Tag: C.G. Jung

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Summer 2023 Speaking Engagements

The season has already been off to a rich start full of travels, beginning with a research trip to Prague and the Rhine Valley, a constellation of inspiring astrological stars at NORWAC in Seattle, the enchanting Jung by the Sea conference in Cornwall, England, and attendance at the world’s largest psychedelic conference, with a total of 12,000 participants, at Psychedelic Science 2023 in Denver, Colorado.

Polhawn Fort, Cornwall

Recordings of the presentations I gave at NORWAC and Jung by the Sea are available for those who were unable to attend these events in person. At NORWAC, I gave two talks: “Permutations of Venus” and “Psychedelics and Astrology: A Symbiotic Relationship.” The latter talk offers a glimpse into some of the material I’ve been working with during this last year of research, for those who might be curious what I’ve been up to! At Jung by the Sea, I presented once again on “The Synchronicity of the Two Red Books: Jung, Tolkien, and the Imaginal Realm,” although there were some new elements of the talk particularly related to the exquisite setting on the cliffs of the Cornish coast, and I feel this was my best presentation of the work thus far. It was an extraordinary honor to present this material not only to this insightful Jungian audience, but especially to my fellow presenters, several of whom were major inspirations during my research into the two Red Books: Liz Greene, Tom Cheetham, and—the editor of Jung’s Red Book himself—Sonu Shamdasani.

As the summer progresses, I’ll be focusing almost entirely on writing—albeit with the delightful exception of three new talks I’ll be presenting to the astrological community. On Sunday, July 2, I’m returning to Adam Elenbaas’s Nightlight Astrology speaker series to present on “Jupiter-Uranus: The Creative Genius” in anticipation of the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction that is just beginning and will enliven our collective zeitgeist for the next 14 months.

A few weeks later on Saturday, July 22, I’ll be offering a presentation for NCGR San Francisco titled “The Compassionate Astrologer,” exploring practical guidance on how to create an ethical and therapeutic container in which the astrology client is empathically mirrored, while also being empowered to fall in love with their own birth chart. Although this presentation description refers to working with clients, the material is applicable for anyone who practices astrology, whether the seasoned professional or the novice astrology student.

Finally, on Saturday, August 5, I’ll be giving a class at Nadiya Shah’s Synchronicity University on “Creating a Thriving Transit Practice.” In the class, I’ll be giving step-by-step instructions on how to calculate your own transits using just your birth chart and an ephemeris. This is an extremely empowering and liberating skill to have for all astrology enthusiasts and will allow you to deepen your practice and enhance your relationship to the starry sky above you and its archetypal dynamics within you. This is one of the more practical classes I have offered, and I’m excited to enter into the technical details with a new group of astrology students. If you sign up before June 30, you can choose your own tuition rate for the entire summer series that Synchronicity University is offering—a rare opportunity to learn from five different female teachers over the course of a month.

Whether you decide to attend one talk or all of them, or go back to catch the recordings of those already past, I would be so delighted to know this material is reaching those who need to hear it at this time. May your summer months be resplendent with new adventures, wild awakenings, and timely insights!

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Jung’s Red Book and Active Imagination

This Wednesday, June 9 at 7:30–9:30 pm Pacific time I will be offering an online presentation for the C.G. Jung Society of Vancouver entitled “Jung’s Red Book and Active Imagination.” The presentation is based on the chapter I wrote for the fourth volume of Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul Under Postmodern Conditions, edited by Murray Stein and Thomas Arzt.

Register for the Event!

In this talk I will speak about Jung’s Red Book, and how the active imagination fantasies Jung experienced can be understood as a co-creation of the human faculty of imagination in participatory relationship with the archetypes of the collective unconscious. After the presentation we will have time for questions and dialogue!

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Jung’s Relationship to Astrology

This Saturday, May 29 at noon Pacific time I will be offering a presentation for the Jung Archademy on “Jung’s Relationship to Astrology.”

Register for the Event!

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.

Drawing on the research of Liz Greene, Keiron Le Grice, and Safron Rossi, this presentation 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.

