‘Paths of Consciousness & Dark Forces of the Psyche’

     
The C.G. Jung Foundation of New York has announced its Summer Study Programs. Ten days in July are divided into two intensive programs that delve into Jungian psychology and philosophy.

From the publicity:


For half a century, the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York has been conducting educational programs for both professionals and the general public. It is the publisher of online Quadrant: The Journal of the C.G. Jung Foundation and runs a book service offering a wide selection of books by and about C.G. Jung and the field of analytical psychology.

The Foundation’s Summer Study Program is a unique opportunity to meet people from all over the United States and the world who share a common interest in Jung and his ideas. Past summer participants hailed from such diverse locations as Brazil, Switzerland, Belgium, Puerto Rico, Australia, Ireland, Venezuela, and the Pacific Northwest. Both of the Intensive programs have been carefully designed to be informative and stimulating for professionals in the field and the general public. We encourage participants from a wide range of backgrounds to attend either or both sessions of our summer program.

This Summer Study program is your chance to spend time studying at the C.G. Jung Center of New York, a lovely brownstone in midtown Manhattan, conveniently located near many of New York City’s most famous attractions. The Jung Center includes the Jung Foundation’s Book Store, the Kristine Mann Library and the Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism, an extensive image library. Additionally, our staff will help provide those of you from out of town with any information that you might need regarding individual exploration of New York City during your time here.
Register early! Enrollment will be limited. We look forward to meeting you in July.

Intensive Program 1

Paths of Consciousness

July 7 to 11

In our first program, we will pay particular attention to our interior lives, starting with a simple letting go and centering. In turn, we will explore the art of expanding consciousness through creativity and Jung’s idea of individual and psychological wholeness. We will go deeper, examining our death consciousness and Jung’s notion of the ‘returned dead’ that he explores in The Red Book. We will conclude the week by discussing dream as a mirror of the soul and a possible route to our own transfiguration.

Monday, July 7

9 to 10 a.m.

Registration, Welcome and Orientation

10 to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Con–center–ation

The act of concentration is a purposeful gathering together of oneself. We will look at the idea of centering as it is reflected in Jung’s work—through his theories of libido, compulsions, fear, and the religious attitude—while asking what it is that we find ourselves circling around, what de–centers us, and how come it does?

Instructor: Royce Froehlich, LCSW, MDiv

Tuesday, July 8

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Awakening to Presence:

Exploring Consciousness Through Creativity

How we are present in each moment, with ourselves, with others and with the world around us, holds endless possibilities for understanding and experience. There are many doors and pathways to awakening, to experiencing consciousness. Today we will explore opportunities for connecting with presence through art, poetry, writing and simple movement.

Instructor: Wendi R. Kaplan, MSW, CPT-M/S, LCSW

Wednesday, July 9

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Paths of Consciousness:

Jungian Analysis and the Individuation Process

C.G. Jung began his descent into the unconscious after his break with Freud and emerged with a new approach to psychological engagement based on the individual journey with the ego and the Self, expressed through active imagination and mandala imagery. Jung called it Jungian Analysis and the Individuation Process to differentiate it from Freud’s methodology. Both are connected with the discovery of meaning and encompass the fullness of the individual’s teleological destiny along with one’s relationship to oneself and to the world. Participants will revisit the origin and meaning of Jung’s analytic individuation process and will learn and experience active imagination and mandala drawing.

Instructor: Jane Selinske, Ed.D., LCSW, LP, MT-BC

Thursday, July 10

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Death as a Path into

and Through Consciousness

We will explore Jung’s view of death as a path into and through consciousness. We will also examine Jung’s own “descent” into death in The Red Book—Jung's Book of the Dead—and explore the questions that are posed by the “returned dead” who we encounter through ritual, imagination and art. Jung also frequently opens up the territory of life as only being “life” as it is “life and death.” We will circumambulate this motif from the awakening into a conscious journey that death is for Gilgamesh, to contemporary clinical and personal reflections.

