February 20-22
Soldiers unable to readjust to civilian life replicate Odysseus' ten-year ordeal to return home from the Trojan War. Their wives may share the trials of Penelope, the wife who waited. Women who experience sexual abuse replicate Persephone's abduction to the Underworld by Hades. Mothers letting go of their daughters share the deep grief of Demeter. Men and women caught in the passions of sexual seduction experience the meeting between sailors and Sirens. Over and over again, we experience the trial and execution of Socrates as the political leaders of our civilization betray justice, morality, and law in their pursuit of power.
Behind the characters and stories of ancient Greek mythology and history lie great spiritual and psychological mysteries. In their principles and practices lie the origins of Western medicine, psychology, and political life. The gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, creatures and demons of mythology are archetypes - the eternally recurring images and patterns of human experience. We all unfold these archetypal powers in our personal and cultural development and life struggles, but too often we remain unaware that we are reliving a universal story that we first heard in the Greek myths that have shaped culture to the present day.
Conscious encounters with the Greek tradition can lead us to meet, integrate and live with those powers once called gods and goddesses. By immersing ourselves in the ancient Greek tradition, we can discover our destinies, heal disorders of body and soul, work well with both light and shadow aspects of psyche and culture, accept fate, and embrace a coherent and noble path toward living full, wise, honorable and good lives.
Through the use of story, imagery, psychodrama, slide presentations, dream work, and other methods, we'll travel through the world of ancient Greece in order to awaken and utilize its archetypes, philosophy, and spiritual wisdom in our own pursuit of health and excellence. Using ancient Greek traditions of mythology, philosophy, history, medicine and spirituality, we will meet the gods and goddesses, heroes and heroines, to work with both the personal and spiritual dimensions of consciousness, and the unconscious toward the threefold Greek goal of following the True, the Good and the Beautiful.
Since early childhood, Edward Tick, Ph.D.'s passion has been experiencing and studying the ways of the soul, and the special focus of all his work is on expressing, healing, and mentoring the soul. He has been practiced psychotherapy for 28 years, specializing in healing from violence, trauma and war, and in the use of psychospiritual traditions, especially Greek, Native American, and Eastern, for holistic healing. Ed directs Sanctuary: A Center for Mentoring the Soul, in Albany, N.Y. and co-directs the Sage Center on Violence and Healing. He has been leading transformative growth and healing journeys to Greece since 1995 and to Viet Nam since 2000. He is the author of Sacred Mountain: Encounters With The Viet Nam Beast and The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringing Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine.