Thunder and Tenderness

From my upcoming book"Breakfast with Jung: Chapter 3 - The Father Archetype"

What happens when corporate power meets tenderness? When the boardroom executive still remembers how to fold paper planes from tax forms?
This song explores Carl Jung's Father Archetype through the dual nature of paternal energy—the thunder of authority and the whisper of vulnerability. Watch a father move through his day: ironing prophecies into dress shirts, signing permission slips with ink mixed from sweat and sacrifice, then coming home to practice wonder at the window.
The Great Father stands at civilization's threshold, his shoulders broad as history itself. But hidden in his desk drawer? A secret diary where he's taking night classes in how to be a child again.
"His adam's apple, a planet swallowing pride" From Excel sheets to infinite tenderness, from briefcase to cartwheeling dreams—this track asks: Which father-voice guides you home? The one who carries thunder, or the one learning to play hopscotch with his fears?

An uplifting anthem that merges folk-rock energy with psychological depth, celebrating how authentic fatherhood embraces both strength and softness, authority and innocence.
🎵 Part of the "Breakfast with Jung" collection - transforming Jungian psychology into music
📖 A 40-year theatre educator's journey from poetry to song

THUNDER and TENDERNESS   ( Lyrics )

The Great Father stands in the kitchen of civilizations 
His vertebrae stacked like ancient stories 
Shoulders broad as history's threshold
His hands, mapped with work's geography 
Still remember how to fold paper planes from tax forms 
How to turn a bandage into a blessing
Watch how he transforms (How he transforms!)
Thunder and tenderness (Thunder and tenderness!)
Which father-voice guides you home? (Guides you home!)
The Great Father smiles through office doors, 
His wisdom spiraling through everything—thunder and tenderness, 
Learning to play again
Each morning he irons prophecies into his shirts, 
Straightens that silk tie that binds generations
At the office, fluorescent lights crown his head 
Like corporate thorns
He signs humanity's permission slips with ink mixed from sweat and sacrifice
Watch how he transforms—boardroom thunder to bedtime whispers, 
His adam's apple, a planet swallowing pride
Watch how he transforms (How he transforms!)
Thunder and tenderness (Thunder and tenderness!)
Briefcase and burning bush (Burning bush!)
Which father-voice guides you home? (Guides you home!)
The Great Father smiles through office doors
His wisdom spiraling through everything
thunder and tenderness, learning to play again
Until one day, cleaning his desk, you find his secret diary
He's been taking night classes in how to be a child again
Each evening, after Excel sheets, he practices wonder 
At the window, learns to rebuild his own innocence
Watch how he transforms (How he transforms!)
Thunder and tenderness (Thunder and tenderness!)
Briefcase and burning bush (Burning bush!)
Which father-voice guides you home? (Guides you home!)
The Great Father smiles through office doors, his wisdom spiraling 
Through everything—from timesheet to infinite tenderness 
From briefcase to these cartwheeling dreams
The one who carries thunder (Carries thunder!)
Or the one who's learning (Who's learning!)
To play hopscotch with his fears? (With his fears!)
Thunder and tenderness (Tender, tender)
Learning to play again
Cartwheel through corporate karma (Corporate karma)
Which father-voice guides you home? (Guides you home)
Thunder and tenderness

#BreakfastWithJung #FatherArchetype #JungianPsychology #FolkRock #PoetryMusic #CarlJung #Fatherhood #SFHmusic

Thunder and Tenderness

THUNDER AND TENDERNESS

What if the supermarket became a sacred temple? 
What if pushing a shopping cart was actually communion with the eternal feminine? This folk-soul meditation explores Carl Jung's Mother Archetype through the fluorescent-lit aisles of an ordinary grocery store. Between produce and dairy, the universe unfolds—trolley wheels spiral through space-time, organic milk births galaxies, and the Great Mother's fingerprints bloom in the purple-bruised velvet of a peach.
At the spice rack, cinnamon and cardamom release ancient whispers thick with memory—grandmother's kitchen, where love was measured in pinches and palms. Her wide hands move through yours like ghosts as you scoop bulk-bin rice, each grain a tiny pearl of sustenance.
"Watch how bone remembers"
Grounded in fingerpicked acoustic guitar with upright bass, subtle tabla, Irish fiddle touches for ancestral memory, and call-and-response gospel energy—this track transforms the mundane into the mythic, revealing how maternal wisdom spirals through everything from sourdough starter to our own soft breath. From "Breakfast with Jung: Chapter 4 - The Mother Archetype"
What if the supermarket became a sacred temple? What if pushing a shopping cart was actually communion with the eternal feminine?
This folk-soul meditation explores Carl Jung's Mother Archetype through the fluorescent-lit aisles of an ordinary grocery store. Between produce and dairy, the universe unfolds—trolley wheels spiral through space-time, organic milk births galaxies, and the Great Mother's fingerprints bloom in the purple-bruised velvet of a peach.
At the spice rack, cinnamon and cardamom release ancient whispers thick with memory—grandmother's kitchen, where love was measured in pinches and palms. Her wide hands move through yours like ghosts as you scoop bulk-bin rice, each grain a tiny pearl of sustenance.
"Watch how bone remembers"
Grounded in fingerpicked acoustic guitar with upright bass, subtle tabla, Irish fiddle touches for ancestral memory, and call-and-response gospel energy—this track transforms the mundane into the mythic, revealing how maternal wisdom spirals through everything from sourdough starter to our own soft breath.
The Great Mother smiles through barcodes. She's everywhere. She's always been here.
🎵 Part of "Breakfast with Jung" - transforming Jungian psychology into music
📖 A theatre educator's journey from poetry to song
The Great Mother smiles through barcodes. She's everywhere. She's always been here.
🎵 Part of "Breakfast with Jung" - transforming Jungian psychology into music
📖 A theatre educator's journey from poetry to song


