WHAT IS TRANSFORMATION THROUGH SYMBOLS?
Life is hard. We often feel overwhelmed by our responsibilities and lose sight of what once made us excited, happy and imbued our world with mystery and wonder. We lose touch with who we are, what we want, and what we need. Working with symbols is an opportunity to reconnect with ourselves on a deep and profound level – to find out again who we are, what makes our souls sing, what connects us to ourselves and what we hold most dear. This 10 week course is the opportunity that you have been waiting for to take this step towards knowing yourself again and connecting with your soul language.
The great alchemists of antiquity sought for the key to transmutation, transforming the base into the refined, lead into gold, the prima materia (primal material) into the Lapis Philosophorum (the philosophers stone), the worthless into that with the highest value. Jung’s great insight into the alchemical tradition both Western and Eastern is that these practices are symbolic in nature. That the Lapis (the alchemist’s stone) was nothing less than a symbol of the soul. Whilst at the material level alchemy was a precursor to modern chemistry, at the level of psyche or spirit, its heir is most assuredly Jungian psychology.
“Alchemical ideas are expressed almost entirely in an extraordinarily rich symbolism. The help which alchemy affords us in understanding the symbols of the individuation process is, in my opinion, of the utmost importance.” (Carl Gustav Jung)
This course will guide you in the exploration and application of symbols for increased meaning, re-imagining your life, re-enchanting your world and the practical and very real application of alchemical transformation. With the tool of symbolisation we are able raise and refine the world around and within us; recognising something beautiful and sublime, a world filled with wonder and magic. We are able to reclaim the sovereign right of our perceptive faculty, such that that it is not wholly dominated by the imposed meanings external, and often inauthentic, to us. Through this process we are able to reconnect with the numinous, soul-filled world, allowing meaning to re-enter our lives.
This is an excellent introduction to symbol work for those new to Jung; and for more seasoned practitioners it will provide a fresh perspective and structure in which to work with symbols and symbolic content.