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http://www.jungsouthernafrica.co.za/

Jung Southern Africa - SAAJA, C. G. Jung Centre, 87 Main Road, Rondebosch, Cape Town (2026)

24/03/2026

When the ego is confronted with conditions in which the familiar structures of one’s life seem to be dismantled, the experience can feel overwhelming, and depression or despair may set in. Whether it is the loss of a job, a home, the end of a significant relationship, or a family tearing apart, such moments can feel deeply disorienting. Meaning becomes obscured because the conscious ‘map’ one has relied on no longer corresponds to the territory. At these times, ‘much of the libido that normally sustains conscious interest, and vitality sinks into the unconscious’. (1)

A woman undergoing an individuation crisis of this kind, where the old conditions are being stripped away, potentially for a more conscious realisation of the Self, had an experience that illustrates this well. In the midst of her depression, she took her dogs for a walk. Her gaze was lowered, partly to avoid the debris on the pavement and partly because her depleted vitality had drawn her inward. As she looked down, she noticed a stirring in the leaves and stopped. To her astonishment, she saw a white, velvety moth emerging from its pupa, hidden beneath the leaves. The sight left her awestruck. The numinosity of the symbol of the emergence of the moth, brought her into contact with something larger than her ego. She felt momentarily connected to the ineffable, to the Mystery itself. This opened the way for her suffering to start taking on meaning beyond the concrete losses.

As Emerson had said: “The secret of the world is the tie between person and event… the soul contains the event that shall befall it… the event is the print of your form “(2). All the events of our lives, inner and outer, carry meaning, as an expression of archetypal patterns. Dreams, active imagination, and synchronistic experiences offer symbols that reveal dimensions of meaning consciousness alone cannot fathom. The symbol of the emerging moth provided a ‘bridge’ between the opposites of the unconscious and consciousness, between obscurity and clarity; a transition from one attitude to another and an unblocking of libidinal flow.

~ Written by Elizabeth Vos, Clinical Psychologist and Jungian Analyst

Image: Great Peacock Moth, 1889 - Vincent van Gogh (WikiArt.org)

References:
1) Edinger, Edward, Ego and Archetype: Individuation and the Religious Function of the Psyche (1972), p. 82

2) Emerson, Ralph Waldo, The Conduct of Life, in Edinger, Edward, Ego and Archetype (1972), p. 101

23/03/2026

Our Quote of the Week.

“Every created thing, big and little, lowly and sublime, can become a symbol of the self according to the state of the individual’s consciousness.”

~ Jolande Jacobi, 𝘊𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘦𝘹/𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦/𝘚𝘺𝘮𝘣𝘰𝘭 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘗𝘴𝘺𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘊.𝘎. 𝘑𝘶𝘯𝘨, 1974, p. 115

19/03/2026

Some images simply stay with us, and we cannot quite say why. They draw us in, catch our attention, and linger in our minds a little longer. Considering this goldfinch for example: if it were to appear in a dream it could feel ordinary, just a bird. Or there could be something about its presence that has impact and carries itself over into waking.

Often our first impulse is to explain it. We reach quickly for interpretation, trying to decide what the image means and why it matters right now. Especially in times of anxiety, when clarity and certainty feel reassuring. Perhaps the finch reflects a fragile wish to escape one’s binds and lighten the heavy emotional state.

Yet Jung suggested that images which move us deserve a different kind of attention. He understood such moments as expressions of the psyche in motion rather than static experiences. When an image carries emotional intensity it can feel numinous, like a sudden gust of wind, hinting that there is energy stirring within the psyche.

As Jungian analysts we are taught to have patience with such images. Rather than boxing them in too quickly, we step into their potential, and allow meaning to unfold slowly. Edinger noted that the Self – the organising centre of the psyche – is largely unconscious and becomes visible only through symbolic images. In this sense, the image itself becomes a meeting place between conscious life and something larger moving within us.

