When an individual has been swept up into the world of symbolic mysteries, nothing comes of it; nothing can come of it, unless it has been associated with the earth, unless it has occurred when that individual was in the body…. Only if you first return to your body, to your earth, can individuation take place; only then does the thing become true.
C. G. Jung
Lapis is a vessel for intensive and embodied Jungian analytical work offered by Jungian Analyst, Cedrus Monte. Dreams, psychosomatic symptoms, complexes and other material from the unconscious are engaged in and through the body and movement. The body becomes an active, central and conscious participant in the alchemical analytic process. (image from First Book of the Cabala Mineralis manuscript)
In a tranquil lakeside village minutes by train from Zurich, Lapis offers a protected space to go deeply within, to respectfully approach darkened corners of the psyche, parts of the psyche waiting to be lived or seen, to explore life transitions, thresholds, places that won’t move. The quiet setting and intensive format of Lapis can encourage organically-heightened insight.
This one-to-one, body-centered analytical work is independent and self-contained; it is also for those who want to augment on-going psychoanalysis or other psychotherapeutic work.
Lapis is not a fixed building or a physical center. It is the set of elements needed to undertake individual work as described in this text: an inspirational and gentle landscape; a safe and welcoming place to stay for the sojourn; a supportive workspace for body-centered analytical work; and the personal and professional experience that Cedrus Monte brings to working with the unconscious through the body.
Why does Lapis focus on the body and movement, and why is the body important in the analytical process? A more comprehensive explanation can be found here, but briefly described…
In the body, in movement, images from the unconscious awaken and quicken, taking on substance and life through the flesh. We become, in our physical being, the message and the meaning of the image from the unconscious:
You dream of a door opening...
How is "a door opening" experienced
within you, as you?
Allowing the body to fully meet an image - from dreams, psychosomatic symptoms or other expressions of the unconscious - encourages a direct, non-verbal experience of what the image, the unconscious, is offering. Without the body, there is no felt experience. Authentic, deeply-felt experience is a primary medium for transformative change.
From the Aurora consurgens, 15th Century (see here)
We often journey far and wide to see something new "out there." Psychoanalytical work is often limited to chairs, in a praxis room. Lapis challenges these boundaries and invites you to journey far and wide where the new can be found "in here," and where the environs of Lake Zurich and its genus loci can extend the praxis past four walls into nature, offering greater ground for embodied inner work.
Lapis was born out of a perceived longing and desire on the part of many to participate in meaningful retreat, where one can return, as Jung says, to "your body…your earth," and thereby retrieve one of the most precious resources one has for individual and collective healing.
Lapis was conceived out of a desire to focus on psychoanalytic work in more integrated and somatically aware ways - especially within the context of a rapidly shifting world whose very eco-body is in peril, reflecting the denial and neglect of our bodies…our earth.
Cedrus Monte, PhD dipl., Diplomate Jungian Analyst/Zurich, is originally from the San Francisco Bay Area. She has lived in Switzerland for 15 years. In addition to her training at the C. G. Jung Institute in Zurich, she has studied and trained with many gifted teachers. Over a period of almost 30 years she has distilled the different approaches to yield her own way of working. She uses no prescribed "technique" in the body-centered analytical work. As with traditional Jungian analysis, Cedrus Monte follows the analysand and what is offered by the unconscious.
For a more complete overview of her work, please visit Cedrus Monte’s website. There you will find current and past courses, as well as a curriculum vitae and more.
Perhaps especially helpful would be to read two of her published papers: "At the Threshold of Psycho-Genesis" (PDF, 232 KB) and "Numen of the Flesh "(PDF, 228 KB), the latter being specifically about the body, working with the body, and the body in relation to Jungian analytical psychology.
If you are interested in Lapis and Cedrus Monte's work and would like more detailed information on arrangements, cost, etc., please click here or download the PDF version of the Information page (56 KB). Briefly, however, some salient points:
- Work as intensively as you desire: every day for 5 days, in the morning, in the afternoon, or both; every other day for ten days; three times a week for a month…. Given availability, the variations are many.
- Movement space for intensive work is located in the quiet heart of Zurich's historical district in a building inhabited by the last Abbess of Fraumünster in the mid 16th century.
- Accommodations can be made in the quiet lakeside village where there are several Jung-specific historical sites and quiet walks in the forest along a beautiful stream. Alternatively, you can stay in Zurich, directly adjacent to the historical district and the movement studio. (Please see Accommodations page.)
- You will be independent, free to travel in the environs on foot, by bus, train and boat, including trips to Zurich or other centers.
- Switzerland has one of the most efficient public transportation systems in the world. You will be able to get virtually anywhere in the country by train, boat, bus and tram - with frequent service, and on time.
- Given arrangements for special formatting of the experiential retreat with private tutorials in theory, it may be possible to receive credit for Continuing Education Units (CEU). See more in the Information Sheet (PDF, 56 KB) or just click here.
"The Alchemist" - Pieter Breughel, 1558
Final decisions about participating in Lapis will be made via personal contact on the phone if you live out of the country.
If you live within comfortable traveling distance from Zurich, it is always possible to come for a single, initial session. In this case, however, it may be necessary to wait a few weeks after this initial session in order to make a series of appointments in the intensive format as described above.
© Adam McLean 1997-2004
From the alchemy site
www.levity.com/alchemy
