A Jungian View of Climate Change

 

Nobody can afford to look around and to wait for somebody else to do what he is loath to do himself. But since nobody seems to know what to do, it might be worthwhile for each of us to ask himself whether by any chance his or her unconscious may know something that will help us.

– C.G. Jung (CW 18, par. 599)

 

Human caused climate change has placed life on the planet in a precarious state. It is imperative we address this situation as soon as possible, for the longer we wait the more we commit future generations to great disruption. Yet there is great resistance to addressing this issue, especially within the United States. Jungian psychology provides a unique means to understand the problem of climate change for it recognizes the importance of the unconscious in our lives. In this presentation, I explore how the dynamics of unconscious processes relate to climate change and how these processes provide pathways to addressing the problem. I consider further the current myths that lie at the root of our collective dissociation from Earth. The presentation concludes with a discussion of how to reconnect to the sacredness of Earth, which is essential to address the issue of climate change.

Mandala as a Path to Healing Our Split with the Sacred Earth

Mandala symbols appear very frequently in moments of psychic disorientation as compensatory ordering factors.

– C.G. Jung (CW 3, par. 582)

 

Jung identified the mandala as an archetypal image of wholeness. In this workshop we explore the manifold forms of mandalas, West and East, and how they can help us heal our split with the natural world. Mandalas make the invisible visible and are portals into deep psychic experiences. We discuss how mandalas provide a bridge between the macrocosm and the microcosm, and how the mandalas provide a lens through which we can view our sacred world. We will learn how we can make mandala practices a part of our everyday lives.

Following a Light Through the Darkness: Working with Symbols – Session 1

This Seminar is Now Full

Please Contact us at [email protected] if you would like to be put on the waiting list.

A Winter Seminar with PNSJA Analysts

Pain and suffering, of whatever degree, can leave us in the dark, forcing us to look past conscious problem-solving to the hidden light of symbols for meaning and direction. Jung emphasized the importance of symbols as a spontaneous self-portrayal of the situation in one’s unconscious. Skillfully engaging the symbols that beckon to us just beyond the grasp of everyday consciousness can be essential for developing depth, meaning, and direction in our lives. Almost anything can be symbolic. In this seminar we’ll develop skills in experiencing, associating, amplifying and reflecting on symbols which arise in our dreams, forms of active imagination, drawings, body symptoms, day to day encounters, and in Sandplay. All levels of experience are welcome.

  • Six 2-hour sessions on Sundays, beginning February 3 to March 24 (excludes OFJ Program weekend Sundays)
  • Time:  1 – 3 pm
  • Location:  OFJ Library:  811 NW 20th Ave. Portland,  97209
  • Cost: $195,  $185 for OFJ members
  • Limited to 12 participants
  • Up to 12 hours of CEUs available

Mark Girard will lead February 3, February 10, February 24

Bonnie McLean will lead March 3, March 10, and March 24

Suggested Reading

  • Dreams, C.G. Jung,   Princeton University Press, 1974:
    • ” The Analysis of Dreams” pp. 3– 14
    • “General Aspects of Dream Psychology”, pp. 23 – 66
    • “On the Nature of Dreams”, pp. 67 – 84
    • “The Practical Use of Dream Analysis”, pp It’s. 85 – 110.
    • These articles are  collected together in a separate version of the Collected Works on “Dreams”.
  •  Jung on Active Imagination, edited by Joan Chodorow,  Princeton University Press, 1997.
    • All the articles in the book are informative. Each article taken from the collected works offers helpful information regarding the nature and use of Jung’s view of active imagination.
  • Memories, Dreams, Reflections, C.G. Jung,  Random House, 1963.
  • Dreams, A Portal To The Source, Edward Whitmont and Sylvia Perera, Routledge, 1990

Carl Jung’s Red Book: Healing the Chaos

In 1913 Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung embarked on a remarkable inner journey.  Devotedly attending to his dreams and fantasies, for the next fifteen years Jung exquisitely calligraphed and painted the emotions and images he found within.  This record of his venture was published in 2009 in his superbly illustrated Red Book.

