Notions of divinity are psychoactive. Whether one is a believer, an atheist, an agnostic, a spiritual seeker or a student of religion, it is difficult to contemplate questions of God without significant investment in the answers. This lecture will discuss the “complex” psychology of our response to the God topic. It will show how a Jungian approach can provide a way to negotiate the associated conundrums and controversies. From contemplating the death of God to the psychodynamics of fundamentalism and the search for meaning in between, our goal will be a deeper appreciation of the psychological stakes involved.
Season: Spring 2012
God: Finding a Perspective for Our Time
The role that religion continues to play in today’s secular world is distressing to some and comforting to others. Jung’s notion of a “religious instinct” and his understanding of the “God-image” in the psyche provide a point of entry into the controversy and a fitting perspective for our times. Through viewing film clips, personal reflection and discussion of the changing God-image, this workshop aims to equip participants with timely, intelligent ways to approach prevailing religious questions. It will move toward contemplating a sense of the sacred that is conversant with today’s individual and collective challenges.
Exploring the Visual Language of the Unconscious
The realm of psyche is immeasurably great and filled with living reality. -C.G. Jung
In her lecture, Jane Zich will explore the “living reality” of the psyche as evidenced in the visual language of the unconscious that emerges in depth psychotherapy, dreams,
films, and extended active imagination processes. She will use paintings from her Vision Journey series — an image-mediated dialogue with the unconscious that has spanned seven years — to illustrate how recurrent cycles and shifts in imagery suggest a purposefulness in the visual language of the unconscious that can promote and support an “I-Thou” attitude of partnership between ego consciousness and the unconscious. Specific psychological tasks that seem required for specific stages or types of imagery will be described, as well as impasses that tend to result when those tasks are avoided or incompletely met. Dr. Zich will illustrate the role of “orienting intentions” in navigating extended dialogues with the unconscious, and will refer to image stages and related tasks for ego consciousness that can be seen in C.G. Jung’s Red Book, in cultural contexts, and in societal impasses. Time for discussion will follow.
Opening the Gift
This workshop is designed to foster an experiential exploration of the material presented in Friday’s lecture. After choosing a personal “orienting intention” for the workshop, everyone will select a wrapped gift. Before unwrapping the gift, we will take time to expl ore our expectations, thoughts, feelings, intuitions, sensory impressions, and attitudes stirred by this “unknown other,” symbolized by the wrapped gift. Then, as we each unwrap our gift, we will have a chance to observe our approach to discovering the “other,” including the ways our expectations around the anticipated (wrapped) gift have influenced our experience of the actual (unwrapped) gift. Through drawing, painting, collage-making, and clay-molding, we will explore the visual language of the unconscious, our personal pacing, inner resources, and rituals for honoring what is meaningful to us in such dialogues with the unconscious. Participants’ experiences will be discussed and amplified in terms of Jungian concepts and depth work as applicable to creative projects, psychotherapy, and personal growth. ART MATERIALS WILL BE PROVIDED BY OFJ. SPACE IS LIMITED — REGISTER EARLY.
The “Spiritualized Earth” and the Birth of the New Consciousness
“the psychological problem of today is a spiritual problem, a religious problem…” —C. G. Jung, C.G. Jung Speaking: Interview and Encounters, “Does the World stand on the Verge of Spiritual Rebirth?”
Suffering the trials of her individuation process and initiation as a Jungian analyst as well as those of a concurrent farming crisis, Patricia Damery found answers through a series of unconventional teachers and through her relationship to the psyche and the land, answers that are surprising deeply intertwined. These answers involved spiritual tools that addressed what Jung called “the living substance” of ourselves and others.
In this lecture Patricia will describe the common, definitive root of some of these teachings in the writings and scientific studies of Goethe. Both C. G. Jung and Rudolf Steiner, father of Biodynamic farming, were deeply influenced by Goethe’s work, a perspective denigrated since the days of Descartes. What supports the “living substance” in ourselves and the other, even the not-human? What undermines its liveliness? Practical applications in the dynamics of “being in relationship with” and “having dominion over” will be given, whether in analysis, farming, or our relationship to the environment.
