For over nineteen years it has been the confluence of matter and spirit, of psyche and soul, that roused the attention of the Assisi community, and it inspires our research to this day. Psyche infuses matter with meaning, and matter infuses spirit with form and depth. Each is inextricably wedded to the other, and each deepens our knowledge of the whole.
Throughout its history, the Assisi community has engaged in a trans-disciplinary investigation into these ideas. Building on C.G. Jung’s original work on archetypes and the psyche, we have found in the new sciences a meaningful extension and validation of this work. The discoveries emerging from the new sciences point to the mercurial nature of matter, and a profound sense that the world within and around us is influenced by an innate order. And just as life involves a constant dialogue with psyche, so too must healing represent a profound interaction with archetypal dynamics. While healing may be an overused word today, it does retain its original meaning of overcoming emotional, physical, and spiritual challenges, and thus it frames our curriculum for this year.
The nature of archetypes is such that they draw us into their influence, by enticing and at times actually eclipsing our discernment and will. This is evident in both individual and collective functioning, and Jung clearly warned about the contagious effect of archetypes, and states of possession resulting from their influence. Healing, therefore, involves not only a freeing of such archetypal possession, but liberation of the generative aspects of archetypal reality, which, while unexpressed, continue to exert an influence.
Drawing from Jungian analysis, the sciences, arts, and ancient spiritual traditions, this year’s programs will take an in-depth look at the healing process. The need for individual and global healing is painfully clear to us all. Humanity’s ongoing struggles—with war, genocide, brutality—are due in large part to our inability to understand the meaning of the personal and collective unconscious. We live in a virtual no man’s land when it comes to grasping what the psyche wants of us. Healing traditions, when carefully examined, involve an in-depth working with these archetypal realities, so that healers and practitioners ultimately reduce the possessive hold the archetype has over the individual, fostering instead a conscious relationship to these influences.
This year’s faculty is comprised of luminaries in the field of matter-psyche studies. Joining us will be biologist Brian Goodwin, researcher Jean Houston, biophysicist Beverly Rubik, poet and author Dennis Slattery, and Jungian analyst Marion Woodman. Each has profoundly advanced our thinking about archetypes and the process of healing. We are honored as well to have Dr. Susannah Heschel, the Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies at Dartmouth College, present the 2008 Assisi Lecture. Daughter of the late Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, Dr. Heschel will focus on forgiveness as seen from a Judaic perspective.
In this brochure you will also find descriptions of our 2008 public programs in Vermont and Italy, our training seminars in Portland, Oregon, and our Certificate Program in Archetypal Pattern Analysis. I hope you will join us for one or more of these programs, and that you’ll find the work of the Assisi Community, and especially this year’s focus on the healing process, meaningful to your own personal and professional life.
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