Time and Soul

Course Description

In so far as the forms or patterns of the unconscious belong to no time in particular, being seemingly eternal, they convey a peculiar feeling of timelessness when consciously realized.

C.G.Jung

In exploring the topography of time, Carl Jung recognized that the unconscious had its ‘own time’. Past, present and future was not just a physical reality, but psychic as well. Not only sequential or quantitative, but synchronous and qualitative. This psychological dimension infuses time with meaning, character and quality. Jung offered us many ways of thinking about time in the context of our psychic nature, our soul.

Our awareness of time is modified by emotions, memories, expectations, and compulsions. While time can be measured, it still remains a great mystery, as it is a hybrid of sacred and secular qualities. Philosophers and physicists also question the chronological ‘reality’ of time. 

Yet, we do experience this passing of time on our watches, wrinkles on our skin, the ache in our bones and in our final mortgage payment. Aging is a profound experience and we will consider the aging process in the context of time and timelessness.

We start our time travel focusing on the mysteries and matrix of time, including Jung’s experiences and experiments with the quality of time – how the present locates us in meaningful time. Our classes will explore the passing of time, through the lens of myth, symbol, archetype, dream, memory, and the unconscious. 

Time has always been connected to the divine. Throughout the series we will encounter divine images of time who oversee its mysteries – the Horae, the Season Keepers; Chronos, the Timekeeper; Kairos, Psyche’s time; Ouroboros, Eternal time; Oneiros, the time of the Dream. 

We will travel through primordial, ancestral, social, and family records to honor the time lords embedded in the history of time. Our journey will also visit with philosophers, physicists and poets, all who have explored time’s mysteries and synchronies. Each class will honor time for reflection, conversation and sharing our experience of and in time.

This course is ideal if

• You want to participate more fully in the present
• You wish to become more mindful of a greater time that guides and supports us
• You would like to appreciate the qualities that time offers us
• You are seeking to ensoul present events and experience
• You want to honor ancestral, social and familial time

Course Overview

Class 1 – Into the Mythic: Qualities of Time

An exploration into the enigma of time and how our acceptance of its ambiguities and mysteries deepens our engagement with soul. We will draw from Jung’s experiences that led him beyond a time-bound world to participate in Psyche’s time.

Class 2 – Once Upon a Time: Fate and Time

Embedded in time are psychic recurrences and continuities that bridge generational gaps, as if the ancestors are always present in time. We will explore the psychic imprints of time and how they pierce our present reality.

Class 3 – Temporal Times: Aging and the Seasons of Life

The ancient Greeks differentiated aging from immortality, acutely aware of the difference between temporal and eternal time. In this class, we honor the stages of the life cycle, and the relationship between mortality (embodied time) and immortality (divine time).

Class 4 – Kairos: The Opportunities of Time

We will amplify ways that eternal time breaches the temporal world, offering us the experience of being in time and being directed by the guardians of time. As our course draws to a close, we will consider being in time and how we might best participate with its mystery and meaning.