The “Spiritualized Earth” and the Birth of the New Consciousness
A continuation of Friday’s lecture, we will learn how both Jung and Steiner came to Goethe, as well as more fully discuss principles common to both: the law of polarity, the law of diversity, and the importance of boundaries, whether those boundaries be in the human psyche, of a farm, or in the consulting room. Practical applications of the concepts will be given both in farming and analytic work. This will include a description of the biodynamic preparations, stirring, and Patricia’s use of the preparations and why. We will experiment with a technique of Goethe’s to gather information: a method that develops relatedness, facilitating an openness to what is present, whether that be the psyche, another human being, or the not-human.
We will also explore the old Jewish Legend of what happened to the Tree of Paradise after the Fall, considering the questions: What consciousness might be born in the temenos offered in both Jung’s analytical psychology and Steiner’s farming techniques? What are the implications for our relationship with the environment? We will discuss dominion over and being in relation to, whether that be with inner figures, other humans, or not-humans. Please bring writing and drawing materials.
Understanding Our Moment in History: An Archetypal Perspective
Our time is pervaded by a great paradox. On the one hand, we see signs of an unprecedented level of engaged global awareness, moral sensitivity to the human and non-human community, psychological self-awareness, and spiritually informed philosophical pluralism. On the other hand, we confront the most critical, and in some respects catastrophic, state of the Earth in human history. Both these conditions have emerged directly from the modern age, whose light and shadow consequences now affect every part of the planet.
We seem to be living at the end of an era. The past and the future are converging in our time with extraordinary force. Old structures are cracking, the moment of creative chaos is upon us, and the drama of our age has become a great question: What new principles, what new structures—social, political, economic, ecological, psychological, spiritual—will emerge to shape our future? So much is at stake. We are facing a threshold of fundamental collective transformation that bears a striking resemblance to what takes place on the individual level in initiatory rites of passage, in near-death experiences, in spiritual crises, and in critical stages of what Jung called the individuation process. Can we find a place of equilibrium, an eye in the storm, from which we can engage this time of intense polarization and radical change? And in such an era of transition, what is the role of “heroic” communities like that of Jungian institutes and societies — or the Bioneers or Schumacher, CIIS or Pacifica, Esalen or Findhorn — which carry principles and perspectives that run counter to the mainstream modern world view?
To help us navigate this threshold of transformation, we need multiple perspectives and sources of insight. Join Richard Tarnas this weekend as he draws on depth psychology and archetypal astrology, philosophy, religion, and cultural history as we seek together a larger context for both understanding and action.
Understanding Our Moment in History: An Archetypal Perspective
This will be a deeper examination of the ideas raised in the Friday night lecture:
Our time is pervaded by a great paradox. On the one hand, we see signs of an unprecedented level of engaged global awareness, moral sensitivity to the human and non-human community, psychological self-awareness, and spiritually informed philosophical pluralism. On the other hand, we confront the most critical, and in some respects catastrophic, state of the Earth in human history. Both these conditions have emerged directly from the modern age, whose light and shadow consequences now affect every part of the planet.
We seem to be living at the end of an era. The past and the future are converging in our time with extraordinary force. Old structures are cracking, the moment of creative chaos is upon us, and the drama of our age has become a great question: What new principles, what new structures—social, political, economic, ecological, psychological, spiritual—will emerge to shape our future? So much is at stake. We are facing a threshold of fundamental collective transformation that bears a striking resemblance to what takes place on the individual level in initiatory rites of passage, in near-death experiences, in spiritual crises, and in critical stages of what Jung called the individuation process. Can we find a place of equilibrium, an eye in the storm, from which we can engage this time of intense polarization and radical change? And in such an era of transition, what is the role of “heroic” communities like that of Jungian institutes and societies — or the Bioneers or Schumacher, CIIS or Pacifica, Esalen or Findhorn — which carry principles and perspectives that run counter to the mainstream modern world view?
To help us navigate this threshold of transformation, we need multiple perspectives and sources of insight. Join Richard Tarnas this weekend as he draws on depth psychology and archetypal astrology, philosophy, religion, and cultural history as we seek together a larger context for both understanding and action.
Light-Hearted Evening and Annual Meeting: The Waking Dream: Poetry’s Everyday Life
OFJ members and their guests are invited to our annual meeting. The keynote speaker for this event will be poet, PAULANN PETERSEN, speaking on “THE WAKING DREAM: POETRY’S EVERYDAY LIFE.” FRIDAY, MAY 18, 7:00 TO 9:30 PM, AT THE FIRST UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, COLLINS HALL, 1838 SW JEFFERSON, PORTLAND. This is also an opportunity to meet the board, honor our volunteers, and find out about next fall’s speakers. Light refreshments will be served.