Tag: J.R.R. Tolkien

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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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Lecture & Workshop for the Oregon Friends of C.G. Jung

On November 11 and 12, I will be bringing my lecture and workshop on The Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien to the Oregon Friends of C.G. Jung in Portland, Oregon. 

This is the first workshop I have offered in person since 2019, so I’m inordinately excited about it! We’ll actually be able to hear one another laugh, sigh, and all the other wonderful sounds a live audience makes, and hopefully clap together at the end (if you like what you hear!). And in the workshop, I’ll be leading a guided practice of active imagination, and you’ll have the opportunity to make drawings of your experiences, discuss them in small groups, and share your reflections in a large circle all sitting together. Many things we used to take for granted, we can now celebrate in this workshop in a shared space.

For those who are in the area, I will be offering a lecture on Friday, November 11 at 7:00-9:00 pm on The Synchronicity of the Two Red Books: Jung, Tolkien, and the Imaginal Realm. The following day, on Saturday, November 12, I will be offering the workshop Jung’s Red Book and Active Imagination from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm.

To register for the lecture and/or workshop, please visit: https://ofj.org/shop/. I hope to see some of you there!

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Return to Middle-Earth: Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings

When dark times are upon us, we need support to sustain us through the long night. The myths and great legends of our cultural heritages provide tales of courage and heroism, beauty and sacrifice, and offer an archetypal pattern to follow in our own lives. Far from escapism, the literary imagination can carry us towards wise ways of taking on seemingly unsurmountable challenges, rebirthing ancient knowledge into new times and situations.

As the weight of the world seems only to grow heavier, I invite you to join me on a journey to an imaginal time that resembles our own more and more by the day. After a hiatus last year, it is my honor to offer for the third time my Nura Learning course Journey to the Imaginal Realm: Reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings. Whether you are new to Middle-earth or are familiar with its well-trod paths, we welcome you to join our literary fellowship, traveling through Tolkien’s chapters in good company. We depart on our journey on the autumn equinox, Wednesday, September 22—a day affectionately known as Hobbit Day.

What does it mean to be a Ring-bearer in such times? What humble heroic role do we each have to play in our own fellowship? I am sure many of us are asking the same questions as Frodo, wishing such events need not have happened in our time. But we can remember, as the wise Gandalf himself says: “…so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

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, now in its second year running, 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: Nura Learning: Journey to the Imaginal Realm 

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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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Returning to the InnerVerse Podcast

I was kindly invited by Chance Garton to return to his InnerVerse Podcast, to continue our conversation on numerous facets of J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories of Middle-earth and the Land of FaĂ«rie, and to explore what it means to recover and integrate mythic consciousness into our awareness.

The first hour of our conversation is available publicly, and can be accessed through the InnerVerse website or listened to directly below. In the first hour, we discussed the esoteric wisdom of Tolkien’s works and how in the Perilous Realm, one will find mystical enchantment and mortal danger in equal measure. We spoke about legends of the huldufĂłlk, Iceland’s hidden people, the mythic consciousness of our ancestors, and how the love of language, the magic spelling of words, and the archetype of the inner child can help one recover the beauty and wonder of life.

In the second hour, which is available to Patreon supporters of InnerVerse, Chance and I explored the misenchantment (a term coined by Matt Segall) of culture through media and materialistic belief systems, Tolkien’s final tale Smith of Wootton Major, the Queen of FaĂ«rie at the heart of the imaginal realm, and the Elvish mediators between spirit and matter. The second hour is well worth the listen, and Chance’s podcast is most definitely worth supporting as well through Patreon!

To listen to the first hour: Re-Enchanting the World and Tales from the Perilous Realm

To listen to the second hour: InnerVerse on Patreon

 

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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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Re-Enchantment and Its Shadows

My friend and colleague Tom Purton and I will be presenting for the PCC Forum on the subject of “Re-Enchantment and Its Shadows,” next Thursday, April 2 at 7:00 pm Pacific time. The idea for this talk was conceived at Esalen, and it has taken on new significance in the shadow of our current global pandemic. The talk will take place on Zoom, and anyone who is interested is most welcome to join: https://ciis.zoom.us/j/478093649. To join, please message me for the passcode.

Event Description
In the account of human history provided by Robert Bellah, the mythic mind—the place of narrative, sentient nature, and enchantment—progressively yields to the theoretic mind, the place of science, rationality, and skepticism. Myth became fairy-story, fairy-story became fantasy, and the embedded quality of myth in our everyday lives was cut adrift. Can this seemingly inexorable process be stopped, or can it perhaps be alchemized into something new, something reborn? And if the mythic mind is the mind of enchantment, what might be its own shadows?

Becca Tarnas and Tom Purton will explore these questions using excerpts from The Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, Apocalypse Now, and other films and stories, and will look at the attempts made by Tolkien, Heidegger, Aurobindo, and others to find enchantment’s remaining havens.

