Epoch Makers for An Emerging World

Women in Leadership

Changing the Paradigms of Power and Influence

Tuesday Evenings

8:00 – 9:00 PM EDT

 

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Course Modules:

 

Module I:

 Myth, Monsters and Meta-narratives

The Dark Feminine and our Unconscious Relationship to Power

 

The Way to Our Beyond:

Sex, Power and Salome

Loralee Scott, MFA

Sept. 15th

 

In the Red Book, Jung writes: “do not let your disgust stand between you and your beyond.” He is referencing the psychological imperative of engaging with what we most despise in ourselves in order to individuate and become more fully conscious. In this presentation we will go beyond Jung’s Red Book journey with Salome as the transformative feminine intended to compensate for his alienation from his own soul and his inferior feeling function, to explore how Salome is representative of a cultural complex.  Looking at Jung’s relationship with Toni Wolff as a working out of what he could not accept about Salome in the Red Book, we will explore how that cultural complex had been internalized by Jung and trace how it became woven into the psychology.  We will look at the metanarratives that normalize a premature projection of sexuality onto young girls and casts them as “dangerous” due to the power of this projected sexuality, while also situating the thinking feminine and the sensual feminine as polarities. We will explore who Salome represents for women and what the patriarchal meta-narratives regarding sex, power and intellect may have influenced us to exile within ourselves.

 

Lilith:  Part I

Uncursing and Reclaiming the Dark Feminine.

Sheila Cowburn, MA

Sept. 22nd

 

The origins and psychology of the Dark Feminine are explored through the Lilith Myth, seen as an aspect of the archetype of the Great Mother. The symbolic underpinnings of the myth including sexuality and aggression as aspects of the repressed Feminine in the psyches of man and woman, form part of the journey into the unconscious where the Dark Feminine most often resides. The shifting archetypal paradigm as we move out of the patriarchy, offers a challenging imperative to men and women to find ways of uncursing and reclaiming the Dark Feminine that has been neglected in ourselves and our culture. What does it mean in our personal inner journeys to become pathfinders towards a new relatedness to the Dark Feminine. Are we up to the journey?

 

 

Lilith:  Part II

Uncursing and Reclaiming the Dark Feminine.

Sept. 29th

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Hina: A Myth of Healing and Power

Fanny Brewster, PhD

Oct. 6th

 

The Hawaiian myth of Hina speaks to the transformative power and protection of the feminine voice in changing consciousness.  Myth and clinical narrative intertwine to create a path of healing. Our contemporary lives are nourished by the telling and re-telling of stories that love and thereby heal our Feminine Psyche.

 

Medusa;

Disembodied Memory; Projection and Reconciliation with

Athena’s Shadow Sister

Sandy Salzillo, LMHC

Oct. 13th

 

As in all myths there is a psychological core resonating in our deep unconscious. Who has not been turned to stone by the gaze of an unknown stranger and or our loved ones? This lecture will examine the relationship between Medusa and Athena as shadow and projection of the chthonic archaic feminine principle in the psyches of woman in service to a patriarchal narrative that enforces separation between rationality and mystery, soul and power. This beheading, this disembodied legacy continually perpetuated extinguishes the transformation capacity of the creative unconscious illustrated by the life blood spilled by the Medusa. For the psyche to regain its healing potential we must look at the monster’s blood as poison and antidote, destruction and rebirth, embraced by Athena even as they were consciously being destroyed.

 

Queen of Sheba – Beyond Violation to Wholeness

Marilyn Matthews, MD

Oct. 20th

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The meeting of Maqeda, the Queen of Sheba, and King Solomon 3000 years ago as reported in the Bible--twice in the Old Testament and twice in the Gospels-- marks the importance of this event.  It was a meeting of minds, for Maqeda proved to be equal to Solomon in a series of long philosophical discussions.  But it was not just her intellect that attracted the Hebrew monarch who had 600 wives and 400 concubines; by means of a ploy he seduced the dark-skinned queen.  Not long after this event, the queen returned to her country to give birth to a son, through whom the kings of Ethiopia trace their Davidic lineage.  The queen retained her virginal essence; however, this seduction led to the downfall of Solomon and to the loss of the Ark of the Laws.

Though little has been written about this powerful queen, her legacy, including legends, poems and establishment of the Davidic lineage to Ethiopia, is profound.  This tale also demonstrates how the dark transformative feminine, if not treated with respect, can affect our fate.  How does the “virginal” essence of the feminine move beyond violation to the wholeness of her true self?

