In this second seminar we’ll be thinking more reflectively about the theme of ‘descent’, and what that means psychologically and spiritually.

It’s the territory of the dark night of the soul, where the personality is reoriented towards its spiritual ground, what Jung called the Self.

I’ll tell the story of Persephone.

Come prepared to share your own thoughts and stories and myths, by bringing an image, poem, or short piece of music to illustrate clinical or personal experience.

Essential Reading

Shamdasani, S., Descensus ad Infernos: Jung’s ‘Season in Hell’, Phanes 4, 2021, 152-176

Jung, C. G., The Relations Between the Ego and the Unconscious, CW VII, para 202 – 406, especially 243-265 ‘The Persona as a Segment of the Collective Psyche’

Movie recommendation 

Rohrwacher, A., (Director), La Chimera, 2024

Further reading – some suggestions

Kingsley, P., In the Dark Places of Wisdom Paperback, Golden Sufi Centre, London, 1999

Perera, Sylvia Brinton, Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women (Studies in Jungian Psychology), Inner City Books, Toronto, 1981

Kerenyi, C., Eleusis, Archetypal Image of Mother and Daughter, Bollingen Series, LXV, 4, Princeton University Press, Princeton, 1967

Kerenyi, K., Hermes Guide of Souls, Spring Publications, New York, 1976, Rev’d 2008

Marlan, S., The Black Sun: The Alchemy And Art Of Darkness, Texas A&M University Press, College Station, 2005

Schwartz-Salant, N., Narcissism and Character Transformation: The Psychology of Narcissistic Character Disorders, Inner City Books, Toronto, 1982