Jung Club Evening Lectures
All are Welcome
- Evening lectures are held at the Essex Church, 112 Palace Gardens Terrace, London W8 4RT. 7pm for 7.30pm. They are also accessible on Zoom, unless otherwise stated.
- Cost: £25. There is no charge for Club Members.
Note: No recording is permitted at our Lectures and Seminars.
Booking and Payments
- Online: Prior booking online is essential to receive the Zoom link via email – click on the Book Now button for individual Events – listed below
- In-person: Cash or Card payments can be made at the door.
CPD Certificates will be emailed on request.
Note: No recording is permitted at our Lectures and Seminars.
Upcoming Event Listings
The dates given are Thursday evenings unless otherwise noted. They will all be held at the venue and online, again, unless otherwise stated.
Jim Fitzgerald
Speaker/s: Jim Fitzgerald
There is a god about whom you know nothing
Central to the whole enterprise which we know as The Red Book is the creation of a new cosmology. It is in the text that Jung called The Seven Sermons to the Dead that this new vision of the microcosm and macrocosm is fully stated. The revelation of this forgotten god is deeply challenging as it contradicts the familiar certainties of the Judeo-Christion deity. It certainly challenged the Dead- the ancestral collective who had demanded enlightenment- as, on hearing about this new being, Here the dead howled and raved greatly, for they were still incomplete ones. Some effort will be made to understand this powerful, contradictory entity, although his essence lies in the realm of the non-rational. At the same time as Jung wrote the Seven Sermons, He painted a mandala and found a place for Abraxas at the nadir of the circle, labelling him dominus mundi, lord of the world!
About the Speaker/s:
Jim Fitzgerald (M.A. in Ancient Classics) was born and raised in a small village in rural Ireland. His academic background is in Ancient Classics and Byzantine Greek. After a career as a Primary school teacher in London, he trained as an analyst at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich. He is a past chairman of The C. G. Jung Analytical Psychology Club, London and a founding member and past chairman of The Guild of Analytical Psychologists. He is also a Senior Member of The Independent Group of Analytical Psychologists. He has a private practice in London and has lectured widely. Six of his talks have been published as pamphlets by the Guild of Pastoral Psychology.
Diane Finiello Zervas
Speaker/s: Diane Finiello Zervas
Beginning with Jung’s early interest in cosmological systems and images, this lecture will explore the series of sketches, paintings and sculptures of the new cosmology, man’s place within it, and the new god image that Jung made in Black Book 5, his agendas, the Red Book and other related visual images. Taken as a whole, they form an integral part of his ongoing engagement with the unconscious and his individuation process between 1913 and 1928.
About the Speaker/s:
Diane Finiello Zervas PhD is an art historian and a senior analyst with IGAP. She has written ‘Intimations of the Self’: Jung’s Mandala Sketches, 1917’ for The Art of C. G. Jung (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019). Her book ‘Enchanting the Unconscious’: Jung’s Reception in Great Britain, The Red Book, and his English Seminars, 1919 and 1920 was published by Routledge in May 2025.
George Bright
Speaker/s: George Bright
Philemon first appears in the text of Liber Novus as a retired magician who instructs Jung about the craft of magic. He re-appears at the conclusion of the work in a dialogue with Jesus Christ. All other appearances of Philemon in Liber Novus (for example, Philemon as the preacher of the VII Sermons) are editorial additions made by Jung in late 1917.
What happened in 1917 that caused Jung to insert the figure of Philemon more widely into Scrutinies?
Access to Black Book 7 enables us to trace the re-emergence of Philemon in Jung’s active imaginations from 1917 to 1928. My aim in this talk is to address the question: who is Philemon and why does he matter?
About the Speaker/s:
George Bright is a supervising analyst of The Society of Analytical Psychology and a member of the Chicago Society of Jungian Analysts. He is one of the founders of The Circle of Analytical Psychology which offers two-year close readings of Liber Novus and of Jung’s Black Books. He works in private practice in West London.
Past Event Listings
The events shown below are previous events held by the club over the last year. They are for reference only and cannot be booked.
FRIDAY - Part of a Weekend Workshop **NOTE CHANGE OF SEMINAR TITLE** Rupert Tower et al
Speaker/s: Rupert Tower et al
This multidisciplinary research project looks into the role of Virtual theoretical work that suggests immersive, virtual environments can provide a vehicle for active imagination and can act as sources for exposure to archetypal images and experiences.
On Friday we will outline the context for our research project and illustrate how Jung visualised his own virtual environment in the Red and Black Books through the technique of active imagination. We will share the results of Phase 1(a research event held at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in January 2025) when participants tested Virtual Reality as a process for exploring Jung’s concept of the shadow. Our lecture focuses on the findings which will in turn shape the future direction of our research. One major objective is to explore multiple Jungian concepts via gaming/VR to help introduce Jungian ideas to wider audiences, especially younger people. We will ask: could VR play a role in analytical psychology? Does it have relevance for, and an impact on, both its theory and practice?
