Workshop: Saturday, February 14, 1998, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Ancient Greeks knew the necessity of honoring equally dynamic yet opposing forces that ruled mortal man's rational and emotional life, the gods Apollo and Dionysus. Ours is an Apollonian culture, following the attributes of only this god. Rational thought, a pattern of solar consciousness, has dominated our orientation to ourselves, our relationships with others, and our interaction with our environment. We have repressed the Dionysian aspect, the god of darkness and chaos, yet also the god of ecstasy and intoxication. And at great cost to an emotionally fulfilling and creative life. Dr. Jung established the Dionysian element as a basic structure of our psyche. What had been regarded as unbridled and dangerous aspects of life to be dissected and tamed began to be seen as vital parts of ourselves to be brought into consciousness.
Who is this god, so incongruent to conscious understanding, the god Kerenyi names "the archetype of indestructible life"? The Friday night lecture will bring to focus the attributes of Dionysus, his terror and his benevolence. Through myths, the Orphic religion, and other writings, Saturday's workshop will center around slides from the Villa of Mysteries, Pompeii. These ancient pictures from the exotic friezes have modern meaning for they tell the story of one's individuation process. We will stay carefully attuned to Euripides' warning written in the Bacchae as he has Dionysus shout, "Too late you have learned to know me: When the knowledge was wanted you had it not."
Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Ph.D., diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich, is a practicing analyst in Birmingham, Alabama. She is the author of The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspects of the Feminine. She is a frequent lecturer on this topic, and also on the topic of the god Dionysus. For the past several years, Nancy has combined her love for travel and mythology in serving as a co-leader for Jungian seminars in Italy, Egypt, and Greece. A past officer in the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian analysts, she remains active in all phases of training with this group.