The Lapis: Library Community News and Events | | |
“I am of the opinion that the psyche is the most tremendous fact of human life."
C.G. Jung, Concerning Rebirth
"The universe (which others call the Library)..."
Jorge Luis Borges
We are a group converging around the ideas, concepts, and extensive writings of Swiss psychiatrist Carl Gustav Jung. Our intent is foremost to establish and nurture a community of curious and inquisitive explorers wishing to dive deeply into Jung’s ideas.
Memberships support educational programs that provide access to Jung’s therapeutic model to the public at large, while fostering a sense of community and interconnectedness.
Sign up to become a member today!
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C.G. Jung, Phanes I (1917)
“Truly, Phanes is the work and its completion and its compensation. He is the difficult task and the peace of the evening. He is the step on the middle way, he is its beginning, its middle and its end." (Philemon, in the Red Book)
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Join Us On July 26th For A Birthday Celebration!
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Cupcakes & Collected Works
A Birthday Book Fair
Happy Birthday C.G. Jung!
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Location: The Library Room
11719 N. Dale Mabry Highway
Date: Sunday, July 26th
Time: 2:00 - 4:00 p.m.
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Free Reading Discussion ~ August 6th
Man and His Symbols (Part 4):
Symbolism in the Visual Arts, by Aniela Jaffé
Man and His Symbols was intended to serve as an introduction to Jung’s work and ideas. It is an examination of man's relation to the unconscious, emphasizing the importance of dreams in the life of the individual. The last year of Jung's life was devoted almost entirely to this book, which he finished just 10 days before his final illness.The book was first published in 1964 and is divided into five parts, four of which were written by Jung’s closest associates in the world of analytical psychology.
In Part 4, “Symbolism in the Visual Arts,” Aniela Jaffé demonstrates man’s recurring interest in the symbols of the unconscious. She describes the artist as the spokesman of the spirit of his age and takes the reader through a history of art through the lens of analytical psychology.
Date: August 6th
Location: The Library at River Hills
Time: 7-9 p.m.
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Module 8: Anima ~ Animus
Online Q & A Discussion
Encountering the Psyche: Fundamental Concepts in Analytical Psychology is a 12-part video lecture series intended to elucidate Jung's most foundational concepts in a comprehensive and relatable way. A unique Library offering, this series serves as a video lecture reference library poised to enhance your understanding and engagement with Jung's model. Included in individual modules are curated reading lists, integrative quizzes, and visual downloadables.
Those registered for Module 8 or for the full 12-part course by August 18th will receive an invitation to this bonus Q & A on zoom with lecture presenter and Library Education Director, Angelo Spoto.
Date: Wednesday, August 19th
Location: Online (Zoom)
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (EST)
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Beginning on August 26th, An 8-Part Seminar ~
Inside Memories, Dreams, Reflections
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Inside Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Select Wednesdays from August 26th, 2026 - February 3rd, 2027
7:00 - 9:30 p.m.
Since its publication, after Jung’s death in 1961, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (MDR) has been read and re-read, both as a means to better understand Jung’s own individuation process, and, equally importantly, as a comprehensive treatment of the evolution of the field of Analytical Psychology.
Kept outside of the Collected Works and referred to by Jung as “Aniela Jaffe’s project,” Jung himself contributed several chapters, but chiefly participated in a long and difficult interview process (1957-1959) by which Aniela Jaffé, his trusted colleague, ultimately would provide this singular text with both its structure, tone, and content. As far as capturing the essence of Jung’s life and the core teachings of Analytical Psychology, it simply stands unrivaled in the literature.
In this 8-part lecture/seminar intensive, we will approach MDR as an ur-text in the field of Jungian studies. Participants are expected to come to class prepared to discuss the assigned chapters. Upon enrollment, a syllabus will be provided along with a list of biographies of Jung, numbering now over 20. Each participant will be encouraged to select at least one to read along with our primary text. We will also be reading the recently published text, Jung’s Life and Work: Interviews for Memories, Dreams, Reflections with Aniela Jaffe. Edited by Sonu Shamdasani, who also edited Jung’s Red Book, this book contains the “protocols,” upon which MDR was based. Several new, discounted copies of this book are available for purchase at the Library.
Registration will be limited to 12 participants. Pre-registration is required.
Inquires: info@jungtampa.org
Facilitator: Angelo Spoto
Location: The Library
Time: 7:00 - 9:30 p.m.
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Free Reading Discussion ~ September 3rd Paracelsus the Physician (CW 15)
Concluding a lecture titled Paracelsus al Arzt, delivered to the Swiss Society for the History of Medicine and the Natural Sciences on September 7th 1941, Jung concludes, ”I shall be content if I have succeeded in giving you at least a few impressions of the strange personality and the spiritual force of the celebrated physician whom his contemporaries rightly named the 'Luther of medicine.' Paracelsus was one of the great figures of the Renaissance, and one of the most unfathomable. For us he is still an enigma, four hundred years afterwards.
