Six Alternate Mondays, September 27 - December 6 |  7:30 - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

This program is an ongoing reading and discussion class from previous semester(s), and we are welcoming newcomers. 

The reading material is Mysterium Coniunctionis, CW 14. 

The Mysterium Lectures by Edward Edinger are an optional supplement.

The course is thorough, progressing slowly, and with a lot of discussion for each paragraph. If you believe this style is for you, join us!

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Four Tuesdays, October 5 - 26 |  7:30 - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

CONVERSING WITH FATE: Archetypal Meaning, Synchronicity, and the Tarot, a course with Susan Chang

How do we grapple with the concept of Fate? As moderns, we are conditioned to believe that all things are possible and within reach, even while knowing at some level that cannot be true. This crisis of the imagination has a practical solution: traditional divination. The 78 cards of the tarot, imprinted with archetypal imagery, are a pocket universe: they depict the life we think we know in shapes and symbols that stir the imagination and re-acquaint us with mystery. Drawn at random, a tarot card expresses a willingness to invite Fate into our lives as a friend; to embrace the gifts of chance. By doing so, we can heal our own relationship with uncertainty.

First, we will consider a working model of the “oracular moment”: how tarot intersects with the concept of synchronicity, and how we can accommodate these glimpses of acausal order in our lives. Then, we will start working on a personal “language of fate,” discovering how to use metaphor and symbol to unlock meaning from the archetypal images in the tarot. We will go on to learn how to configure the questions we ask the cards for maximum insight and agency, both for ourselves and others. And we will conclude with techniques that use our new fluency in conversing with Fate to argue, negotiate, and change our very futures: i.e., magic.

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Four Alternate Thursdays, October 7 - November 18 |  7:30 - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

What is the psyche? This fundamental question is related to other fundamental ones concerning the meaning of life, mind, and soul--and relationship, social and personal. These times have forced a shaking of foundations and the possibility of a quest for our own foundations.

In this course, we shall ask some basic questions. What is the nature of the psyche? What is it from Jung's energic viewpoint? What is its eros? We shall also consider the relationship between psyche (soul) and soma (body) and the effect of trauma. 

The discovery and proposal of the psyche--in its uniqueness--is arguably the contribution of C. G. Jung's work. We will be supported in our exploration by two of Jung's foundational essays, as well as the myth of Psyche and Eros, including its various interpretations (Von Franz, Neumann, Hillman).

Saturday, October 16 |  1:00 - 4:00pm, Eastern Time

We Are Meant to Create

The Creative Self as an aspect of the unconscious gifts us with wisdom. We can become enlivened by our ability to see beyond the limits of the ego, as we move with joyful expression into creating. The possibility for enriching life is magnified through the reflective exchange of dreamwork and writing.

Our time together in the DreamWriting Workshop will allow us to engage with both of these creative processes, increasing self-knowledge by first re-visiting dreams that seem to want deepening. They might be re-occurring dreams or nightmares. They are the dreams that still call to you, perhaps even since childhood. Dream language and images will guide us in the creative writing of poetry, short stories and memoir that give voice to perhaps the most significant dream of the life.

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Friday, October 22 |  7:30 - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

C. G. Jung brought to psychology the recognition that the unfolding of a human life is at a deep level a spiritual journey. He also recognized that our individual psychological unfolding is embedded within larger historical developments that also shape our personal journeys, and that reflect a kind of collective psychospiritual evolution. Finally, he saw that informing both the individual psyche and the collective are powerful archetypal principles and patterns that deeply influence human experience and behavior. 

In this evening’s presentation, Richard Tarnas will explore how we might begin to understand the complex interplay of these three important levels of meaning and influence, to move toward a more profound perspective about human life, especially in our own dramatic and highly challenging era.

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Saturday, October 23 |  1:00 - 4:00pm, Eastern Time

GIMME SHELTER: Weathering the Storm in an Archetypal Cosmos, a workshop with Richard Tarnas

C. G. Jung broke free of limiting modern assumptions to recognize that psyche was not confined to the human, that it permeated all of nature, indeed the cosmos itself. He also recognized the extraordinary value of astrology in shining an unexpected light on the archetypal dynamics of human life in synchronistic correspondence with planetary movements. The evidence of consistent correlations between planetary alignments and world events, as seen through the lens of archetypal astrology, can provide us with a much needed context for our wildly dramatic time. What is the current planetary situation, what gods are now in motion, and what are the historical precedents? How might our contemporary culture be transformed by the recognition that an intimate bond exists between the deep psyche and the cosmos? Join Richard Tarnas for a "state of the world report" on the archetypal astrological context of our national and global moment.

