Unfortunately, all Carl's Cafe events are cancelled at the present time.
“Carl’s Café,” is an ongoing series of conversation evenings. These free ranging, informal discussions, in a friendly, peer-to-peer atmosphere at which all members are welcome to contribute, are a complement to our more structured lecture and workshop program events.
You can look forward to an “anything can happen” discussion with old and new friends, great tea, coffee and snacks from our helpful hosts at Steeps, and plenty to think about on the way home! Past and current topics, with the introductions that are emailed out before each cafe are listed below.
The event is free; everyone buys their own refreshments. Carl's Café convenes on the first Tuesday of every month (unless the first Monday of the month is a holiday, in which case the cafe will be the second Tuesday). We meet at Steeps , 880 16 Ave SW, (403) 209-0076. We start at 7:30, and usually wrap up between 9:30 and 10:00.
Facilitators Wanted!
In the spirit of a true community event, anyone is invited to submit a suggestion for a cafe topic they want to facilitate, either via email (use the Contact Us link at left) or in person at the cafe. Requirements are:
- Lots of interest and at least an introductory level of knowledge in the subject area
- Time and willingness to do some research (most of which can usually be accomplished online) during the weeks preceding the cafe
- Preparation of an email invitation with some background for the participants (see below for examples)
- Committment to attend the cafe and facilitate the discussion
Facilitators do not need to be subject-matter experts. Enthusiasm, a desire to learn, and a keen interest in what everyone has to say are much more important. The cafe administrator will be happy to provide advice and guidance regarding topics, research, and conversation/leadership skills if needed. In particular, new volunteer facilitators can count on lots of help with theme development, i.e. how we get from a bare idea to a rich and inviting introduction. If you don't feel up to taking on everything yourself, we'll try to find someone to co-facilitate with you.
Next Cafe: Sept. 15: CANCELLED
True to the Quest: The Myth of Psyche
Previous Cafes:
Tuesday, April 7, 7:30 pm
One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes: Symbolism of Vision
Tuesday, March 3, 7:30 pm
Persona: If the Shoe Fits...
Tuesday, February 3, 7:30 pm
Archetypes in Love
With Valentine's Day coming up, as well as Dr. Dirk Evers' lecture and workshop on "The Inner World of Relationships" (click the title to view our web page for these events), it seemed natural to talk about love and romance. I found what I think is a most interesting pair of fairy tales, Donkeyskin and Swan Maidens. (click the titles for full text and SurLaLune Fairy Tales) These two tales both resemble and complement each other in interesting ways. Donkeyskin has a female protagonist and Swan Maidens has a male one, and they both contain much symbolic wisdom about the trials we go through trying to find the "other" who makes us whole, even though if you take them literally they seem to validate a lot of dubious things like deceiving or even kidnapping one's beloved!
In a Jungian view of relationships, the concepts of the Anima and Animus, a man's "inner woman" and a woman's "inner man" are essential. Click here for definitions from Daryl Sharp's Jung Lexicon. Here is a quote from John Sanford's book Invisible Partners, which speaks, in a "Jungian" voice, about what makes relationships with "significant others" so eternally difficult, yet so essential that most of us, consciously or unconsciously, pursue them regardless, throughout our adult lives.
If we discover the anima or animus image has been projected onto a man or a woman, that makes it possible for us to see in reflection contents of our psyche that otherwise might escape us. The capacity to recognize and utilize projections is especially important for self-knowledge when it comes to the anima or animus, since these psychic factors can never become so conscious to us that they do not project themselves. The contrasexual element within us is so psychologically elusive that it escapes our complete awareness, therefore it always is projected, at least in part. It cannot be a matter of knowing these realities so well that projection no longer occurs. This is an impossible goal, for the anima and animus do not partake of ego reality, but carry for us quite a different mode of psychological functioning. As far as self-knowledge is concerned, it is a matter of utilizing projections as mirrors, a task that is possible with the use of Jung's psychological concepts.
Robert A. Johnson's wonderful little book We: Understanding the Psychology of Romantic Love, along with its "partner" books He and She, have become very popular because of their clear language and concise yet deep treatment of the archetypal masculine and feminine and how they interrelate. He calls our chronic difficulty with romantic relationships "the great wound in the Westnern psyche".
Despite our ecstasy when we are "in love", we spend much of our time with a deep sense of loneliness, alienation, and frustration over our inability to make genuinely loving and committed relationships. Usually we blame other people for failing us; it doesn't occur to us that perhaps it is we who need to change our own unconscious attitudes -- the expectations and demands we impose on our relationships and on other people.
Bring your projections, your partners, or both!
