Workshops & Talks

The Pluto-Saturn Conjunction: Death and Rebirth in These Times
Peggy Schick

Sunday, January 26, 2020
2 to 5 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $30, Non-Members $35

Saturn and Pluto align in conjunction in the sky every 33 to 38 years. The conjunction has come around again and culminates in exactitude in January. On Earth, the corresponding psychological pattern experienced by us over the course of the two to three years this conjunction forms and then separates is one of constriction, hardship, darkness, and eventual rebirth. With Saturn’s 29-year orbit and Pluto’s 248-year orbit around the Sun, the movement of this conjunction is slow. During this time, Pluto and Saturn together compel us to struggle and find our power within.

In this workshop we will discuss this phenomenon in historical context, in current-day experience globally, and through investigation of the conjunction as it transits our own natal charts and how it is experienced personally.

Registrants are required to provide their birth date, exact time, and city/state of birth at least a week prior to the workshop. No prior knowledge of astrology is necessary for this workshop.

Peggy Schick is a professional intuitive astrologer and Reiki Master. She teaches astrology classes through several adult learning organizations in Maine. Peggy is certified in Archetypal Cosmology through the Institute of Transpersonal and Archetypal Studies, New York. She serves as co-chair of the Board of the Maine Jung Center.

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.

Circles and Psyche
Calen Rayne

Saturday, February 22, 2020
2:30 to 5:30 pm
Portland Friends Meeting, 1837 Forest Ave, Portland
Members $30, Non-Members $35

Western culture is familiar with mandalas primarily because of the work of C. G. Jung, who became interested in them while studying Eastern Religion. In Jungian Psychology, the mandala or magic circle is visualized in dreams symbolizing a dreamer’s striving for unity of self and completeness. As for alchemy, Jung says “Only after I had familiarized myself with alchemy did I realize that the unconscious is a process, and that the psyche is transformed or developed by the relationship of the ego to the contents of the unconscious.”

Mandalas originate as art and meditation form in ancient cultures all over our planet. Mandalas are a tool to encourage our inner genius to awaken, communicate and express itself directly. Mandalas have appeared throughout history as a universal and essential symbol of integration, harmony, and transformation. They bring form to the primordial intuition of nature and are common to many human cultures.

In this workshop you will learn how to create brush stroke mandalas of simple geometric shapes from ancient teachings. Mixture of colors is a form of alchemy.

Rev. Dr. Calen Rayne, DMin, MFA, is an accomplished geomancer, a Unitarian Universalist Lay Community Minister, and Adjunct Faculty of Wisdom School of Graduate Studies at Ubiquity University. Calen has traveled extensively and spent time in North America, Latin America, Europe and Asia studying with great masters of both Japanese and Tibetan Buddhist traditions, with Bon and pre-literate Bon masters, with geomancers from both Celtic and Druid traditions, and with alchemists of various indigenous religions. Calen consults with clients around the world offering his unique blend of skill and experience as the foundation for his geomantic work with earth energies in clients’ homes and landscapes.

Major Spring Program 2020 – Sherri Mitchell
Sacred Instructions: Indigenous Wisdom for Living Spirit-Based Change

(Lecture) Friday, April 3, 2020; 7 to 9 pm
Members $20, Non-Members $25

(Workshop) Saturday, April 4, 2020; 9:30 am to 1:30 pm
Members $40, Non-Members $50

Both events will be held at: First Universalist Church, 97 Main Street, Yarmouth, Maine

Friday Lecture
This time represents a critical crossroads for humanity, a teetering point of choice that will determine the future of all life. Drawing from ancestral knowledge, as well as her experience as an attorney and activist, Sherri Mitchell addresses some of the most crucial issues of our day, such as environmental protection and human rights.

Saturday Workshop
In a more intimate setting, Sherri will host a discussion about (1) where we are now and how we got there, (2) our historical and collective trauma, (3) the foundational laws of the universe from an indigenous perspective, and (4) what does it mean to live in a time of prophecy?

Sherri Mitchell, Weh’na Ha’mu Kwasset, is an Indigenous rights activist, spiritual teacher, and transformational change maker. Sherri was born and raised on the Penobscot Indian reservation (Penawahpskek). She speaks and teaches around the world on issues of Indigenous rights, environmental justice, and spiritual change. Her broad base of knowledge allows her to synthesize many subjects into a cohesive whole, weaving together a multitude of complex issues and articulating them in a way that both satisfies the mind and heals the heart.

Sherri received her Juris Doctorate and a certificate in Indigenous People’s Law and Policy from the University of Arizona’s James E. Rogers College of Law. She is an alumna of the American Indian Ambassador program, and the Udall Native American Congressional Internship program.