About the Speakers
Tom Purton, PhD, holds a MA in Psychoanalysis and a phD in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness from CIIS, writing his dissertation on the connections between Stanislav Grof’s work and Hindu thought. He is presently completing a diploma in Sanskrit and post-graduate study at CIIS. His research interests include Kleinian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, transpersonal psychology, Indology, literature, and philosophy.

Becca Tarnas, PhD, is a scholar, artist, and editor of Archai: The Journal of Archetypal Cosmology. She received her doctorate in Philosophy and Religion from CIIS, with her dissertation titled The Back of Beyond: The Red Books of C. G. Jung and J. R. R. Tolkien. Her research interests include depth psychology, literature, philosophy, and the ecological imagination. She teaches in the Jungian Psychology and Archetypal Studies program at Pacifica Graduate Institute, and is author of the book Journey to the Imaginal Realm: A Reader’s Guide to J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings.

Nazgûl

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InnerVerse Podcast

Chance Garton, the wonderful host of the InnerVerse Podcast, kindly invited me to participate in a truly rich and deep conversation on The Lord of the Rings. We began by discussing my book Journal to the Imaginal Realm, and soon expanded into innumerable Tolkienian subjects, delving into the First Age of Arda, the cosmogonic music of the AinulindalĂ«, Tolkien’s notion of sub-creation and how it relates to Coleridge’s ideas of the Primary and Secondary Imagination, and many other such enticing subjects.

The first hour of our conversation is available publicly, and can be accessed through the InnerVerse website or listened to directly below. In the first hour, we discussed the source of the human imagination, the Atlantis myth as told in Middle-earth, the parallels between the Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien, and the means by which great stories are able to immerse us in an enchanted otherworld.

The second hour is available to Patreon supporters of InnerVerse, and I must say it is well worth subscribing to hear the places our conversation took us (as well as to have access to all the other wonderful episodes in the InnerVerse archive!) In the second hour, Chance and I explored Tolkien’s use of Venusian symbolism, the archetype of the syzygy of Solar and Lunar, Tolkien’s critique of industrialization, the enigmatic character of Tom Bombadil, as well as wading into the difference between polarity and binary, Solar feminine and Lunar masculine, and of course the essential topic of ecological crisis and our relationship to the Earth.

To listen to the first hour: Journey to the Imaginal Realm: Archetypes in The Lord of the Rings

To listen to the second hour: InnerVerse on Patreon

As Chance said: “Get ready for an unexpected journey!” 

 

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Cosmic Keys Podcast

Cosmic KeysI recently had a wonderful and engaging conversation with Scarlet and Dan of the Cosmic Keys Podcast, in which we discussed spirituality and astrology, the metaphysics of archetypal dynamics, ecology and climate change, and of course, the connections between the Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien. We also discussed my upcoming course Songs of the Spheres, which begins February 17 (for those still interested in registering!) The episode begins with Scarlet and Dan giving a tarot and astrology forecast for the week of January 27–February 2, 2020.

The episode can be listened to through the Cosmic Keys website, or directly below.

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Two Nightlight Astrology School Presentations

Over the last couple years I have kindly been invited by Acyuta-bhava Dasa to present for the Nightlight Astrology School on topics dear to my heart: “The Astrology of J.R.R. Tolkien” and “The Astrology of Jung’s Red Book.” I am now sharing the videos of each of these presentations, which were recorded about a year apart. Thank you to all those who expressed interest in seeing these presentations and who have waited patiently for the recording!

While my dissertation research focused on the parallels between the Red Books of C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien, these two presentations treat their works separately, viewing them each through an astrological lens. If the presentations are viewed in conjunction, you will certainly see the overlaps and parallels, in the timing of events and the correlated astrological transits, and in the symbolic content of each.

The Astrology of J.R.R. Tolkien

J.R.R. Tolkien is best known as the author of the fantasy epic The Lord of the Rings, first published in the mid-1950s and now translated into almost 40 languages. Tolkien first began writing about the world of Middle-earth during World War I, and continued doing so almost until the end of his life in 1973. Although he is best known as a writer, Tolkien was also a visual artist and an extraordinary linguist, holding a position as a professor of philology at Oxford University in England. As his close friend and colleague C.S. Lewis once said: “He had been inside language.” Drawing on an archetypal astrological perspective, this presentation will explore the natal chart of J.R.R. Tolkien, as well as his transits during the creation of some of his major works of art and writing.

The Astrology of Jung’s Red Book

Recently, new scholarship has been emerging demonstrating the essential role astrology played in the development of C.G. Jung’s analytical psychology. Although Jung kept his practice of astrology relatively concealed, he was using it regularly with his patients. With particular focus on Jung’s remarkable manuscript Liber Novus, better known as The Red Book, this presentation looks at the role astrology played in shaping Jung’s psychology and world view, drawing significantly on Liz Greene’s work to explore the astrological symbolism throughout The Red Book, as well as the transits Jung was experiencing at the time of his self-described “confrontation with the unconscious.”