Tuesday, January 6, 7:30 pm
Pride, Falls, and Fragmentation
When one of the participants at the December cafe suggested "Humpty Dumpty" as the theme for January, I have to admit I was skeptical. I wasn't sure a "mere" nursery rhyme would have enough richness and resonance, but after a little thinking and research I realised that I was entirely wrong! The theme of how our "high and mighty" disregard of our vulnerability puts us at risk, individually and collectively, for irrevocable damage pertains strikingly, even urgently, to the current human condition and the critical questions facing us at this time in history.
The rhyme itself has a rich and interesting history. Click here for the wikipedia article on the rhyme. I also recommend a "Straight Dope" page on the origins of the "egg" image, a British "backgrounder" on the rhyme's history, and an excellent "community" page at Rooney Design with more suggested historical explanations of the rhyme's origin.
None of this, however, explains the continuing popularity of the rhyme and its central metaphor in both juvenile and adult popular culture. There seems to be something irresistible in the tale of the "elevated egg" (could it symbolize embryonic consciousness?) getting irreparably smashed. I found a remarkable Max Fleischer cartoon from 1935 which melds Humpty with Icarus and Midas. The last couple of minutes in particular contain images that remind me sharply of the environmental backlash that seems to be in store for 21st-century humans, especially the "cosmic spanking" at about 6:10. And the final "crowning" is priceless. It's now in the public domain and available from Google Video. Click here to view.
One of the things I found myself wondering about is whether the absence of any feminine elements in the rhyme is related to the totality of Humpty's destruction, since archetypally the Feminine is associated with healing and mediation. I was reminded of the Persephone myth, which we sadly missed hearing at the Winter Solstice event that was cancelled due to the December 12 snowstorm. Persephone is also naive and oblivious to her vulnerability at the beginning of the story, but thanks to the maternal energies of Demeter and her own flexibility (as opposed to Humpty's brittleness?) she emerges from her "Great Fall" much greater than before, albeit irrevocably changed. Click these links for background on Persephone at Wikipedia and the Encyclopedia Mythica pages on Perseophone/Prosperine and the Eleusinian mysteries
Regardless of which way the discussion might go on this or or other questions, I think there'll be plenty to talk about!
Tuesday, December 2, 7:30 pm
The Nightingale: What Ails the Patriarchy?
At the November cafe, our small but enthusiastic group went deep into the question of what Jungian thought can offer to those grappling with social, political, and environmental problems. We chose the sickness of the patriarchy, and ideas for its healing, as the theme for December.
After some thought, I finally chose Hans Christian Andersen's tale The Nightingale for this month. It's a bit of a controversial choice, since Andersen's tales are not "true" fairy tales in the sense of having been "refined by passing through many minds". Marie-Louise von Franz the "Great Mother" of Jungian fairy tale interpretation, in particular, had a rather jaundiced view of Andersen's stories, but many more recent Jungians, notably Clarissa Pinkola Estes, have put forth a less purist view that there is "medicine" in any story that speaks to us deeply. And this story speaks to me deeply of precisely what seems to be sickening our system right now; the "emperor’s palace [that] was the most beautiful in the world ... built entirely of porcelain, and very costly, but so delicate and brittle that whoever touched it was obliged to be careful." seems to me a strikingly apt image for what the media are calling the "global economic crisis".
The Nighingale, who, notably I think, at the beginning of the story is known only to a "poor little girl in the kitchen", seems to embody many archetypally feminine characteristics, especially the "Feeling Function" as it is characterised in Jungian typology. I believe that she and her song embody what Jungian writers like the aforementioned Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Jean Shinoda Bolen, and Robert A. Johnson have identified as what humanity, and in particular Western culture, need for healing.
I found a most interesting article by Harry Hillman Chartrand, a cultural economist at the University of Saskatchewan. He proposes a very Jungian solution for what's wrong with the economy: "we must relearn and revalue the vocabulary of feeling, a vocabulary women traditionally carried since the beginning of the patriarchy and a vocabulary best taught through art". The transformation that Chartrand prescribes (the full article is referenced below) seems to map with uncanny accuracy onto the way the Nightingale's song transforms and reinvigorates Andersen's dying Emperor.
Links:
References from the November Cafe (links will open in new windows):
Craig Stukoff brought along two more popular culture references to "Snow White", which we discussed at the October cafe. The first is Neil Gaiman's short story "Snow, Glass, Apples" , and the second is the "Sonne" music video from the German band Rammstein.
Louie Koutis was unable to attend, but in an email he recommended the book Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant .
Stealing Jesus by Bruce Bawer
"What is America?" by Ronald Wright
Snakes in Suits by Paul Babiak and Robert Hare
The Emptied Soul by Adolf Güggenbuhl-Craig
Women Who Run With the Wolves by Clarissa Pinkola Estés
Terence McKenna
Tuesday, November 4, 7:30 pm
Jung and Social Change
The topic of social change has come up many times during the past few cafes. Although Jung is not always thought of as a political or sociological thinker, he wrote extensively about the global issues of his day, and many Jungians like Jean Shinoda Bolen , for example, are both analysts and social activists.
