“Every traveler has a home of his own, and he learns to appreciate it the more from his wandering.”
-Charles Dickens
While we no longer take the time to listen to the “wise ones” regale us with stories about life, love, passion, and loss, as well as about survival and adoration, fortunately these life lessons still live on in the fairy tales and fables passed down to us from past generations.
In this conference we will speak to the importance of these stories as comprising a cannon of wisdom that if understood can prepare us for life and even for our eventual death.
Our Keynote speaker is Jacqueline Dürmüller, an internationally recognized Jungian analyst. Through her work on the opera Turandot we will learn about what turns a woman’s heart to ice and the ways she rejects the advances and love of another. A poignant moment in the drama occurs when Calàf, a potential suitor, is presented with a riddle, and he understands his failure to answer correctly will result in his own death.
The ensuing drama takes a twist which challenges the masculine and goes a further step to challenge the feminine in breaking of the spell. In many ways life itself is great riddle, from Delphic oracles to the sphinx and more. Turandot is one of the many archetypal and psychological trajectories which illustrates how the masculine and feminine can either remain in a stasis of self-destruction or face the unknown shadows in the heart to find eternal love. We invite you to join us with Jungian Analysts Michael Conforti and Jacqueline Dürmüller, and Rozan Christian, Chair of Fairy Tale Studies, as we will look to these perennial stories for guidance in a world gone awry.