Love, Eros, & Emptiness in the 21st Century

Description

Love, Eros, & Emptiness in the 21st Century: The Mandala Speaks

This presentation will revisit Jung’s declaration that there exists a widespread crisis of sterility in contemporary consciousness due to a culture of exaggerated skepticism and materialism. This emptiness fosters anxiety, despair, loss of meaning, and addiction. Unearthed by trauma, this emptiness plunges us into a longing for Eros. The figure of Eros in classical mythology grants us images of this powerful, but complex and ambivalent encounter. Engaged, incarnated Eros in the forms of dream work, active imagination, creative expression, and active work on relationships can birth a transformation that “quickens the sterile wilderness of the soul as rain quickens the earth” (Jung). The ancient and worldwide experience of the mandala, a symbol of the Self, can emerge in these forms to contain and channel affect-images from the archetypal realm to grant a relationship with the living psyche.

It was recorded on February 5, 2021.

PowerPoint: The slides are edited into the video

Audio: An audio mp3 of the seminar is included in the download.

Sample: https://youtu.be/YcNNbHuL11Q

Learning Objectives

As a result of attending this course, participants will be able to:
1. Describe the roots of the crisis of sterility in modern culture resulting in skepticism and materialism.
2. Articulate understandings of the impact of Eros on human consciousness.
3. Discuss the mandala’s significance as a medium for transmission of archetypal “affect-images.”

© 2021 Don L. Troyer.
Ⓟ 2021 CG Jung Institute of Chicago.