Jung and the Environment free webinar

Because of the urgency of the times and the critical nature of the webinar, the C. G. Jung Institute of Chicago is making it available for free as a podcast and on YouTube. https://jungchicago.org/blog/from-the-archives-jung-the-environment-with-dennis-merritt/ Dennis L Merritt, PhD, Jungian Analyst presented the webinar on Friday, October 1, 2021. Many believe we are in the Anthropocene Era, an era marked by the planet-wide influence of our species. The field of ecopsychology emerged in the early 1990s as a belated response from the psychological community to address the cascading effects of human-created environmental damage. Jungian ecopsychology offers one of the best frameworks for analyzing our dysfunctional relationship with the environment—and with each other—through an archetypal analysis of the layers of the collective unconscious. Jung was deeply connected with his native Swiss soil that was reflected in the ecological aspects of his conceptual system and his interest in alchemy as his main symbol system. Ecology begins with our relationship with “the little people” in our dreams and dreams can be used to help us connect deeply to the land using Hillman’s concept of Aphrodite as the Soul of the World. In 1940 Jung foretold a paradigm shift that he labeled a “new age” and “Aquarian Age”. The new paradigm will be based on ecological concepts and reflected in the economic system being developed by the sustainable economists. We must think in these terms as a species if there is any hope of averting a planetary nightmare.

George Floyd and Covid-19: Inflection Points in the Anthropocene Era?

My article just appeared in print and is available free as read-only. Journal of Analytical Psychology, Vol. 66, No. 3, June 2021  https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/QRR4CFTHRJFVBF4QD3UX?target=10.1111/1468-5922.12675

Dreams, Synchronicities, Hexagrams: A Journey Through Training at the Zurich Jung Institute

Here is a link to an hour long presentation I gave to the Monterey Jung Society on April 15, 2021. I describe how I went from working on my PhD in insect pathology in Berkeley starting in 1967 to training at the original Jung Institute in Zurich to become a Jungian analyst. I illustrate the process with a series of dreams that guided me on the journey. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NHFHvo7EYaI

 

The I Ching—Oracle and Book of Wisdom

Here is a link to a major presentation I gave on February 21, 2021, to the C. G. Jung Club of Orange County on “The I Ching—Oracle and Book of Wisdom”.

The I Ching is one of the oldest and most profound books of wisdom whose origins go back to Chinese shamanism and prototypical Chinese ideograms. Jung, who used it extensively, described the I Ching as a book of archetypal imagery first assembled in 1050 BCE. Every major Chinese thinker, artist, and philosopher had been influenced by I Ching until the modern era. One can put a question to the book and via synchronicity get a meaningful answer as if from a Chinese sage. Examples are given to illustrate how the book can be used personally and in the therapeutic setting for guidance on relationships, difficult life situations, and psychological and spiritual development.

The most complex part of my presentation explores the binary code numerical base of the I Ching, which computers run on, and how numbers as the purest forms of the archetypes (Jung) framed the thinking of the sages as they put images and words to abstract numbers beginning with yin and yang lines. Hermes from our Western tradition is used to illustrate how things cross over from what Lao Tzu called the “dark enigma” into consciousness.


https://video.wixstatic.com/video/2efa49_018810ac62c24b48a10144872bf343c0/720p/mp4/file.mp4