Dear Friends of Jung,

As the incoming president of the Jung Society, I would like to extend a deep appreciation to those of you who support us through your membership and through your participation. Your commitment to our organization enables us to continue to develop and improve upon our vision of educating the public in Jungian Analytical Psychology.

Special recognition is due to our outgoing president, Gene Powell Baker, for his tireless, steady leadership performed truly as a labor of love. The organization is sustained by a dedicated group of board members who contribute their time, talent, and resources to insure the continuation of the Jung Society.

As I reflect upon the future of our organization, it seems to me that we need not restrict our concept of the Jung Society to merely a series of lectures and workshops. Rather, it is my hope that a vision of community will continue to emerge as a container for the head and the heart.

In the past, when I suggested to friends and colleagues that they might enjoy coming to our lectures, they would often say, "Jung is way over my head." To anyone whose interest in Jung is new, I would like to say, "Take comfort; you are not alone in anticipating the challenge of new ideas." In Jane Cabot Reid’s book, Jung, My Mother and I, Reid’s mother, Jung's analysand, paraphrases Jung, saying, "His work was really very hard because he was not always up to it-it was often over his head. When he applied himself really diligently, he sometimes managed to keep level with it, but just as often not. It was mostly a horse-length ahead of him." If one feels called to the path of individuation, we do not have to recreate the wheel. Jung endured the tension of opposites and has presented us with a body of work to which we may turn.

Time and again, Jung tells us wisdom cannot be taught. In Edward Hoffman's book, Wisdom of Carl Jung, we find the quote: "Every unequivocal, so-called clear answer always remains stuck in the head, but only very rarely does it penetrate to the heart. The needful thing remains not to know the truth, but to experience it. Not to have an intellectual conception of things, but to find our way to the inner, perhaps wordless, irrational experience-that is the great problem."

As I meditated on the concept of head and heart, I recalled a dream some fifteen years ago. The dream involved a lion and the Kalahari Desert. At that time, my search to understand the symbolism led me to James Hillman's, The Thought of The Heart, a lecture taken from The Eranos Lectures Series in 1981. The thoughts from that lecture remained in my head and only emerged for re-examination as I began to contemplate the power of community for the Jung Society. I was once again impressed by this quote from Hillman regarding the lore of animal psychology: " . . .[L]ion's cubs are still-born. They must be awakened into life by a roar. That is why the lion has such a roar: to awaken the young lions asleep, as they sleep in our hearts. Evidently, the thought of the heart is not simply given, a native spontaneous reaction, always ready and always there. Rather the heart must be provoked, called forth."

Hillman is telling us that the lion resides in the desert. "The desert is not in Egypt; it is anywhere once we desert the heart." I am inviting our steadfast members and new attendees to join the Jung Society and to engage in the spirit of community where you will find your intellectual curiosity fed and your heart awakened, thus creating a space for mystery to enter.

We hope you will schedule us on your fall calendar. We look forward to seeing you.

Sincerely,

Bonnie Stein
President
C.G. Jung Society of North Texas