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For a printable version of our newsletter, please click click here: PrintableWinter/Spring 2012 Newsletter
A place may be reserved by e-mail, but a registration form and payment by check is needed to confirm space in a class and to receive the early discount. To register for course-work or seminars by mail, print the registration form (see link above) and mail to: Winter/Spring 2012 Programs Tarot Narratives 4-Session Course: Wednesdays, January 18, 25 & Feb. 1, 8, 2012 The Tarot is a rich collection of images and archetypes which can be used to discern and more-deeply understand the world around us. The cards of the Tarot can also be a prompt for ideas and stories within our imagination, weaving significant details of our experience together into a uniquely personal narrative. This creative process will be the basis for this four-week class. Participants will use randomly-selected cards from the Tarot deck as the springboard for intuition and creativity, using the selected cards as a basis for a personal narrative. Three different groups of cards will be drawn, allowing for a beginning, middle, and an end to the story. Once the journaling is completed, Jeanne will talk about the traditional meaning of each card, not interpreting the cards in any particular context, but offering a field of meaning for each of the images. Rick will provide the Jungian perspective to bring further depth to the objective meanings held within each of the cards. Participants are left to draw their own conclusions/connections with their own story, sharing only as they wish to share about what they’ve written, and will be encouraged to muse on how the stories of the evening have relevance for their personal lives and the process of individuation. To add another level to this already rich exploration, members are invited to obtain a copy of Daryl Sharp's Jung Lexicon (available free online) or Andrew Samuel's A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis, to illuminate and amplify key Jungian terms as they relate to and animate the images of the Tarot and the personal narrative. Copies of these books are available from the Jung Center’s library. Participants will learn Tarot card meanings and gain an understanding of the Jungian principles intrinsic to the Tarot, while at the same time having the opportunity to experiment with their own creative writing process and inner dialogue. No prior knowledge of the Tarot is necessary in order to fully participate in this subjective experience of the Tarot, storytelling, and creativity. Jeanne Fiorini brings 20 years of experience to her work as a Tarot practitioner, teacher, and author, offering a unique blend of knowledge, wisdom, and wit. She writes a monthly column for the American Tarot Association’s website, offers an ongoing video series of Tarot Tips, and is a returning presenter of Tarot classes and workshops at the C. G. Jung Center. Jeanne’s newest book, Tarot Spreads and Layouts: A User’s Manual was published in 2011by Schiffer Publishing Ltd. Visit the TarotWorks website at www.tarotworks.com. Rick Bouchard is a clinical social worker and a Stage II training candidate at the C. G. Jung Institute—Boston. His diploma thesis, in progress, is related to the use of Tarot in Jungian analysis. He has been in private practice in Portland, Maine, since 1999, working with children, adolescents, and adults. He facilitates a variety of professional workshops, sand play and an ongoing dream group. He is a student of the Tarot and offers intuitive Tarot readings.
Tools of Individuation: Pythias Sacred Geometry Tarot Sunday Workshop: Jan. 29th Sacred Geometry studies the proportions and ratios of natural forms and their reflections in art, architecture, and music. It is a study of the whole and its parts through the relationship of form and spatial order. And it perceives a metaphysical Unity, which creates by dividing itself — multiplying life by a divine division. Contemplation of these expanding repetitions of geometric patterns reveals a mathematical elegance in the creative process of the unfolding Universe. As a portal to the inner universe, the images of the twenty-two Pythias Sacred Geometry Tarot cards use geometric symbolism to reflect facets of the human psyche. They represent the whole and its parts — the division of the unity of Self. The instructors published deck, Pythias Sacred Geometry Tarot, will provide the structure for the lecture. (The Tools of Individuation series allows our members to share with us their life journeys, as well as methods, practices, activities, or other tools of individuation that they have found helpful. Please contact the Center if you are interested in presenting for a future series.) Katenia Keller has worked as a dance and performance artist and teacher for most of her career. Painting has been a lifelong passion. A gift of a tarot deck during a period of inner reflection changed the course of her life. In 2007 she painted her first card which appeared as an image upon waking. Several of the cards have come in dreams, and almost the entire suit of Fire (Wands or Staves) was painted before she realized, mid process, that the paintings corresponded to many of the cards in that suit. This unconscious inspiration has been a factor during the entire project. Katenia has shown and discussed her work at various galleries in Maine since 2009 when Pythias Sacred Geometry Tarot was published.