It becomes equally possible that the finch represents a quiet resilience, a willingness to sing despite its surroundings. Or it could become an image of pausing rather than taking flight in the face of the binding anxieties. At first we won’t know which it is. However, the task is not to diminish our curiosity with quick explanations, but to allow the image to interact with our psyche. Follow the fascination. Notice the details. Linger with what drew you in. And allow its meaning to arrive slowly.

~ Written by Austin Smith, Clinical Psychologist and Jungian Analyst

Image: The Goldfinch – Carel Fabritius (1654)

Reference:
Edinger, E. F. (1972). Ego and archetype: Individuation and the religious function of the psyche. Boston, MA: Shambhala.

17/03/2026

Book Report | Verena Kast has written ‘The Dynamics of Symbols’ about how symbols “mediate between the world-logic of consciousness and the dream-logic of the unconscious”[1]. We become more whole by understanding the symbolic image brought up from the unconscious.

John R Van Eenwyk uses chaos theory to explain the scientific basis for the dynamics of symbols and our interactions with them in ‘Archetypes & Strange Attractors’.

In ‘Act and Image’, Warren Coleman asserts that symbols have played a central role in the development of the modern human from our ape ancestors. He looks at how the symbolic imagination evolved through interaction with our physical and social environments and through language.

‘Symbols of the Soul: Therapy and Guidance through Fairy Tales’ demonstrates the use of fairy tales rich in symbols to open up the therapeutic situation thereby offering opportunities for patients to find meaning. Birgitte Brun analyses Peter Pan – the Eternally Flying Child. She collaborates with Marianne Runberg in discussing Pinocchio as a Helper in Psychotherapy – a Case Study.

Neil Russack focuses entirely on animals as symbols in ‘Animal Guides in Life, Myth and Dreams: An Analyst’s Notebook’. He talks of connection with animals as healers and wise teachers. He acknowledges animal sentience, that they have soul. He groups the animal beings, real and imaginary, in chapters such as Initiation by Water, Initiation by Earth, Initiation by Fire. The last mentioned has the fire dragon, the unicorn, the death dragon, and the phoenix.

‘The Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images’ compiled by The Archive for Research in Archetypal Symbolism (ARAS) is a beautifully produced reference. Symbols drawn from their collection of over 17,000 images represent cultures from all over the world. There are five groupings – Creation and Cosmos, as well as the Plant, Animal, Human, and Spirit Worlds. Topics are illustrated by images with detailed annotations and a short essay highlighting its significances. The book is well indexed.

~ Written by Debra West, Librarian, Jean Albert Library, C G Jung Centre

[1] Back cover

Books Referenced:
Kast, Verena (1992) The Dynamics of Symbols: Fundamentals of Jungian Psychotherapy. New York: Fromm.

Van Eenwyk, John R (1997) Archetypes & Strange Attractors: The Chaotic World of Symbols. Toronto: Inner City Books.

Colman, Warren (2016) Act and Image: The Emergence of Symbolic Imagination. New Orleans: Spring Journal.

Brun, Birgitte & Ernst W Pedersen, Marianne Runberg (1993) Symbols of the Soul: Therapy and Guidance Through Fairy Tales. London: Jessica Kingsley.

Russack, Neil (2002) Animal Guides in Life, Myth and Dreams: An Analyst’s Notebook. Toronto: Inner City Books.

Archive For Research in Archetypal Symbolism (2010) Book of Symbols: Reflections on Archetypal Images. Koln: Taschen.

Jean Albert Library - Visitors are welcome
The Jean Albert Library at the Jung Centre in Cape Town has an impressive collection of books on a wide variety of Jungian topics. It’s open on Tuesdays 10 am – 2 pm, and on Thursdays from 2 pm - 7 pm. Becoming a member allows one to borrow books and audio-visual materials. Explore at https://jungsouthernafrica.co.za/jean-albert-library/

16/03/2026

Our Quote of the Week.

“With the birth of a symbol, the regression of libido into the unconscious ceases. Regression is converted into progression, the blockage starts to flow again, and the lure of the maternal abyss is broken.”

