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The New Animism: A World of Many Worlds
Tom Cheetham

Saturday, February 1, 2020
9am to 12pm
Venue Change to: Maine Jung Center
183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $30, Non-Members $35

We can begin in prehistory and note that in every culture we know of the world is full of persons. Or we can begin with Freud and Jung and their heirs and acknowledge that “personification” is fundamental to our cognition. Or we can start with some of the most interesting modern philosophers and anthropologists who describe the ubiquity of persons, or at the very least, the aspects of “personhood” that dominate our experience. Tom will argue that Henry Corbin can be seen as a forerunner not only of the recent interest in “personhood”, but also of what are known collectively as the “epistemologies of the South”. Corbin was among the early advocates of “border thinking” and of the primacy of imagination in our construction of reality. James Hillman adopted many of Corbin’s key ideas and integrated them with Jungian psychology and advocated moving the locus of our imaginations towards the South, to be free of the burden of Northern, Eurocentric preoccupations. With these moves we will find our imaginations freed for a new and long overdue vision of a polycentric “pluriverse” where many worlds can coexist, and our capacity to fulfill our natural longing to love all the beings in the world can be more nearly realized.

Tom Cheetham, PhD, is the author of five books on the imagination in psychology, religion and the arts, and one book of poems. Formerly Associate Professor of Biology and Environmental Studies at Wilson College, he has taught natural science and the humanities for over 30 years. He is a Fellow of the Temenos Academy in London and teaches and lectures regularly both online and in the flesh in the US and internationally.

Core Course: Dreams
Interpretation of Dreams
Will Furber

Sundays, February 2, 9, & 16, 2020
2 to 4 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $60, Non-Members $70

Significant Dreams . . . are often remembered for a lifetime, and not infrequently prove to be the richest jewels in the treasure house of psychic experience.
~ C. G. Jung, CW Vol. 8, pg. 554

Learning the symbolic language of dreams opens the possibility of dialogue with the most discerning and insightful parts of the psyche. Initially inscrutable, a dream begins to convey its message through symbolic analysis, confronting us with powerful and important truths about our lives. A major dream correctly interpreted can evoke a sense of awe in the dreamer because the manner in which its message is conveyed is so artfully and precisely drawn. It pulls the dreamer into a living connection with the deeper dimensions of Soul.

This course will provide a brief review of Jungian theory relating to dreams and facilitate discussion and interpretation of dream material.

Will Furber, JD, IAAP, is a Jungian analyst. He helped found the Maine Jung Center and is a faculty member at the Boston Jung Institute, where he co-leads a recurring seminar on collective process.

Facilitated by Jennifer Morris
Second Saturday every Month:
Continuing October 5, 2019
10 to 12 pm

FREE for members; No pre-registration is necessary

Required Text: What Matters Most by James Hollis

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.
– C. G. Jung

Please join us for Jungian focused discussions about books, mythology, and fairy tales. Together we can explore the stories that, throughout time, give us important clues on how to live our lives more fully.

We will begin by reading What Matters Most by James Hollis. Taking a fresh look at the concept of happiness, Hollis uses a warm, accessible tone to encourage readers to learn to tolerate ambiguity, embrace growth rather than security, respect the power of Eros, engage spiritual crises, and acknowledge the shadow of mortality.

James Hollis, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst in private practice and executive director of the Jung Society of Washington. Educated at Manchester College, Drew University, and the Jung Institute in Zurich, he was a humanities professor for more than twenty years and is the author of fifteen books, including the best selling The Middle Passage: From Misery to Meaning at Midlife and The Eden Project: In Search of the Magical Other. Based in Washington, D.C., he lectures frequently throughout the country and worldwide, and has spoken at the Maine Jung Center numerous times.

Jennifer Morris’s Jungian experience started with seven years of personal work with a remarkable Colorado analyst, Katherine Kuisle, PhD. This experience profoundly changed Jennifer’s life, opening her heart to the guiding symbology around us and within us. She grew up in Yarmouth and lived in Maine for 40 years before moving to Colorado where she lived—when not working as a physician assistant in Alaska or adventuring on a sailboat in the Bahamas—for 23 years. Now retired, she and the cat are quite settled in South Portland, surrounded by her gardens.

