Current seminars
Atalanta: Love or Worldly Success? A Greek myth, a modern tension
Presented by the C.G. Jung Foundation of Ontario
When: Saturday, April 29, 2023, 10:00 am – 12:30 pm ET
Where: The Arts & Letters Club, 14 Elm Street, Toronto
Cost: $25 for non-members of C.G. Jung Foundation, $20 for members
Atalanta was abandoned in the woods by her father, who had wanted a son. A she-bear nursed her until hunters found her and raised her. Devoting herself to the goddess Artemis, Atalanta vowed chastity, and distinguished herself as an exceptional hunter and runner. She is even reputed to have fought alongside the Argonauts and drawn first blood in a battle with the monstrous Calydonian Boar.
Atalanta’s fame grew until her father, a king, recognized and acknowledged her. He demanded that she marry, but according to Ovid, Atalanta had consulted an oracle who prophesied that marriage would be her undoing. So she told her father that she would only marry the one who could beat her in a foot race. Any who failed would be put to death. Many tried and lost their lives, until one man, Hippomenes, prayed to Aphrodite for help. He received an intriguing gift which enabled him to win both the race and Atalanta’s love
Many modern people find themselves caught between the affirming fulfilment of their career successes and an inner or outer pressure to make space for vulnerability and love in their personal lives. In this seminar, we will delve into the story of Atalanta and consider how the myth of this ancient heroine depicts an archetypal tension between success and love that many experience today.
Past seminars
Introduction to the Tarot
Hosted by the University of Toronto Jung Association
When: Monday, March 13, 2023, 7 PM – 9 PM EST
Cost: Inquire with U of T Jung Association
Animus Improv with Jungian Analysts Elisabeth Pomès and David Pressault
Hosted by Jungian Online
When: Sunday, February 7, 2021 at 3 PM EST – 5 PM EST
Cost: Free
Desperately Seeking Susan: A Search For The Authentic Self
Sun. Jun. 7, 2020, 12:30-4pm
On Zoom
We will watch and discuss Susan Seidelman’s movie of a woman who shrugs off the shackles of a conventional, ill-fitting persona to discover who she really is.
In her hunger for a more authentic life, Roberta becomes fascinated with Susan, a free-spirited woman who lives an unscripted life. Roberta shadows Susan, eventually wearing her clothes and moving into her life.
This movie will initiate a discussion of the Persona and the positive Shadow. What happens when the image of ourselves we show the world (Persona) is completely at odds with who we are? Can our personal Shadow contain rejected but necessary parts of ourselves that we can integrate in order to live more authentically?
The Devouring Mother
Presented by the University of Toronto Jungian Society
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
6 pm – 8 pm
Hart House, South Dining Room (2nd floor)
University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle, Toronto ON, M5S 3H3
What is the archetypal Dark Mother and how does she appear in our lives?
Because all archetypes are dual in nature, the Great Mother both nourishes and devours. She fosters growth, and she smothers it.
In this seminar, we will explore the Dark Mother in literature, in popular culture, and in our lives. We will seek to shed light on how she appears both within, and projected about us, this hungry darkness that seeks to devour new life and new ventures.
Jungian Dream Seminar
Presented by the University of Toronto Jungian Society
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
6 pm – 8 pm
Hart House, South Dining Room (2nd floor)
University of Toronto
7 Hart House Circle, Toronto ON, M5S 3H3
What do dreams have to tell us?
According to C.G. Jung, they depict how the unconscious views the current situation in the psyche. Through the amplification of dream symbols and their interpretation, the dreamer’s conscious orientation may be modified in light of the dream’s symbolic message.
Not only does the dream look backward to where the dreamer has come from, but anticipates where they are going, their future development.
In this seminar, we will read several dreams and discuss the symbolic content they express.
