Closer to home, we were able to learn this week about another large scale psychotherapeutic venture in the Sugarman Project of Craig San Roque, a Jungian analyst now based in Sydney and teaching on, as well as developing, the Masters in Analytical Psychology course at the University of Western Sydney. The Sugarman project grew from a dialogue with aboriginal people in central Australia and Alice Springs in the eighties and early nineties. Craig recognized that the aboriginal tradition did not have a myth associated with alcohol as we westerners do in the shape of the Dionysian myth. The myth describes for us the journey in the psyche of the encounter with alcohol, its dangers and the path through to emergence into a new psychological space at the other end.

Not only did the aboriginal tradition not have such a myth, but the stories they did have most closely associated with alcohol probably exacerbated the situation. Stories and ceremonies around sugar were intended to increase the availability of that traditionally scarce commodity. When the colonizers brought sugar, including in the form of alcohol, expansion was the only attitude the aboriginal people knew towards this now common substance.

Craig thought the introduction of the story of Dionysus to the aboriginal lore would offer at least a new way to understand the issue of alcoholism, so devastating to the traditional owners of Australia. Perhaps it would also offer a structure and a map for the journey through the relationship with alcohol.

The idea emerged and developed in consultation with aboriginal people who were receptive to it. Years of work resulted in the story of Sugarman (Dionysus) in aboriginal form, being enacted for the first time by aboriginal and white people in the desert, at a community near Darwin in the mid nineties. This was not a staged production, it seems to me, but a process in which the performers opened a channel to the unconscious thus allowing it to express the energy of the Dionysian story in aboriginal form. The actors opened themselves to a primal source within.

As might be imagined, the process of being involved in the production was a profound one both for Craig and for many if not all of the participants.

Yesterday, I had the privilege of attending a meeting of mostly aboriginal organizations arranged by Krystyna Soler and Debra Bennet-McLean to examine the possibility of aboriginal communities in Brisbane developing or in some way incorporating the Sugarman story into their work here. Craig was there to show his video and to talk about his work. The participants received his presentation with interest and palpable enthusiasm about this being a work that could benefit aboriginal communities. I was surprised by the degree of interest, which did not come after long discussion but rather seemed to come intuitively. A further meeting is planned to examine a way forward.

This feels like progress.

Best Wishes,

Frank Coughlan

President

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Membership renewals were due by 31 March. If you wish to continue receiving the Newsletter and to benefit from membership rates for our events, you need to renew your membership. For your convenience, there is a renewal form on page 7.   

JUNG AND MARY

The Jungian therapist Dr. Robert Johnson studied under Carl Jung in Zurich Switzerland in the late 1940's. When Caroline Jones interviewed him for the series Search For Meaning, Johnson called to mind that Jung was jubilant at the announcement of the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary in 1950. Robert Johnson said something surprising: that for Jung, this promulgation was the most important event in the western world since the Reformation.

This doctrine of the Assumption, which was approved by Pope Pius XII, held that Mary Mother of Jesus was taken to heaven body and soul. Why in the world would Carl Jung critic of much that was institutional and dogmatic within Christianity be applauding as timely what most theologians and writers were condemning as a harking back to a superstitious past?

As Jung noted all those years ago, the world hangs by a thin thread. And that thread is the psyche of man (Interview with Richard Evans, 1957). He recognised that the masculine worldview, which had given and continues to give much in terms of progress and invention, cannot be everything to everybody in every age. Jung was concerned for the future, and knew that the manner in which we had been proceeding was bankrupt:

Immense power of destruction is given into [humans] hands, and the question is whether he can resist the will to use it, and can temper his will with the spirit of love and wisdom. He will hardly be capable of doing so on his own unaided resources. He needs the help of an advocate in heaven, that is, of the child that is caught up to God [Rev.12:5], and who brings the 'healing' and making whole of the hitherto fragmentary man." (Answer to Job)

To understand Jung, we need to remember his distinction between  physical facts and psychic facts. Jung saw the proclamation of the Assumption of Mary as acknowledging the importance of archetypes. This "bodily reception of the Virgin into heaven" meant that "the heavenly bride was united with the bridegroom and that this union "signifies the hieros gamos - the sacred marriage which had been foreshadowed in alchemy. (Quotes from Jung in Anthony Storr, The Essential Jung 1983, p322). In other words, Jung saw that there is the beginning in the psyche of what needed to happen consciously: the union of earth and heaven, the material and the spiritual.  Materiality could no longer afford to be divorced from spirituality, and Jung saw this as absolutely crucial for the world to recognise, at peril of erasing itself. 