Sherri is the visionary behind “Healing the Wounds of Turtle Island”, a global healing ceremony that has brought people together from all corners of the world. The ceremony is designed to heal our relationships with one another as human beings, and then to heal the relationship between human beings and the rest of Creation. It has been attended by people from every continent (except Antarctica), who have come together to pray with one heart and one mind for the healing of all life on Mother Earth.

SoulCollage®: A Creative Process for Introspection and Integration
Lillian Harris

Saturday, April 11, 2020
1 to 4 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $40, Non-Members $45

SoulCollage® is an intuitive creative process developed over 30 years ago by the late social worker, Seena Frost. Today SoulCollage® is a supportive tool in exploring, acknowledging and integrating the many parts of ourselves, some that we are conscious of and others that emerge unexpectedly through the collage process. The workshop will be an opportunity to experience this technique first hand. We will start with a brief overview of the process and the theoretical framework that has informed the evolution of the technique, including the significant influence of C. G. Jung’s work. Then we will move into card making. Each participant will create, using found images, scissors and glue, their own 5 x 8″ SoulCollage® cards. We will then dialog with our cards, drawing out the wisdom of the images, and our own ability to learn from what we have made. All supplies will be provided.

Lillian Harris, LCPC-C, is a psychotherapist and trained SoulCollage® facilitator based in Yarmouth, ME. She integrates creativity and mind/body approaches into her work with clients through individual therapy, workshops and therapeutic groups. More information at www.lillianharriscounseling.com

Kaleidoscope: Three Analysts Speak
Jungian Perspectives on Death and Dying
Teresa Arendell, Patricia Vesey-McGrew, & Will Furber

Saturday, April 11, 2020
9:30 am to 3:30 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $50, Non-Members $60

The birth of a human being is pregnant with meaning, why not death?
~ C. G. Jung, CW Vol. 8, pg. 408

C. G. Jung, one of the foremost thinkers about the human psyche, made major contributions to the study of death and dying. He argued that, particularly in the later decades of life, we live preparing for death. Dying is in itself a stage of life, and is as normal as being born. He wrote, “How much our life needs death . . . Joy at the smallest things comes to you only when you have accepted death” (2009:275). Yet death, in the modern Western world, remains largely a taboo subject. Jung urged us to find our personal myth of death as we learn to live with paradox: certainty and uncertainty, the known and unknown. Even though death poses innumerable, unanswerable questions—that is, it remains a mystery—we must nevertheless grapple with it. “Not to have done so is a vital loss. For the question . . . is the age-old heritage of humanity” (Jung Speaks about Death video clip). Considerations of death and dying enrich our quest to understand the meaning of life and consciousness.

Psyche: Questions of Life after Death
Teresa Arendell

Because I could not stop for Death—
He kindly stopped for me—
The Carriage held but just Ourselves—
And Immortality.
~ Emily Dickinson

Ideas of afterlife abound in myths and stories—ancient and contemporary, secular and religious. Such ideas are elemental in the human imagination and the dance between creation and destruction, life and death. Jung, reflecting in later life and after his near-death experience, stated, “When I speak of things after death, I am speaking out of inner prompting, and can go no farther than to tell you dreams and myths that relate to this subject.” He asserted that neither religion nor science can provide a definitive answer to the question of what happens after death and whether or not there is an afterlife. Drawing on Jung’s work, we explore such questions as: What happens in death? Does the body die but the soul survive? Does consciousness persist beyond death? In addition to images from religion, poetry, dreams, and stories, we also consider current research findings on near-death experiences and what they offer us in consideration of the idea of immortality.

Teresa Arendell, PhD, is a practicing Jungian analyst. A college professor in sociology for many years, she’s held multiple postdoctoral fellowships. She’s taught and offered lectures and seminars and served on committees at the Maine Jung Center, the Boston Jung Institute, and various Jungian associations. She enjoys teaching and living in Maine.

Living Into Death
Patricia Vesey-McGrew

My aim is to bring about a psychic state in which my patient begins to experiment with his own nature—a state of fluidity, change and growth where nothing is eternally fixed and hopelessly petrified.
~ C. G. Jung 1929b, par. 99

If I take death into my life, acknowledge it, and face it squarely, I will free myself from the anxiety of death and the pettiness of life—and only then will I be free to become myself.
~ Martin Heidegger

Constantly surrounding us are modern paeans honoring aliveness. We celebrate many expressions of our energized liveliness including athletic, dance, gymnastic, artistic and intellectual accomplishments. We revere many anniversaries, especially the ones marking our births. We often seek to discover the ‘elixir of life’, a potential spiritual quest which, at times, transposes into a hunger for physical longevity. Seldom is the reality of death exalted and embraced. The mystery of death frightens us and we circumambulate its power with a slow, distant caution. The death of a loved one causes loss and, frequently, unimagined suffering. An unexpected or untimely death generally results in inner chaos and anxiety about our own mortality.