Secret of the Golden Flower Six Sundays: February 5, 12, 19, 26 & March 4 & 11 Close your bodily eye, that you may see your picture first with the eye of the spirit. Then bring to light what you have seen in the darkness, that its effect may work back from without to within. ~ Casper David Friedrick In his “Commentary to The Secret of the Golden Flower,” C. G. Jung gives us a way of appreciating Eastern wisdom. The bridge he creates for us is one built on psychological experience, thus widening and deepening the meaning of the text. Jung gives us a way to experience the depth of that inner world where, despite the gulf separating us from the East, the paths converge at the Center. In this six-week seminar we will have an opportunity to explore how The Secret of the Golden Flower fits into the landscape of Jung’s life experience. We will examine the essence of Taoism in its past and present historical context, briefly review the text from the point of view of its two principle translators, Richard Wilhelm and Thomas Cleary, and critically read and discuss Jung’s “Commentary to the Secret of the Golden Flower.” This essay not only reflects a pivotal point in Jung’s life but also furthers our understanding of the individuation process. Images, dreams, stories, and personal experiences will be used to amplify the text. The book we will use is: The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life. Translated and explained by Richard Wilhelm, with a commentary by C. G. Jung. Paola Biola, MA, is a Jungian analyst who trained at the C. G. Jung Institute – Zurich. A faculty member and trainee supervisor of the C. G. Jung Institute –Boston, Paola has a private practice in Harpswell, where individuals or couples can also stay for a weekend of intensive work. She has served as a former Member and Co-Chair of the Board of Directors of the Jung Center. Imagining Father: Friday Lecture: March 2 In my experience it is usually the father who is the decisive and dangerous object of the child’s fantasy . . . . [But] I must leave this question open, because my findings are not sufficient to warrant a decision. It is to be hoped that experience in the years to come will sink deeper shafts into this obscure territory, on which I have been able to shed but a fleeting light, and will discover more about the secret workshop of the daemon who shapes our fate . . . . ~ C. G. Jung, “The Significance of the Father in the Destiny of the Individual,” CW, Vol. 4, Para. 744, n. 26 A century after Jung challenged us to look more deeply into the father’s role in shaping our fate, we may wonder what meaning terms like “father” or “mother” can have when single-parent families are common, or when father rather than mother is the primary caregiver, or when little Mary or little Johnny have two mommies, or two daddies—perhaps transgendered ones—or no parents at all other than a social service agency. But if we drop the notion of gender-bound roles and focus instead on functions available to any gender, perhaps we can begin to sort out whether or not there are archetypal fathering functions, and if so, what those functions look like. We know a lot about the kinds of developmental behaviors that account for “good-enough mothering,” but we have nothing comparable about good-enough fathering. As the stymied father in J. C. Coetzee’s novel Disgrace concludes, compared to embodied motherhood, fatherhood is an abstraction and a politically contentious one at that. For similar reasons, Jungian analyst Luigi Zoja calls fathering an “inherently precarious condition” that has to be rediscovered and reaffirmed in each generation. If the function of “Father” is an achievement, not a given, how do we reimagine its archetypal potential for our time, and where do we begin? On Friday evening our program will start with a talk about some of the current ideas about fathering, among them Guy Carneau’s notion of the absent father, James Herzog’s description of “father hunger,” and Mark O’Connell’s image of the “‘weight’ of a good father.” Along with such ideas, we will also look at some examples of how popular culture and poetry reflect and shape how we imagine fathering. There will also be time for comments and discussion. On Saturday, in the morning, we will discuss and question fathering in relation to gender as we find it in a folk story and two fairy tales. In the afternoon, we will have an open session to share the ways in which fathering, or its absence, has impacted our lives, our dreams, our families, and the work that we do. Click here to download the Fairy Tale to be used in this course! Click here to download the flyer for this course! ( Please post if this program would be of interest to your community.) Richard Trousdell, DFA, IAAP, is a Jungian Analyst in Northampton, Massachusetts, and Professor Emeritus of Theater at the University of Massachusetts–Amherst. He holds the Doctor of Fine Arts from the Yale School of Drama where his dissertation was on the ethical role of women in Euripidean tragedy. He has lectured here and abroad, most recently at the “Ancient Greece, Modern Psyche” Jungian symposium on Santorini, and at the annual conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Psychoanalysis in New York. His writings have appeared in the Yale Theater Journal, The Drama Review, The Massachusetts Review, and the Jung Journal, among others. His most recent work on hero and victim complexes appeared this past summer in a new book from Spring Publications: Ancient Greece/Modern Psyche edited by Virginia Beane Rutter and Tom Singer.
