Down to Earth: An Alchemical Hermeneutic Arts-Based Self-Study

• Author / Creator

  Marie Katherine Butler

• This research has occurred over a twenty-one year span, most intensely during this past year. At twenty-six years old, after sighting a Bent Willow Chair, I became completely enchanted with creating with the willow tree. During the same period I moved to Northern Saskatchewan where the willow tree in its boreal forest eco-system awakened in me a new spirituality. This thesis tells the story in the power of this awakening by engaging in the questions, “How does the willow tree call and reclaim the feminine voice? What is the power in this reclamation?” The willow tree invited me to enter an imaginal place where I always felt the presence of an ancient matriarch who held me in her wisdom, compassion, peace and unconditional love. This space became my lifeline. Eco-Art Therapy and storytelling lead the path to the cornerstone of my literature research, Jungian depth psychology. Diving deeply into the archetypes at play in both the silencing and reclaiming of my voice has been entirely transformational. The transformation has occurred in the realm of healing a split between masculine and feminine values. What began for me as an enchanted encounter has now embodied my way of life as a woman.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Eco-Art Therapy
  • Storytelling
  • Spirituality
  • Healing transformation

• Graduation date

  2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Psychotherapy and Spirituality (Art Therapy Specialization)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3VD6PK1D

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.