The course is dedicated to Jung’s idea of human wholeness.
Participants are invited to dive deep into a study of several selected works of ancient art through the archetypal lens. The selected works belong to widely differing epochs and cultures. The course avoids the common art historical practice to analyze art through a rational narrative and the reductionist approach of translating visual imagery into a verbal ‘story.’ Each piece is considered a fractal reflection of the idea of wholeness (the Self archetype). The universal archetypal structure associated with wholeness, the quaternity, is located in each work of art to elicit the archetypal meaning of the unique imagery of each piece. Locating such a universal structure of wholeness in works of art helps to elicit their deeper overall meaning and restore the numinosity to our experience of them. We will discuss artistic imagery in relation to such archetypes as the Great Mother, Divine Child, Puer and Senex, the dying and resurrecting god, and the World’s Tree, with the main emphasis on the archetype of the quaternity. We will look into the wholeness-making, healing, and meaning-producing qualities of art. The course also makes connections between early art and ancient astrological beliefs.