
The Unus Mundus
"Dorn’s explanation is illuminating in that it affords us a deep insight into the alchemical Mysterium Coniunctionis. If this is nothing less than a restoration of the original state of the cosmos and the divine unconsciousness of the world, we can understand the extraordinary fascination emanating from this mystery."
(C.G. Jung, Mysterium Coniunctionis)
Lecture
Series
presented by Murray Stein
Jung and non-dual spirituality: A comparison
presented by Lionel Corbett
Individuation, Archetypal Astrology, and the Unus Mundus
presented by Keiron le Grice
Music in the Body
presented by Barbara Miller
Spiritual Slippage and the Cause of Failure to Progress
presented by Leslie Stein
The Power of Presence
presented by Karin Jironet
The cultural significance for Jung of the concept of the unus mundus
presented by Roderick Main
Nontemporal Experiential Knowledge: Considering a “One World” Gnostic Vision of Individuation
presented by Jim Manganiello
Geometry and Individuation
presented by Evangeline Rand
Feedback and Discussion
presented by Stephen Farah
Abstracts
presented by Murray Stein
What we witness in Dante’s Divine Comedy is a visionary account of a journey through the land of the dead that displays clear stages of psychological and spiritual development. This journey was experienced and turned into a magnificent work of art by Dante in the second half of his life. Like Jung crafting his Red Book for more than a decade, Dante meticulously composed The Divine Comedy over a similar period of time, from 1308 until 1321 as scholars have estimated, although the experience he writes about took place, he says, in only a few days, while he was in Rome during Holy Week in 1300. Dante tells the story as a recollection, as memory that he is now recounting in the elevated form of literary art. As a Jungian psychoanalyst, I am looking at the Commedia not as art or literature but as a depiction of psychological transformation achieved through what Jung called active imagination.
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JUNG AND NON-DUAL SPIRITUALITY: A COMPARISON
presented by Lionel Corbett
In the non-dual spiritual traditions such as Advaita Vedānta, reality is seen as an undivided unity, very much in accord with the notion of the Unus Mundus and in some respects with Jung’s monism. However, fully developed non-duality relinquishes the importance of the ego, a process to which Jung would not accede because he believed this meant unconsciousness. This presentation will describe some of the ways in which Jung’s work is consonant with non-duality and some ways in which it is incompatible with that tradition. The Upaniṣadic notions of the Ātman and Saguṇa Brahman will be offered as potential bridges between Jung and the Upaniṣadic tradition.
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INDIVIDUATION, ARCHETYPAL ASTROLOGY AND THE UNUS MUNDUS
presented by Keiron le Grice
With reference to Jung’s interpretation of Gerhard Dorn’s “Stages of the Conjunction” and the symbolic cosmological perspective offered by archetypal astrology, this talk sets forth a larger cosmological and metaphysical view of individuation in relation to the universe, evolution, and the unus mundus as the “eternal Ground of all empirical being.”*Music in the Bodyby Barbara Miller2 Hour Workshop20 August 2022Gerhard Dorn expressed a process that I hope to follow via the rubric of making music. The outline of the process: 1. the body is indulging in addictions; 2. the soul and spirit separate from body and engage with each other; 3. arriving at mental union whereby the body now with libido investment makes the choices that are life furthering – “Unus Mundus” with refined and appropriate acts that serve the idea of soul and spirit. I am a cellist, so music for me is performance. I will try with my cello in hand to share with you Dorn’s process. My personal discovery started by noticing that during a practice session a forgotten dream segment would suddenly appear in my minds eye. I took that image into a moment of executing a difficult complicated change of bow. To my surprise the outcome was a deeply meaningful phrase – saying something that was not calculated. I will try to knit together what I think happened, and still does happen.
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SPIRITUAL SLIPPAGE AND THE CAUSE OF FAILURE TO PROGRESS
presented by Leslie Stein
We believe there is a path, stages to be accomplished in the realization of the unus mundus, enlightenment, and individuation. Yet we fail, even after a lifetime of hard discipline, to reach those shores. We slip, hesitate, forget, are diverted, are subject to illness and fear, and appear to lack that single mindedness that keeps us on a steady, consistent incline toward our imagined goal. This presentation is about what stands in our way, why there is slippage, and whether it is possible to rest in the unus mundus and fully realize the goal.