Nevertheless, Jung challenges us to a different appreciation of death. “If I accept death, then my tree greens, since dying increases life. If I plunge into the death encompassing the world, then my buds break open. How much our life needs death!” (Red Book, pg. 274). His wisdom is not a voice shouting in the barren desert. Many, not legion, experience his words as truth. Writings as early as those of Heraclitus have also echoed a similar understanding of death and laid the groundwork for bringing death into life and living into death. We will use a prismatic lens to explore and ponder what this might look like today. What is a state of fluidity which includes
and honors death? How might we acknowledge death and face it squarely?

Is authentic living possible without this stance toward death? We will look at the impediments internally and culturally that seek to deny the significance of death in a truly vital life. Jung and other lovers of wisdom will be our guides.

Patricia Vesey-McGrew, MA, NCPsyA, is a diplomate Jungian Psychoanalyst in private practice in Cambridge and Rockport, MA. She is a supervising and training analyst at the Boston Jung Institute, where she is a past president and a faculty member.

What Does the Psyche Want Us To Understand About Our Death?
Will Furber

The theme of death and dying in dreams is often used interchangeably with other symbols relating to transformation and initiation. Usually these dreams suggest an outmoded ego adaption that is no longer serving well and must die, in the sense of giving way, so that a new adaptation can replace it. As applied to the idea of literal death, this suggests that if we did not die we would end up being stuck within the auspices of outmoded, blocking generative processes of rebirth that are struggling to emerge and which need our literal death to achieve their potential. When dreams touch on the idea of death more specifically they frequently use the theme of harvesting. Life then is seen as a season, and this season’s growth is harvested so that it can be made use of. But it is at the same time it is cleared out of the way so that it will not impede the generative capacity in the rhizome which below the surface is already working on the new season to follow. The hope is that there is something about the old season’s growth that has changed something in the rhizome in a beneficial way and that the new season will be better.

Will Furber is a Jungian analyst who helped found the Maine Jung Center 30 years ago and has taught numerous classes and seminars here. He has also served on the Board and faculty of the Boston Jung Institute, where he currently co-leads a recurring seminar on collective process.

Tools of Individuation
The Experience of God in the Individuation Process: From Chaos to Cosmos
Diane Croft

Sunday, May 3, 2020
2 to 4 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $15, Non-Members $20

Jung had a great deal to say about God, which for him was not a belief but a fully realized, living presence: “I don’t need to believe. I know.” His God experience was so powerful, so potentially destructive, that he felt grateful “to have escaped from death.”

This lecture will explore Jung’s belief that the psyche is, by nature, religious. “[The Self] . . . might equally be called the God within us.” Diane Croft will share the religious symbolism that emerged, unexpectedly, during her own three-year encounter with the Transpersonal Self, and how she is attempting to reconcile its sacred energies as a non-practicing Christian. Intended for believers and non-believers.

Diane Croft, EdM, is a graduate of Wittenberg and Harvard University. She spent most of her career as a vice president at National Braille Press in Boston, MA. For three years, Diane had access to a hidden, animated realm, described by C. G. Jung as “the primordial unconscious”, which she describes in her book The Unseen Partner: Love & Longing in the Unconscious. A review in Quadrant: Journal for Analytical Psychology described it as “an extraordinary book, comparable in many ways to the Red Book of C. G. Jung.”

Tools of Individuation
A Yoga Journey to Sacred Spaces and Places in India
Phyllis Stibler

Friday, May 8, 2020
7 to 9 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $15, Non-Members $20

With a Yogi guide and four companions, Phyllis spent several weeks in southern India in January 2019. The purpose of their yoga journey was to seek “a yoke to the divine, one consciousness”. They spent time in Hindu temples, on sacred mountains, at two ashrams and in related spaces and places. Phyllis does not consider herself an experienced yogi or a master at spiritual guidance in any way. She went on this journey as a perhaps, somewhat typical New Englander who observes Congregationalist traditions, enjoys a gentle physical yoga practice with meditation, and most importantly, has an open and curious mind. The experience was intense, rewarding and thought provoking.

In her talk, Phyllis will share her experiences, sketch journal and observations while on this journey.

