Devotion to the Heart of God

Dreams: Redeeming the Darkness

Immortality: A Jungian-Christian Dialogue

Feeding the Soul: Food and the Spiritual Life

Spirituality of Struggle: Embracing the Cross Again

Search for the True Self: Merton and Jung

Compassion and the Self

Individuation in the Hebrew Scriptures

Parables and Paradoxes

Surrender to God

CONVERSION SERIES (20-23)

Conversion: Reconciliation Both Within and Without

The Wildness of God

Dreams as Spiritual Practice (6 CD's - $50)

DESCRIPTIONS

#1 Devotion to the Heart of God 

There is a deep yeaning human experience to connect with the “heart” of God.  This workshop will form a Jungian and Christian perspective of the archetypal symbol of the heart and the many manifestations of God in mercy, compassion, love and sharing.

#2 Solitude, Silence, Sabbath and Discovering the Self 

In this age of instant and constant communication, we are faced with a crisis of silence and solitude.  Religious traditions hold these values as essential ways to deepen our relationship with God.  The workshop will also use Jungian psychology to affirm the need for silence for psychic health and wholeness.

#3 Dreams: Redeeming the Darkness 

Dreams play a redemptive role in our soul life.  They emerge out of the depths of darkness into symbols, memories, patterns and voices.  They create new identity, self-forgiveness and greater availability for God and relationships.  Dreams will be presented as a sign of God’s process for redeeming us into wholeness.

#4 A Jungian Contemplation of Mary

Mary has played an enormous role in the history and spirituality of Christianity.  This workshop will bring Jungian insights into Mary’s symbolic role as a model of transformation and fidelity to God’s initiative.  Mary can become a soul guide to spiritual rebirth through her feminine spirit.

#5 Immortality: A Jungian-Christian Dialogue 

The soul intuits a transformation beyond our bodily presence on earth. This workshop pursues how the “eternal” breaks into our consciousness and prepares us for our transition through death to birth.  The shadow side of the “eternal” will also be presented.  The use of dreams, prayer, and symbols will be used to illustrate the process.

#6 The Soul of Nature                          

Jung in his writings wrote on the relationship between earth and soul. In celebrating spring, we will reflect on the soul as experienced here in the Hudson Valley and the power of the river.  God speaks to us in the rebirth of our environment and in the rebirth of the soul as Easter.

#7 Feeding the Soul:  Food and the Spiritual Life 

Food is an important reality in religious traditions in terms of rituals, disciplines, symbols, and meaning.   Our culture is both obsessed with food issues, diets and controls around food and a deep spiritual hunger which does not seem to be met.  This day will provide reflections on the soul’s relationship to how and when we feed the body, weaving Christian with Jungian insights.

#8 Inner Work for Peace and Justice

The world is rapidly changing and our consciousness seems t resist many of these elements of new identity.  Christians are asked to work for both peace and justice, but we cannot go further unless we can change our attitudes through our dreams and urgings from the soul.  This workshop will relate the need for inner transformation to create the prophecy for outer change.

#9 Spirituality of Struggle: Embracing the Cross Again

This workshop will attempt to integrate Jungian insights of suffering and healing with the Christian image of the cross.  Our culture and certain new age movements refuse to consciously deal with the reality of life long struggle and redemption.  This day will focus on the Lenten theme of suffering and transformation.

#10 Spirituality of Generativity: Emptying of Self

This workshop will attempt to integrate Jungian insights, of self-emptying Christianity.  Two areas of focus will be generativity at work and also in mentoring, healing relationships.  The workshop focuses on the paradox of both giving and receiving life in the world around us.

#11 Search for the True Self: Merton and Jung

These two popular authors of spirituality and psychology both were obsessed with the discovery and movements towards the True Self. Similarities and differences between their writings may provide a fuller expression of this search.  Biographical material of both men will be used.

#12 The Wounded Healer: Nouwen and Jung

These two popular of spirituality and psychology both wrote on the Wounded Healer archetype.  Similarities and differences between their writings may provide a fuller expression of healing through the Wounded Healer. Biographical material of both men will be used.

#13 Compassion and the Self               

Compassion flows from our true Self; it is an encounter with the Spirit of God.  Compassion rises from human experience and Divine Grace.  This workshop uses a Christian-Jungian framework to encounter compassion as the face of God healing the soul.  This workshop will delve into our blockages to compassion for ourselves and others, and includes input, reflection, sharing and prayer.

