Each one of us, as we age, encounters death in increasingly intimate ways. Almost five years ago I endured a heart attack — an acute and dangerous event that was a powerful psychological and spiritual encounter with my mortality. Prior to the attack I had a number of dreams, which in retrospect I realized predicted exactly what occurred. Several dreams post- attack deepened my understanding of the meaning of the event. While recuperating I painted these images that arose from the depths. One day, while I was sitting with paintbrush in hand, the thought came that I would give a presentation based on my experiences. And then the title popped into my mind: Brush, With Death. In this presentation I will discuss this fateful and numinous encounter, how I worked with this experience of the living psyche, and its implications for both my life and death. I hope to further open the discussion of these matters in all of our lives, and to give a glimpse of how one person, who is engaged with the unconscious, works with deep and fateful inner material.
Charles T. Zeltzer, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and has been a certified Jungian analyst since 1992. He is currently in private practice, with offices in Ventura and Santa Monica, California. Charles was the Director of Training at the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. He was a long-time member of the editorial board of the Jungian journal Psychological Perspectives and has been the guest editor for special issues on Jung and the East, and fairy tales. He has spoken throughout the United States and Europe on the body in relation to the inner journey of encountering early trauma and has lectured on many aspects of the religious dimension of the psyche. These include alchemy, Kundalini Yoga, the Roman Catholic Mass as an alchemical process, and the role of the alchemical god Mercurius in our everyday lives. Charles has specialized in leading seminars on Jung’s alchemical works, including a 13-year, line-by-line discussion of Jung’s magnum opus, Mysterium Coniunctionis.
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