Canberra Jung Society Inc.

Friday 7 August 2020

8:00 PM - 9:30 PM.

Dr. David Russell:

"How a Jungian Perspective Makes Unique Contribution

to Understanding Emotional Trauma"

Online (by Zoom) - not at MacKillop House!

" ... primitive pathology recognised two causes of illness:
loss of soul, and possession by a spirit.”
(Jung, 1928. The Psychological foundations of Belief in Spirits, CW Vol. 8:para. 591)

Carl Jung’s primary therapeutic focus was on the person, and secondarily on the distressing emotional experience. He believed and asserted that ‘Psyche’ works to enhance our wellbeing, but profound trauma turns this self-care system back onto itself, and into something akin to a ‘demonic possession’. In mytho-poetic terms, the archetypal energy of the protective Archangel is reversed and becomes an avenging demon.

However, even when the inner life is trashed by trauma (Psychoanalyst Leonard Shengold has called it ‘soul murder’ because trauma is the experience of unbearable effect), in the traditions of Jungian psychology, it is the inner life of the person that really matters.

David’s talk will be person centred, with an emphasis on this inner life. It is: the life of the Spirit/Soul that is of ultimate concern.

Through a re-telling of the fairy tale “The Handless Maiden”, he will illustrate how a Jungian sensitivity gives insight into both the nature of the trauma and the necessary steps to recovery.

He will explain how understanding and subsequent therapy aims to integrate the inner life with the outer life, and how this is often achieved with imagery and narrative, as documented and found in so-called ‘Fairy’ Stories.

David Russell is a past president of the Sydney Jung Society. He completed his undergraduate and postgraduate studies and research in psychology at the University of Sydney. Here he was introduced to the writings of Sigmund Freud (unusual for a Department of Psychology) and developed an ongoing enthusiasm for the history and philosophy of psychology.

After a few years in private practice he moved into an academic career, which culminated in the establishment of the Master of Analytical Psychology degree at the University of Western Sydney. David has currently returned to private practice in Sydney CBD.

Cost: Canberra Jung Society members: Free,

          Guests $10 - Pay via TryBooking

          or via bank transfer to Canberra Jung Society, BSB: 012 951 Account: 2141 58567 (Reference your name).

Special Event

Six-Week Dream Group series

Facilitated by Dorothea Wojnar

Five more Tuesdays (of six): 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th August, 1st September 2020
7:30 - 9:30 pm.

(in the Vercoe Room, Wesley Uniting Church, 22 National Circuit, Forrest, ACT)

The dream is a little hidden door in the innermost and most secret recesses of the soul, opening into that cosmic night which was psyche long before there was any ego consciousness, and which will remain psyche no matter how far our ego-consciousness extends. For all ego-consciousness is isolated; because it separates and discriminates, it knows only particulars, and it sees only those that can be related to the ego. Its essence is limitation, even though it reaches to the farthest nebulae among the stars. All consciousness separates; but in dreams we put on the likeness of that more universal, truer, more eternal man dwelling in the darkness of primordial night. There he is still the whole, and the whole is in him, indistinguishable from nature and bare of all egohood. It is from these all-uniting depths that the dream arises, be it never so childish, grotesque, and immoral.

(CG Jung "The Meaning of Psychology for Modern Man" (1933). In CW 10: Civilization in Transition. pg. 304)

The group will be facilitated by Dorothea Wojnar. Members of the group are encouraged to share their dreams and we will be using active imagination in working with the dreams. Please let Dorothea know if you are planning to attend.

Sharing your dreams is not required - You can enjoy sharing and working with everyone else's!

Dorothea is a Jungian Analyst, Counsellor and Psychotherapist in private practice. Dorothea has extensive experience as a group leader and therapist across a range of people and issues and has worked in both a public health facility as well as in private practice.

For further information, please contact Dorothea Wojnar on 6292 2014 or (0413) 245 835.

We meet by 7:30 for introductions and catch-up over a cuppa and snacks, prior to working on the dreams.

Cost: $60 for the series ($10 per session).
   Pay at the door,
   or via TryBooking
   or via bank transfer:
       to Canberra Jung Society, BSB: 012 951 Account: 2141 58567 (Reference your name)

Friday 4 September, 2020

Dr. Richard Barz

"C. G. Jung’s Concept of the Archetypes and Aboriginal Rock Art"

at MacKillop House, 50 Archibald St, Lyneham, ACT

We in eastern Australia are blessed with a wealth of Aboriginal rock art easily accessible from major cities like Canberra, Sydney or Melbourne. Sadly, this wealth is generally ignored and where recognised is considered enigmatic, even when found interesting or attractive. Academic explanations are available, but can satisfactorily answer only questions of date and style. Cultural interpretations are either lost or restricted by traditional law.

