Sunday, November 12, 2023, 3-5pm CST

Nonnie Cullipher, M.Ed., is an educator and former Executive Director of Journey into Wholeness, a southeastern-based organization that offered national and international conferences, vision quests, and workshops on Jungian psychology. For this book she selected from recordings of myths and fairy tales told by Robert Johnson at Journey into Wholeness events, asking noted Jungiananalysts who were friends of Johnson's to introduce each story. This discussion will include personal stories about Robert Johnson and audios of him telling two of the stories. 

Storytime with Robert: Robert Johnson Tells His Favorite Stories and Myths is recommended reading, but not necessary to join the discussion. To order the book, you can find it here.

Dr. James Hollis, esteemed author, teacher, and Jungian analyst, is a favorite speaker of Jung groups around the world, including our Nashville Jung Circle. We were honored to host Dr. Hollis in person in 2017 and 2018 and via Zoom in 2021. Dr. Hollis returns online in October, 2023, to discuss the personal stories we each live by, based on his recent book, The Broken Mirror. In describing this upcoming talk, Dr. Hollis says:

We are creatures who need to understand, at any cost. And so we 'story' our experiences, and those stories, provisional, localized, and often created at an early stage of our history, become defining narratives. The disarray of our histories nevertheless can be a powerful clue to the “meta-stories” to which we have been in service to for many years. Until these “narrative interpretations” can be smoked out, we remain their captive. In a series of questions, we will be invited to examine the stories we have been serving, and then engage stories that honor what wants to unfold from within us.

The Broken Mirror: Refracted Visions of Ourselves is recommended reading for this event.

“CIRCLING THE LABYRINTH” IS NOW ON ZOOM!

3:00pm-5pm CST

For some months our group has been“circling the labyrinth,” (excuse the pun), going round and round with plans for an in-person labyrinth workshop.  Are some mysterious energies at play – the Trickster? Mercury in retrograde? In all seriousness, due to a resurgence of Covid cases, we havecancelled this as an in-person event.  As Jungians we acknowledge that the unexpected is always emerging, and keeping everyone safe must come first.

The good news is that we have reconfigured the event to be a free Zoom presentation. We will discuss the labyrinth’s history and relationship to Jungian psychology, how to use a labyrinth walk as a meditation, and a discussion of the fantasy films “Labyrinth,” and “Pan’s Labyrinth.” There will also be time for visiting with old friends and meeting those new to the Nashville Jung Circle.

In preparation for this fun and free event to begin our new season of programming, you may enjoy watching one or both films, which are available on multiple streaming platforms. Also, if you have had a meaningful experience with a labyrinth walk, please consider sharing this during the meeting.

Walking a Sacred Path: Rediscovering the Labyrinth as a Spiritual Practice by Lauren Artress is wonderful companion book for this process.

The intractable nature of the gun violence problem in the United States resists meaningful analysis. Even more so, the problem resists effective solutions. Perhaps this resistance itself is meaningful, pointing to the cloaking of deeper problems in the American psyche.

Pushing beyond the usual historical background of the so-called gun culture, this presentation will examine both the psychology of homicide by firearm and the collective myths and complexes that make this violence so prevalent. These myths and complexes both heighten the propensity to target and shoot others and lower the capacity for the soul-searching necessary to effectively change this propensity. 

This Zoom presentation will conclude with a discussion of where responsibility for this violence lives, and where transformative possibilities may lie.  

Glen Slater, Ph.D. has taught for over two decades at Pacifica Graduate Institute where he currently chairs the Jungian and Archetypal Psychology Program. He has written articles and book chapters for Jungian publications, edited the third volume of James Hillman’s Uniform Edition, Senex and Puer, and co-edited the essay collection, Varieties of Mythic Experience. His research and writing interests concern Jung and film, the psychology of religion, and depth psychology and technology. His book on Jung and posthumanism will be published early in 2023.

Jung wrote that the primary purpose of life is the development of "more and more consciousness." Becoming a conscious elder takes a lifetime of psychological and spiritual development, with plenty of pitfalls and faux arrivals along the way.

This 90-minute Zoom retreat, led by author and life stage expert Carol Orsborn, Ph.D.,  is situated at the intersection of adult and spiritual development, drawing upon the work of scholars and mystics from Erik Erikson and Carl Jung to James Hollis and Pema Chodron. The workshop will be a gentle weaving together of life stage theory, journaling and group discussion.

Carol Orsborn, Ph.D. is the author of 35 books on conscious aging, spirituality and life stage development.  She received her Doctorate from Vanderbilt University in the History and Critical Theory of Religion and is curator of the Fierce with Age Archives.

This Zoom lecture will contrast Jung’s notion of the Self as the God within with traditional theistic approaches to the divine and describe the range of ways in which the Self may appear within the psyche. Dr. Corbett will also discuss how Jung’s approach allows the development of a personal spirituality rather than one based on doctrine and dogma.

Dr. Lionel Corbett trained in medicine and psychiatry in England and as a Jungian Analyst at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago. Dr. Corbett, the author of six books and numerous articles, is a professor of depth psychology at Pacifica Graduate Institute, in Santa Barbara, California, where he teaches depth psychology. His primary focus is on the religious function of the psyche.

You asked, we heard! In January, we are launching our first Nashville Jung Circle dream group. Join us on Zoom with Laura Hillman for a free introduction to the art and soul of group dreamwork. This 90-minute session will offer lively and insightful ways to work with metaphor, symbol, and dreams. You will learn ways to work with your own dreams and practice some group dreamwork skills.
 
After this introductory meeting you may want to join the dream group.  There will be 8 sessions, on 2nd and 4th Thursdays from January 26th through Mary 11th. There are spaces for 6 dreamers. 
 
Note: Projective group dreamwork is quite different from personal dream analysis. We focus on the dream, not the dreamer, and we approach the dream as we would a soul poem or a fairy tale from the Self. You will find each dream to offer deep significance for you, and you will learn ways to continue creative dreamwork on your own. However, this is not a therapeutic circle, and we honor good personal boundaries in our work -Laura Hileman

The group will be facilitated by Laura Huff Hileman, M.A., M.S., a former NJC Board member and a longtime dreamworker certified at the Haden Institute, where she now mentors. She offers other groups and dreamwork opportunities through her practice, Fire by Night Dreamwork.