As he focused inside, Jung was immediately inundated with inward scenes of global catastrophe—at a time when Europe spoke only of peace and prosperity.  In less than a year, beginning in 1914, the First World War ravaged his continent with a bloodthirst unknown to history.  Observing his heart of hearts, Jung found vivid symbolic experiences that not only personified his personal psychology, but also revealed the devastating war’s underlying dynamics.

The world now stands dangerously close to annihilating chaos, both on the domestic and international stage.  In Friday’s lecture and Saturday’s workshop, we will explore what Jung’s descent taught him about the turmoil orchestrating his epoch’s horror.  Despite the passing of a century, the clarity of those lessons will guide us through precious insight into the seething cauldron of our own era.

This will be a multimedia presentation with plenty of opportunity for questions and discussion.  The presentation does not assume prior familiarity with Jung’s Red Book.

 

Carl Jung’s Red Book: Healing the Chaos

Saturday’s workshop will continue Friday evening’s exploration of The Red Book’s imagery, while adding examples of contemporary dreams, fantasies, and art attesting to the ongoing importance of Jung’s Red Book for our time.

The presentation does not assume prior familiarity with Jung’s Red Book.

The Healing Power of Fairy Tales

Why fairy tales – Märchen?  When C.G. Jung discovered the archetypal realm of the collective unconscious, he also found that through the ages myths, fairy tales and legends provided a “clothing” so to speak for these, otherwise invisible, potentially healing psychodynamics. When we listen to fairy tales our soul is invited to journey into lands of horror and violences well as enchanting rescues and romances. The original fairy tales are ever so much more grim and violent than the Walt Disney versions we are familiar with. Fairy tales assure the listener – adult and child alike – that while evil, danger and violence do exist, they can be transformed. By entering into the magic of a fairy tale, our psyche re-connects with the healing potential of the archetypal realm.

Disobedience, Evil, Animals and Happily Ever After in Fairy Tales

Fantastic journeys, heroic deeds and helpful animals are among the archetypal topics we will work and play with during the workshop. Jungian analysts have learned that attending to fairy tales can reconnect us to levels of our psyche where through the transcending function of symbols, insight, growth and healing can take place. Fairy tales belong in our inner nursery fostering active involvement with fantasy and creativity. Anyone dealing with the child inside one’s soul or without as parent or professional can enjoy and benefit from this workshop.

The Little Dream that Doesn’t Mean Anything

When a dream is forgotten, dismissed, ignored or called names (“worthless, a snippet, stupid, etc.”), important information is lost.  A discussion with clinical examples will explore what many miss:  the quiet beginnings of consciousness evidenced in what is often overlooked.  The beginning of a process is sacred ground to stand upon.  Alchemical parallels, world dreams, fairy tale imagery and elements of dreaming that are routinely misunderstood will be discussed as well.

The World Dream

There are a few curious dreams that many people have:  loosing teeth, being in public without clothes, taking a college final without having gone to class, among others.  This seminar will explore what these dreams mean if we omit the ubiquitous response, “Oh, that’s just an anxiety dream.”  The dreams present information that corrects/compensates/confronts the world or culture rather than the individual; just what are these dreams telling us about our culture, our world?  Working in groups participants will be instructed how to decode these curious universal dreams to see if insight and direction might emerge.

Open Your Mind and Follow Your Heart: Reflections on Individuation

This Event is Sold Out

A Spring Seminar with PNSJA Analysts

We will examine the stages of Jung’s Individuation Process through the archetypes of Persona, Shadow, Anima/Animus, and Self. We will explore what Jung meant by these terms and how they appear in dreams and in life. Jung had an innate understanding that the body was not separate from psyche, but he did not find a way to embody the Individuation Process. We will take a look at an emerging understanding of the body and its integration in the process towards wholeness. We will discuss the maturity and character traits that one needs in order to determine the depth and breadth of one’s individuation process. We will conclude the seminar with a Native American tale,  Jumping Mouse and the Sacred Mountain and what it says about individuation.