Breathing New Life into the Scriptures Series

(Series of Four: #14,15,16,17)

#14 Individuation in the Hebrew Scriptures

The great stories of the Hebrew Scriptures present the mystery of salvation of the Chosen People, and remind us of how God is involved with ordinary men and women, calling them to wholeness and holiness.  This workshop examines the stories and characters that reflect the archetypal call to fidelity and completeness in the mystery we call God.

#15 The Psalms and Movements of the Soul

After thousands of years, psalms are still the most familiar prayers of our tradition, striking deep chords of emotion and filling the human spirit. This workshop will illustrate movements of the ego when it encounters the Holy. The day will include input and time for Lectio Divina (prayer with scripture)

for both praise and healing.

#16  Parables and Paradoxes

Jesus' teachings were filled with stories about the coming of the kingdom.  They seem all too familiar and at times trivialized by the tradition.  They are gateways to our souls and to the mystery of God.  Parables will be examined as a call to transformation into new life.  They cannot be explained, they are invitations into becoming a new being in Christ.

#17 The Gospel of John and the Mystical Life  

The gospel of John is filled with deep symbolic language.  This workshop examines the symbolic meaning of this gospel through Jungian lenses.  We are all called to this mystical and intimate relationship with Christ.  We are called to bet the beloved disciples.  This workshop hopes to open us to the call, so we may be able to respond.

#18 Surrender to God   

The call to surrender to God is at the heart of all religious traditions. This workshop/retreat focuses on befriending the process with new language and insights from both psychology and spirituality.  Surrender is also a whole new way of being and living in the present moment

#19  Birthing a New World in Peace and Justice 

Our Advent prayer of “Come, Lord Jesus” is to bring the reign of God fully incarnated in our world through peace and justice. The workshop will look at the themes of Advent as they apply to transforming the darkness of oppression and violence into the light of Christ. The presenter will integrate both Christian and Jungian insights throughout the day.

Conversion Series

(Series of Four: #20,21,22,23)

#20  Conversion:  Midlife and Beyond

To regenerate, to come to new life and spiritual understanding are the tasks of midlife and beyond.  This workshop will integrate Jungian and Christian wisdom to live the later stages of life with a fresher view of aging and meaning.

#21 Conversion: Of the so-called “good” person

Individuals who have worked hard to be good and religious all their lives sometimes have greater difficulty in heart felt conversion experiences.  This workshop will assist individuals in the tasks of both individuation and new life with God through shadow work, letting go of control, being good enough and spiritual poverty.

#22 Conversion: Reconciliation both Within and Without

To reconcile, to forgive self and others is a continual call for spiritual transformation and conversion.  This day will focus on the souls need for reconciliation from one-sidedness, hurts and memories.  The process of forgiveness will be presented from both a Jungian and Christian context.

#23 Conversion:  From Loneliness to Relationship

Our loneliness is in need of constant conversion to a deeper solitude and more meaningful human relationships. Loneliness a universal human experience can be transformed if the soul can find new ways of connecting. This workshop will attempt to engage the continual need for conversion of heart into a new creation.

#24 The Wildness of God 

In “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe”, C.S. Lewis describes the Christ-figured Lion as "not tamed: wild, but good." We are constantly coming up against the freedom, wildness, mystery, spontaneity, and shock of God. Our domesticated images of God are crumbling within our religious and cultural institutions. This workshop will attempt to awaken us to the numinous and powerful experiences of God which disturb us into transformation and new life.

#25 Dreams as Spiritual Practice

(Training Intensive – 6 CDs $50)

Dreams are revelations from the Divine assisting us to our True identity in God. To record, work on dreams and to enact their meaning will lead to our individuation process and to be in harmony with God's deepest desires for us. This intensive program assists in understanding dream work as true religious practice for discernment and prayer. The presentations will integrate both Jungian and Christian perspectives.

#26 The Shadow, and the Mystery of Evil

                   (Training Intensive – 5-6 CDs $50)

This training intensive points out the differentiation between personal shadow work, collective shadow in society, and the mystery of evil. Using both Jungian and Christian insights, this program can help to unfold the mystery of light and darkness. Anyone consciously on their spiritual journey needs to do deep shadow work. In addition, spiritual directors, pastors, and counselors need wisdom to engage the encounter. This intensive is especially important and useful for Spiritual Directors.