Author: Becca Tarnas

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Forever Jung? C.G. Jung’s Continued Relevance During Challenging Times

Over the autumn equinox weekend, September 19–21, the East West Psychology Program at the California Institute of Integral Studies will be co-hosting a hybrid online/in-person conference with the San Francisco Jung Institute entitled, Forever Jung? C.G. Jung’s Continued Relevance During Challenging Times.

The keynote speakers of the event will be John Beebe and Richard Tarnas, and many other CIIS faculty will be offering presentations. My own graduate program at CIIS, the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness program, is well-represented with Sean Kelly, Matthew Segall, and myself all offering presentations.

My own presentation is titled “Jung’s Participatory Imagination.” Here is the description of my talk:

The Red Book of C.G. Jung is a personal record of one man’s experiential encounter with the great mystery of the unconscious. And yet, The Red Book also documents powerful visions and fantasies with collective import pertaining, in some ways, to the whole of humanity. This presentation posits the idea that the fantasies Jung encountered through the practice of active imagination can be understood not just as a subjective experience, nor as an objective spiritual disclosure, but as a participatory co-creation between the human faculty of the imagination and the archetypes of the collective unconscious.

Please visit the Conference Website for more information and to register!

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Stanislav Grof Audiobooks

I am so happy to announce that the audiobook of Stanislav Grof’s 2006 memoir, When the Impossible Happens, narrated with my voice, is now available on Audible and through the publisher Sounds True!

I had the honor of recording this audiobook last year, just a couple weeks before my son was born. Reading Grof’s memoirs aloud was a rich and intimate experience, and also an extraordinary opportunity to deepen into the research for his biography that I have been writing these last several years.

Also, in case you haven’t heard the audiobook narration I recorded of Grof’s two-volume 2019 encyclopedic work, The Way of the Psychonaut, this is also available through Audible.

We hope you enjoy these performances of Grof’s groundbreaking writings on transpersonal psychology, psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy, and holotropic states of consciousness, among other profound topics!

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The Beautiful Work Challenge: On Birth Conversation

I had the honor to join my colleague and fellow Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness faculty member Sean Kelly on the podcast On Birth Conversation. In this episode, we explored the effect birth has on our psychology and on adulthood. We discussed the archetype of birth, the work of C.G. Jung and Stan Grof, and the roots of transpersonal psychology. I also was able to share some of what I learned going through my own experience of birthing my son Aurelio last year.

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The Mythopoetic Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien: Reading “The Lord of the Rings”

“All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

Have you always wanted to read The Lord of the Rings but never got around to it? Or have you been longing to return to Middle-earth, but perhaps have been waiting for the right occasion to do so? If the answer is yes, the moment could be ripe to take a journey through this great myth for our time—alongside a fellowship of student travelers and with a guide who has been exploring this world for nearly twenty-nine years.

It is my absolute honor and joy to be teaching the course “The Mythopoetic Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien: Reading The Lord of the Rings” in collaboration with Kosmos Institute this Autumn 2025. Please join us as we spend twelve weeks reading our way through J.R.R. Tolkien’s great work, The Lord of the Rings.

Learn More and Register

Course Description

The Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien has been a beloved story to several generations since its publication in the mid-1950s. The story has a timeless quality to it, and engages with a complex struggle between good and evil, death and immortality, power and freedom. The Lord of the Rings blends otherworldly romance with the high rhetoric of epic mythology, at times interwoven with the internal depths of the nineteenth century novel and the political climate of the twentieth century. As Tolkien’s close friend and colleague C.S. Lewis once said: “Nothing quite like it has been done before. This book is like lightning from a clear sky . . . here are beauties which pierce like swords and burn like cold iron.”

The Lord of the Rings is a text treated by many as a sacred text, one to be returned to year after year, or read aloud with loved ones. The Lord of the Rings has become a myth for our time. This course offers a journey through Tolkien’s magnum opus in a community of learning, guided by a scholar who has spent more than two decades engaging Tolkien’s writings and artwork. This course is designed both for newcomers to Tolkien’s narrative, and for veteran travelers through Middle-earth’s many realms. Together we will explore the grand themes and hidden nuances of Tolkien’s epic story, connecting The Lord of the Rings to the larger mythology of Middle-earth, and situating Tolkien’s process of writing within his own powerful experiences of the imaginal realm.  

To learn more and register, please visit: Kosmos Institute – The Mythopoetic Imagination of J.R.R. Tolkien

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Astrology and Psychedelics: A Symbiotic Relationship

If any of you have been curious what I’ve been up to since I closed down my astrological counseling practice in 2022, come to the (R)Evolution Rising Astrology Summit on August 8–10 to find out!

