Book excerpt: "The energy of Eros is powerful--alluring, fascinating, compelling. Many people--especially those who are single or celibate by choice or by circumstance--struggle with the containment of erotic energies. Many people in all walks of life wonder how sexuality and spirituality can live together in harmony. The instinctual energy of Eros and the compelling archetype of Self fire and guide the desires that lead to psychological growth and ultimate spiritual development." "These issues were central to Jung as he began to formulate his theories over against Freud's. The Fires of Desire explores the consequences of Jung's split with Freud over the nature of libido as sexual energy and describes the vicissitudes of that energy's unfolding. The central question is: What is the nature of erotic energy and how may it be transmuted? Just as Jung looked to mythology and the alchemical mysteries of medieval Europe to find answers from the realm of the deep psyche, today one continues to wonder: How is the lead of life transformed into gold? How are ordinary erotic energies transmuted into the passionate yearning that leads the soul to mystical union with the Divine?" "In this book leading Jungians--psychotherapists, analysts, educators, and theologians--revisit the issue that created the Freud/Jung split and attempt to reformulate our understanding of Eros in relation to Spirit. The Fires of Desire follows a developmental path depicting human experience. It marks out the similarities and differences between psychosis and mystical experience. It sketches the structure of feminine and masculine development. It looks at the process of psychospiritual growth and at the transformations of religious experience. In addressing the essential question of the transmutation of erotic energy, it asks: After therapy, what then? In its answer, it delineates four stages in the quest for the Divine and describes the nature of conjunctio or mystical union."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved