Richard Tarnas - On Depth Psychology, Spirituality, and the Human Journey. February 6th, 2025

CIIS Professor Emeritus and cultural historian Richard Tarnas for an illuminating discussion on the human psyche, spirituality, and the nature of the human journey. This talk draws on the implicit framework and underlying context of Richard’s popular annual state of the world weather reports presented over the last four years with CIIS Public Programs.

Richard explores one of C. G. Jung’s most crucial contributions to psychology, the recognition that the unfolding of a human life is at a deep level a spiritual journey. Jung also recognized that our individual psychological unfolding is embedded within larger, ever-evolving historical developments that shape our personal journeys, and that reflect a kind of collective spiritual evolution. Finally, Jung saw that informing both the individual psyche and the collective evolution are powerful archetypal principles and forces that deeply influence human experience and behavior. This archetypal dimension appears to be expressive not only of the human psyche, but of the cosmos itself.

Richard invites you to explore with him how we might understand the complex interplay of these important levels of meaning and influence, so we might gain a more profound perspective on the deeper character of human life and experience, especially in our own dramatic, challenging era.