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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Friday, January 28 |  7:30pm - 9:00pm, Eastern Time

Jungian Archetypes in Film, an Evening with Julia Vickers

Why do we forget some films as soon as they are over, but others stay with us a lifetime?

From femme fatale to Frankenstein, there is no art form that expresses the magic and the mystery of Carl Jung’s archetypal psychology better than film. We sit in the dark with anonymous others and watch the fantastical images and age-old stories. Like dreams, films can be both personal and collective. From The Trip to the Moon (1901) to Star Wars, technology allows us to move into the world of our imagination, a leap that Jung would say is every bit as dramatic as the physical landing on the moon. Jung saw fantasy as a form of energy—the potential in all of us to fulfill our lives. And this can be expressed so beautifully in film.

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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 18  |  7:30 - 9:30pm, Eastern Time

What Shapes a Life: The Symbolic Life with Michael Conforti

Only the symbolic life can express the need of the soul.

-C.G. Jung, The Symbolic Life, C.W. Vol. 18

From the very beginning of life, we are involved in traditions and rituals, each of which is replete with their own unique meaning: from being welcomed into the world to rites of passage into adulthood; we fall in love, we marry, we bring new life into the world. Far a secular repast, our ancestors understood the spiritual and archetypal significance of these rituals.

These issues will be explored by examining humanity’s innate need to find inner representation for what we experience within the inner and outer worlds, including our dreams, relationships, fantasies, and more. Of special importance in this lecture is an understanding of what we love, what it is that draws us.

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Saturday, February 19  |  1:00 - 4:00pm, Eastern Time

Rilke's heart and soul were deeply touched through his relationship with Lou Andreas- Salomé. Struggling to find the voice for the creativity living within his soul, he writes to Salomé, “You see, gracious lady, through the unsparing severity, through the uncompromising strength of your words, I felt that my own work was receiving a blessing, a sanction." Was it Salome, his own soul, or both who he embraced in this sacred and unholy union?

Drawing on the experiences of Rilke, Nietzsche, Jung, and Toni Wolff, we will look at the power of such attractions to a muse, and the challenges inherent in such relationships for men and women to re-collect and re-integrate these projections.

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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.

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Five Thursdays, March 3 - 31  |  7:30 - 9:00pm , Eastern Time

The Olympian pantheon resembles actors within our own psyches.  How do we recognize what characters or stories may be pulling the strings in our own personal drama?  Do any of these stories speak symbolically to the conflicts and struggles within the challenging times in which we find ourselves today?

We will explore the stories of the ancients and experience them with music, poetry, and art through the lens of our own generation.  And, we will give a supportive nod to the future generations who have inherited the task of bringing forth transformational consciousness to a planet in stress.

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Four Wednesdays, March 9 - 30  |  7:00 - 8:30pm, Eastern Time

So you don’t like poetry because it is intimidating? Trivial? Affected? In this course we will explore four poetic explorations of human perplexity: beginnings, love and hate, relationships, and end things.  (The poems to be read will be sent to your computer well before the course begins so you can have them available for this Zoom class).