‘The Book of Symbols at Mythology Café’

     

At the meeting next Tuesday of Mythology Cafe, the New York City Roundtable of the Joseph Campbell Foundation, the group will discuss that wonderful publication The Book of Symbols. Written and compiled by skilled hands of the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, and published by Taschen in 2010, The Book of Symbols runs more than 800 pages and delivers hundreds of illustrated lessons on how man has harvested meaningful symbologies from the natural world and ages of human culture. It’s difficult to describe; I’ll have to dig up the review I wrote of it four years ago for some magazine or other. The book is a masterpiece, and I have found it useful countless times in aiding my own understanding of symbolisms in various esoteric contexts. It’s all here: the mystical, the practical, the mythological, the factual, the astral; animal, mineral, vegetable; the good, the bad, and the ugly. It’s an amazing document.

The meeting will take place April 1 at Caffe Dante, the historic nook on MacDougal Street near the corner of Bleecker in the Village. Just a block west from our old haunt. Will begin at 7 p.m., and likely conclude at nine. (I am a little anxious to see this new Dante. It closed for renovations three months ago, and I have not seen the new look yet. It was such comfortable and comforting space, with its incredible, illustrious history.... Well, we shall see.)

Courtesy Jeremiah’s Vanishing New York

The organizers ask that we bring our books along, as there will be group discussion. “Choose 3 to 5 images from The Book of Symbols. Subjectively engage with each image/symbol. Prepare to share your critical and intimate encounter(s).”

It’ll be a great night.
     

‘The Story of the Snake’

     
If your schedule permits you a weekday lunchtime lecture, try to get to the C.G. Jung Foundation today for “The Story of the Snake in Jung’s Red Book,” presented by Ami Ronnberg. From the publicity:

The snake appears in the very first illustration in Jung’s Red Book and becomes a familiar image in many of the paintings that follow. Sometimes Jung comments on the snake—or snakes—and sometimes they are simply present. All the while, as we follow Jung’s story, the image of the snake keeps changing.

In this talk, we will look at the snake as an evocative underground companion in our own creative efforts and personal transformation. Fascinating and feared, the snake guides us into the unavoidable depths and deaths of our own snakeskin-shedding times, from which we will (hopefully) return, reborn with our own glimpse of the eternal.

Tuesday, December 3 at 12:30 p.m.

C.G. Jung Foundation

Eleanor Bertine Auditorium

28 East 39th Street

(between Park and Madison avenues)

Manhattan

Bring a brown bag lunch - coffee, tea, and cookies will be provided. No reservations required. All are welcome. For further information, call the C.G. Jung Foundation offices at (212) 697-6430.

Ami Ronnberg, M.A., is Curator of the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, and is Editor-in-Chief of The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images, published by Taschen in 2010 as the third volume of the ARAS publication project. She teaches widely on art and symbols.