A very special two-part Myth Salon devoted to the alchemical text, the Rosarium Philosophorum. Drs. Carolyn Bates and Gus Cwyk have developed a two-part combined performance multi-media project entitled Witnessing With Compassion.
Part 1 – Lunar Consciousness: An Alchemical Perspective | 17 March
The Rosarium, an alchemical series, presents a template for the transformation of solar (masculine) and lunar (feminine) soul energies. The formation of a deeply reflective lunar consciousness is necessary to facilitate change in social systems. A new “third” is being sought that requires a compassionate stance towards oneself and other.
Jung was fascinated with alchemy and its profound symbolism. His fundamental insight was that the alchemists were projecting unconscious psychic processes onto the transformation of matter in the laboratory. In alchemy he saw the bridge between analytical psychology and early forms of thought, such as Gnosticism – to reach ‘a point outside our own time’ in order to understand how deep change occurs. Jung stated “Alchemy describes, not merely in general outline but often in the most astonishing detail, the same psychological phenomenology which can be observed in the analysis of unconscious processes.”
Jung used the alchemical series, The Rosarium Philosophorum, The Rosary of the Philosophers, in his paper, The Psychology of the Transference, to describe the the unconscious dynamics occurring in the analytic relationship. We will look at this series from a somewhat more social perspective to help understand what is happening during our turbulent times.
This series presents a template for the transformation of solar (masculine) and lunar (feminine) soul energies. My current research into the rosary has provided insight into why the alchemists may have used the image of “the rosary” to describe this series. It points to the creation of a deeply reflective lunar consciousness, a new “third thing” is being sought that requires a compassionate stance towards oneself and other. Register for Part 1
Part 2 – Eve Speaks: A Dialogue on the Deconstruction of Privilege | 31 March
Jung did not shy away from looking at cultural concerns and struggles and the archetypal energies that might inform them. When thinking about how archetypal energies present themselves in culture, and in particular the MeToo movement and the struggle for the less powerful voice to “be heard” my own unconscious gifted me with the seeds of a dialogue. In a patriarchy “the masculine” has been privileged by virtue of its very label and its culturally-venerated attributes, while “the feminine” has too often relegated to the realm of “lesser.” In this imbalanced way of looking at consciousness, women’s anger is experienced as discomforting, and this can foreclose exploration into legitimate grievance.
Carolyn Bates tell us, “The dialogue that my friend and colleague Gus Cwik and I will have offers us an invitation to look at – and listen into – the imperative of legitimate grievance, and to consider how compassionate witnessing of grievance might help to deconstruct both the political and cultural power structures that are fought over by those who are invested in and benefitting from the patriarchy and those who are not.
Born of my participation in the #MeToo movement and the archetypal energies that seem to have their own intentions, I was awakened one night by the sound of a woman’s voice speaking…protesting…conveying something about one particular story from the Judeo-Christian realm; a story that for generations has, both subtly and not so subtly, informed so many of the gender biases and gender-aligned power structures that course through Western culture, including those biases that promote toxic masculinity and systemic disadvantages toward women.”
And thus the question formed: What if the feminine and masculine archetypes portrayed in that story could find voice and speak to one another? Register for Part 2