What if the Temple in Jerusalem were a map of your own soul? Dr. Troy Caldwell, MD, a retired Jungian psychiatrist and a founding member of Building 4th, leads us on an imaginative journey through Herod’s Temple, drawn from his book Adventures in Soul Making. Court by court, the seeker moves inward and upward. The path runs from the noisy marketplace of the ego, through the receptive stillness of the Court of the Women, and past the altar where the grasping hand learns to let go. It goes on into the hidden storerooms of the shadow, and finally through the veil into the Holy of Holies. Tim Merrill sets the stage with a boyhood story about a stolen Snickers bar and what it means to come clean. The community answers with reflections on receptivity, beauty and the shadow. A guest suggests that the deeper movement runs the other way, from the Holy of Holies out toward us.

In this episode

• Tim’s introduction: the Snickers bar, the lies we tell ourselves, and a circle where no one needs fig leaves
• Troy’s diagram of the psyche: the ego, nous and sarx, the Still Point, and the archetypal Self (the biblical “human spirit”)
• The eight qualities of the Self from Richard Schwartz’s No Bad Parts
• An Ignatian-style meditation through the Court of the Gentiles, the Beautiful Gate, the Court of the Women, the Nicanor Gate, the Court of the Priests, the hidden storerooms, the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies
• The feminine and the masculine in every soul: presence and strength
• Shadow work as one gentle question: “Is this like you in any way?”
• Community responses: the inward journey, holding space, beauty as a voice of God, Teresa’s interior castle, and the movement from the Holy of Holies toward us

Timestamps

• 00:00 — Tim Merrill: coming clean, and the temple as the soul
• 08:26 — Troy’s diagram of the psyche
• 13:40 — The meditation begins: Jerusalem, 30 AD
• 21:31 — The Court of the Women and the gift of presence
• 25:00 — The Nicanor Gate
• 26:34 — The Court of the Priests: fire, blood and letting go
• 28:04 — The hidden storerooms: “Is this like you in any way, my son?”
• 32:58 — The threshold of the sanctuary and the pillars of Solomon’s porch
• 37:40 — The Holy Place: bread, lampstand and incense
• 42:54 — Through the veil into the Holy of Holies
• 46:51 — Returning
• 47:29 — Responses from the community
• 52:57 — Beauty as intensity held in unity
• 53:42 — The interior castle, and the movement from the Holy of Holies toward us
• 57:27 — Closing

Ra Material referenced

• Ra, Session 5.2 covers several points:
  • silence as the key to the mind’s door;
  • the mind’s “hierarchical construction”;
  • accepting the completeness within the self;
  • “each biological male is female; each biological female is male.”
• Ra, Session 92.20 — “that which reaches” and “that which awaits the reaching”
• Ra, Session 73.8 — the upward spiraling light drawn by the will to meet the inner light of the One Infinite Creator

Resources

• Troy Caldwell, Adventures in Soul Making — troycaldwell.com
• Richard Schwartz, No Bad Parts (Internal Family Systems)
• Teresa of Ávila, The Interior Castle
• The Mishnah, tractate Middot; Josephus, Antiquities 15 and Jewish War 5
• Interactive 3-D model of Herod’s Temple with Troy’s psyche mapping: https://doug31434.github.io/Raian-Process-Metaphysics/temple.html
• Walk Through Journey, which follows Troy’s meditation station by station at your own pace: https://doug31434.github.io/Raian-Process-Metaphysics/temple.html#walk
• Full blog post with images: https://cosmicchrist.net/2026/10/18/the-temple-of-the-soul/