For the last few years, I’ve been researching and writing the biography of Dr. Stanislav Grof, one of the world’s foremost pioneering researchers into the healing and heuristic potentials of LSD psychotherapy.

As the (R)Evolution Rising Astrology Summit, I will be bringing together two of my primary areas of research into one keynote lecture: astrology and psychedelics.

Here is a description of my keynote presentation:
Is there a connection between astrology and psychedelics? At Esalen Institute in the mid-1970s, Stanislav Grof and his doctoral student Richard Tarnas were trying to solve the mystery of the inter- and intra-individual variability of LSD sessions. The radical suggestion that astrology might be the answer opened up a vast new domain of research. As the biographer of Grof, archetypal astrologer Becca Tarnas is uniquely positioned to present on this topic of the mutually illuminating relationship between psychedelics and astrology.

There will be numerous other extraordinary astrology presentations at this summit, offered by my fellow astrologers and even two of my former students! Attendance is free, with the option to purchase recordings and bonus materials offered by each presenter. It would be wonderful to see many of you there!

Learn More & Register for the Summit!

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(R)Evolution Rising: Astrology for the Zeitgeist

A Free 3-Day Online Astrology Summit

August 8–10, 2025

It is my joy to announce that I’ll be offering a keynote presentation for the online summit (R)Evolution Rising: Astrology for the Zeitgeist, taking place this August 8–10! The summit’s host and creator, Christina Caudill, has crafted this free online event to give participants the astrological insight to help navigate the transformative and challenging era in which we find ourselves with greater awareness and purpose.

I am honored to be part of the group of gifted astrologers speaking at this conference, and am truly delighted that two of my archetypal astrology students from the Philosophy, Cosmology, and Consciousness graduate program at the California Institute of Integral Studies will also be speaking: Somya Desai and Kate Kettelkamp. Both of these women are extraordinary astrologers whose work and research I highly recommend. Please come to the summit to hear their brilliant ideas and to learn from the rest of the panelists!

Learn More & Register for the Summit!

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Ambassadors of the Galaxy: Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto

Register for the Event!

The three “classical” modern planets—Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto, discovered by telescope in the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries, respectively—are each associated with archetypal principles and powers of fundamental importance for understanding human life. They are especially essential for understanding both the underlying dynamics of the collective psyche, as visible in cultural and historical events and trends, and the deeper psychological and spiritual dimensions of our individual lives. Join father and daughter archetypal astrologers, Richard and Becca Tarnas, as they share their insights into these great cosmic energies and consider the outlook for 2025 within the context of recent history.

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Archetypal Astrology for Jungians

On Saturday, November 9, I will be offering an online workshop entitled “Archetypal Astrology for Jungians” for the C. G. Jung Society of Atlanta!

Since my son was born earlier this year, I have cut significantly back on offering public lectures and events, so this will be my only workshop this year—and I’m eagerly looking forward to facilitating it! The workshop provides an introduction to the basic framework and techniques of archetypal astrology, particularly adapted to suit the needs and perspective of Jungian therapists and scholars, or anyone with an interest in depth psychology. The workshop will be recorded, and I hope to see many of you there!

Register for the Workshop!

Workshop Description

In recent years, new scholarship has been emerging demonstrating the essential role the discipline of astrology played in the development and practice of C. G. Jung’s analytical psychology. In 1911, Jung wrote a letter to Freud in which he said that his nights were occupied with the study of astrology, to which Freud responded that Jung would be “accused of mysticism.” Jung kept his practice of astrology relatively concealed, but based upon evidence in his own writings, as well as statements he made late in his life, Jung was drawing on astrological wisdom regularly for both personal use and with his patients.

This workshop will demonstrate the role astrology played in Jung’s analytic practice, as well as the significant ways in which he drew on astrological symbolism in the transformative process of creating The Red Book. By understanding how astrology influenced the development of Jungian psychology—and how depth psychology has subsequently shaped modern astrology—we can see how the astrological discipline can complement, enhance, and deepen the psychotherapy practiced today.

Depth psychology and archetypal astrology are complementary disciplines. This workshop offers a basic foundation in astrological techniques which can be applied to psychological practice, whether as a clinician or for personal inquiry. A brief history archetypes, the symbolism of the planets, and planetary aspects will all be taught, along with examples from art, culture, and history. This workshop may be a gateway to astrology for some, while it can also be a deepening of the archetypal perspective for those already with an astrological practice.