When the Gods Are Our Parents: Exploring the Somatic and Numinous Pull of Parental Complexes

This talk explores the unconscious gravitational pull toward our parents that persists long after reason tells us it’s futile, even after they’ve transitioned. Drawing on Jung, von Franz, and Edinger, Jane will examine how parental complexes retain numinous, god-like power in the psyche, organizing our emotional and somatic lives and keeping us orbiting our parents through longing, rebellion, or endless attempts to be seen.

Jane proposes that what we are truly seeking is not the human parent, but the archetypal Parent, the Self, misplaced onto our earthly caregivers and stuck there due to developmental trauma or attachment wounds. Through Jungian Somatics™, this presentation traces how individuation begins when the parental imago is transformed from a living god into a symbol of the Self, allowing a new center of gravity to emerge, and liberating the psyche to orient toward a more authentic, soul-directed life.