NATURAL CYCLES, NATURAL SYMBOLS: a workshop by Melanie Starr Costello

Workshop
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In this experiential workshop, we view processes of psycho-spiritual maturation as expressions of the cyclical processes of the natural world. We confront the ideological roots of our fear of aging and death and consider how myth and dream narratives may help us heal our alienation from our roots in nature.

Dr. Costello guides us through a life-narrative journaling exercise to foster our awareness of varied archetypal patterns that inform our identities and relationship to the natural world.

We consider: how do we experience our body-soul within the larger web of being? How are failure and loss related to spiritual renewal? Does longevity serve a purpose? What is wisdom?  We conclude by constructing a portrait of the individuating person, honoring the nature-based dimensions of social, family and spiritual life.

** Please bring writing material to the workshop!

Melanie Starr Costello, Ph.D., a licensed psychologist, historian, and graduate of the C.G. Jung Institut-Zurich, holds a private practice off Dupont Circle in Washington, D.C.  She earned her doctorate in the History and Literature of Religions from Northwestern University.  A former Assistant Professor of History at St. Mary's College of Maryland, Dr. Costello has taught and published on the topics of psychology and religion, medieval spirituality, and clinical practice. Her study of the link between illness and insight entitled, Imagination, Illness and Injury: Jungian Psychology and the Somatic Dimensions of Perception, is published by Routledge press. Currently her work explores archetypal currents running through the collective psyche in our times—a topic she takes up in her workshops on the Stranger, Aging and Spirituality, and on Dream Cosmologies.