  • Six 2-hour sessions on Sundays, beginning March 31st to May 19th (excludes OFJ Program weekend Sundays)
  • Time:  1 – 3 pm
  • Location:  OFJ Library:  811 NW 20th Ave. Portland,  97209
  • Cost: $195,  $185 for OFJ members
  • Limited to 12 participants
  • Up to 12 hours of CEUs available

Maureen O’Donnell will lead March 31, April 7, April 28

Jim Soliday will lead May 5, May 12, and May 19

Required Reading

  • CG Jung, Man and His Symbols, “The Process of Individuation” (pages 159-171).
  • CG Jung.  Memories, Dreams and Reflections, Chapter VI—“Confrontation with the Unconscious” (pages 194-225).
  • Murray Stein (1998). Jung’s Map of the Soul, Chapters 5-8 (pages 105-197). (Stein gives a very readable description of the parts of the psyche that are essential in Jung’s individuation process.)

These books are all available for online purchase at reasonable prices, as well as in our OFJ library for checkout. In advance of the first session on 3/31, participants are asked to read the section from Man and his Symbols, and Chapter 5 of Jung’s Map of the Soul.

  • Fuselier, S. & Winegarden, D. (2011). “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon:The Transformative Power of Posture and Breath” (pages 250-261) in Body, Mind, and Healing After Jung, Jones, R., ed.  (This will be PROVIDED)

Optional Reading

  • CG, Jung.  CW 7, Two Essays on Analytical Psychology, (pages 173—178; 218—226).
  • CG Jung.  CW 8, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche, “Transcendant Function”  (pages 67—91).
  • CG Jung.  CW 9i, The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, A Study in the Process of Individuation, (pages 275—354).
  • John Sanford (1985) King Saul, The Tragic Hero—A Study in Individuation.  (The process of becoming a whole person is fraught with dangers and possible misdirections. Using the story of King Saul, Sanford teaches us about the nature of human striving, fear, doubt and self-deception).
  • Mark Nepo (2014). The Endless Practice—Becoming Who You Were Born To Be.  (this book is intended to be read in small daily pieces and then he encourages personal reflection and journaling).
  • Jolande Jacobi (1965).  The Way of Individuation.  (The author writes from profound personal experience about individuation. Twice in her life, political catastrophe destroyed her economic, social and familial environment.  When at aged thirty, and again at fifty, she had to create for herself a new life!  She contrasts the difference between the natural growing process and that deepened by analytical insight.  Particular emphasis is placed on the phases of transition between the first and second halves of life). (This will be PROVIDED)

2019-2020 Season Preview

SEPTEMBER 20/21, 2019

Living an Imaginal Life:
Dreams, Active Imagination, Synchronicity
Jeffrey Raff
JANUARY 17/18, 2020

How to Love a Narcissist
Susan Schwartz
OCTOBER 18/19, 2019

Changing of the Gods:
Weathering the Cosmic Archetypal Storm
Richard Tarnas
FEBRUARY 21/22, 2020

Soul Lost and Found
Between Persona and Authentic Living
Ann Ulanov
NOVEMBER 8/9, 2019

Between the World and Me:
Where the Wild Things Live
Samuel Kimbles
MARCH 20/21, 2020

Alchemical Ecology
Jung & the New Sciences
Jeffrey Kiehl
DECEMBER 6/7, 2019

The Essence of Kundalini
Experiencing the Chakras
Geri Grubbs
APRIL 17/18, 2020

Love Between Equals:
Relationship as a Spiritual Path
Polly Young-Eisendrath

We’ll be posting more information later this summer.

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