Call & Purpose

Course Description

Human beings, irrespective of where we live or where we go, experience the desire to fulfill our life’s purpose. This deep-rooted desire implores us to be of service to something larger than ourselves. Like a beacon, it urges us to follow the path before us, to bring our unique gifts into the world.

Jungian psychology attests to this – we carry within us a gift that we are invited to deliver to the larger community. When we honor this call, we experience purpose, and it feels like we’re on the road we are meant to take. Jung called this the individuation process – the process of conscious psychological growth.

The call can however, be elusive at times, and we can easily miss it if we do not know how it manifests. Sometimes, the call can show up in crisis, heartbreak, disease, or death. Other times, it appears in dreams and synchronous events. We want to be attentive to the complexities of life and see how the call reveals itself.

Individuals who respond to their true calling find the world turning into a mystical and nurturing place. Synchronistic events and miracles come into being, help comes in mysterious, supernatural forms, and connections appear where there were none before.

The Call & Purpose course is designed to help you recognize, respond, and honor the call. Teachers from different traditions have come together in this course  to provide perspectives and practical tools to deepen your relationship with your life’s purpose.

This course is interview-style. Machiel Klerk and Akke-Jeanne Klerk – Jung Platform founders and siblings –spoke with these experts to create the Call & Purpose Summit. This course is a remastering of that summit.

The classes are available now.

This course is ideal if you want to:

• Recognize and engage with your unique call
• Learn about ‘coincidence’ and serendipity as signposts on your personal journey
• Discover your personal myth and learn about your genius
• Turn towards what you deeply love and move in the direction where you feel most alive

Course Overview

Class 1: The Call and Purpose in Jungian Psychology with James Hollis

Join Jungian Analyst James Hollis in this talk about active engagement with our personal journeys. Despite our best intentions, sooner or later, we find ourselves in an emotional swampland. Exploring these swamplands help us to identify where we need to grow up, where we might be stuck in our lives, and where we need to act on what we believe to be true.

In this talk, James Hollis describes how we can make sense of our experiences by way of discernment and resonance. We have to sort out what’s going on inside us, the present voices, and we need to recognize when we are unconsciously driven by our psychological histories. We have to sit with it, pay attention to what resonates in us on a deep level, and do what is meaningful for us. Relevant questions that we can ask ourselves are ‘why am I here?’ and ‘what is wanting to enter the world through me?’

Class 2: Finding Purpose Through Relationships with Polly Eisendrath Young

Love between equals requires psychological and spiritual development in all those who are called to it. In this interview, Polly Young-Eisendrath talks about true love as a spiritual path. The inevitable disillusionment and conflicts that one encounters in a relationship can be transformed into true intimacy. To get there, it is required to develop friendship, compassion, self-acceptance and maintain interpersonal space for two individuals to develop. Polly Young-Eisendrath offers a framework enabling us to find more meaning and connection in our life. Learning about true love is a lifelong quest that is deeply meaningful as we witness the true emergence of each other, bringing a sense of purpose to both partners.

Class 3: What is my myth? with Dennis Slattery

Journey into the world of mythology with Dennis P. Slattery. The old idea is that we are all living a mythological story, and that being connected with our own myth gives a deep sense of purpose. Carl Jung famously got stuck in the middle of his life and wondered ‘what is my myth?’. Jung felt that without being connected to his myth he was adrift on the ocean of existence. Mythologies can provide templates in which we can recognize how the call manifests, such as the story of Moses and the burning bush, and the initial resistance to the call. Dennis also shares how he tried to escape a boring life and got on a ship trying to cross the Atlantic, a journey that led him to his life work. This session has a practical approach with tips to help you find your myth and respond to the call of your own mythology. Get mythed in this session!

Class 4:. Life-Threatening Illness as a Soul Journey with Jean Shinoda Bolen 

Illness is a fact of life. Whether it is a personal health crisis or a sick loved one, none of us can escape this life without encountering some form of life-threatening illness and eventually, death. A diagnosis such as cancer or coronavirus can break us open and bring us face-to-face with the truth buried in our bones. This threat to life is an opportunity to know the soul and becoming who we are meant to be. The soul is also receptive to after-death communication, says Jean Shinoda Bolen, and by facing an illness, we can uncover how it could give us our purpose. In probing and studying the health trials we face, Jean shares how our learnings often connects to what we know to be true. While there is no single key to recovery, it is even rarer to find healing without addressing the pain first. Through practicing self-compassion and empathy, and active listening and learning, we set ourselves on a path to unraveling the process of finding hope. This session is for anyone living with a life-threatening illness (or caring for a loved one who is ill).

