Rilke, Poetry and Alchemy; The Asheville Jung Center Will Host This Exciting Internet Webinar from the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco on Saturday, November 9th
Asheville, NC (PRWEB) October 30, 2013 -- The Asheville Jung Center will host Rilke; Poetry and Alchemy on November 9th at 12:30PM ET. A rich treasure lies buried in Rainer Maria Rilke’s remarkable poetic opus, and this workshop aims to help participants (re)discover and begin to mine that treasure. In particular, this seminar will attempt to deepen our understanding of crucial alchemical-psychological processes by way of close encounter with the poetic enactments of those processes inscribed in Rilke’s oeuvre. The Asheville Jung Center was founded in 2008 to advance the psychology of Carl Jung and promote an international Jungian community. It is affiliated with innerQuest Psychiatry and Counseling, a regional psychiatrist group.
Highlighting salient features of the poet’s biography (including his crucial relationship to the emerging field of psychology), this webinar will endeavor to develop a picture of the overall shape of Rilke’s life, both in its inner lineaments as well as its outward form. Positing a correlation between the four major works of Rilke’s maturity (New Poems, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus), and the four basic alchemical processes often associated with the four elements (earth/coagulation; water/solution; air/sublimation; fire/calcination), the webinar will look closely at select passages of the major works in conjunction with discussion of the related alchemical processes. The poetry will illuminate understanding of the relevant alchemy and vice versa as Dr. Polikoff entertains questions pertaining to the intimate relationship binding poetic language and psychology, the dynamic interaction of soul and spirit, and—finally—the nature and destiny of the soul and its (re)making in light of what Rilke calls “the task of transformation.”
Some familiarity with any or all of the Rilke texts, while not requisite, can only be helpful. Stephen Mitchell’s Rilke anthologies (The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke or Ahead of All Parting) contain selections of the relevant texts. Dr. Polikoff has also written a book on the topic of Rilke titled "Rilke, A Soul History" which can be purchased HERE.
Daniel Polikoff, Ph.D. is a poet, translator, and internationally recognized Rilke scholar. His book on Rilke and archetypal psychology In the Image of Orpheus: Rilke—A Soul History (Chiron, 2011) was recently reviewed in both Jung Journal and Spring. He has shared his knowledge of Rilke in many venues over many years; he delivered a talk on Rilke and Joseph Campbell (Die Unerhörte Mitte) as part of a conference earlier this year in Mainz, Germany. He has published two books of poetry as well as an edited translation of a dramatic version of the Grail legend, and lives with his family in Mill Valley.
Join the Asheville Jung Center and the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco on Saturday, November 9th, at 12:30 PM ET for the live online webinar. Seats are limited so please register soon!
Steve Buser, Asheville Jung Center, http://www.ashevillejungcenter.org, +1 (828) 545-0334, [email protected]
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