The free Workshop on Saturday (see the Weekend Workshops page) will offer an opportunity to engage in a guided Virtual Reality immersion, utilizing VR material that enhances a potentially numinous experience of wonder and awe. This will be facilitated by members of the team. Afterwards, participants will discuss their experience in small groups, reflecting on its potential significance from a Jungian perspective. Art materials will be provided for those who may wish to articulate the experience visually. This will be followed by a final plenary group discussion.
Rupert Tower is joined by Prof Kevin Lu, Dr Andrew Howe and Dr Briony Clarke.
About the Speaker/s:
Rupert Tower: Jungian Analyst, Member of the Society of Analytical Psychology, BPC and UKCP Registered, Member of IAAP and the UK Umbrella Group. With: Professor Kevin Lu: Professor of Applied Psychoanalysis and Head of Department (Practice), Royal Central School of Speech and Drama. Dr Andrew Howe: Consultant Psychiatrist and Psychodynamic Psychotherapist, Member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, BPC Registered. Dr Briony Clarke, artist and game designer, founder of studio "Deep Play."
Please see the Weekend Workshop page for details of the second part of this Workshop
Rev Erin Clark
Speaker/s: Rev Erin Clark
Who is the Black Madonna and who is she for? Representations of black- or brown-skinned Madonnas exist across Europe, with no clear agreement on their origin. Some say she is the shadow aspect of the divine feminine; others believe she has persisted within and beyond Roman Catholicism from ancient Mediterranean goddess cults. Some argue she’s just gone dusky from all the candle-smoke.
Often sidelined, frequently disfigured, occasionally an outright embarrassment to organised religion, these Madonnas retain the ability to attract numerous, passionate devotees. This talk will look at beliefs and practices associated with the Black Madonna, listen out for the radical messages that emerge, and suggest what the Black Madonna might have to say to us today.
About the Speaker/s:
Erin Clark is an American writer and priest living in London. She is the rector of St Matthew’s, Bethnal Green, and the author of Whom Sea Left Behind: a Leviathaniary, Sacred Pavement, and a coauthor of The Book of Queer Prophets: 24 Writers on Sexuality & Religion.
Julian Rose
Speaker/s: Julian Rose
‘The truth is illusive’, some say. But that is only because we don’t give enough importance to how to be true to ourselves and to our imperative to call-out injustice in the outside world.
The psychology of being a good citizen in a globalised neoliberal society/world demands complying to the rules of the game as played by the prevailing status quo: make money, make an impression and make sure to avoid the search for truth. This is the perfect receipt for democide and ecocide – which is precisely where we are going.
The vision required to avoid Armageddon builds on another agenda, one that recognises that answers do not come from ‘above’ but from ‘within’. Those answers have their source in a Universal Truth which is omniscient and omnipotent. Only when such truths are adopted as the way forward for humanity, will we see the future as bright. Iridescent even.
About the Speaker/s:
Julian Rose is an early pioneer of UK organic farming, a writer, broadcaster, international activist and owner of the Hardwick Estate in South Oxfordshire. He is author of three books, the most recent of which is ‘Overcoming the Robotic Mind’.
**6.45 for 7pm ONLINE ONLY**** Diane Finiello Zervas
Speaker/s: Diane Finiello Zervas
Most Jungians are aware of the similarities between the written and musical ideas of Richard Wagner and the psychological concepts of C. G. Jung, first presented by Robert Donington in Wagner’s Ring and its Symbols (1963). What has been missing, however, is a detailed knowledge of Jung’s own views on Wagner and his operas, especially the Ring and Parsifal.
Diane’s talk will highlight the recent discovery and publication of Jung’s writings and visual works during the years around the First World War and new information about the 1920 English seminar held at Sennen Cove, Cornwall, which reveal the extent of Jung’s and Emma Jung’s personal and psychological interest in Wagner’s life and works, and subsequent influence on their professional writings.
Cost for the event: £25
Club members: no charge when booking with Access Code
About the Speaker/s:
Diane Finiello Zervas PhD is an art historian and a senior analyst with IGAP. She has written "Intimations of the Self: Jung’s Mandala Sketches, 1917" for The
Art of C. G. Jung (W. W. Norton & Company, 2019). Her book "Enchanting the Unconscious: Jung’s Reception in Great Britain, The Red Book, and his English Seminars", 1919 and 1920 will be published by Routledge in May.
