Syzygy and Gender - A Union of Opposites
Presented by: Bradley A. TePaske, Ph.D.
Saturday, March 18, 2023, 12:00 Noon - 1:30pm eastern
(a ZOOM Online Presentation)
Syzygy and Gender - A Union of Opposites
In this lecture, specific clinical issues of attachment, gender, sexual preference, personal individuation as well as religious inclination are explored both phenomenologically and archetypally with reference to C.G. Jung's basic understanding of Syzygy, the dynamism and imagery of masculine (animus) and feminine (anima) yoked creatively together within the psyche in key interpersonal relationships and in all Nature.
This presentation contextualizes the imagery and fluidity of gender historically through a brief review of divine figures of Western tradition and their ritual contexts where sex and the mystery of gender is religiously expressed. Plato's mythic Androgyne of this Symposium (regressively correlated by Freud with infantile sexuality while viewed progressively by Jung as a dynamic symbol of the syzygy and Self) is paradigmatic here of the ontological split between male and female, ego and self, human and divine which animates the erotic moment while tilting ever foreword: the motive force of individuation and reintegration so vividly described in the 2nd Century Gnostic Gospel of Thomas.
Bradley A. TePaske, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst trained at the C.G. Jung Institute of Zurich (1978-82), an archetypal psychologist, religious historian and accomplished graphic artist. He is the author of two books on sexuality and religion: Rape Ritual: A Psychological Study (Inner City Books, 1982) and Sexuality and the Religious Imagination(Spring Journal Books, 2008) as well as a contributor to The Sacred Heritage: The Influence of Shamanism on Analytical Psychology and The Allure of: Gnosticism. He is a regular lecturer at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles and works with children and adults in Los Angeles and Pacific Palisades. Brad is the husband of noted Los Angeles analyst, Arlene Diane Landau, the father of two successful adult sons and a serious amateur ornithologist, paleontologist and environmental activist.
'The Garden of Earthly Delights'
Artist: Hieronymus Bosch, (1510)
The Elucidation-The Goddess Sovereignty and the Grail Quest
Presented by: Dr. Bonnie L. Damron, Ph.D., LCSW
Saturday, April 15, 2023, 9:30am - 11:30am eastern
(a ZOOM Online Presentation)
The Elucidation
The Goddess Sovereignty and the Grail Quest
The Grail Legend, as we have come to know it, concerns a mysterious wound in the genitals of the Grail King, also known as the Fisher King. We are told that his wounding caused the land to become the Wasteland, where the rivers stopped flowing, the animals bore no young, and nothing would grow. Furthermore the wound would heal only when a certain knight found his way to the Grail Castle, and asked the Fisher King the right question. Then, and only then, would the wound heal, and land becomes fruitful once more. This potion of the Grail Legend is about the wound in the Sacred Masculine, and it is only half of the story!
What about the other half of this much-celebrated legend? This equally significant, yet much unsung portion of the Grail Legend is known as The Elucidation, and it is entirely about the Sacred Feminine. In this story she is called Sovereignty, and she is the Land itself. It contains an abundance of marginalized and unacknowledged material about the Goddess of the Grail Legend. The Elucidation stands side-by-side with the story about the Grail King. As we link these two halves, the Grail Legend is transformed into an original and cohesive whole that now includes the Sacred Feminine and the Sacred Masculine.
This story chronicles the wound in Sovereignty’s domain. It contains information that is essential to a full understanding of how the Wasteland came into being, and how the land was ultimately healed. It sings of Sovereignty’s sacred wells, which were abundant throughout the land, and of her Well Maidens who performed service to the people as Sovereignty’s holy women. In the old language they were known as les demoiselles de puis.
Then follows a tragic lamentation about the rapes of the Well Maidens, and destruction of the holy wells by a king who betrayed his sacred bond of trust with Sovereignty. Through his actions, and those of his henchmen, he inflicted a devastating wound in the psyche of the Land. Next we learn how Sovereignty removed her Presence, and her Court, to a place far away, and the land fell into waste, and became the Wasteland.
But wait, and don’t despair! Our story does not end here. There is one more chapter, which tells us how the Wasteland was healed, and Joy was restored. The solution may surprise you. There is a clue in something that C. G. Jung once said, “The individual is the makeweight that shifts the scales.”
Are we living in a Wasteland today, and are there implications within The Elucidation, which can help us through this dark chapter in our humanity? Please join me as we explore the Feminine side of the Grail Legend, the wounding of the land, and the healing potential contained in this story.
Here are two sources, which may help you unpack The Elucidation, as you prepare for this presentation. The first is the PDF of a translation of the text by William W. Kibler, PhD, and introduction by Norris J. Lacy, PhD, each respected scholars and translators of French medieval literature. The second is a book by the preeminent scholars of the Grail Legend, Caitlin and John Matthews, The Lost Book of the Grail: The Sevenfold Path of the Grail and the Restoration of the Faery Accord. Rochester, Vermont: Inner Traditions, 2019.
See you at the Court of Joy!
Dr. Bonnie L. Damron, Ph.D., LCSW., is a psychotherapist, ethnographer, storyteller, and Archetypal Pattern Analyst in private practice in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. She is an independent scholar, with a particular interest in pre-patriarchal, goddess-based, and woman-centered cultures. She has led seminars on the writings of C.G. Jung, archetypal motifs in fairy tales, myths, the arts and study tours in Crete and the Greek mainland. She can be reached at: bonniedamron@mac.com.
Psychedelics, the Unconscious and the space between
Presented by: Aaron Day
Saturday, May 20, 2023, 9:30am - 12:00 noon eastern
(a ZOOM Online Presentation)
Psychedelics, the Unconscious and the space between
We are living amidst a psychedelic renaissance in both cultural and academic circles. A time where, moving past the politically orientated moves to criminalize psychedelic substances, the wealth of potential to be found across psychology, neuroscience and philosophy, all contained within a little mushroom, is being recognized.
In this era of constantly accelerating research, mostly done in medical or neuroscientific circles, Jung’s psychology opens up a space to consider the phenomena in its depth dimension. This three-part seminar will begin by considering the effects of psychedelics through the lens of the most recent developments in neuroscientific research. Questioning the traditional materialist method of interpreting the results of these findings, and the proposed use of an alternative idealist ontology, will then be used to create a bridge from traditional neuroscience to analytical psychology—fields often arbitrarily split from one another. From this basis, the possibility of interpreting the neuroscientific research as a way to understand the neural correlates underlying an ‘abaissement du niveau mental’, as conceptualized by Jung, will then be discussed. Finally, a Jungian lens will be used to explore the unconscious dynamics underlying a "psychedelic trip" in order to elucidate the profound therapeutic potential of these substances.
Aaron Day is a philosophy and psychology student at the University of Pretoria. His primary interests revolve around a refocusing on the rich and complex philosophical currents underpinning depth psychology and a close exposition of Neo-Jungian and Classical Jungian thought. He is the founder and chairperson of "Subliminal: Society of Integrative Psychology," the academic coordinator for "Footnotes Philosophical Society," and currently works as a counselor for SADAG and as a philosophy tutor for the University of Pretoria.
"Death" by Alex Gray