Friday, July 11

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

The Soul’s Mirror:

Awakening Under the Dreammaker’s Gaze

By exposing us to infinite varieties of experience, our night dreams can enlarge our range of awareness and help us transfigure our sense of self and world. In this workshop, we will treat the dream as the soul’s mirror and entertain ways to enter into a dialectical relationship with the dreammaker—that mysterious, omniscient architect of the dream.

Instructor: Melanie Starr Costello, Ph.D.

Intensive Program 2

Dark Forces of the Psyche

July 14 to 18

Monday, July 14

9 to 10 a.m.

Registration, Welcome and Orientation

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

From Betrayal to Transformation

“God and the Creation were not enough

for Adam; Eve was required, which means

that betrayal was required.”

James Hillman

In the hero myths, a betrayer is often the catalyst for transformation. Think of Judas and Jesus; Siegfried and Hagen; Caesar and Brutus. We will explore how one deals with betrayal, whether that betrayal is an infidelity, one born of envy or, most significantly, betrayal of oneself.

Instructor: Julie Bondanza, Ph.D.

Tuesday, July 15

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

When Darkness Falls:

The Anatomy of Psychosis

The psyche is sturdy, resilient and creative, except when it is fragile, splintered and profoundly barren of light and hope. Psychosis attacks the integrity of the personality like a splitting tool driven into a piece of wood tears the fibers apart and leaves a deep division where there had been a seeming unity. Psychosis is dark and destructive of soul, except when it comes as a perverse invitation by the gods to a new mode of being. We will explore both wings of this archetypal polarity.

Instructor: Alden Josey, Ph.D.

Wednesday, July 16

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Encounters with Monsters:

Images of Trauma in the Psyche

The secret story is often unresolved trauma, which may appear in dreams as images of strange or monstrous creatures alive with meaning and feeling. Mutants, aliens and insects are some of the secret creatures that live inside and rampage around in the psyche wreaking havoc as “symptoms” until they are met and suffered into consciousness. Some of these monsters live primarily in the personal unconscious, and others are powerfully fueled by energy from the collective unconscious. How can they be engaged and humanized? Both a healing relationship with another and an archetypal perspective are required to integrate monstrous affects and facilitate greater freedom to live into wholeness.

Through theory, fairy tales, film, and case material we will discover how psyche’s darkest creatures can open a road to healing and transformation. This didactic and experiential workshop is intended for anyone who wishes to develop a deeper and symbolic understanding of trauma.

Instructors: Lisa Marchiano, LCSW, NCPsyA and Deborah Stewart, LCSW-R, PsyA

Thursday, July 17

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Wounded Narcissism, Evil, and Self-knowledge

Narcissistic personality disorder is an extreme condition caused by severe early injury to healthy self-love or self-esteem. Less severe narcissistic injury is ubiquitous. It may hurt our relationships, our creativity or our career success, and may steal our pleasure at our achievements and our good fortune.

If we are not responsible for our own injured narcissism, the result is evil. Hence Jahweh inflicts evil when his pride is offended. We will explore injured narcissism in Virginia Wolf’s fiction and in a Polynesian story of cannibalism. By what force can we withstand narcissistic attacks? Can we face our own narcissistic injury?

Instructor: Maxson McDowell, Ph.D.

Friday, July 18

10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and 2:30 to 5 p.m.

Obsession, Addiction,

and Job’s Answer to Jung

We will examine the history of obsessive-compulsive behaviors together with its developmental and archetypal underpinnings. We will use the biblical Book of Job as a symbolic path into how to approach these difficult patients in a Jungian analysis.
Instructor: Richard Kradin, M.D.

Summer Study 2014 Faculty

Julie Bondanza, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst and licensed psychologist in private practice in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan area. She is a member of the faculty and board of the C.G. Jung Foundation and is on the faculty of the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts.

Melanie Starr Costello, Ph.D., is a licensed psychologist, historian, and Zurich-trained Jungian analyst in private practice in Washington, D.C. She earned her doctorate in the History and Literature of Religions from Northwestern University. A former Assistant Professor of History at St. Mary’s College of Maryland, Dr. Costello has taught and published on the topics of psychology and religion, medieval spirituality, aging, and clinical practice. Her study of the link between illness and insight, titled Imagination, Illness and Injury: Jungian Psychology and the Somatic Dimensions of Perception, is published by Routledge press.

