This lecture discusses electronic gambling machines known as “pokies” in Australia, “slot machines” in the United States of America and “fruit machines” in the United Kingdom. It explores their use of symbols, how players may be entranced by the promise of spiritual connection and let down by the lack of revelation. Regulations surrounding electronic gambling machines vary greatly around the world and continue to be the subject of fierce political and social debate in Australia.

This lecture explores the alchemical union of opposites through the symbolism of bees including love and war, sweetness and bitterness, the individual and multiplicity, regeneration and death. Circumambulating the hive is linked with mandala symbolism and the archetype of inner order.

Dionysus the Forgotten God discusses myths of the complex and fragile God, Dionysus - born of both parents and a third time reborn of the underworld. Both the last Olympian and the first to be cast out. Where the qualities of his brother Apollo fit more easily into a patriarchal framework, the qualities of Dionysus as, the sensuous god, are often rejected in the Western world.

Music credit: https://www.purple-planet.com/tracks/passport

Illness, Symptom & Individuation approaches the process of integration and healing through experiences of illness and trauma in the life of the body. Mary shares a personal experience of serious, prolonged illness that evaded medical diagnosis for some time. This experience led to an intense period of change where symbolism of the inner world mirrored her experience in the outer world, and led to an embodiment of spirit.

With a focus on the big questions of the human condition – cycles of birth and death, destiny and free will, suffering and the life journey - Maureen weaves her way through ancient rituals in honour of the earth mother and Goddesses with many names, to the rise of the patriarchal era, including the Greek tragedian plays. These plays incorporated the sacred mysteries and fundamental questions, now focused on individual man. The significance of ritual in attending to and supporting our inner struggles toward Selfhood is captured in her discussion of Jung’s essay Transformation Symbolism in the Mass.

Please note, Maureen does refer to a number of images in the talk, examples of these or similar can be found on the internet.

In today’s talk, Mary works with Zen Buddhist 10 Oxherding Pictures and accompanying poetry to establish a way of ‘being with’ the unconscious. These ancient pictures reflect stages an individual might progress to toward enlightenment and a return to the outer world to gift their insight and care back to the community. These images are accessible on the internet.

Mary notes how attention to our dreams can convey communication between our conscious everyday reality and our capital ‘S’ Self. From a Jungian perspective, the paintings and poetry can be seen as a wonderful metaphor to reflect upon and be with the process of individuation. Beginning with an awareness of something not quite right, a loss of meaning, identity or energy, Mary takes us on a rich journey into the power of dreams to begin an ongoing conversation between our ego and our Self.

In today’s talk Annette takes us through a rich array of voices and works that speak to the question of the definitions, potential origins and purpose of the mystical experience and religion. Ranging from perspectives in sociology, neuropsychology, myth, Jung, art and sociobiology, we consider the marked differences between religious and mystical experiences and how surprisingly common the latter are. Annette raises the possibility of a partially physiological basis for a mystical or transliminal temperament and the survival value this possesses both for the individual and society.

Exploring the many manifestations of mother in our psyche from the Great Mother to the personal mother, the mother complex to the inner mother, Margaret draws our attention to one of the fundamental qualities of the maternal. In this talk, a rich description is provided around the ways that Mother encapsulates a primordial oneness and mystery. The invitation is to consider how we mother the unknown in ourselves, and in our world. Do we embrace mystery with openness and love, or do we attempt to control what we don’t know and reject our individuality?