Description
Topics: Alchemy, Family and Intimate Relationships, Religion and Spirituality.
Awakening Lunar Consciousness: An Alchemical Perspective
For Jung, alchemy provided the very root imagery of transformation as it bridged from the past into the future, to analytical psychology and the individuation process itself — “It is only possible to come to a right understanding and appreciation of a contemporary psychological problem when we can reach a point outside our own time from which to observe it.” In “The Psychology of the Transference” he used a series of alchemical plates from The Rosarium Philosophorum, The Rosary of the Philosophers, to demonstrate the relational individuation process that occurs in analysis and intimate relationships. This presentation will look at the entire series as it 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 deep change within the individual and social systems. A new “third thing” is being sought that requires “compassionate witnessing” towards the events that happen to oneself in life — only from this stance can one hope to find “right action.”
This talk was part of our 2019 Founders’ Day Symposium, Root Awakenings, which also included Ann Ulanov’s Root, Uprooting, Rootedness
Slides: A PDF of the PowerPoint used in this talk is included in the download.
Video: Included in this download is a video file comprised of the audio recording with the video clips embedded where they appear in the presentation.
Learning Objectives
1) List the plates included in the Rosarium
2) Describe the components of lunar consciousness
3) Discuss the process of individuation as exemplified by the series
Click Here to Listen to a Sample
Dr. Cwik is a clinical psychologist, hypnotherapist and senior diplomate Jungian Analyst in private practice in the Chicago area. After studying Chemistry as an undergraduate, he entered military service and then changed his career path to psychology. After studying with Rosiland Cartwright in the Dream and Sleep Lab at the University of Illinois, Chicago Circle, he was in the first class at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. He interned at the University of Maryland, School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry where he trained in hypnotherapy and psychoanalytic psychotherapy and returned to Chicago to begin private practice. He is on the teaching faculty of the Chicago Institute and the Florida and Minnesota Seminars for the Interregional Society of Jungian Analysts. He is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Analytical Psychology. He is former: Co-Director of Training of the Analyst Training Program in Clinical Supervision and Curriculum and Co-Director of Clinical Training Program in Analytical Psychotherapy at the C.G. Jung Institute of Chicago, and Senior Adjunct Faculty at the Illinois School of Professional Psychology. He provides videoconferencing supervision and analysis. He has published on analytic structure, supervision, alchemical imagery, active imagination, dreams, and numerous reviews.
© 2019 August Cwik
℗ 2019 CG Jung Institute of Chicago