Hillman

He seems to stroll slowly, effortlessly to the stage but another look reveals him pressing his right hand into his cane and pulling his right leg forward and locking it in before the next step. I am reminded of the image of Geras, the god of aging, with the curved cane. Hillman arrived early so he would be seated before the particpants arrived. He hesitated at the step to the stage as someone moved out of a group to offer his arm so Hillman could grab it and climb up. Hillman drew himself up onto the stage and walked to his seat. His head did not match his body. His hair was white and thin at the top but his eyes were clear and open and excited. He sat next to Stanton Marlon whose book on the alchemy of the Black Sun was well recieved by the analytic community. There were 5 other guests Hillman handpicked for the panel from all over the world. They talked about image and archetype. Hillman reveals he hates the term archetypal psychology though he admits inventing it. He is particularly engaged with an analyst from Japan whose English is difficult. Hillman passes the conversation often to him but it isn't clear whether the man from Japan understood the thread of the conversation. Hillman tries to explain a concept he and the gentleman had been discussing earlier that day, the idea that he is already living in the afterlife. Hillman and this man enjoy this idea together. Then the man from Japan tries to explain the difference between Japan and the United States. American archery is more interested in hitting the target and how many times and how close to the bull's eye. The man stood up and assumed the form of the archer and then said, "The Japanese archer is more interested in the form he assumes before the arrow leaves him." The man stood there in position silently. Hillman was impressed. So it is the image before death that represents the life. This is why in the Japanese how someone dies is very important and will have influence on the afterlife. I once had a nurse tell me when she arrived to a home of a Japanese patient who had been struggling for breath. When the nurse took his blood pressure the patient suddenly took his last breath. The family believed the nurse helped his spirit leave his body to be in peace and the person's spirit came out through his last breath. You could not convince the family otherwise had you tried. In a way their perception of death was much more poetic than western medicine would allow. In the west there is only death. Nothing more. And since there is no afterlife then how someone dies doesn't matter. Dying in a state of shame is the worse thing for the Japanese. I did not see Hillman again until I was leaving and he was walking by himself from the elevators to the conference hall. I said hello to him and addressed him as Dr. Hillman. He smiled and said hello. Anywhere else, with anyone else he would have just been another old man walking with a cane trying very hard not to fall.