Harry W. Fogarty, Ph.D., is a Lecturer in Psychiatry and Religion at Union Theological Seminary and a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City.

Wendi R. Kaplan, MSW, CPT-M/S, LCSW, a psychotherapist with more than twenty-five years experience, specializes in relational and biblio/poetry therapies with a holistic perspective. She has a private practice in Alexandria, Virginia, and provides consultation to mental health providers, physicians and other healing professionals. Ms. Kaplan is a mentor/supervisor for, and the director of, the Institute of Poetry Therapy, where she teaches the theory and process of biblio/poetry therapy, journaling and other word arts. She is an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences for the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences. As a mediator since 1974, she incorporates meditative and mindfulness practices into all of her work.

Royce Froehlich, LCSW, MDiv, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City. He is a graduate of Union Theological Seminary, Columbia University, The New School for Social Research, and the C.G. Jung Institute of New York.

Alden Josey, Ph.D., is a Jungian analyst trained in Zurich who practices in Wilmington, Delaware. He is past-President, Director of Training and of Admissions in the Philadelphia Association of Jungian Analysts, where he now holds emeritus status.

Richard Kradin, M.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and professor at Harvard Medical School, who practices at the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. He is the author pg Pathologies of the Mind/Body Interface, The Placebo Response, and The Herald Dream. He is the recipient of the Gravida Prize for his paper, “The Psychosomatic Symptom: a Siren’s Song,” published in the Journal of Analytical Psychology.

Lisa Marchiano, LCSW, NCPsyA, is a clinical social worker and a Jungian analyst in private practice in Philadelphia. She is currently working on a book that uses fairy tales to explore how motherhood can be an opportunity for psychological growth.

Jane Selinske, Ed.D., LCSW, LP, MT-BC, is a Jungian analyst, a practitioner of Mandala Assessment and a Board Certified Music Therapist. She is Vice-President and faculty member of The C.G. Jung Foundation and training analyst for both the C.G. Jung Institute of New York and the Institute for Expressive Analysis of New York and has a private practice in Montclair, New Jersey and New York City.

Maxson J. McDowell, Ph.D., LMSW, LP, is a Jungian analyst in private practice in New York City. A former president of the C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, he is also a faculty member.

Deborah Stewart, LCSW-R, PsyA, is a Jungian Analyst in private practice in Brooklyn. She is a graduate of both the Westchester Institute for Training in Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy and the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. She is on the faculty of the C. G. Jung Institute of Philadelphia and the Gestalt International Study Center on Cape Cod.


For registration information, click here.
     

‘May Mystical Weekend’

     
I bet you didn’t know this weekend is May Mystical Weekend in New York City, did you? Well, that’s why you read The Magpie Mind. Two big days at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center. From the publicity:

May Mystical Weekend

Rosicrucian Cultural Center

2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard

New York City

Saturday, May 10
1 to 5 p.m.
public welcome

Discuss Spiritual Laws with Dr. Lonnie Edwards, author of Spiritual Laws that Govern Humanity and the Universe.


Sunday, May 11
1 to 5 p.m.
AMORC members only

First Temple Degree Review Forum with Julian Johnson, from 1 to 3 p.m. (open to members in the First Temple Degree or beyond).

Silent Meditation, from 3:30 to 4 o’clock.

Convocation, from 4 to 5 p.m.


And, in other news, the New York City Pronaos that meets down in the Flatiron District is starting its summer break early. It has been announced that the Pronaos is closed through the summer, and regular activities will resume in September.
     

‘Journey to the Source of Ancient Wisdom’

     
More news from the aptly dubbed Golden State. Again, far outside my flight plan but must be shared here. From the Rosicrucian Order’s publicity:

Join practicing alchemist Dennis William Hauck

in a Journey to the Source of Ancient Wisdom

All proceeds go to benefit the Alchemy Museum

being built at Rosicrucian Park.

