Lecture: The Tears of God: Grief as an Opening to the Divine
The alchemy of the grieving process dissolves the conscious mind and its intentions, and in a descent into the soul’s seasons of grief one meets the Oprhan, an encounter which can transform personal loss into a journey of homecoming. Grief can be home-work, and the Orphan, the most homeless of all, can lead us into that place where the wounds to love are the cracks through which a sense of the Divine shines through. The wonder, even miracle, of this moment is the recognition that our human tears of grief are mirrored in the tears of the Divine who hungers for an encounter with us. We grieve because we have dared to love, and we can love again in an expanded way and allow ourselves to be loved because we have taken the time to grieve.
Workshop: The Healing Power of Poetry
Poetry helps one breath better. It is to the soul and heart what vitamins are to the body. The images which poetry evokes, as well as the moods and memories, feed a hunger that soul has for beauty, mystery and a sense of the sacred.
Through readings and exercises, participants are invited to appreciate the powerful healing gifts of poetry. In addition, they are invited to attune their ears to the melodies and rhythms of poetry when it is read aloud, so that they can experience something of the joy that comes from exercising the muscles of the soul when the voice sings its song. Finally, participants will be encouraged to try their hand at writing a poem. In preparation for the workshop, participants are asked to bring a poem that has chosen them, or has been with them in their lives.
Robert D. Romanyshyn Ph.D. is an Associate Member of The Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts and a Senior Core faculty member at Pacifica Graduate Institute. In addition to having practiced as a psychotherapist for more than 25 years, Robert has taught at several universities and has lectured widely in the U.S., Europe, and Africa. His work has also been the subject of radio interviews and television programs. As a teacher and writer, Robert has been described as a master story teller with a gift for expressing the insights of the soul with the voice of a poet. His primary interest lies in being a spokesperson for those values largley neglected in our technological culture, including our longing for beauty, and our desire for a sense of the sacred. In addition to a recently completed book of poems called Dark Light, Robert is the author of The Soul in Grief: Love, Death and Transformation, Ways of the Heart: Essays Toward an Imaginal Psychology, Mirror and Metaphor: Images and Stories of Psychological Life, and Technology as Symptom and Dream.
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