Presenter: Renee Ramsden

This seminar will delve into Jung’s personal experience of individuation through the birth of Phanes, the divine child.

For Jung, the birth of the divine child was a lived experience, which he recorded in his Red Book. He says: ‘When a summit of life is reached, when the bud unfolds and from the lesser the greater emerges, then, as Nietzsche says, “One becomes Two,” and the greater figure, which one always was but which remained invisible, appears to the lesser personality with the force of a revelation.’ (Red Book, p. 217)

This seminar will delve into Jung’s personal experience of individuation through the birth of Phanes, the divine child. He explains further: ‘…the “child” paves the way for a future change of personality. In the individuation process, it anticipates the figure that comes from the synthesis of conscious and unconscious elements in the personality. It is therefore a symbol which unites the opposites; a mediator, bringer of healing, that is, one who makes whole.’ (CWV9.i, par 278)

Renee Ramsden has been working in private practice in Cape Town for almost 40 years. She is a founder member of the Southern African Association for Jungian Analysts (SAAJA) and a training analyst. She specialises in dream-analysis and has been teaching alchemy and psychology as presented by C.G. Jung to SAAJA candidates, the wider professional group and interested members of the public for 28 years. She is currently serving on SAAJA’s Executive Committee as Vice-President. She is also co-facilitator of SAAJA’s Jung and Film events, and chair of SAAJA’s Media Committee.