A May 21 community lecture and discussion is planned at Opus to explore the legacy of one of the South Coast’s key historical figures in the areas of feminism and “ecopsychology.”

Psychoanalysts Jane Hollister Wheelwright (1905-2004) and her husband Joseph Balch Wheelwright (1906-1999) studied with psychiatry pioneer Carl G. Jung in Zurich during the 1930s and began a practice in San Francisco in 1941. Her work focused on the connection between wilderness and psyche, or ecopsychology, and the psychological processes of death. Their works are preserved at Opus Archives and Research Center.

Jane Wheelwright, Alegria Mountain Top at Hollister Ranch

Jane’s Hollister Wheelwright’s daughter-in-law, Betty Wheelwright, will give a presentation on her legacy at the 6 p.m. discussion May 21 at Pacifica’s 801 Ladera Lane Montecito.

Betty writes , “The presentation is titled: “Jane Hollister Wheelwright: The Early Years (1905-1939).” The slideshow is divided into four sections: “1905-1923: The Ranch and School,” “1924-1929: New Beginnings,” “1929-1932: Around the World,” “1932-1939: Zurich and London.”

Jane’s life was deeply rooted in Santa Barbara County. Her grandfather was William Welles Hollister, who was influential in the development of SantaBarbara. Jane’s formative years were spent on the Hollister Ranch. Jane spent much of her early life outdoors in the wild areas of the Hollister Ranch, and she returned to live there in her mid-eighties to live in a home in a remote area of the Hollister Ranch that was powered by wind and photovoltaic cells. Jane knew the land where she grew up and its plants and animals intimately.  Jane believed that our increasing disconnect from nature was disastrous for humans, for the earth, and for the other living organisms. This was a major life theme for her.”

Jane Hollister Wheelwright and her husband were among the founders of the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. They were key figures in the dissemination of Jung’s ideas in America. In later years, they spent much time living on land that had been part of the Hollister Ranch, west of Santa Barbara, where she grew up.

OPUS Archives is a repository for rare and significant collections in the fields of mythology, depth psychology, and world culture. OPUS makes them available to students, scholars and the interested public with a keen desire to utilize them in contemporary research.

OPUS also facilitates grants that further research in these fields and fosters the dissemination of scholarly work into the culture-at-large, including social and environmental entrepreneurs who are active in the contemporary issues of society.

Please rsvp at rsvp@opusarchives.org

Ariadne and Dionysus, the divine couple. Aridane translates to ‘Most Holy’ (ari adnos).

Theses’ abandonment of Ariadne on Naxos became her discovery by Dionysus. It is said that Dionysus loved her deeply.

Dionysus and Ariadne, Theoi.com

Museum Collection: Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples, Italy
Catalogue Number: Naples 3240
Beazley Archive Number: TBA
Ware: Attic Red Figure
Shape: Krater, volute
Painter: Name Vase of the Pronomos Painter
Date: ca 410 BC

Kubaba was an ancient queen of Sumeria, the only one listed on the Sumerian king list. She is said to have ruled during the period Early Dynastic III period (ca. 2500-2330 BC).

She has strong associations with being worshiped as a Mother Goddess and her symbolism includes a pomegranate and a mirror.

Kububa, holding a pomegranate in her right hand and a mirror in her left. Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara, Turkey

Her most important center of worship was in the ancient Syrian city of Carchemish on the upper Euphrates.

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“When we use the word underworld,we are referring to a wholly psychic perspective, where one’s entire mode of being has been desubstantialized, killed of natural life, and yet is in every shape and sense and size the exact replica of natural life. The underworld of Ba of Egypt and the underworld psyche of Homeric Greece was the whole person as in life but devoid of life. This means that the underworld perspective radically alters our experience of life. It no longer matters on its own terms but only in terms of the psyche. To know the psyche at its basic depths, for a true depth psychology,  one must go to the underworld.” James Hillman, The Dream and the Underworld, p. 46