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Practical Jung

For those who might be interested in joining a live interview I am doing tomorrow, I will be speaking with Aiden Moore of the Practical Jung series about Jung’s and Tolkien’s Red Books!

The event will take place on Sunday, January 31 at 11:30 am–1:30 pm Pacific time, and will include the interview, a question and answer segment, small group discussions, and a closing dialogue. I would be delighted to see you there!

Register for this Event

About the Practical Jung Series
“Practical Jung is a regular series spearheaded by Aiden Moore within the 52 Living Ideas community. We meet for two hours every other Sun at 2:30 Eastern time to explore how we can practically apply the wisdom of Carl Jung to our everyday lives. Jung’s ideas are often cloaked in abstract language that is hard to digest. Given that fact, I wanted to create a conversation and community around Jungian psychology that is for the rest of us! A conversation that works to demystifying some of his ideas and make them applicable to our daily living—regardless of our previous experience with Jungian psychology.

Each session will include an interview with an expert in the field of Jungian psychology and the conversation will revolve around a specific topic (like romantic relationships, anxiety, projection, shadow, etc.). These sessions are for people of all levels – newly curious about Jung to established Jungian analysts – so whatever your previous experience in the field you are sure to walk away with something practical to apply to your own life!”

Format
1) Interview
2) Q&A
3) Break-out room discussion
4) Takeaways

Register for this event: https://www.meetup.com/52LivingIdeas/events/275653908/.

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Jung’s Relationship to Astrology

This evening, Friday, October 23 at 7:00–9:00 pm Pacific time, I will be offering a presentation for the Comox Valley C. G. Jung Society on “Jung’s Relationship to Astrology.” The event is online and open to the public. If you are interested in joining, you can register in advance for the event.

Register for this Event

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.

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Jung’s Participatory Imagination

This Sunday, August 30 I will be offering an online presentation for the Carl Jung Depth Psychology Reading Group. The presentation is titled “The Participatory Imagination,” and is based upon the chapter I wrote for the fourth volume of Jung’s Red Book for Our Time: Searching for Soul Under Postmodern Conditions, edited by Murray Stein and Thomas Arzt.

In this talk I will speak about Jung’s Red Book, and how the active imagination fantasies Jung experienced can be understood as a co-creation of the human faculty of imagination in participatory relationship with the archetypes of the collective unconscious. These are ideas that arose while I was writing my dissertation, and while they have implicitly informed many of my presentations and classes, this is the first time I am giving a lecture entirely devoted to this topic! After the presentation we will have time for questions and dialogue.

For those unable to attend the live event, the recording is now available:

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The Astrology Podcast

A dream came true for me this week when I had the opportunity to be a guest on Chris Brennan’s The Astrology Podcast. We ranged through a variety of topics, beginning with my background in archetypal astrology and what it is like to be a second generation astrologer, before picking up the topics of the Archai journal, why C.G. Jung’s Red Book is important and relevant to astrologers, and the connection between outer planetary cycles and the unfolding dynamics of world events.

To listen to the episode: Becca Tarnas in Outer Planet Cycles and Jung’s Red Book

I am deeply grateful to Chris Brennan for the invitation to converse with him on one of my favorite podcasts!

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Warriors of the Shadow

A year ago I was interviewed by Cintia Detre for her project Warriors of the Shadow: A Bold Request for Worldwide Emotional Intimacy. She describes the conception of this project as follows:

The Warriors of the Shadow project was born out of my desire to embody the alchemical procedure of solve et coagula on multiple octaves—separation and conjunction, the blade of Mars and the chalice of Venus, to confront all our fears that stand in the way of love. It touches many orders of relationships, the one with ourselves, with other humans, humanity’s relationship with nature and with the imaginal realms. As such, the project itself took on a peculiar journey, changing our relationship with space and time as we know it.

Listening back to this interview a year later, I find it prescient to hear the themes we were exploring, and how much more concrete they feel in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic. Together we discussed the archetypal qualities of the Saturn-Pluto, conjunction which reached exact alignment this year, exploring the role of shadow-work, birth pain and the multiple meanings of contraction, and the importance of community while taking on our own small but essential tasks amidst the monumental work ahead.

It was an honor to participate in this conversation, and I am grateful to Cintia for the opportunity to speak about these ideas and images.

