It is essential to understand what the archetypal dimension is… There is no meaning to life unless one is in touch with its archetypal roots.
—James Hollis, Tracking the Gods, p. 63
We will gather for this presentation on the eve of Winter Solstice. The solstice is a liminal time, known since antiquity as a time of darkness, unease and mystery, when the gates joining the visible and invisible realms are open. The invisible or imaginal realm “is not unlike the mundus archetypus of Carl Jung. There shamans, dreamers, and visionaries return again and again, extending consciousness and reality” (Jean Houston, PhD in “Shamanism”, compiled by Shirley Nicholson, p. xiii).
We, not unlike shamans, dreamers and visionaries, will explore the archetypal images of Solstice, Shaman and Santa and questions surrounding them. What is the universal or archetypal pattern of Solstice? What was the Shaman’s role in the communal experience of solstice? How is Santa related to the solstice and the shaman, dating possibly as far back as recorded time? Is Santa real? What gifts do the Shaman and Santa offer in our times of darkness? How is this exploration important to our individual and collective (communal) souls and to the anima mundi, the soul of the world?
