Upon first reading Richard Wilhelm's translation of the Taoist text The Secret of the Golden Flower, Carl Jung stated that he "devoured the manuscript at once, for the text gave me undreamed-of confirmation of my ideas about the mandala and the circumambulation of the center."  Seldom studied but seminal in Jung's work, this Taoist text was Jung's introduction to alchemy.

In Friday evening's lecture we will study the series of ten mandalas which Jung felt reflected the archetypal process of the formation of the subtle body.

In Saturday’s workshop we will consider the text itself, reading portions of Wilhelm’s and Taoist scholar Thomas Cleary’s translations.  Hopefully we can approach this enigmatic text in an introverted spirit of contemplation and reflection.

Patricia Damery, MA is a writer and an analyst member of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco, in private practice in Napa, CA.  She has written several articles on the shamanic archetype, including Window on Eternity and The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Personal Amplification, which appeared in Psychological Perspectives.

Note:  The speaker suggests that workshop participants have copies of both texts:

The Secret of the Golden Flower: A Chinese Book of Life, translated into German by Richard Wilhelm, translated into English by Cary F. Baynes, this edition by Tung-Pin Lu. Harcourt Brace and Co. 1962. ISBN 0-15-679980-4

The Secret of the Golden Flower: The Classic Book of Life, translated by Thomas Cleary. Harper San Francisco, 1991 ISBN 0-06-250193-3