After recently celebrating the 32nd Anniversary of The Assisi Institute: The International Center for the Study of Archetypal Patterns, we now stand at yet another momentous threshold.
We are hosting a truly unique inaugural event to celebrate the work and evolution of The Assisi Foundation.
While The Assisi Foundation has been in existence since 2006, it has evolved to a point where it is now ready to fully embrace and amplify its mission to support The Institute’s ongoing investigations into the workings and influence of universal patterns and archetypes within the personal and collective domain.
Our Board of Directors has worked tirelessly to build and progress The Foundation which, to date, has already helped advance The Assisi Institute’s current international initiatives. As it transitions into the next phase of its existence, The Foundation will start playing a more important role to fully support some of the global initiatives we have planned for the future.
You can look forward to the following presentations:
Where Do the Gods Go, When They Go?
Presented by Dr. James Hollis
Jung once asked the question, “where did the gods go when they left Olympus?” If they are the Immortals, where are Zeus and Hera, Aphrodite and Hermes, Apollo and Artemis, today? In this presentation Dr. Hollis considers just where do the gods go, as they often do.
The Red Heiffer
Presented by Dr. Susannah Heschel
Biblical laws regarding impurity seem bizarre to people who read the text literally: what is the “impurity” of a corpse and how would a priest, sprinkling a mysterious potion, transform impurity into purity? In this presentation, Dr. Heschel will consider a particularly odd passage from the Hebrew Bible – Numbers Chapter 19 – and discuss how a radical Hasidic commentary of the 19th century interpreted in religious terms: with impurity as resentment and bitterness, while purity comes from the care and compassion of one person for another.
Archetypal Ethology: Archetypal Patterns in the Psyche and the Natural World
Presented by Dr. Michael Conforti
It was the brilliance of Carl Jung and Marie-Louise von Franz to observe the presence of innate, universal patterns. What Jung later termed as archetypes, and von Franz as “Nature’s Constants”, each understood these as self-organizing dynamics within the Psyche. From the beautiful to the demonic, each expresses an aspect of the unconscious, having found representational, highly patterned form within the inner and outer world. As we turn our gaze to the outer world and then to Psyche, we learn of the natural order of life, allowing us to see beyond the veil of the material universe to those life-shaping, archetypal imperatives. In this talk, Dr. Conforti will discuss how ethological studies inform and enrich our understanding of innate, archetypal behaviors, helping us to see even more clearly the outward manifestation and patterned expression of archetypal dynamics.