Jung was struck by the recurrence of alchemical symbols in his patients’ dreams and theorised that the symbolic language of alchemy was an expression of innate but unconscious psychological processes. He related alchemy to the psyche in the same way that Paracelsus, centuries prior, had to physiology. The extensive writings of the alchemists, and particularly Paracelsus among others, helped to ground Jung’s psychological discoveries in recorded lived experience across many centuries, anchoring his groundbreaking hypothesis of the collective unconscious and the process of “individuation.”
Date: September 3rd
Location: The Library at River Hills
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
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Module 9: The Archetypal Self ~
Online Q & A Discussion
Encountering the Psyche: Fundamental Concepts in Analytical Psychology is a 12-part video lecture series intended to elucidate Jung's most foundational concepts in a comprehensive and relatable way. A unique Library offering, this series serves as a video lecture reference library poised to enhance your understanding and engagement with Jung's model. Included in individual modules are curated reading lists, integrative quizzes, and visual downloadables.
Those registered for Module 9 or for the full 12-part course by September 8th will receive an invitation to this bonus Q & A on zoom with lecture presenter and Library Education Director, Angelo Spoto.
Date: Wednesday, September 9th
Location: Online (Zoom)
Time: 4:00 - 5:30 p.m. (EST)
| | | Join Us on September 10th ~ Our Inaugural Lecture at The Franciscan Center | |
Lecture: Alchemy & The Individuation Process ~ September 10th
In 1928, after Jung received the Chinese alchemical text titled The Secret of the Golden Flower from the sinologist Richard Wilhelm, he closed the Red Book mid-sentence and devoted the next thirty plus years of his life to researching and reflecting on the images, writings, and practices of the Western Alchemical tradition.
Jung was the first person in modern times to see the psychological value of the alchemical metaphor as it pertained first to his own work with the collective unconscious and then more specifically to the individuation process itself. Alchemy has since become such a common trope in today’s conversation as to now risk trivialization.
This lecture will bring us back into close contact with the original alchemical fire that drew Jung in, eventually culminating in his magnum opus, Mysterium Coniuctionis. Specifically, we will look into that text and see how Jung’s treatment of his favorite alchemist, Gehrad Dorn, would provide him the most powerful analogue for his psychological model as a whole.
Date: Thursday, September 10th
Location: The Franciscan Center (3010 N. Perry Ave.)
Time: 7:00 - 9:00 p.m.
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Gift With Membership ~ Video Lecture: The Life & Work of C.G. Jung
The Library is pleased to offer members this comprehensive introductory lecture as a complimentary gift in appreciation of your membership and support. This course is Module 1 of a 12-part video lecture series: Encountering the Psyche: Fundamental Concepts in Analytical Psychology, presented by Library Education Director, Angelo Spoto.
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Browse Our Expanding Online Catalog
Members are invited to place holds on books and pick up by appointment.
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Concerning Rebirth ~
Each summer we pause Library programming, coinciding with the beckoning of activity and extroversion bred by longer days, opportunities for travel and play, and a general loosening of the demands of work, school, etc. that can impose a more rigorous and disciplined approach in the fall and spring. During this rhythmic/perennial hiatus, a curious thing recurs. On June 6th each year, Jung’s death is commemorated. And on July 26th, his birth. In a certain sense, he dies and is reborn shortly thereafter.
In 1939 Jung delivered a lecture at Eranos (in Ascona, Switzerland) entitled Concerning Rebirth (CW9i), later transcribed and edited into printed form in 1940. In this essay, he names 5 forms of rebirth, describes their archetypal origins and psychological qualities, and then proceeds to use the example of the Eighteenth Sura of the Koran, entitled "The Cave" (concerning Moses & Khdir, aka - "The Verdant One") to demonstrate the parallels between the death/rebirth mystery and the process of transformation of the personality, a.k.a. individuation.
Here we approximate to the mystery around which the alchemists converged, as Jung well recognized. And it is here that alchemy as a psychospiritual phenomenon, figures of
expanded consciousness such as Philemon and
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Phanes in the Red Book, and the profound mysteries of mythology and religion cohere and demonstrate the potential for release (death) and renewal (rebirth) that is inherent in the psyche.
We look forward to continuing this conversation at the Alchemy & Individuation lecture in September at the Franciscan Center!
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Portrait of C.G. Jung
by Jason Paul Wightman (2024)
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We Are a Diverse, Thoughtful, Heart-Centered Community.
The unconscious is an immense universe worthy of your careful attention. Attended to, it is a profound source of revelation and meaning in an otherwise chaotic contemporary world. The Library is a living symbol, a source containing stores of hidden or deeply buried ideas and images that want to be discovered and known. Our community exists to stimulate a process of discovery, to support psychological discernment and maturation, to spark the creative instinct, and to facilitate individuation.
We warmly invite you to browse our upcoming Calendar of Events.
Please also consider sharing this information with a friend!
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4615 RIVER HILLS DRIVE,
TAMPA, 33617
(813) 947-5864
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