Jung's Life & Ideas: Mandala Symbolism with Thankful Butler (Three Sessions)

Wednesdays, May 8, 15 and 22 from 7 - 9 pm

(Program will be recorded and sent to registrants)

In the 1950s, someone asked Dr. Jung what the pre-vailing archetype of mankind would be at present. He replied instantly and vehemently: "Disintegration!"

Seventy years later we continue to witness this Disintegration daily. We may feel it personally, and we certainly see it worldwide. In the U.S. we experience this disintegration in the realm of our government dysfunction, in mass shootings, in hate speech, in entrenched racism and more. How can we continue to believe that peace and wholeness are possible when we see former guiding structures disintegrating before our eyes, and feel how the repercussions of these lost forms of guidance leave us feeling empty and alone? How might one counter this malaise?

C. G. Jung studied at length and often used the Mandala in his personal individuation, as a means of centering himself, maintaining a coherent psychic structure, and working with those aspects of himself that he felt needed attention and clarification. He saw that many of the usual ways of maintaining one’s psychic balance, in particular, religious forms, tribal groups, and communing with nature, were falling at the wayside as industry became the path of progress, science took precedence over imagination, and technology offered quicker, more efficient ways to do what was formerly done by the sweat and hands of men and women.

Robert Johnson, Analyst and Writer states: “This disintegration which we suffer is certainly the greatest danger which faces us in the modern world. The psyche offers up the specific healing element, the Mandala, when it is most needed, and we will be wise to hear its timely structure. Never have we needed it more.” In this core course on Jung, His Life and Ideas, we will look in particular, at Jung’s use of the Mandala in three specific areas:

— His personal use of drawing and painting Mandalas which led to his ‘piece de resistance’, The Red Book

— His building of the stone tower at Bollingen which he discovered was created in the form and over a quaternity of time as a sort of Mandala

— How creating Mandalas can affect not only our own psychic integration but can lend influence to cultural, spiritual, and even ecological outcomes.

NOTE: We will be creating our own Mandalas during each session to help us experience the manner in which this process can bring a sense of psychic centeredness. No ‘artistic skill’ is needed. A short list of basic materials will be emailed to those who register for the course. You may, of course, use additional materials if you have them.

Thankful Butler, LCPC, is a retired therapist living in Bath. She attended Pacifica Graduate Institute and is a long-standing member and former Board Member of the Maine Jung Center, and a member of the CG Jung Society of Phoenix. She is particularly interested in how Jungian dream-work, fairy tales, and myths inform our worldview and guide our individual growth. She is also an avid gardener and proponent of Green Technologies.