May 24-26

Rosicrucian Park

San Jose, California

Alchemy is based on ancient Hermetic teachings that were meant to be experienced directly in an initiatory environment. True alchemy is neither an intellectual pursuit nor a measure of knowledge, but is a secret fire that ignites passion and inspiration in all those who possess it. That fire can be passed only in living concepts grasped by both heart and mind to create a new state of consciousness Egyptians called “Intelligence of the Heart.” This process is part of the Underground Stream of perennial wisdom that still flows into our modern era.

The most powerful rendering of the ancient wisdom is in the intuitive writings, coded ciphers, and symbolic imagery of the alchemists. Their practical approach to esoteric energies created a powerful spiritual technology that combined introspection, meditation, and prayer with laboratory demonstrations. Their tireless efforts to unite soul and spirit – the inner and outer worlds – exposed the deep connection between mind and matter that science is just beginning to explore.

This three-day intensive, multimedia workshop focuses on the advanced teachings of alchemy. Using the operations of alchemy, secret Hermetic techniques, activated symbology, and guided meditations; participants will journey through the stages of purification and empowerment that lead to the transpersonal source that is the Philosopher’s Stone.

Tools include a full-color bound textbook of meditative drawings, process handouts and charts, and audio recordings. Selected eBooks will be sent to participants to help them prepare for the workshop. Everyone will also receive personalized graphs showing the relative power of the metals (planetary archetypes) in their astrological signatures. This information will guide their work to transmute the inner metals into a more resilient golden temperament.

Dennis William Hauck is known for his ability to present these teachings in a way that comes alive in people. While studying for his doctorate in mathematics at the University of Vienna, he completed a three-year apprenticeship in alchemy and was later initiated into a variety of Hermetic traditions in Europe, Egypt, and the United States. He has since translated several old manuscripts and authored a number of bestselling books on alchemy, including The Emerald Tablet: Alchemy for Personal Transformation, The Secret of the Emerald Tablet, Sorcerer’s Stone: A Beginner’s Guide to Alchemy, and The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Alchemy.

The sessions will take place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with a break from noon to 2 for Council of Solace and lunch each day.

The cost is $300 per person for AMORC members, and $350 per person for non-member guests. Click here to register.

All proceeds will go toward the Alchemy Museum being built at Rosicrucian Park.

Logistics: Many visitors to Rosicrucian Park enjoy staying at the Arena Hotel on The Alameda, which is within walking distance of the Park and right across the street from the train station where both Amtrak and Caltrain make stops. The best airport to fly into is San Jose International Airport, about 10 to 15 minutes from Rosicrucian Park and the recommended hotel.
     

‘Remembering a philosophical giant’

     
I would be remiss if I didn’t share the sad news of the death Tuesday of Mr. Albert B. “Al” Feldstein, 88, editor of the invaluable and dauntless journal of opinion I read devoutly throughout my childhood: Mad magazine.

In its obituary today, The New York Times remembers:

“In his second issue, Mr. Feldstein seized on a character who had appeared only marginally in the magazine — a freckled, gap-toothed, big-eared, glazed-looking young man — and put his image on the cover, identifying him as a write-in candidate for president campaigning under the slogan ‘What — me worry?’

“At first he went by Mel Haney, Melvin Cowznofski and other names. But when the December 1956 issue, No. 30, identified him as Alfred E. Neuman, the name stuck. He became the magazine’s perennial cover boy, appearing in dozens of guises…. [Neuman] signaled the magazine’s editorial attitude, which fell somewhere between juvenile nose-thumbing at contemporary culture and sophisticated spoofing.

“Mad made fun of itself as well. The staff was referred to on the masthead as ‘the usual gang of idiots,’ and the magazine warned readers not to take it seriously even as it winkingly promoted its importance.”

That last graf captures what makes the work of Mr. Feldstein and his writers and artists essential to a thinking, sentient person’s sense of self, which I believe to be a reminder—sometimes nagging at the most inopportune moment—of the absurdity of life and, consequently, of each of our own earthly existences.



