The Biblical Exodus from Egypt is an archetypal journey of healing from collective trauma and reconnecting with the sacred in the wake of catastrophic loss. Reflecting on this sacred story, we explore how the constricted consciousness created by personal, intergenerational and collective trauma is transformed. Jungian theory guides our understanding of how trauma creates a state of exile, where the ego becomes alienated from the Self. As we are awakened through numinous experience, we reconnect with the Self’s guiding wisdom.
The archetypes in the Exodus story show us how to grieve the losses engendered by both personal and intergenerational trauma, reconnect with the wellsprings of ancestral memory, discover the light hidden in the darkness of what may have been disowned in our family and cultural lineages, and soften defenses developed in response to trauma. As we do, we open to rebirth and post-traumatic repatterning of consciousness.
In this program we explore the rich psychological meaning of the archetypal journey of the Exodus story, a vessel into which Jewish sages over millennia distilled mystical wisdom. We find that this timeless story is also the story of our own time, offering profound insight for healing from personal and transgenerational trauma following the cataclysmic upheavals of recent collective history.
Understanding exile as disconnection from the Source, we follow Moses, keeper of the spiritual fire, and Serach bat Asher, preserver of ancestral memory. We encounter the depths with Joseph, touch collective grief with Lilith, experience the Red Sea crossing and Miriam’s well as psychological rebirth and Sinai as the repatterning of traumatized consciousness.
Wisdom drawn from millennia of Jewish mystical interpretations of the Exodus, as well as analytical psychology perspectives guide our exploration. The role of the Shekhinah (the Divine Feminine) in kabbalah is central in restoring our capacities for feeling and embodiment, both of which are profoundly injured when we experience trauma. The workshop will explore the teachings of Jungian scholars on themes related to Jewish mysticism and intergenerational trauma. The wider cross-cultural mythic implications of the Exodus story as both a personal and collective story about healing the relationship with the Self will also be explored.
The workshop will explore the following:
- A short overview of Jewish mysticism including Jungian perspectives on kabbalah, and Jungian views on transgenerational trauma.
- Various archetypes of healing in the Exodus story:
(a) The experience of exile in post-modernity and its meaning in our own time, including during the pandemic
(b) Awakening from the trance of exile through the relatedness of the Feminine
(c) discovering the Self through numinous experience (Moses)
(d) cultural complexes and the loss of connection to the Self
(e) reconnection with ancestral memory (Serach bat Asher and Lilith)
(f) learning to trust again in the wake of collective trauma (the movement through the Red Sea as rebirth, and the well of Miriam)
(g) Repatterning of traumatized consciousness (Sinai)