The Soul of the Post-Jungians
Book Discussion Group with Susan Farwell & John Philson
Second Saturday of the Month
10 am - 12 pm • Oct - June

The notion of the individual soul becomes much more highly charged when one entertains the aggregations of soul: community, cultural, global, and - shall we say universal-cosmic. On the other hand, if one believes "As above, so below," then the spheres are busy doing their work on events, if synchronistically. What are we to be thinking about all this - our lives, our beliefs, our values, our friends? Jung treated these questions, especially in his later writings: "Modern Man in Search of a Soul," "The Undiscovered Self," for example. We have to start somewhere.

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James Hillman is a credible source with which to begin, having made Soul (psyche) a primary focus during his lifetime. His works include: "The Thought of the Heart and the Soul of the World." His "Revisioning Psychology," based on a series of lectures presented at Yale, was nominated for a Pulizer. Contrary in his day, and still controversial in Jungian circles today, he was a brilliant, commanding speaker but displayed little patience with students or others who failed to keep up with him.

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Thomas Moore, poet, psychotherapist, and author of books on spiritual matters, claimed he read Hillman every day. He collected and edited material from many of Hillman's writings in a volume "A Blue Fire," and frankly, Hillman benefits from good editing. In this book/video group we will be reading from the first section of "A Blue Fire," the section named "Soul." In addition, we will be sampling from the profusion of videos Hillman left that are available on YouTube. The objective here is to attempt to wrestle with his ideas and to see what sticks. Join us.