fluid, changing, moving, dark, often difficult to see or grasp and has the capacity to inspire great fear. Facing shadow through authentic drawing and painting requires deep listening to the soulful musings of one’s inner Self, as a means of going beyond ego, intellectualization, and perceptions of what we think we know to be true. Instead, to meet shadow in this manner, requires us to feel the pain, cry the agony, and to mire around in discontent long enough for shadow to find us receptive to its archetypal strength. Then, imagery arises and it is up to us to capture its resolve; to “attain victory…” Intellect alone is no match. One must allow Jung’s active imagination to provide the portal into unresolved or previously unknown feelings, dreams, which, in turn, enliven mythopoetic and archetypal imagery. Jaguar and blue lotus, for me, is one such image.

The Art Therapy method I used to create Jaguar Shadow I created and have named it, Authentic Hypnoart. By employing a combination of hypnosis and expressive art, individuals find, not only their innate abilities to create artistic imagery without formal art instruction, but also like Carl Jung, they find meaningful access into their own unconscious imaginal dialogue.

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