Cartoonist Dave Berg, best known for his longstanding “The Lighter Side” series for Mad, published his book My Friend God in 1972. Amid its closing pages is this:

“One reason for Mad Magazine’s

phenomenal success,

kein ein houra

(it even outsells Colliers)

is

that at a time

when we are becoming

so overpopulated in the inner city

that the huddled masses

are TRULY yearning

to be free,

that at a time

when we are polluting

our pollution,

that at a time

when we are being computerized to death

by making us all

nothing but numbers,

that at a time

when a single nut can

light a 50-megaton firecracker

and end all Fourth of July’s for all time,

at a time of all this idiocy—

one idiotic kid

named Alfred E. Neuman,

says ‘I’m not concerned’

in his ‘WHAT, ME WORRY?’

attitude.

It’s a calming influence in a world that’s uptight.”

Well done, good and faithful servant.

Courtesy The New York Times

   

‘Tarot and the Western Hermetic Tradition’

     

On the whole, New York Open Center provides programming that I would say leans to the East (Zen, yoga, et al.) in spiritual matters, but it does host occasional lectures, classes, and other events that look at Western esoteric traditions. Case in point: This workshop next Friday. From the publicity:

Tarot and the Western Hermetic Tradition

Presented by Ellen Goldberg, MA

Friday, May 9

7 to 10 p.m.

Members: $55 / Non-members $65

New York Open Center

22 East 30th Street

Manhattan

The Tarot is a book of wisdom disguised as a pack of cards. The ever-evolving Tarot is an extraordinary compendium of Western esoteric knowledge, a river of Hermetic wisdom into which the streams of Kabbalah, Alchemy, Pythagorean mathematics, and astrology have flowed. In accord with Hermetic ideals, the object of the Tarot journey is the transformation of individual consciousness into a state of unity with the One.

Today we will learn the basic principles of Hermeticism and see how they breathe life and meaning into the Tarot. Viewed as Hermetic Mandalas, the 22 cards of the Major Arcana allow us to radically enhance our quest for self-realization. Through active imagination and inner journey, we will learn to engage these archetypal images. The workshop will leave you with an ability to use the Tarot for your inner development. The Rider-Waite cards will be used as a basis of discussion.

Note: The workshop is appropriate for students at all levels of study.

Ellen Goldberg, MA, is a psychotherapist, artist, and mystic who has been working within the Hermetic tradition for 35 years. She has been teaching Tarot at the New York Open Center since 1986, and is the founder and director of the School of Oracles.


Click here to register.
     

‘Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman’

     
More great programming at the School of Practical Philosophy. No need for me to even say anything. From the publicity:

The American Transcendentalists:

Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman

Saturdays, May 10 through June 28

(except May 24)

10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

with Barbara Solowey

School of Practical Philosophy

12 East 79th Street

Manhattan

In the Spring term, join in an exploration of the spiritual and intellectual legacy of Emerson, Thoreau, and Whitman, America’s greatest visionaries who can inspire our own work toward self-realization. The Transcendentalists are revolutionary and reflective, and their call is to spiritual insight and universal consciousness. Their writings proclaim and celebrate the need for self-reliance, and a love of freedom and brotherhood—each essential for humanity.

“It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he, who in the midst of the crowd, keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.”

          Emerson

Self-Reliance

Click here to register.
   

‘The Fine Arts Inspiration of Rosicrucianism’

     

Transfiguration, by Raphael, oil on wood, 1516-20.

It’s back to Centerpoint next Wednesday night for David Lowe’s long-awaited lecture on how art can communicate the inestimable meaning of deity via the finite artistic expressions of man. From the publicity:

The Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, fresco, 1494-8.

The Face of Christ: The 1400s from Giotto On

Presented by David Lowe

Wednesday, April 30 at 7 p.m.

Anthroposophical Society

138 West 15th Street

Manhattan

How to paint the face of a god become human? Through the 1400s, Europe’s painters sought answers, with dramatic changes during the Renaissance from Giotto onwards, in particular the depiction of Christ Jesus in Leonardo’s The Last Supper, Michelangelo’s The Last Judgment, and Raphael’s Transfiguration. Their solutions lead us deep into the origins of Rosicrucianism, and to what these artists laid down for the future evolution of humanity and the Earth.

