Lecture and Workshop: Jung made the distinction between the personal dream and the big dream, noting that, while the personal dream helps us maintain day-to-day psychic balance, the big dream concerns universal human problems and occurs during critical phases of life. We will explore the images, symbols, and callings stemming from dreams that appear at critical junctures and that reveal our place in the cosmos. We will see how numinous dreams of nature and cosmos help us transcend the polarities behind our alienation from nature, our selves, and one another. Participants are invited to share dreams containing archetypal and cosmic motifs.
Melanie Starr Costello, PhD, is a 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 book, Imagination, Illness and Injury: Jungian Psychology and the Somatic Dimensions of Perception, was published by Routledge in 2006.