“… hence the unconscious is not merely conditioned by history, but is the very source of the creative impulse. It is like nature herself – prodigiously conservative, and yet transcending her own historical conditions in her acts of creation.”
~ C.G. Jung, The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche
We live in an epoch not only of political, but archetypal tumult. The meta-narratives through which we have historically come to understand ourselves and our world are being challenged, deconstructed and imploded. It can feel as if we have been thrown into a metaphorical sea of storm-tossed waves with navigational instruments that are not only outdated, but irrelevant, as even the heavens deny us a clear sight of the North star from which to navigate.
Times of personal as well as collective upheaval confront us not only with the archetypal tensions between chaos and rigidity, life and death, but also with the need for psychologies that can evolve to accommodate an emerging consciousness that transcends the limitations of psychological theory that no longer speaks to the challenges of the epoch.
The global challenges of recent times have constellated a re-emergence of apocalyptic languaging and symbolism. “Apocalypse,” however, understood archetypally, refers not only to the destruction of a world, but the creative emergence of new worlds. As award-winning poet, Ben Okri writes:
You will think that
Your world is being
Shattered for ever. It is.
But out of the destruction,
Out of all this thunder,
Something new will
Come….
~ “To Katya, aged seven, in a bomb shelter in Kyiv”
We invite you to join the distinguished faculty and alumni of Pacifica Graduate Institute, along with invited artists, as we offer creative, forward-thinking scholarship that both builds on and transcends the boundaries of Jungian and post-Jungian theory. This conference additionally celebrates the formal, public re-opening of our campuses. Join us, as we come together in creative community, to contribute to the hope that through engaging more deeply with one another – especially in these challenging times – something new will come.
“If you remain within arbitrary and artificially created boundaries, you will walk as between two high walls: you do not see the immensity of the world. But if you break down the walls that confine your view, and if the immensity and its endless uncertainty inspire you with fear, then the ancient sleeper awakens in you.”
~ C.G. Jung, The Red Book
Keynote Presentations
Portals to the Imaginal in a Digital Era: Cultural Complexes and the Mythopoetic Imagination in the 21st Century | Thomas Singer
Mythic Imagination: Claiming Presence and the Body Poetic in the “After Times” | Marissa Chibas
Reconsidering Individuation in the 21st Century: When Archetypal Patterns Shift | Joe Cambray
Tradition and Lineage: Mythopo ieticsn the Writing of Africanist Women | Fanny Brewster
The Imagination Matrix | Stephen Aizenstat
Featured Presentations
Music as a Window to the Imaginal through Dreamtime and Waking Reverie | Juliet Rohde-Brown and Daniel Siuba
Mythic Meditation: Labyrinth | Emily Chow-Kambitsch
Re-Imagining the Sacred: Jung’s Approach | Lionel Corbett
Remembering How to be a People: Exploring Psychological Belonging by Forming Conscious Groups | Peter Dunlap
Transcending the Classroom and Consulting Room: The Initiation and Invitation of Collective Trauma | Jemma Elliot
Eastern Spiritual Practices and the Process of Individuation: Exploring Lived Experience | Pat Katsky
Imaginal Mediums: The Occult Origins of the Unconscious in Jung’s Red Book | David Odorisio
Co-Creative Responsibility for the Posthuman Age | Glen Slater
Depth Psychology is Transdisciplinary: Introducing Jungian Arts-Based Research as a Methodology for Learning and Being in the 21st Century | Susan Rowland
Art at the Abyss: Recreating Depth Psychology for a World on the Edge | Mary Antonia Wood
Alumni Panel Discussion
Community as Classroom: Listening to and Learning From Each Other