Big Dreams, Visions, and Active Imagination Option 1 Option 2 Life offers moments of what Otto Rank called the "numinous"—extraordinary encounters with the Holy Other, invoking in one awe and dread, fascination and calling. Such moments typically draw us to find new meaning in life. How we process them can greatly affect how we live life forward. Reliance upon a Higher Power in Twelve-Step Programs is but one indication of the significance of the numinous in healing. We will examine three kinds of numinous experiences that are inner in nature: big dreams (of great importance individually and collectively), visions (as if dreaming while awake), and active imagination (Jung's method of engaging the unconscious in order to learn from it). We will consider them in the lives of historical figures, such as, Jung, Hildegard von Bingen, and Black Elk, as well as in our own lives and the lives of others whom we have known. Chris Beach, Jungian analyst and registered counselor, has a private practice in Portland. He works with individuals, facilitates dream groups, and teaches courses on dream interpretation, psychological type, Jungian psychology, active imagination, and ethics. Formerly, Chris served as a teacher and headmaster in Kenya and as an assistant attorney general representing Maine's Department of Human Services. Directions to Portland Friends Meeting from I-295 in Portland 1. Take I-295 into downtown Portland. Directions to Portland Friends Meeting from Maine Turnpike at Exit 48 in Portland 1. Take Maine Turnpike (I-95 ) to Exit 48. Will Furber Kaleidoscope Week 1: Sunday, April 8, from 2 – 4 PM This presentation will address the archetypal split in the collective psyche symbolized by the mythological theme of brothers locked in conflict. This archetypal antagonism is seen in the story of Cain and Abel, and later in the stories of Jacob and Essau, Issac and Ishamel, and Satan and Christ, among many others. One brother is favored by the father. The other is cast out. In many cases, the favored son is embodied in a sacrifical context and the disfavored son is destined to carry negative projections of the collective. The split between Judaic Christian culture and Islamic culture embodies this archetypal rift. Ishmael’s progeny become the followers of Mohammad. Issac’s progeny follow Yahweh. Conflict between the two cultures emanates from deep archetypal underpinings symbolized by the story of these two brothers. If we remain unconscious of this crucial psychological fact, we remain destined to live out this split in conscious life, as we have for over a thousand years. Only by becoming conscious of the nature and dynamics of this split can we hope to transcend it. Will Furber, JD, is a Jungian analyst from Topsham. He is on the training Board of Directors of the C. G. Jung Institute–Boston, and is a former Chair of the Brunswick Jung Center’s Board. The Middle East is the proverbial cradle of civilization and the birthplace of the world’s three monotheistic religions. While the births of these three religions did not in themselves create conflict, their development did so over the centuries, primarily among those who sought power and hegemony over land and people. These conflicts have involved inter-religious and intra-religious schisms. Religious groups did not lead the Middle East uprisings of 2011, but rather ordinary citizens who were primarily concerned with the corruption and misrule of their governments. Religious groups, however, have entered the fray and have benefitted, or suffered, from the conflicts. There are several examples. Sectarianism has become more prominent in the struggle against the Mubarak regime and its surrogate ruler, the military caretaker government. The increasing prominence of Islamists in the new governments of Tunisia and Libya is raising questions of their commitment to respecting human rights regardless of religious identification. The revolt against a religious minority ruling Syria continues, and illustrates an issue of intra-religious conflict, as does the evolving political struggle in Iraq, which involves the new-found power of a majority (Shiite Muslims) demanding their rights over a religious minority (Sunni Muslims), which dominated prior to 2003. Then, there is the case of the Palestinian Israeli