Jung reminded us that there had been popular belief in Marys assumption into heaven for centuries through what is called the sensus fidelium, or that which is held in the general collective conscious [ref. Aion, para.142]. He continues in another place: "The papal declaration made a reality of what had long been condoned.  This irrevocable step beyond the confines of historical Christianity is the strongest proof of the autonomy of archetypal images." (Storr 1983 p. 297). Even further, Jung says that those who have difficulty with the psychic truth of this doctrine are obviously out of touch with the tremendous archetypal happenings in the psyche of the individual and the masses, and with the symbols which are intended to compensate the truly apocalyptic world situation today." (Storr, pp. 322-323).

It is no co-incidence that there have been innumerable experiences of Marian apparitions over the last one hundred and fifty years or so. Whether or not one holds these as physical facts or psychic facts is beside the point. At a time when rationalism has reached a high point, it is interesting that the Wests most continuously represented feminine image has been coming through the contemporary collective unconsciousness. The Marian appearances however one firstly reacts to them as unusual or sublime - can be seen from a depth psychology perspective as emphasising the need for humanity to emerge into a non-patriarchal way of solving conflicts, wars etc on the global and personal levels. Jung comments: The feminine, like the masculine, demands an equally personal representation (Storr, p325). Interestingly, most appearances of Mary have been to children, who are closest to the non-rational, who tend not to divide along artificial lines of right ideology or right orthodox behaviour, and who are least under the sway of an all-encompassing rationalist approach to life.

When society, church or whatever group or individual is devoid of appreciation of the radical nature of the feminine and the maternal, then there tends to be a fall into the grip of technique, product and function, combined with a continual drive for winning and controlling. This can well be followed by the exultation of the ideological, with an obsession for striving and an inability to deeply trust.  The inclusion of Mary into the hieros gamos or the royal marriage represents the psychic inclusion of the feminine into the masculine Godhead. This godly marriage with the maternal embodied in Mary is for Jung the chance for humanity to make conscious the royal marriage within the psyche of human beings, for the sake of the worlds future.

The dogmatisation of the Assumption implies the future birth of the divine child who, in accordance with the divine trend towards incarnation, will choose as his birthplace the empirical man. The new dogma expresses a renewed hope for the fulfilment of that yearning for peace which stirs deep down in the soul, and for a resolution of the threatening tension between the opposites. (Answer to Job, pp.175, 171)

Patrick Oliver

Upcoming events at the Jung Society

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July 2003

Patrick Oliver - Jung and the Soul

Thursday Evening Presentation and Saturday Workshop

Jung and the Soul: Different journeys yet similar themes

Thursday July 3, 7:30-9:30 pm, St Marys Community House, Merivale St, Cn of Peel St, South Brisbane

Members and concession: $5; non-members $10

Although there have been and are many expressions of the important elements in the spiritual journey, there are key concepts that continue to come through in all the great spiritual traditions. What can Jung contribute to an understanding of these concepts - such as love, joy, redemptive suffering and awareness - so we can hear his gems as a contribution to dialogue between differing traditions?

Jung, the Soul and the Journey: a Spontaneous Spirituality Day

Saturday July 5, 2003, 9:30 am 3:30 pm, Hillbrook Anglican School, 45 Hurdcotte St., Enoggera

Members and concession $25; non-members $30

Rather than a planned input day, this time will be available for people to raise issues in their personal spiritual and psychological journey. Patrick will take up these issues through the day and relate them to a wider context, the overall journey of the soul, and include insights from Carl Jung's work. Although Patrick will have some pre-planned input, content and direction of the day will be determined by what those coming along wish to bring.

Patrick Oliver is a former president of our society. He has a PhD in Theology
                                    from Griffith University, lectures in Spirituality and Pastoral Ministry studies at the Australian Catholic University and
                                    offers private spiritual and personal direction. His two published works are The Track Back: The Spirit of Australian Creation
                                    and Drinking Deeply: Learning to Listen to the Song of Your Soul. 

For information, please phone Brigitta on 3878 3287.To reserve
                                    your place, please send the booking form on page 8 of this newsletter, and payment, to The C.G. Jung Society of Queensland,
                                    74 Camp St., Toowong, Q 4066.

August 2003

Patrick Burnett, Sydney-based Jungian Analyst

Some Reflections on Contemporary Theories of Consciousness and Analytical Psychology

Thursday evening August 7, 7:30 9:30 pm.

 St Marys Community House, Cn Merivale and Peel St, South Brisbane

Cost: Members and concession: $5; non-members $10

This talk will explore some of the recent scientific research and theories into consciousness and how they might relate to some of the fundamental concepts of Analytical Psychology.  It will look at Jungs early idea that consciousness, by nature, is split between directed thinking and fantasy thinking. It will also examine this basic Jungian idea in connection with some recent scientific exploration into the nature of consciousness and dreaming including anthropology, brain research, quantum physics and cognitive psychology.