~ C.G. Jung, CW 6, §445

12/03/2026

When psychic experience cannot be symbolized, the body often becomes the stage upon which the psyche expresses itself. What cannot yet be spoken, imagined, or consciously held may be carried somatically. In this sense, the body manifests what the psyche cannot yet symbolise.

A true symbol emerges when conscious understanding meets something unknown or unconscious. It allows psychic energy to move and transform. When symbolic life is blocked, however, this transformative process is interrupted. Psychic energy that cannot move through symbol, image, dream, or imagination may instead appear in the body - as tension, illness, fatigue, or unexplained symptoms.

Marion Woodman wrote how the body often carries the weight of psychic realities that have not yet found symbolic expression. Symptoms are not merely pathologies but meaningful communications from the psyche. The body ‘speaks’ when the symbolic function is compromised. In many cases, compulsions, addictions, or physical suffering arise where the psyche longs for symbolic life but has been deprived of it.

Tina Stromsted suggests that the body itself is imaginal - that sensations, gestures, and movements are forms of symbolic language. When individuals reconnect with the body through movement, breath, and awareness, symbolic images often emerge spontaneously. In this way, the body can become the gateway back to symbolic life.

From this perspective, the task is not simply to eliminate symptoms but to listen to them. Symptoms may represent psychic energy seeking transformation. When we engage dreams, images, active imagination, or embodied awareness, the energy held in the body can gradually take symbolic form and become available for psychological development.

The symbolic life is therefore essential to psychic health: through symbols the psyche metabolises experience, allowing the tension between conscious and unconscious to be held creatively rather than somatically. In this way, the symbol transforms psychic energy and releases the body from carrying alone what belongs to the whole psyche.

~ Written by Denise Grobbelaar, , Jungian Analyst

Image credit: Frida Kahlo, The Wounded Deer (1946)

References:
- Stromsted, T. (2025). Soul's body: Active imagination, authentic movement, & embodiment in psychotherapy. Routledge.
- Woodman, M. (1982). Addiction to Perfection: The Still Unravished Bride. Toronto: Inner City Books

11/03/2026

FINAL CALL TO REGISTER | 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗹𝗮𝗶𝗺𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗢𝘂𝗿 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝘁𝘀: 𝗝𝘂𝗻𝗴𝗶𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗻𝗮𝗹𝘆𝘀𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗱𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗛𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗣𝗿𝗮𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝗗𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘂𝗲 | 𝗦𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗱𝗮𝘆 𝟭𝟰 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲.

‘Reclaiming Our Roots’ invites us into a rare and timely dialogue between Jungian Analysts and African Traditional Health Practitioners, born out of a ten-year, sustained engagement in South Africa.

Across this full-day hybrid event, we explore the universal principles of healing and transformation as revealed in both Analytical Psychology and Indigenous Healing traditions. While these worlds are often treated as separate, the conversations and teachings shared here point to deep synergies: unity, correspondence, and the maturation of the personality through lived experience, symbol, dream, and intuition.

The day opens with Renee Ramsden introducing The Emerald Tablet as an imaginal foundation for themes of reality, unity, and transformation. Vella Maseko and Nompumelelo Kubeka then guide participants into the wisdom of ancestral calling, Abantu beliefs, the relationship between ancestors and the living, and the ukuthwasa training process. International guest Dr Peter Ammann concludes the teaching programme by exploring affinities between Jungian psychology and African Traditional Healing as traditions that emerge organically from primordial roots rather than intellectual abstraction.

A facilitated panel discussion will bring focus to the historical challenges faced by indigenous practices in South Africa, and the historical roots of these prejudices in Europe. Consciousness of the history of political trauma in South Africa is essential knowledge for any health practitioner in South Africa, and awareness of how this affects clinical practice is an ethical imperative.

This Special Event is open to clinicians and the public; tertiary students (especially Honours or Masters students in psychology, psychiatry and social work) are warmly encouraged to attend, with a 100% student discount available for online participation.

