03/08/2026
I completed the requirements for my Master of Science in Consciousness, Spirituality and Transpersonal Psychology about a month ago. since then I’ve been in recovery mode. It was quite exhausting. I needed a little break but am now ready to share the findings of my research with you. A requirement of the Research Dissertation was a 1,000 word blog post. I have posted that on my website and share the beginning of it with you below, you can read the full blog on my website. If you are interested in the full dissertation please let me know and I’ll send you a link. 😊
Losing a loved one: reconciling the shadow of rationality
Long before the modern, rational, materialist era, there was an age of reverence. It was a time when we honoured the feminine, the unseen dimensions of life, and our sacred connection to the earth. People lived in harmony with the shifting seasons, the cosmos, and the natural rhythms of birth, decay, and rebirth.
Anne Baring’s search for the roots of human suffering led her deep into the past, to a period around 4,000 years ago when, she argues, humanity underwent a profound shift—from what she calls the Great Mother to the Great Father. This new “solar age” was the era commonly associated with the rise of civilization. But at what cost? From this point onward, qualities and values associated with the Great Mother were increasingly diminished and devalued. This included death as a natural part of life.
The defining characteristics of Baring’s “solar age” find a parallel in Iain McGilchrist’s work on the historical imbalance between the brain’s two hemispheres. McGilchrist argues that Western culture has increasingly privileged the left hemisphere, with its narrow, focused perspective that seeks certainty through reason, rules, and analysis.
The lesser-used right hemisphere offers a more wholistic view. It is attuned to context, ambiguity, emotion, the unconscious and recognises death as part of the fabric of life. Death is the ultimate challenge to the left hemisphere’s need for control, and therefore it becomes taboo.
www.yogafromtheinside.com.au/research
