Friday Lecture | 7pm-9pm
Beginning in the years leading up to the Great War, both C.G. Jung and J.R.R. Tolkien independently began to undergo profound imaginal experiences. Jung recorded these fantasies in a large red manuscript that he named Liber Novus, referred to simply as The Red Book. For Tolkien, this imaginal journey revealed to him the world of Middle-earth, whose stories and myths eventually led to the writing of The Lord of the Rings, a book he named within its own imaginal history The Red Book of Westmarch. This lecture explores the many synchronistic parallels between Jung’s and Tolkien’s Red Books: the style and content of their works of art, the narrative descriptions and scenes in their texts, the nature of their visions and dreams, and an underlying similarity in world view that emerged from their experiences. The two men seem to have been simultaneously treading parallel paths through the imaginal realm.
Saturday Workshop | 9am-1.30pm
Jung’s Red Book and Active Imagination
In this workshop, participants will dive deeply into exploring the meaning of certain key visions and fantasies in C.G. Jung’s Red Book, interpreting the text and images in communal dialogue. The core of the workshop will be a guided group practice of active imagination, followed by a writing and drawing exercise that will allow participants to come into an objective relationship with the images that arise during the practice.