When entering the autumn and winter of life, we often experience a profound lack of orientation. So many of our meaningful accomplishments from the first half of life now begin to lose their luster. And those aspirations and dreams that had set our hearts on fire are now eclipsed by new and strange emotions and desires, which suddenly start emerging from the shadows.

Standing face to face with the reality that we have aged and now face certain limitations – and opportunities – we never imagined, we are challenged to hear those painful lamentations of ego and youth as we move into this later and eventually final stage of life. Now it is imperative to know what it is that we so deeply love and cherish, need to preserve, and then recognize those aspects of life that we need to relinquish, as they no longer satisfy the mandates of the Self.

In this course we will seek to understand the Self’s mandates in the aging process by looking at a series of dreams. These will help us to discern the workings of outdated youthful complexes, as well as learn how to recognize and understand those messages from the Self calling us to a new life. The course also delves into Hemingway’s novel, The Old Man and the Sea, to understand the challenges of moving beyond outdated attitudes and the consequences of not responding to what is being asked of us.