These essays are reflections from a lifetime of listening, to dreams, fairy tales, symbolic images, and the unfolding life of the psyche. Together they explore grief, imagination, consciousness, and the wisdom hidden within ordinary experience.
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Rembrandt, Philosopher in Meditation, 1632. An elder, a window of light, a spiral staircase. Enter through The Library Within the Spiral Staircase
Staying with the Image
Consciousness, Artificial Intelligence, and the Creative Unconscious in an Age of Collapse
Presented by Lois E. Wilkins, PhD, APRN, at Pacifica Graduate Institute’s Goddess-Makers 2026: Oracles of the Creative in an Age of Collapse.
The presentation begins with an image that has accompanied me for more than fifty years. I had spent many of those years wondering what the image meant. Gradually, another question became more important. What might happen if, instead of trying to explain the image, I simply remained in relationship with it?
Recording courtesy of Pacifica Graduate Institute. Watch on YouTube
When Old Tales Awaken
Fairy Tales for the Life We Are Living Now
Old fairy tales meet contemporary life. Through Sleeping Beauty, The Golden Bird, Frau Holle, and Kevin the Mouse, Lois explores retreat, silence, procrastination, and elderhood, and what these ancient stories still know about the lives we are living now.
- IntroThe Library Within◆
- IContemporary Life◆
- IIThe Voice Goes Quiet◆
- IIIThe Golden Bird◆
- IVThe Moon Does Not Retire◆
Take a book from the shelf to open it.
IContemporary Life and Fairy Tale WisdomSleeping Beauty
IIWhen the Voice Goes QuietThe Six Swans
IIIThe Golden Bird: When Thinking Becomes the Golden CageThe Golden Bird
IVThe Moon Does Not RetireFrau Holle
Illustrations by Otto Ubbelohde for the Grimm tales, 1906–1909.
Begin the SeriesIn Relationship with the Daimon
A reflection on the daimon, discernment, and elderhood. Lois explores what changes when we stop trying to negotiate with the psyche and begin listening to what has been asking for our attention throughout a life.
ReadAfter the Long Hot Summer
Through the Grimm tale Mother Holle, Lois reflects on harvest after a demanding season. What changes when the psyche no longer asks us only to endure, but to recognize what has ripened, receive what has grown, and mourn what did not?
ReadHermetic Philosophy and Creative Alchemy
A depth psychological assessment of Marlene Seven Bremner’s study of Hermetic philosophy, alchemical symbolism, and the transformative role of imagination. Less a book about Hermetic thought than a book about cultivating a symbolic attitude toward existence — moving from explanation to participation, from analysis to imagination.
ReadThe Sky Speaks
An exploration of UFOs, AI, synchronicity, and Jungian psychology that asks what these images reveal about the human psyche. Rather than debating whether extraordinary phenomena are literally real, the essay explores how symbols orient us toward meaning, reverence, and a consciousness larger than the ego.
ReadWriting with Inner Figures
An exploration of imagination as a living psychological process through the figures of Kevin the Mouse and Solis. Drawing on Jung, Hillman, von Franz, and the Holographic Mind Model, Lois argues that inner figures are not fantasies to explain away but symbolic companions that deepen relationship, creativity, and the unfolding of consciousness.
ReadHolding Tears
A reflection on grief, caregiving, and the symbolic power of fairy tales. Through Kevin the Mouse, Lois explores how stories can accompany sorrow, not by resolving it, but by helping us remain present with what cannot yet be healed.
ReadThe Meadow and the Dog Park
A reflection on integrating numinous experiences into everyday life. Using the image of a meadow and a dog park, Lois explores how genuine spiritual and symbolic encounters are fulfilled not through escape, but through faithful embodiment in ordinary living.
ReadThe Ethics of Symbolic Containment: Sigils, Images, and the Responsibility of Holding
When a dream, symbol, or sacred image appears, our first instinct is often to explain it. But what if its true purpose is not interpretation, but containment? Lois explores the ethics of symbolic life, and why the deepest images ask us to remain present rather than rush toward certainty.
ReadThe Wisdom Found in Chaos
Chaos is often treated as something to escape. But what if it is the very place where wisdom begins? Drawing on alchemy, Greek mythology, and depth psychology, Lois explores how uncertainty can become the fertile ground for transformation, discernment, and hope.
ReadThe Brothers Grimm Fairy Tale Series
Fairy tales are more than children’s stories, they are enduring maps of the human psyche. Through newly translated Brothers Grimm tales, original illustrations, and Jungian commentary, this series uncovers the timeless psychological wisdom hidden within these classic narratives.
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