Fortunately, the esthetic, cultural and academic approaches are not the only ways that Aboriginal rock art can be viewed. It can also be seen through the lens of the archetypes as they are presented by Carl Jung in these words:

“The concept of the archetype, which is an indispensable correlate of the idea of the collective unconscious, indicates the existence of definite forms in the psyche which seem to be present always and everywhere.”

If this statement is true, then the archetypes are universal and underlie all human drawing and sculpture including Aboriginal rock art. Using examples from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland I will try to demonstrate in this talk that Aboriginal rock art can be appreciated with this premise in mind.

Dr Richard Barz is a retired member of the School of Culture, History and Language in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Since accompanying a 1974 expedition to record traditional sites of the Wongkanguru people, he has been fascinated by Aboriginal culture and has spent the last decade photographing the rock art associated with it.

We meet from 7:30 pm for tea and coffee and snacks, music, discussion and library.
The Guest Speaker's presentation is at 8 pm for an hour or so,
then we resume for questions and discussion, finishing at 10pm.

Cost: Jung Society members free, Guests $15, Seniors/Concession $10.
Pay by cash at the door or bank transfer or by credit card via TryBooking.

SPECIAL EVENT

Saturday 5 September, 2020

Dr. Richard Barz-

Workshop: “The Yankee Hat Aboriginal Rock Art Site

in the Light of C. G. Jung’s Concept of the Archetypes”

(at the Yankee Hat Aboriginal rock painting site)

This workshop will be held at the Yankee Hat Aboriginal rock painting site located on Old Boboyan Road off Boboyan Road in Namadgi National Park about 90 minutes south of Canberra. The traditional custodians of the site are the Ngambri people. The age of the paintings is unknown, though settlement at the site has been dated through excavations to at least 800 years ago.

The focus of the workshop will be examination of the paintings from the point of view of C.G. Jung’s concept of the archetypes. Attention will also be given to cultural and academic interpretations, especially as set out by Josephine Flood in her books The Riches of Ancient Australia (University of Queensland, St. Lucia:1990) and Moth Hunters of the Australian Capital Territory (J.M. Flood, Canberra:1996).

Those interested in taking part in the workshop- all are welcome- should meet at Mackillop House and Conference Centre, 50 Archibald Street in Lyneham at 10 AM. Each person should arrange for transportation to and from Yankee Hat and should bring adequate water and a light picnic lunch. The walk from the car park to the rock art site is over a 3 km rough track with some moderately steep sections.

The workshop will conclude at Yankee Hat at 4 PM.

Dr Richard Barz is a retired member of the School of Culture, History and Language in the College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University. Since accompanying a 1974 expedition to record traditional sites of the Wongkanguru people, he has been fascinated by Aboriginal culture and has spent the last decade photographing the rock art associated with it.

Cost: $10
Pay by cash at the time, or bank transfer or by credit card via TryBooking.

(Photo R. Barz
Painting of a kangaroo at the Yankee Hat Aboriginal Rock Art Site

Friday 2 October, 2020

Rev. Dr. Sarah Agnew:

"Story Telling"

^{(at MacKillop House, 50 Archibald St, Lyneham, ACT.)}

Sarah says ...

What I do as a storyteller:
* compose, perform and publish stories that lead humans from fear to love,
* equip readers of the Bible to engage with and make meaning of the Sacred Stories as human beings,
* encourage people to tell their own story as a way of nurturing the healing and wholeness of us all.

Why I tell stories:
* because humans tell stories – to make meaning of our experiences of living,
* I believe in the dignity of all human beings,
* I believe that we are fully human – healed and whole – together, and stories bring us together

*** * ***
Here's one of Sarah's poems:

Choking - A Lament for Australia - Summer 2020

Where do we begin
with this great wall of fire
or that fire storm
or the hungry angry monster?
Where do we begin?

How do we enfold them all
into our love,
the dozens of humans dead,
the hundreds of homes razed,
the thousands of folk displaced,
the millions of acres burned,
the billions of creatures dead -
how can our embrace include them all?

What is the starting point
for our care, now, this task
now to rebuild: which lives
to prop up, which towns to
reconstruct, which roads to open,
what first? what next? what do we do ?

We need You.
We need You here with us,
and with us all. We need
courage and wisdom, love
and compassion; we need
safety, we need care, we
need healing, we need hope -
O, Holy One, we need You.

Draw us in, fill us up,
send us and go with us as we reach
out from where we are, one step, one
act, help us remember we are
one, and to find that somehow, thus,
we have begun.

(c) Sarah Agnew

Rev Dr Sarah Agnew has her own blog: http://sarahtellsstories.blogspot.com/

Sarah has served as Minister of the Word with the Wesley and St Aidan's congregations in the Canberra Central Uniting Church Parish since January 2018.