Bob Withers
Speaker/s: Bob Withers
Dissociation is a common reaction to trauma. In extreme cases the psyche dissociates from the body entirely, identifying with a disembodied mind. Experiences the psyche fears to face may be split-off and projected into parts of the body, which are then experienced as "other". Under these circumstances, reuniting mind and body - one of the aims of individuation- can give rise to powerful resistances as the psyche encounters the terrifying affects associated with the original traumatic experiences.
If these traumatic experiences happened in early infancy before the mastery of language and declarative memory, a person may feel as if they have been "born in the wrong body".
In this talk Bob Withers will use themes introduced in his previous talk "Gender dysphoria, individuation and the Shadow" to develop a way of understanding and working with, not only gender dysphoria, but a variety of other psychosomatic conditions including hypochondria, and body dysmorphia. He will use these ideas to critique Melanie Suchet’s (2011) trans-affirmative paper "crossing over".
About the Speaker/s:
Robert Withers is a training analyst and lecturer with the Society of Analytical psychology, co-founder of The Rock Clinic in Brighton, former senior lecturer on the mind body relationship in medicine at the University of Westminster, international lecturer, researcher and author of a series of articles on a variety of subjects from complementary medicine to psychoanalysis the mind body relationship and gender dysphoria.
Katerina Sarafidou
Speaker/s: Katerina Sarafidou
The VII Sermons to the Dead as the cornerstone of Jung's individuation process: An introduction to the text and its meaning in the context of the Red Book and Black Books.
The VII Sermons to the Dead appears in the closing chapters of the Red Book and presents a cosmological framework that underpins the entire undertaking of Jung’s Liber Novus. It provides the foundation of Jung’s notion of individuation and reveals the full nature and purpose of the individuation process. It is the formulation of Jung’s own myth which he set out to discover when he embarked on his experimentation with the inner figures in 1913, and then documented in his Black Book diaries. This lecture will give an introduction to the text of the VII Sermons in the context of the Red Book and Black Books, it will explain its role in individuation, and its implications for the work of analytical psychology.
About the Speaker/s:
Katerina Sarafidou is the Head of Research and former Director of the MSc Psychodynamics of Human Development run by Birkbeck College and the British Psychotherapy Foundation. She is an honorary member of the British Jungian Analytic Association and one of three founders of The Circle of Analytical Psychology, which offers a 2-year course on Jung’s Liber Novus..
This is a 2 part lecture Lance Owen
Speaker/s: Lance Owen
Lecture Part 1: Gnostic Vision and Hermeneutics
We will briefly introduce the rediscovered Gnostic texts, examine their historical origins, and discuss Jung’s early encounters with this ancient material. As Jung stated, “The Gnostics were concerned with the problem of archetypes. They made a peculiar philosophy of it, as everybody makes a peculiar philosophy of it when he comes across it naïvely and doesn't know that the archetypes are structural elements of the unconscious psyche.”
We will engage a psychologically informed consideration of Gnosticism in terms of its primary experiential roots, and then consider how a “hermeneutics of archetypal vision” was foundational to the Gnosis, to Jung’s understanding of Gnostic tradition, and to the roots of his Septem Sermones ad Mortuos.
About the Speaker/s:
Lance S. Owens is a physician, historian, and scholar with focus on Jung, Gnosticism, and the Western visionary traditions. Since 1995 he has been the editor and compiler of the major internet resource archiving of ancient Gnostic scriptures, The Gnosis Archive, gnosis.org. Many of his publications are available online at academia.edu.
This is a 2 part lecture Lance Owen
Speaker/s: Lance Owen
Lecture Part 2: Jung and the Father of the Prophets
Above Philemon’s image painted on folio page 154 of Liber Novus Jung penned an appellation in Greek: “Father of the Prophets, Beloved PHILEMON”; on the mural of Philemon at the Bollingen Tower, he restated the appellation: “PHILEMON the prophets’ forefather".
In this lecture we will examine in detail Jung's encounter with Gnostic mythology during the period leading up to composition of the Septem Sermones ad Mortuos in February 1916. Was there a connection between Jung’s vision of Gnosis and what historians now understand as Gnostic tradition? And who, or what, is the “Father of the Prophets”? How is he connected to Philemon, Simon Magnus and the Septem Sermones?
About the Speaker/s:
Lance S. Owens is a physician, historian, and scholar with focus on Jung, Gnosticism, and the Western visionary traditions. Since 1995 he has been the editor and compiler of the major internet resource archiving of ancient Gnostic scriptures, The Gnosis Archive, gnosis.org. Many of his publications are available online at academia.edu.
18:30 - 20:30 ONLINE ONLY Andreas Schweizer
Speaker/s: Andreas Schweizer
This talk is organised by IGAP - to book though them, please use the booking link below.
