02/07/2014 to 02/18/2014
Every individual and culture has its myth that guides its destiny. India’s archetype is the one of Coniunctio – she facilitates alignment with our own personal myth. It is a sacred mirror to your soul. If you are open to the whispers of your soul, India provides the prima materia of dreams, myths and an ancient, living and continuous civilization for the seed of your soul to blossom into the flower of your individuation. For this process of transformation, every individual and culture needs an alchemist to hold the vessel and guide the alchemy of change. During this trip, we will focus on integrating Mahatma Gandhi’s alchemy of the human spirit with a Jungian lens as we walk in the land of Gandhi. We will integrate the Magnum Opus of the two great alchemists of
our times: Mahatma Gandhi and Carl Jung.
We will have the opportunity to sit on the shores of Sabarmati River at the Gandhi Ashram, from where Gandhi meditated his response to the British repression of India’s soul. We will walk the same street, where Gandhi started his famed Dandi march to protest the British salt tax. This Dandi march set the stage for events that led to India’s freedom from colonial bondage, but more, importantly freed the British from their own shadow to the light of consciousness.
Join us in this Jungian passage to the dream like, archetypal landscape of India. During this journey to the states of Gujarat and Rajasthan, we will explore India’s living myths, its unique integration of the great traditions of the world; the mystery of its Hindu origins, the contemplative traditions of Buddhism and Jainism, the gentleness of the Parsis, the first Christians, the Eros of Islam and the colonial shadow of the Occident. We will begin our journey in the city of Ahmedabad, in the very home where Gandhi first stayed in the town which was to become his spiritual headquarters. Gujarat is a place of Coniunctio of the Hindu, Muslim and Jain cultures – all three found their proper place in Gandhi’s secular ethics, further deepened by Buddhist principles and Christian values. We will explore this integrative process of India’s individuation from a Jungian lens. India’s Odyssey is a model for our personal Opus of individuation.
We will experience the unique blend of the mundane and profane, with the sacred and the transcendent. I invite you to immerse yourself into this land of contrasts, conflicts and unique synthesis of the human spirit. Explore Gandhi’s India and its timeless spirit with the unique Jungian lens of Analytical psychology under the guidance of the trinity of Jungian analyst Ashok Bedi, M.D., Master chef & cultural guide Usha Bedi of the Dancing Ganesha fame and alchemist Regine Oesch-Aiyer, the Indophile.