Events

The Return of the Archetypal Feminine and the Dawn of the New  “Third”  - Laraine Kurisko, PhD

The archetypal “Feminine” is back, and She’s…”unhappy.” From “Me Too,” to the trial of Larry Nassar, to the rising refusal of young adults to be defined as either “male” or “female,” opting instead for the more neutral pronoun “they,” evidence of profound change is all around us. Neumann and Whitmont tell us that consciousness can be conceived as having evolved through stages, beginning the archetypal Great Mother. Several thousand years ago, this feminine consciousness was repressed in the service of the development of “Masculine” ego consciousness, which has, for better and worse, been accomplished. We now have considerable “ego strength” but no connection to anything beyond it, hence, a good deal of turmoil in a world that feels untethered, without purpose or direction. Both “Feminine” and “Masculine” dominated cultures were necessarily one-sided otherwise each could not have developed. But, what is next? And, what is required of us so that the new “third” can emerge?

In this class we will dive deeply into the bigger story at play here – the deep, archetypal dynamics and the wisdom behind them. We will begin to think about, observe, and imagine, the next phase of consciousness. Rather than simply enacting each stage via identification, we can step back and consciously embrace the gifts and costs of each, for men and women. By holding both in a conscious, creative tension of opposites, we can facilitate the emergence of the Mercurial “Divine Child."