 

Rethinking the Dark Feminine:

Adam and Eve in the Contemporary Garden of Eden and the Underground Pandemic

Vorris Nunley, PhD

Oct. 27th

 

Presentation will re-scripture, re-vision the symbols, and historicize the Adam and Eve origin myth in the three patriarchal religions. It will address how the myth still mediates the collective, cultural, cultural unconscious, and shadow of the Western imagination. Where contemporary male, female, queer, and other subjects/souls loathe, diminish, and constrict the more productively wild and rhizomatic aspects of an emerging “dark feminine.” Fortunately, the Lilith narrative, indigenous two-spirit stories, the First Council at Nicaea, and the Hag Nammadi discovery complicates the denigration of women and the feminine, allowing for a re-reading of the myth where Eve’s “sin” becomes necessary to human consciousness and spirituality while not to religious or doctrinal law.  A tension that remains today. Finally, the re-thinking of the narrative and tropes of the Adam & Eve myth provides useful insight into how to more soulfully engage the pandemic through a rhizomatic and feminine method of thriving. 

 

 

Module Wrap-Up and Discussion

Nov. 3rd

 

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Module II:

Coloring Outside the Lines:

Historical & Contemporary Models of Women in Leadership

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“Dangerous Sisters,” “Nasty Women” and “F___ing B___es” Disrupting the Hierarchy of Power

Philomela and Procne, Kamala Harris, & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez

Loralee Scott, MFA

Nov. 10th

 

The myth tells the story of a young woman who is raped by her sister’s husband and when she threatens to expose him to her sister, he cuts out her tongue. As the story evolves, the two sisters eventually plot and carry out their own plan of justice for the crimes committed against them.  Yet this ancient story is often known by the title:  “The Dangerous Sisters.” Women who dare to challenge systemic injustice, even more, women who are leaders who collaborate with others in challenging systemic injustice, have historically been portrayed as “dangerous,” "nasty," “crazy” and even as “fucking bitches.”  The patriarchal meta-narrative that situates the archetypal feminine as existing primarily to be in service of the masculine is deeply rooted in the mythologies, the theologies and even the psychologies.  When this meta-narrative of hierarchical power is challenged, the resistance is usually to pathologize, scapegoat or demonize those challenging it. In this session, we will look at how women’s connection to and expression of power often feels transgressive due to an internalization of cultural oppression. We will look at historical examples of women in leadership who have successfully risen above this to own their own power and express their own voice in ways that are authentic and deeply connected to who they are as powerful women.

 

Invisible Women: Part I

Spying, Self Agency and Culture

Diane Greig, PhD 

Nov. 17th

 

My research has focused on examining WW 2 women’s roles in espionage to magnify social and cultural restrictions today.  Between 2004 and 2006 I conducted a series of in-depth interviews with 8 women spies from 7 different countries; their acts of bravery, sabotage, couriering and more behind enemy lines for military and resistance units. I’ll draw from these interview transcripts to tell their stories and how their temporary freedom from patriarchal cultural norms may bring new perspectives for women and others today.

   

The stories reveal multi-faceted highly skilled, adventurous and capable women who, leaving their daily lives, discover liberation from the cultural norms of pre-war Europe navigating espionage operations that could result in death, captivity and/or torture. Although these women would be celebrated if men, they have been left out of historical record. In pop culture there are sensational versions about women spies often attached to men’s stories. Authentic stories of women’s bravery, different from men’s stories, have not been told or celebrated. These narratives and commentary help balance the record of undervaluing women’s contributions and debunking stereotypes. 

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Invisible Women: Part II

Spying, Self Agency and Culture

Diane Greig, PhD 

Nov.24th

 

 

The Subversive and The Good Part I

Cleopatra, Cordelia and Michelle Obama;

Susan Rowland, PhD

Dec. 1st

 

Much can be discerned about patriarchy from those women who come to prominence because they disturb the established order and also those who are deemed “good” girls. Even these latter conforming women can surprise us. My research has focused on the feminine in depth psychology where C. G. Jung is both proto-feminist and arch patriarch. He correctly diagnosed that the loss of the feminine was making modernity sick, while demonstrating an enormous problem with women asserting themselves. His solution is to found and fund the feminine to shore up the wounded masculine. In fact, he produces a Jungian equivalent of Lacan’s phallus in his anima, the feminine that men desire and women must “be” for the patriarchy. All the women considered here from Michelle Obama to Anne Frank, Cleopatra to Cordelia, negotiate the problematic anima position in creative and often deeply subversive ways. While Margaret Thatcher capitalized upon patriarchy to hold in thrall her male cabinets, Hilary Clinton is a woman caught in contradictory narratives. What looks more positive for women in leadership is the ability to incarnate more diverse archetypal energies such as Greta Thunberg’s Artemis energy and Julian of Norwich, whose mothering is divine nurture, not biological destiny.

 

 

The Subversive and The Good Part II

Julian of Norwich and Anne Frank

Susan Rowland, PhD

Dec. 8th

 

The Subversive and The Good Part III

Margaret Thatcher, Hilary Clinton & Greta Thunberg

Susan Rowland, PhD

Dec. 15th

 

Beyond Animus Possession: Sensuality, Power and the Thinking Feminine

Herodias, Hedy Lamar, Toni Wolff and Jacinda Adern

Loralee Scott, MFA

Dec 22nd

 

Module Wrap-Up and Discussion

Jan. 5th

 

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Module III: 

All in the Family:

Family Dynamics and Our Relationships with Power

 

Mother May I?

