Breakfast with Jung
Exploring Carl Jung's ideas through poetry and song
What if your morning coffee was actually communion with eternity?
Breakfast with Jung turns Carl Jung's psychology into poems and songs. From the collective unconscious to the shadow, from the persona to the authentic Self, it explores the architecture of the human psyche through poetry that refused to stay on the page.
Each poem began on a journey that deepened on the Camino de Santiago and continued across the hills of Waiheke Island — much of it written in the Poetry Cabin. Every poem becomes a song.
135 poems. Nine chapters. Three books.
Welcome to breakfast. The conversation begins now.
"An extraordinary and illuminating Jungian project… Stephen's nailed it. This is a considerable achievement and a rare one."
— Michael Harlow, Jungian therapist and poet; Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry, 2018
The Trilogy
Book One — The Inherited · September 2027
The Collective Unconscious · The Shadow · Archetypes
Book Two — The Work · March 2028
The Persona · Anima and Animus · Individuation
Book Three — Beyond the Self · September 2028
Synchronicity · The Self · Dreams and Active Imagination
Each book is a book of poems with its own album of songs, released alongside it.
From the first poem
At dawn’s ragged edge, my kitchen becomes
A temple of ordinary prophecies
Coffee grounds like black diviner’s sand
Messages from the dead burned into toast
In this kitchen, we are all time travellers,
Breaking bread with our unborn children,
While the dead pour tea with trembling hands
And tomorrow whispers in our marrow.
Read the full poem on the Poetry page →
Listen
Forty-nine Breakfast with Jung songs are already out.
Spotify playlist · SoundCloud collection · Watch the sample on YouTube
Breakfast with Jung is the biggest project of my life. It has taken more than two years so far. Without help, it will take another three at least — a fractured process, poems stolen from the late hours. For a humble artist, a work this size is slow and costly to carry alone. With your help, all three books will be in your hands by September 2028.
Meet the mentor: Michael Harlow
Breakfast with Jung is being shaped with the guidance of Michael Harlow — poet, Jungian therapist, editor and art therapist, and recipient of the Prime Minister's Award for Literary Achievement in Poetry (2018).
Michael works through the manuscript with me chapter by chapter, helping Jung grow as a single character across all three books — what he calls "whole-book territory… a true narrative."
"Stephen is on a journey called Individuation: to become the person he is destined to become… That is to say, Soul Making."
— Michael Harlow
Take a seat at the Breakfast Table
Only 100 seats per book. Your name printed in the book, a signed copy, and early access to the songs — or one of six Chief's Seats, with a poem written just for you. A seat can be a gift, or taken in memory of someone you love.
