Through life examples, myth, and poetry, this lecture celebrates conscious aging as a spiritual path that traverses the soul’s dark night, imposes sacrifice and ego-death, and ultimately renews the spirit.  Challenging the dominant association of aging with images of decline, Dr. Costello portrays spiritual awakening as an archetypally promoted developmental goal of the aging process. Special attention will be given to the figure of the Sage and to the nature-based tasks of the latter part of life.

Related Workshop: Decline and Ascent: The Paradoxical Passage to Elderhood

MELANIE STARR COSTELLO, PH.D. is a licensed psychologist, historian, and Zurich-trained Jungian analyst in private practice 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.