Visit our website to learn more and to book: https://www.jungsouthernafrica.co.za/event/reclaiming-our-roots-jungian-analysts-and-traditional-health-practitioners-in-dialogue/

Event image: AI-generated

10/03/2026

The symbol enables us to access hidden pockets within ourselves, caves, forests, mountains, oceans of the inner world. In doing so, it brings us into relationship with the Self.

A true symbol does not come from the surface mind. It rises from the depths and it makes itself known. It appears as a spark, image, dream, or synchronistic moment and ignites something within us. It becomes the conduit through which a channel opens between the ego and the archetypal psyche.

The symbolic life is not merely about understanding the abstract or objective meaning of things; it seeks the meaning that stirs the soul - the ‘subjective, living meaning’ as Edinger describes. By searching beyond obvious explanations, we encounter a symbol’s power to affirm the validity of our lived experiences.

A symbol is an experience that moves us. It carries emotional affect because it calls to our soul, strikes a chord, and causes an inner vibration. Its emotional effect may be subtle or utterly overwhelming, but always, it is a call from the source of origin, a reminder of something both familiar and forgotten.

The symbol can only transform when the ego is open to receive it and when the ego receives it there is movement, we experience a ‘new dimension of meaning', the subjective living meaning which connects us to Self, to a place we have once known but have forgotten.

The symbol is a call to remember, it reignites the flow of psychic energy. It is transformative when we are open to receive it. When we are willing to listen, the symbol becomes the bridge home to our(S)elves.

~ Written by Philé Möller, Counselling Psychologist ()

Image: Hiranyagarbha (Golden Cosmic Egg), c. 1740, by Manaku (WikiMedia Commons)

Reference:
Edward F. Edinger (1974). 𝘌𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦. Pelican Books

09/03/2026

Our Quote of the Week.

”A symbol has a subjective dynamism which exerts a powerful attraction and fascination on the individual. It is a living, organic entity which acts as a releaser and transformer of psychic energy. We can thus say a sign is dead, but a symbol is alive.”

~ Edward F. Edinger, 𝘌𝘨𝘰 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘈𝘳𝘤𝘩𝘦𝘵𝘺𝘱𝘦 (1974), Chapter 4, p. 109.

06/03/2026

𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 (2009), starring Christopher Plummer and Helen Mirren, is based on the novel by Jay Parini, depicting Leo Tolstoy’s final years.

The film provides rich material for exploring individuation, the integration of the conscious and unconscious aspects of the personality, and the dynamics of various archetypes and psychological complexes within the film’s characters. And Tolstoy’s story is perhaps one of an incomplete individuation.

✨Format: Online via Zoom
✨Date: Friday, 20 March 2026
✨Time: 9pm - 9pm SAST (UTC +2)
✨Participation fee: ZAR175
✨Booking is essential
At the end of his life, Tolstoy (Plummer) experienced deep inner conflict between his moral idealism and renunciatory spirituality on the one hand, and his earthly attachments, sensuality, and love for Sofya (Mirren) on the other.

Tolstoy, the great moralist, strives for spiritual purity but cannot reconcile his inner opposites – Eros and Logos, body and spirit, love and detachment. Sofya, a projection of his anima, forces him to confront the humanity he would transcend but cannot escape.

From a Jungian perspective, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘓𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯 explores the tension of opposites (the interplay of masculine and feminine principles, Spirit and matter), the failure of integration, and the confrontation with the Self.

For more details and to book online, follow this link: https://www.jungsouthernafrica.co.za/event/jung-and-film-online-the-last-station/
__________
The format of our Jung & Film evenings is that the attendees and facilitators watch the film together on Zoom, followed by a discussion of the film, which includes contributions by facilitators and participants. Before each screening, the facilitators will circulate notes, which discuss and amplify the film.

It is our hope that viewers will become lost in the drama of the film and potentially access aspects of their own experiences and inner life, which they may then choose to share with others during the discussion.