Patrick Burnett is a Jungian analyst who trained at the C.G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He is the Vice President of ANZSJA and the immediate past President of the Jung Society of Sydney and currently its Vice President. Patrick conducted research into dream interpretation in a group setting, which he presented for the honours component of his M.Ed. He has an ongoing interest in dreams and dreaming and the nature of consciousness and its relation to Analytical Psychology. Patrick is in private practice in Bronte in Sydney.

Dream workshop with Patrick Burnett

Saturday August 9, 9:30 am 4:30 pm

Rosicrucian Hall, 156 Norman Avenue, Norman Park

Members and concession: $60; non-members $70

The dream workshop will follow up on some of the theoretical notions raised in the lecture. As far as possible the group will be experiential in nature. The workshop will focus on how to begin doing effective dream work.  Individual dreams will be taken from the group and worked on by the group as a whole after a brief introduction. Naturally, group members will be required to share some personal details during the interpretation process but this will always be under the control of the member who presents his/her dream. A booklet summarizing the Jungian approach to dreams and their interpretation will be provided to each participant.

Number of places limited to 14. For information, please phone Brigitta on 3878 3287.

To ensure your place, please send the booking form, found on p. 8 of this newsletter, and payment to

 The C.G. Jung Society of Queensland, 74 Camp St., Toowong, Q. 4066.

September 2003

Inanna: The Alchemical Goddess

A Presentation by Varuna Dargan

From the "great above" she set her mind toward the "great below."

Thursday September 4, 7:30-9:30 pm

St. Marys Parish House, Merivale St, Cn Peel St., South Brisbane

Members and concession $5; non-members $10

Individuation - the struggle to birth of ones true personality- is a process that ultimately actualises the unique potentialities of the individual psyche and bridges the gap between the treasures of the archetypal world of the unconscious and the everyday world of consciousness. Like the alchemical process, it is the Great Work of our human journey.

Of the pantheon of the worlds gods and goddesses, there is none that embodies the depths of this process and the totality of the human psyche better than the most ancient Sumerian goddess, Inanna (circa 4000 BC). Goddess of the Morning and Evening Star, of Love and War, Fertility and Destruction, Mistress of the Hieros Gamos (sacred marriage), Inanna held the power of Descent and Ascent. In this presentation, we will discuss the great alchemical journey of individuation through the story of Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth.

Varuna Dargan first met this Great Goddess in a childhood dream. So out of context to her world schema, this dream spurred a search for understanding that led her to Jung and his works at a young age. As a masters student at Pacifica Graduate Institute, she returned full circle to her dream. Through lecturer, storyteller, author, and Sumerologist, Dianna Wolkenstein, she was formally introduced to the story of Inanna. Varunas passion for things Jungian has continued throughout her life. She is a psychotherapist in the Jungian tradition, sandplay therapist, and director of Temenos Institute, Australia.

September workshop

Rosie Stave

  Embracing the Shadow: Introducing The Work of Byron Katie®

Saturday September 27, 2003, 9:30 am 5:30 pm

Rosicrucian Hall, 156 Norman Avenue, Norman Park

Members and concession $70; non-members $80

This experiential workshop will introduce you to what has been described as a revolutionary new way to resolve problems; so simple that even a child can do it; so powerful that it can radically change your life.

The Work offers us a way to stop our painful war with reality so that we can see clearly. It consists of a simple written exercise. By writing about those things in the world that we dont like and then using specific, penetrating questions to investigate our thinking; we become aware of our confusion and discover aspects of ourselves that we have abandoned, judged and denied. The deep self-understanding thus experienced opens the heart to radical new ways of being with others, the world and most importantly, with ourselves.

Rosie has been facilitating and presenting workshops and trainings in The Work since 1996 when she lived and worked closely with Byron Katie.  She is a certified practitioner of The Work, and brings a depth of wisdom and truth, honesty, compassion, love and laughter as she shares this wonderful gift.

For information, please phone Brigitta on 3878 3287. Numbers are limited, so to reserve your place, please return the booking form, found on p. 8 of this newsletter, with your payment, to The C.G. Jung Society of Queensland,  74 Camp St., Toowong, Q 4066.

Bulletin Board

Damn the Rationalistsfull dream ahead!   Cultural story as suicide prevention.

 A talk by Jeff Power, Wednesday 25 June 2003, 7.00- 9.30pm.  Lifeline Gold Coast, 2741 Gold Coast

 Highway. Entry through rear of building. Cost: $ 5.00.  Ph: 0400 556948

Australia is performing brilliantly in economic terms but failing in social terms. Is it possible to revision our culture in a way that energizes us with a sense of collective purpose in order to tackle the many complex social issues amongst us?