The Last Judgment, by Michelangelo, fresco, 1536-41.

David Lowe of Yorkshire, England, studied at Oxford, and at Emerson College. In his thirties, he followed Goethe’s Italian journey with painter Simon Sharp, from which they wrote Goethe and Palladio. He organizes study groups and workshops at Steiner House in London.

On Saturday, May 3, he will lead a gallery walk at the Met, beginning at 2:30 p.m. We’ll meet at the information desk, and enjoy discussion and tea after. A donation for David is requested.
     

‘Hieroglyphical Key’

     
An unsolicited commercial endorsement—hey, I just like the company:

Ouroboros Press has announced its publication of Nicholas Flamel’s Hieroglyphical Key: Being an Explication of Alchemical Figures, Together with His Summary of Philosophy and His Testament.

As always, gorgeous bindings, endsheets, etc. A miracle anyone does that kind of work anymore. From the publicity:

When SOL, the emblem of the Royal Arte, moves into the Sign of the Ram it is considered the perfect time to begin the Alchemical Opus. This is the season when the cold crust of winter is broken through by the budding seeds buried deep in the earth. The energy of life expresses itself with fresh and robust growth offering a new beginning of Nature’s cycle. Ouroboros Press takes this opportunity to release a classic text by Nicholas Flamel, one of the alchemists purported to have succeeded in making the Philosopher’s Stone.

Nicholas Flamel’s Hieroglyphical Key is offered with two additional texts: Summary of Philosophy and his Testament. The quality of the emblematic engravings in the Ouroboros Press edition are exquisite and are reproduced in crisp offset printing. As with other trade editions produced by us, the Key is wrapped in a letterpress dust jacket. A few very special Cambridge style bindings are being bound up by Michael Atha of Restoration Books, and full leather scarlet bindings will be available from Ars Obscura.

The press has always been an advocate of the alchemical art and several of our publications reflect this. Celebrate the Spring by adding these classic texts of Hermeticism to your library or laboratory.

Courtesy Ouroboros Press

There are three editions from which to choose:

Brazen Serpent – Full leather hand bound in a Cambridge style binding with hand marbled endsheets. Includes a folding plate of the Hieroglyphical Figures.
Limited to 26 copies only. $345

Libri Rubaeus Edition – Full scarlet leather with raised spine bands gilt title and ornamental device. Handmarbled endsheets and silk ribbon bookmark.
Limited to 72 copies only. $175

Trade Edition – Full cloth with gilt title and Rose Cross device. Letterpress printed dust jacket.
Limited to 679 copies only. $40
     

‘The Wisdom Within’

     

Friday night was my first class at the School of Practical Philosophy. Located in a gorgeous townhouse on the Upper East Side, clearly it was a private home generations ago, just a stone’s throw from Central Park. We assembled in what had to have been the family library, replete with mahogany walls adorned with Victorian carvings and with glass-enclosed bookshelves. It is an impressive neighborhood; just a few doors up is the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America headquarters, and directly across the street is the first Waldorf School established in North America. I’m impressed with our teacher (they’re all unsalaried, doing what they love), with the course syllabus, and with the group—about 25 people who were engaged through more than two hours of discussion. In introducing himself and the course, our Mr. Primiano made it clear that there are no “right” answers to the questions that typically arise during philosophical discussions, and that the only difference between him and us is the simple circumstance that he stands before the group leading the discussion. (This is how you know you’re in capable hands for this kind of thing.)

A placard, large enough to read from the back of the room, stood at the front with this printed:

To be a philosopher is not merely to have subtle thoughts, nor even to found a school, but so to love wisdom as to live according to its dictates, a life of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust. It is to solve some of the problems of life, not only theoretically, but practically.

Henry David Thoreau
Walden

Athena in bronze relief
greets you at the school.

It was a pretty wonderful meeting, an introduction to practical philosophy. The emphasis is on practical, meaning how to make philosophy part of one’s lifestyle, and not just something to talk about. Unsurprisingly, the class adheres to the Socratic Method: Discussion commences with a question. (The following is a summarized paraphrasing of the group discussion.)

