Fall 2002

Lecture: In his memoir Jung writes, "The meaning of my existence is that life has addressed a question to me…or conversely, I myself am a question." The depth of meaning which we find along the way is in large measure a matter of which questions we are living, consciously or unconsciously. In this presentation we will consider the character of those questions which, more consciously engaged, add to the richness of the journey and enlarge the individual. Among the questions addressed this weekend, the one we focus on this evening is, "By what spiritual points of reference do I live my life?"

Workshop: We will address other questions in the workshop, including "What is my Shadow, and how do I bring it to consciousness?" Please bring pad and pen and be prepared for personal reflection.

James Hollis, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center of Houston, Texas, where he also continues his private practice as a Jungian analyst, and is a Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He began his private practice in Philadelphia in 1982 after becoming a Diplomat Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Zürich. While in Philadelphia, Dr. Hollis, Co-Founder of the Philadelphia Jung Institute and a past Director of Training, also held the position of Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical School. Dr. Hollis spent twenty-six years as a tenured Professor of Humanities at various colleges before his retirement in 1989. He is the author of articles, reviews and nine books, the latest being On This Journey We Call Our Life.

Lecture: Redeeming the Dark Feminine: Sophia to the Black Madonna: Drawing on literature from the Song of Songs and The Gospel of Mary to contemporary works, on images from Isis to the present, and on music from Hildegard of Bingen to contemporary composers such as Francis Poulenc and Arvo Pärt, we will explore the figure of this long-repressed but powerful archetype of transformation. For this lecture and workshop, the dark, hidden, but positive feminine will be accessed through the figure of Mary Magdalene, long associated with the Black Madonna. We will trace her origins through her predecessors, and her characteristics through examining image, music, and literature.

Workshop: Continuing the Search: Finding the Meaning through Image, Story, and Music: In this participatory workshop, we will continue to explore the archetype of the dark feminine through image, music, and literature. This is an image of the feminine that is other than "the mother." What can we understand about her characteristics through examining our own individual responses to literature, music, and image? And what might she mean to men as well as to women? Participants will enjoy the introverted time to explore the personal meaning of each image and each piece of music. Then discussion will allow the group to come to some assessment of the characteristics of the transformational dark feminine archetype, and an understanding of why in our time she is so important to each of us, and to all of us collectively.

Karlyn M. Ward, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., B.C.D., is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Mill Valley, California. Her analytic training was done at the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco where she is presently a member analyst. She is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Pacific School of Religion, part of the Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of some 28 schools of religion in Berkeley, California. There she teachers "Introduction to Jungian Thought" and "A Psychology of Suffering: Jung’s Answer to Job." A musician, she is trained in the Bonny Method of using music as a form of active imagination, and is a Fellow in the Association for Music and Imagery. Her book, Sounding the Depths: Psyche and Music, is in process. She has given numerous seminars on music and psyche, and on redeeming the dark feminine. These seminars have been held at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, elsewhere in the Bay area, in Orange County, in Portland, in Zürich at the C.G. Jung Institute, and most recently in the south of France, in Provence

Lecture: This presentation features a lesser-known side of Jung – practical, down-to-earth, and deeply concerned over the loss of connection with Nature. Jung emphasizes that Nature includes spirit as well as matter. Efforts to "conquer Nature" have left matter without its nature spirits and humans without a natural spiritual life. A pioneer in exploring the psyche’s evolution, Jung discovered its primordial foundation, which he named "natural man."

Interwoven with dreams and stories from Jung’s travels and his life at Bollingen, this program showcases his challenging observations and prophetic predictions about technology and modern life. Following the tradition of the Taoist rainmaker whom he admired, Jung speaks as a culture shaman who shares our malaise and knows that restoring our own living connection with Nature contributes to healing the whole.

Workshop: Saturday, participants will hear about the specific environmental consultations Jung gave: how the natural self is left behind when technology develops too rapidly; how our primateness needs to be considered in city planning and education; how cultivating a plot of ground and enjoying dreams help ancient instincts come back to life; and where banished nature spirits now abide. Using active imagination, art materials, spontaneous writing, and handouts of selected passages, we will explore how Jung’s ideas impact us and might guide us toward aligning our lives with Nature’s sacred laws. 

Our task is not to return to Nature a la Rousseau but to find the natural man again. C. G. Jung

Meredith Sabini, M.A., Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist who practiced Jungian psychotherapy from 1977 to 1997 and now directs Depth Psychology Programs in Berkeley, which offers continuing education seminars on dreams, ethics, and self-care. A published poet, essayist, and associate editor at Psychological Perspectives, Dr. Sabini has contributions in The Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology, and is the author of The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung. She has been engaged in a long apprenticeship to matter and to the nature spirits on a wilderness property; essays chronicling her experience of ecological conversion are used in ecopsychology courses.

Article in Resurgence Journal (Jan/Feb. 2000):

Soul and Nature: For C. G. Jung, Mind, Nature and Humanity are Part of a Seamless Continuum