Death Café Series (I)
Tuesday, February 11, 2020; 6:30 to 8:30 pm
FREE for Members and Non-Members

Maximum Participants: 18 (Pre-registration is Required)

Death is psychologically as important as birth, and like it, is an integral part of life.
~ C. G. Jung

Let’s gather together to talk about death. Not to grieve, not to seek therapeutic support, not to proselytize, but simply to have a group discussion with the intention to seek more awareness about death. Perhaps more awareness might help us to value the time that we have here on earth as fully alive human beings. How might we choose to live, imbued with more awareness of our own exit?

Death Cafés are happening all over the United States and Europe as open opportunities to the public, offering this simple intention for death to be a topic of group discussion without any agenda, objective, or conclusion. Donations may be made to the Jung Center in appreciation for providing a comfortable, accessible venue where attendees will be invited to speak and be listened to with respect and confidentiality. Please register for each two-hour event even though there is no fee. The discussion dates do not mean to imply a progression of any theme, and there is no expectation for a participant to attend consecutive discussions. Refreshments will be provided.

Martha Spruce, founder of Hearts & Hands Reiki, has been practicing and teaching Reiki in Brunswick and the greater mid-coast area for over 23 years. During much of that time she has also cared for dying people as a certified home Hospice volunteer. She also volunteered as a certified pastoral chaplain at Mid Coast Hospital. She is very grateful to the people who have invited her to be part of their lives at such a profound time of transition, because of the gifts of raw honesty and unwavering integrity that they brought along to give to those who were left behind. She has noticed that when people are dying, they usually want to talk about death, but she’d rather not wait till then. Martha has been a Maine Jung Center member for 12 years.

Facilitated by Jeff Pinnette
Third Sunday every Month:
Starting October 20, 2019
10 to 12 pm

FREE for members; No pre-registration is necessary

Required Text: Projection and Re-Collection in Jungian Psychology by Marie-Louise von Franz

This work is a classic of Jungian literature that at its most basic level provides a map and guide to the recognition and reclaiming of projections. More broadly, this book explores the Jungian foundation to consciousness and the collective unconscious.

The format of the discussion group will be to read one or more Chapters each month prior to the discussion group as shown in the syllabus (see website for more information). Key passages will be read again during the session so that it will be possible to not keep up with the reading, but still participate in a meaningful way in the discussion.

Projection and Re-Collection 2019-20 Discussion Group Syllabus

Jeff Pinnette is a longtime member of the Center who served on the Board for six years including two as Board chair and four as Program Committee chair. He is currently serving a new term on the Board as Co-Chair of the Program Committee.

Facilitated by Peggy Schick
Third Wednesday every Month:
Starting October 16, 2019
6 to 8 pm

FREE for members and non-members; No pre-registration is necessary

Required Text: Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change by Sherri Mitchell

The Maine Jung Center is pleased to offer a new book group beginning Wednesday, October 16, that will meet to read and discuss Sherri Mitchell’s 2018 book Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change. The Center is also excited to announce that Ms. Mitchell will be speaking to our community on April 3-4 in Portland. 

This book discussion experience will serve as an immersion into Mitchell’s profound and loving insight around affecting true global consciousness and change. Sacred Instructions is described as a narrative of Indigenous wisdom that provides a road map for the spirit and a compass of compassion for humanity.

Sherri Mitchell is a Native American attorney, author, teacher and activist from Maine. She has been actively involved with Indigenous land and water rights and the Indigenous way of life in the US, Canada and abroad for more than 25 years. Drawing from ancestral knowledge, as well as her experience as an attorney and activist, in Sacred Instructions Mitchell addresses some of the most crucial issues of our day, such as environmental protection and human rights. Sharing the gifts she has received from elders around the world, Mitchell urges us to decolonize our language and our stories. For those seeking change, this book offers a set of cultural values that will preserve our collective survival for future generations.

This book group will be gently led by Peggy Schick, astrologer, Reiki practitioner, activist, and co-chair of the board of the Maine Jung Center.

Becoming Nobody (2019) | Directed by Jamie Catto
Viewing facilitated by Rocco LaPenta

Becoming Nobody represents the core arc of Ram Dass’s teachings and life: whether as Dr. Richard Alpert, the Harvard psychologist, or as Ram Dass who serves as a bridge between Eastern and Western philosophies, he has defined a generation of inner explorers and seekers of truth and wisdom. Through his turns as scion of an eminent Jewish family from Boston, Harvard psychologist, counter-culture adventurer, holy man, stroke survivor, and compassionate caregiver, Ram Dass has worn many hats on his journey. His ability to entertain and his sense of humor are abundantly evident in a conversation that brings us around to address the vast question of ultimate freedom.