What is philosophy? Literally—from the Greek—it is love and wisdom. Or love of wisdom. It raises awareness to enable us to see things as they are by training our capacities to discern certainty, direction, and clarity, thus leading to the satisfaction of our desire for truth.

Why study philosophy? It encourages us to step out and see the big picture and ask the big questions, but philosophy is not just about the mind. It also is a question of being, to help bring about a greater depth of experience. Plato teaches that wisdom, a Cardinal Virtue, is innate, but that the other Cardinal Virtues are learned. We know mental exercises are needed to awaken and sharpen our abilities.

Introduction to two very practical exercises in awareness.

1.  When facing a quandary, ask “What would a wise person do now?” This is an exercise. Practice this twice for two minutes every day.

Neither accept nor reject what you hear, but instead test the truth of it. If it works, trust what you have found.

2.  In addition, a mindfulness exercise was imparted. I was very pleasantly surprised by this as it fits with my Rosicrucian work and with the overall reason for being of the Mindfulness Project at NYU, which I try to visit when able. Its steps are summarized here:

The Exercise

(Take time to experience and enjoy each element of the practice. Resist the urge to move ahead.)

Find a balanced, upright and comfortable posture from which you need not move.

Become aware of where you are right now.

Feel the weight of your feet on the ground.

Feel the weight of the body on the chair.

And the play in the air on the face and hands.

Feel the gentle pressure of the clothes on the skin.

Without looking around, welcome color and form; light and shadow.

Taste.

Smell.

Observe the breath as it enters and leaves the body.

Now open the listening.

Receive all sounds as they rise and fall without comment or judgment of any kind.

Let the listening run right out to the furthest and gentlest sounds, embracing all.

Now simply rest in this greater awareness for a few moments.


I think the time and place of your exercise is important, but do your best.

Class 2 on Friday night is titled “Levels of Awareness,” and we will discuss, among other topics, how wise people lead lives governed by principle.
     

Click to enlarge.

‘The Hero’s Return’

     
The Joseph Campbell re-releases keep coming. The professor’s biography, originally published in 1990—and has been in and out of print half a dozen times since—has been revised for a new paperback printing. The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work is out now. Amazon offers it for $15.

From the publicity:

New World Library and the Joseph Campbell Foundation are pleased to announce the release of a newly revised and reformatted paperback edition of The Hero’s Journey: Joseph Campbell on His Life and Work.

In this volume, Joseph Campbell reflects on subjects ranging from the origins of myth, the role of the artist, and the need for ritual, to the ordeals of love and romance. With poetry and humor, he recounts his own quest and conveys the excitement of a lifelong exploration of the mythic traditions that Campbell called “the one great story of mankind.”

This paperback edition is more “user friendly”—and less expensive—than the oversized, hard to find, hardcover volume.
     

‘The Odyssey as Spiritual Quest’

     
The School of Practical Philosophy in New York City will host David A. Beardsley next month for a lecture on one of the cornerstones of Western literature that also just happens to be an allegory of a journey of a soul. From the publicity:

Along with the Iliad, Homer’s Odyssey is the wellspring of Western literature. It offers a glimpse into the lives of humans and gods in ancient Greece, and a rousing adventure story with evil monsters, beautiful goddesses, and narrow escapes. But it’s also an allegory of a soul journeying from multiplicity and strife back to unity and love. Overcoming trials and temptations, including a visit to Hades, Odysseus casts off his warlike persona and learns to restrain his senses and desires. In this presentation we will trace his return from darkness to light, his reunion with his family, and his reclaiming “my very self,” the rightful ruler of “my native land.”

Join us to explore this eternal masterpiece. Light refreshments will be served.

School of Practical Philosophy

12 East 79th Street

Saturday, May 10 at 7 p.m.

$20 per person

Please Note: Special Events tend to sell out quickly. It is suggested that you register well in advance to secure a seat. Lecture and event registrations are non-refundable and not transferable to other events/lectures.


That’s no mere boast about tickets selling out quickly. Last night there were 66 seats up for grabs; a minute ago there were 50; and right now there are 49 because I bought mine. Click here.
     

