Conversations

A broad range of individuals have explored the writings and thinking of Jung inwardly and are longing for community-based events which can bring discussions around Jungian and post-Jungian concepts into common parlance and daily living. Many others have either never heard of Jung at all, or have been minimally exposed to his rich legacy of thought. Our core organizing group believes in the enduring value and relevance of Jungian ideas in the face of contemporary culture and conflicts. We see unlimited potential in outgrowths of library discussions intended to elucidate, illuminate, and evolve Jungian concepts, many of which are deeply embedded in modern culture but are often either rendered incompletely, stripped of depth and texture, or entirely misrepresented. We look forward to being the go-to community in the Tampa Bay area for exploration of these topics. Our hope is to engage the public with fresh and stimulating activities and options that promote self-reflection, discernment, and inspiration at the level of soul, while simultaneously fostering a sense of community and interconnectedness.

First Thursday Reading Groups

Reading group discussions generally occur on the first Thursday of the month and are grounded in Jungian studies, member interests, and cultural and civic exigencies. Discussions around single books may be held over more than one session. Attendance at all is not required; attend all, or as many as you choose. All Reading Group events are FREE.

Reading groups are FREE, but space is limited. Please reserve your spot today.

For a list of all upcoming Reading Groups and to Reserve your space at our next event, click here.

Jungian Film Festival –Coming Soon!

The Jungian Film Festival, consisting of a curated collection of film showings, each followed by a group/panel discussion geared toward exploring the film’s aesthetic content, inherent themes, and symbolic motifs using Jungian concepts is in the works. Watch your newsletter or the Events page for the most up-to-date information.

Art Gallery

The unconscious speaks to us through symbols that, according to Jung’s definition, appeal to and fascinate consciousness because they contain a gradient of something unknowable. Symbols have the capacity to engage the whole of the psyche. Creativity requires a willingness to lean into the unknown and a receptiveness to thoughts, images, and impulses that want to break into conscious life. Individuation is likewise an art; one that can inform and inspire artistic expression. The intersection between a work of art and an engaged viewer creates a transformative space that has the capacity to instigate the creative process anew, and further the individuation process of those involved in the exchange. The Library’s online gallery seeks to cultivate an interactive space to support individuals and artists wishing to enter into conversation with one another and with an ever-broadening palette of archetypal ideas.

Recent Works

Mary Bottini, Morning

Mary Bottini

These paintings are inspired by the network of relationships in the system of nature. They encourage viewers to notice the “painting within the painting” that exists beyond our limited senses—the interplay of the laws of nature that constantly surround us.

“Duality,” “The Flood,” “Coherent Conscience,” “Death of a Survivor,” and “Hemmed In” were inspired by the impact our subconscious has on our experiences in reality. What happens internally when we are in crisis or lose our sense of self? How do subconscious forces and patterns operate on us? What helps us rebuild ourselves with a new level of perception? The exploration inward can be filled with intense pain but also has immeasurable value.

Invitation to artists:

Artists wishing to submit work for display in the online gallery are invited to submit the form below:

Poetry Corner

Poetry speaks to us through image, metaphor, and allegory. It asks us to hone our senses and internal mechanisms of perception. Reading poetry can give the effect of stepping into a restorative and vivifying stream—one which originates from a vast and mysterious source, gains ground and form as it enters through the doorways of human consciousness, and whose message reaches beyond any one person’s experience of it, or any singular moment in time.

The Romantics held that the poet was a mediator and messenger of the divine. Jung contended that the same was true of the individual, and more, that it falls to each of us to fulfill this task of mediation and aesthetic expression of our own uniqueness. This can prove difficult at times in the face of an abundance of individual, social, and cultural obstacles. Yet, the poets provide us a fresh and generative current when the waters of daily life tend toward stagnation…

Latest Submission

What is This Thing?

June 12, 2023

What is this thing driving me?
Is it the same instinct that sends the salmon
Swimming from the sea to the river to spawn?
Or is it similar to the imprinting of the migratory patterns of the birds?
Is it what causes the acorn to become the oak or is it
What turns the seeds into grains, flowers, or plants?
Is it what awakens the bear suddenly from its winter sleep
Feeling the pangs of hunger and departing the cave
In ravenous search of the needed nourishment?
Am I like the whale navigating the deep water
Of the ocean by the sounds I cannot hear just yet,
Or am I within the water like a sea of grass
Ferried floating by the currents and the tides?
Why is everything so seemingly still?
Adrift. Betwixt and between. So many questions.
Like the lost rider who drops the reins so that the horse
Will find the way home, I know it is not in my hands.
I cannot touch it, but I feel it strongly
As it constantly appears, disappears, and reappears.
Why must one become so lost in order to become found?
I gather wood for the pyre of the Hero and with a single spark,
The flickering flames light leaping and laughing.
I see it again in the rising smoke and wonder
What is this thing driving me, driving me?

~ Margie Miller (Library Member)

Invitation to poets:

If you wish to recommend poetry or submit your own work for inclusion in the Poetry Corner, please use the form below:

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