Body Soul Sundays

 

A Nine Month Jungian Program for Women

 

Body Soul Sundays is an intensive monthly program of immersion in the mysteries of the deep feminine.

“A thiasos is a congregation of women attentive to the mystery in things.”
— Nor Hall

Women today do not have the ancient Eleusinian or Dionysian mystery rites to support us as we ripen into life. In our longing for eternal youth, we may miss the beauty of our soul’s journey. We have no time for the soulwork required of us, no time to feel the archetypal energies of Mother, Virgin, and Crone ripple through our bodies and souls. Sometimes we may feel that we are full of unlived life.

Throughout the seasons of Harvest, Wintering, and Rebirth, each woman may ask herself, “What wants to be born in me at this time in my life?” During this workshop cycle we will be “pregnant virgins” carrying the potential for new life in our bodysouls. We will make up a thiasos – “a congregation of women attentive to the mystery.” Through myth and ritual, dreamwork and writing, music and movement, art and voice work, we will enter the realm of soul-making.

“We cannot go back to the ancient mysteries.
Yet we can make the journey below and back again.
We can know the light in our darkness,
can find again, within our body, the sacred mystery.”
— Marion Woodman

Readings from Jung will provide a solid grounding for our experiential work, and films on Marion Woodman will bring her Crone presence into the group. Our final meeting will conclude with a ritual feast.

Ideally participants have done a Body Soul Writing Intensive at UBC or in France, or a Body Soul Rhythms Intensive® or Marion Woodman Foundation Affiliated Workshop. New participants are warmly invited; however, for anyone new to this work, a consultation hour will be part of the application process ($225). Please contact Marlene for more information, or if you would like to register, you can download the registration form or request a printed registration form from Marlene.

“The wisdom of the feminine sanctifies what it touches, making pure and efficient one’s deepest roots in the earth, making sacred one’s most awkward gestures and clumsy performances, one’s stuttering passions and stammering aspirations, unashamedly gathering all this into a wholeness and holiness where the commonest events of the flesh become a treasury of graces.”
— Ann Ulanov

Participant Reflections

Psyche’s circle was a nine-month journey into the myth of the Handless Maiden. Beautifully crafted and facilitated by Dr. Marlene Schiwy, this course allowed me to deepen into this timeless story which I have loved for many years. Through poetry, music, collage, dream work and more, Marlene invited us, a circle of women, to listen to the message of our souls through the symbolism we encountered. Deep, rich, thought-provoking and meaningful, Psyche’s circle created a container for soul awareness and healing for which I am very grateful.

—CH

Psyche’s Circle is a nourishing container in which each individual woman can begin to shine a light on the images held deeply within her through writing, painting, active imagination, poetry, music and movement, bringing them into consciousness. Marlene, writer, teacher and Jungian scholar with a life-long dedication to the inner life of the soul, brings care, imagination and creativity to help create a circle where the new seeds of growth emerge and are tended with love and attention until they become part of the woven tapestry of our being. I have enjoyed belonging to this circle. It has been a sustaining light in the night-sky of recent times.

—MD

Whether in person or online, Marlene expertly weaves together an inspiring mixture of readings, music, and movement to get the creative juices flowing. I had the privilege of participating in the nine-month Psyche’s Circle workshop that began in September 2020. Our monthly Zoom meetings were a beacon of light through some of the darkest months of the pandemic. It was truly a blessing to share a journey into the depths of the feminine archetypes with so many creative women from across the globe. Deep bonds were formed as we shared our prose, poetry and art over the months. I will always treasure our time together and am deeply grateful to Marlene for facilitating our journey with such wisdom and grace.

—EM

 
 
 

New dates TBA