– Lecture
Soul in Sand     
Nancy Ortenberg, M.A., LMFT        

Sand has been used for thousands of years in sacred ceremonies, meditations, and healings. To engage with the sand is to move outside time and space and enter into ‘sacred time.’ Jung said, “all creative works are the offspring of the imagination and the dynamic principle of the imagination is play.” Sandplay therapy allows clients, instead of using words, to enter into this sacred time and to use play and their hands to bring the imagination into matter, into life. As Jung points out, it is an experience of “the striving of the unconscious for the light and the striving of consciousness for substance. Often the hands know how to solve a riddle which has been wrestled with in vain.” In her lecture, through clinical casework with adult clients, images, and your own imagination, Nancy Ortenberg invites you to enter into the symbolic landscape of soul in sand.  

– Lecture
Creating a Life   
James Hollis, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst       

Can we create our lives, or does life create us? How is it that we are free but choose such repetitive, self-defeating patterns? How does fate collide with destiny and catch us in between? What are the sources of those replications, and what are the insights we need to maximize such freedom as we may have? These are the questions which haunt the modern, who, wishing freedom, creates repetitions, yet longs for an authentic journey.    

– Workshop

We can never be free to create our lives if we are in service to fixed, internalized, and largely unconscious ideas. In this workshop, we will engage questions which stir, sift, and raise consciousness of those deeply ingrained, implicit ideas which create, or repeat, patterns in our lives. With consciousness, comes the power to choose more freely. Please bring a notepad and pen for journaling.  

 The Power of Companionship
– Lecture:    Psychology of the Brother - Sister Relationship
Lara Newton, M.A., LPC, Diplomate Jungian Analyst

Lara Newton lays the foundation for a new psychological perspective on the brother-sister relationship,  exploring that relationship in all its variety. She will present the process of transformation from bonding, to wounding, and finally to healing and redemption. This is a transformation process that takes the brother-sister relationship from an outer experience, whether negative or positive, to a powerful intrapsychic reality. In a spirit of companionship, Lara wishes to share her insights and join in discussion with her sister (and brother) Jungian community in Boulder.

The Power of Companionship
– Workshop:    Variations on an a Theme of Companionship   

We will focus on specific patterns in brother-sister relationship–dark and troublesome relationships as well as positive companionships. The process of transformation in all of these varying patterns will be discussed. We will work with three brother-sister fairytales, which will be provided to the participants. Participants are encouraged to bring in dreams as well as life stories for the discussion.    


Jungian Concept Series  

“Myths, Fairy Tales and Legends,” our inaugural fall Concept Series begins with the topic: Whom Does the Grail Serve?  The Grail Legends have captured the imagination of people for centuries. These stories are populated with knights entering dark forests, wise compassionate feminine figures, and wounds that will not heal.   The Grail stories illuminate our imagination. Join us in an exploration of the archetypal richness of the Grail, and begin your personal journey of discovery.    

The Damsels of the Wells: Restoring the Waters of Life  
Robert A. Diehl, M.A.  

This presentation will give an introduction to and overview of the Grail stories. Participants will be invited to begin a personal “Grail Quest” by linking their own inner stories with the grail legend. As relevant today as it was 800 years ago, the Grail Myth reminds us of a core longing for wholeness that feels like a memory. Together we will explore clues that reveal causes of the Wasteland and ways to rediscover our fruitful selves by recovering “the waters of life.”  

Lady Ragnell: Fair by Day or Fair by Night?  
Nora Swan-Foster, M.A., ATR-BC, LPC  

The story of Lady Ragnell and her marriage to Gawain is an example of what occurs when the masculine relates to the dual nature of the feminine. This archetypal pattern exists in various forms throughout time and illustrates the internal feminine nature within both men and women. From the provided tale that will be read prior to our meeting, we will explore the psychological journey that leads to the breaking of the enchantment and the liberation of the feminine. Art materials will be used to explore and expand our internal relationship to the dual feminine that exists within us.   

Merlin as Archetype of the Magician  
Jeffrey Kiehl, M.A., LPC    

Merlin is known as shaman, sage, and magician. He appears throughout Arthurian tales as a figure helping Arthur achieve his kingship and foreseeing the future. The archetype of the magician appears in legends and myths throughout the world. Jung felt that the images of Merlin and the Grail were great powers in our psyches. The archetype of the magician holds both powers of innovation and deception. We will explore the ways the magician appears in our lives through images and stories of Merlin. We will also explore how Merlin can initiate us in our personal Grail quest.  

Parzival  
Joe McNair, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst  

Parzival stands above all as an image: a man, a knight, a husband, and most importantly, one of the only two knights to achieve the Grail quest as a married man. He is the model for modern man as one who suffers from ignorance, innocence, endless mistakes, and yet – in the end – makes it his mission to change God’s law. He represents for the first time amongst the legends, the true incarnation of the Feminine in the Masculine. Parzival stands for the man who allows the feelings in his heart (anima) to guide his return home to his wife and family. 

Quotes on The Grail Legends    

“The whole meaning of the Grail tradition has to do with the problem of a person living an authentic life out of the spontaneity of his heart when that heart is a noble heart whose spontaneity is based on compassion rather than possession and conquest.”   – Joseph Campbell   

“The process of transformation ... took place on a large scale in the early medieval psychology: a new revelation of woman and the development of the feminine symbol of the Grail.”  – CW 6, par. 407  

 “In a special sense...the soul is that wondrous vessel which is the goal of the quest and in which the life-giving power inheres, whose final secret can never be revealed, but must ever remain hidden because its essence is a mystery.”   – The Grail Legend, Emma Jung & M.-L. von Franz, p. 140-141

 “Parsifal ... unites the bright, heavenly, feminine symbol of the Grail with the dark, earthly, masculine symbol of the spear.”   – CW 6, par. 371   

“... functioning between the ego and the unconscious, the anima becomes the matrix of all the divine and semi-divine figures, from the pagan goddess to the Virgin, from the messenger of the Holy Grail to the saint.”   – CW 16, par. 504   

“The old man has an ambiguous elfin character – witness the extremely instructive figure of Merlin – seeming ... to be good incarnate and in others an aspect of evil.”   – CW 9i, par. 415  

 “The impressive and still living myth of the Holy Grail came to life with its two significant figures of Parsifal and Merlin.”   – CW 18, par. 1684   

“[T]he Grail can also be taken as an image of the transcendent function. By this term Jung understands the psychic synthesis of consciousness and the unconscious, through which it becomes possible for the psychic totality, the Self, to come into consciousness.”   – The Grail Legend, Emma Jung & M.-L. von Franz, p.156