What we'd like to try this time is a bit less "planned" than usual. I'd like everyone to try and think of a social or political issue or question that worries, puzzles, or outrages you. As a group we'll brainstorm all the topics brought forward, in the context of seeing what the Jungian approach can offer. However, if you can't think of anything specific, don't let that stop you from coming! Here are a couple of examples.
- Why do low-income people vote for right-wing poiticians when it's clearly against their interet to do so?
- How is it psychologically possible for someone to be "pro life" in a reproductive context yet favour capital punishment?
References from the October Cafe:
For those of you who are interested, here are some references from the October cafe -- all are clickable links that will open in new windows.
Tuesday, October 7, 7:30 pm
Wicked Witches and Evil Queens: The Negative Mother Archetype
Last month, while exploring the the masculine Devil figure in The Handless Maiden, whose evil machinations cause the heroine to lose her hands, her family, and her home, the idea came up that it might roun out our understanding if we also looked at the many female villains who cause so much grief for innocent heroines in fairy tales, and that's how we came up with this month's theme. I think it's very appropriate that this has come up just in time for Halloween. In that spirit, "Witchy" or "Queenly" attire is optional, but welcome!
After some reflection and research, I've chosen Snow White as the tale for our starting point. Partly because the villainous stepmother in the tale is both a Wicked Witch and an Evil Queen, but also because, it seems to me that there are few, if any, fairy tales whose motifs are more prevalent in the collective consciousness. The poison apple, the magic mirror, the dwarves, the handsome prince; these metaphors are ubiquitous.
Yet, poor Snow White herself tends to be viewed with condescension or even disdain. I think a lot of us, especially women, tend to "write her off" as a passive heroine who lets the prince solve her problem, instead of saving herself like any self-respecting post-Femininst ought to do. When a story gets so much attention, and yet so little respect, it seems to me that it probably embodies a symbolic representation of something that we need to know, but don't want to!
I was particularly struck by the analysis of the tale in Sibylle Birkhäuser-Oeri's book The Mother: Archetypal Images in Fairy Tales. (Click the title for the publisher's description. The book is rather hard to find; I will bring my copy on Tuesday so anyone who's interested can take a look.) She unearths many profound themes including fundamental aspects of individuation like "the evolution of emotion through conflict. Here's a brief excerpt, talking about what we can learn from the actions of the negative mother figure in the story.
This story also shows the importance of conscious suffering at the hands of the shadow. There are those who simply repress their jealousy and egotism and then think they have none. Only conscious suffering leads to growth, not a simple unconscious living-out of the shadow, as people sometimes think. Conscious suffering is caused by a clash of opposites bringing renewal. This produces both a mature attitude to emotion and a genuine understanding of oneself and others. Out of this, true relationship becomes possible.
Birkhäuser-Oeri was a friend and colleague of Marie-Louise von Franz, who edited The Mother and wrote the preface after the author's sudden death in 1971 as she was preparing the manuscript for publication. Not surprisingly, Birkhäuser-Oeri's approach to fairy tales owes much to von Franz. However, I found an analysis of Snow White at www.cgjungpage.org by psychotherapist Stephen Flynn, who uses a classical mythological approach to the tale (he doesn't reference von Franz at all -- rather unusual for a Jungian fairy tale analysis). He arrives at more or less the same place via quite a different route! Because the C.G Jung page requires a subscription for full access, click here for a PDF copy of Flynn's article which I have uploaded to our site for your convenience.
Finally, here are links to the Grimms' version of the tale, and its wikipedia article, which references other online versions, and has an extensive list of popular-culture references.
References from the September Cafe:
Tuesday, September 9, 7:30 pm
Power in Powerlessness: The Handless Maiden
During last month's conversation about instinct, the topic of our apparent powerlessness in "transformative" times, as illustrated in the tale of The Handless Maiden came up, and we chose that as a theme for this month's cafe.
This tale is a favourite of Jungian interpreters. It was explored in extensive and loving detail by Clarissa Pinkola Estes in her watershed book Women Who Run With the Wolves, and it is the centre of the "feminine" half of Robert A. Johnson's wonderful and too little known book on the wounded feeling function, The Fisher King & the Handless Maiden.
For some background, wikipedia has a good article on the tale itself here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_Without_Hands
You might also enjoy wikipedia's articles about both the analyst-authors, Clarissa Pinkola Estes and Robert A. Johnson.
There are many versions of the tale itself; the best online one I could find is the SurLaLune version linked above, and here: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/armlessmaiden/index.html
Local Expressive Arts therapist and regular attendee Elizabeth Cheung and I will co-facilitate the cafe. Although we and most others seem to find unique and intensely personal meaning in the tale, I want to complete this invitation with the following quote from Robert A. Johnson's narrative about the Handless Maiden, which hints fascinatingly at its relevance to social and even global change.
