Workshop: Wrestling with Big Dreams. Borrowing a notion from the Elgonyi natives of central Africa, Jung designated “big” dreams as those transcending individual concerns. Such dreams comment on the human condition, history and the evolution of consciousness, or social problems of great magnitude. Now, big dreams in response to September 11 offer seminal insights on our current plight. This workshop will be an exploration of big dreams and how to work with them so as to extract their wisdom and integrate their value into our individual, everyday lives. Participants are encouraged to bring dreams of this kind to the workshop.

Michael Gellert, M.A., L.C.S.W., is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Santa Monica, California. He holds Master’s degrees in religious studies and social work. He studied with Marshall McLuhan at the University of Toronto, and undertook Zen training with the Zen master Koun Yamada in Japan. He has worked and traveled extensively in Asia. Formerly, he was Director of Training at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, a mental health consultant to the University of Southern California and Time, and manager of an employee assistance program for District Council 37, the labor union for employees of the City of New York. He was a humanities professor at Vanier College, Montreal, and taught religious studies at Hunter College of the City University of New York and psychology at the College of New Rochelle. He is the author of Modern Mysticism: Jung, Zen and the Still Good Hand of God and The Fate of America: An Inquiry into National Character.

Reference Material:

9/11/01 Commentaries from New York Jungians
Kristine Mann Library of the Analytical Psychology Club at the C. G. Jung Center of New York

September 11: articles in response
International Association for Analytical Psychology

September 11th: Piercing Our Unconscious
Jerome S. Bernstein, C. G. Jung Page

The Archetypal Dimension of the New York Terrorist Tragedies of 911
Bedi Ashok, M.D., C. G. Jung Page

Mythos and Terrorism: A Response to the Events of September 11
Barry Mills, M.D., Forensic Psychiatrist, C. G. Jung Page

Lecture: This presentation features a lesser-known side of Jung – practical, down-to-earth, and deeply concerned over the loss of connection with Nature. Jung emphasizes that Nature includes spirit as well as matter. Efforts to “conquer Nature” have left matter without its nature spirits and humans without a natural spiritual life. A pioneer in exploring the psyche’s evolution, Jung discovered its primordial foundation, which he named “natural man.”

Interwoven with dreams and stories from Jung’s travels and his life at Bollingen, this program showcases his challenging observations and prophetic predictions about technology and modern life. Following the tradition of the Taoist rainmaker whom he admired, Jung speaks as a culture shaman who shares our malaise and knows that restoring our own living connection with Nature contributes to healing the whole.

Workshop: Saturday, participants will hear about the specific environmental consultations Jung gave: how the natural self is left behind when technology develops too rapidly; how our primateness needs to be considered in city planning and education; how cultivating a plot of ground and enjoying dreams help ancient instincts come back to life; and where banished nature spirits now abide. Using active imagination, art materials, spontaneous writing, and handouts of selected passages, we will explore how Jung’s ideas impact us and might guide us toward aligning our lives with Nature’s sacred laws.

Our task is not to return to Nature a la Rousseau but to find the natural man again. C. G. Jung

Meredith Sabini, M.A., Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist who practiced Jungian psychotherapy from 1977 to 1997 and now directs Depth Psychology Programs in Berkeley, which offers continuing education seminars on dreams, ethics, and self-care. A published poet, essayist, and associate editor at Psychological Perspectives, Dr. Sabini has contributions in The Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology, and is the author of The Earth Has a Soul: The Nature Writings of C.G. Jung. She has been engaged in a long apprenticeship to matter and to the nature spirits on a wilderness property; essays chronicling her experience of ecological conversion are used in ecopsychology courses.

Article in Resurgence Journal (Jan/Feb. 2000):

Soul and Nature: For C. G. Jung, Mind, Nature and Humanity are Part of a Seamless Continuum

Workshop: Continuing the Search: Finding the Meaning through Image, Story, and Music: In this participatory workshop, we will continue to explore the archetype of the dark feminine through image, music, and literature. This is an image of the feminine that is other than "the mother." What can we understand about her characteristics through examining our own individual responses to literature, music, and image? And what might she mean to men as well as to women? Participants will enjoy the introverted time to explore the personal meaning of each image and each piece of music. Then discussion will allow the group to come to some assessment of the characteristics of the transformational dark feminine archetype, and an understanding of why in our time she is so important to each of us, and to all of us collectively.

Karlyn M. Ward, Ph.D., L.C.S.W., B.C.D., is a Jungian analyst in private practice in Mill Valley, California. Her analytic training was done at the C.G. Jung Institute in San Francisco where she is presently a member analyst. She is a member of the Adjunct Faculty at the Pacific School of Religion, part of the Graduate Theological Union, a consortium of some 28 schools of religion in Berkeley, California. There she teachers “Introduction to Jungian Thought” and “A Psychology of Suffering: Jung’s Answer to Job.” A musician, she is trained in the Bonny Method of using music as a form of active imagination, and is a Fellow in the Association for Music and Imagery. Her book, Sounding the Depths: Psyche and Music, is in process. She has given numerous seminars on music and psyche, and on redeeming the dark feminine. These seminars have been held at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, elsewhere in the Bay area, in Orange County, in Portland, in Zürich at the C.G. Jung Institute, and most recently in the south of France, in Provence

Reading List

Workshop: We will address other questions in the workshop, including “What is my Shadow, and how do I bring it to consciousness?” Please bring pad and pen and be prepared for personal reflection.

James Hollis, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Jung Educational Center of Houston, Texas, where he also continues his private practice as a Jungian analyst, and is a Senior Training Analyst for the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He began his private practice in Philadelphia in 1982 after becoming a Diplomat Graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Zürich. While in Philadelphia, Dr. Hollis, Co-Founder of the Philadelphia Jung Institute and a past Director of Training, also held the position of Visiting Professor of Psychiatry at the Albert Einstein Medical School. Dr. Hollis spent twenty-six years as a tenured Professor of Humanities at various colleges before his retirement in 1989. He is the author of articles, reviews and nine books, the latest being On This Journey We Call Our Life.

Reading List

Workshop: Saturday, December 7, 9:30 am - 4:00 pm
Town Hall
3704 N. Interstate Ave., Portland
(from I-5 take exit 303)
Public: $85. Members: $50 if registered by 11/30; $60 afterwards.