Carl Jung once warned of “the frightening spectacle of an apocalyptic world situation” taking shape within and around us (CW 10, §727). Such a vision can overwhelm us with anxiety and even despair—desperare, “away from hope.” Despair, fear, and hope are emotional lenses through which we approach the future, yet only hope offers consolation, inspiration, and a glimpse of something not yet revealed.

To travel the path of hope—to navigate the flight of this “thing with feathers”—is often arduous. In a sermon reflecting on acceptance versus fatalism, Martin Luther King, Jr. articulated this tension with enduring clarity: “We must accept finite disappointment but never give up infinite hope.” Hope does not deny suffering; rather, it allows us to endure it without surrendering meaning.

Tolerating uncertainty is essential to hope, and hope in turn enables us to live with what remains unknown. We cultivate hope by engaging our vast inner world of ancient yet living symbols, a process long emphasized in depth psychology. Conversely, hope itself creates the psychic space and courage necessary to imagine transformation—both within the individual and in the collective world that surrounds us.