‘The Sacred Circle: Ancient and Modern’

     
The Rosicrucian Order has planned a week’s worth of discussion on how we Westerners, and Rosicrucians particularly, divide our time. From the publicity:

The Sacred Circle of the Year:

Ancient and Modern

Monday, April 21 through Friday, April 25

Nightly, from 6:30 to 7:30

Rosicrucian Cultural Center

2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard

Manhattan

As this week falls between the Christian celebration of Easter (this time coinciding on the same date for the Eastern and Western churches) and May 1 (May Day), we will explore the inheritances of the calendar we follow today in most of the Western world from the ancient Pre-Christian European Calendar’s Eight-Fold Cycle of the Year, and their parallels. In particular, what is the Rosicrucian approach to these cycles and this inheritance.

Attendees are invited to share their own experiences of the Cycle of the Year during this participatory workshop, and also their own expertise in other yearly cycles from all world cultures.

Since the Rosicrucian Year began on the Spring Equinox (March 20), our journey of exploration will begin with this Festival, and proceed around the Sacred Circle of the Year.

The facilitator of this workshop, Steven A. Armstrong, is a professional historian, philosopher, and teacher based in the San Francisco Bay area. He serves at the Grand Lodge (San Jose) in Membership Services. He is an active member of the Rosicrucian Order, AMORC and the Traditional Martinist Order, and has served as an officer in both.

His current areas of interest include how the Primordial Tradition permeates all world traditions, and the way in which the Rosicrucian and Martinist paths provide a unique and unifying viewpoint on those traditions. Author of more than 30 published papers, articles and podcasts, and a lecturer for the RCUI, he is no stranger to New York City, as he received two of his Master’s Degrees at Fordham University’s Rose Hill Campus.

‘2014 Alchemy Conference’

     

The 2014 Northwest Alchemy Conference is scheduled for later this spring—Friday, June 6 through Sunday, June 8—at Venusian Church-Long House, located in Redmond, Washington. Sponsored by the Northwest Chapter of the International Alchemy Guild, the conference will bring to its podium more than a dozen speakers to discuss various esoteric, spiritual, practical, historical, and other insights into Alchemy, that vexing ancestor of chemistry. It is far afield of the Magpie’s usual orbit, but I mention it here because the brilliant, sagacious, and darned handsome Steve Burkle will present “The Practice of Alchemy by the Secret Societies from the Gold und Rosencreutz, to the Golden Dawn, and into Modern Times” on Sunday afternoon. You may know Steve from a variety of print and digital media, and if you know him personally, you realize Alchemy is not a mere curiosity in his life and work. The man knows his business.

Steve Burkle at Rose Circle, 2011.

The other presenters will be great too. Click here to read about them. I’m sure some of those headshots are no cause for alarm whatever!

Makes me wish for a Northeast Conference. The Guild has chapters in Pennsylvania and New York. Maybe some day.
     

‘Rosicrucian book sale’

     

Let’s break out of the New York City area for news from California. On Saturday, a book sale will be hosted at Rosicrucian Park to benefit the Rosicrucian Research Library.

Books on mysticism, art, history, science, and other subjects will be available.

This will take place in front of the Rosicrucian Research Library on Randol Avenue, between Park and Chapman avenues, in San Jose. 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.
     

‘Full Moon Meditation next week’

   

Full Moon and Autumn Flowers by the Stream, by Ogata Gekko , c.1895.

Color woodblock print at Art Institute of Chicago.

“Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams; 
I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright; 
For, by thy gracious, golden, glittering gleams,
 I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.”

Pyramus
A Midsummer Night’s Dream


There will be a full moon next Monday—Moon Day—so there will be a Full Moon Meditation at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center that evening. From the publicity:

Join us at the Rosicrucian Cultural Center for our Full Moon Meditation.

April 14 from 8 to 9 p.m.

2303 Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. Boulevard

New York City

The Rosicrucian teachings suggest that each of the celestial bodies, including the moon, has a particular influence on our consciousness.

Each Full Moon we will meet to reflect on this influence and attune our consciousness with it.

Everyone is welcome!