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September 8-9

Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Ph.D.

The DaVinci Code and Mary Magdalene
Friday Evening Lecture, 7:30 - 9:30 p.m.

Dan Brown's thriller novel The DaVinci Code has captured attention the world over for three years. Why is this so? Does the intense interest in this fictional work simply challenge the beliefs of Christian heritage, or does it resonate with a personal understanding at a deeper psychological level?

This talk will demonstrate correspondences between the archetypal images of the divine feminine from other world mythologies and Mary Magdalene in Christian mythology and the Gnostic Gospels. We will investigate what the alleged marriage between Jesus and Mary Magdalene means in one's individual psychology. In The DaVinci Code, signs and symbols direct the unraveling of the mystery; the same can be said of the individuation process.

Dionysus and the Villa of Mystery
Saturday Workshop, 9:30 a.m. - noon

Murals in vibrant colors adorn the walls of the first-century Villa of Mysteries. They depict the ritual of a Roman woman entering into sacred rites of Dionysus in Pompeii. The initiation ritual parallels the process of individuation of men and women as described by Jungian psychology. Viewing the scenes of the Villa of Mystery, we journey into the world of the unconscious and Dionysian mystery as we follow the initiate's process through the depicted scenes. This workshop will include an overview of the god Dionysus, followed by discussion of the symbolic images as seen in the life-size friezes. At each stage of this ritual initiation, we discover the relevance these ancient mysteries continue to hold today.

Recommended Books:
Fierz-David, Linda. Women's Dionysian Initiation: The Villa of Mysteries in Pompeii.
Lopez-Pedraza, Rafael. Dionysus in Exile: On the Repression of the Body and Emotion.
Qualls-Corbett, Nancy. The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspects of the Feminine.

Nancy Qualls-Corbett, Ph.D is a practicing Jungian analyst in Birmingham, Alabama. A diplomate of the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, she is a senior training analyst in the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts. Nancy is the author of The Sacred Prostitute: Eternal Aspects of the Feminine and Woman's Awakening: Dreams and Individuation. She combines her love of travel and mythology in leading seminars to the sacred places of Egypt, Greece, France and Italy.

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