LECTURE: Michael Conforti, Ph.D., Jungian Psychoanalyst, "A Passion for Soul"

A Passion for Soul                                

“… your influence falls on me, gently, like moonlight on a window seat.”   Rilke

 Who is it that finds that hidden place in our heart and soul that we have all but given up on? Yet somehow, despite our attempts to silence this un-sated hunger, “she” has never left our side, or given up the hope of bringing new life into our weary soul.

 Perhaps now we must admit to our many disappointments in love and life, of journeys down unsavory streets, and far too much time in broken-down dives where the lost gather to imbibe shattered dreams.  Yet the hope of finding love and soul remains humanity’s greatest dream, demanding the courage to experience a profound and painful vulnerability.

Rilke's “love” for Lou Andreas Salome is such a story. He speaks of his devotion and need of Salome when writing; “You alone are real to me”.   Salome, however, understood that while he did love her, he was also speaking to his soul with these words.  As a Man, artist, and lover, it was through this relationship with Salome that Rilke came to know the contours and hungers of his soul. 

While we are often consumed by our love for another, and by those passions that fill us with awe, and inexhaustible  energy, ultimately it is the soul that has kindled such a flame, needing to be recognized.  Embedded within these passions is the soul calling to us of a life living in-potentia .   In his book “ She”,  H.Rider Haggard writes;   “For deep love unsatisfied is the hell of noble hearts … but love that is mirrored back more perfect from the soul of our desired doth fashion wings to lift us above ourselves, and makes us what we might be.” 

From  Haggard, Rilke, Rabbi Heschel, Toni Wolff, and others, we see this Janus faced nature of such a love, calling us to transcend the habitual so as to enter into the numinosium to embrace the ineffable.

The soul has called to humanity since the beginning of time.  While ultimately, the search for one’s Soul is a solitary journey, to  have the reflection from someone who cares so deeply about us, is more than sublime.

Please join us as we travel this “sentiero sacro”, into the domain of Psyche, Soul, and Eros.

Brief Bio

Dr. Michael Conforti is a Jungian analyst and the Founder and Director of the Assisi Institute. He is a faculty member at the C.G. Jung Institute of Boston, the C.G. Jung Foundation of New York, and for many years served as a Senior Associate faculty member in the Doctoral and Master's Programs in Clinical Psychology at Antioch New England. A pioneer in the field of matter-psyche studies, Dr. Conforti is actively investigating the workings of archetypal fields and the relationship between Jungian psychology and the New Sciences.

He has presented his work to a wide range of national and international audiences, including the C.G. Jung Institute - Zurich and Jungian organizations in Australia, Canada, Colombia, Denmark, Ecuador, Italy, Russia, South Africa, the Ukraine and Venezuela.

He is the author of Threshold Experiences: The Archetype of Beginnings (2007) and Field, Form and Fate: Patterns in Mind, Nature and Psyche (2002). His articles have appeared in Psychological Perspectives, The San Francisco Jung Institute Library Journal, Roundtable Press, World Futures: The Journal of General Evolution, and Spring Journal. His books have been translated into Italian, Russian, and Spanish.