February 3rd lecture will take place as scheduled.
At Home in the World: Building Bridges in Unsettled Times a lecture by John Hill
John Hill will address the multi-dimensional significance of home and its symbolic extensions in terms of inhabited spaces. He will approach the topic from four perspectives: Home in view of developmental psychology, home as individuation, home in the consulting room, and home in the global world. Home first dawns upon us in those moments when our whole being becomes reflected in a safe and reliable context. Home often achieves an inner significance after having lost an outer home. In contemporary global culture where mobility dominates, “home” has been re-evaluated in terms of a continuous process of encounter, assessment, and evaluation of the old in terms of the new, a transformative process that is intimately connected with contemporary notions of identity. John Hill will attempt to bridge material gained from a clinical setting with the wider socio/political realities of our time.
John Hill, MA, received his degrees in philosophy at the University of Dublin and the Catholic University of America. He trained at the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich. He has lectured internationally and is a leading Jungian expert in the field of Celtic mythology. His publications include articles on Celtic Myth, Dreams, Christian Mysticism, and The Association Experiment. In 2010 he published At Home in the World: Sounds and Symmetries of Belonging. He is presently IAAP liaison to Tbilisi, Georgia.
March 1st, 2012 at 7 p.m.
The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey a lecture by Erel Shalit
“To speak of a general, human life cycle,” says Daniel Levinson, “is to propose that the journey from birth to old age follows an underlying, universal pattern on which there are endless cultural and individual variations.”
In his essay ‘The Stages of Life,’ Jung discusses “the problems connected with the stages of life,” claiming problem to be the kernel of culture and consciousness. Jung clearly aims at living the conscious life, just like Socrates declared the unexamined life not worth living.
On our journey through the stages (or ages) of our life, we encounter the archetypal essence of each phase, and are challenged by the essence of meaning that we are requested to deal with on our journey.
The lecture will explore crucial archetypal images of the journey and the stages of life, and tell some of the stories. In the workshop we shall further elaborate on dreams, tales and personal meaning along our individual journey through life.
Erel Shalit is a Jungian psychoanalyst in Ra’anana, Israel, and past President of the Israel Society of Analytical Psychology. He is Founder and Director of the Jungian Psychotherapy Program at Bar Ilan University. He is a past Director of the Shamai Davidson Mental Health Clinic. His publications include Requiem: A Tale of Exile and Return, the chapter on Jerusalem in Tom Singer’s Psyche and the City, and most recently The Cycle of Life: Themes and Tales of the Journey.
March 30th, 2012 at 7 p.m.
Lover and More: the Toni Wolff Story a lecture by Lucy Sikes
What does Toni Wolff have in common with Madam Curie? With Georgia O’Keeffe? During an informative evening, participants will learn recently published secrets about the life of early Jungian analyst, Toni Wolff. Are these actually secrets? When the book Four Eternal Women: Toni Wolff Revisited—A Study in Opposites (Mary Dian Molton and Lucy Anne Sikes) went to press in early 2011, no authoritative biography of Toni Wolff had been published. There were some chapters on her in other books, but they did not have the breadth or depth of research that Molton and Sikes have accomplished.
For too long, Toni Wolff’s contributions were kept in shadow. The open secret of her relationship with C.G. Jung was generally known but not discussed at the first Jung Institute. This lecture will present Toni Wolff’s story. At the same time her unique contribution of Feminine Typology, as well as her contributions to Jung’s typology, will be presented in vivid stories.
Lucy Anne Sikes, MS, ARNP, is a senior Diplomate Jungian Analyst. After attending the University of Arizona, Tucson, she moved to Denver to pursue her profession as a Psychiatric Nurse Specialist. During this time, she entered analytic training with the Denver group of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysis. She is currently in private practice in Prairie Village, Kansas. Her first book, co-authored with Mary Dian Molton, is Four Eternal Women: Toni Wolff Revisited-A Study in Opposites.
April 6, 2012 at 7 p.m.
CLARE MUIREANN MURPHY Irish Performance Storyteller Falling Foul of Fairies: the truth about the little people
If you believe that fairies are kind benevolent creatures who grant wishes and bring flowers to children, think again…Descended from gods, the Irish fairies are mischievous malcontents with a penchant for destruction. International storyteller Clare Muirenann Murphy delivers the truth!
Clare Muireann Murphy is a phenomenon unto herself. If you have never seen her perform, you owe this one to yourself. And if you have, I am sure you will be with us on Friday, April 6th. Born in Dublin, Clare has lived all over the world and currently resides in London. She is a physical storyteller with a wide repertoire of tales from her beloved Irish mythology to world folklore, anecdotes, fables, personal tales and original stories. She is a recommended teller on the internationally renowned Crick Crack Club’s website. Within Ireland, Clare has worked with Poetry Ireland, The Ark Cultural Centre, National Museum of Ireland, Children’s Books Ireland, and the National University of Ireland at Galway. Check out her website: http://www.claremurphy.org
May 4th, 2012 at 7 p.m.
Images of the Soror Mystica: Evolution of the Alchemical Feminine a lecture by M.E. Warlick
According to alchemical philosophers, physical matter consists of polarized and gendered characteristics. Masculine Philosophic Sulphur comprises all hot, dry, and fixed qualities, while feminine Philosophic Mercury represents the cool, moist, and volatile qualities of matter. In the laboratory, the alchemist perfects these two archetypal substances by removing impurities from each. They are then fused with fire and reunited in a “Chemical Wedding.” The result of their sexual union is a child, the “Philosopher’s Stone,” a mysterious substance that enables further transformations.
As alchemical illustrations developed in manuscripts and early printed texts from the 14th to the 17th centuries, artists represented these alchemical substances and processes with a variety of gendered figural representations, including the Sun and Moon, and other religious, royal, and mythological characters. This paper will explore the evolution of alchemical images of women from an art historical perspective. Following the lecture, conversations will compare this visual material to Jung’s concept of the Soror Mystica.
Dr. M. E. Warlick is the Director of the School of Art and Art History at the University of Denver and a Professor of European Modern Art. Her books include: Max Ernst and Alchemy: A Magician in Search of Myth (2001) and The Philosopher’s Stones (1997), published in five languages and in a second edition, The Alchemy Stones (2002). She is currently writing a book on women, gender and sexuality in alchemical imagery.
Jung Society of Colorado 