About the Speaker/s:
Further details about the speaker will appear here shortly.
Please see below for details of the readers.
Speaker/s: Please see below for details of the readers.
The Seven Sermons to the Dead was written by C. G. Jung in the context of his experimentation with the unconscious, leading to The Black Books and subsequently to the creation of Liber Novus (The Red Book). The text of this dramatic reading is recorded in the third book of Liber Novus, following Liber Primus and Liber Secundus, called Scrutinies.
The Sermons weave together two themes which had emerged separately for Jung: a cosmological vision revealed to him by his soul on 16th January 1916; and repeated encounters with the Dead which culminated in a parapsychological event at his house in Küsnacht. The Dead needed acceptance and salvation. The response was a seven part education of the Dead by Jung’s inner teacher Philemon, in which the path of individuation is introduced to them.
Our year of focus on The Seven Sermons would be incomplete without an immersive experience of the Sermons as spoken word. We believe that speaking the text out loud while listening together in a group, will bring the material to life in a way that cannot be achieved by silent reading. For Jung himself, this was a matter of lived experience.
Tonight’s readers are:
Philemon: Robert Macdonald (Jungian Analyst, IGAP)
C. G. Jung: Max Noak (Jungian Analyst, SAP, Harvest Editor )
Soul: Heba Zaphiriou-Zarifi (Jungian Analyst, GAP)
The Dead:
Gail Bennett (Jungian Analyst, GAP, Harvest Editor, Club Vice Chair);
Stephan von Bismarck (Club Treasurer)
Stella von Boch (Jungian Analyst, IGAP, Club Chair)
Violin: Eulalie Charland
About the Speaker/s:
Violinist Eulalie Charland has lived a life of perpetual motion—daughter of a diplomat, she collected countries like souvenirs before finally dropping anchor in London. Her violin has graced stages from Radio France in Paris to the Cheltenham Festival, earning praise from The Strad for playing that is “elegant … strong and possessing uncomplicated projection”. But Eulalie’s true fascination lies in weaving together the seemingly disparate—in this case, contemporary women composers and C. G. Jung’s spiritual teachings. After two decades as a professional violinist, she pivoted into Integral Coaching, discovering that the same skills that made her a compelling musician could help others transform their lives.
In this project, she performs solo violin excerpts from Missy Mazzoli’s “Dissolve, O My Heart”, Odaline de la Martinez’s “Improvisations for Solo Violin”, and Jessie Montgomery’s “Rhapsody No.1 for Solo Violin".
Angeliki Yiassemides
Speaker/s: Angeliki Yiassemides
I will present my thesis that Septem Sermones ad Mortuos was the initial ground for the development of Jung’s time theory, making it a key text in his opus. In this poetic piece Jung dealt with concepts that are within time and are defined by it, as well as by its absence. This is the first instance that time as well as timelessness are interwoven in a wider context; the temporal parameters of both the cosmic and the individual levels are interrelated. Crucially, timelessness is not a quality belonging solely to the personal unconscious, but is conceptualized in terms of the entire universe. In Septem Sermones we encounter collective as well as individual structures that are within and beyond time.
About the Speaker/s:
Angeliki Yiassemides is a certified Jungian analyst (IAAP). She is a developmental psychologist (Columbia University) and holds a PhD in Psychoanalytic Studies with a focus on Analytical Psychology (University of Essex). Temporality in the theory of C.G. Jung has been one of her main academic and clinical research interests. She is in private practice, and lives in Cyprus.
*POSTPONED* Liz Greene
Speaker/s: Liz Greene
We regret that this talk by Liz Greene has to be postponed. We will let you know when a new date has been found. With apologies, C. G. Jung Club
About the Speaker/s:
James Harpur
Speaker/s: James Harpur
In Jung’s VII Sermons Philemon addresses the questions the ‘dead’ cannot find their answers to in Jerusalem. That the dead can have a rapport with the living is also a feature of my own poetry, and in this illustrated talk I will explore through my sequence The Gospel of Gargoyle (Eblana Press, 2025) how, to quote WH Auden, ‘we are lived by powers we pretend to understand’. In Gargoyle, a poet figure flies in dreams to the roof of Notre-Dame and encounters an animate Gargoyle, as well as, at one point, the ghost of Blaise Pascal. Like the Sermons, the poem employs ‘active imagination’ and interlaces poetic and philosophical explorations with dramatic tension.
About the Speaker/s:
James Harpur has published ten books of poetry and won a number of awards, including the National Poetry Competition. He is a Visiting Research Fellow at Trinity College Dublin’s Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and a Fellow of the Temenos Academy. His latest non-fiction is Dazzling Darkness: The Lives and Afterlives of the Christian Mystics (Hurst, 2025).