“The Healing Symbol” – Conference

“How can we heal the moon?” is the title of the opening talk at the Guild of Pastoral Psychology’s Oxford Conference. The first speaker, Henry Abramovitch, will be approaching the subject of the healing symbol from the Rabbinic position. Abramovitch is founding President of the Israel Institute for Jungian Psychology and has a private practice in Jerusalem. He will speak on the underlying mystic concept of “tikkun” or “cosmic repair” and the idea that the world is in a continuous process of being created. His second talk is entitled “You come to me, now I come to you” in which he will review Jewish approaches to dreams, including rituals of “asking for a dream” and “making a bad dream good”. He will describe contemporary dream incubation including pilgrim dreams in which the holy man (“tzaddik“) appears to the dreamer. Abramovitch will be incorporating clinical, archetypal and symbolic material from a Jungian perspective.

The second speaker will be Robert Mercurio, a Jungian analyst trained in Switzerland who practices in Rome. His two talks are entitled “The unknown God and the mystery of matter” and “The unknown God and the inferior function“. He will be exploring the idea of the “unknown God” with reference to material from St Paul to John Steinbeck via alchemy and Hermetic philosophy.

The Conference takes place at St Hilda’s College, Oxford from Friday 26 August to Monday 29 August. For further information see the Guild of Pastoral Psychology’s website: www.guildofpastoralpsychology.org.uk

Posted on 16 June 2011