MARCH 2024

The Secret of the Golden Flower Reading Group

Active Imagination and the Way of Individuation

with Jason E. Smith, IAAP

Mondays • March 4, 11, 18 & 25, 2024

4-6pm Pacific / 7-9pm Eastern
4 weeks
All sessions will be available via video recording.

*

Richard Wilhelm was a German sinologist who is best remembered for his translations of philosophical works from Chinese into German that in turn have been translated into other major languages of the world. His translation of the I Ching is still regarded as one of the finest, as is his translation of The Secret of the Golden Flower; both were provided with introductions by the Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung, who was a personal friend.

"Wilhelm was a truly religious spirit, with an unclouded and far-sighted view of things. He had the gift of being able to listen without bias to the revelations of a foreign mentality, and to accomplish that miracle of empathy which enabled him to make the intellectual treasures of China accessible to Europe . . . he could not help recognizing the logic and clarity of Chinese thought... it had overwhelmed him and assimilated him.

— C.G. Jung (MDR, p. 375)

*

Jung’s encounter with the Taoist-alchemical text The Secret of the Golden Flower was an important event in the development of his psychology. On the one hand, it gave him confirmation for the method of active imagination which he had been developing, and it gave him confidence to begin to publish his findings about the process. On the other hand, the text formed a link to alchemy, the subject that would come to dominate Jung’s later years of research and study.

In this class, we will read through both the original text of the Golden Flower, translated by Richard Wilhelm, as well as Jung’s commentary on the text. We will discuss its importance to Jung’s work, giving particular attention to the method of active imagination. Finally, we will explore the relevance of this work for the practical application of the symbolic life in contemporary life.

Required Reading:

The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life
(Translated by Richard Wilhelm, with a commentary by C.G. Jung)

Recommended Reading:

Memories, Dreams, Reflections by C.G. Jung

The Transcendent Function by C.G. Jung (in Collected Works vol. 8)

•

Your Host:

Jason E. Smith

Jason E. Smith is an author and Jungian analyst in private practice in Manchester-by-the-Sea, MA. He was previously the president of the Training Board of the C. G. Jung Institute in Boston. He received his Master’s degree from Pacifica Graduate Institute and graduated from the C.G. Jung Institute - Boston with a diploma in Analytical Psychology.

Jason is the creator and host of the podcast, Digital Jung: The Symbolic Life in a Technological Age and the author of Religious But Not Religious: Living a Symbolic Life (2020).

Sale pricing ends Feb. 22, 2024