Transforming Expression Creativity Retreat
Date: Saturday, August 24 + Sunday, August 25, 2019
Time: 10 am – 4:30 pm, both days
Location: Citadel + Compagnie Dance Studio, 304 Parliament St., Toronto ON, M5A 3A4
Co-presented by Jungian Analysts Stacey Jenkins, Elisabeth Pomès + David Pressault
WHAT TO EXPECT FROM THIS RETREAT:
- An invitation into your body and voice as a vehicle towards greater self-expression
- Insight into creative blocks, how to get past them and how to continue the path towards creative freedom
- Initiation into your dream world and its potential for self-understanding
Reclaim, Renew, Rebirth: A women’s workshop of sacred myth and yoga
Date: Sunday, May 5, 2019
Time: 11 am – 2pm
Location: Wonderworks
496 College St., Toronto ON, M6G 1A4
Through the ancient Sumerian myth of sister goddesses Inanna and Ereshkigal, we connect with a feminine archetype of transformation, descending into the underworld, exploring sacrifice and vulnerability, and returning to the light reborn in wholeness and authentic self-expression.
We will use pranayama (breath work), kundalini yoga, and guided meditation with shamanic drum to honour all parts of ourselves and give life to any unexpressed parts that are wanting to come into being.
Co-presented by Stacey Jenkins and Eva Blumenfeld.
Presented by the University of Toronto Jungian Society
ANIMA and ANIMUS: A lively discussion about modern perspectives on the contrasexual complex 
Tuesday March 19, 2019 from 6PM – 8PM
New College, Wetmore Hall Rm 52
300 Huron St., Toronto ON, M5S 2Z3
Anima and Animus: Modern Perspectives on the Contrasexual Complex
In this seminar, we will review Jung’s concepts of Anima and Animus, the so-called contrasexual complexes, and discuss how these ideas can be re-understood in light of modern ideas of sexuality and gender identity. We will explore how the contrasexual complex functions broadly either to bring increased agency (animus) and communion (anima) to the total personality.
Tarot: Initiation into Archetypal Images of Transformation
Saturday, March 9th, 2019
2 – 4:30 pm
Arts and Letters Club, 14 Elm St
Intuition is an irrational function that perceives what things can become and synthesizes disparate elements into a meaningful whole. With it, archetypal images come alive. How do we develop this elusive, mysterious function?
In this seminar, participants will work intuitively with the Tarot deck, exploring meaning in these centuries-old images which, according to Jung, express archetypes of transformation.
N.B. Materials will be provided in this seminar, though participants are encouraged to bring images from the Tarot that they’d like to explore.
Jungian Dream Interpretation
Presented by the University of Toronto Jungian Society
Tuesday, February 26th, 2019
6 pm – 8 pm
New College, Wetmore Hall Rm 52
University of Toronto
300 Huron St., Toronto ON, M5S 2Z3
In this seminar, we will look at Jung’s theory of the structure of dreams. We will explore how the dream expresses compensations to conscious attitudes and supplies what consciousness does not know. Through an examination of several real dreams, we will attempt to apprehend their compensatory function.
1C.G. Jung, Collected Works volume 17, par. 189
2 C.G. Jung, Collected Works volume 8, par. 545
The Hero Archetype – Possibilities + Pitfalls
Fairy Tale Seminar
M.-L. von Franz writes,
“fairy tales are the purest and simplest expression of unconscious psychic processes. They represent the archetypes in their purest, barest and most concise form.” (The Interpretation of Fairy Tales, p. 1) In this seminar, we will read Grimm’s The Twelve Dancing Princesses and attempt to glean what archetypal images are expresses in this beguiling tale.
Introduction to Jungian Psychology
In this seminar, we discuss fundaments of C.G. Jung’s psychology including the structure of the psyche – consciousness, and the personal and collective unconscious. We reckon with illusive concepts including the archetype, shadow, anima + animus, persona, ego and the Self.
Jungian Dream Interpretation
Here, we analyze several actual dreams and
lay open their basic structure as Jung proposed. We attempt to understand what attitudes in consciousness the dreams attempt to compensate and what direction they provide.
Animals in Dreams
C.G. Jung writes that instincts are “the vital foundations, the laws governing all life.” (CW5 par 263) The instincts can be represented as animals in dreams, as can dimensions of the personality which have slipped out of consciousness and are necessary for situations we face in the present. When we lose touch with the wisdom of our instincts is when the animals in our psyche may visit us. In this seminar, we look at several dreams with animals depicted and discuss what they can represent in the psyche.