Inauguration Day lecture in Sarasota to explore polarization in American culture and politics

Art and archetypes to be subject of related workshop on Jan. 21

Dr. Richard Tarnas. Image courtesy C.G. Jung Society of Sarasota

On the day President-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office — Jan. 20 — internationally recognized author Dr. Richard Tarnas, professor at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and winner of the 2006 Book of the Year Prize from the international Scientific and Medical Network, will speak in Sarasota on the prevailing zeitgeist of Western culture and politics, organizers of the lecture have announced.

His topic, Our Moment in History: Is Modern Humanity Undergoing a Rite of Passage?, “will explore new principles and structures that are emerging to shape the United States and the world in a time of intense polarization and radical change,” a news release says. The lecture will begin at 7 p.m.

Tarnas also will lead a Saturday, Jan. 21, workshop with the theme, The Gods at Play: Archetypal Powers and Patterns in the Arts, using works of art as windows into archetypes, the release adds.

The workshop will begin at 10 a.m., break for lunch and conclude at 4 p.m., the release notes.

Both events, which will be presented by the C.G. Jung Society of Sarasota, are open to the public, the release points out. They will take place at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Sarasota, located at 3975 Fruitville Road. Tickets for the lecture are $15 to $20; for the workshop, $50 to $60; and for both events, $55 to $70. Advance tickets are available online at cgjungsarasota.org/events; anyone wishing to purchase day-of-event tickets should arrive 30 minutes early, the release adds.

“Our time is pervaded by a great paradox,” Tarnas says in the release. “On the one hand, we see signs of an unprecedented level of engaged global awareness, moral sensitivity to the human and non-human communities, psychological self-awareness and fertile spiritual pluralism. On the other hand, we confront the most critical, and in some respects catastrophic, state of the Earth in human history. Both these conditions have emerged directly from the modern age, whose light and shadow consequences now affect every part of the planet.”

Image from the C.G. Jung Society of Sarasota website

Tarnas’ presentations will be part of the C.G. Jung Society’s 2017 national guest speaker lecture and workshop series. In February, the organization will host Dr. Tom Cheetham, author of five books on the imagination in religion, psychology and the arts, the release continues. Cheetham will speak on the topics, The Extensive Self: Escaping the Trap of Yourself and The Freedom of Not Knowing: Imagination in Art, Poetry and Everyday Life. In March, Dr. Jerry M. Ruhl, who co-authored Living Your Unlived Life: Coping with Unrealized Dreams and Fulfilling Your Purpose in the Second Half of Life — in collaboration with renowned Jungian analyst and author Robert A. Johnson — will focus his lecture and workshop on the theme, Slender Threads: Invisible Patterns that Shape and Guide Our Lives.

“Our exceptional speakers in 2017 will help us look inward and better understand how we evolve in consciousness through the structures of society and the arts,” said Urte Tuerpe, president of the board of the C.G. Jung Society of Sarasota, in the release. “Jung’s work can serve as a much-needed bridge to help us understand the true nature of humanity’s existence and future potential,” Tuerpe added.