When Dr. Jung was asked the question "Will we make it?" he always replied, "If enough individuals will do their inner work." There seem to be no collective solutions to this problem of wounded feelings, only individuals brave enough to take the problem personally. This is the new heroism.
Books from the August Cafe:
For those of you who are interested, here are the books we mentioned at the August cafe.
The Secret Life of Bees , Sue Monk Kidd
The Hearing Trumpet , Leonora Carrington and Paul W. Carrington
Tuesday, August 12, 7:30 pm: Essential Instincts
Last month, we had a great conversation about the Archetypal or "cosmic" Feminine, and in the course of exploring the myth of Psyche, where she is saved by a colony of ants, we found that we all had much to learn about the concept of Instinct in the Jungian psychic model. I've done a bit of research, and to get you started thinking, here are a couple of quotes from Jung (both are from The Undiscovered Self).
Instinct is anything but a blind and indefinite impulse, since it proves to be attuned and adapted to a definite external situation. This latter circumstance gives it its specific and irreducible form. Just as instinct is original and hereditary, so too, its form is age-old, that is to say, archetypal. It is even older and more conservative than the body's form.
These biological considerations naturally apply also to Homo sapiens, who still remains within the framework of general biology despite the possession of consciousness, will, and reason. The fact that our conscious activity is rooted in instinct and derives from it its dynamism, as well as the basic features of its ideational forms, has the same significance for human psychology as for all other members of the animal kingdom.
Here's a link to the definition (it's a long one!) of Instinct in Daryl Sharp's Jung Lexicon
And, I found not one but two fairy tales that seem, to me at least, to hit the Instinct archetype:
The Queen Bee
The Dog and the Sparrow
That should give us plenty to talk about, and be sure to bring your "wild" inner selves!
As always, this event is free of charge, everyone is welcome, and we all buy our own refreshments. Location is the original Good Earth Cafe, 1501 11 St. SW (www.goodearthcafes.com). We start at 7:30 pm, but people do drift in later, so don't feel you can't join us if you can't make it right at the beginning. We usually wrap up between 9:30 and 10:00.
Books from the July Cafe:
For those of you who are interested, here are the books we referenced at the July cafe.
- Women Who Run With the Wolves, Clarissa Pinkola Estes
- Goddesses in Everywoman, Jean Shinoda Bolen
- She, Robert A. Johnson
- The Consciousness Revolution, Ervin Laszlo, Stanislav Grof, and Peter Russell
Tues July 8, 7:30 pm: Anima and the Archetypal Feminine
Last cafe the group decided that we'd tackle a question we hadn't fully answered from one of the male participants about how to recognize and connect with his Anima.
As I reflected on this, it occurred to me that the way this played out, where our group, which was split half male and half female, had a much easier time characterizing the archetypal Masculine than the archetypal Feminine, fits neatly in with the work of many current Jungians, notably Jean Shinoda Bolen (Goddesses in Everywoman) and Clarissa Pinkola Estes (Women Who Run With the Wolves). One of their shared premises, as I outrageously oversimplify it, is that although the women's movement has done much to get women more recognition and respect, the archetypal Feminine is still getting short shrift. Both use folks tales and Goddess mythology to try to recover our lost Feminine power.
Here are a couple of myths that are frequently used as illustration in this context.
The story of Psyche is the leitmotiv of Robert Johnson's She. A version is available here: http://www.paleothea.com/myths/psyche.html Inanna's descent is the basis of Sylvia Brinton Perera's Descent to the Goddess.
Tuesday, June 8, Opposites Within: Anima and Animus
At this month's Carl's Cafe we're going to talk about the Anima and Animus archetypes, the "masculine within the feminine" and vice versa. If you're not too familiar with these ideas, there's some outstanding information at this page http://www.cnr.edu/home/bmcmanus/anima.html from Barbara McManus at the College of New Rochelle. But please don't feel this is "required advance homework" -- everyone is welcome to come and learn as we go along.
Since there's been such a great response to the fairy tales we used at previous cafe, I managed to find one that has both an "Anima" and an "Animus" plot line. It's the Grimm tale of the Skillful Huntsman. You can read it here: http://myweb.dal.ca/barkerb/fairies/grimm/g111.html
This notion of the archetype of the opposite gender (i.e. "contrasexuality") within the psyche, is, in the Jungian model, one of the key aspects of our psychic wholeness. The Anima and Animus can be the Feminine and Masculine "ideal", but like everything else they have their Shadow side, and this can lead to all sorts of difficulties. I look forward to seeing you, and you Animi and Animae, there for what I'm sure will be some most interesting discussion.
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Carl's Cafe