06/03/2026

Our Analytical Psychology Lecture Series continues on Tuesday, 17 March 2026 with 𝗡𝗼𝘁 𝗯𝘆 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗔𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗲: 𝗔 𝗧𝗮𝗹𝗲 𝗼𝗳 𝗮 𝗥𝗲𝗰𝗸𝗼𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴, a presentation by artist Josephine Grindrod.

Referencing James Hillman’s 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥 and Carl Jung’s practice of Active Imagination, this presentation invites participants to witness how art, psyche, and symbol can conspire to make meaning out of loss and to re-enliven what has fallen silent.

In bringing the language of dreams into dialogue with the language of art, Josephine reveals how grief can become a vessel for creative renewal and spiritual insight.

✨Format: Online via Zoom
✨Date: Tuesday, 17 March 2026
✨Time: 7.30pm - 9pm SAST (UTC +2)
✨Participation fee: ZAR175
✨Booking is essential

In this deeply personal and visually arresting presentation, Josephine will take us inside the creation of her installation artwork 𝘕𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘺 𝘉𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥 𝘈𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦, an elegiac response to the death of her father. Combining found objects, painted elements, and sculpted forms in the manner of a scroll painting, she transforms grief into an act of imagination and renewal.

Drawing on a powerful dream that initiated the work, she explores the infra-thin space between life and death, spirit and matter. Through her experimental use of a clay-like substance derived from everyday bread, she reveals how the creative process itself became a ritual of mourning and transformation.

Interweaving personal narrative with mythic and psychological motifs – from Isis and Osiris to the weighing of the heart, and from Christ’s temptation to resurrection – Josephine reflects on what it means to measure a life and to love a parent in all their complexity.

For more details and to book online, follow this link: https://www.jungsouthernafrica.co.za/event/not-by-bread-alone-a-tale-of-a-reckoning/

05/03/2026

For Jung, a symbol is the best possible expression of something not yet fully known. [1] The symbol is “an unconscious a priori [that] precipitates itself into plastic form.” [2] It is not a sign explaining what we already understand, but an image that carries what consciousness cannot yet hold — psychic energy taking form.

Symbols arise when tension can no longer simply be discharged.

Usually we regulate ourselves. Anger is expressed. Sadness is cried. Anxiety is reasoned through. Conflict resolves when we choose a side.

But sometimes the tension doesn't resolve.

The feeling is too large. The opposites are polarised. Instinct threatens ego-identity. Trauma refuses language. The old structures no longer contain what is happening.

So the psyche does something ancient and precise.

It holds the tension.

Energy gathers — and condenses into image.

A child overwhelmed by loss dreams of a tidal wave engulfing the house — grief too vast for words.

A woman in midlife dreams of descending into a cave — leaving the known world for something dark and necessary.

A man divided between aggression and goodness dreams of a serpent coiled in his living room — instinct waiting to be faced.

The image does not solve the conflict. It contains it.

A symbol is a vessel. It gives shape to what cannot yet be said. It stands between instinct and consciousness, holding opposites long enough for transformation.

The image does not disappear. It becomes a lived symbol rather than literal.

The tidal wave becomes lived grief. The cave becomes a chosen descent. The serpent becomes a conscious encounter with vitality.

Living symbolically means remaining with the image — neither possessed by it nor dismissing it — until something new begins to take form.

~ Written by Nici Partridge (), Jungian Analyst and Psychologist

Image credit: A detail from William Blake's 1810 watercolour, ‘Adam Naming the Beasts’.

References:
[1] Jung, C. G. (1953/1966). Two essays on analytical psychology (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1916/1928)

[2] Jung, C. G. (1960/1969). The structure and dynamics of the psyche (R. F. C. Hull, Trans.). Princeton University Press. (Original work published 1928–1950)

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Monday	09:00 - 15:00
Tuesday	09:00 - 15:00
Wednesday	09:00 - 15:00
Thursday	09:00 - 15:00
Friday	09:00 - 14:00