Self-Agency, the Imposter Syndrome and the Devouring Mother

Manifestations of the Devouring Mother: Part I

A Clinical Case Study

Sandy Salzillo, LMHC

January 12th, 2021

 

The manifestation of the archetypal energies embedded in the field of the devouring mother lead us to some of the most horrific and tragic heroines of fairy tale, myth, novels, film, opera, dance, etc.  This lecture will identify research based on the work of Garreth S. Hill  from his book Masculine and Feminine: The Natural Flow of Opposites in the Psyche as he articulates the polarities of the Static and Dynamic feminine principles in relationship to the static and dynamic masculine principles as a constant fluctuating source of energy in the human psyche.

We will then use dreams and imagery from a clinical case study exploring the narcissistic wound of a young woman struggling with clinical depression, anxiety and an eating disorder as she wrestles with terminating her relationship to the devouring mother complex devastating her ability to differentiate herself from the all-consuming complex.

 

Manifestations of the Devouring Mother: Part II

A Clinical Case Study

Sandy Salzillo, LMHC

January 19th, 2021

 

Using the example of acclaimed film maker, Jane Campion’s, relationship to her mother, we will look at the creative unconscious way of compensating and expressing experiences of assimilating the devouring mothers energy in Campion’s profound masterpiece The Piano. We will then look at dreams and imagery from a composite of clinical cases exploring the narcissistic wound of two young women struggling with depression, anxiety and an eating disorder. In viewing these cases from a depth psychological lens we begin to see the awareness and painful choices presented to these women by terminating their alignment to the all-consuming devouring mother complex in the quest for selfhood, self-agency and ultimately self-compassion.

 

 

Daddy's Girl - The Father's Daughter as Leader

Moving Beyond the Bad Man Syndrome - From Persona to Authenticity

Loralee Scott, MFA

January 26th

 

Module Wrap-Up and Discussion

February 9th

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Module IV:

The Power to Rise Above

Gender-based Trauma and the Journey through Hell

 

*Special Note: Due to the time difference in Zurich where Ursula will be, each of these sessions will meet live, on-line on Saturdays from 11:00 AM to Noon EDT (all sessions will be recorded).

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 Unveiling Gender-based Cultural Trauma

Ursula Wirtz, PhD

February 13th

We will unravel the construction of victimhood, the culturally shaped norms and notions concerning femininity, sexuality and gender and analyze how these cultural master narratives contribute to the conspiracy of silence regarding the cultural trauma of violence against women, the grooming for a life of sexual exploitation, culminating in mass rapes in wars, sexual violence in refugees camps and sex trafficking. We will explore what the alienation from the feminine principle of relatedness contributes to the cultural trauma of violence against women.

 

 

 Losing Soul-Retrieving soul. A Journey through Hell. 

Ursula Wirtz, PhD

February 20th

 

We will look at trauma through the mythological lens as a forced descent to the deepest, darkest regions of one’s being, the archetypal experience of the underworld, of hell. Diving into the myth of Medusa provides a lens to broaden the evocation of images to approach the unimaginable and paradoxical nature of trauma.

 

 

 Whither the Soul After Soulmurder? 

Ursula Wirtz, PhD

February 27th

 

We will explore how the trauma of sexual violence  impacts the psyche. A case vignette with pictures will illustrate the process of transcending trauma, of re-membering what was dis-membered. The role of the symbolic and spiritual dimension for the healing journey will be discussed.

 

Module Wrap-Up and Discussion

March 6th

 

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Module V:

Re-defining the Power of Leadership:

From Dominating to Influencing

 

Systemic Misogyny and Embodied Styles of Female Power

Elizabeth Nelson, PhD

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Three decades ago, I envisioned my vocation in a simple statement: women at their best. But what does “best” mean when women live, work, love, play, and create within the toxic bounds of systemic misogyny? How do we discover and define ourselves in the context of the profound relationships that make a difference personally and communally, in which treating others with empathy, kindness and dignity is our highest value?

This series of webinars is designed for women eager to lead the way to repairing a deeply wounded world. I adopt an archetypal eye to explore the contemporary resurgence of toxic masculinity and argue that the immanent death of patriarchy makes this a most dangerous cultural moment—and an opportune one. The webinar dismantles conventional notions of power as domination to differentiate among many embodied styles of power. Participants will discover their preferred styles and begin to build a repertoire of ethical ideas and actions that suits their character, capacities, and values.

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Webinar 1: March 9th
The cultural challenge: Toxic Masculinity and Systemic Misogyny

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Webinar 2: March 16th
Examining our preferred styles of power

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Webinar 3: March 23rd
Adding to our repertoire of powers

 

Module Wrap-Up and Discussion

March 30th