Ordained in the Uniting Church in Australia in 2010, Sarah previously served as the facilitator of alternative church ventures Black Wood Jazz (2005–2009) and The Esther Project (2009–2010), and as sole minister in the Belair Uniting Church congregation (2011–2014).

From 2015–17, while undertaking a PhD, Sarah was sought after for pulpit supply across southern Scotland, in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Stirling, Falkirk and the Upper Clyde Parish, in Church of Scotland and United Reformed congregations.

While in Edinburgh, Sarah also continued her involvement with 'fresh expressions' of church as participant in The Gathering and as part of the support team for Methodist Church Venture FX workers. She was an active member of the Greyfriars Kirk congregation in Edinburgh, regularly called upon to offer her gifts of reading, performance and poetry.

Among all the sublime and profound everyday surprising conversations with inquiring young and old minds, playgroup play dough and swing pushing duty, and serving communion to a mentor who was dying from cancer, some of the notable things Sarah has been able to do as minister include ..
* serving communion with the UCA president at the National Christian Youth Convention on the Gold Coast in 2011
* leading protestant communion at The Glen Workshops in Santa Fe, also 2011
* being interviewed on radio as one of 19 ordinands in the UCA in South Australia in 2010
* conducting the wedding for her sister (with bridesmaid's dress beneath the liturgical robes)
* and a full immersion baptism of a faithful 8 year old.

We meet from 7:30 pm for tea and coffee and snacks, music, discussion and library.
The Guest Speaker's presentation is at 8 pm for an hour or so,
then we resume for questions and discussion, finishing at 10pm.

Cost: Jung Society members free, Guests $15, Seniors/Concession $10.
Pay by cash at the door or bank transfer or by credit card via TryBooking.

Friday 6 November, 2020

Eve Warren:

"A Dream in a Teacup"

^{(at MacKillop House, 50 Archibald St, Lyneham, ACT)}

Eve will present the following hypothesis for our consideration:

Could …being totally consumed in the writing of a fictional novel for more than three years, while at the same time, journaling, attending to one’s night time dreams and day-time active imaginations… possibly be akin to spending a comparative amount of time engaged in a dialectical relationship with a Jungian, Dream Work Analyst?

Probably not - you say? Well, all I know is that: during the writing process, on a conscious level, I mostly had no idea where the next chapter was coming from nor where it would take me. Images began to take on a life of their own, as did the characters. To me the story-lines were akin to dream images and I often wondered, if in fact I had developed, deep within my psyche, my own nurturing analyst.

I also believe the writing of my novel A Dream in a Teacup became my redemption, my coming out of darkness, and provided me with not only momentary glimpses of self-actualization, but also a number of what I would call, peak experiences.

Jung on Dreams:
* Dreams are a spontaneous self-portrayal, in symbolic forms.
* Dream images are the best possible expression of still unconscious facts.

Jung on Active Imagination:
* This is where the unconscious content might be exposed in the waking state.
And where the drama that is enacted appears to want to compel the viewer’s participation.

As I see it, first and foremost, A Dream in a Teacup is a self-portrayal of me and my life. But it is also very much a social commentary of a time and place. What you might call ‘a glimpse into Canberra’s psyche during the 1940’s.’ The microcosm population consisting of politicians, public servants, a few journalists, Duntroon military personal, and other than that…it was mostly working-class people like my parents.

Eve Warren has been a member of Canberra Jung Society for thirty years. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Social Welfare from Charles Sturt University and a Masters in Theology, Ageing and Pastoral Care from the Australian Catholic University.

For a long time, Eve worked with people who were ageing. People with dementia and their carers. Eve is a highly skilled, Carer Support Group Facilitator. It was within this role, that she deemed her primary role was to instil into her carers, a sense of selfishness. Likening the primary and fundamental rule of First aid to their role of carer: firstly, make sure you secure your own safety before attempting to minister to others.

Tapping into mediums such as the labyrinth, music, dance, drawing, clay work and dreams, Eve designed reflection days for her Carers. Eve’s primary purpose for these workshops being to provide a space where her carers might explore and find that place within, the place where wisdom, intuition and inner strength resides. A place where they might draw strength and consolation.

See Eve's website: www.adreaminateacup.com,
where you can read chapter one of her novel!

We meet from 7:30 pm for tea and coffee and snacks, music, discussion and library.
The Guest Speaker's presentation is at 8 pm for an hour or so,
then we resume for questions and discussion, finishing at 10pm.

Cost: Jung Society members free, Guests $15, Seniors/Concession $10.
Pay by cash at the door or bank transfer or by credit card via TryBooking.

Saturday 5 December, 2020

~~~ Christmas Party ~~~

^{at MacKillop House, 50 Archibald St, Lyneham, ACT.}

Watch this space