Presenter: Denise Grobbelaar

Denise Grobbelaar examines Nature as a dynamic extension of our psyche in terms of Jung’s Archetype of the Self.

Nature – an extension of the Archetype of the Self as embodied in the image of the White Lion.

Denise examines Nature as a dynamic extension of our psyche in terms of Jung’s Archetype of the Self. She believes that Nature as an archetypal pattern of the soul, interwoven with Humankind’s anxiety lived experiences and revolutionary leaps, constitutes the bedrock of our consciousness. The speaker’s hypothesis is grounded in the Ecological Perspective, which demands a fundamental interconnectedness – as is implicit in the South African concept of Ubuntu. She draws a comparison between lions, in their role of apex predators and an “ordering principle” in nature, with the concept of the Self as the regulating center in the human psyche. Lions’ deep-rooted symbolic and mythological significance is considered, with specific emphasis on the importance of white animals in spiritual traditions, elucidating the proper relationship required between humans and Nature.

Denise Grobbelaar is a clinical psychologist and Jungian Analyst working in private practice in Observatory, Cape Town. She has a keen interest in archetypal patterns, mythology, shamanism, the Enneagram, and dream work. Denise has been working with the Enneagram as a therapeutic tool and map to archetypal personality patterns since October 2017. Besides her curiosity about the human psyche, she has a deep love and a profound sense of reverence for Nature and specifically the White Lions. She leads annual Dream Appreciation retreats to the Global White Lion Protection Trust in the Timbavati. Her paper “The White Lion as Symbol of the Archetype of the Self and the Cannibalization of the Self in Canned Hunting” has been published in the 2020 Spring Issue of the Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche.