10.15.26 | Guest Lecturer Dr. Sheri Kling | Inanna Imaginalis: Dying and Rising in Story and Song

Description

From the stories of Jonah in the belly of the whale or Persephone in the Underworld to Star Wars, The Matrix and Lord of the Rings, the journey to individuation and wholeness always includes a stop in wilderness places we’d rather not visit. But sometimes we don’t have a choice. And whether it’s divorce, illness, or any of life’s darkest challenges, sometimes the events in our lives place us firmly on that path through the dark woods.

But what if that path is one we might welcome? Once we walk it, we learn that it’s like the journey of the chrysalis as it makes its way from caterpillar to butterfly, which, surprisingly involves something called “imaginal” cells. These cells – like the seeds of our own new ideas – are first attacked by the caterpillar’s immune system, but then as their numbers increase, they begin to gather together and form the frequencies of the future butterfly.

This music-laced presentation uses the ancient Sumerian wisdom story of the Descent of Inanna as the backdrop for a personal journey through the wilderness. Drawing on Jungian wisdom woven with uplifting music and personal experience, Dr. Sheri Kling shows us that the story never ends in the darkness. And just like the caterpillar, if we are willing to see the process through the murky “soup” of those “imaginal cells,” we will emerge as a beautiful butterfly, reborn into new life.

Resources

This presentation draws primarily from two texts:
Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women by Sylvia Brinton Perera, https://www.amazon.com/Descent-Goddess-Way-Initiation-Women/dp/0919123058/
Inanna, Queen of Heaven and Earth: Her Stories and Hymns from Sumer by Diane Wolkstein and Samuel Noah Kramer, https://www.amazon.com/Inanna-Queen-Heaven-Earth-Stories/dp/0060908548/

Speaker Bio

Sheri D. Kling, Ph.D., is an interdisciplinary scholar who explores how human beings move from fragmentation toward belonging through soul formation, relational worldviews, and communities of spiritual practice. Integrating Jungian depth psychology, relational theology, neuroscience, and empirical research on meaning and human flourishing, she serves as Director of Spiritual Formation and Research for the Center for Process Studies, where she leads the John Templeton Foundation-funded initiative Modern Meaning: Spiritual Yearning and the Quest for a Flourishing World. She is a faculty member of the Haden Institute and the Graduate Theological Foundation, and adjunct faculty at Claremont School of Theology. Dr. Kling is the author of A Process Spirituality: Christian and Transreligious Resources for Transformation, has contributed to several additional volumes, and is a frequent keynote speaker who leads courses, concerts, and spiritual retreats exploring spirituality, transformation, and human flourishing. She can be found online at https://sherikling.com/.