Mantis Weekend 2024 | Saturday 12 October – Lecture 2: Celtic Goddesses: Sensings from the Otherworld

Abstract

Goddesses in pre-Christian Ireland were powerful figures in that ancient Celtic cosmology as representatives of the feminine, of the land, and of the Otherworld. Brigid, Maeve and the Morrigan are probably the most familiar to most of us but much of what has been written about them comes from later Christianised and watered down sources.

Such sovereign goddesses chose the kings of the human world and as such may have been the original holders of the Grail. They mediated the relationship between humans and the land, and the Otherworld which was imbued in the land.

With the help of Blackie, Hillman, Corbin’s Mundis Imaginalis, and Ulanov’s exploration of Jung’s “psychoid”, this presentation explores the contemporary relevance of the Celtic goddesses for our ethical relationship with the feminine, and with the anima mundi or World Soul.

About the Presenter

Marian Campbell is a clinical psychologist and Jungian Analyst in private practice in Cape Town. She is a training analyst and has served on various committees in SAAJA over the years. She has a particular interest in reading, writing and speaking about creativity, psychic aliveness, subjectivity and the imaginal.