Fall 2004 Programming

The barn’s burnt down. . . 
Now I can see the moon.

Spirituality is the deep human longing to move the transcendent into the immanent through experience and reflection. This lecture/workshop will consider the illusions the ego builds as defenses against life’s inevitable anxiety and pain. These illusions may keep us from seeing the transcendent truth, thus leaving us dis-illusioned. What are the barns we build that keep us from seeing the moon?

Workshop: The Hero Journey.

In honor of Joseph Campbell’s centenary, we will focus on what he called the monomyth. The three-fold process of 1) departure, 2) initiation, and 3) return, are the essentials of the journey. One can see this formula in all myth and sacred story. Can one see this process in one’s own story? This workshop will help make us conscious of how individuation follows this formula, in some form, for each of us.

PITTMAN J. McGEHEE, M. DIV, HON. DIV received his Master of Divinity from the Virginia Theological Seminary and was ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church in 1969. He received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the Episcopal Seminary of the Southwest. Formerly the Dean of Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Houston, he is currently a Diplomate Jungian analyst and the director of the Institute for the Advancement of Psychology and Spirituality. Additionally, he is serving as the Carolyn Faye Professor of Analytical Psychology at the University of Houston. Pittman is widely known as a lecturer and educator in the field of psychology and religion, as well as a published poet and essayist.

Lecture: Falling under the charm or power of someone’s charisma has happened to all of us some time in our lives. Whether that someone was a teacher, a guru, a passionate lover or Princess Diana, charismatic individuals have the power to provoke unpredictable and extraordinary emotions in us.They can even change the course of our lives, for better or for worse.

Charisma is not just a characteristic of the famous or the powerful. Many ‘normal’ people have charismatic traits but few know how to own these qualities consciously.There’s always the temptation to either refuse one’s charisma and hide one’s light under a bushel, or to abuse it without regard for the consequences.

In our modern world, charisma is getting more and more attention, often replacing other kinds of authority and leadership. How then to recognize it, understand it and even use it for the benefit of all?

Workshop: With the help of some practical exercises and in depth discussion we will explore how the charisma of certain individuals has changed our own lives, and what this change means, as well as, how we can recognize and use our own charisma in a way that is both responsible and inspiring.

JAN BAUER, MA attended Sarah Lawrence College and then studied in France where she earned a Master’s in literature and subsequently taught high school in France and Tunisia. In 1972 she returned to Boston where she earned a Masters in Adult Education at Boston University and worked as assistant to the director at Plymouth Plantation. She graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute in 1981 and moved to Quebec where she continues to live and practice as an analyst in both French and English. (From 1989 to 1995, she was Chairperson of Admissions for the Inter Regional Society of Jungian Analysts.) From 1999-2003 she was Director of Training for Inter Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. She has written two books, Alcoholism and Women, published by Inner City Books, and Impossible Love, published by Spring in English and by the Editions de l’Homme in French. Jungian concepts that particularly inspire her are the idea of individuation, ie. becoming truly oneself, and the integration of the shadow as that part of ourselves that we reject but that can expand our lives if we have the willingness to let it enter our consciousness. Ms. Bauer believes that one of the goals of analysis is to establish a ‘democracy’ of the psyche – letting all our different parts have a voice in the way we live our lives.

WORKSHOP: Riding the Untamed Dragon: A Workshop on Active Imagination

Active Imagination is the technique, first described by C.G.Jung, through which we enter the imaginal realm. Used properly, active imagination creates a union between the ego and the unconscious, enriches the individuation process and empowers one’s inner voice. It is the means by which the inner world becomes real. Dr. Raff has developed a series of exercises that allows beginners, as well as those more advanced in inner work, to engage in active imagination. This workshop is primarily experiential with some discussion of theory where required. The goal of the workshop is to increase the ability of participants to perform active imagination on their own.

JEFFREY RAFF, Ph.D. received his BA from Bates College, a Masters in Psychology from the New School for Social Research, and a PhD in Psychology from Union Graduate Institute. He attended the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich from 1972 to 1976, graduating as a diplomate Jungian Analyst. He is the author of Jung and the Alchemical Imagination, Healing the Wounded God, and The Wedding of Sophia, as well as numerous articles. He is in private practice in Littleton, Colorado and has taught active imagination workshops for thirty years.

LECTURE: Archetypal psychology employs the metaphor of "the gods" to refer to the primal, archaic energies which course through the cosmos, through nature, and through ourselves.Who or what are "the gods," and where are they observed in the conduct of daily life? Why does this matter to us?

WORKSHOP: Your Personal Myth

A myth is an energy charged force field with an implicit narrative and a predictive scenario in which we move, and which moves us, whether we are conscious of its presence and effects or not. What are the outlines of your personal myth?

This workshop will use journaling to respond to a series of questions and exercises designed to lift this force field into greater consciousness.Without consciousness, no real choices are possible.

JAMES HOLLIS, Ph. D., is Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center of Houston, a Training Analyst for the Inter- Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and author of ten books, the latest being: Mythologems: Incarnations of the Invisible World.