A MOTHERS SMILE   ( Lyrics )

Between produce and dairy at Countdown
The universe enfolds me in fluorescent arms
My trolley wheels spiral through space-time, 
While organic milk births galaxies in aisle four
Her fingerprints bloom in secret corners—
In the purple-bruised velvet of a peach, 
Where juice promises summer's sweetness, 
In shiitake mushrooms dreaming earthy songs
Watch how bone remembers
The Great Mother smiles through barcodes
Her wisdom spiraling through everything
From grandmother's kitchen to my soft breath
Near the spice rack, cinnamon and cardamom 
Release their ancient whispers into the air
Thick with memory—my grandmother's kitchen, 
Where love was measured in pinches and palms
Her wide hands move through mine like ghosts 
As I scoop bulk-bin rice, each grain a tiny pearl of sustenance
The freezer's hum too-ra-loo-ra-loo-ral matches her Irish lullaby
Watch how bone remembers
The Great Mother smiles through barcodes
Her wisdom spiraling through everything
From grandmother's kitchen to my soft breath
Watch how bone remembers
The Great Mother smiles through barcodes
Her wisdom spiraling through everything
From grandmother's kitchen to my soft breath

A Mother Smiles

Mothers Smile


A meditation on the Self as both creator and destroyer, told through the image of citrus fruit falling from a backyard lemon tree. The tree represents Jung's concept of the Self—the totality of the psyche that encompasses both life-giving potential and inevitable loss. As "citrus suns dangle and dream of distant love," we see the Self's creative capacity, while "one by one they thud into the silent earth" reveals the Self's acceptance of all cycles, including endings. The sparse musical arrangement mirrors the spaciousness required for Self-realization—creating room for both beauty and grief to coexist without resistance. From my upcoming book "Breakfast with Jung" Chapter 8 -The Self



THE LEMON TREE ( Lyrics)

In my back garden
Inside a sea of glossy leaves (Glossy leaves)
Citrus suns dangle and dream
Of distant love
Citrus suns dangle and dream
Of distant love (Of distant love)

Mmm-mmm-mmmm
Ahh-ahh-ahhh
Ooh-ooh-mmm, ooh-ooh
Mmm-ahh-ohhh
Ahhh, mmm, ahhh, ahh, ahh
Ooh-mmm-ahh

One by one they thud
Into the silent earth (Silent earth)
One by one they thud
Into the silent earth (Silent earth)

The Lemon Tree

A dual-genre exploration/fusion of memory and identity. The same poem experienced twice—first as intimate beat jazz documentation (typewriter percussion, ragtime piano, grandmother's music box samples), then transformed into euphoric progressive house celebration (synth arpeggios, four-on-the-floor beats, celestial drops). Childhood voice sampled as recurring mantra: "never stopped speaking." Weathered cigar boxes become percussion. Cinnamon-scented photographs dissolve into warm analog textures. The electricity between who you were and who you are—held simultaneously without contradiction. Villages illuminated. Flowers ascending into cloudless skies. Past and present merging in the eternal now.
From my upcoming book "Breakfast with Jung: Chapter 8 - The Self"

Cloudless Skies   ( Lyrics -short form )

Breathe
That childhood voice
Never stopped speaking
Touch
Weathered cigar boxes
Photographs exhaling cinnamon
Grandmother's lotion lingering
Feel
The electricity between
Who you were
Who you are
Your eyes never stopped
Illuminating villages
Where flowers become
Cloudless skies

Cloudless Skies

A fourteen-line journey through Jung's concept of becoming whole. Fragmented mirrors reassemble into selfhood as anima dances with animus, archetypes emerge from depths, ego yields to soul. Each quatrain traces integration's path from shattered pieces through archetypal encounter to transformation. The final couplet spirals: "the true self is lost, and found, and found"—eternal process, not fixed destination. Where shadow meets light, masculine balances feminine, persona falls away revealing what was always there.
From "Breakfast with Jung: Chapter 6 - Individuation"


Individuation Sonnet  ( Lyrics )

Fragmented self, a mirror shattered
Reflects facets, known and shadow
My journey inward, nothing scattered
Can remain. Integrate, grow, flow.
Anima dances with Animus, entwined
Masculine and feminine balance in measure.
Archetypes emerge from depths of mind
To offer wisdom, challenge, treasure.
My ego yields to the call of Soul.
And persona masks fall away, revealing
The authentic self, a hard-won goal
Yet ever-changing, always healing.
In this process, endless and profound
The true self is lost, and found, and found.

#Jungian #Individuation #ChamberFolk #PsychologyInMusic #SelfDiscovery #Archetypes #SFHmusic

Individuation Sonnet

S F H music Auckland, New Zealand

Poet • Performer • Lyricist • Composer

Stephen Hollins is a New Zealand-born Renaissance artist whose four-decade career spans many genres of theatre, opera, improvisation, performance, poetry, writing and music. He transforms his poetry into songs blending psychology, performance, innovation and technology to create emotionally resonant and meaningful music.

His latest project, "Breakfast with Jung," is a groundbreaking multimedia collection exploring Carl Jung's psychological concepts through poetry and music—transforming a 400-page manuscript of 135 poems into a nine-album/chapter series that makes depth psychology accessible through an intimate musical and poetical journey toward the authentic Self that mirrors Jung's work.
"Support my music: https://sfhmusic.bandcamp.com"

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