Pre-Conference Workshops

BOTH PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS ARE OFFERED:

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 2 FROM 9:00 AM – 3:30 PM
$150

Revisiting Jung's ideas on structure of the psyche (Ego-Persona-Shadow/Anima/us-Self) and understanding better the current impoverishment of universal feminine and masculine values from which we all suffer will help us become more conscious of the interconnectedness of all things, within and without.

We will particularly focus on the dynamic integration of the psychic functions Jung called shadow, anima and animus. What does it require of me to live in full inter-connectivity to all my disparate parts within? Will that affect how I live with others? Will that make my life better? Can I make any meaningful difference in the world through inner work?

We will also explore how the collective imposition on the planet is causing our individual souls to desiccate and, vice-versa, how our individual depleted souls are contributing the collective demise of the planet. This day is designed to invite introspection, challenge aged habits and assumptions, foster new insight and inspire deeper connection to the sacred in each of us by looking candidly at the unholy in each of us. Only when we are in touch with our essence and living our individuated destiny can we shift our ways of being toward making a meaningful difference in our world today.

We are living through times of profound uncertainty that require us to admit our ecological and environmental failures. Humanity’s heroic actions to control and dominate nature have led to continuously increasing average temperatures and seasonal patterns with such a speed that there is now a disruption in the natural interchange between species, threatening all life on earth. We have never before lived through such powerful expressions in nature: atmospheric rivers with flooding and forest fires to name a few. These disruptions exist in the collective as much as within our own inner ecological landscapes. Our over-identification with heroic individualism must be set aside in favor of mature stewardship of the earth. We are being called to turn away from the heroic to find healthy empathy, mutual collaboration and reconciliation. This attitude offers us meaningful moments of reflection, grief, curiosity and repair. In this experiential workshop we will listen to nature stories, dreams, images and active imaginations that expand our understanding of the relational crisis between psyche and earth. By doing so we fertilize the soil of our personal and collective psyches to cultivate creative relational possibilities. Our personal responses to the environmental crisis begins to reclaim whatever the hero trampled or left behind, making room for a new myth. Please bring a personal object or photograph from nature that holds an important memory or story for you to share.