February 8-9, 2008: Nomi Kluger Nash

The Feminine Principle in the Kabbalah: Shades of Darkness and Light

 

LECTURE

Dr. Nash has taken much delight in this image of the Shekinah, the feminine presence of God in Judaism, known as the Divine Presence (literally "indwelling"), that accompanied the joyous recognition of the power of the feminine principle. Such joy however was popularly accompanied by a naïve glorification of "her," which twisted the dark side of the feminine into light, overlooking and casting out the realities of evil and the difficult path that leads to transformation through the hard work of integrating the shadow. In accord with Jung, the ancient Kabbalists painted a far more varied and intricate portrait of the feminine aspect of God, both light and dark - a spectrum of potencies ranging from creation to destruction, from loving sexual union to demonic possession.

WORKSHOP

Although focusing on the feminine aspects, Dr. Nash will keep faith with the Kabbalists by showing their masculine counterparts, for the feminine and masculine aspects should not be split apart; splitting being the original sin in Kabbalah. The healing power of bringing about a loving union between the sexes and facing the evil that exists in Creation and in our own shadows (carefully so as not to be caught up in them), redeems the darkness in Creation, which emerges as an ongoing dialogue with God in which humanity plays its important part. Through a focus on the forces of unsentimental spiritual/sexual love and its inherent dangers, the seminar will draw parallels to Jung's concepts of individuation, ego-Self dialogue, animus and anima, spirit/matter unity and ultimately the coniunctio. The Friday night lecture will illustrate the Sephirot Tree, sometimes called the Tree of Life, and the myths surrounding it, while the Saturday seminar will be a continuation of these stories interspersed with our own daily-nightly lives, including accounts of dreams and whatever manifestations of the unconscious the participants deem appropriate.

NOMI KLUGER NASH, Ph.D., has been a Jungian psychologist since 1979, after careers in other fields of theatre and politics, finally fulfilling her promise to herself made at the age of 16 to be an analytical psychologist "when I grow up" ... which growing up process is still in the making. She divides her times between her two homes in Michigan and Jerusalem where she writes and teaches and has a small private practice.