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Four Wednesdays, November 3 - 24  |  7:00 - 8:30pm, Eastern Time

How do we understand ourselves? What stands in the way of greater self-awareness? What life force seeks expression through us? These four programs will explore 1) our internal resistance to self-knowledge, 2) the paradox that our defenses become our chief obstacles, 3) the necessary engagement with our “stories” that bind us to our past, and 4) unfolding the personal myth.

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Friday, November 5  |  7:30 - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

This presentation by two Jungian analysts will focus on the cultural implications and potential for creativity and growth within feminine rage. Through personal reflections and varied theoretical frameworks, this controversial topic will be brought from its dark, feared and hidden depths into the light of consciousness. The use of story-telling, film and poetry will assist in amplifying and animating the meaning and necessity of feminine rage and aggression, particularly in today’s world. As Jung himself informs us, what remains unconscious is often lived out in our fate. Our stance in presenting this material is to facilitate communication and discussion rather than align with positions that support oppression, fear, violence or shame in all of us.

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Four Tuesdays, December 7 - 28  |  7:30 - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

ALCHEMY & THE SOUL OF NATURE, a course with Jeffrey Kiehl

Alchemy is an ancient art that recognizes the deep, subtle interconnectedness between psyche and matter. C.G. Jung spent the latter part of his life exploring the important psychological dimensions of alchemy. Many of Jung’s psychological concepts can be viewed as manifestations of alchemical processes. Alchemy arose from the study of Nature, and, as such, provides a pathway to rediscovering and experiencing the soul of Nature. In today’s world of ecological collapse alchemy provides a means to heal our collective split with Nature and may very well open a portal to avoiding further collective destruction. In this course, we explore the fundamentals of alchemy and how they relate to psychological processes. We also consider how alchemy captures the dynamic patterns that appear in psyche and Nature. Our journey in the course concludes with an exploration of the sacred dimensions of our world.

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Friday, December 17  |  7:30 - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

We will begin by reviewing the origins of Jung's conception of synchronicity.  The subsequent development of the idea in Jung's thinking, especially on the "psychoid," and in clinical practice will be followed by a re-visioning through the application of complexity theory, which give us access to a new emerging transdisciplinary paradigm.  The role of the psychoid layer of archetypal reality will be highlighted as it pertains to recent research in ecological systems.  Finally, we will look at a number of examples from the history of culture where artisans or artists were able to represent profound knowledge of highly complex natural phenomena well ahead of any scientific understanding.  These will guide us towards the articulation of the psychoid imagination—audio-visual materials will aid participants in entering these experiences.

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Three Thursdays, January 13-27  |  7:30 - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

OPEN STUDIO, a three-session course on Zoom in the chill of winter. A chance to come together to enjoy making art in community. To relax --- to lose yourself in the soulful creative search for Self.

The Open Studio was introduced to the Jung Society in August of 2021 by Sandy Geller, one of our local Jungian Analysts. We’re bringing the open studio back by popular demand. It is a course for all levels of skill with art.

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Friday, January 14  |  7:30 - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

This presentation describes the traditional life review, in midlife or beyond, as the ego's life review. By recalling the key people and events in our lives, we can reframe our life stories, see where we now need emotional or spiritual repair, and discover hidden patterns and new meanings.

But we know that another life has been living in the unconscious, so we must add the dimension of Shadow -- how to connect what was expressed with what was repressed.  In this way, the unlived life moves into conscious awareness, and we have the opportunity to reclaim some of the feelings, talents, and aspirations that were sacrificed in the morning of life.

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Three Thursdays, February 3 - 17  |  7:30 - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

Regardless of your age, please join me in a discussion of life’s later years. James Hillman wrote: “It is an enormous mistake to read the phenomena of later life as indications of death rather than as initiations into another way of life.” 

We will consider the meanings and experiences of aging as we read Jung, Hollis, and Hillman. Discussion of The Tempest will address how we deal with our inner Ariel and our inner Caliban.

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Friday, February 25, |  7:30pm - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

People often come to an analysis in despair because their sense of self, their self-image, no longer seems real, accurate or trustworthy. It is as if their ‘self-portraits’ no longer look like them.  Analysis offers a mirror, a possibility to face oneself and  see and be seen. The analytic process itself provides a model for the courage and willingness required to experience one’s Self anew, with the hope of true reflection both outwardly and inwardly.

Following the tradition of Self-portraiture in the West from the Renaissance to today, we will look at many self-portraits as works of art and also as icons of the profound experience of looking deeply at ones’ Self.