TO CROSS THE GREAT WATER

A Conversation with Marion Woodman

Jill Mellick

The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal

May 2006, Vol. 25, No. 2, Pages 66–89

This conversation between friends, co-authors, and colleagues, Marion Woodman and Jill Mellick, explores the role of great bodies of water in their lives, with particular focus on Woodman's personal history. They explore: Woodman's perception of water's physiological, physical role in her life and its transformative symbolic role in her dreams; its function as a liminal space and source of being, inspiration, and restoration; its function as a carrier and bridge between cultures, particularly between the colonial cultures of Canada, Australia and England in the 1950s and 1970s; its role in choices of where to live, work, and retreat, with special reference to the Woodmans' island, ShaSha, in Georgian Bay, Ontario; water's role in literature and film, with special reference to the film “The Piano.” Particular mention is made of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, Georgian Bay (Canada), Stradbroke Island (Australia), Pajaro Dunes (Northern California), and the Zurichsee (Switzerland).