Class 5. Alchemy: Everything Wants to Become Gold with Robert Bosnak

In Everything Wants to Become Gold, Robert Bosnak introduces us to a notion in alchemy — all metals desire to become gold. Jung used alchemy as a metaphor for explaining the individuation process and how the call to become who we truly are can be compared to the process of alchemy. But how do we find our calling? To understand that, we must first develop an alchemical attitude—an attitude that makes us review what we are already doing. As this attitude develops, we begin focusing on moments where we feel most enlivened; we listen to ideas that give us a sense of vitality.

This becomes the prima materia, the starting point to discovering our life’s purpose. As we follow the lifeline that enlivens us, the material we attended to transmutes to become gold; we witness as our purpose refines itself through prominence, drawing us closer and eventually into our calling.

Class 6: The Genius Keeps on Calling with Michael Meade

In The Genius Keeps on Calling, Michael Meade shares his ideas about the inner genius that each person has. We come into the world with gifts and a life purpose. It is up to us to awaken to our authentic journeys, while gift and purpose try to unfold from within us. The genius is our guiding spirit in this journey. It first awakens in our youth but continues to call us throughout our life. Even as the person ages, the genius itself remains youthful. It has a powerful imagination and is in connection with the inner nature of a person.

When we connect with our inner genius, we find deeper inspiration and are able to consistently renew ourselves while we develop the capacity to bring meaning to any moment. Being awakened to the genius makes us aware of our own genius, our purpose, and become more grounded in ourselves. Life begins to shift when we see the world in this unique way and a path opens before us; the path of the genius.

Class 7: The Call to Radical Regeneration with Andrew Harvey

In this session, the modern-day mystic Andrew Harvey talks about our collective call to confront humanity’s evolutionary destiny and whether we will survive on this planet. This global dark night of the soul asks from us to be courageous while facing the terror and madness, and hold the potential for emergence of an unknown light in ourselves at the same time. This is possible when we have an overall mystical understanding of what’s happening. We’re in the Kali Yuga’s dance as Andrew explains.

The ancient Hindu sages have said that Kali Yuga represents the collapse and destruction of the world as we know it. We’re currently facing a massive constellation of crises: COVID, climate change, extinction of wildlife, economic disparity, and crisis of meaning. We need to rise to the many challenges, align ourselves with the deep meaning of these crises and change in profound ways (one that is divinized in heart, soul and body). All evolutions progress by devastating convulsions. This dark night is potentially the birth of a new way of being. For this, we need to take a leap into the divine and radically regenerate.

Class 8: The Search for Meaning in Adolescence with Kwame Scruggs

In this talk, Kwame Scruggs shares his way of using mythology to work with adolescents. Adolescence is known for numerous characteristics; it has often been referred to as a period of “an infinite array of possibilities”. It is a time filled with intense libido, imagination, and growth. But it is also a time of frustration for both the mentor and the mentee as it involves risk-taking, confusion, and search for acceptance, identity, rebelliousness, and an inability to listen.

These traits reappear during the middle age. During our second stage of life, we receive a second opportunity to touch the Grail, which represents the fulfillment of the highest human potentiality. In this talk ‘The Search for Meaning in Adolescence’, Kwame explores adolescence and adulthood through the telling, discussion, and analysis of mythological stories, equipping us to become the hero in our own stories.

Class 9: Heartbreak and It Invitations with Ake-Jeanne Klerk

In this session, Akke-Jeanne Klerk delves into the experience of heartbreak and how heartbreak can serve as a teacher on our personal journey. It begs us to be present to our suffering, asks that we learn about ourselves and our personal history, but also that we connect with our soul to find our path. Heartbreak raises our awareness of what it means to be human. More specifically, we learn to know ourselves intimately, while dealing with pain and grief to gradually become aware of our defenses against it.

Often, it is our fear of suffering, the unknown, and the fear of listening to the soul’s demands that keeps us from walking our unique path. When we learn to face our fears, let go and surrender, we learn to evolve. We gain strength, experience more love and learn to uncover new ways to come into being. That is the transformative potential of heartbreak; the overall invitation to love more deeply.