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THE POWER OF PRESENCE
presented by Karin Jironet
In this workshop we will be exploring the Sufi mystic notion of Wahdat al-Wujud, unity of being, in relation to C. G. Jung’s discoveries related to the nature of Unus Mundu. Jung contends in Mysterium Coniunctionis, The Conjunction, that unus mundus, meaning the “unity of the soul”, “rest empirically on the basic structure common to all souls, which though not visible and tangible like the anatomical structure, is just as evident as it”. Sufi mysticism holds that life in the world may be likened to a journey, and the real desire of the soul is to reach the goal. The soul’s journey passes through different planes, from the physical to the plane of eternal consciousness – and back. Essentially the path of this journey is within ourselves. Wahdat is the plane of consciousness, and it is experienced as Sound. There are certain practices for reaching Unity of Being. Together we will aim for a flavour of being “in” Wahdat al-Wujud, through active imagination.
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THE CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE FOR JUNG OF THE CONCEPT OF THE UNUS MUNDUS
presented by Roderick Main
In his last major work on individuation, Mysterium Coniunctionis, Jung presented the process as culminating in symbolic and even direct experience of and union with the unus mundus, the “one world,” variously glossed as the “potential world,” “the transcendental psychophysical background,” and “the eternal Ground of all empirical being.” In this talk, I shall argue that the concept of the unus mundus, far from being an exotic late speculation, was presupposed in Jung’s work from at least 1916 and thereafter implicitly grounded not only his therapeutic work but also his critique of contemporary culture. I shall suggest that the concept remains of much more immediate relevance to today’s social, political, and environmental crises than its alchemical provenance and Latin diction might lead one to expect.
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NONTEMPORAL EXPERIENTIAL KNOWLEDGE: CONSIDERING A "ONE WORLD" GNOSTIC VISION OF INDIVIDUATION
presented by Jim Manganiello
Jung and Dorn framed individuation as a temporal development in alchemical stages. Gradual conceptual paths risk becoming wooly and uncertain intellectual suppositions. A complete vision of individuation must include the immediate, nontemporal, experiential realization of who we truly are. Using systematic experiential methods, contemplative scientists made a Copernican-like discovery about the mind’s innermost nature. This workshop will introduce these methods and findings. And consider their value and implications for an evolving vision of individuation. This workshop is experiential. We will practice together, using these same methods for realizing the Mind’s essence as the Natural State. The mind’s elemental nature can be directly experienced as its Natural State. With practice and familiarity, our capacity to find and remain in the Natural State becomes clear, strong, and stable. Self-arising wisdom in the timeless awareness of the Natural State unveils a two-fold realization: 1) our conditioned identity is a fictive misconception, and 2) our true identity is—the Unus Mundus, the very Ground of Being. At home, finally, yet always, our mind experiences itself as primordial awareness-based nonidentity, alive in—and alive as—vast, indescribable Mystery. The temporal and nontemporal are not separate, let alone opposite. Apparent conflict begs for a third, recognizing their interdependence as a foundation for complete individuation.
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GEOMETRY AND INDIVIDUATION
presented by Evangeline Rand
Maria Prophetissa’s geometric Tetractys reveals a world-embedded yet emergent, human and non-human “self-object”, “a psychic organizer”, even “a state of transition” (Mills 2019). This offers hints of the long lost Gnostic Wisdom of Sophia, along with a neutral and healing language, both personal and expansive, that can manifest spontaneously during urgent traumatic disruption, potentially enhancing wonder and courage for navigating through tragedy. Such a language is enacted every dawn through women making kolams at the threshold of their homes, in South India. My twelve year engagement with primary/qualitative number and Euclidian geometry, all support Hogenson’s 2018 suggestion of the need for “research into the geometry of individuation”. This workshop will explore your own self-object through sacred geometry.
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FEEDBACK AND DISCUSSION
presented by Stephen Farah
Wrap up of course and general discussion on topics and feedback.
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Time Requirements
Programme Faculty
MURRAY
STEIN
RODERICK
MAIN
LES
STEIN
JIM
MANGANIELLO
KARIN
JIRONET
BARBARA
MILLER
KEIRON
LE GRICE
LIONEL
CORBETT
EVANGELINE
RAND
STEPHEN
FARAH

Welcome to The Unus Mundus
The Jungian Mystery School 2022 took students on an in-depth exploration of the mystery of individuation as outlined by Jung in the final chapter of Mysterium Coniunctionis. There Jung employs the work of the alchemist, Gerhard Dorn, to outline a psychological/spiritual development that arrives at the ultimate goal of joining the individual to the Unus mundus (the “one world” prior to the split between psyche and matter). The presentations on this program will discuss and explore approaches from various spiritual traditions towards this goal.
Please find your course materials below.
