Does Soul compel you towards deeper involvement in Guild leadership? This course engages the difficult work of transformational leadership. The psychological study of Soul’s ancient and modern texts (myths), and our own lives, is integrated with the art of asking questions and facilitating the Guild method. Through teaching and practice we will learn to lead seminars that respond to the needs of this time and our world.

Our work can transform others, only if we ourselves hear Psyche's voice and commit to our own transformation. This requires us to know what psychological consciousness really is, and that we learn to lead with authority and respond to the Self in others. The course is therefore focused first and foremost on the personal transformation of the would-be leader.

Starts in September 2010. Meets on second Saturday of the month except in July and August.

Enrollment is by permission of the instructors. For further information contact: Hal Childs (415-573-2469) or Patricia Calcagno Stenger (707-537-1511).

Some of us today are dissatisfied with the word, God.  We do experience the sacred—such as in the beauty of nature, the power of music, or the love of others.   But we cannot associate those experiences with the supernatural creator described by organized religions.  The word, mystic, has been used to describe one who directly experiences the sacred without the intermediary of an institution or dogma.  How then do we articulate our own unique spiritual journeys?  Join with searching others in an afternoon of conversation, art, poetry, and community imagining that helps deepen your own knowing with no attempt to find a group consensus.  Bring your confusions and your experiences for which you may have had a hard time finding words.

For more information, contact Clare Morris at foolwise@mac.com

Has the name “Jesus” become a polarizing word?  What does it mean that the annual seminar of the Guild for Psychological Studies has become of little interest, not only to potential new participants, but to some of the Guild leaders as well?
For many years the study of the life and teachings of Jesus, as found in the synoptic gospels, has been a central focus of the Guild in its Basic Records seminar.  Drawing upon an historical and literary critical approach, as pioneered by Henry Burton Sharman, seminar participants have been encouraged to distinguish the earliest reports of Jesus found in the texts from later Christian additions or explanations. Elizabeth Howes then added Carl Jung’s insights about the reality and nature of the unconscious to the study of the texts.  The result has been a rich, challenging, life-changing combination. And the study has continued since to evolve.

We do not dream myths; they dream us.  Through them the universe speaks of itself in a language we humans can understand.  It tells us what animates us, what powers undergird and inform our lives. In mythology we find “…the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation” (Joseph Campbell). 
Previous GSC classes have provided the conceptual underpinnings for the use and leadership of mythology in Guild seminars.  This tutorial now moves us to the nuts and bolts: how to find good tales, how to research and mine them, how to appreciate what they evoke/reflect in psyche/world, and how to generate evocative questions for group exploration.

Faeries, elves, vampires, zombies, and werewolves ... superheroes and space aliens ... robots and androids. What is it about the subhuman, the near human, the superhuman, and the alien that can evoke terror, wonder, and erotic desire? What might be emerging in these images of Soul? What might Psyche be saying about the boundaries of the human and the task of future evolution?