Class 10:Synchronicity and the Personal Journey with Ken James

Join Ken James in this interview on synchronicity; one of Jung’s most popular and intriguing ideas. The concept of synchronicity is that the unconscious mind can express itself in dreams, thoughts or feelings as well as in actual events in the external world. When the expression of the psyche manifests in both mind and matter at the same time, those coincidences are not causally related. What connects them is meaning. Some synchronicities can even be truly powerful, life-changing forces; they evoke a strong affect, a numinous feeling in us. Learn how synchronistic events can be signposts along our journey, guiding us into the direction our soul yearns to venture.

Class 11: Goal and Purpose with Patricia Berry

In this session, Patricia Berry ponders on her journey through life and how she equally learned from the places where she ‘fell off the road’, not connected to her sense of purpose. She argues it can also be insightful to know what is not your purpose. In the end, it is also part of the journey.

But if you want to learn about your purpose, you can start by reflecting on your soul’s wishes. People are expressing their purpose as they live. So finding out what your purpose is means that you observe yourself. You start with being true, real, and authentic. And as life unfolds, the purpose will reveal itself when you sense who you enjoy being. So you have to go by with what feels true to you. As you proceed in life, life keeps filling out and getting more layers to it.

Doing what you enjoy is crucial, and when you make sacrifices you have to feel that it is a tradeoff that is worth it. You have to seek a way that works well enough so that you can still do what you love most. The goal defines the journey, and it is different for every soul.

Class 12: Dreams as Your Soul’s Guide with Stephen Aizenstat

In this session, Stephen Aizenstat argues that understanding our dreams and what they mean can help us to reconnect with our authentic selves. Dreams aid in relating with others, deepen our connection to our ancestral heritage and find true purpose and meaning in our lives. Therefore, it is helpful to cultivate our dream life. When we ‘tend’ a dream, we activate our deep imagination. Our minds open and we become more attuned to our common human and planetary journey as we discern or recognize our place in it. Aizenstat pioneered Dream Tending—a method that includes techniques for interacting with the living dream image and its hidden intelligence. Interaction with these images offers insights and new perspectives that can be applied in our daily lives. Ultimately, tending our dreams helps us to participate in life more vibrant, alive and aligned with our soul’s purpose.

Bonus Video 1: Why Myths are Important with James Hollis

In this 12 minute video clip, James Hollis explains why myths are important. Everyday life is an enactment of stories, James Hollis says. The story we tell ourselves is the one that we are conscious of, but what story or even stories might be living us? What are the unconscious stories that we are enacting and that over time prove to be even more intimately ours?

Bonus Video 2: How to Find Call & Purpose in Your Dreams with Stephan Aizenstat

Dream Tending can help you to have a greater understanding of your life purpose. In this 21 minute  video, Stephen Aizenstat explains how working with dreams can clarify your call and purpose.

Bonus Video 3:  How to Find Your Own Myth with Dennis Slattery

Jung believed that all of us act out a myth, but he also said that very few people know what their myth is. The exercise in this 2 minute video with Dennis Slattery will help you find your myth and respond to the call of your own mythology.

Bonus Audio: Alchemy Course: Silver and The White Earth with Robert Bosnak

By studying alchemical psychology, we come to understand ourselves and other humans in surprising ways. This new awareness can engender unexpected new vitality and wonder. This 90 minute audio is the first of a 10-class course on Jung Platform which focuses on the essay Silver and The White Earth in James Hillman’s final and most profound book, Alchemical Psychology.

Bonus Worksheet: Heartbreak and Its Invitations by Akke-Jeanne Klerk

Painful experiences include an invitation to participate more fully in life. If we can transform the pain of loss into personal development, we will experience greater strength. In this worksheet, Akke-Jeanne Klerk describes psychological tasks and raises questions about how we can keep loving our life after a heartbreak and approach it with an open heart.

By the end of this course you will be able to:

• Distinguish between what’s expected of you from what wants to come through you
• Recognize the call to a new life in crises like heartbreak, illness, adolescence and mid-life identity concerns
• Describe the value of authenticity, enjoyment and even being lost as vital to your purpose
• Appreciate dreams, myths and synchronicities as signposts to what wants to come to life through you