conflict. There, the competing claims to a common land are infused by a diverse but common religious heritage; the competing claims are not completely religious, with both secular and sectarian issues prominent. These diverse examples will be explored to gain a further understanding of the relevance of religion to the contemporary Middle Eastern political landscape of new nation-state-building. Kathleen Howard Sutherland, PhD, is Associate Professor Emeritus of Political Science and Women’s Studies at Bowling Green State University in Ohio, specializing in Middle East Studies. She received her PhD in Middle East Studies and Political Science from Indiana University. Earlier, she taught at the American University in Cairo, the city of her birth and long-time residence. Kathleen’s publications focus on the role of women in public life in Egypt and Morocco, with her time in Morocco supported by a Fulbright Fellowship. Kathleen also interviewed Afghan women refugees in Peshawar, Pakistan in l985. She joined the faculty of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute (OLLI) in 2005 and has taught courses on the Middle East, Islam, women, refugees, and sub-Saharan Africa. Kathleen served on the OLLI Advisory Board as well as on the World Affairs Council of Maine Board of Directors. She taught on an adjunct basis at the University of Southern Maine in the Political Science and History Department in the fall of 2011.
Note: The last hour of this afternoon’s program will be an open discussion with all three speakers from the Kaleidoscope Series. Recommended (not required) reading: Armstrong, Karen. The Battle for God. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2000. Tom Cheetham, PhD,is the author of The World Turned Inside Out (2003), Green Man–Earth Angel (2005), After Prophecy (2007) and All the World an Icon (forthcoming 2012). He has spoken at the C. G. Jung Center in Philadelphia and at the 2001 Eranos Conference in Ascona, and is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy in London. He was Associate Professor and Director of Environmental Studies at Wilson College in Pennsylvania, and has taught at Bangor Theological Seminary and Pacifica Graduate Institute. He is currently an adjunct faculty member at the College of the Atlantic, Bar Harbor.
The Four Spiritualities Four patterns of spiritual practice and orientation are found in parallel within the religious traditions of the world. They are the Journeys of Unity, Devotion, Works, and Harmony. These are correlated with the function pairs in Jung’s theory of psychological type. We will explore these four patterns along with the archetype of the spirit that lies beneath both psychological type and the four spiritualities. Participants will discover which of the four spiritualities is most important for assisting them in their journeys of spiritual growth, enriched by the presence of the other three. (No prior knowledge of psychological type is needed for this workshop.) Peter T. Richardson is author of Four Spiritualities (1996), Archetype of the Spirit (2007), Sunday Meditations (2009), and Journey Beyond God (2011). He is a Unitarian Universalist minister (retired) and has led workshops nationally and internationally. His pilgrimages to 20 countries have deepened his appreciation for the kinship of religious traditions and add visually to this seminar experience.
Jung in Dialogue with the Soul: Jung’s Approach to Spirituality and Religion: Depth Psychology as a Spiritual Practice Lionel Corbett trained in medicine and psychiatry in England and as a Jungian Analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute—Chicago. His primary interests are in the religious function of the psyche, especially the way in which personal religious experience is relevant to individual psychology, and in the development of psychotherapy as a spiritual practice. Dr. Corbett is a core faculty member of Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara, California, where he teaches depth psychology. He is the author of three books: Psyche and the Sacred, The Religious Function of the Psyche, and The Sacred Cauldron: Psychotherapy as a Spiritual Practice.
Restoring Wholeness:Kabbalah and the Repair of the Soul Saturday Seminar: June 16
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