There is a need in our contemporary society to bring the sacred back into everyday life. In a time when two of our greatest social ills are the breakdown of the family and homelessness, a return to understanding and revaluing the ancient universal truths and symbolic rituals is sorely needed. At the beginning of this century the unconscious was still largely an unknown, unexplored territory lying beyond our conscious concepts of time, space, and causality. We live in an era characterized as the "space age." Exploring the outer reaches of space, our celestial telescopes reveal that the universe is far more vast and older than scientists had imagined. The images of this other world were studied by Dr. C.G. Jung, who went far beyond the personal realm into that of the collective unconscious.
There are many ways in which we might make this "journey," but our intention is to examine this archetypal pattern from the standpoint of C.G. Jung's analytical psychology. We first begin our study of the concept of sacred space by looking at some of the ways in which it influenced Jung's life and his personal growth and development. We will explore Jung's own myth of meaning as well as that which we all share. We will consider some of the typical aspects of sacred space and their relevance for the modern world. Then we will continue our own voyage, parallelling another archetypal pattern in what might be broadly interpreted as a homecoming, a coming home to ourselves, a return to the image of the original temenos, the family hearth.
In this workshop, we will continue to explore sacred space. Our discussions will center on those issues most important to us in the here and now. We will use a variety of methods to elicit and engage material from our own unconscious. Participants are invited to bring dreams and journals as well as art pads and drawing materials and/or collage, so that we might share the creative process of healing.
Intuitively, we know that our self-questioning leads us into that ancient pattern of attempting to understand our myth. The quest always leads to that which informs and gives meaning to our lives. We will observe how our ancestors were also engaged in this same process. Mythology is the history of the soul. It deals with origins, with the basic patterns that underlie our existence--all that has been, is now, or perhaps will be. In myth, we discover not only our beginnings, but glimpse eternity as well.
John V. Nicholas, Ph.D., is a graduate of the C.G. Jung Institute of Zurich. He is a founding member of the Association of Jungian Analysts of London, and a member of the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. He is a licensed marriage, family, and child counselor, and an instructor at UC Berkeley. He is in private practice in the San Francisco Bay area.