Join us for an exciting Spring 2013 Lecture schedule. We are excited to have distinguished speakers David Schoen, Thordis Niela Simonsen, Margaret Dozier, and Laurel Howe presenting this spring. Below are details about each lecture. All lectures are located at:
First Divine Science Church,
14th Ave. and Williams St.
Cost: free to members, $15 at the door,
$10 students and seniors
The War of the Gods in Addiction
Lecture by David Schoen
February 1st, 2013 at 7 p.m.
David Schoen will present an overview of the psychodynamics of addiction, treatment and recovery through the dual lenses of the 12 steps of AA and Jungian psychology. This will be based on the famous correspondence between Bill W. (cofounder of AA) and C.G. Jung. He will describe the development of a typical addiction, its true nature, the importance of archetypal shadow/archetypal evil in the addiction process and why the principles of the 12 steps of AA are the most effective treatment approach in addressing an addiction. This lecture is relevant for individuals interested in Jungian psychology, alcoholism and addiction dynamics, recovery, and the existence of archetypal shadow/archetypal evil in our world.
David Schoen, LCSW, MSSW, is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified Jungian Analyst practicing in Covington, Louisiana, near New Orleans. He has a background as an alcoholism chemical dependency counselor. He is a senior analyst in the Inter Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, cofounder and coordinator of the New Orleans Jungian Training Seminar. David lectures nationally and is a Louisiana poet. His books include Divine Tempest: The Hurricane as a Psychic Phenomenon and The War of the Gods in Addiction: C.G. Jung, Alcoholics Anonymous and Archetypal Evil.
Building on Memory: a multimedia presentation
By Thordis Niela Simonsen
March 1st, 2013 at 7 p.m.
In Jung & the Story of Our Time, biographer Laurens van der Post observes, “…the art of writing, indeed all art, [is] a continuation by one’s waking daylight self of a process begun in some dreaming process in the darkness of sleep.” In her multi-media program, writer/artist Simonsen reveals the role that dream and memory have played in her own individuation. Simonsen sets recollections of a 1950’s Lake Erie childhood against a backdrop of biographical photographs taken by her father. She sets explorations of her life-altering relationship with her adopted Greek village – and the abandoned house she restores there by hand – against a backdrop of her color photographs. And she sets reflections upon her lifelong effort “to kindle a light in the darkness” against a backdrop of her arresting paintings. The program integrates what Jungian analyst June Singer calls the inward and outward movements by which one discovers who she is and her place in the world.
Thordis Niela Simonsen, a Denverite, began painting in 1988 with a Jungian art therapist. Her third book, Dances in Two Worlds: A Writer-Artist’s Backstory, won the 2012 Colorado Book Award. Simonsen hosts Astra Writing in Greece for women writers who like to travel.
A Candle for Medusa:
Circumambulation of a Myth
Lecture by Margaret Dozier
April 12th, 2013 at 7 p.m.
Workshop: April 13th, 2013, 10 am to 3 pm
Cost: $60 members, $75 non-members
Collective tales are stories that transmit archetypal ideas and images. There are many ways to approach collective tales. Marie Louise von Franz outlined objective techniques for fairy tale interpretation, which are also useful with myth and legend. Yet sometimes an objective exploration is not enough. A certain tale begins to captivate, to become numinous. We dream the tale. Aspects of the tale creep or explode into our consciousness at unexpected times. We may suffer physical or emotional difficulties that echo elements in the tale. When threatened by such captivation, there may be wisdom in circumambulation.
When we circumambulate a myth, we live and communicate with it; we let it communicate with us; we walk around it; we look into its depths; we allow it to inform. Medusa and her story have captivated me for over ten years now. In this lecture I will share with you my experience of circumambulating Her story.
Workshop: “Cupid and Psyche: Evolution of Love.” In our Saturday workshop on the myth of CUPID AND PSYCHE, we shall explore two of the greatest mysteries of life: Love and the Individuation Process. [Contact us for details.]
Dr. Dozier is a Jungian analyst practicing in Alabama since 2001. She graduated from the C. G. Jung Institute, Zurich. She is on the faculty of the New Orleans Jungian Seminar, and is a member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts (IRSJA). Dr. Dozier has lectured in Switzerland, Louisiana, Alabama, Texas and Colorado. She obtained her M.D. at USA College of Medicine in Mobile, Alabama.
Mary Magdalen: Realizing Lover of the Dying and Resurrected God-Man
Lecture by Laurel Howe
May 10th, 2013 at 7 p.m.
Like Isis and Inanna, Mary Magdalen mourns the death of the god she loves, and participates in his renewal. Through her intense feeling experience of personal and spiritual love, she represents the feminine side of the death and resurrection phenomenon and plays a realizing role in the humanization of the god-image and likewise individuation.
Judeo-Christian fathers excluded any sign in their orthodoxy that Yahweh or Christ may have had love partners, but archaeological evidence and Gnostic texts point to the possibility that they did. Thanks to C.G. Jung, today we can re-consider the role of the Eros principle split off from our god-image and explore the recent popularity of Mary Magdalen as Holy Grail, vessel of Christ’s child, and her role in Gnostic, Christian and alchemical traditions. Her ongoing presence reflects the psychological yearning for the divine feminine-masculine partnership to be realized again in humanity.
Laurel Howe, M.A., is a Diplomate Analyst trained at the Center for Research and Training in Depth Psychology in Zürich, and a teaching member of Sandplay Therapists of America. She practices Jungian analysis and sandplay at her private office in Denver, working with children and adults. She teaches and lectures internationally on sandplay, alchemy, and the pre- and post-Biblical development of the divine syzygy
Jung Society of Colorado 