MANTIS WEEKEND 2024
Friday 11 & Saturday 12 October 2024
In-person & Online Attendance Options
For Mantis Weekend 2024, our theme centers on fostering a future where head and heart are in constant, respectful dialogue, each safeguarding the sanctity of the other.
This year’s programme embraces a mytho-poetic theme, drawing on myths, poetry, stories, music, and movement to delve into the human experience and reawaken our connection to deeper, archetypal truths. We are also complementing this year’s lecture series with the opportunity for experiential learning through a workshop – the focus of which is to attune to the soul through the body and breath.
- The weekend begins on Friday evening, 11 October, with an in-person pre-Mantis experiential workshop at the C.G. Jung Centre in Cape Town. Please note that this workshop is available only in-person, with no online attendance option.
- On Saturday, 12 October, we invite you to join us either in-person or online for a day of presentations focused on mytho-poetics.
This year Mantis Weekend continues its tradition of bringing together those who appreciate and enjoy exploring the value of Analytical Psychology, and its soulful contributions towards personal growth, self-awareness, individuation, and collective healing.
The programme is presented by Jungian Analysts from SAAJA, who will share their insights based on their therapeutic practice, research, and special interests.
The Southern African Association of Jungian Analysts (SAAJA) is a professional association of internationally accredited Jungian Analysts, dedicated to training and accrediting the next generation of analysts.
Why Mantis?
The Mantis reference holds special significance for SAAJA. Our founding members were deeply connected to the spirit of San culture and its shape-shifting creator-trickster deity, Kaggen, who manifests as a praying mantis and other animal forms such as the hare, eland, snake, and vulture. The SAAJA logo features four Mantis heads arranged in a circle, and our journal is aptly named Mantis Journal.
In alchemy, the Mantis corresponds to Mercurius, a trickster-creator figure who could lead alchemists either to ruin or to wisdom. Mercurius embodies paradox – metal yet liquid, matter yet spirit, cold yet fiery, poison yet healing – a symbol of the union of opposites. Jung recognised Mercurius as an archetype of the Self, representing the innate drive toward growth and wholeness within each individual.
2024 Mantis Weekend Programme
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Friday, 11 October 2024 |
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| 18h00 – 19h30 | Experiential Workshop: Breath Yourself into Embodied Consciousness In-person attendance only at the C.G. Jung Centre in Cape Town; no online attendance option available. Spaces are limited to 12 people. |
Denise Grobbelaar |
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Saturday, 12 October 2024 |
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Lecture 1 09h00 – 10h30 |
Love and Loneliness in Matthew Arnold’s Poetry | Marita de Wet |
| 10h30 – 11h00 | Tea Break | |
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Lecture 2 11h00 – 12h30 |
Celtic Goddesses: Sensings From The Otherworld | Marian Campbell |
| 12h30 – 13h30 | Lunch Break | |
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Lecture 3 (Part1) 13h30 to 15h00 |
Archetypal Themes in Celtic Traditional Music: Traditional Song | Stephen Bloch (with artists Caroline Blundell and Cathy Tuck) |
| 15h00 – 15h30 | Tea Break | |
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Lecture 3 (Part 2) 15h30 – 17h00 |
Archetypal Themes in Celtic Traditional Music: Irish Traditional Instrumental Music | Stephen Bloch (with artists Caroline Blundell and Cathy Tuck) |
Booking Fees
Friday 11 October 2024 – Pre-Mantis Experiential Breath Workshop
In-person attendance only.
- Non-members: ZAR350
- Discounted fee for SAAJA Members: ZAR300
- This event is only available for in-person attendance. No online attendance option available
Saturday 12 October 2024 – Mantis Lecture Series (hybrid attendance option)
1. Special Offer: If all Saturday lectures are booked
- All-inclusive fee for all lectures on the Saturday: ZAR1,000
- This option offers access to the full-day event
- The fee is for both online and in-person attendance
2. Booking of individual Saturday lectures:
Lecture 1 & Lecture 2:
- Non-members: ZAR350 per session
- Discounted fee for SAAJA Members: ZAR300 per session
- The fee is for both online and in-person attendance
Lecture 3 (Part 1 & Part 2):
- Non-members: ZAR650 for the two-part lecture
- Discounted fee for SAAJA Members: ZAR600
- The fee is for both online and in-person attendance
PLEASE NOTE
- Bookings close by 12:00/noon SAST on Thursday 10 October 2024
- In-person participants for the workshop on Friday 11 October, please ensure you arrive 10 – 15 minutes before the start time of the workshop. We will start promptly at 6pm.
- Online participants for Saturday 12 October, please ensure you join the Zoom link at least 10 minutes prior to the lecture start time. The lectures will start promptly at their allotted times.
- In-person participants for Saturday 12 October, if you are booking for individual sessions, please ensure you arrive 10-15 minutes before the start of a lecture.
- In-person participants who book for the whole of Saturday 12 October, please ensure you arrive by 08h45 at the latest for registration purposes. We will start promptly at 09:00
Abstracts and Presenter Bios
Learn more about each of the Mantis Weekend Sessions and our presenters by clicking on the links below.
You can also manage your bookings for the weekend via these respective links.
Friday 11 October 2024 – Pre-Mantis Experiential Workshop
Marion Woodman focused on the integration and conscious union of body and psyche, an inner marriage leading to a unified emergent organisation. She advocated for an ‘embodied consciousness’ as a practical and dynamic way of using the body to integrate unconscious contents into consciousness.
Saturday 12 October – Lecture 1: Love & Loneliness in Matthew Arnold’s Poetry
In this seminar we explore our human tendency to suffer loneliness and isolation despite a deep innate need for connection. We will reflect on the inner force that protects us against the vulnerability of relatedness, a force that pushes us to the safety of narcissism, the unrelated attitude.
Saturday 12 October – Lecture 2: Celtic Goddesses: Sensings from the Otherworld
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.
Saturday 12 October – Lecture 3: Archetypal Themes in Celtic Traditional Music
There have been many studies into archetypal themes in mythology and fairy tales. However, there are almost no studies into the archetypes within traditional song and music. Music would have certainly accompanied many mythic retellings and ritual. These two seminars will attempt to redress this imbalance.