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Coronation: Seeking Symbolic Meaning in a Time of Uncertainty

This Saturday, April 11 at 11:00 am Pacific time, I will be participating in a dialogue with David Pressault and Gary S. Bobroff on the theme of Coronation: Seeking Symbolic Meaning in a Time of Uncertainty.

As we find ourselves in the midst of a global pandemic, we can look at the larger cosmological and archetypal patterns as well as our dreams to find meaning. What archetypal energies are seeking expression now? What are our dreams saying? What is changing within us?

At this time, the outer planets Saturn and Pluto are in alignment with each other, a transit that began in 2018, reached exactitude on January 12, 2020, and will continue to be in orb through 2021. Historically, Saturn-Pluto alignments have correlated with time periods of major crisis, conflict, division, challenge, and the moral call to face the shadow within oneself and in the collective, whether that is in times of war, economic collapse, or viral epidemics.

In this online panel Gary, David, and I will explore dreams, archetypes and the history of Saturn-Pluto world transits, as a means to seek meaning in our current challenges. We’ll offer perspectives on how best to participate in the archetypal dynamics as they continue to unfold.

To register for this event please visit: Jung Archademy

Coronation

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Publication of Issue 7, “Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology”

It is with deep joy that I announce the publication of Issue 7 of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology, titled Historical Roots and Current Flowerings. The issue is now available in paperback, and will soon be released as a Kindle ebook as well!

To read two preview articles written by Laura Michetti and Daniel Joseph Polikoff, please visit our page Current Issue page.

The seventh issue of the Archai journal has been long in the gestation process, and seemed to be awaiting the exact conjunction of Saturn and Pluto before coming to birth. The issue was completed during the New Moon in Aquarius, on January 24, 2020, just twelve days after Saturn and Pluto made their exact alignment in Capricorn. It has been an honor and a privilege to work with each author for this issue, and I am immensely proud of the result and so grateful for all that the authors have contributed.

The issue is dedicated to the late Gerry Goddard, in honor of his significant contributions to the intersections of archetypal cosmology and transpersonal psychology. We had the privilege of including in the volume one of his pieces of writing, titled “Toward an Astrological Model of Consciousness.”

Archai 7 Front CoverAbout the Issue:

The historical roots of archetypal cosmology extend across the globe and deep into the reaches of time. This issue draws together several such lineages, while also turning toward further flowerings of archetypal cosmology in the contemporary world, such as the theoretical connections between astrological archetypes and psychological types. The contributing authors—including Laura Michetti, Petr Lisý, Daniel Polikoff, and Gerry Goddard—offer articles on such historical subjects as the Persian origins of the Saturn return, the importance of Prague in the development of transpersonal psychology and archetypal cosmology, and the Romantic and poetic lineages of those same disciplines. Richard Tarnas explores the role astrology can play in our current time of crisis. The issue closes with three book reviews on the subject of C. G. Jung’s relationship to astrology, and the significant collaborative role Toni Wolff held in the development of analytical psychology.

Table of Contents:

• Laura Michetti – “Persian Conjunctions and the Origins of the Saturn Return“
• Petr Lisý – “The Archetypal Tradition of Prague”
• Daniel Joseph Polikoff – “Rowing Back: The Romantic Origins of Transpersonal Psychology“
• Michael Kiyoshi Salvatore – “Astrology and Psychological Types”
• Richard Tarnas – “The Role of Astrology in a Civilization in Crisis”
• Gerry Goddard – “Toward an Astrological Model of Consciousness”
• Gustavo Beck – “C. G. Jung’s Textual Firmament: A Review of Safron Rossi’s and Keiron Le Grice’s Jung on Astrology”
• Safron Rossi – “A Review of Jung’s Studies in Astrology: Prophecy, Magic, and the Qualities of Time and The Astrological World of Jung’s Liber Novus: Daimons, Gods, and the Planetary Journey by Liz Greene”
• Becca Tarnas – “An Astrological Review of Toni Wolff & C. G. Jung: A Collaboration by Nan Savage Healy”

To order a copy of the issue, please visit: Historical Roots and Current Flowerings.Â