Phyllis Stibler received a BFA in Interior Design from Syracuse University, School of Art. Over her design career, she has been honored by the American Institute of Architects – NH Chapter, the American Society of Interior Designers, Leadership NH, Boy Scouts of America – Daniel Webster Council, Granite State YMCA and other organizations for professional achievement and community service. Phyllis also served on the Board of Trustees and Executive Committee at the NH Institute of Art, from 2008 to 2017.

In retirement, Phyllis has illustrated three children’s books, serves as Chair of the Trustees for the New Castle Congregational Church, listed on the National Registry of Historic Places, and travels extensively, always with a sketch journal. She enjoys any outdoor activity, any musical offering involving baroque recorders and gentle yoga. Phyllis lives in the heart of New Castle, NH.

Mythical Consciousness and its Reflection in the Russian Folk Tale “Ryaba the Hen”
Michael Klimov

Saturday, May 16, 2020
2 to 4 pm
Maine Jung Center, 183 Park Row, Brunswick
Members $20, Non-Members $25

In The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, Marie-Louise von Franz writes “our interpretations are relative and not absolute. But we interpret for the same reason as that for which fairy tales and myths were told: because it has a vivifying effect and gives satisfactory reaction and brings one into peace with one’s unconscious instinctive substratum, just as the telling of fairy tales always did.” Michael Klimov will demonstrate how mythical consciousness emerges in “Ryaba the Hen”, among the most famous Russian folk tales and among the first that children of the Russian-speaking world learn.

Michael Klimov, MA, holds a master’s degree in Foreign Languages (English and French) from Kyiv National Linguistic University, Ukraine, and is currently pursuing a Doctor of Modern Languages degree in Russian and French through Middlebury College in Vermont. This presentation is related to Klimov’s dissertation research on mythical consciousness in Russian fairy tales. Michael Klimov has been a member of the Maine Jung Center for a number of years, and has always appreciated its intellectual, welcoming, inspirational, and healing atmosphere.

Dana Sawyer Spring Lecture Series
Friday, June 5, 2020; 7 to 9 pm
& Saturday, June 6, 2020; 10 am to 12 pm
Both events to be held at: First Parish Pilgrim House Chapel, 9 Cleaveland St, Brunswick

“America and the Religion of No-Religion”
Friday, June 5, 7 pm
Members $20, Non-Members $25
Today, the fastest growing demographic in the U.S. relative to “religion” is the category of “Spiritual but not religious”. This is especially true of Millennials, who are three-times as likely to abandon the religion of their parents than those of earlier generations. Where is this cultural change taking us? What are the implications, good and bad, of this shift for the future of American spirituality? Are some trends of this change more useful than others for the growth of a compassionate society? In this talk, Dana Sawyer discusses new trends in spirituality, including the growing synchronicity between “religion” and “psychology”. For instance, “enlightenment” and “beatitude” have increasingly morphed into “self-actualization”, “individuation”, “Mindfulness”, and “optimum wellness”. Furthermore, we will discuss the general characteristics of this movement, including its premium on personal experience, the sovereignty of personal choice, and the shift toward co-learning over structures of teacher/disciple. The goal of the talk is not only to give an overview of what is occurring but to suggest directives that can be useful for those on the spiritual path today.

“The Future of Psychedelic Mysticism”
Saturday, June 6, 10 am
Members $20, Non-Members $25
In 1954, Aldous Huxley published a small book that triggered a huge reaction, The Doors of Perception, dealing with his first experience with mescaline. During the subsequent nine years, Huxley developed several theories about psychedelic drugs as legitimate triggers of mystical experience and insight that have been hugely debated ever since. Part of the initial reaction involved Timothy Leary’s admonition that youth culture should “Turn On, Tune In, and Drop Out”, causing Richard Nixon to then label him the “most dangerous man in America”. However, since that time, and after the wholesale prohibition of psychedelic drugs by the U.S. government, even for scientific research, there has been a reassessment—including a resumption of research. What is the status of scientific research with psychedelics today? What are the views among academics and therapists regarding the values and dangers of psychedelic experience? How well do Huxley’s theories of psychedelic spirituality hold up today? Based upon two years of concerted research regarding this topic, Dana Sawyer shares his findings. This is a controversial topic but, thanks to Michael Pollan’s recent book on the subject, How to Change Your Mind (not to mention current research in England and Switzerland, and at Johns Hopkins), it is also a timely one.

Dana Sawyer is professor emeritus of Philosophy and Religion at the Maine College of Art and a member of the Advisory Board of the Chaplaincy Institute of Maine. He has written biographies of Aldous Huxley and Huston Smith as well as articles for such magazines as Tricycle, Yoga Journal, and Parabola. Currently, he is writing a handbook of the Perennial Philosophy and helping the Esalen Institute determine its future curriculum.