Wednesday, April 1, 2009

This Month


The C.G. Jung Society of Vermont
Announces
Our Spring 2009 Public Lecture

Psyche and Wilderness: Journeying into the Depths
Teresa Arendell, Ph.D., Presenter
Professor of Sociology, Colby College
Diploma Candidate, C.G. Jung Institute – Boston
April 19th 2009
3:00 - 6:00 p.m.
Burlington College (Community Room)
95 North Avenue Burlington, VT
Please join us for this free public lecture by Teresa Arendell.
A reception follows the discussion period.
Free Parking is available on site in the college parking lot.

For more information or directions to Burlington College
Contact Stephanie Buck at (802)860-4921 or
JunginVermont@Burlingtontelecom.net

Event co-sponsors are: Burlington College and The Jungian Center


Psyche and Wilderness: Journeying into the Depths:
In this discussion we explore the universal theme and experience of wilderness. We look specifically to the landscape, wildlife, and milieu of New England in our consideration of wilderness as home for the soul. Using interpretive approaches inherent to Jungian depth psychology, we draw upon traditional Abenaki myths in our journey into symbols of wilderness. We traverse the psychological landscape, moving between an investigation of interior psychological life and encounters with the natural world. We consider wilderness in its many dimensions, from its unpredictability and fierceness to its profound familiarity and offerings of solace and nurture. How we move toward healing the modern estrangement of nature and psyche and, thus, engaging ever-more consciously in the processes of Self-realization is the overarching challenge we explore.

The vision of wilderness is not very complicated. We try to give it elaborate definitions, but we all know what wilderness really is, because we have it inside ourselves. We know it is a world in which every bit of nature counts and is important to us, and we know when it is not there. Every person in the modern world knows how deprived they are in this area.
~~ Laurens van der Post

The archetypes are in us, and some of them represent the chthonic part of our soul, by which we are linked to Earth and to Nature. That can certainly be linked to the wilderness. We are fascinated, as well as afraid of these archetypal components of nature, and so we want to know more about them. . . . Mountains are obviously one kind of wilderness, which ask for many human sacrifices each year. There are other dangerous wildernesses that are just as hostile as mountains: the Arctics and Antarctics with their icy coldness and darkness; the desert with its heat and dryness; the impenetrable jungle; the sea with its frightening storms and unfathomable, briny, dark depths. I assure you, they can all be found in our own depths, in our own unconscious. ~~ C. A. Meier

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